To assist an increase in the rate of exploitation, Johnson’s government has prioritised boosting profits at every turn. Freezing public sector wages, cutting benefits, ‘fire and rehire’ and the outrageous attack at P&O are all part of the drive to anchor wages lower.
NEF analysis shows a fall in living standards for the lowest paid half of the population, and a big increase in incomes for the top 5% of earners. On this evidence, the point that austerity has never gone away is irrefutable. The government clearly has an interest in misleading the population on this point.
The government and its allies have launched a huge attack on living standards, accompanied by a major propaganda offensive that wages are rising sharply.
Austerity measures are integral to the current economic policies of the US and UK. They amount to an all-round attack on wages and the social wage while there is a temporary boost to demand. That is why it is extremely foolish and misleading to compare them to the policies of Corbyn, McDonnell or Keynes.
The government of an advanced industrialised country may choose to engineer a sharp rise in unemployment in an attempt to restore profitability, or it may choose to try to cut wages. But both stratagems entail high risk. Combining the two is exceptionally high risk. Under the cloak of the public health crisis which their own policies have helped to create, the current government is attempting such a strategy.
The British ruling class is gearing up for an enormous offensive, compelled by the logic of capitalism itself.
The working class and its allies need to be prepared for the coming onslaught.
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