Now that the billionaire Rishi Sunak is the new Prime Minister, with monsters
like Cruella Braverman in his cabinet, and an obvious plan to make sure life getsworse for most of us on these islands, we can hear the call once again for animmediate election. From Starmer and Rayner in the opposition front benches, tothe Green Party and the Liberal Democrats, and the nationalists of the SNP andPlaid Cymru, there is a clamour for the ballot boxes to be dusted off and broughtout again. ---- This call will be repeated by the union leaderships like DaveWard of the CWU and Mick Lynch of the RMT. The latter has said, at a fringe eventat the Labour congress in Liverpool that "I want the Labour party to win the nextelection because it's in the class interests of our people to have a Labourgovernment and get rid of this lot who are suppressing and oppressing us andripping us off." He admitted that ""we remember that the last Labour governmentdid not deliver a pro-worker agenda." But what makes you think Starmer will notdo the same thing, Mick?Starmer has called for longer prison sentences for environmental activists. Thisis in line with his record as Director of Public Prosecutions when in 2011 he ranall night courts to maximise the number of people prosecuted after the Londonriots. He made a morale-boosting visit to Highbury magistrates' court, northLondon, at about 4am during one of its night sittings at the height of the Augustriots, and later praised the efficient response to the disorder. He argued thatconvicting people of riot offences 24-48 hours after they were arrested inmagistrates' courts would be a deterrent to further unrest. If Starmer is electedin two years, and the economic situation remains undoubtedly the same, thenStarmer will use the same powers to attempt to quell any civil unrest.At the same time the Labour leadership is holding more and more meetings with theheads of big business. Starmer, the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and theshadow business secretary have all had coffee meetings and dinners with Cityexecutives. , who are eager to meet with the new government in waiting. The nextbig event where Labour woos the top capitalists will be in early December at theLabour business do, with panel discussions and a lunch. This follows thereception at which Starmer and Reeves spoke to more than 600 business bosses atthe Labour conference in Liverpool.The next large-scale engagement between the Labour leader and his top economicteam and executives will take place in London in early December, when the partywill hold its next "Labour business" event, featuring panel discussions and a lunch. Multinational companies like Siemens and Nissan, and banks like HSBC andNatwest, as well as professional services firm EY have all held meetings withLabour. The chair of Tesco, John Allan, has endorsed Labour, saying that it is"the only team in the field" on economic policy.It is clear that a considerable section of the ruling class has been frightenedby the chaotic situation caused by the Tory government, which has affected marketstability and threatens widespread unrest throughout the UK. Starmer and hiscohorts will have assured these bosses that things will be safe in his hands. Hewill demobilise and defuse any movements that threaten the status quo, he willcome down heavy on strikers, using the legislation already in place or about tobe, and he will use draconian measures against social movements and indeeddisaffected youth who take to the streets. He will continue with the austeritymeasures of the Tory government and the dismantling of the NHS. After all, it wasprevious Labour governments that started the destruction of the NHS. A recessionis expected by 4 out of 5 top bosses within the next year and half of them arepreparing to cut jobs. A CEO Outlook Survey put together by KPMG reveals that 80%of business executives believe this downturn will come soon and already 40% ofthem here and abroad have already halted hiring and around 50% were consideringsackings in the next six months. This dire situation of increasing unemploymentand spiralling poverty will be inherited by Labour who will rush to smotherrising dissent.The call for an immediate election is an illusion. The Tories will not want to dothis, knowing that they will be wiped out and will delay for another two years.In the meantime we have to start organising at the grassroots, uniting thedifferent campaigns fighting single aspects of the economic crisis on a boroughwide basis and looking to creating mass assemblies where resistance to evictionsand the creation of alternative social welfare and health systems are considered.We should look to the example of Greece where health clinics along these lineshave been created. These borough wide bodies should look to uniting those inwork, the unemployed, pensioners and school and college students. At the sametime we need to urgently look towards the creation of rank and file committees inthe workplaces, ready to continue the strikes and prepared to counter the movesby union leaders to sabotage the struggles.This sounds like a tall order, but all serious militants and activists shouldconsider these ideas. We have to counter the austerity measures of the Sunakgovernment, just as when Labour comes to power we know that its continuance ofausterity must be combatted.https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2022/10/29/not-the-ballot-box-but-the-workplaces-and-streets/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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