It’s no longer enough just to get angry

With the rising tide of austerity washing over us in Britain and across Europe it is starting to dawn on people how big this is. This is not the 1980’s and could surpass even the great depression. The crisis has already lasted longer even if not as deep quite yet. The crisis capitalism finds itself in is huge and fundamental. This is not simply a cyclical crisis which a few temporary fix’s can fix this is a crisis of the actual system itself. Not structural but fundamental and this crisis is not going away anytime soon. So I ask you are it enough just to get angry shout at your TV moan with your mates in the pub going on a few demonstrations. Sadly it no longer is bigger bolder action is going to be needed to stop austerity and go further to ending this crisis ridden system of capitalism for good. While the 1% increases their wealth as a result of the crisis the poorest in society are suffering hugely under the weight of cuts, privatisation and an onslaught on their living standards. We can’t simply vote this system out of existence either. I do support the campaign for a new workers party but that alone will not be enough we need to arm people with the ideas and the hope to change society. Show people victories are possible and things do not have to be this way. Sometimes it does feel like the trade union leaders and society is fixed and cannot be changed but society has changed in the past and will again in fact it is under the surface all the time. Marxism the political guidance of revolutionaries gives us a guide to changing society. While things feel and seem quiet on the surface big seismic changes are going on beneath the surface and bubbling under waiting for that “straw that broke the c camels s back” this is the breaking point which turns quantity into quality and produces a shift in consciousness and things at that point can change very quickly. The working class is stunned in many ways under the weight of cuts and austerity and while suffering huge defeats in the 80’s and the collapse of Stalinism has set it back decades in consciousness. It’s for us Marxists to reinspire workers to show that struggle is the only way not hopelessly relying on MP’s and our leaders to do it for us. Only by struggle from below can we affect change. Peoples thinking can catch up very quickly we must be aware of that. I think this April may be a turning point in the fight against austerity. We must be prepared to step up the fight for a 24 hour general strike within the unions and take the fight to our union leaders as well as the capitalists themselves. As more often than not the union leaders are acting as blocks on the movement and holding back struggle. If the leaders won’t budge we will have to go round them or remove them I’m afraid. You cannot halt the progress of society history and the idea of system change is reappearing on the scene and the working class will pick up the mantle of trying to change society. People won’t take this laying down but also we need to provide direction and examples of struggles. It’s no coincidence Trotsky once described Marxists as the memory of the working class looking to speed up the process of drawing workers ideas to the idea of changing society towards a socialist society b asked on the needs of the many over the few.