The Socialist inbox: letters to the editors, photo Suzanne Beishon (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
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Union manifesto
The Tories must be kicked out! Theresa May and her corporate benefactors are literally devouring our NHS, our education system, and the future of all our essential local services.
May is ramping up longstanding attacks on workers and their unions that, unfortunately, were already being carried out with much gusto by the Tories’ toxic predecessors, New Labour.
But now the trade union movement has everything to fight for: that is, if we want a Labour government that will defend and extend the rights of the 99% instead of the super-rich 1%.
With the general election just weeks away, it is more important than ever that Leicester’s branch of public service union Unison helps coordinate local political action to encourage the national Labour Party to commit to a radical anti-austerity manifesto.
If union leaders choose to take a back seat at this critical moment, the Blairites will no doubt take this as a signal that public support for anti-austerity demands are unpopular, which will give them more leeway in weakening their party’s electoral manifesto.
A weak and uninspiring manifesto would be a nightmare for the people of Britain, and could easily prevent a Labour government coming to power.
When Unison’s local government service group conference met last June, union delegates from across the country democratically decided that the union’s policy position on matters of campaigning was to fight against public service cuts.
Conference delegates also agreed to call upon the local government service group executive to “resist further cuts to local government funding,” and call upon Labour councils “to pool reserves across local authorities” to prevent further cuts.
All of these pressing concerns are certainly fulfilled by the innovative “no cuts” campaign that was initiated by Unison Leicester City in February this year.
Moreover, support for launching a broad campaign that raises these issues within Leicester and the Labour Party has received support from other trade unionists in the city.
There couldn’t be a better time for Leicester’s trade union movement to act in unison in raising Unison members’ demands.
The lives of tens of millions of people are at stake. A Labour government could potentially come to power on 8 June, but this will be much more likely if trade unions push Corbyn to adopt a bold socialist programme that can fire up the public’s imagination and ignite the collective fightback against Tory and New Labour austerity!
Mike Barker, Leicester
May’s phoney war
photo photo Policy Exchange/Creative Commons (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)
In a desperate ploy to divert attention from her monstrous policies and consistent failure to answer a straight question, Theresa May has resorted to jingoism by mounting a verbal attack on the EU bureaucrats who until recently she adored.
Aping her idol Thatcher, she substitutes Jean-Claude Juncker for Galtieri, the Argentinean dictator of 1983, and makes the assertion that after the general election the overriding issue will be Brexit.
The overriding issue is not the phoney blather about Brexit. In or out of the EU, the fight to defend the working class from the excesses of capitalism is the overriding issue.
Jeremy Corbyn is at his best when he goes for May’s jugular. Never mind the mantra ‘it’s fully costed’ used by failed past Labour leaders. We start from the premise: what does the working class need for a decent life?
The answer is the policies which propelled Jeremy to the leadership. The money is there in the banks, offshore tax havens and unpaid taxes. A determined Corbyn-led government can get the resources.
Let’s take a leaf from the French campaigning activity of Jean-Luc Mélenchon: mass rallies all over the country to proclaim the demise of Toryism and superiority of socialism. Then we can win.
Tony Mulhearn, Liverpool
Labour voter
So Theresa May has called a snap general election, which is very commendable of her, seeing as most of the country never had a choice in her being prime minister in the first place.
Talk about the tale of the emperor’s new clothes.
It looks like May’s main reason for going to the polls is that Labour is eating itself alive from the inside. Bookies have made her 1/6 on favourite to win, and most of Britain’s press will do its underhanded, twisting, one-sided coverage of the election.
Then we have the Labour has-beens such as the millionaire Neil Kinnock, Gordon Brown the pension thief, Ed Millipede who wanted to rebuild Stonehenge – they have never won a general election but have the audacity to try and undermine a left Labour leader.
Then there’s Blair, warmongering, lying, millionaire Blair. He’s been well rewarded, as have others, for selling the working class down the river.
Whether Jeremy Corbyn’s vision of what the Labour Party should be and do wins this election or not, with a left leader, and a left candidate in my constituency, it will be the first time in decades I will not be holding my nose when voting Labour.
Rebel with a Cause, Rotherham
Tories out
This government of the rich has to be removed in the June election.
They have presided over a massive transfer of wealth from the working people of this country to their paymasters in big business, in the form of corporation tax cuts and their abject failure to recover the billions of unpaid taxes from the multinationals.
Corbyn’s reforms will be welcomed by millions of people who have seen their living standards plummet under this government, and the previous coalition with the Lib Dems – but also, one has to say, the Blair and Brown governments.
The millions who have suffered are looking for an alternative to austerity and if Corbyn sticks to policies that will improve the lives of the majority then he can win.
There are many issues that need to be resolved but it all boils down to the need to put the interests of the majority before the greed of the few. The Tories will always look after the few at the expense of the many.
