Fighting the ConDem Cuts!

The ConDem government’s comprehensive spending review represented a clear attack on working people of all colours and creeds. On the back of a collapse caused by the greed of bankers, speculators and financial spivs, working people are the only ones being forced to take the pain. Our services, our wages and our jobs are under threat. The impact in Fermanagh where small businesses are already balancing on a knife-edge is likely to be severe. These cuts could push the local economy past a critical point and wreak structural damage that may never be reversed.

At the very least, these cuts will devastate working people pushing many onto lengthening dole queues as the job losses mount where they will be faced with slashed benefits. In a world where we are told education is critical to building a ‘knowledge-based’ economy, young people from working class backgrounds have effectively been shut out of universities through moves to increase fees and the interest they pay on student loans.

At the same time, the Government is supportive of moves to start the printing presses rolling to ensure the profits of the banks and super-rich continue to grow. The consequence of such monetary policy will be imported inflation on household essentials at a time when workers’ wages are being pushed down.

From every conceivable angle workers (those who through their labour create all the wealth in society) are being squeezed ever harder to safeguard the profits of big business. There is a global race to the bottom which will continue until collective action puts a stop to it.

Unfortunately, we cannot rely on our local politicians who even before the economic crisis implemented harsh 3% year-on-year cuts for the last three years. As they implement the new wave of cuts despite their choreographed words of ‘anger’ no doubt their slick PR machines will ensure that they are photographed by the local press at the front row of all the protests.

Instead, what’s needed is to build a grassroots opposition to the current wave of cuts and those that will inevitably follow them. Any politician from the mainstream parties who is genuine about opposing the cuts should resign their party membership and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities against them; that is the only honourable position. Building a cross-community opposition involving workers, communities and the youth is the only appropriate answer to the cuts.