Hands off the welfare system, let the wealthy pay!

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Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials
1 June 2010

It did not take long before devious manoeuvres occurred within the Con-Dem coalition. Predictably, the Daily Torygraph turned its guns against the Lib Dems, first causing David Laws' resignation and then targeting his successor, Danny Alexander.

This has nothing to do with "transparency" or "morality", of course. It is no secret that many Tory grandees resented handing over government jobs to their Lib-Dem "partners". They are now taking their revenge and the odds are that there will be more of the same in the future.

Beyond this politicking over cushy jobs, however, there is no disagreement in the coalition as to the austerity announced in Osborne's £6.2bn cuts package and in the legislative programme outlined in the Queen's Speech. The two partners in crime are totally at one when it comes to making the working class pay for the wealthy's crisis!

They target workers' welfare

So far, the measures announced still carefully conceal the impact they may have on our jobs, services and standard of living. Proof, that for all its bullishness, this government is worried that its attacks may trigger a backlash - and so it should be!

Since these first announcements, however, the targets chosen by ministers have begun to emerge.

It is now clear that Cameron is hoping to make large cuts in the welfare system. The choice of Duncan Smith as Work and Pension minister speaks volumes in this respect. An ex-Tory leader who was ousted in 2003 due to his unpalatable right-wing obsessions, Duncan Smith seems to want to bring into the sphere of welfare and employment the methods of the army, where he got his training.

In a newspaper interview published last week, Duncan Smith formulated his view that "the benefit system is a deeply ineffective and costly way of subsidising people's lives," requiring, therefore, a "radical reform." Except that it is not "people's lives" that the state is subsidising through benefits - it is the capitalists and the profit system!

Indeed, if it were not for the lousy wages paid by the bosses to many workers, especially among those in part-time and casual jobs, there would be no need for all the tax credits introduced by Labour during its tenure. These tax credits, combined with the derisory level of the minimum wage, are simply a colossal subsidy to the bosses, allowing them to keep wages at rock bottom levels!

Likewise, if it were not for the fact that companies get away with lining shareholders' pockets and indulging in financial speculation, instead of investing in useful production, thereby creating more jobs - would there be so many jobless? It is not as if society could not use a lot more hands to meet its basic needs! Instead, the profit system marginalises millions of jobless, forcing them to survive on inadequate benefits, while subjecting them to constant harassment (which Duncan Smith wants to make even more punitive!), to force them to take the first non-job on offer. Isn't this, as well, a massive subsidy to help the capitalists' profiteering?

We should target the bankers' welfare!

Claiming that the working class is being "subsidised" by the state through the welfare system is, therefore, a lie. In a society based on a rational organisation of the economy, instead of being ruled by the whims of profiteers, there would be no need for such a system. Society would treat everyone as a producer by right and would cater for the needs of all. Ultimately, it is such a society that the working class will have to build - a society freed, once and for all, from the profiteering that causes crises like the present one.

In the meantime, of course, this government must not be allowed to target the most vulnerable within our ranks, whether they be the jobless, pensioners, or any other benefit claimants. An injury to one is, and should remain, an injury to all! And against these attacks against our collective standard of living, the men of capital in government should find all workers standing as one.

It's is not as if we were short of weapons in this struggle. The capitalist class is rich beyond belief. It is not for nothing if, today, the markets for luxury houses and works of art are so buoyant! It is thanks to the huge pickings that the banks' richest clients made on the financial markets with the hundreds of billions of the bank bailout!

There is no reason whatsoever for the working class to pay for Labour's welfare to the rich (which got the wholehearted support of the Tories and Lib-Dems). Let the capitalist class pay its own bills!