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Militant

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From: Article posted to home page Notebook, 16 August 2016: Brief articles and notes on the Socialist Party website

Search site for keywords: Militant - Socialist - Socialist Party - Tenants - Homes - Film - London - Butterfields

A reply to Guardian writer John Harris

Under the headline 'If Trotskyists are on the march there's chaos ahead', John Harris wrote an article in the Guardian on 12.8.16 attacking Militant and the Socialist Party. Below, in a letter they wouldn't print, Linda Taaffe responds.

In the run up to the London Assembly elections I took a call from a journalist about a piece on a local housing campaign. Yes of course, do come along. Can we interview tenants? Sure, we can set up a street meeting and you can film. Your campaign is typical of what's going on around London. Yes it is, except these tenants are refusing to budge. That's not typical.

John Harris and crew duly came and did the business. At the time I spoke to him and there was a friendly exchange. At no time did he express any hostility. He even bought a copy of the Socialist.

Yet today a few months later we are treated to vitriolic denunciations of Socialist Party members! When he came face to face with activists doing the business of defending workers from being evicted he had nothing useful to add.

We Socialists will continue fighting alongside workers to defend homes, jobs, pay, and fight for a future for our young people. We are certainly on the march, as Harris's article is headlined. But the chaos is here and now and we are key fighters in getting through that chaos of greedy capitalism to a more sensible place where we can begin to plan for everyone's needs. John Harris will forever be a mere commentator. Even the film footage turned out to be a rather bland "piece" and utterly forgettable.

Linda Taaffe, Socialist Party

Butterfields Won't Budge campaign has been running now since January. Fifty families are still in their homes.

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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.