Why I joined: "I wanted to stand up, protest and change things"

Protesting against Trump, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)

Catherine MacLennan, Leeds Socialist Party

It was Donald Trump who, indirectly, prompted me to join the Socialist Party. I went on an anti-Trump demo in Leeds earlier this year.

It was great to see so many people who were willing to get out and protest against racism and bigotry. All ages, genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations were there that day - strangers chatting to strangers, posing for photographs, united in a common cause. At the demo I bought the Socialist paper.

Buoyed up by this, I went on the NHS demonstration in London on 4 March and listened to speeches and marched with placards (and a balloon!) surrounded by those who worked in the NHS, had reason to be grateful to the NHS or, in a few cases, remembered the birth of the NHS and wanted to save what they'd loved and believed in for so long.

I bought a copy of the Socialist again, read it, thought about it. Then I realised that I wanted to be one of those people who stands up and protests about what is unfair, works to change things for the better and meets those who I can learn from and exchange ideas with.

The best way to do this, I felt, was to join the Socialist Party.

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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.

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