“We have learnt from the past that economic downturns can produce extremely dangerous political moments when far right demagogues can seize the opportunity to exploit peoples’ insecurity.”
The Trade Union Coordinating Group has launched a new pamphlet on Restructuring the Economy: Towards a New Alternative Strategy. We’ve published John McDonnell MP‘s foreword calling for a radical change of direction against a dangerous domestic and international backdrop.
When Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, gave her Spring Statement to Parliament, the central theme of the statement as securing stability in the economy, overcoming the shocks to the system from the chaotic budget decisions of the short lived Liz Truss administration and the political instability of the brief period of the Rishi Sunak government.
Within 24 hours of her claim to securing economic stability the world turned upside down.
Donald Trump’s war on Iran had, absolutely predictably, set the Middle East alight. The impact of not just the missiles and drones but, more importantly for the rest of the world, the closure of the Straits of Hormuz began to be appreciated.
The report published on the day of the Spring Statement by the Office of Budget Responsibility, analysing and
assessing the UK economy was rendered virtually irrelevant with its calculations and predictions about economic growth thrown up into the air.
As oil prices have soared the question has become how hard will people, already enduring a cost of living crisis, be hit especially as inflation rises and interest rate cuts are postponed.
Even the most optimistic forecasts of the timescale of the duration of the war and its effects on the global economy recognise that even a limited disconnection of the supply chains of basic goods risks causing significant harm to living standards, especially in external energy dependent countries like the UK.
The threat of recession even in the short term is real.
We have learnt from the past that economic downturns can produce extremely dangerous political moments when far right demagogues can seize the opportunity to exploit peoples’ insecurity.
Our country is especially vulnerable to this political opportunism because this threatened economic crisis comes after a decade of austerity in which wages have been frozen, public services dismantled and the welfare state savagely cut.
The far right has already been at work for some time promoting division within our society, this time targeting asylum seekers and the Muslim community.
For the first time in our history the far right is no longer just a minor street movement, it has moved into local councils and Parliament with the realistic fear that they could form a Trump like government.
This makes it even more important that there are voices that cut through this prejudice and offer an alternative
analysis of the way our economy operates and promote a readily implementable alternative policy programme that
can respond effectively to the needs of our people.
Above all else it is critically important that it is not working people who are forced to pay for this emerging crisis.
This booklet demonstrates how the wealth and resources of our country can be redistributed and harnessed to
tackle the high levels of poverty and inequality in our society and invest in the key public services that form the foundations of a community in which people can enjoy the quality life we all aspire to.
The booklet reasserts that this will not be achieved unless there is also a redistribution of economic power, especially in the workplace so that workers can secure decent wages and working conditions and through the democratic public ownership of critical sectors of our economy.
As this Labour government enters its mid term it is the ideal time to stand back and assess its progress on tackling the issues we face as a community but also to offer policy alternatives that warrant discussion and consideration for
the remaining period of this Parliament.
The trade union movement stands ready to engage in that debate and offers this booklet as a contribution to the agenda for that crucial discussion.
- This article is reproduced from the Trade Union Coordinating Group’s new pamphlet: Restructuring the Economy: Towards a New Alternative Strategy. You can read the pamphlet in full here.
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- Find out more about the work of the TUCG here and follow them on Twitter/X here.
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