Josh Asker, editor of the Socialist
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves stood very smartly (and expensively) dressed on stage at Labour conference in Liverpool to tell us how “tough” the decisions they are making are, again.
‘Close your eyes and it could be Tories talking’, was the point that John McDonnell made. He served as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow chancellor and is currently sitting like Jeremy as an independent MP – suspended from Labour for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap. He’s right.
The Tories came into office talking of tough decisions before proceeding to slash public service funding with devastating consequences for our NHS, schools and councils, among other things.
Reeves says there is “no return to austerity”. But taking winter fuel payments from pensioners feels a lot like austerity! Labour’s general election manifesto ‘promises’ amounted to a huge real-terms cut in public funding. And since, they claim to have been surprised by a £22 billion black hole.
Among other inconveniences during conference, such as trade union opposition to the winter fuel payment cuts and donations scandals, was the news that members of the Royal College of Nursing had voted to reject the government’s 5.5% pay offer, just as Reeves gloated that Labour had ended public sector pay disputes. Nurses can see that their junior doctor colleagues won their 22% pay rise over two years by showing the government they were prepared to strike.
People “want us to rebuild our public services”, Starmer told conference. “But their pockets are not deep – not at all.”
What about those who do have very deep pockets? Like the billionaire Labour donor who dipped into his to buy new a new wardrobe for Starmer, his wife, Reeves, and Angela Rayner.
There are billions sloshing around in the bank accounts of big business and the super-rich. Something like £85 billion of dividends is being paid to shareholders every year. The energy companies hike our bills (with the government’s say-so) and continue to rake in record profits.
Unite the Union general secretary Sharon Graham has called on the government to implement a wealth tax on the richest 1% to raise £25 billion. Really that is just a fraction of what could be raised by seriously taking on the wealth of the super-rich.
A wealth tax should be just the start. Why leave the fat-cat bosses in charge of the profiteering, polluting energy and water companies, or the vicious outsourcing companies leeching the NHS dry? We need to fight for nationalisation of the big businesses and banks that dominate the economy. In public hands and under democratic workers’ control and management, wealth and resources could be put to use as part of a plan to meet all of our needs – give pay rises for nurses, save jobs of steelworkers and others, and provide free education for all.
Opposition to yet another government acting in the interests of the bosses and against the working class is only just beginning. The trade unions have a central role in building the fightback, and part of that is taking steps to build a new mass party that fights in our interests against those of the bosses.
