Rover Workers and
the Rest of the Working Class Must Take Centre Stage in Political Life
Commentary by Birmingham Branch of RCPB(ML)
Many workers have been considering what to do in the
present situation when the remnants of the traditional manufacturing base are
being dismantled. The crisis in the car industry is also a consequence of
capitalist overproduction where across Europe there are massive stocks of
unsold cars.
In this situation, the prospects are for even more
manufacturers to close plants and make more job cuts. The financial oligarchy
and the transnational companies have abandoned any concern for the national
economy and are shifting capital to where maximum capitalist profit can be
made. They utilise national states for their own purposes, while governments
also encourage inward investment in order to attempt to extricate the economy
from crisis. But while this means that the financial oligarchy benefits to the
maximum, it is only a factor for aggravating the capitalist crisis. The
governments of the EU and other power blocs, big powers, and in particular the
United States and Britain, are pursuing neo-liberal policies, squeezing out
social programmes in order to finance the super-rich, while falsely claiming
that these policies are of benefit to everyone and creating all kinds of
illusions that these policies are for progress and denying that they are a
continuation of the Thatcherite and Reaganite programme under present day
circumstances. The "New Labour" government, carrying forward the
neo-liberal agenda of the previous Conservative government, is implementing a
programme that is both anti-worker and anti-social. Here we can see why the
cuts in public spending and welfare reduction are still very much at the
forefront of government’s priorities. Within these confined strategies,
Brussels has worked out the necessary arrangements for EC economies to fall in
line and had made it an imperative for currency convergence for EMU. Under
these conditions, such programmes as private finance initiatives (PFI), social
security reductions, abandonment of public housing schemes run by councils,
opposition to public ownership of transport and industry, reductions of state
pensions and other measures which facilitate the rich being paid, have become
the order of the day.
In these circumstances, an alternative path towards social
progress must be presented by the workers themselves and organised for. That is
to say, workers must affirm their rights, the working class must put forward
and fight for its pro-social programme and organise itself in itself and for
itself. We have said that big capital has abandoned the national interest and
utilises the state for its own narrow interests and will sell-out sovereignty
to the highest bidder. The bourgeoisie is divided between those who see their
interests lying in siding with Brussels and those similarly see their interests
in alliance with Washington. This is reflected in a divide in the political
life of the country, while the interests of the national economy and
people’s well-being come nowhere. The working class therefore has to lead
the situation away from this path and towards independence from big power
blocs. The worker class has to constitute itself as the nation.
The Rover situation has seen thousands take to the streets.
The workers want to end their marginalisation from the political life of the
country and therefore will have to become political and fight for their
interests, which are consistent with the general interests of society. Such
actions as the conference called by The Campaign Against Euro-Federalism on
Saturday, April 8, are being organised at this time of increased awareness and
assertiveness by the working class who are entering the political arena on a
new historical basis. Like the Chartists of the nineteenth century, workers can
and will provide the new focus for politics of the 21st century. Workers
representing the car industry are trying to sort out the future of car making;
transport workers are looking for a properly funded and safe system; pensioners
are looking towards how they can guarantee their rights for a pension based on
a proper living wage; health workers are looking towards a properly funded
health service; teachers, along with students, are looking for a modern
complete education which is properly funded and free for all; people are
looking that housing must be guaranteed as a right for everyone; national
minorities, in common with the broad masses of the people, are demanding a
complete end to racism.
The Rover crisis has brought out, not only that the
interests of the monopoly capitalists of Germany, Britain and throughout the
globe are diametrically opposed to the interests of the workers of all lands.
It has also brought out that the government of Tony Blair is refusing to give a
public guarantee for the well-being of the people, that while it is exhorting
the workers that the class struggle is over and that they should look to the
success of their bosses in the global marketplace, and is doing everything for
the interests of big business, at the same time it is washing its hands of the
welfare of the people. The Rover crisis is bringing home that the "Third
Way", when shorn of all the disinformation and illusions with which it is
embellished, is nothing but a programme for the implementation of the
anti-social offensive against the people, serving the drive of the monopolies
for domination and war, and for keeping the workers passive and depoliticised.
The workers, in alliance with and at the head of the broad
masses of the people, are by their action dealing a refutation of this
"Third Way". As they further develop and step up this action, they
must become conscious of the need to take centre stage in political life, and
to impose their solutions which will lead the way out of the crisis. The
discussion as to this line of march must be stepped up and become more
organised, as Rover workers and the rest of the working class wage the class
struggle.
