The year 2023 promises to be a very interesting one. The UK government has been
forced to borrow more than during the worst financial crisis since 1929 and theworst pandemic since 1918-1920. Government borrowing rose to a record £22 billionin November 2022. This is three times more than the previous year's £8.1 billion.This is the highest monthly figure for November since records began thirty yearsago. ---- This rise was caused by a 50% rise in interest payments on governmentdebt due to inflation and an increase in spending due to factors like £1.9billion in energy bill support payments. ---- With the rise in borrowing and arecession developing, public borrowing is predicted to rise to £175 billion in2022/23, £50 billion more than in 2021/22. The Government is now spending morethan it is bringing in despite an increase in taxation. With the most of thecosts from the government's energy price support in 2022/23 still to comethrough, this is why public borrowing will rise to the £175 billion quoted above,7% of GDP.This will mean that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will keep an even tightergrip on public finances.Seven in ten adults expect the coming year to bring worsening .0economicconditions according to an Ipsos survey. This followed an announcement from theBank of England that the UK was facing a recession that could last two years.Alongside this has been the huge rise in energy costs with 75% of businessesseeing operating costs rise sharply.The Office for Budget Responsibility has stated that household disposable incomeswill drop by 4.3% in the current financial year and by 2.8% in 2023/24, thebiggest drop since records started in the 1950s. This is having a big effect onthe retail sector, with big firms like Joules and Made.com going into administration.The cost of living crisis has meant that one in eight people behind on theirenergy bills have attempted suicide, according to a report by Money and MentalHealth Institute. In addition one in six adults surveyed said that they hadexperienced suicidal thoughts over the last nine months.One in 100 children faced Christmas without a permanent home, according toresearch by the charity Shelter, with this figure rising to 1 in 26 in London.More than a third of parents living in temporary accommodation said familymembers have to share beds and almost half of children arrived at school tired,late or hungry because of these temporary living conditions.Those who once donated to food banks now need to resort to food banks themselves,and we are now in the worst winter in food bank history in the UK. In additionthere has been a phenomenal rise in warm banks, trebling to almost 3,000, from1,000 in October. Whilst on the one hand these warm banks, which offer a warmspace, hot drinks and food, or computer access and free wifi, and sometimesgames, activities and film nights for children, and specific spaces for theelderly, show that mutual aid is not a thing of the past, on the other hand itdemonstrates the severity of the cost of living crisis.800,000 children who live below the poverty line are not eligible for free schoolmeals, whilst even more live in households just above the poverty line, whilst200,000 of those eligible for these meals miss out because they have not beenenrolled. The Food Foundation indicated that 2 million children in the UK live inhouseholds without access to affordable and healthy food.What this all means is that the cost of living crisis is an attack on the workingclass, our class, on multiple levels. We are being told that we must accept belowinflation pay rises, when they are even offered, because we have to pay for thewar in Ukraine, or for Covid 19, or for the derisory energy payments. The currentstrike wave, involving hundreds of thousands of workers, is fuelled by the costof living crisis and rising inflation. Therefore these strikes, whatever theirspecific demands, are political strikes because they fundamentally question whowill pay for the crisis, the working class or the bosses.Whilst, for example, Thames Water can post profits of almost £500 million for thefirst six months of 2022, the cap on bankers bonuses is removed, and scum likeRoyal Mail boss Simon Thompson can award himself a pay deal of £735,000 a year,we are meant to put up with rent, food and energy price rises, live and work inincreasingly worsening conditions and accept real term pay cuts.So that is why this current strike wave is so important. The deteriorating stateof the NHS has been brought on by this and previous Tory and Labour governments.Now this government is playing tough with the nurses and ambulance workers. Thereis widespread sympathy for the strikes with almost two to one backing themamongst the public. But the Sunak government is preparing to mobilise the armedforces to break strikes.This will further politicise the strikes.Whilst the Sunak administration is hanging tough on giving in to strikers'demands, it is considering modernising its nuclear arsenal, spending on theFuture Fighter project, keeping up with the AUKUS pact with the United States andAustralia and its commitments to NATO.https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2023/01/01/new-years-message-from-the-anarchist-communist-group_________________________________________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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