Nor will the Conservatives do anything different. They cannot - nor can, or will, the Liberal-Democrats. All of these parties are committed, like Labour, to the current deregulated, privatised, globalised economic midden. They will assure us that narrow nationalism, protectionism, isolationism are not the answer and will only make the situation worse.
The BNP, along with the crypto-fascist UKIP will (hypocritically)advocate just these policies, but the chances of them getting the opportunity to deliver on their promises will be slim in the extreme (mot juste). The BNP, should it achieve an electoral breakthrough, will continue along it's present route to the centre-right, divesting itself of the stormtrooper element on the way. This last will return to the wilderness and the true Nazi thuggery that is momentarily being contained by the dominant ballot-boxers.
So who will represent our disenfranchised British working class? As usual it has to be a do-it-yourself effort. The unions are there, but the full-timers will try to take the lead and head off any effective action. After all a strong rank and file threatens their places at the trough as much as it threatens employers and sell-out politicians. A strong rank and file movement, distrustful of union officials, and refusing to surrender direct action in return for fruitless negotiations and delaying tactics, is the only hope.
The signs of a fightback are already in the wind. The media are now calling the walkouts "wildcat", a favourite union-bashing term. Mealy-mouthed politicians "understand, but cannot condone". The lies, the talk of "extremism", are in the pipeline. Remember "the enemy within"?
"The reality is that EU directives and, even more so, British legislation have encouraged employers to exploit deregulated labour markets to play off one part of the workforce against another and drive down employment costs. Now that jobs are at a premium, organised workers in Britain are no longer prepared to put up with it and are ignoring anti-union laws to make their voice heard. So long as their protests continue to target employers and the government, rather than other workers, that will intensify the pressure on Brown to stop tinkering, come up with what is now long overdue: a serious programme of investment in public housing, infrastructure and transport to replace the jobs now haemorrhaging across Britain."(Seumas Milne)
We can but hope.
Mick Hall writes on the walkouts on "Organised Rage" (See links)
No comments:
Post a Comment