STATEMENTS from the Tory leadership over the last few weeks, including Conservative party conference speeches by Peter Lilley and Michael Howard, have revealed government plans to embark on the most reactionary social agenda this century.
Tory Neathanderthals are
pinning the blame for Britain's ills on the eldest and most vulnerable sections of society - single parents, young women, the unemployed, 'foreigners' and 'criminals'.
With a magician's sleight of hand, the victims have become the villains while the real crooks absolve themselves of the responsibility for the economic and social stagnation and disintegration which 14 years of Tory rule have brought about.
Populist agenda Of course at one level recent ministerial statements were designed to create a sense of party unity by giving a sop to the party's right wing after its defeat on Maastricht. It was also about trying to boost flagging government support by finding a populist political agenda.
But behind all the surface froth is something far more insidious - the attack on the welfare state.
The economic crisis has wrecked government tax income, as well as pushing social security payments through the roof. The Tories have no LIBERATION! - the socialist youth paper launched by youth and student Socialist Outlook supporters this month - is off to a flying start.
way out other than big tax increases and squeezing the welfare state. Clarke's November budget will see a big rise indirect taxes on consumer spending - always a way of hitting the poor. But in the long term the drive is on to close down the welfare state. With an aging populaR buyer HE POUNDS Eking out an existence in the debris of Tory Britain will become even harder dices are right. fending the rights of lesbians, gay men and young women, for free education and on a host of other issues.
Leaders of the Ungasocialisterna, the Swedish youth organisation also discussed with us and so did past leaders of course anti-working class.
It revives archaic "Victorian' notions of the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, topped off with sexist notions of women with loose morals wantonly having children out of wedlock in order to jump housing queues and scrounge off the welfare state.
No other bourgeois government in the world, not even the Italian Christian Democrats linked to the Vatican, would dare to trot out such garbage.
Far from outflanking the BNP fascists and other extreme right reactionaries, this Tory agenda will only feed support for them. It is a message to those who voted for the BNP in Millwall that their reactionary prejuThe new Tory agenda is only possible because of the silence and immobility of the Labour leadership. If you leave aside the debate on one member, one vote, the Labour party conference was a total non-event. While the Liberals have been parading their electoral successes, and the Tories outline a new and deeply reactionary social agenda, Labour has nothing to offer by way of an alternative vision. By striking out to the right in such a crude way the Tories of course are making huge sections of society - the majority - into the 'enemy within'. Even the Church of England and top judges are disturbed by this turn. Silence of the Labs They have spoken out. John Smith and his accolytes are conspicuously silent. That is the shame and disgrace in this situation. The Tory conference was a glimpse of what the world's most experienced ruling class is capable of doing to defend its power and privileges. Their reactionary frenzy feeds off quiescence and defeat, and only struggle and resistance can defeat it.
That's the challenge for the left; to sound the alarm throughout the labour movement, to demand of the Labour leaders that they fight back, to organise the poor and oppressed, to give a voice to the powerless.
Fighting the fascists is an absolute necessity, but rousing the organised labour movement to throw back the tide of reaction engulfing 'official' politics is even more important.