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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1118/31909
From The Socialist newspaper, 27 January 2021
Covid spreading, poverty rising, rich get richer, fight for socialism!
Heathrow workers Strike Photo: Socialist Party (Click to enlarge)
Isai Priya
There are many crises facing workers and young people. The health crisis, with our NHS stretched to breaking point, pay cuts, job losses, and poverty.
We have heard many times from Boris Johnson and other right-wing politicians that we are all in this together. But are we? Throughout the pandemic, it has been one rule for them and another for us.
As parents, we have had to fight for food for our children. As workers we have had to fight for health and safety in our workplaces. As young people we see our future destroyed before our eyes.
We have watched MPs allow themselves to claim up to £10,000 for working at home while the rest of us got a 20% pay cut, and public sector workers a pay freeze.
The misery of the pandemic clearly isn't universal. Oxfam calculates that the combined wealth of the ten wealthiest men in the world increased by £400 billion from mid-March to the end of 2020 - more than enough to vaccinate everyone in the world against Covid and reverse the increase in poverty it has caused!
The total wealth of billionaires hit £8.8 trillion in December - the same amount the G20 governments have spent on Covid recovery.
The Covid-19 pandemic has graphically exposed the class inequality that exists within capitalism. By 2030, without 'drastic action', half a billion more people than at the start of the pandemic could be living in poverty - 'living' on less than £4 a day.
An urgent fightback is needed to save our lives and livelihoods. We should not be punished for the actions and policies of pro-big business governments and the greed of profit-driven multinational companies.
Take the wealth from the 1% and reinvest it into funding our healthcare, public services and decent jobs and pay for all. Fight for a socialist alternative to the capitalist profit system.
Donate to the Socialist Party
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 27 January 2021:
News
Covid spreading, poverty rising, rich get richer, fight for socialism!
Health, Covid and the vaccine: It's a class issue
Poverty wages: When workers can't afford to self-isolate
Fees frozen at £9,250 a year, fight for free education
DVLA Covid outbreak: They only care about output and productivity
Jaguar Land Rover: West Midlands superspreader
Schools
Schools: 'We have to fight for everything'
Martin Powell-Davies for NEU DGS: "We need to use our collective strength"
What we think
Biden, Labour, and the need for a new mass workers' party
Workplace news
Sage care workers strike again: Billionaires refuse to pay up
Unison NEC elections: United left challenge needed to fight slaughter of jobs and services
Steel site scaffolders strike for the 'rate of the job'
Merseyside: DHL workers at Burton's Biscuits strike against half-baked pay deal and bullying bosses
British Gas engineers continue strike against fire-and-rehire plans
Low-paid hospital workers strike
NHS
Overwhelmed, underfunded, underpaid, and still fighting for safe PPE
Health worker cooperation in the face of the pandemic
Arab Spring
Ten years since the 'Arab Spring'
TUSC
TUSC is up and running for May elections
Come to the TUSC local elections conference - 7 February
Why I'm leaving Labour and campaigning for TUSC
Councillors in Surrey resign from Labour and look to stand independently
Campaigns
Solidarity meeting with Mohamud Hassan
Save Our Square from New Labour gentrification
Help fund a challenge to austerity at the ballot box - donate today!
International socialist news and analysis
Mass protests in Russia against Putin regime
Review
TV review: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain
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