The Tory offensive against the welfare state Is not just an abstract whim which can be dropped at will: It Is driven by three Intersecting pressures which also affect Labour's response, reports HARRY SLOAN. THE BRITISH government, like that of Juppé in France, is driven to hack back welfare spending not simply to open the space to cut taxes for the ruling rich and private industry, but also in part because of the financial restraints imposed by the Maastricht Treaty and its criteria for further economic integration of the EU.
Maastricht sets an upper limit to each government's deficit of three per cent of GDP: Britain's deficit is currently running at 4.2 per cent.
The fight for welfare rights is therefore not restricted to Britain-It is an EU-wide battle.
But as the capitalist world market cuts up rough, with competing countries and trade blocks seeking competitive advantage, It is also a world-wide fight.
In the USA, workers are bat. eling against bipartisan attempts by Republicans and Democrats to slash the minimal state funding of health care and other welfare services. In Eastern Europe the drive to privatisation and restoration is being accompanied by a frontal attack on welfare rights.
In the Third World and dependent economies the brutal policies of the IMF and the World Bank, acting on behalf of imperialist finance houses, are demanding cuts in services and the imposition of brutal new charges for health and education, bringing the collapse of fledgling services.
The situation facing the Tory vovernment continues to doce lorate. Contrary to the optimistic assumpcions benino Kennetn Clarke's relatively muted but still savage package of cuts, the publie sector borrowing requirement is as bad this year as it was last, implying a gap of up to E7 billion between Clarke's gues. stimates and the real deficit.
Of course this deficit has been manufactured by 17 years of Tory policies, systematically cutting progressive taxation to hand big rewards to the wealthy. But It has created a situation from which the Tories cannot easily escape. The possi bility of a swingeing, vote-buy. An advanced economy can quite reasonably sustain a larger than previous number of pensioners Ing tax-cutting budget in No. vember is already restricted. That is why every avenue for cutting public spending is being so relentlessly explored.
From the point of view of welfare spending even the much-vaunted drop in unemployment and creation of 'new Jobs' is bad news: closer examination shows that all of the new jobs created In the final few months of last year were part-time jobs, whose low rates of take-home pay of. for a minimal contribution in taxes, while part time staff often pay little or no National Insurance. In fact numbers of full-time jobs fell by 9,000 In November, while 50,000 'new part time jobs were created. CENTRE National Pensioners' Convention TAGE Socialist Outlook 99 • March 16, 1996.