30.05.1996

Waiting for the cavalry

Around the left

After reading some leftwing papers you certainly have no doubt that they are dedicated to the revolutionary overthrow of ... the Tory Party and its parliamentary majority. When it comes to the capitalist system itself though, it starts to suddenly become fuzzy round the edges.

We all know that the Labour Party has always been committed to the defence of capitalism. Yet comrade Jude Ritchie, co-ordinator of Young Socialist Resistance - a new organisation formed in March at the Youth Against Racism in Europe conference - makes the following comment on Labour’s ‘youth’ proposals: “Quite rightly new Labour lays the blame for crime, unemployment and deprivation at the door of the Tories” (my italics, Militant May 24). Marxists have always pointed out that crime and unemployment are organic ‘by-products’ of the capitalist system.

So why overthrow the system - surely all that is required is a change of government? As last week’s Militant puts it, “Only under a socialist government with policies of re-nationalising and planning” (my italics, May 17) will it be possible to eradicate the social evils of poverty and deprivation. Comrade Ritchie also seems to believe that a change in government policy can do the job, stating that “you can be forgiven for expecting something quite exciting” from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s announcements. Unfortunately, new Labour is only prepared to invest £1.5 billion in various youth schemes, rather than the £10 billion which could be saved by “abolishing youth unemployment”. If only we had a ‘socialist’ government committed to “abolishing” unemployment ...

But even new Labour is better than nothing, it seems. Mike Waddington writes about how a

“Labour government coming to office now would represent an enormous lifting of a psychological barrier from the outlook of the working class, who will see an opportunity to fight back” (my italics, May 24).

If you are Socialist Worker you can always hope that the ‘left’ trade union bureaucracy will come to the rescue. The crafty and cunning Bill Morris is

“careful not be seen as criticising the leadership. But he gave two coded warnings this week ... He wrote, ‘We look forward to having a government we can work with but we do not expect any favours and we will not be giving any’ ” (May 25).

Just close your eyes and wait for the cavalry to arrive - or make revolution.

Don Preston