Deji Olayinka, Croydon and Sutton Socialist Party
Many people voted Labour at the general election because they were sick and tired of the Tories, and austerity that left services crumbling and our standards of living falling.
Any hopes in Labour have been shattered. The utter disaster is worsening under Keir Starmer’s government: NHS in crisis, schools underfunded, council tax going up while services are slashed, and yet more austerity cuts promised.
Divide and rule
Like the Tories before them, the Labour government has gone after those it sees as easy targets first – pensioners, disabled people, trans people. Using ‘divide and rule’ and scapegoating to try to redirect frustration away from themselves and the super-rich capitalist bosses whose interests it is most concerned with. By doing so, Labour has opened the door for right-wing populists Reform UK to make electoral gains.
Labour have attacked every part of the working class since taking power. But we haven’t taken it lying down. There’s been inspirational protests: thousands marched in London against disability cuts, and most recently a rapid mobilisation of tens of thousands in response to the Supreme Court ruling, protesting to defend trans rights.
But now we need to win!
Just two years ago, the trade union movement was leading the fight against the cost-of-living crisis. By striking, including days of coordinated strike action, workers forced concessions from the Tories and money from the incoming Labour government.
Workers fight back
Now the unions must lead the fightback, including with strike action to demand fully funded public services and decent pay. The trade union movement could bring together all those fighting Labour attacks by organising a mass weekend demonstration, in its own name, against Starmer’s austerity, as a step towards future coordinated strike action.
Reform UK, which offers no way forward for the working class, cannot be allowed to present itself as a way to express hatred at Labour at the ballot box.
We need a working-class political alternative that says make the super-rich pay, not the workers. The trade unions should stop wasting money backing Labour candidates that attack our jobs and services, and instead stand their own candidates to fight on our side against the bosses.
104 trade unionists, activists, socialist and community campaigners put up a socialist stand on 1 May, by standing as candidates as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. Pointing the way towards the new mass workers’ party we need, with socialist policies to meet the needs of all.
