Isai Marijerla, Socialist Party National Treasurer
The Socialist Party has been tirelessly campaigning through the summer, fighting for socialist policies like a real pay rise for workers, rent control, and proper funding for our essential services like health and education – and for steps towards a new mass party of the working class to fight for it. We have been supporting workers taking action against the bosses, including those fighting against Labour council cuts, like the Birmingham bin workers.
It has been a very busy summer, and we are going into an even busier autumn. Already our members have helped to organise hundreds of students to walk out of their schools and colleges in protest at Trump’s visit to the UK (see page 4-6)
We have a long and proud record of defending the working class and young people’s rights. We have also consistently been campaigning for a new democratic mass workers’ party to fight for socialist change.
The 800,000 people who signed up to ‘Your Party’ show the huge enthusiasm for an alternative to the establishment policies and parties. The Socialist Party has organised well over 50 local public meetings to discuss ‘What next for Your Party?’, what programme and structure we need.
The central point that we have been arguing and campaigning for is that the trade unions, the organised working class, have to be at the core and the main force in a new workers’ party. With 6.5 million workers, they are the biggest and most powerful organisation and force in Britain. We have been taking part in ‘Trade Unionists for a New Party’ meetings organised by members of different trade unions such as Unite, NEU, UCU, Unison, CWU, Napo, Usdaw and PCS. In all of these, motions have been drawn up, to be taken into the unions to put pressure on the respective union leaderships to be involved in a new party.
The Socialist Party is proudly based on the working class and young people. All of our activities and campaigns are funded by our members and supporters. Every quarter, we have a fighting fund target of £25,000. This is so that we can carry on producing the materials, posters, placards, pay for meeting rooms, etc.
