THE CRISIS we are in shows no sign of slowing and all the government’s actions to date across Britain have more to do with the protection of finance and corporations than saving lives.

We are faced with a full-frontal assault on our class and once again face the spectre of mass unemployment.[[{"fid":"27114","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]

Already there are attacks on workers’ terms and conditions, while hundreds of thousands have already lost their jobs and this will only expand unless we prepare.

We are faced with mass unemployment and not just the headline predicted number of 2.7 million.

Right across the country those now having to claim universal credit has in some areas doubled since March of this year.

The use of zero-hours contracts, bogus self-employment and the illicit jobs market have all increased and are hidden from the headline figures.  

The Communist Party’s latest pamphlet Unemployment Fightback clearly sets out what is before us and the threat and reality of job insecurity and unemployment.

Beginning with the causes of unemployment, it shows how the capitalist system uses the “reserve army of labour” and will always use a crisis to further this policy.

The Covid-19 crisis is the current one and next year many politicians, employers and corporations will blame Brexit for a new swath of redundancies and layoffs.

Lessons from the past are discussed in detail, such as the communist-led National Unemployed Workers Movement in the 1920s and ’30s and how communists and their Labour allies mobilised workers to pave the way for a Labour landslide in 1945.

That created a programme of reconstruction, nationalisation, public investment, the creation of the social security system and the NHS.

But in the ’70s and ’80s, the capitalist class mobilised to move Britain back to a free-market economy that introduced mass unemployment and poverty as its  weapons of choice.

Once the vaccination programme is rolled out across the country and the aid to workers ends in March 2021, if unchallenged the Tories and their allies in the City of London will use this crisis to their advantage.

The borrowing will have to be paid back and it won’t be Tory allies footing the bill.

The crisis will be paid for by workers, the unemployed and the poorest.

Already there are pay freezes both in the public and private sectors, the additional £20 for universal credit will be removed and austerity will continue unabated.  

The pamphlet sets out the need for a job protection and creation programme and the green industrial revolution needs to move up a few gears and start providing the promised jobs from renewables and the green economy.

Not as Boris Johnson wants, by letting the free market somehow provide them, but by doing what happened in the late ’40s — creating the national industries that will provide jobs, coupled with building thousands of council houses.  

But this is more than just a pamphlet looking to the past. It gives a clear call to action for the trade union and labour movement of today and the need to mobilise across the whole movement and our communities.

United trade union pressure won the job retention scheme, the additional £20 on universal credit and protection for the self-employed and small businesses.

That same unity needs to be used to ensure unemployment is not used as a weapon and new jobs in construction and manufacturing are created to power the green industrial revolution.

The knock-on effect would result in more retail and hospitality spending, thereby increasing jobs across those sectors.

We can build our way out of this crisis but not if it is Johnson’s free market-led model.

Only real state intervention, as in 1945, will create the high-paid, high-skill jobs of the future.

The issues raised in this pamphlet need to be taken into our trades councils, union branches and  community campaigning organisations so we can mobilise to resist the austerity and job losses the Tories will let loose if they are unchallenged.  

Unemployment Fightback by Bill Greenshields with Andy Bain is priced £2.50 and is available from the CPB bookshop, communistparty.org.uk.

TAM KIRBY