Volume 54 Number 27, October 29, 2024 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
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On Wednesday, October 30, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will deliver the new Labour government's first Budget. The massive budget shortfall that Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced, otherwise known as the "£22 billion black hole", is the justification for the prospect of infrastructure cuts in, for example, road and rail projects. Government departments' spending plans for the rest of 2024/25 and 2025/26 will be set in the first part of the "Spending Review" process. Plans for 2026/27 and 207/28 will be set next spring. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will publish revised forecasts for the economy and public finances on the same day as the Budget statement. The Chancellor will publish her self-imposed targets for the public finances - the "fiscal rules" - at the Budget.
"Growth is now our national mission," Rachel Reeves has declared. But growth for whom? And are spending cuts and attacks on social programmes going to grow the economy? Although in words, the government is saying that austerity is "no solution" and that the government would "reject" it, that same government is saying that Rachel Reeves will have to make "tough choices" in her Budget to close the "£22 billion black hole". The people demand a different direction for the economy, which even Keir Starmer recognises. But he is determined to impose the anti-worker, anti-social and pay-the-rich direction nevertheless. The government's direction is that of "investment with reform", which in the programme of this Labour government means restructuring the state first to prioritise private interests even more, for instance in the National Health Service, before state investment is put on the agenda. Contrary to this direction, first and foremost investment is needed as a priority in the NHS, education and other sectors of the economy which benefit the public good. People demand a pro-social aim and direction for the economy, with a public banking system. They demand that the social wealth they produce be used productively for the good of all, not get siphoned off into interest payments and privatisation and other fraudulent schemes to pay the rich; above all they demand that social wealth does not fuel the militarisation of the economy, war production and the facilitation and complicity in genocide.
Furthermore, Starmer is crowing that the government will make a "bonfire of red tape". For "red tape", read "regulations", which in the main have been fought for in the fight against exploitation and to safeguard working people. In the present context, advocating a "bonfire of red tape" is a call that as the monopolies seek to reverse their falling rate of profit, everyone must fend for themselves and the government bears no responsibility for safety and the public good.
It should be pointed out that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner moved the second reading of the Employment Rights Bill on October 21. It appears that, in the context of trying to keep the organised workers' movement on-side, Labour is trying to square favouring private business interests with the rights of workers, which is not something that is in the gift of legislation to grant. The Employment Rights Bill has been introduced in the name of protecting workers under the slogan "Make Work Pay". Coming, as it does, at a time when the much-heralded Budget is coming up, one that will undoubtedly attract much opposition, will it save the day for the government?
Advocating the Bill, Angela Rayner pointed out: "The Bill marks a momentous opportunity to chart a new route to growth." She added: "Higher growth, higher wages and higher productivity-a new partnership between workers and business."
Workers' Weekly, however, has pointed out: "The way the government poses the problem is that what is holding back growth is a lack of investment, and investment requires pay-the-rich schemes and making sure the people are powerless to interfere. For their part, the workers do not see paying the rich as the key to investment in what society needs. Instead, they have been fighting for their individual, collective, and social claims, developing a movement under the banner of Enough is Enough! Their independent programme is to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programmes." [1]
Notes
1. The Labour Government's Economic Programme, Workers' Weekly, August
11, 2024
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-24/ww24-19/ww24-19-03.htm