How a fightback can stop the cuts
Introduction
Lessons of how Thatcher was defeated, By Hannah Sell, Socialist Party Deputy General Secretary.
There is no alternative to pain. This is the deafening drumbeat of the capitalist politicians and media. Tory prime minister David Cameron claims he has no choice but to take "tough" decisions and to carry out cuts that will "affect our whole way of life for years to come."
How the Tories were defeated last time around
The poll tax: It is not an accident that the most militant trade union leaders in Britain today, such as Bob Crow (general secretary of the RMT transport workers' union), are calling for the "biggest movement since the poll tax" to defeat the cuts...
Lessons for today
Every struggle has its own characteristics. Neither the poll tax nor Liverpool is an exact model for the battle against cuts that needs to be waged today...
A programme for unity
Ultimately, even more important than the organisational measures that are required, is the programme around which the struggle should be organised...
Build ‘anti-cuts unions’
Uniting the movement will need to have an organisational, as well as a political form. In both Liverpool and the poll tax Militant played a key political role. However, contrary to the slurs against us...
Role of trade unions
Thatcher made another major error in the poll tax movement: she confused the hesitant attitude of the leadership of the workers' movement for the attitude of the working class as a whole...
A political alternative
The anti-cuts movement is going to find itself in opposition to all of the major capitalist parties whose position on cuts is virtually identical...
The case for socialism
To be fully effective, anti-cuts candidates will need to put forward socialist ideas. Socialists do not accept that cuts are necessary. Capitalism has created enormous wealth, science and technique. We...
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