The Socialist 7 December 2011

Con-Dems pile on the misery: ‘Enough is enough’

Con-Dems pile on the misery - 'Enough is enough'

Eurozone crisis - capitalists have no solution

Cuts and misery - it doesn't have to be like this

Socialist MEP supports public sector strike

"The genie is out of the bottle"

30 November strike: a historic day!

Building a fighting union - interview with Steve Hedley

Defend the JIB, victory to the sparks!

Reinstate Paul Kelly: Solidarity with Portsmouth RMT

Workplace news in brief

Climate change and extreme weather

Homes Crisis: Fund housing need - not fat cat greed!

Portugal: Build on the general strike action

Ireland: Resist latest austerity attacks

Tamil Solidarity: Gearing up for 2012

Brazilian socialists remember Socrates

Theatre review

When workers planned production: the Lucas Aerospace plan

PDFs for this issue




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All in it together

The day after N30, BBC's Question Time confirmed the need for a new mass party of the working class. Labour MP Chuka Umunna, sponsored by Unite the Union, revealed he did not use his N30 strike vote as his gold-plated pension was not affected, and he opposed the strike anyway. The public sector pension problem 'had to be addressed' he said.

Tory Minister Ken Clarke was so delighted with Chuka that he congratulated him on recognising that there was a 'problem'. Clarke has spent the last ten years on the boards of the country's most prosperous companies: British American Tobacco, Alliance Unichem, Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, Centaurus Capital Hedge Fund.

You can almost see the cash cascading into his already bloated bank account on top of his parliamentary salary and his £1 million pension pot. This sleek member of the millionaire's cabinet uttered the usual claptrap that while 'sympathising' with millions of public sector workers 'tough decisions had to be made' because there was no money left; a classic Tory distortion.

In fact billions are swilling around in the tax-payer subsidised banks. Billions are salted away by Clarke's friends in off-shore accounts. And there's the £100 billion of unpaid taxes. If all this wealth was harnessed for the benefit of the 99% the deficit problem could be solved overnight. Opposition to all cuts must be maintained!