British Gas has put its bills up by 25% this year and has recently announced that profits are up by23%. Barclays, after the Libor-fixing scandal, has announced profits of 15% and GlaxoSmithKline has been fined 1.9 billion for miss-selling drugs. Despite pledging to cut the deficit, not the NHS, the government is standing by as NHS Trusts go bankrupt and many hospitals are earmarked for closure. Contracting services out to the private sector has been demonstrated to be the great scam that many always knew it to be.
The disastrous state of Britain’s railways has been revealed by the Olympics with the entire Jubilee line going down on the first morning of the games. The infrastructure spending the government has announced on the network highlights the great need for investment and revealed the parasitic nature of private ownership. This spending stands in contradiction to the findings of the Labour-commissioned McNulty report has outlined huge cuts to the railway over the next decade. According to Rob Griffiths the G4S scandal, where no way near the promised number of Olympic security were revealed to have been provided only months before the opening ceremony, is only the latest example of "capitalist crookery and incompetence".
Public ownership of utilities, transport and finance haven’t been more popular for decades and we must urge the labour movement to be more confident in putting the case for nationalisation back on the menu.
Over the next few months, communists are urged to:
-Support Remploy workers in their resistance to the disgraceful closure of 27 centres, including occupations.
-Support similar action taken by PCS, RMT, ASLEF and UNITE to fight for jobs, public services and to secure a piece of the Olympic plunder for working people. To cut through media propaganda that demonises those who are out of work, yet also demonises those who fight to protect jobs.
-Support campaigns in local communities against government cutbacks and to strengthen the local labour movement to ensure that trade councils provide the leadership of such campaigns.
-Continue to highlight the hypocrisy behind huge rises in bills accompanied by massive increases in profits and make the case for public ownership.
-Continue to reveal the contradiction behind cutbacks and job losses when the rich are accumulating record profits, and direct popular anger against bankers, and the rich, towards strengthening the labour movement and winning popular support for socialism.
-Actively provide solidarity to those, such as the Spanish Miners and Greek Steelworkers, who are on the frontline fighting the EU assault on jobs, public services and industry.
-Build for the biggest possible mobilisation for the TUC demonstration on the 20th of October.
George Waterhouse
