Vol. 74/No. 18      May 10, 2010

Davies, a factory worker, was responding to claims by Meg Hillier, the Home Office minister and sitting Labour member of Parliament , that the issue in the UK general election is how to protect the “fragile recovery” and “Britain’s place in the world and in Europe.” The exchange took place at an April 20 elections hustings, or debate, attended by 100 people at the Rose Lipman Community Centre. Also on the platform with Davies were candidates from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green, and the UK Independence parties.

The refrain of the three main capitalist parties in this election—Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat—has been “our country.” It is not “our country,” Davies countered. “When the capitalist politicians speak of the ‘national interest’ they’re trying to draw working people into support for the rulers’ interests. Working people have no country. We have to think in terms of our class interests and act accordingly.”

A parallel debate was taking place at the same time 400 miles to the north, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Called by the Church of Scotland, the city-wide meeting centered on the theme of child poverty and inequality.

“Today, world capitalism has entered the deepest social and economic crisis in living memory,” said Communist League parliamentary candidate for Edinburgh South West, Caroline Bellamy, who opened the debate. “Whoever wins the election, Britain’s wealthy ruling class is on a course to make the working majority pay for the crisis, both at home and abroad.” The platform of the Edinburgh meeting also included candidates from the Labour Party, Conservative Party, Scottish National Party, Scottish Socialist Party, and the Green Party.

Figures issued earlier in the day by the Office of National Statistics reported a rise in unemployment to 2.5 million, the highest figure in more than 15 years. The number of people classed as “economically inactive” because they are ill, studying, or looking after children, also rose to a record high of 8.16 million.

Youth unemployment has soared to just under 1 million for 18 to 24-year-olds despite a number of government training schemes designed to hide it. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said that no matter which party wins the election, 600,000 jobs will be cut in the public sector over the next five years according to plans already announced by the main capitalist parties.

To combat unemployment, the Scottish National Party’s Calum Cashley called for “growing the economy” and allowing small businesses to thrive. Rosemary Burnett of the Green Party recommended reducing taxes on small firms, investing in “green jobs,” and allowing benefit claimants to work. Colin Fox of the Scottish Socialist Party called for cutting defense spending by not renewing the Trident nuclear weapons system and ending the war in Afghanistan.

Looking to benevolent measures by a capitalist government is not the solution, replied the Communist League’s Bellamy, a factory worker. Bellamy pointed to the Cuban Revolution as an example of what is needed. “This is the only practical solution to the devastation of workers’ lives being prepared by the capitalist crisis,” she said. “Millions of workers and farmers in Cuba mobilized to overthrow the capitalist government and take political power into their own hands. This paved the way for reorganizing social relations from top to bottom.”

She also pointed to the need to advance solidarity with trade unionists at British Airways and ScotRail who have taken strike action in face of cuts to jobs and conditions, to back campaigns against the closure of community centers and schools in Edinburgh, and to support counterprotests against ultrarightists when they take to the streets.

Tony Hunt in Edinburgh and Alex Xezonakis in London contributed to this article.  
 
 
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