United Kingdom: No confidence in the new government
The conservatives are finally gone!! The Labor Party must respond to demands for profound changes. Better working conditions, wages, Health and housing are postponed needs that cannot wait. A new radical left political alternative is needed to end the two-party system and confront the extreme right. (reproduced from International Socialist League (lis-isl.org)
ByJulio Santana – LIS United Kingdom
The Labor Party obtained a clear victory over the Conservative Party, which had the worst defeat in its history! Fourteen consecutive years of anti-popular governments are over! In third place were the Liberal Democrats and the fall of the conservatives was also taken advantage of by Reforma UK, a far-right formation led by Nigel Farage, which in its eighth presentation will enter Parliament for the first time.
Triumph and demands
Labor won traditional fiefdoms from the Conservatives and in Scotland they won 37 seats, versus the nine of the SNP nationalists who backed down. The Labor Party led by Keir Starmer garnered less support than in the last four victories obtained. further, lost in a series of former strongholds to independent candidates, among them some who ran on pro-Gaza platforms and Jeremy Corbyn himself, who entered Parliament. There they will try to co-opt them so that they "understand" the "difficult situation" that the previous government caused and that they support the current government's measures as the "least bad" option.. Now the Labor Party must respond to the demands of working people to qualitatively improve the deteriorating living conditions.
He day after to win
Successive governments implemented tax exemptions that were a fraudster's card. A report from the National Audit Office reported on 341 tax breaks with the ostensible task of promoting economic growth worth £204 billion! Ahead of the election Labor scaled back its £28bn green investment package and sought to curry favor with business leaders, “promising not to raise corporation tax or reverse the Conservative government's decision to remove a cap on bankers' bonuses”. (Phillip Inman economics editorObserver, editor delThe Guardian). To this we must add that the electricity companies have a total and joint liability of eighteen billion pounds that they expect to be absorbed by the State, with everyone's money.
National Health Service (NHS) and private businesses?
In England public health is very compromised, for example, The waiting list for hospital treatment has skyrocketed 2,6 millions ( 2010) a 7,6 million in (2024). Given this, the new minister for public health care has proposed: “Wes Streeting has defended Labor plans to use the private sector to help reduce the NHS care backlog, arguing that failure to do so would result in a “betrayal” of the working class who cannot afford to pay for care.”. further, stated that his approach is “pragmatic but principled”, pointing at the“middle class leftists”what “they run the risk of putting ideological purity before patient care”. The conservatives suffocated the public health system and, Yes, measures such as those mentioned are implemented, It will be the same as “putting the fox to take care of the chickens.”. Or will private health companies work for free?? Or will patients with less compromised health be referred to private services and those with high complexity to state-dependent care??
The housing drama
In London they pay 700 u 800 pounds for a room in a shared house and around 1.300 pounds for a one bedroom apartment, to which the services are added, the annual tax, transportation and food. While average salaries that range between 1.400 Y 1.800 pounds. There are reports that warn that even 2028 The number of children in relative poverty will increase 30% al 33%, due to freezing of housing benefits, the end of cost-of-living payments and the cap on benefits for two children. It also projects that the number of children in overcrowded homes will increase 1,8 million to 2 millions (2030), as housing becomes more expensive. It is necessary that the new government implement a plan for the construction of easily accessible social housing to begin to reverse the serious social problem of not having one's own roof..
Work, salary and working conditions
El Trades Union Congress (TUC) ha“warned the new government that it must urgently resolve the loss of workers' wages. Matt Wrack, also general secretary of the Firefighters Union (FBU), said that, Sir Keir Starmer should call a summit with unions within days to plan how a new government would deliver for workers if Labor wins Thursday's election.. “Unions must be invited quickly to establish their priorities” (The Guardian 04/07/ 2024). In this framework it is essential to fight for the end of “0” hour contracts, the farce of dismissal with rehiring, demand better working conditions and a salary increase to recover and overcome what was lost with inflation. The just requests of the strikes 2023 They must be satisfied by the government and employers.
We must build a new alternative
For years in power, conservative reactionaries refused to grant the social and democratic rights that working people need. These are injustices that Keir Starmer's government, that is presented as “the change” has the opportunity and the obligation to reverse. from now, There is no need to normalize the presence of Reforma UK because the ultra-right can only worsen the disasters made by the conservatives. Looking to the future, worth a reflection: once again, workers attended to vote without their own representation, whereby, building it is a big task ahead. From the radical left we have the challenge of laying the foundations for a political unity independent of the two-party system., to dispute the employers' and monarchical parties with socialist proposals. The fundamental thing will be to fundamentally trust in independent mobilization and organization. For this reason, The note ends as it begins “No confidence in the new government”.
