Tories out!
Keep up the fight for inflation-proof pay rises
Build a new mass workers’ party
Michael Johnson, Leeds Socialist Party
Every week I wince as I reach the checkout for the weekly shop. The cost of the basics, things like milk, pasta and bread, keep shooting up. In fact the Office of National Statistics has confirmed what we all already knew – food prices are rising at their fastest rate in over 40 years!
The Tories promised inflation was on its way down. No, CPI inflation was at 10.4% in February, up from January – and this measure is typically an underestimate for working-class households.
Households that already cut back on the bare essentials a few months ago, are now having to plan more drastic measures. Parents skip meals to make sure there’s enough for their children. Just how much more can we do without?
But not all of us are suffering. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has paid more than £1 million in tax since 2019. How much is he earning! He’s not buying Morrisons Savers range to avoid going into his overdraft. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has paid £118,000 tax in the last two years – he isn’t scrimping and saving either!
Both defend the interests of big business raking in bumper profits – 89% higher than before the pandemic. To prove his party is a safe pair of hands for the bosses, Starmer has blocked Jeremy Corbyn from standing for Labour – backed by the party’s NEC leadership body.
This can’t continue. The fantastic strikes show the way forward. We need inflation-proof pay rises and a minimum wage of at least £15 an hour, without exemptions. We need real living pensions and benefits that keep up with the rising cost of living.
We need a political force that backs the strikers and fights for what’s needed to end the cost-of-living crisis. That’s why the Socialist Party calls on the trade unions to back Corbyn standing in a general election, independently of Labour and as part of a union-backed workers’ list of candidates, as a step towards a new mass workers’ party.
