The UK’s problems are not unique. Since the post-war boom ended in the 1970s every state in the world is faced with the consequences of ‘declining growth’ (aka profit rates). Workers’ share of the national income in all the rich countries has been declining for over four decades. Services such as the NHS, school budgets, social benefits, pensions — all funded by deductions from workers’ pay — have all been cut. Finance capitalist outfits which speculate on international markets run the utility companies, meaning we get higher bills, as rivers and coasts are polluted with sewage. But you would think only “Britain is Broken” if you listened to the lies of the likes of Reform or UKIP. For them the cause is simple – it is all the fault of immigrants and asylum seekers. A simple “solution” that any fool can grasp. And they do not disappoint.

The thuggish, racist, anti-Islamic and anti-migrant right which gained ground with Little Englanders in the Brexit vote paved the way for Tommy Robinson’s EDL (English Defence League) to morph into Unite the Kingdom. Thanks to easy mobilisation via ‘social’ media, not to mention much financial assistance and public support from plutocrats like Elon Musk, Robinson and Co are intending to repeat their March mobilisation of tens of thousands of “far-right activists” in central London on 16 May. This is a provocation. Normally it is the day for Palestinians making their traditional protest against the foundation of the Israeli state and the Palestinians’ loss of their land in 1948, the Nakba (Catastrophe) Day. This year, however, the Metropolitan Police have not replied to their annual legal request to march. Instead they have given the go-ahead for Robinson and Co to have the run of Central London.

Many well-meaning “anti-fascists” and those who think the system is open to reform are already preparing for a repeat of March’s huge demo against the far-right in London. As history shows, it is not enough just to oppose the far-right racists but the system that spawns them. Capitalism and capitalists are not committed to any one political system – they can switch from democracy to dictatorship at will (as happened in Germany and Italy and many other places between the wars). Whichever suits them best to control the working class.

Our fight is against capitalism, imperialism and all national sides in today’s wars, wherever they occur. We are neither for Ukraine nor Russia; we condemn US imperialism’s military aggression against Iran but we don’t therefore support the Iranian state. Nor do we support Zionist expansionist massacres in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

The crisis of the capitalist system itself is bringing us poverty, massive inequality and barbaric warfare. It’s time to end it.

The above article is taken from the current edition (No. 75) of Aurora, bulletin of the Communist Workers’ Organisation.