The economy and Afghanistan continue to dominate UK politics
by Colin Fox - 01/01/10
2009 was the year when the world’s capitalist leaders unveiled their plans for dealing with the worst economic collapse in 80 years. It was also the year when voters in Britain and America turned against NATO’s occupation of Afghanistan. These two issues will continue to overshadow politics in Britain for some time to come.
The General Election, expected in May, will be fought out between three neo-liberal parties [four in Scotland] with no substantial political differences between them. Each party of big business is intent on making swingeing cuts to the living standards of the working class and the poor as their solution to the crisis. The spectre of another Tory Government looms large as people hold Labour responsible for the economic collapse.
The record of New Labour over the past 12 years has been truly awful
but a win for Cameron will represent a further victory for the ‘haves’
over the ‘have-nots’, for the well off over the laid off.
With Government borrowing at unprecedented levels [£176bn in 2009 and £178bn in 2010] – borrowed to bail out the banks lets not forget - each neo-liberal party is intent on savage cuts in public spending and unprecedented attacks on public service jobs, pay, conditions and community care in the NHS, local government, civil service and elsewhere.
Most economists expect the UK economy to bump along on negligible growth
rates for the next five years. So the 6.5% fall in output in 2009 will
be followed by virtually no growth this year and only 1% or so for the
next three meaning that the economy will not reach pre-recession levels
for another 5 years at best.
Most forecasters suggest unemployment will be around 2.8m-3million by
the General election and show record levels of joblessness amongst 18-25
year olds. Many millions more are working less hours and on less pay.
Clearly these circumstances offer a wonderful opportunity for ‘the left’s narrative’ that working people should not be paying for a crisis not of their making.
Since Scotland’s economy is more dependent on the public sector than the rest of the UK the impact of cuts here will be even more severe. One feature of 2009 has been the way all 4 neo-liberal parties in Scotland - Labour, Tory, Liberal and SNP - have made savage cuts in public services at local level.
Over the past 25 years the economic, political and social consensus has meant that all over the world privatisation, deregulation of markets and finance capital in the shape of banks, insurance companies and finance houses have held the upper hand. This has meant for example that there is now 100 times more trade in so called ‘financial products’ than in goods and services. In other words on a daily basis the worlds financial exchanges and money markets are trading one hundred times more than the equivalent value in oil, gas, wheat, coffee, meat, minerals, narcotics and labour added together. The consequence has been to hugely empower finance capitalists. They can threaten countries/governments who dare to make anything other than profit maximisation their goal with speculative induced economic collapse. This new ‘liberalisation’ of markets, [neo liberalism] has consumed all political parties at Westminster, including the former social democratic ones Labour and the SNP.
In Scotland the SNP has continued to ride high in the polls as disillusioned
former Labour voters stuck with them by and large. Notwithstanding their
unexpected failure to win the Glenrothes and Glasgow North East by-elections,
the SNP still managed to win most votes in the Euro elections in May
and maintain its lead in the polls.
The fact that Labour is still unpopular and at the same time the shine has come off the SNP offers great opportunities for an emergent left with renewed confidence and strength.
Afghanistan
But no issue better illustrates the gulf between the 4 neo-liberal warmongering parties and the political sentiment of the people of Scotland – and indeed the left - than the military occupation of Afghanistan
Our work in opposing Britain’s shameful military occupation has seen
the SSP enjoy greater and more significant successes this year and that
will continue to be the case in 2010.
The issues involved are hugely important. Britain invaded Afghanistan
8 years ago at the head of an illegal NATO assault claiming it was responsible
for the 9/11 bombing. The occupation continues despite the opposition
of the Afghan people. Just like the previous British invasions of the
19th century and the Russian one in the 20th century the invaders now
face ignominious defeat again. Military Chiefs this year warned politicians
on both sides of the Atlantic they were losing the war. Many commentators
in the US in particular now ominously warn Obama of a ‘looming disaster’.
All the complaints this year about equipment failure coming from all
the neo-liberal warmongering parties at Westminster are another sign
of the desperation that Britain is losing this fight. Defeat however,
will have nothing to do with a shortage of military hardware, rather
it will be because 33million Afghans understandably resent being occupied
and are committed to fighting a national liberation struggle which unites
the disparate, essentially sectarian and previously divided, insurgency
around this goal.
Some 50,000 Afghans have been killed since the occupation began in 2001. Whilst the evaporation in political support here at home admittedly has more to do with revulsion at the level of British casualties, nonetheless the fact remains this is an unpopular military conflict. Compare it to the Falklands War for example in 1982, where Thatcher succeeded, outrageously as it happens, in portraying British forces as ‘liberators’ rather than occupiers.
The most important fact for SSP members to appreciate is that a large majority of voters support withdrawal and yet no party other than ours is actively campaigning for this outcome. The occupation is increasingly seen as pointless and too costly in terms of lives lost. Britain’s role as the aggressor backing up a corrupt and hated ‘stooge’ regime does not sit well with ordinary people in Britain. Our campaign against the occupation remains the most important issue for the SSP to pursue, one which will additionally help us rebuild our reputation and base of support.
Through our campaigning against the occupation of Afghanistan these last 6 months we have enjoyed our most rewarding period of growth in years. We have welcomed new members into the party across Scotland – in Edinburgh [seventeen new recruits], in Aberdeen [a new branch], in East Lothian [a new branch], in Dundee [Joan Humphrey’s amongst the new members], in Fife, in Stirling and elsewhere.
Having written to all 129 MSP’s demanding their support for withdrawing
the troops, Joan Humphrey’s and I have now sent a ‘New Year message’
to all the Scottish MP’s at Westminster pressing them to outline where
they stand on the matter.
We also hosted several successful public meetings up and down the East
coast and this is something we will extend nationwide in 2010.
We will unveil a new recruitment poster each month based on our opposition
to the occupation.
[See Kitchener one on front page of this website]
Our campaign stalls in town centres have also produced tremendous results and I hope to take up an invitation to visit Afghanistan and Pakistan and meet progressive anti-imperialist political leaders there in the spring. Our work in rebuilding the party has no bigger priority.
Rebuilding the SSP in 2010
The need for an effective party of the left giving voice to the poor, to the unemployed, to public service workers and public service users alike as well as the anti war movement could not be clearer. Rebuilding our party remains the key task facing every SSP member. We did it before and we will do so again, building a broad based, pluralist, mass party in Scotland on clear socialist principles and with an uncompromising and clear anti – capitalist message.