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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1066/29947
From The Socialist newspaper, 27 November 2019
Plymouth Blairites use Tory policies to side with anti-tenant landlords
This poster, aimed at hounding tenants, was pinned up at the children's social work HQ of Plymouth's Blairite Labour council (Click to enlarge)
Rob Rooney, Cornwall Socialist Party
Labour's manifesto seems to have struck a chord with working-class people. It gives us hope that austerity may be coming to an end.
But this poster, pinned up at the children's social work HQ for Plymouth Council, shows Tory philosophy dictates the actions of Labour-run local authorities.
Plymouth is run by a tight-knit cabal of Labour right-wing career politicians. This poster says they have no qualms about hounding tenants.
The idea of fighting the bedroom tax, benefit cap, two-children benefit cut-off, harassment of sick and disabled people with 'fitness to work' tests, Universal Credit or actually building council houses is foreign to these class traitors.
Social workers employed by Plymouth Council are clearly expected to destroy any relationship they have with families in need by reporting 'suspected fraud'.
Nothing could demonstrate more clearly that the stance towards struggling families is informed by old, cruel, self-serving, divide-and-rule ideas - 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, or that poverty is the sufferer's fault or a 'lifestyle choice'.
If a Corbyn-led government is elected, the rotten right-wing in Plymouth Labour Party will have to be removed before people feel any benefit.
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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.
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In The Socialist 27 November 2019:
What we think
Labour's manifesto: fight to transform hope into a socialist society
International socialist news and analysis
Regime's fuel price rise sparks massive protests across Iran
Sri Lanka: Presidential election sees return of dictatorial Rajapaksa clan
News
Tory election campaign's dirty tricks and lies
Resist attacks against free speech on campus
Northern Ireland: strike action by NHS workers
Prince Andrew outrage exposes establishment
Council cuts
End council cuts now, to end Tory austerity!
Workplace news
Uni strike takes fight to bosses
CWU's right to defend members is on the line
South Western Railway strike: "We're up for the fight"
PCS union ballot closes 12 December: Marion Lloyd for general secretary
Sixth-form college strikes: 'Sticking two fingers up at the Tories'
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Trump and Tories are a threat to environment
Brighton anti-academy campaign steps up
Posties withdraw goodwill from cruel bosses
Help fund the fightback: sponsor my marathon
Buy a historical biography for Christmas
Readers' opinion
The private sector will never provide broadband to every home, nationalisation will
Plymouth Blairites side with anti-tenant landlords
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