Class Conflict in the UK - Resistance is Futile

Following the Global Financial Crisis and the ensuing deficit crisis within the United Kingdom, the coalition government consisting of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have, since mid 2010, have launched a programme of austerity to combat the financial crisis in which the UK has found itself.

Those on the left-wing of the political spectrum would argue, to some degree, for a grand narrative in which capitalism must inevitably be removed from the world if many of the problems humanity faces, are to be resolved. Within the UK, a broad anti-cuts movement has emerged from the financial hardships faced by the people of the British working class. For over a year, this movement has been active, but for over a year, that movement has arguably been ineffective in its objective of derailing the cuts programme.

To back up my belief that the anti-cuts movement has been ineffective, I believe that the term 'effective' would imply that some form of progress has been made, in this context, to directly stop, or to moderate, to some degree, the cuts programme. If that definition constitutes the term 'effective', than I believe it is very much true to say that the anti-cuts movement in the UK is ineffective. But this in itself very much poses the question - why is this so ?...

I believe that the reasons for this stem from the era of post-industrialism and neo-liberalism that Britain had now found itself in. Additionally, use of the ideological state apparatus by the dominant class to socially condition the people is also at fault. The fundamental problems comes from the (1) the dissolution of class consciousness (2) the political discourse set by the state (3) social conditioning directed towards political apathy and materialist consumerism. My explanation for these theories is as follows...

By the late 1970's, the Keynesian economic policy, which the UK had functioned under since the 'One Nation Consensus' of 1945, had began to fall out of favour with the British people due to the unsustainable reproducing of deficits; this, combined with the power of trade unions and workers to protect workers rights and conditions (thereby having the ability to substantially disrupt the workings of industry) was detrimental to the functioning of the free-market economic system. In response, the neo-conservatives in Washington D.C and London engineered a new economic policy, defined today as 'neo-liberalism' to correct errors and inefficiencies within the economic structure.

Economic neo-liberalism brought an end to the peak of trade union power and the manufacturing industries in which they were prominent, these industries were forced to follow the doctrine of neo-liberal economics, this meant that they were privatized, de-regulated, and their production base was shifted to the 3rd world, where labour markets sold substantially cheaper labour, and where unemployed was so wide-spread, thereby ensuring a low-cost productive base for industry. This also removed the power of workers at home to disrupt the economy. Neo-liberalism then took further form in mass privatization and de-regulation of further industry, additional anti-union laws were brought in by the Thatcher government to ensure that trade unions ability to disrupt the economy was at most, minimal. Major industries were replaced by financial services alongside pharmaceutical and weapons producing-corporate entities for the private-sector. This led to the era of post-industrialism in which we now reside.

Post Industrialism means that the distinctions between class lines that existed over 30 years ago, have now been withered away. A recent survey conducted in Britain resulted with over 92% of British people claiming that they are middle class; post industrialism has resulted in the near-dissolution of class consciousness, the result being that the working class of society is simply not conscious that they are the working class. This is a fundamental reason as to why the anti-cuts movement, because, of the sheer lack of support, which stems from the lack of a class consciousness. In addition, the sectarianism of the UK left-wing does only serves to further hamper the cause of the anti-cuts agenda.

But these are not the only factors responsible for the status-quo, post industrialism brought with it a new era of obsession in materialist consumerism - which was injected into society via the ruling class media. The increase in living standards and income which people benefited from in post-industrial Britain were used to increase demand for material 'wants', which further served to distract the attention of the masses from problems at home.

Additional measures of social conditioning were used throughout the media and the education system to subdue the masses, they have served to mentally condition people into accepting that ideological battles had been fought, and ultimately, capitalism was the victor, this went further to reinforce the perspective that there were no political alternatives to capitalism, thereby preventing any national discussion or experiment in which political alternatives could be created. This is the political discourse set by the ruling-classes of the state, to place this in a more simply context - if state politics within the boundaries of capitalism could be defined as 'micro-politics' (just go with it), and the politics of wider ideological arguments could be defined as 'macro-politics'. The lack of an ability to experiment with alternative political systems results in seriously limited the dialogue which could lead to the resolution of many of the problems the world holds.

Post Industrialism, the rise of neo-liberalism and the withering of class consciousness has now ensured that resistance to capitalism, in the UK at the very least, is now divided and functions with no momentum. The destruction of trade union power, the increasing influence of the media and education to consolidate the dominance of neo-liberalism, has now created a situation in where any effective resistance to capitalism is non-existent, leaving capitalism as the only practical way for the masses to survive.

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