The NHS Cannot Afford Capitalism

Reporting from across the pond, the liberal New York Times published a lengthy article on 28 May on the horrors the Tories have inflicted on working and middle class people in Britain.

“After eight years of budget cutting,” it begins, “Britain is looking less like the rest of Europe and more like the United States, with a shrinking welfare state and spreading poverty.”

It speaks volumes about the shallow politics of liberalism that newspapers like the New York Times – and the Guardian in this country – are capable of producing such withering criticisms of austerity, while failing to support – even smearing and attacking – those fighting against it.

The New York Times was a constant champion of the pro-austerity warmonger Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic leadership in 2016. Similarly, the Guardian has relentlessly sought to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party – at the same time as lamenting the horrors of austerity. Bernie Sanders received similar treatment in the US.

But the liberal press does not just attack socialists. They also write us out of history altogether! In this 4,000-word study professing to be about austerity, the New York Times did not once mention the fact that the Labour Party now has an anti-austerity leader!

This sentiment was reinforced by their characterisation of poverty-stricken workers living in Britain passively accepting the cuts:

“A wave of austerity has yielded a country that has grown accustomed to living with less, even as many measures of social wellbeing – crime rates, opioid addiction, infant mortality, childhood poverty and homelessness – point to a deteriorating quality of life.”

No mention of the unprecedented NHS demonstration that took place last year, which the Socialist Party had a key role in achieving, or the one upcoming on 30 June. Or the spate of campaigns that are currently forcing the government into retreats. Or the massive gains made by Corbyn in the 2017 election.

The truth is that the liberal establishment may shed a tear over the effects of austerity – but as they are so completely wedded to the interests of big business, for them there is no real alternative.

As for the rest of us: If capitalism cannot afford to give us a decent standard of living, then we cannot afford capitalism!