Issue 46 Autumn 2022
CONTENTS: Tories at war with the working class and a threat to world peace, Frieda Park: Strikes, workers take on bosses and the Tories, Lisette Neill: US out to destroy international agreements on Taiwan, Simon Korner: Solomon Islands, challenge to US domination in the Pacific, John Moore: Sanctions on Russia, Germany in trouble, Alex Davidson: Nuclear weapons, who is threatening who? Brian Durrans: Western intervention in Russia and its neighbours, Gregor Tassie: Charter cities will impoverish the working class, Clare Bailey: The great strike of 1972, building workers versus employers and the state, Pat Turnbull: HS2 workers and the construction companies, Pat Turnbull
ISSUE 46 COMMENTARY
Here we go again. Another Prime Minister and another Tory.
WORSE THAN JOHNSON
In Tories at war with the working class and a threat to world peace, Frieda Park points out that there is every possibility Liz Truss will be even worse than Johnson – however hard this might be to believe. Truss has already declared war on the trade union movement by proposing to bring in even more restrictive anti-union legislation which would make it virtually impossible to take legal and effective strike action. She has shown a total lack of understanding the threat from the cost of living crisis to working class people. She proposes to slash taxes, but without taxes there can be no hope of improving our collapsing public services, including the National Health Service, nor infrastructure which has been neglected over decades. The shocking lack of reservoirs, exposed in the recent drought conditions, was a direct result of a lack of public investment and privatisation. The crisis facing the British people is, at least in part, a product of the Thatcherism that Truss seeks to emulate. She doesn’t even pretend to have a “levelling up” agenda and has expressed herself content that the rich will benefit far more from tax cuts than the poor.
The cuts to peoples’ living standards are so dire that workers have been forced to strike for pay increases to ensure their survival. Lisette Neill takes an overview of some of the action in Strikes – workers take on bosses and the Tories. The battles that are happening are immense and unprecedented in recent decades. They represent a new self-confidence in the working class which can provide a basis for building class consciousness. Union membership is growing and inroads are being made into smaller private sector enterprises and with self-employed contractors in the gig economy.
As Park points out the actions of the Tories, if Truss takes a hard line against the unions, may politicise people more. This represents a risk for the ruling class. The strikes provide a good foundation to start from but there is a lot still to be done to enable the working class to build on current struggles and to achieve longer lasting gains.
WAR AND MORE WAR
In a volatile world Truss has advocated world domination by a “global NATO”, which would be aggressive and destabilising. She was cited specifically by the Russians as part of the reason they put their nuclear forces on high alert. Although she finds precious little cash to help people, Truss thinks there is plenty to spare to increase Britian’s military budget by half and to renew Trident.
She is a “China hawk”, pursuing a policy of confrontation with China and in this is a staunch ally of the United States. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was a deliberate provocation to China, designed to ramp up tensions as prelude to a possible war. In United States out to destroy international agreements on Taiwan, Simon Korner explains why this visit was so dangerous as the United States heads towards unilaterally ripping up the internationally agreed “One China” principle which recognises that Taiwan is part of China.
But just as with Ukraine, the US is experiencing resistance from the developing world to its aggressive policies on China. The number of countries giving diplomatic recognition to Taiwan has declined form 28 in 2008 to 13 now. The latest to change its affiliation is the Solomon Islands which has recently concluded a range of agreements with China. It is strategically important in the Pacific area and its closer ties with China have led to threats against it from Australia and the USA. The significance of these developments is examined by John Moore in, Solomon Islands – challenge to United States domination in Pacific.
The war in Ukraine also drags on with the UK, the United States and others in the West still committed to its continuation and pouring arms into the conflict. The sanctions imposed at the behest of the United States have hit European economies particularly hard and Alex Davidson looks specifically at how they have impacted on Germany in, Sanctions on Russia – Germany in trouble. It is not only gas supplies that are affected, sanctions on Russia will also impact heavily on its key automotive industry. As Davidson says, “The severe blow to Germany’s economy will weaken its dominance of the EU and strengthen the influence and control of the US in Europe.” Ironically China’s car industry may well be the beneficiary of these sanctions on Russia. The war in Ukraine is reshaping the world in more ways than one.
Maybe as this war goes on, as Truss continues to pour arms into the conflict and as people here go hungry and freeze over the winter, there will be more questioning of what is happening. Despite the media barrage, it could yet become an unpopular war.
POLITICAL ACTION
The importance of the current wave of strikes across Britain is enormous and provides the basis for positive advances for the working class, not only in meeting their immediate economic demands, but also in extending trade union membership and collective organisation, increasing class consciousness and the possibility of further developing political consciousness. But all that won’t happen on its own. Political action, organisation and education are essential.
Read the PDF version of Issue 46
