
The Socialist 5 February 2020
6.5 million working poor: Fight to end low pay

6.5 million working poor: Fight to end low pay
Labour leadership contest and public ownership
Coronavirus exposes capitalism's weaknesses in healthcare and economy
Record dissatisfaction with democracy: capitalism's dead end
Refuges turn away 64% of women - set no-cuts budgets now!
Grenfell watch: Unions challenge 'mockery of justice'
Nationalise the railways: For an integrated public transport system
Expensive, overcrowded and unreliable: Renationalise the railways!
Cancel the franchise, not our trains
Will the North get investment and transport infrastructure?
'Post-Brexit' era of crisis ahead
Huge victory for Bromley library workers after 241 days on indefinite strike!
14 more days of university strikes over pensions, pay and conditions
500 BBC journalists' jobs under threat
Newham council tax workers' pay victory
No to academisation of east London schools!
Ealing tax office workers strike against closure
Outrageous waiting times will put lives at risk
NHS: Save stroke beds in Coventry and Warwickshire
Syria: Assad regime consolidates power after brutal counterrevolution
Israel/Palestine: Trump 'peace plan' promises further conflict
Socialist Party calls anti-austerity protest on Budget Day
Sadiq Khan "out-Tories" himself to defend tech firms' tax bonanza
Reading Labour council: Stop privatising our leisure services
The rich fund the Tories and Blairites, so help fund the working-class fightback
Support the working-class press in 2020
Defend and fight for warm, safe housing for Samira and everyone
Alternative Burns Night success
Liverpool council: "No more cuts" - Is Joe Anderson serious?
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6.5 million working poor: Fight to end low pay
Nancy Taaffe, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
There are now 6.5 million workers in the UK who are part of the "working poor." There are now more people who are both working and in poverty than people who are officially unemployed. There are more employed people in rent arrears than there are people officially unemployed!
When the BBC screened a new adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in December, the right-wing press and commentators slammed it.
Perhaps part of this was because the drama had a contemporary theme. It made you feel that Victorian poverty wasn't so very far away from Britain in 2020.
The Conservative Party mantra of "making work pay" is refuted in the lives of over six million people where work is no route out of poverty. Work, for many, has become the modern equivalent of the Victorian workhouse.
Throughout the nineties and noughties, many well-paid, secure jobs were wiped out, in manufacturing, public services and other sectors. In many sectors, such as retail and the caring professions, government subsidies were introduced to mask the scandal of low-paying employers.
Rather than the trade union leaders mobilising workers to fight against low pay, they never did. Well-paid jobs have become scarcer - and government subsidies have all but gone.
To 'make work pay' we need to start by forcing bosses to pay decent wages that reflect the real cost of living. The Socialist Party demands a minimum wage of at least £12 an hour as an immediate step towards £15.
We need cheap and affordable rents through council housing and rent caps, and housing benefit that matches the real cost of housing.
We need our travel expenses to be affordable. We need childcare costs that don't prohibit us from being able to afford to work. We need to cut the working week without a loss of pay and share work out - it's illogical to have some toiling for 70 hours a week while others can't get anything but a part-time job. In short, we need socialist policies.
Just like today, in Dickens' day the bosses' profits boomed. They hoarded and speculated while those who toiled suffered.
Now, as then, we need a militant trade union fightback and a mass party to represent organised workers in the struggle against poverty, low pay and inequality.
In this issue
News
6.5 million working poor: Fight to end low pay
Labour leadership contest and public ownership
Coronavirus exposes capitalism's weaknesses in healthcare and economy
Record dissatisfaction with democracy: capitalism's dead end
Refuges turn away 64% of women - set no-cuts budgets now!
Grenfell watch: Unions challenge 'mockery of justice'
Rail
Nationalise the railways: For an integrated public transport system
Expensive, overcrowded and unreliable: Renationalise the railways!
Cancel the franchise, not our trains
Will the North get investment and transport infrastructure?
What we think
'Post-Brexit' era of crisis ahead
Workplace news
Huge victory for Bromley library workers after 241 days on indefinite strike!
14 more days of university strikes over pensions, pay and conditions
500 BBC journalists' jobs under threat
Newham council tax workers' pay victory
No to academisation of east London schools!
Ealing tax office workers strike against closure
NHS
Outrageous waiting times will put lives at risk
NHS: Save stroke beds in Coventry and Warwickshire
International
Syria: Assad regime consolidates power after brutal counterrevolution
Israel/Palestine: Trump 'peace plan' promises further conflict
Campaigns
Socialist Party calls anti-austerity protest on Budget Day
Sadiq Khan "out-Tories" himself to defend tech firms' tax bonanza
Reading Labour council: Stop privatising our leisure services
The rich fund the Tories and Blairites, so help fund the working-class fightback
Support the working-class press in 2020
Defend and fight for warm, safe housing for Samira and everyone
Alternative Burns Night success
Readers' opinion
Liverpool council: "No more cuts" - Is Joe Anderson serious?
Home | The Socialist 5 February 2020 | Join the Socialist Party
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1920s-30s Britain: A working-class movement fighting unemployment and capitalism
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