The outcome of the June 4th elections, was predictable. Two-thirds of the electorate saw no point in casting a vote at all. Of the remaining third, a large majority used what was at hand to vote against Brown and his government.

This is merely the continuation of a long-standing trend, dating back to Blair's days, whereby Labour's pro-business policies have driven more and more voters away from the polling stations or prompted them to express their frustration by voting for declared opponents of the government.

Of course, this trend was bound to be exacerbated by the media campaign of the past month - because of the display of parasitism on all sides by MPs and due to the shameless way in which many ran for cover as soon as they were exposed, like rats deserting a sinking ship.

Anger without a voice

In fact, what may be surprising about June 4th, is not that so few people bothered to vote, but on the contrary, that so many did, including by supporting either established parties whose MPs had been caught red-handed, or candidates whose ambition was only to gain access to the same perks.

In fact, in this parody of "democracy", the working class had no way to express its discontent and even less to assert its aspirations in a way that could have been productive.

Voting for the candidates of the mainstream parties was condoning the parasitism of their elected representatives. But above all, it was endorsing the pro-business policies implemented by Brown and Darling, because all these parties share the same servility towards the capitalist class, the same determination to serve its interests: the packaging in which they wrap their policies may seem different (sometimes), but the content is exactly the same.

Voting for these parties was, in fact, calling for public funds to be squandered for the benefit of the very same profit sharks whose profiteering caused the present crisis. It was writing a blank cheque to the job slashers, the wage cutters and, in general, all the bosses and politicians who are determined to make us, workers and jobless, pay for their crisis. In short, it was offering our support to our enemies.

As to the smaller parties, most were merely less established versions of their mainstream rivals. The few exceptions which sought our votes by claiming to represent workers' interests, had no answer to offer to the problems that we face today.

A matter of urgency

Today, giant companies such as BT, Corus or British Airways are cutting tens of thousands of jobs, with many more subcontracting jobs to follow. The same companies or others, like Honda and Toyota, have, or are about to, cut wages. Others still, like the oil major BP, Barclays, or the Morrisons chain, plan to close down their pension schemes, thereby cutting workers' future incomes.

These are massively profitable companies. Why should they be allowed to line the pockets of their shareholders on the backs of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families?

Whatever union leaders may say, no help can be expected from governments. Not one penny of the hundreds of billions splashed out on the capitalists, has been used to prevent job or wage cuts. Not only do the state-controlled banks cut more jobs than others, but the government is the largest job slasher of all, with tens of thousands more jobs to be cut in Royal Mail and the civil service!

Politicians come and go. The most rotten among them may even be replaced. But their masters in the City, those who give them their orders in the shadows, will remain in control as long as the profit system remains in place.

The working class cannot make its voice heard through the ballot box, but it has other weapons. In the face of the employers' brutal attacks against our jobs and livelihoods, there is one urgent and vital issue: the need for the working class to build up and to use its collective strength, in order to stop the bosses and their political trustees in their tracks - and, by the same token, to prepare the ground for another society, free from the profiteering which is causing today's social catastrophe.