- Back workers’ struggles for pay rises
- Build the working-class opposition to war and capitalism
It’s not a joke. After illegal parties during lockdown and inflicting real-terms pay cuts on the same NHS workers they had proclaimed as heroes, MPs are rewarding themselves with a £2,212-a-year pay rise from 1 April!
For working-class people, that same day will see an increase in National Insurance contributions, increases in council tax, and the energy price cap lifted to nearly £2,000. The bosses will use the war in Ukraine as an excuse to drive prices higher too. Most of us share a sense of dread in anticipation of the next months’ pay cheques and bills.
The future is full of uncertainty. But one thing we can be certain of, is that the Tories will continue to act in the interests of big business and the super-rich. And they don’t just do the bidding of the British capitalist class.
For all the talk of sanctions against Russian oligarchs in response to the war in Ukraine, the Tory party itself is saturated in donations from Putin’s friends in the Russian ruling class. One former Russian minister’s wife donated £160,000 to the party in 2014 in return for a tennis match with Johnson when he was London mayor!
Alongside dread of the worsening cost-of-living crisis, there is revulsion at the horrors of war – both fuelled by the capitalists’ lust for profits. There can be no trust in the bosses’ politicians to bring peace or prosperity. But as it stands, working-class people are without a political voice.
Labour leader Keir Starmer continues to back up the Tories – arguing in favour of harsher sanctions on Russia he warned British workers to be prepared for further “economic pain”. The Labour council in Coventry continues to spend millions undermining action by bin lorry drivers striking for a pay rise.
Workers are taking action to demand a pay rise, and strike action is spreading across the transport network, in education and beyond. And strikes get results! Health workers in Barts health trust, east London, after a successful two-week, are being brought back in-house with improved NHS terms and conditions.
We need a new mass party of the working class prepared to back up workers in struggle. The Socialist Party is fighting to make that happen, with others, by standing in May’s council elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. And if you are prepared to fight against the bosses’ attacks, we want you to stand too.
Join us to help build a workers’ voice against poverty and war, and in the struggle for a socialist world.
