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From The Socialist newspaper, 8 July 2020
£1,600 less benefits if your job goes - while super-rich splash cash
photo Dan Moyle/CC (Click to enlarge)
Households suffering unemployment during the pandemic will get £1,600 per year less in benefits than in 2011. Families with kids will have been robbed of £2,900 due to Tory benefit cuts, reports the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
And bosses could use Covid-19 to throw over a million more workers on the scrapheap, according to Bank of England projections. May estimates foresaw official unemployment doubling to 8% this summer, approaching the 2010 peak after the Great Recession.
Never mind paying down our debts, or even going on a modest holiday. How are working-class people even to keep up with racketeering rent and utility costs, on top of a killer virus?
Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that "a new item has been added to the wish list of ultra-wealthy homeowners: their own private hospital."
One super-rich house buyer specified on-site quarters for not one, but two full-time registered nurses (in case one gets sick). Buying agent Mark Lawson commented that "if you're spending £10 million or more, you'd expect it to come with large grounds and a few small cottages" to fit out and staff a personal clinic!
And there are no cancelled trips away for the super-rich! Shy Aviation, a private jet firm, reports a 300% rise in new client bookings compared to last year. Some are even "booking 13-seat aircrafts for one person, and they're running at £8,000 an hour." Private Islands Inc reports a 30% growth in enquiries about private islands.
Fight for a decent job, a living wage and living benefits for all. Take the wealth off the 1%. Nationalise the banks and big business - and turn them from cash siphons into planned providers for all.
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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.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 8 July 2020:
Workplace news
Fantastic virtual NSSN conference: "Fight for our lives and livelihoods''
Homerton hospital workers deserve equal pay and conditions
Jobcentre reopening: only union struggle will put safety first
Southampton UCU: election victory for combative rank and file
Tower Hamlets council workers strike against wholesale attack on terms and conditions
Nottingham unions fight council job cuts
News
Fight for every job, fight for socialism
Young people have no choice but to fight the system
Leicester: End the scandal of sweatshop labour
Covid pandemic and Northern Ireland - workers must resist the bosses' offensive
£1,600 less benefits if your job goes - while super-rich splash cash
Testing: Tories' £5bn gift to private sector
Johnson blames care workers for deaths
£3bn green pledge: not enough for climate or jobs
Poverty rises again - especially for BAME workers
No going back
No going back: Nationalise social care!
Campaigns
The best place to start - join the Socialist Party
Trans rights protests oppose Tory backsliding
Black Lives Matter - the fight is not over
International news
Hong Kong: The fight for democratic rights
Bangladesh: Stop closure and privatisation of Jute Mills
Readers' opinion
TV: The school that tried to end racism
Books that inspired me: The Fire Next Time
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