Fight for socialist change

Lindsey Morgan, Bristol South Socialist Party

If you’re in the mood for nausea, there’s nothing more sickening than The Sunday Times Rich List.

 The wealth of the richest 350 people in Britain stands at £772.8 billion, and that’s despite dropping 3% since last year as the world economy has been flung into uncertain waters by increased protectionism and underlying economic crisis. The slight fall in billionaires’ wealth still leaves all of them with more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes.

From 1990 to 2024, while our services have been cut and privatised, the number of billionaires in the UK rose from 15 to 165. Over that period their average wealth rose by around 1,000%. The consolidation of wealth at the top has been built by the decimation of ours. Now the 50 richest families own the same wealth as the poorest 50%. While our wages have been squeezed, our bills, rents and costs of living have shot up, the bosses at the top of society have amassed hoards of wealth at our expense.

Denise Coates, founder of gambling company Bet365, has increased her wealth in the last year from £7.5 to £9.4 billion. Bookies always do well fattening their accounts on the backs of people desperate to win in a system that works against them. Another dishonourable mention goes to King Charles who managed to grow his wealth from a measly £30 to £640 million making him even richer than his mummy was.

We’ve paid over and over again for the bosses’ mega-profits through low pay, destruction of our services, and tax breaks for the rich.

They’ve made us pay and they’ll continue to make us pay as long as we leave the wealth and power in their hands. And Starmer’s Labour government acts to keep the money taps flowing into the pockets of the super-rich. Meanwhile, working-class people face cuts to disability benefits, the winter fuel payment, and new rounds of austerity cuts.

By fighting together and taking collective action, workers can increase our share of the wealth we produce; but the only way to stop the theft altogether is to end the capitalist system of exploitation.

The need for socialism is urgent. Joining the Socialist Party and helping us build the strength of the working class is the only way to end the obscenity of the rich list. Let’s put to use the wealth that currently lies in the hands of the super-rich, take it into public ownership and democratically plan what we all need instead of what makes a profit for a select few.