The TUC and most trade-unions are calling a march "for jobs, justice and climate" in Central London this Saturday, on the eve of the April Fools' summit of the G20 richest countries.
Since the capitalists' bingo machine was finally brought to its knees by these capitalists' own profiteering, it will have taken no less than 19 months for union leaders to feel that some form of resistance is in order!
In just about every country in Europe, workers have already staged numerous national protests and strikes. On 19th March, a 24-hour general strike saw over 2 million French workers taking to the streets against the drive of the bosses and their politicians to make them pay for their crisis!
So it is definitely about time that we, workers in this country, had an opportunity to show our opposition to the capitalists' greed!
The intolerable price of their crisis
Over the past 19 months, we have seen this government stuffing the finance sharks with hundreds of billions in public funds.
Instead of being used to help the working class majority of the population cope with the crisis, public funds have been squandered to line the pockets of the tiny minority of profiteers who are responsible for this crisis in the first place! Worse, these funds have been used by many companies not to maintain workers in their jobs, but to pay for redundancies, like in the car and banking industries!
By now, millions of workers have already lost their jobs and/or part or all of their wages. But the fact that the jobless count went over the 2 million mark does not tell the whole story: it only means that 2 million workers did not have at least 1 hour's paid work over the previous week. But what about the many others who worked just a few hours, earning far less than a living wage, not to mention those on short-time (and short pay)?
Moreover, official figures show that 1 company in 10 (which is probably a huge understatement) has already imposed a wage freeze on its workforce, when it is not an actual wage cut, like the 10% cut enforced by Toyota or the 20% cut at engineering firm Renishaw. And this, despite the sharp increase in the cost of necessities like food, fuel and transport.
Meanwhile, Brown is going ahead relentlessly with his plans to turn the screw on all benefit claimants. Not only is his government doing nothing to stop the rising tide of job cuts, but it is contributing to it, by planning even more cuts in public services, like in Royal Mail.
A fight back is long overdue
Yes, for 19 months, the bosses and their Labour trustees in government have been allowed to ride roughshod over us. It is high time they were stopped. But they will not be stopped by fudging the real issues. The greed of the profit-sharks must be exposed and confronted. Their system has gone bust, a bankruptcy caused by the very basis on which capitalism rests: private profit. The capitalists are the culprits. They must be dealt with.
Predictably, union leaders stop short of putting at risk their cosy "partnership" with bosses and ministers. Instead they have packaged next Saturday's mobilisation as a moralistic protest against the G20 over "justice" and climate change.
So, their statement begs "the UK government to show its commitment to putting people first". As if a government which has always been so respectful of the capitalists' interests has ever had a "commitment to put people first" - that is, apart from the people of the City!
Relying on Labour's goodwill is a dead end. Just as it is a dead end to expect a G20 meeting, made up of the political lackeys of the richest capitalist classes, to have any concern for our interests.
Those responsible for the present crisis, those who are attacking our jobs, wages and conditions, are neither in Washington nor in Brussels. They are here, in Britain, in the City, in Downing Street and in the managerial offices of our workplaces. These are the people that we must stop in their tracks and we must stop them urgently!
Fortunately, next Saturday's protest will be first and foremost what the protesters themselves make of it. The union leaderships have been remarkable in only one respect over the past 19 months - in their passive acceptance of job cuts and pay cuts. But whether they like it or not, we can turn this protest into a show of our anger against the profit sharks and a show of our collective strength. And this is what it should be, because the only guarantee we have for the future lies in our collective determination to make the capitalists pay for their crisis.