Promises, promises – of future attacks on the working class

Burnham’s tub-thumping speech at the Labour Party conference was full of promises for a bright future for ‘working people’ in Britain. His government will end 40 years of neo-liberalism, reversing the Thatcherite de-industrialisation of the UK economy. He will set up a National Care Service which will provide social care free, just like the NHS. A massive programme of council house building, lowering rents, stricter regulation of negligent landlords. More public control to clean up the mess of the water industry. A new relationship with Europe – perhaps even rejoining the EU – to help boost economic ‘growth’. And so on.

We will come back to the substance of some of these claims in a future article. For now, let’s consider two rather contrasting slices of reality.

First, world capitalism is at a total impasse at the economic level, and the situation of the most powerful country in Europe, Germany, highlights the reality facing all the most developed economies: faced with a shrinking world market, it has pushed through massive lay-offs at Volkswagen and other prestige sectors of German industry.

And at the same time, the economic crisis is being exacerbated by the escalation of war tensions and conflicts all over the world, forcing the ruling class to increase its preparations for future wars. NATO is disintegrating and the US is more and more becoming not only an unreliable ally, but even an adversary. The European states are thus compelled to build up their war machinery and invest billions in ‘defence’. Germany is leading the way, and the ruling class there knows quite well that this will only be possible through massive attacks on working class living standards: As we say in our article “Germany: a ‘turning point’ in militarisation – and for the class struggle” (ICC Online, June 2026): “The bourgeoisie knows it has no alternative but to launch social attacks. The demand to raise the retirement age to 70 is a blatant attack on the living conditions of the working class. Spending on healthcare, education, and social security systems is being cut to finance military spending. Working hours are being extended, and the right to early retirement is being undermined”.

The much weaker British economy has no prospect of evading these economic storms. And the British bourgeoisie is also aware that it must strive to become more ‘independent’ in its military capacities. The Burnham government is fully committed to this, and aims to increase military spending from 2.5 to 3.5% over the next decade. Indeed, a large part of the proposal for the ‘reindustrialisation’ of Britain involves rebuilding defence related industries.

The many forms of “hope” advertised in Burnham’s speech are false hopes. Workers can only defend their living conditions through a resolute development of the class struggle - and in the longer term, by overturning not only decades of “neo-liberal” capitalism, but capitalism itself.

Amos, 2/10/26