An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!
Open Discussion | 09.06.2009 18:20 | Analysis | Anti-racism | Workers' Movements | Birmingham
Leaflet looks at the crisis in Britain and the need for the working class to unite against capitalism and fascism and find own solutions.
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL !
Official figures show that 2.22 million workers are now unemployed. This is 7.1%
nationally. 244,000 lost their jobs from January to March this year. Of those aged 18-24,one in six is unemployed.
There are two sorts of people in the world. Those of us who have to live by selling our labour and those that live off our labour. For the vast majority of workers in the world, we simply cannot eat if we do not go to work. This is not the situation for those who own the multinational corporations, the financial institutions, who own factories and other work places.
The financial crisis is intertwined with an overproduction crisis. The drive to maximise profits has led to too many goods being produced. The workers across the globe do not earn enough to buy these goods at the prices they are set. Capitalism has recently been dealing with overproduction by making cheap credit available to workers. All the credit has now been used up. The rich do not have any answer to the crisis and demand their maximum profits keep flowing.
This crisis is not going to go away with a bit of tinkering, as some union leaders
advocate, like using public money to try and prop up manufacturing to save jobs.
Gordon Brown advocates short-time working topped up by working tax credits. Others advocate that workers should take pay cuts to save jobs .However, the overproduction is still there. All these short term “solutions” are no solutions at all, just ways to keep on maximising profits at the workers expense and in the end they do not prevent further job losses or closures. General Motors is demanding £3 billion in state aid from European governments but does not rule out closing down Vauxhall in Britain. It is time to face the fact that the crises is systemic and it is the capitalist system that needs to be dismantled so that production can be carried out to meet the needs of the human beings in the world rather than the profit motive of the few.
In this situation all the policies and packages being put forward by Obama, Brown, theG8 and so on are aimed at three basic things:
1.Protection of profits for the banks and multinational companies.
2.Maintaining legitimacy for the capitalist system in the eyes of the people.
3.Preparing for the inevitable resistance of the workers as their conditions get worse and inequality deepens.
Currently:
● One billion people worldwide are on the verge of starvation (UN 6 April '09)
● Every six seconds a child dies of malnutrition ( UN 6 April '09)
● Global unemployment increased by 14 million in 2008 and could rise by 38 million in 2009 (International Labour Organisation Report 2009, The Financial and
Economic Crisis: A Decent Work Response)
● Many countries have very little social protection for the unemployed(ILO)
● Working poverty and casual work are increasing(ILO)
● 75 million people in working poverty globally, most in South Asia and Sub-
Saharan Africa(ILO)
● 40-50% of all men and women are expected to be unable to earn more than $2 a
day in 2009(ILO)
● Pension entitlements globally have been cut by 20%(ILO) and
during 2008 individual wealth held in private pensions has declined 40% in
advanced countries and 54.5% in less developed countries(ILO).
More and more of the people's taxes are being handed over to the rich through bank bailouts by the Government, supported by the other big parties and the TUC. The TUC justify bank bail-outs as “..protecting banks from the greedy excesses of their bosses.”(TUC press release,21 April '09). These are the very banks that are forcing factories to close, repossessing homes and decimating small businesses. Bailing out the banks is simply a way of continuing to maximise profits by stealing from public taxes to prop them up. In the final analysis all this money is being taken out of health, social services, education or other forms of essential social expenditure.
Production and banking run by the rich for the rich has no future. It is destroying society and the planet. It causes wars and occupations over competition for raw materials and sources of energy, access to cheap labour and places to which to export capital. Bringing production and the financial institutions into genuine public ownership is a necessity to protect society. As long as we tolerate private ownership and the capitalist state which protects it crises will continue.
There is a serious problem of legitimacy for any politician or party or union leader,
seeking to prop up the capitalist system. Many of these are putting a lot of spin into
blaming the crisis on individual “greedy bankers”, “bad, irresponsible bosses” and so on to divert attention from the root cause – the capitalist system.The fascist slogan “British Jobs for British Workers” divides workers. As if the crisis was not an international one, affecting workers all over the globe. Those who accept this slogan, hoping to get some small gains,have forgotten that as far as the employers are concerned, the only good workers are those who come cheap, compliant and flexible regardless of nationality. For unions to compromise with this fascist slogan and demand that employers reserve jobs for only British workers is to openly side with the rich as a class and is a betrayal of the class interests of all workers.
The violent police attacks on the G20 protests, the increased state surveillance of
activists and demonstrators, and racist raids on various communities are all signs that the rich are taking steps to deal with the growing opposition of the people to their project of maximising profits at all costs. The promotion of the British National Party at this time in the capitalist newspapers, TV, and radio is no accident. Not only do such Nazi groups divide the workers they also line the workers up behind the interests of the big multinationals and banks. The BNP are only using anti-capitalist rhetoric to push their racist and divisive position. This is the role the Nazi national socialists played in the 1930's both in Britain and in Germany leading to disastrous consequences for trade unionists, all workers, minorities, youth.
Some of the issues raised in this leaflet may be new or difficult to face. The world is changing very fast but the basic inescapable fact is that it is down to the working class to change the situation and organise production to meet the needs of the people instead of the profit motive. Only determined working class resistance in defence of the rights of all will save the situation. We need to build local committees of resistance now to stop house repossessions, to stop extortionate bank charges on small businesses, to demand a living wage, or dole equivalent, to end privatisation of public services, to demand free universal higher education, cancel student debts, and to demand an end to the arms trade, wars and occupations, halting the killing of workers here and abroad, and the massive cost to the public from taxation. We need to organise meetings amongst work friends, amongst the youth in the schools, colleges, universities, and in communities to discuss our reality and create committees of resistance to support each other. At the same time we need to take up the task of creating a genuine workers communist party in Britain to provide the clarity and organisation necessary to bring change.
Open Discussion 16.5.09 e-mail
opendisc@ymail.com
Official figures show that 2.22 million workers are now unemployed. This is 7.1%
nationally. 244,000 lost their jobs from January to March this year. Of those aged 18-24,one in six is unemployed.
There are two sorts of people in the world. Those of us who have to live by selling our labour and those that live off our labour. For the vast majority of workers in the world, we simply cannot eat if we do not go to work. This is not the situation for those who own the multinational corporations, the financial institutions, who own factories and other work places.
The financial crisis is intertwined with an overproduction crisis. The drive to maximise profits has led to too many goods being produced. The workers across the globe do not earn enough to buy these goods at the prices they are set. Capitalism has recently been dealing with overproduction by making cheap credit available to workers. All the credit has now been used up. The rich do not have any answer to the crisis and demand their maximum profits keep flowing.
This crisis is not going to go away with a bit of tinkering, as some union leaders
advocate, like using public money to try and prop up manufacturing to save jobs.
Gordon Brown advocates short-time working topped up by working tax credits. Others advocate that workers should take pay cuts to save jobs .However, the overproduction is still there. All these short term “solutions” are no solutions at all, just ways to keep on maximising profits at the workers expense and in the end they do not prevent further job losses or closures. General Motors is demanding £3 billion in state aid from European governments but does not rule out closing down Vauxhall in Britain. It is time to face the fact that the crises is systemic and it is the capitalist system that needs to be dismantled so that production can be carried out to meet the needs of the human beings in the world rather than the profit motive of the few.
In this situation all the policies and packages being put forward by Obama, Brown, theG8 and so on are aimed at three basic things:
1.Protection of profits for the banks and multinational companies.
2.Maintaining legitimacy for the capitalist system in the eyes of the people.
3.Preparing for the inevitable resistance of the workers as their conditions get worse and inequality deepens.
Currently:
● One billion people worldwide are on the verge of starvation (UN 6 April '09)
● Every six seconds a child dies of malnutrition ( UN 6 April '09)
● Global unemployment increased by 14 million in 2008 and could rise by 38 million in 2009 (International Labour Organisation Report 2009, The Financial and
Economic Crisis: A Decent Work Response)
● Many countries have very little social protection for the unemployed(ILO)
● Working poverty and casual work are increasing(ILO)
● 75 million people in working poverty globally, most in South Asia and Sub-
Saharan Africa(ILO)
● 40-50% of all men and women are expected to be unable to earn more than $2 a
day in 2009(ILO)
● Pension entitlements globally have been cut by 20%(ILO) and
during 2008 individual wealth held in private pensions has declined 40% in
advanced countries and 54.5% in less developed countries(ILO).
More and more of the people's taxes are being handed over to the rich through bank bailouts by the Government, supported by the other big parties and the TUC. The TUC justify bank bail-outs as “..protecting banks from the greedy excesses of their bosses.”(TUC press release,21 April '09). These are the very banks that are forcing factories to close, repossessing homes and decimating small businesses. Bailing out the banks is simply a way of continuing to maximise profits by stealing from public taxes to prop them up. In the final analysis all this money is being taken out of health, social services, education or other forms of essential social expenditure.
Production and banking run by the rich for the rich has no future. It is destroying society and the planet. It causes wars and occupations over competition for raw materials and sources of energy, access to cheap labour and places to which to export capital. Bringing production and the financial institutions into genuine public ownership is a necessity to protect society. As long as we tolerate private ownership and the capitalist state which protects it crises will continue.
There is a serious problem of legitimacy for any politician or party or union leader,
seeking to prop up the capitalist system. Many of these are putting a lot of spin into
blaming the crisis on individual “greedy bankers”, “bad, irresponsible bosses” and so on to divert attention from the root cause – the capitalist system.The fascist slogan “British Jobs for British Workers” divides workers. As if the crisis was not an international one, affecting workers all over the globe. Those who accept this slogan, hoping to get some small gains,have forgotten that as far as the employers are concerned, the only good workers are those who come cheap, compliant and flexible regardless of nationality. For unions to compromise with this fascist slogan and demand that employers reserve jobs for only British workers is to openly side with the rich as a class and is a betrayal of the class interests of all workers.
The violent police attacks on the G20 protests, the increased state surveillance of
activists and demonstrators, and racist raids on various communities are all signs that the rich are taking steps to deal with the growing opposition of the people to their project of maximising profits at all costs. The promotion of the British National Party at this time in the capitalist newspapers, TV, and radio is no accident. Not only do such Nazi groups divide the workers they also line the workers up behind the interests of the big multinationals and banks. The BNP are only using anti-capitalist rhetoric to push their racist and divisive position. This is the role the Nazi national socialists played in the 1930's both in Britain and in Germany leading to disastrous consequences for trade unionists, all workers, minorities, youth.
Some of the issues raised in this leaflet may be new or difficult to face. The world is changing very fast but the basic inescapable fact is that it is down to the working class to change the situation and organise production to meet the needs of the people instead of the profit motive. Only determined working class resistance in defence of the rights of all will save the situation. We need to build local committees of resistance now to stop house repossessions, to stop extortionate bank charges on small businesses, to demand a living wage, or dole equivalent, to end privatisation of public services, to demand free universal higher education, cancel student debts, and to demand an end to the arms trade, wars and occupations, halting the killing of workers here and abroad, and the massive cost to the public from taxation. We need to organise meetings amongst work friends, amongst the youth in the schools, colleges, universities, and in communities to discuss our reality and create committees of resistance to support each other. At the same time we need to take up the task of creating a genuine workers communist party in Britain to provide the clarity and organisation necessary to bring change.
Open Discussion 16.5.09 e-mail
opendisc@ymail.com
Open Discussion
e-mail:
opendisc@ymail.com
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
The last sentence...
09.06.2009 18:44
"At the same time we need to take up the task of creating a genuine workers communist party in Britain to provide the clarity and organisation necessary to bring change."
Political parties, we don't need no political parties! We don't need no new political class! Where has parliamentary democracy ever got us?
Sure we need organisation, but it should be horizontal and from below.
Anarchy equals order!
class struggle @
'An Injury to One is an Injury to All'
10.06.2009 08:12
One Big Union!
wobbly
Monoculture
10.06.2009 09:59
It is not true that the IWW "has no links with political parties and never will do".
* The Green MSP's in the Scottish Executive have encouraged their employees to join the IWW.
* When Tommy Sheridan left the Scottish Socialist Party, those remaining organised a campaign accusing him of sacking IWW workers. He had in fact offered them jobs in the new Solidarity party which they had rejected so they were sacked by the SSP MSPs; IWW members!
* The IWW originally included various socialist parties, both inside and outside US congress.
* During the Spanish Civil War the IWW had a dual card system with the CNT who were in turn close to the FAI; an Anarchist organisation.
The IWW does have the rule in the UK that an IWW platform cannot be used to promote any political party or anti-political ideology. This is similar to other unions; Unite have the same rule but significantly exclude the Labour Party from it.
To build one big union it will be necessary to tolerate membership of political parties and other diversities. Its function is to increase working class strength, not to monopolise resistance.
(A)
Clarification
10.06.2009 13:29
The IWW is a small but growing militant worker's controlled union. It seeks to organise all workers in all industries in order to wield maximum power against employers. There is no bureaucracy run by salaried officials and union bosses. This is a grassroots union run from the bottom up. It is very different from other unions and their links to political parties. For instance we are not affiliated to the Labour party and we aren't affiliated to any other political party. This is the link I wanted to highlight. There are of course members of the IWW that are members of other political parties but we are not linked directly in terms of affiliation with these interests. I would question the reference you've made to the term 'monoculture' here.
We look forward to seeing the time when workers have the power to dictate the conditions of production for themselves without the interference of bosses who take all the profits from our hard work. We want to see the end of the employer class who have nothing in common with us as workers.
One Big Union!
wobbly