Whether we asked for it or not, David Cameron gave us his New Year message: "This will be the year Britain sees the world and the world sees Britain... The coming months will bring the global drama of the Olympics and the glory of the Diamond Jubilee".
Yeah, dramatic profits for TV, advertising and real estate no doubt, and all funded by the taxpayer at a ballooning cost of over £9 billion already! As to the royals, the mere fact that there should be any celebration of their parasitic existence on public funds, at a time when the most vulnerable in society are having their social care and their benefits cut, all in the name of making up for the bankers' bailout, is simply outrageous.
But yes, 2012 certainly does threaten to bring a "global drama" of another kind to British society, as to every other - the drama triggered 4 years ago by the collapse of the banks' Ponzi schemes.
Since then hundreds of thousands of jobs have disappeared and many more are yet to be cut. Wages and purchasing power have been reduced, while inflation has reached a new peak. And contrary to what we are told, this is not a foreign-made crisis, with its roots in the Eurozone!
Of course, the crisis does present itself in the financial sphere - but as has been obvious from the start, it is a worldwide crisis of the capitalist system as a whole, with its roots in the frantic competition for private profit which presides over its existence.
That said, the exceptional degree of parasitism of British capital in general and the City in particular, means that the effect of the crisis is proportionately much greater here in "glorious" Britain. Otherwise why would the cost to the working class here be so much higher than in the other rich European countries?
The cost of the crisis
Already, according to the GMB union, 376,000 public sector jobs have been lost since the 2010 general election. And in his November 2011 budget review, Osborne revised upwards the total to be cut by 2017, to 710,000!
Already, there is a crisis hitting youth as evidenced by the summer riots. Youth unemployment has gone over 1 million. But those lucky enough to find work face pitiful minimum wage rates between £2.60/hr for an apprentice, to £4.98 for 18-21s - on precarious, short-term temporary contracts or at best, 2nd tier status!
Already, at the other end of the scale, while pensions are being cut for future pensioners, existing pensioners are being abandoned by the system: 800,000 elderly people who depend on social care are no longer getting any support from local councils, thanks to service cuts!
Already, according to the homeless charity Shelter, the lack of affordable housing means homelessness is up 13% on last year. 11% more tenants are being evicted because they cannot pay their rent. 101 properties were repossessed every day during the last quarter of 2011.
Why should we pick up the tab?
Yes, the living standards of the working class are being attacked at every level - nobody is exempt.
Yet why should we carry on paying the cost of the capitalists' crisis like this? Why should bankers and big shareholders be allowed to line their pockets by profiteering out of this crisis as much, if not more, than before it started? Everyone needs a home, a decent standard of living and a comfortable retirement and indeed, the wealth exists in this society to allow it - and much more!
So another choice is possible for 2012. To make this year a year when workers fight back, collectively. The real public sympathy for the strikers on November 30th, showed that millions upon millions know that they share the same interests - whether working in the public or private sectors. And they know that these interests are worth defending against the bosses and their men and women in government who threaten jobs, services and livelihoods, now and in the future.
This realisation - that we all have common cause - will have to find its own expression in the coming year, if we are to stop the capitalist attacks and begin to regain the ground lost. The November 30th action will need to be followed by many other actions, bringing together all sections of the working class, public and private.
But ultimately, 2012 will be what we ourselves decide to make of it.