What with Britain's 200 largest companies announcing profits up by 11% and dividends up by 16% - the biggest rise since 2008 - champagne corks have been popping in the resorts where the rich go for Easter. And shareholders have every reason to rejoice! Especially when they can look forward to even more of the same, as these companies cut back investment and use their spare cash to buy back shares.
At a time when the working class is facing ever-falling living standards, the big companies are doing very nicely, thank you! And these are the very same companies which are cutting jobs, wages (like by creating a 2nd tier), pensions and forcing workers into casual or self-employment, under the pretext that they "need to cut costs".
But it's not because they are squeezed by the crisis. It's because the crisis is just one more excuse for them to squeeze more profits out of the working class.
But they want even more
These are the companies that the ConDems claim will make up for public sector job cuts. It's hardly a surprise that they've done exactly the opposite so far - they are slashing jobs more than ever!
But never mind. On the strength of this same bogus claim, Osborne's budget gave even more handouts to companies. The one that stands out being the higher-than-predicted 2% cut in corporation tax - a £4bn "gift" for the current financial year alone. As if this had any chance of producing new jobs!
After all, corporation tax has been more than halved over the past 30 years - from 52% in 1982, under Thatcher, to 24% now. And what did the capitalists do with the cumulative gains they made as a result? Did they improve working conditions, invest in safer equipment, increase wages? No. They first increased productivity at the expense of working conditions and then they just cut wage costs by using subcontracting and casualisation. So why would they do otherwise today?
In fact, the new legislation on unfair dismissal in force since 6 April, gives the whole game away. Anyone hired after this date will have to wait for 2 years (instead of 1) before being able to sue an employer for unfair dismissal. Of course, this will not apply to workers being sacked for "trying to exercise their employment rights". But where's the limit? Will refusing to work long hours be considered an "employment right", for instance?
A cynical comment by Neil Bentley, CBI deputy director, says it all: "It will be a particular boon for those who've been out of work, as it will give them longer to demonstrate their value to employers." Meaning these workers are expected to be infinitely pliable for 2 years and then marched to the gates, to make space for new pliable recruits! Not only are companies not going to create jobs, but they dream of turning all workers into temps!
They shouldn't get away with it!
The arrogant affluence displayed today by the capitalist class, in the midst of the present crisis, doesn't come from nowhere. It is paid for by the working class as a whole. Lower wages and increased exploitation of those in work, provide a direct boost to company profits. Benefit cuts at the expense of the poorest, pay for the capitalists' increasing parasitism on public funds.
Osborne's cut in Working Family Tax Credit is a particularly nasty example of how the poorest are made to fund the capitalists' tax cuts: since last Friday, over 200,000 working couples could lose the entire WFTC they earn (up to £3,870/year) unless they manage to increase the hours they work to a total of 24/week (instead of 16).
This, says Osborne, is not designed to cut corners, but to "help benefit claimants into work" - the worn-out pretext that Blair introduced years ago, to justify turning the screw on the jobless. Except that today, such a claim is not just cynical - it verges on lunacy: according to a February survey, only half the jobs offered in JobCentres guarantee enough hours to qualify for WFTC, while the number of applicants for each of these jobs can be as high as 22 in the most distressed areas!
This is how the workers made unemployed by the capitalists' failure to invest and those who are made dependent on benefits by abysmally low wages, are now supposed to pay for the tax cuts granted to the same capitalists!
This is the sick logic of a capitalist class which has become far too big for its boots and needs to be cut down to size - as a prelude to cutting its sick profit system out of existence. And it is in the interests of all workers, in or out of a job, to join ranks to ensure that these parasites and their politicians don't get away with this!