And a party that fights for them!
Alasdair Cook, Salisbury Socialist Party
From food banks to warm banks, the latest ‘solution’ to the various crises we are facing is for doctors to prescribe heating and for the NHS to offer fruit and veg vouchers. All in the sixth richest economy on earth.
But these policies are not enough to even count as a ‘sticking plaster’; an estimated three quarters of UK households are set to be in fuel poverty by the new year. Meanwhile, UK energy companies are seeing excess profits of up to £170 billion, so the case for nationalisation has never been clearer. These profits could easily cover the costs of energy bills for the UK population.
Also, while cold homes and cheap unhealthy food may cost the NHS large sums of money, this pales in comparison to how much austerity has cost the NHS. We also need a fully funded public health service!
Additionally, a £15-an-hour minimum wage would be a great step towards tackling the cost-the-living crisis and allow people to afford the basic necessities of life.
New workers’ party
Workers are already fighting for pay rises, and to defend services by taking strike action. But the fight for all these demands would be strengthened if we had a mass working-class party to fight for them.
Starmer has made it abundantly clear that a Labour government with him at the helm would follow the will of ‘the markets’. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has spoken of her commitment to ‘sound finance’ – which is translated to mean carrying out more austerity.
We need a genuine alternative. If even a few trade unions were to stand candidates independently of Labour in the next general election, a handful of workers’ MPs could get elected. This would act as a beacon to the workers’ movement and prepare the ground for a new mass workers’ party to develop. But if trade union leaders do not act decisively, then the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is preparing to stand candidates to fight for socialist policies at the ballot box.
