AS THE government proceeds with its “cruel and unworkable” immigration measures, asylum-seekers are housed on barges and the cost of small boat deportations looks likely to hit £6 billion in just two years, Britain’s actual economy is in tatters.
Like some apocalyptic dystopian novel, our society is pulling itself apart, with in-work poverty spiralling, while the government benches and the right-wing media scream at us about immigrants and the undeserving poor, throwing in some occasional footage of Russians and Ukrainians killing each other in order to invoke a misplaced patriotism.
This barrage of anti-worker rhetoric reached fever pitch a couple of weeks ago with the mainstream newspaper headline “Millions paid benefits without ever having to find a job.”
The article bemoaned the increase since Covid in those claiming benefits due to physical or mental health conditions which prevent them from seeking work.
Not because of a concern with the huge increase in physical and mental health conditions following the government’s mishandling of the pandemic but because they consider it a drain on the economy.
This nasty line of thinking, that those who are too sick or disabled to work are a “burden” on society, is exactly what was behind the increased assaults on disabled people several years ago.
The article goes on to complain about an increase in the number of migrants coming to Britain, presumably in the hope that they will get a kicking too.
The same paper followed up last week with a handy tool to calculate “how much of your salary bankrolls the welfare state” — a move compared by several online to Nazi propaganda such as the Hier Tragst Du Mit (you share the burden) poster, promoting euthanasia rather than solidarity with disabled workers.
Of course, this kind of language — from government and the mainstream media — is back for a reason. As the economy plummets and the cost-of-living crisis rages out of control, the vast majority of working people will be getting significantly poorer in real terms, and in ways they will notice.
In this situation, there are only two alternatives: extend the full resources of the state and the media to turn worker against worker, to demonise disabled workers and immigrant workers and paint them as somehow different from other workers, or to risk the anger of a united working class being directed at the real causes of their decreasing standard of living.
So, what is happening in the real economy, away from the puppet-theatre of immigrant workers and disabled workers trying to steal your wages?
The cost-of-living crisis has bitten deep, with food inflation running at over 19 per cent in March and seven in 10 children in poverty now living in households with parents in work.
A primary cause of this crisis is greed, or excess profits. Recent economic instability and price fluctuations have presented an ideal opportunity for speculation and accumulation by big business.
Just like the spivs in WWII, multinational corporations and taking advantage of war and climate chaos to rapidly increase profits, raising prices while holding down wages.
At the same time, the fact our economy is so prone to this kind of manipulation is because of deep structural weaknesses in aggregate supply.
Privatisation and lack of investment have led to weak productivity growth, and the unbalanced nature of our economy, with the massive decline in manufacturing and an excessive reliance on financial services, has left us unable to tackle rising inflation without a radical rethink.
We need an alternative economic strategy. The national care service and investment in the NHS called for GMB and RCN this week are a key part of this.
Public services, and benefits, are a way of investing in our society and our economy. But we also need a coherent industrial strategy.
As Community AGS Alasdair McDiarmid says, the government should be “creating the conditions for massive investment in the industries of the future.”
And we urgently need price controls and increased wages. This is the only way out of the current crisis.
