Class – a matter of life and death

    "NINE YEAR gap between social groups. Why class dictates how long you
    live". This was the front page, not of the socialist but of the
    right-wing newspaper – the Daily Express!

    "Poverty and disease are not the only reasons why manual workers are
    more at risk", it stated. "Researchers have discovered that the stress
    and insecurity of society’s strict hierarchy will also take its toll by
    up to nine years".

    Clare Doyle

    As if to back up socialist arguments, the scientists based at St.
    Thomas’ Hospital London say in their report, published in the medical
    journal ‘Ageing Cell’, that the stress of being in jobs with low social
    status and self-esteem and of "having lots of bosses and areas in your
    life you cannot control" is responsible for prematurely ageing people.

    Then, as if to back up the entirely feasible story in the musical
    ‘Blood Brothers’, they compared the situation for 17 identical twins,
    born in the same social category and then separated by one moving up and
    the other down in the social scale. They found their research about the
    stress of being working class was entirely confirmed!

    A Transport and General Workers’ Union spokesperson commented to the
    Daily Express: "This tells us in scientific terms what we already
    know… Only two in 100 bus drivers make it to retirement because of the
    stress of their jobs".

    The research team leader, Professor Tim Spector, inadvertently
    confirms that socialism seems to be the only way of getting rid of this
    huge injustice based on class when he says, "I don’t think we’ll ever be
    in a socialist utopia where everyone is equal and has the same level of
    stress". But the evidence which he provides must precisely spur us to
    fight harder for a society where opportunities are equal for all, and
    where control and management of the economy are in the hands of directly
    elected representatives who can be recalled at a moment’s notice. An end
    to bosses, classes and orders from above!