Having predicted 0.2% growth in the economy, the government's own statistics managed to show a quarterly drop of 0.4% - so the economy has now shrunk for 18 months in a row. So much for the "recovery" which, according to Brown and Darling, was just around the corner!

Yes, the official pledge that the recession was coming to an end was just a lie. As if they did not know that this profit-driven system is totally unpredictable! But then didn't they lie to us, in the "good" days, when they said if only we agreed to all their cost-savings and boosted company profits our jobs and conditions would be safe?

Whatever the official figures, the politicians' hot air could not cut much ice. Would a real "recovery" threaten tens of thousands of jobs, like at British Airways, Vauxhall or Royal Mail? Or reduce the incomes of working-class families, due to wage freezes and cuts in working hours?

Profiteering knows no crisis

For the capitalist class, of course, the issue is altogether different. Because it is true that they are experiencing a "recovery" of sorts.

See, for instance, the bosses of the City's 100 largest companies whose annual pay increase is 7.4% this year - and compare this to your pay packet! And this comes on top of an average £500,000 bonus for each of them, for 2009!

See the shareholders of Britain's big firms who stand to have their dividends boosted by 8% on average, by the end of this year - not to mention the 50%-plus increase in their share prices over the past four months or so.

See the Queen - her Crown Estate appreciated by £500m to £6.5bn in 6 months, although she still lives off public funds. No wonder his "High Emptyness", the Duke of York, calls for leniency towards bankers and other "high-worth" parasites!

See, finally, the total £6bn bonuses which are expected to be paid to top City executives this year - a 50% increase over last year. And whether these bonuses are paid in cash or in shares - as the Tories are now advocating, in order to sound "tougher" than Brown with the City sharks - does not make an inch of difference.

Because whether it is the bankers, company directors, shareholders or the royals - they are all parasitising, directly or indirectly, either public funds through the government's bailouts, or our labour, through the wage and job cuts of the past year, or using a combination of both. For these profiteers, there was never any crisis. The state and its politicians ensured their losses would be paid for, if possible twice over, by the rest of us.

Not a job, not a penny for the parasites!

Last week, postal workers staged their first national strike in 2 years, over 2 days, against attacks on jobs and conditions. In the name of "modernising" postal services, the government has already halved letter deliveries and turned their rounds into nightmarish marathons, under the rule of an ex-FIFA official paid £2m/yr to cut jobs to the bare bone.

At any time, such attacks on working conditions would be unacceptable. But at a time like this, with rising unemployment, it is intolerable that any job at all should be cut. "Modernisation" should result in a better service, with better working conditions for all postal workers, whatever the cost to the state - whose money would be better spent there, than in feeding the banking parasites!

What should be true for postal services, should be true right across the economy. Why should companies which have made profits for so many years on our backs be allowed to cut our jobs, just because, for once, their profits are going down?

Even without the billions of Darling's bailouts, the capitalist class is enormously rich. The return of speculation to the stock and oil markets, high-value properties and other symbols of wealth, is just the visible part of their parasitic affluence.

The working class, which produces everything in this society and is the source of all that wealth, has a right to demand that, in a time of crisis like this, this wealth should be returned to society.

And this means that no job cuts should be allowed any more - and no pay cuts either. No more giving in to the blackmail of the bosses, turning the screw under the pretext of "saving" jobs, which they end up cutting anyway, more often than not! And if there is not enough work for all, then whatever work there is should be shared out between all workers, without loss of pay.

The capitalists have caused this crisis due to their profiteering. They should be made to pay for it to the last penny!