Join the Scottish Socialist Party
Young people are at the forefront of today’s struggle for a
better way to run society as they are the group who are suffering the deepest
from the consequences of the present crisis of the capitalist system. A’ lost
generation’ is no cliché but the hard reality for growing numbers of young
people who are to be thrown onto the scrapheap at the very start of their
working lives. No wonder we see the effects of disillusionment, anger and
alienation. A university degree no longer leads on to a well paid secure career,
as it once did. In fact the numbers attending further education is on the
decrease thanks to the cutbacks in staffing and the economic hardship involved
due to ever increasing fees, particularly in England and Wales. It is clear
that the capitalist system does not now require large numbers in the workforce
to be highly skilled and educated when the economic requirements are for
primarily low wage low skilled part time jobs to compete with Asia. For
example, in America the vast majority of the recent jobs increase is part time.
Many of the jobs in this market have already been outsourced to cheap labour economies
and this is now the preferred path for western countries.
This sense of alienation and hopelessness in young people is
found expression in destructive activities like the austerity riots in Britain
a few years ago but also in more constructive reactions in the form of grass
roots revolutionary movements, as witnessed recently in Tunisia and Egypt. This
level of working people’s disaffection has not expressed itself to the full as
yet, particularly in the more conservative Western European countries with a background
of illusory ‘democracy’ such as in Britain and Ireland. Nonetheless beneath the
surface there is a pressure building, within the young people in particular,
for more radical measures however this tendency for action is devoid of any
true political leadership or tactical awareness. This role would normally be
provided by the workers union movements however the unions are no longer
working for radical change but would prefer to go down the ‘reformist’ path of
working within the existing political apparatus to achieve concessions from
whichever government is in power.
Young people have therefore been backed into a corner and
are under attack from all western governments. In Britain many have no
alternative but to accept the prospect of zero hours contracts with no
certainty of a secure employment, or with part time work on minimum wage levels
with little prospects of career progression. Many face unemployment after years
of study. More and more employers are taking advantage of the young unemployed
and exploiting them to increase their profit margins.[Soon if the Government
has its way young people will be made to work for nothing for their benefits, a
modern form of slave labour] . The argument that this provides a flexible
labour market which is presently needed is not credible as this is purely and
simply a way for the employer to increase profit margins with no benefits to
the employee. Higher unemployment always means lower wages for those in work.
This situation is remarkably similar to feudal times when the serfs were at the
beck and call of the landowner. The sporadic nature of this type of zero hours
employment makes it extremely difficult for the young or any worker to organise
into unions to defend their interests and also prohibits planning for a stable
social or family life.
Young people are constantly fed the lie that the jobs are
out there and that they are not trying hard enough. We all know this is a myth
and that many young people are now so desperate that it is now commonplace to
find the majority of a workforce employed on a part-time basis and that many have
to combine a number of part time jobs to pay the bills.
The media also play their part in the demonization process
by falsely announcing the end of the recession after barely recognisable
decreases in the unemployed rate. If the young can merely wait another ten or
fifteen years for the recession to end then all will be fine, however by that
it time it will be too late for a lost generation forced to put off having a
family or being independent of their parents. Deception is the primary motive
here and this is in the form of the financial trickery used by the economists
on behalf of their masters in government to delude the general public into
thinking that the main economic indicators are better than they actually are.
For example, manipulation of the unemployment figures has regularly taken place
since Thatcher in the form of the redefinition of unemployment to include only
those who claim benefit. Originally this figure included all those who
registered and for whatever reason may not have claimed. Those on workfare or
disability/ incapacity benefit [ now Personal Independence Payment]also do not
count thereby removing nearly a million from the national figures at a stroke.
Overwhelmingly, it is clear that the economic picture for
young people is bleak and that the levels of real unemployment is much nearer
the level of Spain or France and that regions of the country in the northeast
and the west of Scotland are suffering badly.
The question which young people must ask themselves is why
should they support and try to mend such an economic system which would assign
them to the scrapheap if it could. What have they really got to gain from
slogging away a working lifetime for a
zero hours contract job or behind a call centre desk ten hours a day for just
enough to merit the basic essentials. Is this the most that they will be
allowed to dream of as their future to look forward to? This is probably the
first generation to which the answer to this question must be no, it is definitely
not worth fighting to support such a system.
What then is the alternative? It is for a more rational,
progressive, enlightened, sustainable and democratic social system which plans
ahead for the future needs of the society based on a truly democratic workers participation
and local control by those that actually produce the wealth of society. Young people
must and need to fight for such a system based on these principles for in this
way it is perfectly possible to provide adequately for all of societies basic
needs in terms of housing, employment, education, health and most importantly
the planned economic production controlled by the working people and not for
the benefit of the parasitical elite, as presently exists. The continuation of the present government
policies will only see young people become angrier and alienated which will eventually
result in more social unrest as was evident two years ago. However this anger
to be effective has to be harnessed and channelled in a positive way, and be
informed and focused on achieving political change in the form of a socialist
transformation of society. This is not a utopian dream but can be achieved with
the involvement of young people being organised and forming part of a wider movement
of workers, the unemployed and exploited sections of the population on low pay and
zero hours and part time insecure contracts. The traditional mass workers party
was the Labour Party however it has unfortunately lost it way and been taken
over by the most vocal supporters of the present system. It is full of
professional and careerist MP’s who are disconnected from the interests of
working people or however well meaning are deluded into thinking that reformist
policies are a way out until the next crisis, but having lost a whole young generation
to the scrapheap in the process.
No, now is not the time for young people to go down the same
mistaken route as those before them, but to join a socialist movement like the
Scottish Socialist Party and become part of the struggle to achieve socialism.
Young people should seek to become aware of the basic socialist principles as
some theoretical understanding obtained from the great socialist thinkers of
the past and present form a theoretical foundation which is important for any
successful struggle. However young people more importantly need to be involved
in whatever way they can through student bodies, workplace groups if union
involvement is precluded and forming linkages internationally. The Scottish
Socialist Party represents many different strands of left opinion and attempts
to provide an organised, cohesive and effective political voice for both
workers, the unemployed and young people alike.
We are now entering a new phase of this economic crisis
where increasing numbers of working people and young people are becoming aware
that the existing capitalist system is working against their interests [but for
a small financial elite] and cannot be successfully repaired or reformed
without their living standards continuing to fall to an even greater degree as
the true extent of the crisis is much greater than many had previously believed.
They are aware that even if a new partial economic ‘recovery’ is entered into
in the coming years it will be of no benefit to that lost generation of young
people thrown on the scrapheap as a sacrifice to the wealthy and privileged
few. Increasingly it is clear that the previous gains fought for and achieved
by the older generations of workers are being rolled back never to be seen
again, that is, unless something radical emerges in the form of a strengthened
and confident socialist movement organised with a leadership, strategy and
tactics with linkages to other likeminded movements internationally. In this
process it will be the young people who will be at the forefront of this
struggle for change. The Scottish Socialist Party is that socialist movement to
take forward the struggle and reaches out to young people
to welcome them to the Party and to join them in this journey.
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