Bea Gardner, Socialist Party National Committee
The world has its first trillionaire: Elon Musk. If his wealth was distributed to each of the million young people in Britain who can’t find a job, they would get $1 million each!
It’s the same as the annual wages of 30 million workers on the median salary of £33,000 a year. It is an amount that could build 4 million council homes: several times the number of those currently on housing waiting lists. It would fund the entire NHS budget for five years.
And to think, the world’s billionaires have increased their combined wealth by over $8 trillion – eight times Musk’s total wealth – just since 2020!
At the same time, workers’ wages have barely risen in real terms. In fact, wages are now ‘growing’ at the lowest rate since the pandemic. Unemployment has risen too.
No wonder we are feeling the pinch. Food, energy and fuel prices are all soaring. By the end of the year, food prices are estimated to be 50% higher than they were five years ago.
The energy price cap will rise by 13% on 1 July and is expected to rise again in October. That’s an extra £300 a year the average household will have to find on top of the extra £100 a year for council tax.
Unions must lead
We need the 6.6 million-strong trade union movement to fight for our rights and defend our living standards.
The political crisis confronting the Labour government is because they have failed to deal with any of the crises facing working-class and young people. Labour have not brought the change they promised but continue to try to act in the interests of the capitalist system that drives such obscene inequality.
The best message to send to any potential leadership challengers that also promise ‘change’ is we won’t wait for it. Rather, we are preparing an almighty fight: for real pay rises, full funding for our services and to nationalise industries, protecting jobs.
One lesson from the last strike wave is that striking works! The resident doctors’ improved offer is more proof. But we can’t rely on trade union leaders to act and carry through the fight unless they are pushed.
That means trade union reps and activists need to organise across our various unions to push for them to mobilise and act – to organise a national autumn demonstration against Labour austerity, to prepare ballots for strike action over pay, and also to come together and discuss the forming of a new trade union-led workers’ party. Because we need a party of our own that fights in our interests, not those of the super-rich.
