Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party
‘Awful April’ has been a shock for every working-class household across the country. Bills have soared across energy, council tax, internet, and water, which is rising by as much as £200 a year. Millions of families already struggling to pay for the essentials – bills, rent, food, transport – cannot afford these obscene rises. They are now forced to debate what else they have to cut down on just to keep going. Put off replacing old clothes and shoes? Ask for extra hours at work? Join the millions visiting a food bank, or the one in seven who are already skipping meals?
The Labour government and the bosses of the energy and water companies all line up to tell us they understand. They don’t. If they did, they would find an alternative to price rises on top of price rises. Instead, the bosses are making more and more money off our backs.
More money for the bosses
Prime minister Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves have repeatedly told us their focus is on ‘growth’. Well, the wealth of billionaires and millionaires is growing and has been for years, but we’re still losing out!
Britain has the sixth-largest economy in the world, but it doesn’t feel like that for most of us. There is enough money here to ensure nobody has to struggle to afford the basics. But the sick, rotten and cruel capitalist system that our money flows through pushes wealth upwards. British Gas alone has made £1 billion in profits since 2023. £1 billion from one energy giant that should have gone to lowering bills instead went to the back pockets of the super-rich.
Capitalism isn’t working for the 99% of us – those of us who make the wealth that goes to the bankers and big bosses. It should be us in charge – the working class democratically deciding what we need, not what makes a profit for those at the top. We need to get rid of the capitalist system, and replace it with a fairer socialist one, where nobody is at risk of being pushed into poverty and desperation by the greed of a few.
