Neo-liberalism is the enemy of workers

May 03, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Listening to the labour and political leaders last Monday, Labour Day, it would not be hard to conclude that workers’ lack the type of leadership necessary to deliver them from servitude.

It seems as if our leaders have adopted the position that the challenges facing the neo-liberal order can be overcome within the present neo-liberal order. But this is far from true, and is high time that the workers of Guyana recognize that the present economic order is not conducive to reducing income inequality – perhaps the greatest challenge facing the working class.

The posture adopted by our political and labour leaders is all the more surprising considering that both labour and the country’s two main political parties have historically recognized the anti-working class nature of global capitalism and its present incarnation: neo-liberalism. Yet, we find labour leaders assuming that the system can deliver significant improvements to workers.

In many respects however it is easy to understand the dilemma in which our labour leaders find themselves. Given what cooperative socialism, under Burnham, did to the working class, it understandable that our labour leaders may be shy of embracing what radical ideologies.

Since the fall of communism, the labour movement has gone into a predictable decline. But is nonetheless hard to understand how this should translate to the existing leaders assuming that the workers struggle for social and economic justice can be achieved within a neo-liberal order.

Capitalism and, now, neo-liberalism was constructed on the exploitation of workers. It was Karl Marx who demonstrated how the owners of the means of production expropriated the surplus value derived from the production process and how in so doing the set the level of workers’ wages to ensure greater profits for themselves.

How then can there ever be greater equality under an economic system which was designed to promote inequality between workers and the owners of production? How can workers achieve an economic and social justice under a system that is the source of these injustices?

Neo-liberalism is the enemy of the working class. It was under Ronald Regan’s Presidency (1981-1989) and under Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1919-1990) that the greatest assault on trade unionism was launched. The latter set out to weaken trade unions and even passed legislation to support that mission.

Ronald Regan, the 40th President of the United States was anti-unions. He broke the back of the one of his nation’s strongest unions and fired thousands of workers. He told the striking air traffic controllers that if they do not report for work that they would be fired, and many were.

When Guyana entered into the structural adjustment programme in 1989, the die was cast for workers. The IMF made it clear to the PPP/C government which took office in 1992 that they desired wage restraints. The unions on the other hand wanted increased wages.

A confrontation took place. The GPSU called a strike in 1999 which the PPP/C considered as political. The union thought it would have prevailed. But in the end the GPSU paid a terrible price. Today, the union can hardly a call a protest so weakened it was left by the Jagdeo regime. At one stage, the government refused the automatic deductions from public servants which allowed for the transmittal of union dues, a move which the union interpreted as intending to cripple it financially.

The PPP/C and the APNU government have refused to engage in collective bargaining with the GPSU. This is no accident. It is all part of the neo-liberal assault on workers and their organizations. Those who are now calling for a restoration of collective bargaining should have been more vociferous during the tenure of the APNU+AFC.

But to be fair also to neo-liberalism, it has raised the standard of living of workers. The danger however is that correspondingly, it has created greater inequality. Unless this inequality is checked and unless the gap between the haves and those who do not have is reduced, there will come a time when there will be a social explosion and possibly a major class conflict.

For the time being neo-liberalism holds the upper hand. And workers are being asked to agitate for greater benefits under this very system.

But behind the dark clouds for the labour movement, there is a silver lining. A major contradiction is developing within capitalism itself. At the economic level, neo-liberalism is on a collision course with extreme nationalism, a resurgent political ideology that is viciously opposed to immigration and migrant labour.

For capitalism to survive, it needs cheap labour and this comes from immigrants. But extreme nationalism is opposed to this and this contradiction could be the precursor to the unraveling of the neo-liberal order. But that may be no comfort to workers given the predilection of their leadership to assume that substantive gains can be had under a neo-liberal order.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Economic, Labour Day, leaders, Neo-liberalism, Peeping Tom

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