Reader's comment

Lessons of the cuts

I WAS born in 1936 and grew up with the welfare state, together with the nationalisation of many of the power industries. We took it all to be our right: free health care, council houses and subsidised rents, grants for higher education, and a network of welfare help for all those who needed it - the elderly, the disabled, big families, etc. This was our right, just as the railways, the gas and electricity, the water etc belonged to us.

When Mrs Thatcher 'sold the family silver' we had a rude awakening. Flush with the new freedom of credit facilities, some enjoyed the process of buying their council houses - until the crash began. Capitalism collapsed and now we are all being made to pay for it.

They are grabbing our health service and our welfare system to pay for their dishonesty and failure. Years ago we didn't know they could do that.

We should have seen that these major changes were vulnerable to attack. The creation of the welfare state should have been accompanied by a democratisation of power and decision-making, so that what was created could be sustained by the many and could never be taken away.

This, I have learned recently (although I'm a lifelong socialist), is what Trotsky meant by the permanent revolution.

Ella Lane

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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.

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