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In this election – What we stand for

In this election – What we stand for

Tomorrow, RCP activists and supporters will be mobilising en masse across Stratford & Bow to campaign for revolutionary communist candidate Fiona Lali. We publish here the bold programme that comrades are fighting for, in this election and beyond.

The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) was only launched a matter of weeks ago. But we have suddenly been thrust into the limelight, following comrade Fiona Lali’s viral takedown of reactionary Suela Braverman.

The fact that Fiona is now standing in the general election, with the backing of the party, has only added to the growing interest in the RCP and what we stand for.

As our regular readers know, the party’s main demands are printed in every issue of The Communist. This is not a complete programme covering all issues, but an outline of our essential views.

And for this election, Fiona has formulated a ten-point programme that seeks to answer the key problems facing working people, arising from the crisis of capitalism, especially in Britain.

Kick out the war criminals

To begin with, the RCP is utterly opposed to those established parties who justify capitalism and its crimes.

First and foremost is the Tory Party, the traditional party of British big business and British imperialism. But also Starmer’s Labour, which has become practically indistinguishable from the Tories.

Both parties have blood on their hands, not least for supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. If there is anyone who should be in the dock for war crimes, it is these ladies and gentlemen.

The Liberal Democrats, the third spoke in the capitalist wheel, act no differently. This was clearly revealed in 2010-15, when they joined with the Tories to form a coalition of cuts.

These parties and politicians are all defenders of this rotten capitalist system. They are all guilty of presiding over falling living standards, both nationally and in local councils, where they are busy feathering their own nests.

Parliament is stuffed full of liars, crooks, and thieves. There is a great hatred towards Sunak and the Tories, as well as widespread scepticism towards Starmer’s Labour. Kick them all out!

No to austerity

In Britain, we are facing a real collapse. We have experienced the biggest drop in real wages in any decade for the last two hundred years.

For the working class, everything is falling to pieces – whether it is crumbling schools, an NHS on the brink, or local authorities going bankrupt, with public services being dismantled.

For decades, rotten Labour councils have taken working-class communities for granted. They simply act as Tory agents in carrying out vicious cuts.

The extreme austerity and redundancies being carried out in Birmingham are becoming the norm. No wonder participation in local elections is at rock bottom.

Starmer has made it crystal clear that the next Labour government will have to “take difficult decisions”. In plain language, this means more of the same pro-business Tory policies; further cuts, privatisation, and layoffs.

“There is no magic money tree,” says Starmer. “There will be no bailouts.” While there is no money for schools and hospitals, however, these gangsters can always find money for foreign wars and imperialist interventions.

We reject the present dictatorship of the bankers and billionaires! Down with all those apologists of capitalism, who are determined to make the working class pay for this crisis!

We stand for a fundamental break with this decrepit system. And we will fight for every genuine step forward for working people along the way, however small.

Healthcare not warfare

The traditional parties have been further discredited by their support for the slaughter in Gaza.

All decent people are thoroughly sickened by the brutal oppression of the Palestinians, and by the barbarism of the Israeli war machine. Yet the western imperialist powers have backed Netanyahu’s regime at every stage.

Sunak Biden Starmer Netanyahu war imperialism
The warmongers in Westminster and Washington are banging the drum of militarism.

At the same time, the warmongers in Westminster and Washington are banging the drum of militarism, demanding that even more money be spent on ‘defence’ and arms production.

The conflicts erupting across the world, meanwhile, are yet another symptom of the chaos and horror that capitalism breeds.

We say:

  1. Down with the warmongers! Stop the massacre in Gaza! For an immediate end to all arm sales to Israel.
  2. The two-state ‘solution’ is utterly bankrupt. We stand for a Socialist Federation of the Middle East. For the revolutionary overthrow of all the reactionary regimes in the region! Free Palestine!
  3. No support for NATO and its imperialist policies. Scrap Trident and slash defence spending. Spend this money instead on housing, schools, and hospitals.
  4. Repurpose arms factories and redeploy workers in ‘defence’, in order to produce socially necessary and useful goods. Nationalise these industries and make them serve our needs, not those who trade in death and destruction.

Simply scrapping the Trident nuclear programme – with its weapons of mass destruction that will (hopefully) never be used – would save around £200bn. Slashing such wasteful spending would save billions: money that would otherwise end up in the pockets of war-profiteers.

Of course, Sunak, Starmer, and the rest of them want to do the opposite. They are demanding a dramatic rise in defence spending, wasting eye-watering sums on what is effectively scrap metal.

To justify this rise in financing, western governments raise the bogeyman of Putin’s Russia. But they seem to forget that a war with Russia would not be a conventional war, but a nuclear war, in which Britain – and the rest of the planet – would be wiped out. We saw what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with ‘only’ two atomic bombs.

Such a war of mutual destruction is therefore ruled out at the present time. And yet capitalist governments pour billions down the drain for the sake of prestige, nothing more.

All these resources squandered at a time of deepening crisis, affecting our health, education, housing, and more.

We say: Not a single penny to the war industries! For books, not bombs! For healthcare, not warfare!

Nationalise the monopolies

Big business is robbing us blind. The bankers have been bailed out with taxpayers’ money. And private profiteers are making a fortune out of the public’s misery.

The bosses and shareholders of the privatised water companies have creamed off billions, while pouring sewage into our rivers and coasts. The whole charade literally stinks!

The same goes for the privatised railway firms, with their massive government subsidies, and for the big energy suppliers, who have been laughing all the way to the bank.

At the same time, many low-paid families are forced to choose between putting food on the table or heating their homes.

Starmer’s Labour talks simply about more ‘regulation’. But this is completely toothless.

All these privatised companies, major monopolies, and big banks should be nationalised immediately, without compensation. There must be no public money for the fat-cats.

Once nationalised, the major banks would be at the service of ordinary people. Rather than acting as bloodsuckers, charging huge interest rates that crush homeowners and small businesses with borrowing costs, they would provide cheap loans to allow people to stand on their own feet.

Nationalised industries should not be run by well-paid, faceless bureaucrats, divorced from the people, as in the past. Instead, they should be placed under democratic workers’ control and management. All officials must be elected, and paid no more than the average skilled worker.

The capitalists and their hired politicians are horrified by giving workers any control. But workers on the shopfloor know far better than the bosses how to run things. They are far more familiar with their working environment, and will have plenty of ideas for how things could be improved.

Under capitalism, however, workers have no say over their lives.

End the housing crisis

Housing – a roof over our heads – should be an absolute right!

But in Britain, 1-in-200 people are homeless, forced to live in temporary accommodation, or are sleeping on the streets. This is by far the highest rate in all the ‘advanced’ capitalist countries.

Rents, evictions, and homelessness have all rapidly risen. Meanwhile, the supply of social housing units has rapidly fallen.

Those ‘lucky’ enough to find any accommodation are forced to pay through the nose to live in overcrowded, cold, damp, mouldy homes – all while the landlords and bankers line their pockets with our rents.

We could resolve the housing crisis overnight. There are hundreds of thousands of empty properties across Britain, which serve only as investments for the rich. This an insult to the homeless and destitute.

To begin with, these empty homes and apartments should be immediately expropriated and put to use.

Secondly, we should nationalise the construction companies, the land, and the banks. There are plenty of building workers, but many more could be trained. With these resources in our hands, we could construct a million council houses every year.

With such a mass house-building programme, quality homes would be available to all, at very low rents. Put people before profits!

Eradicate poverty

To eradicate poverty, we must abolish poverty pay. Everyone should be paid a real living wage. Given the sky-high cost of living, there should be a minimum wage of at least £20 per hour, linked to any further rise in prices.

Today, workers are forced to work day-in, day-out, until we drop or die. Yet the government has ideas to push up the retirement age to 70 or older.

We demand the right to retire at 55 years, or even lower! People should be able to enjoy their final days, rather than being ground down.

Zero-hour contracts must be banned – no ifs, no buts. Starmer originally promised this, but has now retreated under pressure from big business.

“Our profits will be in danger,” the capitalists claim. “We need a flexible workforce,” they say, to do as they want. But why should we tolerate being mere wage slaves, at the beck and call of the employers?

Starmer has watered-down his commitment to workers’ rights, to the point that they are practically meaningless. Even Unite the Union has refused to endorse Labour’s pro-business manifesto.

The capitalists and their apologists say that they cannot afford to provide workers with decent pay, conditions, and working hours. But given the abundance of wealth and resources in society, we believe that our demands are extremely modest.

We say: if this system cannot afford these basic things, then to hell with this system!

Protect the planet

Every day, we see the spectacle of the rich becoming richer, while the poor get poorer; astonishing wealth at one end of society, and food banks and misery at the other.

This is the logic of the capitalist system. There can be no other outcome under this profit-driven system.

At the same time, capitalism is ravaging the planet. Giant corporations, in their chase and thirst for greater profits, have no interest in sustaining our environment, with devastating results. The pouring of sewage into our waterways is only one example. On a wider scale, if left untouched, capitalism threatens the very future of humanity.

The Green Party believes that things can be improved – through reforms and regulations – without removing capitalism. But this is completely false. Simply tinkering with the capitalist system is no solution, particularly in the face of a climate emergency. It is simply utopian, like hoping to drain the ocean with a spoon.

We can have no trust in any of the capitalist politicians. There have been so many international climate conferences; so many targets. But these have all been mere talking shops. Promises or agreements are endlessly broken. No one is held to account.

This is inevitable under capitalism, with its barriers of private property and the nation state. Competition between the big imperialist powers and multinationals will always mean a race to the bottom, at the expense of the environment and the 99 percent.

Only by taking the economy out of the hands of the billionaire tycoons, who use the planet as their playground, can we harmoniously plan and sustainably utilise society’s resources, without destroying the planet.

Only through socialist planning can we decide what happens and where, rather than allow profit and the market to dictate activity, without any care for pollution or waste. This is the only answer to the climate catastrophe.

For world revolution

We are internationalists. Capitalism, as a world system, can only truly be eradicated on a global scale.

Inherent in capitalism is the constant struggle for markets and sources of raw materials. Giant corporations straddle the planet in search of greater profits, like vampires hunting for fresh blood.

These powerful gangsters – through blackmail, debt bondage, and other monopolistic methods – hold entire countries to ransom. Drug companies, amongst others, work to keep prices artificially high worldwide. Ex-colonial countries, despite their formal independence, remain subjugated and drained of resources by the imperialists.

These battles between the big corporations, backed by their respective nation states, lead to heightened tensions, conflicts, and ultimately war.

Imperialism, Lenin explained, is the ‘highest stage’ of capitalism; a sign that the system has reached – and gone beyond – the limits of private property. This explains the wars and rivalries that are wrecking the world today.

Millions and millions are suffering as a result: forced to flee their homes, due to war, poverty, and climate chaos, and then demonised and repressed by racist capitalist governments across the world, as they search for a sanctuary.

Capitalism is in a dead-end; in a state of almost perpetual crisis, dragging society into an ever-deeper abyss. This in turn is producing anger and rage. This is laying the conditions for socialist revolution.

We are accused of being in favour of violence. This is ironic coming from the mouths of warmongers. It is they who are employing violence against the oppressed people of Palestine. It is they who bombed Iraq, Syria, and Libya in the name of ‘democracy’. These hypocrites are the peddlers of violence.

We are in favour of a peaceful transformation of society. But we also know that the old rulers will attempt to prevent this at any cost. No ruling class in history has ever given up its power and privileges without a fight.

Last year was the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s coup in Chile, where the democratically elected, left-wing government of Allende was overthrown. Backed by US imperialism, this coup led to the death of 30,000 people. This is the real lesson of Chile.

This is what the ruling class will do when faced with a threat to its interests. They are the perpetrators of violence. We must be prepared for this.

The capitalist establishment is a formidable enemy. But they can be stopped in their tracks by the mass-mobilisation of the working class, who are the vast majority of society.

Enough is enough!

Under capitalism, every gain or advance is ultimately eroded, or even taken away. What is given with the left hand, is taken back by the right hand. Simply look at the attacks of the last 50 years. Everything the working class has won is now under threat!

We will fight for every single reform, every step forward, however modest. But we will always link these to the struggle to transform society.

The potential is limitless. The wonders of science and advances in technology are astonishing. But the capitalist system is incapable of harnessing these forces.

Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation hold enormous possibilities for humanity, if used properly. But in the hands of capitalists, these mean mass unemployment and wage cuts, as workers are displaced by new technology.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that AI could threaten 30 percent of jobs in the ‘advanced capitalist countries’; 20 percent in the so-called ‘emerging markets’; and 18 percent in ‘low-income countries’.

Scientific advance opens up a huge vista for humanity. But under capitalism, it is mangled and distorted by the market system and the billionaires’ drive for profits.

Even the heads of the IMF have warned that the adoption of generative AI “could amplify the next economic downturn”.

Every gain for the capitalists becomes a burden for the masses. Only if the profit motive is eradicated, with the economy placed in the hands of the working class, can these advances be used for the benefit of all.

On a capitalist basis, the peoples of the world face horror without end: more wars; further economic crises; greater exploitation; and increased misery. This is the future under capitalism.

We say: enough is enough! We cannot tolerate this state of affairs. Down with the dictatorship of the corporations!

A socialist Britain would be a beacon to the workers of Europe and the world. It would spark a revolutionary wave, which would sweep away the old regime, and the system it defends.

This would open up an era of prosperity, preparing the ground for the construction of a totally new society: where the scourges of poverty, squalor, hunger, and war are eliminated; and where culture and science could flourish.

That is what we stand for! In the words of the Communist Manifesto: We have nothing to lose, and a world to win!

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