Trade unions must lead fightback
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves say it was a “tough decision” to scrap Winter Fuel Payments, taking £1.4 billion from pensioners’ pockets. The top 20 biggest energy companies have posted £61 billion of profits already so far this year. And the government has given them permission to increase bills by a further 10% from 1 October.
The real tough decisions will be made by pensioners setting their thermostats as autumn approaches. So too by parents, including those of the 1.6 million children affected by the two-child benefit cap, many who will go without to make sure their kids don’t go hungry, or have decent shoes to start the new school year with.
The misery of Tory austerity is continuing under a Labour government, and Starmer is telling us “things will get worse”.
The best fighters against the Tories were the trade unions – 6.5 million workers, many of whom fought back together to win improved pay and funding for services. It’s no accident that the Labour government has given the biggest pay offers to those workers it sees as the most likely to continue striking.
Starmer and Reeves can’t be allowed to pen the finer details of their 30 October Budget, safe in the assumption that the trade unions are backing them. The trade union leaders have to show that they will organise the fightback against the attacks to come. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton from 8-11 September should be used to make that message crystal clear.
The Socialist Party is supporting the National Shop Stewards Network lobby of the TUC on Sunday 8 September, pressing for demands that should be put on the Labour government, including abolition of all the Tory anti-union laws, and full funding for public services including local government.
The trade union leaders must answer the Labour government’s claims of a £22 billion black hole by pointing out the huge profits the super-rich bosses are making at the expense of workers. The wealth is there to provide decent services, decent pay, and to meet the needs of all working-class people. A key trade union policy to fight for, part of the working class getting its hands on that wealth, is for nationalisation under democratic workers’ control and management.
