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

João (left) with dock workers in Portugal sending solidarity to National Museum Wales strikers (Click to enlarge)

João Felix

I joined the Socialist Party because I could no longer stand on the side-lines.

I am from Portugal and started university in 2008, the year of the big financial crisis. Me, my friends and our entire generation felt the effects and implications of the capitalist system we live in and the failed promises it made us.

Austerity

We started to see tuition prices rising, friends dropping out of university, colleagues graduating and spending years looking for a job, whole families losing their salaries and being deprived of a living. It only got worse in 2011, when Portugal got a so-called 'bailout' from the Troika (European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank) with even more brutal austerity measures that drove hundreds of thousands to poverty.

The only chance I saw of getting a better education and decent job prospects was to migrate, so I decided to come to Britain to do a masters degree and find work. Shortly after I arrived in Portsmouth, I met Socialist Party members at the fresher's fair and joined, taking a much more active role since moving to Cardiff.

I became a member of the Socialist Party because I want my generation and others to have a better future. That is only achieved by being active and organised, with a clear programme based on the international experience of the working class.

For me, the Socialist Party puts forward the clearest analysis and methods to achieve a fair and equal society, that provides for the needs and aspirations of the many and not the whims of the few. Not just in words, but in deeds, with members constantly amazing me with all the hard work and tirelessness they show in the daily struggle.

The Socialist Party is internationalist, affiliated to the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), present and active in more than 40 countries. For me, as socialist but also as a migrant, that is especially important.

I want to be part of the struggle for a better world and the Socialist Party is the organisation with the best programme to stand against austerity and to build a socialist future, with a close sense of comraderie and friendship. But don't take it from me, come to a meeting or say hello at a stall and find out what we stand for!

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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.