Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/695/13222
From The Socialist newspaper, 23 November 2011
Tragic effect of recession
Bill Mullins
What a tragic waste of human life this economic crisis is creating! In the Socialist (issue 694), we read about the Warwickshire couple who committed suicide because they didn't have enough to live on and had been ignored by the social services for months.
Mark and Helen Mullins (no relation) walked ten miles into Coventry each week to collect food parcels from the Salvation Army. But they had no refrigerator to keep the food in so stored it in the garden.
How are an adult couple expected to live on £57 a week? That is all Mark got for Jobseeker's Allowance. Until a few years ago unemployed people got an amount far nearer a worker's wage when it was called unemployment pay. But we can thank the last Labour government for slashing this crucial benefit.
The crisis hits many sections of society. Recently Jack Shemtob, a Transport for London (TfL) manager, within minutes of being told he was redundant after 30 years, leaped to his death from the TfL offices.
Even a well-paid solicitor Vincent Buffoni killed himself when his company lost work and he could no longer afford to pay his son's £30,000 a year public school fees. His law firm had been hit by the recession and he had already mortgaged his home for £60,000 to pay the fees.
Each tragedy has its own dimensions but the crisis is leaving no part of society untouched - except those who will make a killing from the crisis, the bank/bond traders, the spivs who leech on other people's misfortune and the Rachmanite landlords who exploit the system's inability to build enough homes to meet people's needs.
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In The Socialist 23 November 2011:
Pensions' strike, N30
Enough is enough! Make N30 the start of a fight to stop all cuts
Socialist Party feature
Capitalism is crisis - there is an alternative - fight for socialism!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Con-Dems worsen the housing crisis
Massive job cuts undermining NHS
Millions unemployed - workers and students must unite and fight!
The Socialist - Readers' comments
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Jarrow marchers put forward an alternative
No answers from politicians on Newsnight
Support the anti-cuts election challenge
State intimidation of young protesters
Tories and Labour fail to give 'Any Answers'
Women: sick of sexism, discrimination and cuts?
Mansfield - build houses, create jobs
Pensions protest in Maude's constituency
International socialist news and analysis
Why Europe's capitalist leaders cannot save the floundering eurozone project
Ruling PSOE battered in Spanish general election
Syria: Eight months of mass protests met with bloody brutality
Egyptian masses fight for real change
Socialist Party workplace news
Greece and Italy get unelected technocrats - Southampton gets chief executives!
Construction workers fight pay cuts
Obituary
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