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Low pay: Stop subsidising the bosses
Kshama Sawant, Socialist Seattle councillor, hands out placards at protest for $15 an hour, photo Socialist Alternative (Click to enlarge)
Simon Carter
Low-paid workers, typically employed in fast-food outlets and high street shops, have been the focus of trade unions and activists in the global day of action on 15 April.
Socialist Party members have been campaigning for a £10 an hour minimum wage now (compared to the current £6.50 an hour legal minimum), an end to zero-hour contracts, and for trade union workplace organisation.
The Labour Party has said it will increase the minimum to £8 an hour but only by October 2019 - a measly 30p an hour annual increase.
The Greens, who are projecting themselves as the anti-austerity alternative in the general election, echo the demand of the Socialist Party and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in calling for a £10 an hour minimum wage rate - but not until 2020.
Seattle
Successful action to drive up the minimum wage above the federal rate in the USA has progressed in cities such as Seattle, where Socialist Alternative councillor Kshama Sawant successfully moved a resolution committing employers to pay $15 an hour - which came into effect earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Citizens UK charity has pointed out that supermarket workers paid the minimum wage are forced to claim top up benefits amounting to £11 billion a year in total.
In effect, these highly profitable, but low-paying, supermarkets are being subsidised £11 billion by public finances.
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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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