Take the Fight to the Tories - for Socialist Solutions
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Summer Update 2021 Take the fight to the Tories - For Socialist Solutions Alisdare Hickson CC BY NC Steve Eason CC BY NC SA Alisdare Hickson CC BY SA Inside: Jeremy Corbyn MP Richard Burgon MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP Holly Turner Rachel Garnham Read Labour Outlook at www.labouroutlook.org and @LabourOutlook Steve Eason CC BY NC SA Socialist solutions to the crisis Richard Burgon MP This crisis has not only shone a I am optimistic we can win the and taxes on the super-rich, then that’s spotlight on the huge inequalities in progressive change needed because the very least Labour should be arguing our society – it has deepened them. the public agree with us. Polls show for. people want a more inclusive and It’s been a good crisis for some. British Even the Tories have had to adopt the equal society out of this crisis. billionaires increased their wealth by language of ‘levelling up’ and ‘building £106bn during the pandemic. But it’s And I am optimistic because the back better’. Of course that’s empty been a disaster for the majority. Thatcherite ideas rammed down rhetoric. people’s throats for decades are on the Tens of thousands of people needlessly But the left can use that space to fight ropes. It wasn’t long ago that we were lost their lives. We’ve seen a growing for a better society - from a wealth told the state should play no role in the corporate takeover of government and tax on the super-rich, to a Green New economy. After the banking crisis and the stench of corruption as billions in Deal that means we don’t deal with now this crisis, nobody can seriously Covid contracts are handed to those the climate crisis as badly as the Covid argue that. with friends in high places. crises. For a National Care Service that So change is in the air. But if left to its treats older people with dignity and We’ve seen the crisis used as cover for own devices that change will mean a for a 15% pay raise for NHS staff. For further outsourcing – with Serco and Tory Party using the state to bail out a minimum wage of £10 per hour, for others put in charge of Test and Trace. the billionaires while leaving the rest of millions of new council homes and for We’ve seen an education recovery fund society to sink. so much more, this is the moment for that gives working class kids just £1 progressives to seize the agenda and So we on the left need to be winning per day. And we’ve seen the crisis used fight for a society that serves the many, the argument – in our party, in our to drive down wages and conditions not the few. unions, in our communities for a through “fire and rehire”. progressive way out of this crisis. • Richard Burgon is MP for Leeds This crisis must be the moment when East and Secretary of the Socialist The wind is in our sails. When even a we ditch the free-market model that Campaign Group of MPs centrist US President is announcing has failed people and planet and the end of trickle down economics, a replace it with a better society. massive public investment programme We need system change, not climate change! In November, Britain will host COP 26, an annual summit of all the countries which are part of the UN’s climate change treaty. This will be a vital moment to strengthen the climate justice movement and demand real action from the UK, US and international community to tackle climate catastrophe, with a global climate strike day on November 5 and mobilisations around the country on November 6. • Find out more from the Campaign Against Climate Change: www.campaigncc.org FOE Scotland CC BY Labour Outlook No to Tory class warfare - for an economy Siân Errington, that delivers Labour Assembly for people and Against Austerity as ‘fire and rehire’ rip), escalating poverty public transport, universal, world class planet and deepening wealth inequalities that public services and homes for all - and could be ended. for substantial increases in public sector Despite the Tory spin, faithfully echoed pay and the minimum wage as part of It is women, Black and Asian and by much of the media, Boris Johnson’s raising incomes for everyone. Government is carrying forward their disabled people that have been the decade of economic class warfare – as hardest hit by both Tory austerity Instead of the meek opposition being exemplified by year upon year of vicious and their disastrous handling of the provided by Keir Starmer, now is the time austerity and cuts - by using the crisis pandemic. for Labour to put forward a radical vision of the future, putting people’s jobs and to continue their restructure of our And we know the Tories do not have the livelihoods ahead of the needs of the economy to further benefit the very ambitious policies needed to address the mega-rich. To win again, Labour must wealthiest. climate emergency – any action they do stand for an ambitious, bold economic take is insufficient and designed to look Millions of people every day experience alternative on the scale needed to match after the wealthiest first. the destruction and privatisation of our the challenges we face and that can public services, the real-terms pay cuts But there is an alternative – polling shows deliver a truly green, equal and socially for public service workers and beyond, the popularity of socialist policies. This just economy. the drastic increase in job losses (with includes policies such as expanding • Join over 20,000 in signing the many more to come unless further action public ownership and a massive People’s Plan for jobs and livelihoods is taken) the rise and rise of insecure programme of public investment to – at bit.ly/planforthepeople work (ensured by letting practices such amongst other things – rebuild decent It’s no surprise that we have 100,000 rate which will have consequences for us NHS staff fight vacancies across the NHS (predicted to all. rise to 250,000 by 2030), when we have After a decade of cuts to our wages, the seen our pay cut by up to a fifth. We government’s recent offer of a 1 percent for pay justice know from polling that 1 in 3 Nurses pay rise increase – a further real terms want to quit so we are hurtling into an pay cut - is a kick in the teeth and adds increasingly alarming situation. How insult to severe injury. We have publicly Holly Turner, on earth can we be expected to retain urged the Labour Party Leadership to NHS Workers Say No our highly skilled and experienced staff take more action and support us in when they are repeatedly beaten down our fight for pay justice. Keir Starmer and degraded by this Government? As has failed to make clear what he thinks workers we have been left trying to plug acceptable pay rise should be, other than the recruitment crisis, whilst not being it should be “at least 2.1%” and “fair”. paid properly and even as we continue This is not good enough, as leader of the to give our all, we are repeatedly opposition and representing a party with ignored regarding our pay and now a proud history of championing public this Government has delayed our pay services and fair treatment of workers, anniversary which should have been in we should be able to count on his April - why? support. We expect to see the party that We all need to be taking this situation formed the NHS, get behind the workers very seriously, because if we don’t force in their fight to save it. change the NHS will become increasingly What we are seeing now is workers Last summer a group of Nurses created dangerous. This is about safety and becoming organised, building power NHS Workers Say No, a campaign standards is why we are fighting for pay within their unions and increasing the group fighting for pay justice for all justice as safety is intrinsically linked to pressure in fighting for we are owed, and NHS workers after a decade of real that. Without a restorative pay increase we are united in doing that. So if you are terms cuts to our wages. We kicked off an already chronically understaffed a nurse or healthcare worker, or an ally the #NHSPay15 movement to increase workforce will be destroyed, and would of our profession, then please support us pressure on the Government to pay us be a move which would speed up in our fight. what we are owed. Major Health Trade privatisation in the NHS. We will see Unions such as GMB and UNITE also more NHS staff leaving or potentially • Follow the campaign at twitter.com/ support our demands and are actively working for outsourced companies and NurseSayNO campaigning with us. privatisation will speed up at an alarming www.labouroutlook.org @LabourOutlook Hence, they’ve fallen back on their Stand up to the favourite tried and tested tactic: divide and rule. Faced with a resurgent Say no Tory Party that openly boasts about racist Tories’ prosecuting a ‘war on woke’, Labour can’t sit on the fence or, worse still, elect to to Tory divide and rule take part in it. Some Labour grandees seem to have missed a fundamental denial of point: the more ground we cede to the Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP Tories, the more they win.