Things are only going to get worse if socialism doesn't fill the void.

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

The cuts are coming

(Thursday 20 November 2008)

IAN JOHNSON






IAN JOHNSON warns that things are only going to get worse if socialism doesn't fill the void.



APPARENTLY, when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd mentioned the G20 to George Bush earlier this year, Bush had to ask what it was.

Unfortunately, this is not another joke about the limited intellectual capacity of the outgoing US president. It simply reveals the insignificance of the G20 meeting held in Washington on November 15.


Despite the optimistic statements issued by the participants, the underlying fact was that they had no collective answer to the deepening crisis facing their economies.


US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had already backtracked from his previous decision to buy up the "toxic assets" of the financial institutions because of the sheer volume of debt involved. Updated International Monetary Fund forecasts now signal that the US and European economies, among others, will be in recession throughout 2009.


Against this background, it is beyond ironic to hear world leaders proclaim that capitalism is "the best possible system of government," making one wonder what the worst system of government would look like.


Yet such rhetoric is stock in trade for capitalism's defenders, who feed the general population with statements made purely for public consumption even though the reality is often the complete opposite.

'The financial sector that is now so quick to resort to repossessions has been handed over £5 trillion to keep it afloat.'

The Labour government has told workers for years that the economy could not afford above-inflation wage rises and that there was no money available for the development of health and education. Yet, the moment that the wealthiest layers in society ran into self-made problems, this same government suddenly found billions of pounds to bail the financial sector out.


In an attempt to placate the population at large, Gordon Brown and his ministers announced that they had asked mortgage lenders to explore all avenues to ensure that home repossessions would only take place as a last resort. They knew full well that this was merely political spin. The reality is quite different.


Recent figures reveal a 40 per cent rise in the number of home repossessions over the last six months alone. The main culprit in repossessions is the government-owned Northern Rock, which has been responsible for more than 20 per cent of the total. It has recruited almost 500 more people to work in its repossessions department.


A recent court ruling which dragged up legislation from the 1920s allows mortgage lenders to repossess properties where the occupant is a mere two months behind with payments. Does that sound like the action of last resort as promised by Brown?


Yet the financial sector that is now so quick to resort to repossessions has been handed over £5 trillion on a worldwide basis to keep it afloat.


In the US, the emphatic victory of Barack Obama signified that the US population wanted a complete break with the policies of the Bush administration. Obama's success demonstrated that, in the final analysis, it is not religion, gender or race that is the decisive factor but the deepening economic crisis and the class struggle that it engenders.


However, the hopes and aspirations that working people have invested in Obama will sooner rather than later be shattered. He is already gathering around him the same characters who have dominated both the Bush and Clinton administrations.


No matter what his subjective intentions may have been, Obama will defend capitalism at the expense of the interests of the millions of workers who put him in office, a situation that will result in increased social and industrial conflict.


In Britain, the desperate attempt by the Brown government to control the crisis by cutting interest rates will not only see the collapse of the pound but will also raise the prospect of national bankruptcy, while doing nothing to prevent rising levels of unemployment and the gutting of public services.


In an attempt to save the system, the Labour government will continue to pursue privatisation and wage-cutting policies as it seeks to make workers pay for a crisis not of their making and overturn every gain made by the working class over decades of struggle.


In contrast and in opposition to the desires of capitalism, socialists should see this coming period as an opportunity for change. The political void now open must be filled by developing and promoting socialist policies that will represent and give voice to the best interests of the majority of the population.

Ian Johnson is general secretary of the Socialist Labour Party.