Neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Hunt offers a decent future for workers, young people and others facing hardship. Does this mean we should be despondent? Absolutely not!

The Tory party, once regarded as the most successful capitalist party in the world, is now a party riven by divisions over Brexit and many other issues.

They are on the cusp of tearing themselves apart. Regardless of whether it is Johnson or Hunt who is elected Tory leader, neither can unite the deepening opposing views within their party on how best to defend the interests of capitalism.

Johnson is favoured by the Tory membership, which overwhelmingly has a small-business mentality. Neoliberal capitalism, the banks and big businesses that the Tory party exists to represent, may not want Hunt, but prefer him to Johnson.

Both candidates are key figures in the nasty party, presiding over austerity in the years following the 2007-08 economic crash.

The government's own figures on child poverty make grim reading. Around four million children live in poverty. Seven in ten of these children come from working families!

Universal Credit continues to force claimants into debt. Low-paid, casual work and zero-hour contracts are now the norm for millions of workers, young and old. Welcome to 21st century Britain.

Against this backdrop of grinding poverty the two Tory hopefuls have set out their policies. Showing their fear of huge stockpiled anger against austerity, each has promised small increases in public funding, while also promising to maintain the 'discipline' of cutting them!

Eton-educated Johnson, who acts the court jester in a desperate attempt to detract from his brutal anti-working class attacks, is offering tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations. Charterhouse-educated Hunt has suggested he would copy Donald Trump's tax cuts - again for the rich.

Hunt has promised to scrap student debt - but only for entrepreneurs. What about the nurses, teachers, engineers and many other workers who make a valuable contribution to society rather than profit?

Furthermore, Hunt refuses to rule out voting to toughen abortion law, thereby threatening women's right to choose. Johnson too is notorious for his divisive, bigoted rhetoric.

Amid all this it is clear we need a general election. The fear of a Corbyn-led government among the ruling capitalist class is palpable.

How dare well-heeled senior civil servants, cossetted mandarins who are supposed to be 'non-partisan' but in reality defend capitalism, question whether Corbyn is up to the job?

This latest attack is all about the enthusiasm an anti-austerity government would awaken in the working class, not the man himself. It needs a robust response, not just from Corbyn, but from the wider labour and trade union movement.

Workers need a mass party of our own with socialist policies. We must fight to make Labour into that.

Put pressure on the trade union leaders to call for a mass demo to build towards coordinated strike action to bring the government down. Only through such battles can we begin to see the lives of working-class people transformed.

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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.