The Socialist 31 August 2016

#KeepCorbyn: For a party that fights for workers

#KeepCorbyn: For a party that fights for workers

Right's purges and exclusions show we must fight for a party for the 99%

Packed meeting discusses Trotskyism, Corbyn and socialist change

Trade unionists for Corbyn rally in Cardiff

Education: fightback needed

Pressure, lies and head games: being a school student in Tory Britain

Join the student fightback to end education cuts and austerity

No NHS cuts or closures

Grantham protest against night-time closure of A&E

Invest in grassroots sports needs

Women still take home 36% less than men

Over a million families in 'extreme problem debt'

France: Burkini ban fuels division

Chile: general strike threat as pensions protests grow

UberEats: Angry delivery drivers protest over pay

Solid bus strike for better terms and pay

Southern strike

Why you should join the Socialist Party today

Socialist Party 'collectathon' to raise crucial cash

Ken Loach and a Socialist seller join Sisters Uncut protest

Sunshine and socialism at Socialist Party summer camp

Can Britain have a pay rise?

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#KeepCorbyn: For a party that fights for workers

Uber Eats drivers protest over pay photo Scott Jones (Click to enlarge)

James Ivens

This has to stop, and we are going to stop it. This is the message of legions of workers fighting zero-hour contracts, poverty pay and the 'gig economy'.

Deliveroo drivers struck against their boss's grasping. He wanted to do away with hourly rates, and instead pay them per delivery. Just £3.75 an order.

"We can't survive on £3.75!" declared pickets, revving their bikes and battering drums outside HQ. The strike won.

Those drivers have now spread the fight to UberEats. Some workers have to gig for both to make ends meet. And their Uber brothers and sisters who deliver people instead of meals are organising against similar problems - no guaranteed hours or rates of pay.

Strike

Meanwhile, cinema workers at the Ritzy Picturehouse are again balloting for walkouts. After 13 strike days last year, they won a 26% raise. Just short of the London Living Wage. Management promised to discuss paying the full amount this year - but has refused.

This is casual labour. This is piece work. This is starvation pay. The bosses have taken us back in time, back to the 19th century. The Tories and Blairites abetted them.

That is why the anti-austerity movement massing behind Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership is so important.

His platform opposes zero-hour contracts, and promises a £10 an hour minimum wage. These and other pro-worker policies are why trade unions should support him.

And many do. One of the most enthusiastic is bakers' unions BFAWU, which has led victorious strikes against zero-hour contracts at Hovis.

Labour's right wing is so petrified of organised workers that it has suspended BFAWU's pro-Corbyn general secretary Ronnie Draper. Ronnie has been a Labour Party member for four decades! This open assault on democracy is an outrage. The Socialist Party condemns it, and calls for Ronnie's reinstatement.

Ronnie will join Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell at the National Shop Stewards Network lobby of this year's Trade Union Congress. All these crucial issues will be on the agenda.

Join fellow trade unionists and socialists on the NSSN lobby in Brighton on 11 September, 1pm in the Ashdown Suite, Holiday Inn, 137 King's Road (seafront), Brighton BN1 2JF.

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#KeepCorbyn: For a party that fights for workers