Come to TUSC conference, 4 February, London
Jack Jeffrey, Sheffield Socialist Party
UK household disposable income is likely to fall by £2,000 this year. No wonder the Tories are trailing in the polls and Rishi Sunak is desperate to pick his ratings off the floor.
His empty five-point plan will not undo over a decade of austerity and wage restraint.
Sunak’s refusal to increase public spending and give workers an inflation-proof pay rise means we will be worse off.
Instead he has shown his main priority – taking on workers fighting back against the cost-of-living crisis by pushing through more anti-strike legislation. Recent polls show the majority of people support the current wave of strikes and blame the government for forcing workers into action.
But Keir Starmer’s Labour is little better. He started the year also refusing to commit to more public spending, showing that his pledges to “take back control” and give communities “the chance to control their economic destiny” ring hollow.
The current wave of strikes in health, transport, mail, universities and education demonstrates clearly that workers have had enough of falling pay, deteriorating conditions and rising workloads. They are already ‘taking back control’ not through empty slogans but collective action. We need a new mass political voice for working people, organised around their needs – not safeguarding the status quo and profits for the wealthy. Keir Starmer is clearly indicating to the bosses – that a Labour government would be a safe pair of hands for them and their profits.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is an electoral alliance of socialist organisations (including the Socialist Party), trade union and community activists acting to build an independent voice for working-class people. In preparation for the upcoming local elections in May 2023 and the likely general election in 2024, TUSC is holding a conference at Birkbeck College in London on Saturday 4 February. We will be building on our clear ‘no cuts’ platform, and agreeing a core policy platform for the upcoming elections.
This is an important event for all those who want to challenge the parties of the status quo and give working-class people the political voice we need.
