Monday 16 January 2012

Labour reveal their real face of cuts and more cuts, time for a new workers party

This weekend just gone confirmed to me and to many that labour are no alternative and will not offer a way out of the current crisis we find ourselves in. Some would say this weekends move to accept spending cuts is a cupitulation but i'd disagree labour has been pro cuts all along it has just disagreed with the speed of them that is all. Not the fact that cuts are needed at all.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, says Labour faces "a big task" to regain economic credibility and win back public trust.

In a speech to the Fabian Society on Saturday, Balls said he accepted every spending cut being imposed by the coalition and endorsed George Osborne's public sector pay freeze, adding that it might need to continue beyond the end of the current parliament.

His announcement, first revealed in an interview with the Guardian, is an attempt to challenge accusations that Labour is not credible on the economy.

In his speech, Balls said Labour could not and would not make "any commitments" before the next election to reverse the coalition government's tax rises or spending cuts because "we don't know how bad things will be on jobs, growth and the deficit".

Balls said he would not have taken the same approach to tackling the deficit as the coalition, adding that the next Labour government would also have to "deliver social justice in tougher times".

"And as we make the argument that cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast risks making the economy and the deficit worse not better, it is right that we set out where we do support cuts and where we would be making the tough but necessary decisions," he told the Fabians.

The shadow chancellor said it was "inevitable" now that public sector pay restraint would have to "continue for longer in this parliament".

"Labour cannot duck that reality. And we won't. Jobs must be our priority before higher pay," he said.

Balls said Labour had to offer an economic alternative that would boost growth now and deliver "responsible capitalism" over the longer term.

But he added: "To make that alternative work and be credible, it must be underpinned by a clear commitment to balanced but tough spending and budget discipline now and into the medium term."



This to me comes as no surprise at all only that people are surprised by this and that the labour party are tory light hand have been for some time now.

The idea that capitalism can be responsible is ridiculous quite frankly what is responsible about making the poorest in society pay for the mistakes of the richest?

Labour who are a fully fledged capitalist party now offer no alternative and as such i'd urge anyone who still considers themselves a socialist in teh labour party to leave that rotten dead party and help us form a new workers party.


We in TUSC and the socialist party do not accept the need for any cuts at all. We feel there is the money in society and the county is not broke or hard up as the neo-liberals would have you believe . For god sake we are one of the richest nations in the world. Where is that money then you ask ?

Well at the top of society the evaded 120 billion in evaded tax by rich corporations for one. Scrapping trident and ending all wars and defence spending will free up huge amounts of money to be invested in public services and a huge affordable council housing building project providing much needed homes to 5 million people on the housing list and also much needed jobs too.

Labour is not the alternative as much as they like to tell you fluffy words like social justice labour values and nonsense like that. They dont mean a word of it when they agree with the tories on pretty much every point.

Its time to break with labour and take a brave step towards a new fairer future starting with a new workers party. Leading eventually to socialism

2 comments:

  1. Understand your frustration, but if you go down this line we'll have a Tory government for ever.
    The questions you need to ask are as follows:
    1. will your new party ever form a government?
    If the answer to that is 'no', then:
    2. which Party have you the greatest chance of lobbying successfully - Tory and Labour.
    if the answer to 2 is 'Labour', then you need to abandon any talk of schism and stay in the Labour Party with those people who are trying to shift its policy leftwards.
    Otherwise all is lost.

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  2. Hi thanks for the comment, Of course the idea would be to gain power. But not at the expense of our principles like the labour party have by ditching clause 4 and abandoning any pretences they represent working people.

    We believe in the socialist party formally militant that trying to reclaim labour is a futal task and will get no where and the lack of a democratic structure meaning the left can never get anywhere within the party means we need to form a new workers party now. No matter how small to start with to act as a pole of attraction for workers and to offer an alternative which is badly lacking today.

    check out this article on the labour party and our views to reclaiming it and the limitations this entails
    http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/12834

    again i admire your optimism and we cant of course say never but we ask you what do we do now in the present to exert pressure on the labour leadership with a weak trade union movement at the top and a huge lack of democracy in the labour party. I am full agreement that we need a new workers party and will be helping TUSC with this

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