The Conservatives’ ‘Long Term Economic Plan’ grinds into its sixth year and the crisis of capitalism remains. With the UK Government looking to close the black hole in its finances, blown open by the 2008 crash, vital services are facing closure. Despite Cameron’s promise that the education budget would be protected, the Tories have asked the Department of Education to come up with two spending plans based upon 25% cuts and 40% cuts.
Corbyn’s reinvigorated Labour Party has gone on the offensive, launching a commission into the effect of the smaller, 25% cuts. Their findings revealed that the budget for colleges would lose £1.625 billion which, Labour argued, would force the closure of four out of every ten colleges. It is not known how severe the impact of 40% cuts would be on colleges but it is likely that there would be nothing left.
This is all in light of Osborne’s planned reduction of corporation tax from 20% to 18% despite the UK having the lowest corporation tax in the G20 at 20%; voiding the argument that this is in the interest of competition. No, this is a thinly-veiled act of class war – a redistribution of wealth away from the workers whose children, like myself, enjoy state education at a college level, and towards the international bourgeoisie who invest in the UK.
Not only is this class war but it is an obvious sign of the degeneracy of capitalism at the present time: its inability to even provide education for the vast majority of its people. It is yet more evidence that the economic system of capitalism has reached its limit, having fulfilled its historic role of lifting us out of feudalism, today it is holding back human progress.
Corbyn has promised to provide free education at all levels, the chronic crisis of capitalism will undoubtedly leave him with little choice but to begin the socialist transformation of society, or else he will be forced to go back on his promise.
Only through economic, social and political revolution, based upon the principles of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, can we achieve free education and achieve it permanently.
by Keelan Kellegher, St Thomas More Academy political discussion group
