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Them & Us
Food banks
The Con-Dems austerity cuts have pushed hundreds of thousands into poverty. According to the Trussell Trust that operates emergency food banks, 492,641 people were given three days' food between April and September this year - a 38% increase on last year. Benefits sanctions, cuts and delays accounted for 45% of food bank referrals.
Xmas cheer
It seems that the spirit of Scrooge - the fictional tight-fisted employer in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - has arrived early this year.
Nurses at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children in London have been told by their employer to work for nothing following an accountancy mess-up resulted in them being overpaid by six and a half hours a year - an average overpayment of £82.
Pocket money
Tony Blair - warmonger, adviser to tyrants and multi-millionaire - is trousering some additional pocket money courtesy of a taxpayer funded £115,000 allowance for 'carrying out public duties'. Apart from standing to attention at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday for a minute, can a reader recall any other public duties performed by the at-large war criminal?
Mental health crisis
NHS workers have denounced the savage cuts in mental health provision. According to the Royal College of Nursing there are now 3,300 fewer posts in mental health nursing (an 8% decline) and 1,500 fewer beds, than in 2010. Inevitably, patient care for some of the most vulnerable people will suffer.
Minimum wage delay
According to the Office for National Statistics 287,000 workers were paid below the legal minimum wage, currently £6.50 an hour. The Trades Union Congress reckons the figure is nearer 350,000.
Despite this blatant flouting of the law the government has only prosecuted two employers for paying less than the minimum wage since coming into office. At that rate it will take 700,000 years to deal with the current case load!
Polluters don't pay
Fracking - the environmentally damaging but highly profitable method of extracting shale gas and oil - is a central part of the government's energy agenda. But they tell us not to worry too much as any potential pollution or earthquakes caused by fracking as the process will be monitored by drilling hundreds of boreholes. However, the cost of this 'reassurance' won't be met by 'big oil' but instead from public funds costing £60-£80 million.
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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.
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