poverty remains

Once again , government figures exposes the failure of reformism to solve the problems of capitalism.

The report found there were 11 million people living in poverty in the UK - a figure that has risen by 300,000 since 2006.

Statistics show numbers of children in poor households - defined as those on less than 60% of the mid-point income - stayed the same between 2006 and 2008. Figures for households below average income show there were 2.9 million children living in relative poverty between 2007 and 2008 before housing costs were taken into account.

After housing costs were taken into account, the statistics showed there were four million children, two million pensioners and 7.5 million people of working age in poverty.

There was no change in the number of pensioners judged to be living in poverty. Some 2.5 million were living below the poverty line between 2007 and 2008 - the same as between 2006 and 2007.

There was a rise in the number of working-age adults suffering financial hardship. Those living in poverty rose from 5.4 million between 2006 and 2007 to 5.6 million between 2007 and 2008.

Going directly for revolution, refusing to settle for anything less than the full monty of socialism, is a policy that will take time to bring results. Many people will have to be weaned off the superficial attractions of “achievable” reforms. It is often argued that state welfare and social security provision are examples of Labour's success in "doing something", legislating against poverty and so on. The simple case is that systems of social welfare do not change the exploitative character of capitalism or even touch the surface of its symptoms. Poverty has not been reformed away and poor housing, unemployment, job insecurity and related ill-health remain very real concerns for the working class.

Those who want another century of reformist advance and retreat can go ahead and form a new New Labour Party or new Old Labour Party . But those members of the working class who, learning from the failures of the past, desire the socialist alternative should join those who have rejected reformism and sought instead to make socialists and work for socialism-and-nothing-but-socialism .