Nick Chaffey, Socialist Party National Committee
Tens of thousands of workers and youth have come out onto the streets to confront attempts by the far right to mobilise racist protests. This magnificent show of solidarity shows the way forward in tackling racism and the problems facing communities which have suffered decades of cuts and rising poverty.
The cost-of-living crisis, low wages and high rents, the collapse of public services. These are the results of funding cuts and privatisation carried out by the Tory government, big business and local Labour councils.
The Socialist Party calls for a united working-class fight for jobs, homes and public services for all, against racist division. We live in the world’s sixth-richest country. The money is there; we need to fight for it.
The Tories’ crushing general election defeat showed the huge anger at the crisis facing working-class communities. It followed the huge strike wave and mass protests against the war on Gaza which have bought workers and their communities together in a common struggle.
The trade unions, representing over 6 million workers, must use their authority and build a mass campaign in every workplace, which should include calling a national demonstration demanding an end to racism, a £15-an-hour minimum wage, rent controls and full funding for public services.
Facing defeat, the Tories turned to the tactics of divide and rule. For them, racism is a means to scapegoat others for the failings of the capitalist system they defend. Rather than challenging the Tories, Starmer’s Labour joined in the anti-immigration rhetoric.
We need an alternative that represents the interests of the working class. The election of five Reform MPs, who have fanned the flames of racism, is a warning of what is to come if the workers’ movement does not fulfil the task of creating a political alternative.
The Socialist Party is fighting for the trade unions to call a conference of trade unionists, anti-racists, socialists, including Jeremy Corbyn, the anti-war independent MPs, those excluded from Labour for opposing the two-child benefit cap, to discuss the way forward. A new mass party for the working class with socialist policies, to answer the lies of the racist far right, would be a huge step forward. It would build confidence that we can fight back and put an end to this rotten system, and the racism and division it breeds, with a new socialist world.
