Cuts! Where is the opposition?

The addition of Andy Coulson to our unemployment statistics will hardly come as a shock to most readers of this blog. At the moment there is no evidence to suggest he had any involvement in the phone hacking scandal now being unravelled at the News of the World. Having said that, when a number of your senior team are accused of being involved in illegal acts, there is a very real danger the public will assume a ‘guilt by association’ factor.

Coulson will join a prestigious elite – the existing 2.5m people unable to find work in this country. He needn’t worry if he will have enough new colleagues either. With announcements yesterday that West Midlands NHS intends to enforce their mandatory 4% cut by reducing their workforce by 1,600, he will have plenty of company.

He will be joined later this year by hundreds of thousands of local and central government workers who will be axed because of cuts imposed by Cameron and Clegg and their sycophants.

It is rumoured they will be opposed by the trade union movement. Already Unison has instigated their “Million Voices” campaign which, of course, rocked the corridors of power (do you detect any cynicism?).

On top of this, the TUC are planning a mass demonstration – their “A Future that Works” rally, as a gesture of solidarity for young people. It’s a shame they couldn’t have shown a little more of this solidarity when students were marching against university fees and the withdrawal of EMA!

I dare say they are saving themselves for the big event – the TUC “March for the Alternative” on March 26th. No doubt they will be hoping for mass support, but there remains a huge niggle – why has it taken them almost 11 months to develop any real campaign against this Conservative-led government?

Let’s face it, the left have been caught wrong footed and as a result we have allowed the Tories to get away with murder. What we have let them do to us:
 An extra 100,000 unemployed with thousands more to follow,
 a 2.5% increase in VAT,
 huge cuts in our schools and health service, despite Cameron insisting before the election that frontline services would be protected.
 the decimation of our local libraries
 up to 8.9% cuts in local council funding (mainly to Labour authorities).

I could go on.

And what did we do to oppose it? Nothing!

Oh, I agree we established the Coalition for Resistance and there’s also the Right to Work Campaign – both worthy bodies, but how much impact have they really made? Do you see Eric Pickles shaking in his boots? Has Iain Duncan Smith looked embarrassed by the news of rising unemployment? Has George Osborne shown any signs of worry that inflation is gradually steering towards 5% with a raft of price increases running alongside reducing many to penury?

No!!

If the left is to oppose this government we will need to mobilise far more forcibly. This isn’t a nice walk in the park and we have to stop treating it like some fun-filled jamboree. Our unions need to organise mass demonstrations – taking a lesson from the experience of the recent student marches. Similarly, the Labour party needs to be seen to be far more at the heart of this opposition, with active involvement in campaigns, local cuts groups, sit-ins and strikes.

Don’t forget. as always, the Tories have one single mission – to destroy the working class movement. They have already begun and not without some success. If we don’t make our stand soon they will ride through us and totally destroy any chance to fight against them for a generation.