THE Tories are already fighting the next general election while remaking Britain into some sort of US Republican 1950s version of society.

The Tories have promoted the issue of refugees and migrants crossing the Channel, in a dog-whistle political campaign aiming to shore up their vote.

Other issues of racism have come to the fore, including the use of discriminatory stop and search (overwhelmingly done by the Metropolitan Police) as well as strip-searching mainly black children in our schools.

At the same time the government has completely rowed back from any pretence that it is prioritising the environment — and with the reopening of both coal and oil fields is effectively abandoning its carbon emissions targets.

The main factor behind any modest progress to date on this issue has been the ongoing deindustrialisation of British manufacturing, which has never properly recovered from the financial crisis in 2008.

This is part of the generalised economic crisis that more than a decade of Tory misrule has produced.

Over the last three years, a policy that was meant to save the economy at the expense of the public’s health has instead produced disaster on both fronts.

Two-hundred thousand people have died largely because of government policy during the pandemic.

And, because workers are the most important part of the economy, that policy has led directly to economic crisis too.

There are now 335,000 more people in this country registered as long-term sick than before the pandemic began in this country.

An unknown number of others are struggling into work who really should be resting and receiving medical care.

This has been a significant contributory factor to the labour shortages that are gripping many economies internationally.

In this country, there are also other negative effects, including very low pay and Brexit.

Contrary to widespread assertions, pay levels are not set by “supply and demand.”

If that were the case, then wages would now be soaring. Instead, it is now widely understood that real wages, after taking inflation into account, are plummeting are the fastest rate on record.

The government has largely tried to blame external factors for the cost-of-living crisis — and to blame foreigners, which is its default position on most issues.

But oil and gas prices, which have been among the main drivers of inflationary pressures in general, have been falling for months.

They are now significantly below where they were before the Ukraine war began. Yet consumer prices in this country are still rising sharply.

This is because the global inflation wave is policy-driven. In this country, there is a massive subsidy to gas producers which bars much cheaper energy from undercutting them.

This is why multinational energy companies are recording record profits in the tens of billions at the same time as millions of households are struggling with the dilemma of heating or eating.

There were concerted efforts to cut wages long before this inflationary wave began, demonstrating that this is not a natural phenomenon. Under the furlough, wages were cut to 80 per cent for many while some received nothing at all.

Rishi Sunak as chancellor wanted to cut them even further, to 75 per cent. Now, the surge in inflation does the former chancellor’s work for him.

Economists suggest that private-sector wages are falling at about 4 per cent annually, while public-sector wages are falling at a massive 8 per cent.

The strike wave that has been unleashed is as a direct result of these government policies to benefit big business by impoverishing workers.

Many of them simply cannot make ends meet and the growth of foodbanks at workplaces, including NHS workplaces, is a national disgrace.

It is also the case that government ministers are directly involved in attempting to defeat the strikes in numerous ways.

To a large extent, most of the large strikes to date have taken place either in the public sector or in sectors such as rail and the post which are the products of privatisation.

Because these privatisations are such an utter failure, the government is obliged to keep a strong regulatory hand over them (where it favours private owners over both the workforce and the public) while it maintains huge public subsidies.

As a result, the government has a large say in both the pay offers and the conduct of negotiations.

The independent pay review bodies are nothing of the kind. They are structurally designed to meet the interests of employers.

It is the government’s decision to offer such miserly pay rises and to prevent negotiations to a more reasonable level.

The government even admits that its ministers were responsible for recently hijacking the rail talks by introducing new demands around driver-only-operated trains.

The government’s aim is not to prevent inflation, despite its claims. If it wanted to do that it would force the energy companies to slash their charges in line with wholesale prices of oil and gas falling.

Similarly, Jeremy Hunt’s claim that higher public-sector wages lead to inflation is false, and he knows it. No-one is going to be charged more if nurses are paid decently.

The excuse that the deficit must be brought under control would sound less hollow from a government that had not provided a new £60 billion giveaway to the bank in the Autumn Statement.

The real central objective for this government is to drive down wages across the economy.

It has an advantage in that it is by far the single largest employer in the country.

But in its determination to drive real public-sector wages lower it sees itself as acting on behalf of all employers to set a low “going rate” for pay settlements.

As a result, these strikes are objectively highly political. The government has made them so. And it is willing to use every type of divide-and-rule tactic and press vilification to defeat the strikers. This includes further legislation.

There has already been a raft of draconian legislation limiting the right to vote, protest and assemble. This has been supplemented by increased powers for police officers and armed forces personnel, as well as legal immunity.

Of course, not all of this is confined to confronting trade unionists but is used as a legal means to disarm any opposition to government policies, however, mild, peaceful or justified.

Previous versions of this Tory government have long threatened to bring in new legislation curbing the right to strike. Two key provisions are the changes to thresholds for voter turnout and majorities in favour of strike action. These are close to union-busting measures.

No-one ever wants to go on strike — but without the ability to do so the whole logic of trade unionism is thrown into question.

In addition, there is the so-called Brexit freedoms Bill, part of the agenda of the extreme right of the Tory Party. As drafted it means freedom to increase discrimination and exploitation.

Legal experts say that if this became law it would effectively abolish existing employment law and environmental law either by 2023 or by 2026 at the latest.

This includes the abolition of substantial rights to paid overtime, to equal pay, sick pay and many other key issues.

At the same time, the Bill will set a bonfire of existing environmental protections and a free-for-all on planning.

The Tories’ attempt to justify all this is that deregulation, scrapping necessary rules, will spur growth. They can point to no evidence for their assertions.

But this all underscores what is at stake in the developing strike wave.

The Tories intend to transform Britain in a completely reactionary way before they are booted out.

The unions taking action on pay, conditions and jobs are effectively taking on the government head-on.

Unfortunately, the support they deserve for their just cause on the Labour front bench is sorely lacking.

Yet it is remarkable how little this parliamentary consensus has affected public opinion, which remains staunchly in support of the striking workers.

Contrary to ministerial and other claims, every single major dispute has majority support among the public.

According to a very recent poll by Savanta for the Independent, the margins of support for striking nurses were +39 per cent, rail workers +7 per cent and posties were +3 per cent.

There was even a net +19 per cent support for teachers, and they have not even called a national strike yet.

There is no doubt the public is with the strikers. The strikers are the big battalions in the fight against this government, but everyone has a part to play.

All of us must do everything we can in terms of moral, political and financial support for the strikers because they really are fighting for us all.

Our messages should be: if you want a fairer world, a less divisive one, if you simply want to hold onto the rights you already have, even if you just want to be able to turn on the heating this winter, support all the striking workers.

Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Follow her on Twitter @HackneyAbbott.