Some people have told us that our policy of withholding your votes on May 5 is wrong because this might lead to the return of the Tories. The obvious implication - which is not always made clear - is that we will have to grit our teeth and vote New Labour because in practice this is the only way Michael Howard's party can be kept out. Ministers like Peter Hain have taken the same line.

This argument, which has more than a hint of blackmail about it, might have had some validity in the dim and distant past but no longer. Once you could maintain that Labour represented working people while the Tories spoke for the ruling class and the privileged middle classes. There was a class-based justification for backing Labour at the polls while pressuring them to implement socialist policies when in office.

Today, the tables, if anything, are turned. On Monday, April 25, the Financial Times carried a letter from 63 of the Blair government's supporters and donors from the banking, leisure, media, engineering and manufacturing sectors. They applauded the party for presiding over "unprecedented" economic stability and growth and fostering a more "entrepreneurial society". Furthermore, they warned against changing course through allowing the Tories to return! The same day, Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and Margaret Beckett, the trade secretary, thought nothing about invoking the policies of former Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher to justify their attacks on the current Tory party.

These are but two small examples to show how things have changed. New Labour speaks and acts not simply for British business but more importantly for global capitalism. That is why the Tories are floundering in the election campaign. They can hardly find a policy to stand on that doesn't have its origins within the Blair government. When MG Rover collapsed, destroying the lives of thousands of workers, the Tories joined New Labour in regarding the closure as the outcome of market forces. What basis is there to fear the Tories when we have New Labour is in office?

No wonder Rupert Murdoch's media empire, including The Sun, have come out for New Labour again. For this right-wing paper, the crucial issue is Iraq. Murdoch recognises the significance of the Bush-Blair alliance for free market capitalism and is enthusiastic about the illegal war that was launched on the back of lies and disinformation. After all, it's how The Sun behaves every day.

When you add in the totally undemocratic nature of the British political system, there is a strengthened case for "going on strike" on May 5, as the campaigning anti-war journalist John Pilger puts it in a recent article. New Labour has presided over the biggest single fall in voter turn-out, the more than 12% drop between 1997 and 2001. Over 40% went on strike last time. We urge voters to spread the strike on May 5 as a prelude to taking action to create alternative, genuine democracy by helping launch A World to Win as a campaigning movement on June 4.