Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer
We have set an ambitious target to raise £30,000 at the Socialism 2016 rally so we have the finance we need to help build the developing movement against austerity – for example to defend Jeremy Corbyn in the fight to reclaim the Labour Party.
The Socialist Party has been to the fore in this campaign – that’s why Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson attacked the Trotskyists and why Militant, the predecessor of the Socialist Party, has been in the news again.
It was Militant who showed how we could beat the Tories and their echoes in the labour movement in the 1980s in Liverpool and who led the 18-million strong non-payment campaign against the poll tax that brought down Thatcher.
The Socialist Party has been virtually alone in calling for mandatory reselection as the only way to restore democracy in the Labour Party and evict the pro-big business Blairites. Our members successfully moved the resolution on reselection at Unite conference and also won agreement for Unite backing councils to refuse to carry out Tory cuts. If Labour MPs or councillors aren’t prepared to fight the cuts then they should go.
The Tories are hopelessly divided – they can be beaten by a determined struggle against the cuts and the attacks on the NHS, schools and the selling-off of social housing. Cameron and Osborne, the architects of austerity, have gone – why do we have to wait for up to four years for a Labour government?
Building a mass movement against the cuts now would make a Labour government more likely.
Socialist ideas are the key to fighting capitalist austerity. Capitalism, based on private greed, is a system in crisis and is out of control. Our living standards are being cut while at the same time 62 super-rich individuals have accrued more wealth than over half the world’s population – more than 3.5 billion people.
Internationalism
A proportion of the money we raise at Socialism 2016 will also go to assist the pioneering work of our comrades around the world.
You can help the work of the Socialist Party and the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI – the socialist international to which the Socialist Party is affiliated). Can you give £5, £50 or £500?
Can you ask other members and supporters to donate? Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference and all of it will go to building support for socialist ideas.