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From time to time governments like to pretend that they are indeed aware
of the problems of society and truly wish to resolve them. This normally
takes the form of some announced "action" or "task force" aimed at
getting to grips with whatever problem they have identified.
“We’re all in it together” is the constant message from the government.
Yet the reality is very different. Workers are facing pay freezes or
even cuts, those in need are seeing benefits cut back and services shut
down, prices are rising month on month. Unemployment continues to go up
with women and youth being hit particularly hard. Every survey indicates
that job prospects for the coming year are grim, not least due to the
continued job losses in the public sector.
Margaret Thatcher is a hate figure for millions in Britain who suffered
under 13 years of her rule. We, who opposed Thatcherism to the bitter
end, will never forget the mass unemployment, the cuts, wholesale
privatisation and the attacks on the trade unions as well as our
democratic rights.
Working people are facing the biggest attack on their living standards
for generations. They are being presented with a bill for a crisis not
of their making. In the meantime, millionaire bankers and financiers
have gotten away with murder.
The Scottish National Party’s (SNP)
landslide victory in the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election was
exceptional under an electoral system designed to prevent majority
governments. It was one of the most important events in Scottish
politics in recent years. This win was on the back of the Nationalist’s
rule as a minority government since 2007. In the most recent elections
the SNP gained seats in Glasgow, Fife and Renfrewshire, all
long-considered Labour strongholds. The question of why this happened is
important in understanding the impact on classroom sizes discussed in
this article.
The latest “decisive” EU
summit-to-end-all-EU-summits-and-fix-the-Eurozone-crisis-once-and-for-all
has signally failed to do so – just like all the previous “decisive”
and “final” summits. As in previous meetings, within days the results
were declared completely unsatisfactory by the markets. These gatherings
of EU heads of state are now a thoroughly debased currency. Nothing has
changed except that the national contradictions are sharper and more
insoluble than previously thought.
For the last few days Prime Minister Cameron has been full
of himself. Having exercised the veto in Europe, he has been receiving fulsome
praise from ultra-right wing Tories and the gutter press for “standing up to
Europe.” On Wednesday the real world returned with the announcement of shocking
new unemployment figures.
The constant excuse of Cameron and the government for
attacking public sector pensions is that workers in the private sector do not
have access to final salary pensions but have to rely instead on the
fluctuations of the money markets to provide the pension funds with enough
income to give to its members a miserly pension. But it was not so long ago
that the majority of private sector workers had the opportunity to enrol in
final salary schemes. It was only after 1998 that schemes started to close to
new members so that today only 15% of private sector workers are covered by
final salary schemes.
Milions of workers came out on strike in defence of their pensions. This was the biggest such action for decades. The fight goes on!
Alan Woods speaks to a meeting of Socialist Appeal supporters, on the financial crisis that is spreading across the globe like an epidemic. He points out that while there is a swing to the right at the top, there is a swing to the left at the bottom of society. Governments have rallied round to defend the banks while they continue to cut living standards. All this is having a profound effect on consciousness.
