Beneath the flurry of flags deployed for the occasion, the queen's jubilee was nothing but a grotesque diversion from today's social reality.
Despite being originally mooted under Brown's government in 2010, this extravagant pageant was finally orchestrated by the ConDems, without changing Brown's original plans, and without the usual references to Labour's "profligacy"!
Because, although the monarchy has long been nothing more than a parasitical, outdated institution, it is still used by politicians to try to rally what they call the "nation", behind the interests of their capitalist masters. With the royals portrayed as standing above class divisions and above the deep social and economic crisis of this decaying profit system, the jubilee aimed at conveying the idea that "we're all in it together" - as part of their "Great" Britain, supposedly united behind the monarchy and the Union Jack.
Well, we're not. This is a class society in which we have no interest in common with the monarchy or the profiteers hiding under the British flag.
The nationalist mirage
If this flag-waving had no purpose other than to celebrate an outdated symbol, it would be a costly, but harmless exercise. But it's more than that.
How many times have we been told that the British pound and "national interest" were our best protection against the crisis? But did that prevent the British economy from being the first victim of the banking crisis, back in 2007?
Hasn't the working class here been made to pay an exorbitant price for the subsequent bailout of the bankers, through the public expenditure cuts implemented both by Labour and the ConDems? Didn't the pound lose almost 25% of its value against the euro at the time, causing prices to go through the roof? Haven't jobs and wages been cut left, right and centre, while the real unemployment hidden by casualisation was soaring, despite the "protective shield" of the pound?
Today, the government blames the recession in Britain on the crisis which is developing in the eurozone. Cameron parades at EU conferences, admonishing European countries to turn the screw even tighter on their populations while boasting of "taking the lead" in the fight against the crisis.
Meanwhile, "eurosceptics" of every stripe are pointing with glee to the crisis in the eurozone, predicting its imminent explosion and boasting "we told you so". As if the eurozone crisis had anything to do with the euro in the first place! As if it wasn't the latest devastating after-shock of the very same worldwide capitalist crisis which has already blown away Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds, together with so many jobs in Britain!
For a working class response
We are told that the anti-austerity, left-wing coalition, Syriza, expected to top the poll in the June 17th Greek election, will take Greece out of the euro. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever is the case, whether in Greece, in the rest of the eurozone, or here, national boundaries can offer no protection for the working class against the crisis.
Of course, the bosses and their politicians have different views. They tell us that we must defend the British economy by making ourselves more "competitive" than workers in other countries. They claim that by agreeing to cuts in wages and conditions, we will help them to "win markets" and to "save British jobs". And, unfortunately, this nationalist policy has the support of a whole section of the union leadership - as is shown by the recent deals recommended by the unions in the car industry, among others.
But for the working class, this policy is a con. Not only because it can only drive our conditions down, for the sole purpose of boosting the profits of British-located companies and shareholders. But also because it is designed to divert our attention from our real enemies - who are not the foreign workers with whom the bosses want us to "compete" for jobs, but our own homegrown capitalist profiteers.
Only by fighting back collectively and imposing on the bosses our solution - that all available work should be shared among all of us without loss of pay - will we be able to protect ourselves against the bosses' offensive. And in this fight, our best and only real allies, are the working classes of the rest of the world who are confronted with exactly the same attacks.
This crisis, in all its shapes and forms, whether here or in the eurozone, is the consequence of the degeneration of a capitalist system which keeps limping from one crisis to the next. No amount of nationalist nonsense can protect us from such a system - only the class struggle will.