Join the Socialist Party to fight for change - socialist change

Fight for Socialism placard (Click to enlarge)

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, Socialist Party national organiser

Everywhere you look there is proof that our world is afflicted by enormous inequality - on our side there is austerity, poverty and war and on the other side for the super-rich 1% there is enormous wealth. Watching TV last night provided ample evidence of the need for change, socialist change.

On the eve of the publication of the Chilcot Inquiry which investigated Britain's involvement in the 2003 Iraq War a documentary called the 'Blair Rich project' caught my eye.

During the Iraq war former Prime Minister Tony Blair was known as George Bush's poodle for his obedience to the warmongering demands of the US president to invade and bomb Iraq. The Socialist Party, which played a leading role in the anti-war movement, explained that Blair was also a poodle to big business, which gained from his Thatcherite policies of privatisation and cuts.

Since leaving office Blair has revealed more fully that he was always more of a running dog of capitalism. He is paid millions to 'advise' dictators. The documentary showed footage of striking oil workers being shot down and massacred by state forces under the Nazarbayev regime in Kazakhstan, one of Blair's clients.

Blair has seized every bit of media coverage he can to attack Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party - it is a threat to his transformation of Labour into a second Tory Party. The Socialist Party is calling for the active defence of Corbyn by the working class and labour movement and a fight against austerity.

Later a Channel 4 Dispatches programme investigated the impact of the Tories' so-called National Living Wage (NLW) on low-paid workers. It revealed that some of Britain's biggest companies, including Tesco and B&Q, make stealth attacks when they switch to the NLW.

Café Nero said that the cost of the NLW, still lower than the actual living wage, demanded "operational changes" and they withdrew the sandwich staff had been receiving at lunch time.

The documentary also showed the scam of 'self-employment' with workers classed as 'independent contractors' so companies can avoid paying even the NLW and the benefits that come with proper employment.

We need a £10 an hour minimum wage for all with no exemptions. This would start to address these scandals of poverty pay and gross inequality. The Socialist Party along with others, including the bakers' union, have popularised this demand which has now been adopted by the TUC.

In the US city of Seattle the election of socialist Kshama Sawant in 2013 to the city council was crucial to the victory of the campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage which shows what's possible when we have a determined movement and a political voice for the working class.

Voice

Jeremy Corbyn's call last summer for £10 an hour inspired thousands to vote for him. But most Labour MPs and councillors oppose him. While the right wing has controlled Labour, working class people have had no political voice.

It is vital for Jeremy Corbyn to mobilise his anti-austerity supporters both in the Labour Party and outside to fight the Tories and kick out the traitors. This means building a party that fights in the interests of workers and young people - not the bosses. That means a socialist programme.

Seattle is rich in lessons. For a start, it represents a $3 billion transfer of wealth from the bosses to the poorest workers. It shows that when workers organise and fight back, we can win. It shows that only parties that are unapologetically committed to fighting for the working class can be relied on to defend workers. And it shows that, as Kshama explains: "you don't have to be a socialist to fight back - but it helps!"

The working class is the majority in society, with enormous potential power, capable not only of defending our pay and fighting austerity, but also of changing the world.

Socialists fight for a dignified life for all - and that means building a mass struggle for wages we can live on. Capitalism, a short-sighted and crisis-ridden system, only offers us crumbs off the plates of the super-rich 1%.

Socialism would be completely different - it would mean using the vast resources in society to meet the needs of all. A socialist government would take into public ownership the top 150 companies and banks that dominate the economy and run them under democratic working class control and management. Compensation would be paid only on the basis of proven need.

Democratic planning of production would allow humanity to build a world without exploitation, inequality and hunger - while also protecting the environment.

If you think this is the kind of change you want to see, then join us today!

Why I joined: I want my generation and others to have a better future

Why I joined: My real education started when I became a Militant supporter

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.