Labour’s fight

The Blairites are crawling out of the woodwork following reports that Labour has now taken the lead over the Conservatives in a number of opinion polls. Ludicrously they claim that Labour has to cut its links with the unions to make it more electable, even though if a general election was held next week Labour would certainly win it. These people are demanding a return to the discredited anti-working class policies of Blair & Co and even calling for a cut in income tax — which even the Coalition Government dare not propose at the moment. All of this may be music to the ears of the ruling class but it will do nothing to consolidate Labour support amongst its core working class vote.

The new Labour leader thinks he can take working class support for granted and he certainly doesn’t want to make any specific promises to the unions or the class ahead of the next elections.

Ed Miliband is a right-wing social democrat only marginally to the left of the Blairite brother he defeated in the race for the Labour leadership. He believes that the collapse of Liberal Democrat support will give him election victory on a plate and that he only has to sit out the next four years before entering Downing Street. But those years will be ones of endurance and suffering for working people unless the cuts are stopped and the Coalition is brought down.

Waves of strikes and protests across the European Union have tempered the hand of the rulers in Greece, France and Spain. Throughout the European Union workers are resisting austerity programmes as ferocious as here.

Here in Britain the students have taken to the streets over higher tuition fees and some unions have already entered the fray over pay, pensions, terms and conditions. Others are preparing to support the TUC’s national demonstration planned for London on 26th March next year.

Communists must work to ensure the biggest possible turn-out for this demonstration in London but it must be seen as the start of a massive, united and organised campaign of resistance that can stop the ruling class offensive in its tracks.