Fight for socialist change
Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party
People want the Tories gone. That was the extremely clear message from the 2 May local elections. They lost 474 councillors and control of ten councils.
Many will celebrate the Tories’ devastating losses, and will be eagerly anticipating what is set to be an utter defeat for them in the general election. People want this government out because things have got to change!
Support for workers during the strike wave marked an increase in anger at low pay and the cost-of-living crisis. Polls show huge public support for nationalisation of water, energy and rail, at the very least. The participation of hundreds of thousands of people in the Gaza protests show mass disgust at the British government’s complicity in the actions of the Israeli military – over 33,000 dead.
There will be huge expectations that a Labour government will improve things. After all, the Labour leadership has promised a ‘new deal for working people’.
But on international workers’ day – May Day itself – Labour announced its plans to water down its pledges. Another policy U-turn in favour of the bosses looms.
Currently the working class, the majority of us who produce all wealth in society and have the power to change it, has no organised mass political voice.
Even with tremendous wins from industrial action and the Gaza protests alarming the establishment, the horrors of profit-driven capitalism carry on unchallenged.
The Socialist Party is campaigning for a workers’ list of candidates for the general election, backed by the trade unions, which could act as a step towards building a new mass working-class party. Such a party, armed with a socialist programme, could translate the huge desire for change and organise it into a force to bring an end to capitalism and begin building a fairer socialist society.
