Lindsey German on the bosses’ ideological offensive and what it means for our combativity

Socialists have always argued that it is no use asking nicely for the capitalist class to give up its share of wealth so that workers can get a fairer share. The only way we can achieve that is by fighting for it. History repeatedly shows that when workers are strong and organising the capitalist class is forced to hand over a bigger share of the cake.

Even so I have been shocked in recent weeks at the sheer brutality and arrogance of the ruling classes’ ‘solutions’ to every crisis facing British society, usually by protecting the very wealthy from even the most minimal encroachment on their riches. So we have a series of claims that big business cannot afford rises in National Insurance payments, is not able to pay the minimum wage, wants to cut the paltry benefits paid to the sick and disabled, further impoverish pensioners by attacks on the triple lock. The supermarket chiefs – with profits of billions a year – refuse even the mildest suggestion of controls on food prices.

These charmers hide behind concerns for small businesses – many of whom are struggling through high rents and low consumer demand through the cost of living crisis – in order to justify complete freedom for large corporations and hedge funds to make as much money from the rest of us that they can.

They don’t stop there of course. Climate goals are thrown out of the window, as these are supposedly hampering profits. Nationalisation is ritually dismissed as too expensive, even though the privatised industries are failing on an epic scale, supplying some of the most expensive and unreliable utilities and services in the world. Housing is in its biggest crisis ever, dependent on a market where landlords take ever larger amounts of workers’ wages in rent.

The mantra of these people is to cut welfare but to spend profligate amounts on weapons and war. More money for defence has become a key battle cry and a justification for cuts everywhere else.

Lord Wolfson, Tory peer and head of the fashion retailer Next, has been clear: workers should be prepared to see their wages fall in order to ‘preserve jobs’ – read ‘preserve profits’. Last week the cadaverous Tony Blair issued his remedy for Britain which consisted of – guess what – cuts in minimum wage and benefits, less pensions, more on defence, less regulation, more AI, no net zero. And contender for Labour leadership Wes Streeting has now said the government should allow oil and gas drilling in the North Sea and cut National Insurance contributions for employers.

Not only are these a breach from Labour’s manifesto, they are Reform politics, or far right Tory ones, in all but name. Their implementation is cheered on by the Daily Mail and any attempt to redress the balance of wealth and power in society is regarded as treachery to big business. Blair is funded by billionaires and his job is to justify their refusal to pay their taxes or in any way spend on the good of wider society.

Indeed if we look longer term at the fall in wages for working-class people in Britain and elsewhere, we find that real wages have fallen since the financial crisis of 2008 while the very rich have become much richer. Working-class people pay far higher proportions of their income in direct and indirect taxes than the rich, and tax bills for council services, utilities, and goods generally are highly regressive.

That these policies and further attacks on welfare and social spending are coming from Labour politicians as well as the right should come as little surprise. This is where neoliberalism has taken social democracy over the past 40 years, as Blair’s ghost testifies, and it’s not a pretty sight. There is little sign that an Andy Burnham leadership would make more than cosmetic difference to this process.

Working-class discontent will remain and it needs an outlet in terms of challenging the status quo, or the far right will continue to grow. The cost of living crisis is exacerbated by low wages and rising inflation. The quantity of goods bought in Britain is still below that before the Covid pandemic and, according to the Financial Times:

About eight in 10 people said their cost of living had risen in April, according to a poll by the Office for National Statistics, the highest proportion since 2022.

The only way we can challenge this attack on our living standards is action. Jobs as well as wages are under attack. There are far too many young people who cannot get work, and the jobs that they do manage are often poorly paid with little security or training. In sectors like universities – monuments to neoliberal market disasters – whole departments are closing and thousands of redundancies announced. Civil service and council jobs are under attack. There is a race to the bottom in retail and hospitality.

None of these will be deflected by pleading to governments or employers. We need strikes and occupations to defend jobs and services and to demand workers are paid enough to live on. We must fight for rent controls and pensions and benefits that take people above the poverty line.

This requires both a break from Labourism and a political understanding of what is at stake. More money for defence is a political choice which will be paid for at a cost to workers. Socialists cannot fight on the domestic front unless they also oppose war and rearmament abroad. The international anti-war conference on 20 June is shaping up to be a very important gathering of those opposing these priorities across Europe and beyond and can be a springboard for protests and strikes for wages not weapons.

We face a very dangerous time. Trump’s war in the Middle East is going badly. The Ukraine war grinds on with neither side winning, but with huge casualties and human costs. The failings of the neoliberal capitalist system are creating some monstrous symptoms for billions around the world. The strongest challenge will come from the working-class movement, and we need socialists organised as never before.

This week: I will be speaking online to some Danish activists about the conference on Thursday afternoon, and to Counterfire members on Trotsky and the fight against fascism. On Saturday I will be at a Birmingham Stop the War meeting on why we need an international movement. And I’m going to see Dangerous Liaisons at the National Theatre, which promises to be good and is based on a very good book. Please sign up for your tickets to the conference and if you can please donate towards the costs of translation, thanks.