The Coalition Government has a clear strategy: make the people pay for capitalist greed and the economic debacle and disguise it as giving 'power to the people'. Under the slogan, 'We are all in this together' the multi-millionaire Cabinet are ruthlessly setting about dismantling the tattered social democratic welfare state whilst creating the lowest corporation taxed country in the G20.
National debt
In this issue Les Masters reveals who is making money out of the national debt in his article "The national debt and who is owed what". Interest on the national debt is currently running at £30 billion per annum and it is the financial sector which owns most of the government debt. Those who made vast profits from the boom, some of whom were then bailed out when the bubble burst, are now again profiting from us.
As Masters points out, "The finance capitalists - the dominant faction of the ruling class - do not object to government debt, merely one of a size which implies difficulties may arise in servicing it ... for financiers, it is an important source of profits".
Mammon is God
In his article, Goldman Sachs: Mammon is God", Alex Mitchell relates the background to the US court case against Goldman Sachs in 
which it is accused of fraud. The financier "bet both ways on the housing price boom in the USA" and then got out just in time, unlike RBS and others, and made millions. As Mitchell points out, Marx referred to the capitalist credit system as "the purest and most colossal system of gambling and swindling". He was writing some 150 years ago and the fundamentals of the system have not
changed.
Within capitalism companies search for profit paying little heed, and only when forced, to the welfare and safety of the people. Helen Christopher exposes this hallmark of the system in her, "Feast and famine: profiteering from food", where she reports that the number of people going hungry in the world has topped 1 billion. They are not just in the Developing world but "1.3 million New Yorkers, who rely on soup kitchens and food banks" while immense profits are made from the agri-food business.
War is big business
War is another very big business as Alex Davidson shows in his article, "Spending cuts on war rarely rate a mention". He writes, "In all the Coalition government's talk about the need for cuts, the spending on war and armaments is rarely mentioned. Billions could be saved if the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were ended and Trident was not replaced. However, war is very big business".
Coalition of, and for, big business
The Tory - Liberal Democrat Coalition is very much a government of, and for, big business. Martin S Gibson in arguing that the coalition was a pre-arranged pact describes it as "Products of the same class, the same private schools and Oxbridge universities, they are doing what comes naturally to Britain's oldest capitalist parties. and what they have done for centuries: duping the working people in the name of national interest".
Baby P
The "cuts" agenda aimed at solving British capitalism's problems at the expense of the people will create more Baby P cases. Instead of 'mending the broken society'(Cameron) the re- organisation/privatisation of schools and the NHS will lead to a greater divide between rich and poor, increased unemployment, worse health and more alienation. This will further exacerbate the situation facing social workers, who, as Jane Lindsay writes are "demoralised, anxious and overloaded" and that their "jobs have become unmanageable." In her article reviewing "Sharon Shoesmith and the Baby P case" she argues that there is compelling evidence that Sharon Shoesmith was not treated fairly and furthermore that "social workers cannot cure all of society's ills." The tabloid press will be reporting on more and more tragic cases like Baby P as the cuts deepen and instead of pointing the finger at the real causes and culprits they will target public service workers.
Resistance and struggle
Increasing numbers of workers will be faced with attacks on their jobs, working conditions, health, welfare, standard of living and pensions. Given the softening-up process that has been underway for some time many people may be resigned to their "fate", or so the government hopes. Others will resist. The Tory-Lib Dem government's aim will be to maximise the number of those who succumb by doing all they can to break those who dare to fight back. It will take courage to resist.
Denis Goldberg
An outstanding example of heroic resistance is recorded in the autobiography of Denis Goldberg, "The Mission: a life for freedom in South Africa", here reviewed by the Director of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA), Tony Dykes. As Tony writes, Denis Goldberg "does not avoid the difficulties and pain encountered in the struggle against apartheid." He also points out that, "it is a moving and inspiring account of courage, fortitude, commitment and actions based on strong personal and political beliefs".
