Socialist Students member Adam Tyas was a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in the St Michael’s ward in Coventry. He spoke at Coventry Socialist Party’s pre-election public meeting.
I am a student and young worker, standing for Coventry City Council, to represent and fight for students and all working people.
Students like me are leaving uni and entering work in tens of thousands pounds of debt. Whilst studying, we have to endure extortionate rents, and take the harshest edge of the cost-of-living crisis.
Exploitative landlords rob students. They charge too much, and give little to nothing in return, with poor maintenance and standard of homes.
Socialists like me will fight to cap rents and hold landlords to justice, and fight to build the publicly owned housing that people need.
We will fight to end student tuition fees, bring back proper student grants, and have fully free and suitable education and training for everyone.
It is no better after uni. The number of graduate jobs has just dropped below 10,000, according to Bloomberg. The number of graduates is 900,000 and climbing. The maths do not need explaining.
Young people leave uni or college, and enter a society where it is more and more difficult to find secure, well-paid jobs. This has a massive impact on people’s lives. We demand that councils and national government create new jobs for all.
There are limited-to-no services left in our local communities to use or help us. We are ultimately paying more for less.
Energy bills and fuel prices skyrocketing. Water bills up. Crap dumped in rivers in the remaining areas of nature we wish to enjoy in the limited time off work.
Poorly run, expensive public transport systems are ineffective and unaffordable, so we are unable to get to work, or even to hospital. Socialists in Coventry are fighting to scrap the hospital parking charges, nurses and visitors should not have to pay. End the profiteering PFI privatisation schemes in the NHS.
In my workplace – automotive/manufacturing – there was no pay rise last year. Workers have spent a year increasingly disgruntled.
Unite, our workplace union, has given members the statistics for the last two years. The cost of living has risen by 7%, and other companies in the region have had an average 6.1% pay increase.
So most workers are getting a pay cut. Profit for the millionaires and billionaires is put before our basic needs of the working class.
