Hardly a week after the New Year fireworks, and politicians are already flaring up on TV screens, blasting at each other like thunder. Of course, they want to get themselves in newspaper and TV headlines. Because the scramble for votes has now started in earnest. The coming five months promise a furious election campaign - and all the more so, since the outcome looks uncertain for the two main parties.
But one thing is certain. There won't be anything in this election for the working class. The main parties are making sure that this is crystal clear. They would not dream of upsetting their capitalist masters by taking the risk of creating even the slightest illusion among workers on this account!
The "balanced budget" cult
There are no surprises in what the Tories have to say: they plan to do more of the same - more anti-working class policies and more cuts in social expenditure to "balance the budget". But also more privatisation at the expense of public services, to line shareholders' pockets. Don't they keep boasting about the fact that these policies have been the key to their so- called "economic recovery"? Never mind the fact that we still can't see any sign of their "recovery" in the dwindling jobs and shrinking amounts on our pay slips. Out of the 20 richest countries in the world, Britain has seen the steepest fall in workers' wages!
But what's different about Labour? Their aspiring Chancellor, Ed Balls, has already said that his party will not reverse the slashing of jobs, benefits and services of the past five years. And now he is insisting on implementing all the cuts already decided by the ConDems. And for just the same reason: Labour, like the Tories, now aims to "balance the budget". The only difference with the Tories is that, according to Balls, this can be achieved with cuts which are more "humane"!
But who says the government's budget "has" to be balanced? That's never happened in any rich country for more than 50 years! Why should this be a goal today? And is it really one? For all the Tories' boasting, hasn't Osborne presided over an increase in the deficit? The truth is that this "balancing the budget" nonsense is just a fig leaf to justify expenditure cuts on the back of the working class.
None of these parties raises the real issue: whether their public expenditure is socially useful or not? For instance, who, apart from a thin layer of wealthy parasites, benefited from the billions that were splashed out by both Labour and Tory, on "saving" the financial system? And who benefits from the billions ploughed by Osborne into a long series of schemes aimed at boosting the construction of expensive housing? Certainly not those on housing lists, who can't afford to pay the rent, let alone buy such homes!
Workers'control is a necessity
No politician will ever acknowledge that the economic system is such a debilitated mess, that the only way out, would be for the working class to take control of it out of the profiteers' hands! All these politicians, including those posturing as "anti-establishment", are too respectful of the City to dare to touch anything!
And yet, this is the real issue today. Take jobs. Labour and the Tories claimed that the jobs cut by their austerity measures would be made up for by the private sector. But look at the result today: only 4% of so-called "new jobs" since 2008 have been permanent full-time jobs, while self-employment, part¬time work and "zero-hours" make up the rest!
City Link's cynical Xmas "present" to its 3,700 workers is a case in point. They learnt through the medai they had lost their jobs. And many will also lose all or part of the pay they're owed - like the 1,000 delivery drivers who had been forced to become self-employed by the current owner.
But this owner, multi-millionaire Jon Moulton, won't foot any of the bill. His "Better Capital" private equity fund bought the ailing City Link for a nominal £1, a year ago. Then he proceeded to squeeze whatever he could out of the business. And now that he's squeezed it dry, he's throwing it in the bin, together with 3,700 livelihoods!
This scavenging, including by the biggest companies, is built into the profit system. It destroys facilities which could be socially useful, and it's perfectly legal, since profit rules and makes the laws - with the support of the politicians who will be standing for election this year. So the Jon Moultons of this world, (he has a Jersey-based fund for tax purposes, of course!), can write off thousands of jobs at the stroke of a pen, and get away with it.
The outcome could be different, if the working class chose to use its collective strength to control what the capitalist parasites and their politicians do with the economy, at every level of society. Then and only then, would things change for the better.