By Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 18 October 2022, www.thecommunists.net

 

On the 23^rd September Kwasi Kwarteng, Liz Truss’s new Chancellor presented a mini-budget to the House of Commons. It was a typical Thatcherite Budget to increase capitalist wealth and effectively cut taxes for the very rich. There was an immediate uproar from the Bank of England, investors and bankers. Sterling, the British currency, fell to a new low against the Euro and the Dollar and it was obvious to all the Financiers and major capitalists that the Truss government was in a huge crisis.

“The Bank of England sought to quell the fire-storm in Britain's bond markets, saying it would buy as much government debt as needed to restore order after new Prime Minister Liz Truss's tax cutting plans triggered financial chaos. Having failed to cool the sell-off with verbal interventions over the previous two days, the British central bank announced on Wednesday the immediate launch of an emergency bond-buying programme aimed at preventing the market turmoil from spreading. "Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability," the BoE warned. Since finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng outlined a plan on Friday for tax cuts on top of an energy bill bailout, all funded by a huge increase in government borrowing, UK mortgage markets have frozen, pension funds have dumped gilts and corporate borrowing costs have leapt.” [1]

 

Results of bond markets crash

 

Because the major bankers and capitalists have lost confidence in the way that Kwarteng had slashed taxes for the rich the Truss government had to announce a U-turn, a reversal of cutting taxes for the rich. This was a humiliating climb-down for the new regime. Truss is not trusted at all, and it was evident from bourgeois commentators that Liz Truss would lose all confidence of investors and markets. With the bond markets crashing and pension fund administrators worried the future of British capitalism was thrown into doubt.

“British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced on Monday into a humiliating U-turn after less than a month in power, reversing a cut to the highest rate of income tax that helped spark turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party. Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said the decision was taken with "humility and contrition", after some lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party reacted with fury to suggestions that public and welfare spending could be cut to fund tax cuts for the richest. Kwarteng will also bring forward publication of his plan to cut Britain's debt, alongside forecasts for economic growth, a government source said, in another apparent climb-down amid calls from some Conservatives that the action was needed quickly to reassure the markets. Addressing his party's annual conference where lawmakers and supporters had gathered, Kwarteng acknowledged the "little turbulence" of the last week, but argued the government needed to press ahead with a new course to revive growth.” [2]

 

Kwasi Karwteng dismissed as chancellor of the exchequer

 

On the 14^th October 2022 Kwasi Kwarteng was dismissed and sacked by Liz Truss as he returned from an IMF meeting. Jeremy Hunt, a seasoned Tory politician, was appointed in his place. The Truss government is in enormous crisis and ready to fall. Many Tory MP’s want her gone.

“Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as chancellor three weeks after his mini-budget unleashed chaos on the economy and Jeremy Hunt appointed in his place. Mr Kwarteng was appointed to the role by Liz Truss only 38 days ago, making him the second-shortest serving chancellor after Iain Macleod, who died a month after being handed the job by Edward Heath. Number 10 announced an hour after his sacking on Friday afternoon that former foreign secretary Mr Hunt was replacing him.” [3]

Even now Sterling has dropped to an all-time low in competition with the other Imperialist Economies. As the RCIT has stated on many occasions since 2009 there has developed within the capitalist system extreme inter-imperialist rivalry where Great Powers are discovering the laws that Karl Marx and Frederick Engels stated in all their writings the tendency of the profit rate to fall. This is happening at a terrific rate producing convulsions, protests, strikes and revolutionary upheavals all over the world. In Britain this is reflected by the crisis of imperialism in Britain with the possibility that this unstable government could fall.

 

The prospect of a Labour government in 2024

 

During this crisis of the Sterling collapse the Labour Party was meeting in Liverpool. Bourgeois commentators and political pundits revealed the latest opinion polls that Keir Starmer was 33% ahead of Liz Truss in the polls. Sir John Curtice, a political scientist, forecast a Labour Government with a hundred seat majority over all other parties. Starmer, the arch-Zionist and pro-capitalist leader of the Labour Party, is being touted as the new Prime Minister. Starmer is a Blairite opposed to any industrial action by workers, disciplining members of his party through purges and expulsions for any deviation from his role as a good servant of capitalism. His tenure as a lawyer for the criminal prosecution service makes him also trustworthy in the eyes of the capitalist class.

“Labour has widened its lead over the Conservatives to 33 points after days of financial turmoil following Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-Budget’, according to YouGov. In a poll published by YouGov this evening, of 1,712 British adults, 54% of adults told researchers on Wednesday and Thursday that they would back Labour in a general Election YouGov joins others predicting a large lead over the Tories for the Labour Party. Survation puts the opposition’s lead at 21 points, Deltapoll recorded a 19-point lead for Labour and Redfield & Wilton Strategies put the gap at 17 points. The polling followed the Chancellor’s mini-Budget last week, during which he announced sweeping tax cuts including scrapping the 45p rate of income tax, abolishing the cap on bankers’ bonuses and abandoning the planned rise in corporation tax. Since the statement, his first in the job, sterling has hit its lowest ever level against the US dollar and the government has been criticised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned that its policies will result in greater inequality.” [4]

“A newly elected member of Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) has revealed that she has received a ‘notice of allegation and administrative suspension’ for appearing at an event organised by a group proscribed by the party. Sharing the news of her suspension on social media this afternoon, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi confirmed that she had been told she had “committed a prohibited act” contrary to Chapter 2, Clause I.5.B of the party’s rule book. Her suspension for speaking at the event last September means that she is not allowed to attend meetings of the NEC, the party’s governing body to which she was elected earlier this month including the annual general meeting (AGM) of the committee due to take place during Labour’s conference in Liverpool next week. Wimborne-Idrissi was elected to the NEC as a Constituency Labour Party (CLP) representative on September 1st in the 14th round of voting after standing on a slate of left-wing candidates”. [5]

This then is further proof of the pro-capitalist and pro-Zionist nature of the present Labour leadership under Starmer who flatly refuses to support any action by the working class and the oppressed.

 

Industrial strife continues in Britain

 

The dialectical opposite of the capitalist class is of course the working class and the masses. The actions of Truss and Kwarteng have produced an outpouring of strikes and protests. Rail workers from the RMT, ASLEF, TSSA and Postal Workers and BT Engineers went on strike for 24 hours. Unite, the Union, has virtually closed the docks at Liverpool and Felixstowe with continual mass pickets. NHS workers including Nurses and Doctors and teachers are balloting for strike action. Environmental groups like Just Stop Oil are using direct action to blockade streets in London and other places. The country is obviously in ferment. Threats of homelessness, poverty wages and starvation are forcing the masses onto the streets.

The RCIT has analysed this situation showing that we are facing a pre-revolutionary situation here in Britain and throughout the world.

“The starting point of our strategy is the recognition of the peculiar nature of the current phase in the world situation. The food and energy crisis does not exist in isolation but is rather closely related with the Ukraine War and the acceleration of the Great Power rivalry. However, it is important to understand the concrete relationship between these factors. Socialists need to recognise the extraordinary gap between the outrage of the masses about the dramatically rising living costs, on one hand, and the crisis of leadership. As a matter of fact, the official leadership of the trade unions and other workers organisations are extremely reluctant to organise defensive battles. At best, the bureaucrats limit themselves to organise one-day strikes or demonstrations.

However, it is evident that such limited protest activities can neither make the bosses accept a massive rise in payment nor can it force the capitalist governments to impose meaningful price caps. For this we need much more radical actions!

This is why socialists have to work towards the creation of committees of action in the workplaces and neighbourhoods. Such committees – which should integrate all activists as a first step and broader masses as a second step – can serve as pressure groups to force the bureaucrats to organise more radical actions than they are inclined to.

If the bureaucrats refuse to fight to the extent necessary (which can be taken for granted), such committees of action should take the struggle into their own hands. They should elect delegates and create a national coordination body.

However, as long as such committees do not exist or are not strong enough, socialists need to apply the united front tactic and call the existing leadership of the workers and popular organisations to organise the struggle against the deteriorating living conditions. [6]

 

The crisis of centrism

 

The major centrist groups in Britain are totally unprepared for the world political situation unfolding between our very eyes. The SWP, CWI, and the IMT all take a tailist position. While they correctly advocate more strikes protests and direct action against the Truss Government, they fail to recognise the treacherous role of the trade union bureaucracy, the agent of capital in the workers movement. Thus they provoke illusions that all we need is a bit more action without a correct Marxist method which is to prepare the masses with a programme for the seizure of power. On the war in the Ukraine they adapt to a social-imperialist position refusing to recognise that Russia is an imperialist power and refusing to support the struggle of a semi-colonial capitalist country against an imperialist bully.

Leon Trotsky, co-leader of the Russian Revolution had this to say about the centrist method

“The main feature of socialist centrism is its reticence, its mediocre, and half and half nature. It keeps going so long as it does not draw the ultimate conclusions and is not compelled to answer the basic questions set before it point blank” [7].

The RCIT in Britain puts forward the following transitional demands to prepare the masses take power and overthrow this outmoded and anarchic system of capitalism. Urgency is the order of the day there is not a moment to lose. The task is to unite all revolutionaries in a single combat revolutionary party.

* Follow the example of French workers in the CGT trade union in the energy sector who are on strike. For an indefinite general strike. TUC Leaders who meet on 18^th October at their congress must get off their knees and start organising coordinated action leading to a country-wide stoppage and general strike!

* Reject Truss’s Thatcherite plan of cutting taxes for the rich and pauperising the poor. Reject also the right-wing leadership of the Starmer regime in the Labour party with its pro-capitalist views! For an new Workers Party!

* No evictions in the housing market - reduce rents. For a rising scale of wages to match inflation. Reject below inflation wage deals. For occupations strikes and protests to remove this reactionary government!

* No to racism and Islamophobia! Open Borders for all migrants from semi-colonial countries!

* Nationalise all multi-national and capitalist enterprises under workers control without compensation. Workers to be elected to draw up a plan of action on how basic foodstuffs and fuel can be supplied to the masses!

* For an armed defence guards to protect communities from police or racist provocation!

* For a workers government! Join the RCIT!

 

Footnotes

1) Bank of England moves to calm bond market rout after tax cut storm | Reuters

2) Truss forced into U-turn on tax after week of market turmoil | Reuters

3) PM appoints Jeremy Hunt as chancellor after sacking Kwasi Kwarteng | Politics News | Sky News

4) Labour has 33-point lead over Conservatives, YouGov poll finds – LabourList

5) Labour NEC member suspended for speaking at proscribed group’s event – LabourList

6) Food and Energy Crisis: For a Strategy for Popular Uprising - RCIT - Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (thecommunists.net)

7) Leon Trotsky: Where is Britain going, in: Trotsky’s Writings on Britain, Vol. 2, New Park Publications 1974, p.112

 

By Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 15 November 2022, www.thecommunists.net

 

Liz truss lasted 45 days as Prime Minister and then Rishi Sunak, one of the youngest Prime Ministers ever took office on the 25th October 2022. Boris Johnson, the former Premier, tried to enter the race but the bankers and the rest of the bourgeoisie were determined that this charlatan should not stand, so he was forced to withdraw. Sunak will be the 5th Prime Minister since the 2015 election. This is a government of crisis in free fall and unable to satisfy the bourgeoisie, especially the bankers. Sunak made it plain that there would be no general election. He knows that if one was called, the Tories would be wiped out.

 

Jeremy Hunt was reappointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hunt has said that he will raise taxation and there are difficult decisions to be made for the poor and the oppressed but not for the rich parasites that have been protected by Tory Governments. Suella Braverman was also reappointed by Sunak as Home Secretary. Braverman resigned as Home Secretary in the Truss Government because she allowed personal and sensitive data information to be seen by interests outside of government. Sunak may come to regret his decision to appoint her.

 

The crisis of world imperialism is also seen in the repeating political and economical crisis in Britain.

 

Mothers protests and meanwhile Bankers raise interest rates...

 

The Bank of England has raised interest rates in Britain while the Federal Reserve has done the same in the United States. 

“Another Bank of England decision and another pummelling for the Pound. The Bank of England raised Bank Rate by 75 basis points to 3.0% but sent a clear signal a move to 5.0% and above was not likely, a message that resulted in a knee-jerk sell-off in the Pound. The decision to go 75bp came off a solid 7-2 vote by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) according to a statement released by the Bank, but this unusually large hike looks to be a one-off.

The Bank says further rate hikes are necessary but, crucially for FX markets, they won't be delivering as many as investors had previously expected or thought necessary to bring inflation back towards 2.0%.” [1].

 

This reflects the crisis of the capitalist system and basic foodstuffs and energy prices are and will be affected. Poverty and homelessness for masses of the urban poor and working class is the consequense. Runaway inflation is endemic, leading to enormous financial worries for poor families. Recently a protest reflecting those events took place: the March of the Mummies which was organised by mothers and carers of young families, demonstrating about the cost of child care and other increased living costs. The economic crisis is here but those who feel the crisis are not those who created it.

Rail Strike Suspended thanks to Betrayal by Bureaucracy

 

The TSSA and RMT who were due to have 24 hour strikes on November 5th, 7th and 9th announced in a statement that they have suspended their actions. They explain that ‘The Rail Delivery Group’ Employers representing Network rail and the individual rail companies want to conduct negotiations with both the RMT and TSSA Bureaucracies. No offer has been made. The RMT bureaucrats also suspended their action over ‘Poppy Day’ (!) the celebration of Imperialist war. The Communication Workers Union and their members in BT are rumoured also to be in negotiations with BT. Marxists have correctly characterised the trade Union bureaucracy as agents of the capitalist class. Their role is to seek a compromise with employers at all times. Trade unions in Britain today are purely defensive organisations who collectively defend workers and represent them. The rank and file is our class, but the bureaucrats are alien to them, being neither revolutionaries nor socialists. Some are elected by the membership but most are appointed and remain part of the bureaucratic apparatus whose role is mostly to police the workforce for the capitalist class.

 

Lenin in his various elaboration on Imperialism explains that this epoch created a privileged position for a section of workers. They were craft workers in the 19th century but they became the kernel of the modern trade union bureaucracy.

 

Leon Trotsky, founder of the Fourth International summed up the role of the bureaucracy in his essay ‘Trade Unions in the epoch of Imperialist decay’: “This position is in complete harmony with the social position of the labour aristocracy and the labour bureaucracy who fight for a crumb in the share of the super profits of Imperialism Capitalism. The Labour bureaucrats do their level best in words and deeds to demonstrate to the ‘democratic’ state how reliable and indispensable they are in peacetime and especially in War.” [2]

 

Betrayal by Centrists too

 

Most Centrist groups in Britain with few notable exceptions make no comment on the suspension of the rail strikes because they are the bag carriers of the bureaucracy. When unrests and strikes take place they follow the bureaucracy. Unfailingly most notable of these kinds is the IMT and the CWI as well as their later split product International Socialist Alternative. The only critical position on the abandonment of the rail strikes in the bigger centrist forces comes from the Cliffite Socialist Workers Party who at least offer some criticism on the decisions of the bureaucracy.

 

“Large numbers of rail workers are suspicious or openly angry after the RMT union called off all their planned national rail strikes on Friday. The union said it had suspended planned strikes on Saturday and next Monday and Wednesday. It said it “will now enter into a period of intensive negotiations with Network Rail and the train operating companies”.

It added, “Through a strong industrial campaign so far, RMT has secured unconditional talks on Network Rail and the promise of an offer from the train operating companies. The current dispute remains very much live, and the union is continuing its re-ballot of members to secure a fresh mandate for action with the result due on 15 November.” 

Calling off the strikes without even a concrete offer is a mistake. The union had already called off action scheduled for Thursday this week because of London Poppy Day collections.” [3]

 

In times of deep economic crisis, the missing of criticism on the pacification of workers struggle is especially harmful. It is a typical development that betraying the working class interests is rather the norm than the exception even in centrist (not to speak of reformist) circles.

 

However, the political dimension of the capitalist crisis is also seen in certain developments in Britain. As it was already done in the past, racism and especially islamophobia is nurtured by the imperialist bourgeoisie to deflect from their political troubles.

Islamophobia and Racism at the Heart of this Government

 

Recently, there was a firebomb racist attack at a centre for migrants in Dover. Many migrants housed in an asylum centre lived under terrible conditions inside these centres. Even Bourgeois commentators would know that the standards of these camps are not different to concentration camps. Braverman is however stoking the fire of racism, speaking of an ‘invasion’ while referring to migrants fleeing from imperialist meddling in Syria and the Middle East. Racism and Islamophobia is rife and people of colour are treated like dogs and vermin. This is the nature of the British imperialism and its government under Rishi Sunak.

 

“As she fought for her political survival in parliament on Monday, Suella Braverman claimed the south coast of England is being invaded by asylum seekers. Her claim has been refuted by migration experts, who believe it falls down on a number of fronts.

Madeleine Sumption, the director of the Oxford Migration Observatory, said: “This is not an invasion – it’s not an army. But if instead she is referring to the number of people coming, we can compare the figures to other countries and see that the numbers coming in to the UK are relatively manageable.” [4]

 

Eventhough, the managable numbers of refugees are treated hostile and inhuman by the capitalist beast. “Ahmed - not his real name - said people at the Manston processing centre were treated like "animals" with 130 people forced to share a single large tent. More than 4,000 migrants have reportedly been held at the camp - meant to host 1,600 - in recent days. The Home Office says it is providing for "all the basic needs" of migrants.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick previously insisted the number of people at Manston is coming down. Ahmed - who left the centre on Monday after 24 days there - described being forced to sleep on the floor, and being prevented from going to the toilet, taking a shower or going outside for exercise. He told the BBC that he fled his home country of Iran in search of freedom and to avoid persecution, saying that he had been living in fear for his life.

But after arriving in the UK and at the centre, Ahmed said people were prevented from calling their families to let them know they had made the crossing to the UK safely.” [5]

 

In an incident at Harmondsworth (another facility) all the lights were off, letting the people live in cold darkness. The migrants in utter provocation and anger fought back, using clubs and any weapons they could find.

 

“The disorder took place at the premises following an "unprecedented and sustained" loss of power overnight at the detention facility in Harmondsworth, near Heathrow Airport. It holds hundreds of men, including adult male asylum seekers, foreign offenders awaiting deportation and men who are in the UK illegally. The Home Office said no detainees had left the premises and those involved had since been returned to their rooms.” [6]

 

Here we see the cruel deflection of the political crisis of the imperialist system. It forces people to flee their home, risking to lose family and life only to be treated as animals when they have survived the horrendous dangers of their refugee route.

 

Behind the deflection a number of crisis symptoms are to find: The USA, Europe and Japan face crises of the second slump (big recession) where the rate of profit is falling as predicted by Marx. Further, the deep political crisis throughout the world ist reflected with inter imperialist rivalry between the Western imperialist forces and the Eastern imperialists China and Russia (the latter engaged in a colonial war against the Ukraine). Last but not least, the potential for uprisings has increased for a huge number of countries while it already started in some (like Iran). The Era of Capitalist Crisis must be turned into the Era of Revolutionary Victory.

 

Revolutionary Ation Programme for Britain

 

The RCIT in Britain is conscious of the class actions taking place, especially as Health Workers have recently balloted to reject the miserable wage increase that was offered to members of the RCN, Unite the Union, Unison and other Unions (all who are engaged in strikes over pay and conditions). The poor and the destitute face innumerable hardships feeding their families and earning enough to get the basic essentials. The poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. The energy giants BP and Shell posted huge profits for their shareholders in the billions. Meanwhile they pollute the earth at a fast space, pushing the dramatic course of human extinction through natural disasters. Now is the time to act. Urgency is the key!

 

The RCIT Britain puts forward a programme of action to overthrow capitalism, seize power and build socialism. The RCIT Britain calls on everyone to study our demands and to unite with us in building a revolutionary force of the future, preparing the struggle for power!

 

* Nationalise the railways and all public utilities under workers control without any compensations for expropriated capitalists! Several public plans have to be initiated to redistribute food parcels to all in need. Charges of electricity and gas which harm the living standard of the workers and poor must be taken back immediately!

 

* Immediate stop to any increase of rent! All rents must be frozen and tenants must be allowed to democratically elect their own representatives. Private landlords must be dismissed and replaced by public housing!

 

* Fossil Fuels have to be phased out systematically by a nationwide emergency plan to save the planet! All homes and workplaces need to be provided with alternative sources of energy, financed by the expropriation of the multinational corporations of the Energy sector! No price increases for the people! Profits of fuel companies like BP and Shell must be confiscated and redistributed to the poor!

 

* No to Islamophobia and all other forms of racism! All People of colour and every ethnicity should have the unconditioned right to wear their own clothes, speak their own language and practice their own customs in public! Open all Borders! Border police and immigration officials must be removed and dismissed immediately!

 

* All refugees and migrants incarcerated in asylum centres must be released and housed in decent accommodations as well as provided with suitable work and all social benefits!

 

In order to achieve all of this, we call for:

 

* Strikes and workers unity! Fight for an indefinite general strike against the government and for solving of the food and energy crisis! This must be organised and run by the masses of the rank and file! For trade union democracy where all elected officials are accountable to the membership directly and at all times. Replace the bureaucratic apparatus by accountable trade union leaders, democratically elected by the rank and file, willing to fight!

 

* Prepare a revolutionary constituent assembly to discuss the road to a Workers government!

 

The imperialist bourgeoisie will not accept the independence and freedom of revolutionary struggle, therefore we have to prepare ourselves. Organising of popular armed defence committees protecting the youth, migrant communities and all fighting workers from police violence and fascist provocations will become crucial in the struggle for a Workers Government.

 

Join the RCIT to build a Revolutionary Party which will help to unite all revolutionary forces in the Struggle for Socialism via the armed uprising, the revolution of the workers and oppressed!

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

[1] Bank of England Sinks Pound Sterling after 75bp Rate Hike is Overshadowed by its Severe Economic Warnings (poundsterlinglive.com), https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/gbp-live-today/17746-pound-to-euro-and-dollar-bank-of-england-november-mpr

 

[2] Trotsky. L, ‘Trade unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay’, Pg. 40, Pathfinder Press 1969

 

[3] Rail strikes shouldn’t have been called off for talks, https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/rail-strikes-shouldnt-have-been-called-off-for-talks/

 

[4] ‘Invasion’ of the UK? Experts dubious of Suella Braverman’s claim | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/01/bravermans-invasion-claim-not-backed-by-facts-say-experts

 

[5] Manston migrant centre like a zoo, says asylum seeker - BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63481151

 

[6] Robert Jenrick: 'Unacceptable' violence at Harmondsworth centre - BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63525332

 

By Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 11 January 2023, www.thecommuists.net

 

Today, the 11th January 2023, industrial chaos continues in Britain with industrial action amongst ambulance workers in the GMB, UNITE and UNISON staging strikes at all the major hospitals in Britain. This will affect paramedics and other health professionals. Driving examiners, teachers in Scotland and bus drivers in Britain are also on strike. Rishi Sunak is preparing to introduce harsher anti-union laws against NHS workers, transport workers and others in the public sector, forcing at least 20% of the workforce to be at work. If workers ignore this law, trade unions and their leaders will be fined. Sunak and his reactionary Tory government are facing a huge crisis of imperialist rule, which is in general affecting all imperialist countries. This is the decay and crisis that Marxists predicted amongst them mostly famous Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky.

 

This inter-imperialist rivalry is driving inflation and the cost of living to unprecedented increases of costs for the masses and exploited sections of society. The government has instructed the employers, both in the NHS and rail networks, not to offer increased wages to workers who have been on 24-hour strikes. This is a deliberate policy by the ideal personification of the total national capital to create sharper confrontation between workers and the individual capitalist bosses.

 

“As ambulance workers get ready to strike again, another anxious plea has gone out from the NHS: only call 999 if you really have to. Wednesday's walkout will affect most ambulance services in England and Wales. The advice is to call 999 if you are seriously ill or your condition is life-threatening. The action will involve thousands of staff, including paramedics, control room staff and support workers in a dispute over pay. Action by teachers in Scotland also continues, with secondary schools being affected on Wednesday.” [1]

 

Furthermore, bourgeois media states: “New anti-trade union law could make it “impossible” for rail workers to carry out meaningful strike action, RMT leaders warned today. The rail union’s leader Mick Lynch told a rally outside Parliament on Wednesday that the government’s new Transport Strikes Bill amounted to a move to “conscript labour,” but pledged to fight the proposals “all the way.” “What we’re facing here in the middle of our dispute is a move by the government and the powers that be in this country to conscript labour,” he said. “[Workers] will be required on pain of dismissal … to break their own dispute, despite going over the hurdles we’ve already got. So that is a step even further compared to what we’ve got now.” [2]

 

And also: “Rishi Sunak’s new anti-strike legislation to enforce “minimum service levels” in key public sectors including the NHS and schools has drawn a furious reaction from unions as the prime minister scrambles to get a grip on industrial disputes. The law, which the government plans to introduce in the coming weeks, will allow bosses in health, education, fire, ambulance, rail and nuclear commissioning to sue unions and sack employees if minimum levels are not met.” [3]

 

As Karl Marx predicted in his writings with the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, exactly this is affecting all imperialist and capitalist nations at an accelerated tempo since 2008 and most recently since the end of 2019. In Britain, the situation is very acute with whole sections of workers pushing for increased pay, better working conditions and a decent standard of living. The RCIT has explained that the second slump of 2019 has driven the imperialists in a frantic battle to secure their profits and this has caused massive inflation rates with bankers trying to stabilise the situation.

 

Industrial Chaos leading to continued Strike Action

 

The crisis and decay of British capitalism is revealed with a huge cost of living increases amongst energy companies like BP and Shell, who have amassed huge profits of over 650 billion pounds(!). And yet, these energy companies continue to increase energy costs at the expense of ordinary workers and their families who are facing poverty to such a degree that it includes more and more homelessness. Both electricity, gas and water charges have leapt up and the government has now had to give handouts to minimize the looming of insurrection and revolutionary upheaval.

 

The COVID 19 Counter-Revolution and the Consequences

 

The COVID19 counter-revolution successfully used lockdowns to keep people locked in their homes with no apparent medical supervision. The reason for the strategy of lockdowns and the other counterrevolutionary efforts by the ruling class was to control the masses in order to set a pre-emptive strike against any potential revolutionary upheaval taking place in Britain and elsewhere. Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion were the only movements who still rallied for activities during these reactionary lockdown times.

 

The RCIT at the time was one of the few tendencies in the working class to oppose the move towards Bonapartism and attacks on democratic rights under the pretext of a pandemic. In Britain, the pandemic was allowed to go unchecked and the NHS was allowed to disintegrate with many patients and health professionals dying. This was always a temporary measure, because the capitalist class realised that they had to reopen sectors so they could continue to exploit and maximise their profits. The pharmaceutical giants made a killing with vaccinations of all kinds forced on more than 5 billion of people worldwide, although the vaccines are not properly tested for their long-term side effects.

 

The Crisis of the Working-Class Leadership

 

The crisis of revolutionary leadership was famously explained by the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in the Transitional Programme. In Britain, Social democracy represented by the Labour Party is the twin half of the trade union bureaucracy; an apparatus which is used by the capitalist class as de facto agents in the working-class movement. The pro-capitalist leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, is 20 points ahead in the opinion polls.

 

Bourgeois academics have predicted that he will win the 2024 General Election. The hatred of the masses against the Sunak government is very obvious. That is why through fixed term parliaments, he will not call a general election but rather hopes for an economic miracle around the corner saving his rule. Many capitalists including bankers are losing their belief in the Tories and know that Starmer would be a safe pair of hands for the ruling class. Starmer has consistently opposed strikes by workers engaged in action, banned any Shadow minister of Labour with expulsion.

 

“Keir Starmer has repeatedly refused to support striking workers, including those working for the NHS as the main nurses’ union prepares to ballot members on industrial action. In a round of regional radio interviews the Labour leader said he understood why strikes were taking place but repeated his opposition to standing with workers on picket lines. Pressed on whether he would back strikes, he said: “I don’t want the strikes to go ahead. We want to be in government; in government you resolve issues.” Asked by BBC Radio Sheffield whether he would join union members on the picket lines, Starmer said: “No, I don’t think the job of the leader of the Labour party ... my job is to get Labour into government and to be the prime minister.” [4]

 

The Role of Centrism in the current Disputes

 

Many of the centrist groups, including the Cliffite Socialist Workers Party, take a far too uncritical attitude to the bureaucrats organising the workers strikes like the RMT and ASLEF on the railways. They do also support the nurses in the RCN, who held two separate one-day strikes before Xmas, but the whole approach by these centrists is to take up a one-sided workerist respectively syndicalist position, advocating more and more strikes by individual trade unions. All of the trade union bureaucrats, from Mick Lynch in the RMT to the leaders in UNISON, the GMB, RCN and UNITE the Union, faithfully obey the anti-trade union laws by conducting ballots in accordance with the Anti-Union Laws, always announcing the one day they are going to go on strike. The weakness of the action is that every action is within the confines of capitalist law to a T. The penalty for disobeying these laws is sequestration of the unions’ funds and bankruptcy for their officials. These petty-minded bureaucrats are terrified of any action that could confiscate the material basis for their luxury homes, their expensive mobile phones, in short, they are terrified to risk their jobs as well paid officials accepted by the ruling class. There has been no coordination of these disputes. No demands for a general strike or even nationalisation of the railways. This shows the cowardly role of these ‘Labour Lieutenants of Capital’ as Lenin referred to them. Every dispute is a separate sectoral battle in that industry. The TUC has been absent in all these strike actions, not mentioning them at all.

 

The SWP’s role is revealed through their various statements

 

“Union leaders should coordinate where possible, but not delay escalating now. The Tories and bosses are pushing through an all-out assault on rail workers’ pay, jobs, terms and conditions—and the right to strike. They hope to ride out the rail strikes, wearing down workers’ morale. An all-out strike, with mass pickets and solidarity, has the power to shift the situation decisively. The new “minimum service level” rules will definitely cover “fire, ambulance and rail services”. And “the government will consult on the adequate level of coverage for these sectors”. They will consult and then ignore the responses if they don’t like the answers, of course. In any case, the union leaders should refuse any talks with the government over these new anti-union laws. The Department for Business says in “health services, education, nuclear decommissioning, other transport services and border security, the government expects to continue to reach voluntary agreements”. It “would only look to consult on minimum safety levels should these voluntary positions not be agreed.” [5].

 

No perspective by the SWP or any basic demands beyond the minimum of economic slogans. The RCIT has consistently called for an indefinite general strike, including workers assemblies. We explained that an indefinite general strike that includes democratic demands will sooner or later lead to a violent confrontation with the oppression apparatus, i.e. the police and alike. We explained that as a result of this immanent threat, an indefinite general strike will pose the necessity of self-armed defence guards of workers. Ultimately, such a situation culminates in the struggle for power and if the working class is successful, to the overthrow of capitalism, also ending the rule of the servants of capitalism inside of the workers movement.

 

 

The RCIT in BRITAIN reiterates the transitional demands, elaborated by its international organisation, and adopted by the congress of its international membership. It is a matter of the greatest urgency that comrades in other tendencies and individual activists thoroughly study programmes and discuss strategies how to unite revolutionary forces based on sharp clarification of positions.

 

“Socialists need to recognise the extraordinary gap between the outrage of the masses about the dramatically rising living costs, on one hand, and the crisis of leadership. As a matter of fact, the official leadership of the trade unions and other workers organisations are extremely reluctant to organise defensive battles. At best, the bureaucrats limit themselves to organise one-day strikes or demonstrations.

However, it is evident that such limited protest activities can neither make the bosses accept a massive rise in payment nor can it force the capitalist governments to impose meaningful price caps. For this we need much more radical actions!

This is why socialists have to work towards the creation of committees of action in the workplaces and neighbourhoods. Such committees – which should integrate all activists as a first step and broader masses as a second step – can serve as pressure groups to force the bureaucrats to organise more radical actions than they are inclined to.

If the bureaucrats refuse to fight to the extent necessary (which can be taken for granted), such committees of action should take the struggle into their own hands. They should elect delegates and create a national coordination body.

However, as long as such committees do not exist or are not strong enough, socialists need to apply the united front tactic and call the existing leadership of the workers and popular organisations to organise the struggle against the deteriorating living conditions. “[6]

 

· An Indefinite General Strike and a Struggle for Insurrection

 

· Armed Defence Guards-committees of defence to protect the masses from police or fascist provocation

 

· For revolutionary constituent assemblies

 

· Nationalisation under workers control without compensation

 

· Opposition to all Immigration controls no to chauvinism Islamophobia and Racism people of colour to practice their own religion and speak their own Language Open Borders Free movements of people

 

· For a Workers Revolutionary Government –Join the RCIT

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

1) Strikes Update: How Wednesday 11 January’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64220259

 

2) New anti-trade union law could make it ‘impossible’ for rail workers to strike, RMT leaders warn | Morning Star (morningstaronline.co.uk), https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/new-anti-trade-union-law-impossible-rail-workers-strike

 

3) Union fury as Rishi Sunak unveils anti-strike laws for ‘minimum service levels’ | Industrial action | The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/05/uk-ministers-announce-anti-strike-legislation#:~:text=The%20law%2C%20which%20the%20government,minimum%20levels%20are%20not%20met.

 

4) Keir Starmer repeatedly refuses to back striking workers | Keir Starmer | The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/06/keir-starmer-repeatedly-refuses-to-back-striking-workers

 

5) ‘We need more strikes to win’—train drivers say on picket lines (socialistworker.co.uk), https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/we-need-more-strikes-to-win-train-drivers-say-on-picket-lines/

 

6) Britain: Truss Government in Deep Crisis - RCIT - Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (thecommunists.net), https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/britain-truss-government-in-deep-crisis/

Reactionary Unionism suffers Severe Defeat!

 

By Laurence Humphries, www.thecommunists.net

 

On the 18th May 2023, the petty-bourgeois populist Sinn Féin became the party with the biggest share of votes in Northern Ireland. Unionist parties performed badly proving once again that the wish for independence is still a strong current in Irish politics. It is now the largest party in the Northern Ireland assembly as well as in local government. In the 2020, general election in Éire, Sinn Féin under the leadership of Mary Lou McDonald became the biggest party in the Dáil (the parliament of Éire) but both capitalist parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil connived and deprived Sinn Féin of power.

 

“Sinn Féin is now the largest party in both local government and Stormont for the first time after making huge gains in council elections. With all seats counted, the party has won 144, up from the 105 councillors returned in 2019. Its vice-president Michelle O'Neill called for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of power sharing at Stormont.” [1]

 

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, power sharing is a main condition and the right-wing reactionary Unionist parties refuse to work in the power sharing executive. Their extreme arrogance and imperialist outlook remain, the alternative is direct rule from Westminster depriving the masses from being sheltered from the crisis of imperialism. Sinn Féin, which has a reformist outlook under the terms of the agreement wants to improve housing, social welfare, and other aspects of improving the condition of many in poverty, homelessness, and other ravages of the capitalist system in decline. 

 

In another place the RCIT have analysed and described the evolution of Sinn Féin as a petty bourgeois party.

 

“This application of the united front tactic also included critical support for Sinn Fein in elections. Naturally, this tactic ended when the leadership of Sinn Fein/IRA around Gerry Adams capitulated to British imperialism by signing the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Recently Sinn Fein, which has for a long time been an opposition party in the Republic of Ireland, has significantly increased its influence by playing a leading role in the Right2Water campaign, which has become the largest social movement in Ireland for decades in its struggle against the imposing of water fees by the government as part of its austerity program to make ordinary citizen pay for the crisis of the banks. In the latest election (2016), Sinn Fein received 13.8% of the votes cast becoming the third-biggest party in Ireland’s parliament”. [2]

 

The Good Friday Agreement

 

As we have mentioned previously, the struggle of both Sinn Féin at that time and the anti-imperialist force, the Provisional IRA, ended in 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which led to the capitulation of the Republican movement to cease its struggle against British imperialism. A split took place in the army council. Some combatants broke away and formed the Real IRA. They still continue the armed struggle for a united Ireland to this day. It is a very small force. Martin McGuiness and Gerry Adams, leaders of Sinn Féin, signed the Good Friday Agreement under the auspices of Tony Blair and the Labour government at that time.

 

“Almost 25 years ago, on 10 April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed. The historic deal will be commemorated in a series of events in April, with US President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton both set to visit Northern Ireland to mark the anniversary. The deal brought an end to 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles. Since then the agreement has touched on every aspect of life in Northern Ireland - from the political institutions, such as the power-sharing government, to Brexit and how it operates in this part of the UK.” [3]

 

Brexit Complications

 

In 2020, Britain formally withdrew from the European Union. Northern Ireland, forced to be the orange statelet and outpost of British imperialism has a land border with Éire, a member of the European Union. Since Brexit, this has led to trade disagreements between Éire, the bourgeois nationalists, and the European Union itself. All trade between Éire and Britain has to be checked at borders, which has led to delays and bureaucratic mishandling. Under the Johnson government the Protocol Agreement was signed, but opposed by the extreme right-wing Unionists, who want a hard border between Éire and Northern Ireland.

 

“Trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was straightforward before Brexit - both were in the EU and shared the same trade rules. However, when Northern Ireland left the EU, a deal was required to allow trade to continue across the border. The EU has strict food rules and requires border checks when certain goods - such as milk and eggs - arrive from non-EU countries like the UK. Paperwork is also required for other goods. But idea of checks at the border with Ireland is a sensitive issue because of Northern Ireland's troubled political history. It was feared that introducing cameras or border posts as part of checks on incoming and outgoing goods could lead to instability.” [4]

 

Inter-Imperialist Rivalry

 

The second slump of 2019, the war in the Ukraine and the intense rivalry between China, Russia, and the western imperialists, namely USA, Britain and the European Union, affects the Rishi Sunak government. Sunak has recently negotiated a further agreement referred to as Windsor agreement. This has split the Tory party in half. President Joe Biden flew to Belfast to oversee the signing of the new Windsor Agreement. The Unionists violently oppose any changes to Brexit and insist that Ulster is still part of the UK, although it is situated in Ireland. Priti Patel and Boris Johnson, on the extreme right of the party, opposed the agreement but Sunak successfully won the argument. Brexit was an attempt by the bourgeoisie pandering to right-wing, right populist and even proto-fascist elements, the little Englander attitude, but they failed to understand the consequences for Northern Ireland as an imperialist statelet united with Éire. Britain is referred to as the weakest economy in the G7, the major western imperialist grouping, according to the International Monetary Fund.

 

“The new deal is aimed at significantly reducing the number of checks required. It envisages two "lanes" for goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain:

 

A green lane for goods which will remain in Northern Ireland

A red lane for goods which may be sent on to the EU

 

Products going through the green lane not need checks or additional paperwork. Red lane goods would still be subject to checks. The current bans on certain products - like chilled sausages - entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain would be removed. Northern Ireland would also no longer have to follow certain EU rules, for example on VAT and alcohol duties”. [5]

 

For A United 32 County Workers Republic on a Revolutionary Base

 

The recent election results in Northern Ireland show that the power of the reactionary Unionist parties influence is waning fast. Bourgeois nationalism who has historically called for a united Ireland is gaining ground both in Ulster and Éire. The Good Friday Agreement states that a referendum can be called to vote on the question of a United Ireland. The Sunak government is very much a lame duck government unable to retain the support of their extreme right wing. These agreements between the EU and Britain are meaningless until the power sharing executive meets. The unionists will not meet, their arguments are shallow and illusory. They are now a spent force. Sinn Féin under the leadership of Michelle O'Neill has won huge success recently. O'Neill as the Vice President of Sinn Féin, with Mary Lou McDonald as President, has now become a popular force supported by the masses, but they still remain part of the state. Their anti-imperialist credentials disappeared in 1998 when they capitulated to British imperialism and unionism, as the RCIT has analysed in other places.

 

Sinn Féin continues to spread illusions in the power sharing executive and working with the Unionists and is reluctant to make the fight for a United Ireland their main objective. This has been the main plank of bourgeois nationalism in Ireland since the civil war in the 1920’s.

 

“There is no functioning executive or assembly because of the DUP's protest against post-Brexit arrangements. The party needs to "get off the fence" and return to government immediately, Sinn Féin's vice-president has said. Michelle O'Neill was among party leaders who met Jayne Brady to discuss Northern Ireland's budget crisis and lack of government. Her party is now the largest party in local government and the assembly having made gains in last week's council elections. That result showed voters wanted power sharing to resume, said Ms O'Neill, saying suggestion that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) might return to power-sharing this autumn was "not an acceptable timeframe". [6]

 

The RCIT in Britain calls for a continuous campaign for a 32 County Workers Republic. This requires a transitional programme of strikes, social uprisings to unite the masses in a common struggle for insurrection and a fight for workers government throughout the whole of Ireland. The RCIT calls on all militants, workers, and youth to study our programme of transitional demands.

 

* Call on the Leadership of Sinn Fein to campaign more vigorously for a United Ireland!

 

* For a 32 County Workers Republic, uniting both Ulster and Éire into a United Workers State on a Revolutionary, a Socialist base!

 

* Call on the Irish TUC to organise an indefinite general based on councils of action and elected by workers and militant activists!

 

* For armed defence guards to protect communities from extreme right-wing, loyalist gangs and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a most corrupt and reactionary force!

 

* Fight for democratic demands and a sliding scale of wages with wage increases in line with inflationary demands. For a campaign for better housing and an end to homelessness in this outpost of British Imperialism. End water privatisation!

 

* For Open Borders, no to Immigration Laws of any sort, for a campaign against islamophobia, racism and chauvinism. All migrants and people from the south should be allowed to speak their own language and carry out their own customs!

 

* Nationalise the Banks and multinational corporations, like the energy giants Shell and BP who have amassed billions! For the redistribution of wealth under workers’ control!

 

* End fossil fuel development and instead investigate alternative forms of energy to prevent the planet overheating!

 

* For a Workers Government on a Revolutionary platform!

 

Join the RCIT and fight with us for a 5th International, to unite all revolutionaries in a common struggle to smash capitalism and establish socialism!

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

[1] NI council elections 2023: Sinn Féin largest party in NI local government - BBC News

 

[2] Marxism and the United Front Tactic Today - RCIT - Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (thecommunists.net)

 

[3] Good Friday Agreement: What is it? - BBC News

 

[4] Brexit: What are the Northern Ireland Protocol and Windsor Framework? - BBC News

 

[5] Brexit: What are the Northern Ireland Protocol and Windsor Framework? - BBC News

 

[6] Stormont stalemate: Political leaders call for extra £1bn funds - BBC News