APRIL 2013 RESISTANCE #150 is out. WHO ARE THEY TRYING TO FOOL? (The Labour Party), Food prices, Mayday, Belarus ABC info-tour report. Wildcat strikes worldwide, Thatcher death parties, Prisoner news, Bristol Anarchist Bookfair.

WHO ARE THEY TRYING TO FOOL?

15 years ago we launched Resistance after a year of New Labour. We have come a long way since then, and the Tories may seem worse than ever, but it’s worth remembering how we got here under the last Labour government.

We are ten years since the start of the first Iraq War, but Labour’s first major war of their time in power was in the former Yugoslavia, where they ordered the bombing of Serbian cities over repression being meted out by the military in the region of Kosovo. We argued against NATO’s warmongering in print and on the street before, but to no avail. Many more people have since suffered the consequences of Labour’s adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As the Coalition launches a new wave of benefit attacks, let us cast an eye back to another snippet from Resistance issue 1, where we reported that Newcastle benefits agency had carried out a sustained months-long victimisation campaign against Incapacity Action member Chris Marshall. They confiscated his benefit book and paid him nothing for weeks on end. Chris, who was waiting for joint replacement surgery, was told by the SS to “get a job instead of sponging off the State” (yes, it really was still called Social Security in 1998!).

This is worth bearing in mind whilst the Labour opposition and its Trotskyist apologists bleat about how much they are against the unfairness of the Bedroom Tax and the other nasty welfare cuts that begin this month.

Massive NHS reforms also get underway this month, with almost the entire budget passing to the control of GPs and a National Commissioning Board, with immense pressure to buy as cheap as possible. But let’s not forget that when it was last in power Labour massively pushed forward the ‘purchaser-provider split’ in healthcare that was begun by the Tories in the 1990s. It is this that is allowing more for-profit companies into the NHS. Not only this, but Labour were responsible for the creation of Treatment Centres and outsourcing of NHS purchasing to the logistics company DHL. They also presided over further contracting out of cleaning and of GP out-of-hours services.

So the record of Labour in power is clear and anyone who thought they were better last time around, and has maybe forgotten what they got up to, would do well to examine the history books and not be fooled again.

Resistance is the regular bulletin of the Anarchist Federation: http://www.afed.org.uk

Read more in Resistance bullletin, issue 150, April 2013.