Brace yourselves for a government making decisions that are “not cost-free or easy”. In other words, one that is going to make you poorer and cut public services. That message from Keir Starmer speaking at Labour Party conference is not really news.
Reading between the lines from spokespeople, the government will make cuts and raise ‘taxes on working people’ in the budget on 26 November. Then again, Starmer’s Labour breaking its manifesto promises is not really news either.
Millions have already drawn the correct conclusion that Starmer’s Labour is governing in the interests of the capitalist bosses, and not the working class. That is why Labour is languishing in the polls. And the prospect of future electoral disaster is why MPs at Labour conference were openly talking about Starmer’s successor.
What’s behind Starmer’s crisis is not personal but the crisis of British capitalism. His government is haunted by the spectre of ‘the bond markets’ – the profiteering speculators who see through the false optimism of conference speeches to the reality of British capitalism’s fragility. And they are determined that it is the working class that is made to make sacrifices so that they can defend their profits and wealth.
But the working class organised and fighting back is the biggest spectre. Already, faced with working-class anger, the government has been forced into partial U-turns on pensioners’ winter fuel payments and disability benefits. That anger should be given expression by the trade unions mobilising a mass Saturday demonstration ahead of the budget, as a warning of future workers’ struggles. The six million-strong TUC (Trades Union Congress) has a policy for a demo, now it must name the date.
Workers uniting to demand it is the super-rich who are made to pay – not us – would go some way to undermining Reform UK’s ability to pose as being on the side of the working class. Likewise, a new mass party of the working class, fighting against austerity. Support for Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ shows the enthusiasm there is for a new party.
To bring an end to austerity means being prepared to mobilise working-class struggle against the capitalists. A starting point would be ‘Your Party’ councillors elected next May setting no-cuts, needs-based budgets – building council homes and reopening services. Then demanding Starmer’s government coughs up and that the super-rich are made to pay.
