Britain

The workers of Britain are facing 20 years
of austerity, not seen since the inter-war period. Whoever wins the next
general election – whether it be Labour or Tory – they will be forced to go
onto the offensive against the working class. But we can already see the
outlines of the future class struggle in this country, which will create the
conditions in which Marxism can gain the ear of the workers. [This text is
based on a speech given by Rob Sewell at the recent conference of Socialist
Appeal , the Marxist tendency in Britain].

At the beginning of this month comrades
from up and down the country met in London for the National Conference of the
Socialist Appeal, the British group supporting the International Marxist
Tendency.
The British Marxist tendency met last year
as the economic crisis had begun to affect British capitalism. This year the
system in Britain and internationally shows no sign of emerging from the
recession it has plunged into, overshadowing the bourgeoisies’ celebrations of
the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin wall, which they saw as the ‘final
victory’ of capitalism.
Comrades left
in high spirits determined to build the forces of Marxism throughout Britain,
as our part in the fight for socialism internationally.

In a sign of the increasing anger at job losses, workers at BMW’s Mini factory in Cowley, Oxford threw fruit at union officials when they heard they were to be sacked with one hour’s notice on Monday 16 February. Management at the Mini factory had minutes earlier told the weekend shift of 850 workers that they were being made redundant.

As socialists we absolutely support the movement of the workers of the Prisme Packaging Plant in fighting for their right to work and pay.

Maureen a worker of the factory for 13 years spoke of the optimistic
mood amongst the workers in the factory “We have decided to continue
our fight to put this company to shame. We have to fight for our
rights. The support we have had has been tremendous, totally amazing."
This shows only in a small part the growing radicalisation of the
working class of not only Scotland but also of the United Kingdom as a
whole.

Following on from the Hooper Report, the
government is proposing to part-privatise Royal Mail, the letter delivery arm
of the Post Office. There’s no silly nonsense about putting the arrangement out
to tender so we the taxpayers get the best deal either. They’ve already lined
up TNT to take 30% of Royal Mail. The announcement has roused fury among
millions of people – trade unionists and just ordinary people who use Royal
Mail, which is pretty well everyone. Why mess about with something that works
well? We have the cheapest postal service in Western Europe. We are the only
country in the European Union that still has a Saturday delivery.

As the
capitalist crisis deepens, more and more workers are coming under attack.
Vodafone has just announced huge lay-offs. There are plans to axe 1,000 jobs on
the railways. The sacking of 850 agency workers at the Cowley car plant in
Oxford is the latest in a string of redundancies. They received no redundancy
pay, no holiday pay and no sickness pay. All they were offered was their P45s
and a week’s wages. Wage freezes have also become common in the last period. Short-time
working has spread with Toyota closing its factory for four weeks.

High-ranking British police officers
have expressed concern that the country may be facing an outburst of street
protests. Superintendent David Hartshorn, head of the Metropolitan police’s
public order branch, and one of the highest ranking police officers in the
country, in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, spoke of the
possibility of riots like those that rocked the country in the 1980s, erupting
later this year as people who lose their jobs, homes or savings become
"footsoldiers" in a wave of violent mass protests.

The State Pension was
established 100 years ago on 1^st January 1909. This followed a ten
year campaign by social reformers and the Trade Union Movement.Pensions should be a right for those who have worked all
their lives. Instead the government is looking to whittle away the fragile
gains of a century of struggle.