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Labour's Poverty Scandal
...As rich parasites prosper
EVEN LABOUR'S tame backbench MPs were upset when their party's spin doctors tried to hide from them the cuts they were making in the Health Action Zones (HAZs) budgets.
The HAZs, health programmes for some of Britain's poorest communities, were already poorly funded. They were meant to be small local measures to combat inequality (see page 5).
But under New Labour, inequality is growing. The Family Policy Studies Centre recently reported that child poverty is still high by post-war and European standards.
Only Russia and the US in the industrialised world have higher child poverty rates.
Their report says that Labour's New Deal schemes have only helped a small percentage of lone parents while other 'remedies' such as the working families' tax credit have had little effect.
New Labour's 'strategy' for eradicating child poverty without tackling class inequalities just isn't working. Poor families have gained less from New Labour than middle-income earners - and far less than the seriously rich.
That's not surprising. Whose interests are New Labour ruling in? Tony Blair made Lord Simpson of Dunkeld a Labour peer before the last election. Simpson has earned £14 million in his four years running Marconi. His firm's directors are reviewing Marconi's pay policy because, they say, its top staff aren't well enough rewarded!
These parasites' priorities are New Labour's priorities too. Blair and Co. will do nothing to offend big business.
The latest United Nations human development report shows that disparities between rich and poor are widening in many countries. There's a dramatic chasm in Russia but the gulf is widening noticeably in countries like Britain.
We need action to end this gross inequality. Join a real fightback, join the Socialist Party. We're fighting for a socialist plan of production to benefit the working class and middle-class not the company directors, including a massive increase of public spending in basic services such as health, education, housing and childcare.
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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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