What a farce in the Commons on Monday, when the Tories' Welfare "reform" was passed by large majority! The best that Labour could muster was to get most of its MPs to abstain - after submitting amendments which agreed with a lot of it!
No wonder the SNP suggested that it takes the place of the "official opposition". Had Labour voted against this anti-working class legislation, then it would have been a very close vote - 292 against, to 308 for, instead of just 124 against! Even some Lib-Dems opposed it.
Only 48 Labour MPs dared to "rebel" against interim leader Harriet Harman's fudge. Apparently, in order to "govern" you have to be a Tory! So you need to make "responsible" policies! Quite true! Since the real power is held by big business and finance, any government has to rule in its favour, or it won't last long - if it gets in, in the first place... Which explains, of course, the obvious fact that when Labour is in power it carries out the same anti-worker, pro-business policies as the Conservatives...
For whose sake? did we hear right?
What was ironic in all of this, was the way the Tories presented it. Duncan Smith explained how he was doing us all a big favour: it was "unfair" that the government was subsidising the bosses' wage-bill, by paying tax credits - i.e., topping up low wages.
So, by its reforms, Duncan Smith was transferring the onus of paying decent wages where it should be - onto the bosses. Of course! Except that there is no provision whatsoever, to force bosses to pay decent wages! Those who did not pay the legal minimum in the past were hardly ever prosecuted and could easily afford any fine imposed in the unlikely circumstance of being found out.
Osborne's new £7.20/hr "National Living Wage" (NLW) from next April is just 50p above what the minimum wage will be from October (£6.70). It is way below the living wage level calculated for today (taking the former tax credit contribution into account!) - which is £7.85 for outside London and £9.16 for inside London! So what good is it to have the NLW rising to £9/hr by 2020? It's a joke!
The government itself still ensures starvation level youth minimum wages, even with October's rise, to £5.30 and £3.87 respectively, with an apprentice rate as low as £3.30. Besides, since the NLW is only for the over-25s anyway, nothing prevents bosses from sacking all their over-25s. Indeed there's not even any guarantee that the minimum wage for under 25s won't be scrapped altogether in the future!
As for cutting housing benefits, this is a scandal in a country where homelessness and overcrowding are rising exponentially thanks to some of the highest rents in the world, and thanks to the protection the government gives to private slum landlords. It's calculated that in London, minimum wage workers would need to work 23 hours a day to pay rent on a 1-bedroom flat!
So what can workers make of this farce going on above our heads in parliament, except that we need a new workers' party - and a revolutionary one at that - to represent our interests?
... And anti-strike laws, for us, as well?
Of course, Osborne and the Tories are now routinely playing the fiddle for the bosses while telling us it should sound like sweet music to our ears. Last week they introduced a Bill to reform trade union laws - in the name of "trade union democracy"!
Who in the working class would not agree that the way that the trade union leaders play with our strike ballots - using them as bargaining chips rather than votes for action to hurt the bosses - has been infuriating?
But hearing this out of the Tories' anti-working class mouths last week was like listening to a perfect exercise in hypocrisy. So they want a 50% threshold for a ballot turnout and in addition, 40% must vote for strike, out of total eligible voters. As many pointed out, Cameron would not be in Downing Street today with his 36.9% of eligible votes, using these criteria.
Unite's and other unions' leaderships say yes, they agree turnouts should be better. But do they therefore decide to abolish their own privileged existence at memberships' expense and introduce measures which put the rank and file in the union driving seat - with measures for accountability and real democracy? No!! They propose voting by mobile phone instead of postal ballots... What about mass meetings and the vote by a show of hands?
Anyway, it would be too much to expect for these bureaucrats to change their spots. With the chance to co-ordinate a bus strike with the next tube strike announced by Aslef and the RMT, from the evening of Wed 6th August to the evening of Thurs 7th August, Unite has already pulled out!
That says it all. Yet it is only by striking together, with as many of us as possible fighting at the same time, that we will make the kind of impact we need: one which will make the bosses too afraid to refuse our demands. If we have to organise this battle without and even against the union leaders - well, it's been done before. It can certainly be done again!