Them and us

Them and us   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Racist Robinson donation rejected

A workers’ representative on a workers’ wage. Genuine workers’ representatives, standing for elections, only accept the wage of an ordinary worker, to help make sure they’re accountable to the working class.

Racist MEP candidate Tommy Robinson has twisted this principle of the workers’ movement with a cynical populist ploy. He proposed donating part of his MEP salary to child victims of sexual grooming.

Robinson has never opposed cuts to domestic violence and children’s services. So he has had his phantom donation refused by 43 women’s charities for, as they say, his “factually incorrect messages about grooming… fuel racist hate.”


Young v old?

National Pensioners Convention members marching, photo Alison Hill

National Pensioners Convention members marching, photo Alison Hill   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The press has been flooded with news stories aimed at driving a wedge between young and old.

Guardian writer Philip Inman wrote an article ‘Britain has favoured the old over the young for too long’. The Intergenerational Foundation suggested means-testing – code for cuts – the state pension.

But in the previous issue of the Socialist, we said: “Attacking pensioners’ benefits will do nothing to help young people on low wages, facing unaffordable rents – victims of Tory austerity.” And the National Pensioners Convention argued: “Pensioners must stand alongside today’s workers in defence of their jobs, pensions and the right to a decent period of retirement.”


Charitable with trust

The number of people who give money to charity is declining, according to the Charities Aid Foundation. They point out that fewer people trust them.

The Oxfam sex scandal and other outrages have contributed to this.

For example, St Mungo’s homeless charity colluded with the Home Office and Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ to deport homeless people. St Mungo’s workers, in Unite the Union housing workers’ branch, had to strike to beat attacks on pay, conditions and union rights.

The report doesn’t point out another likely cause in fewer people donating to charity. While the richest 1,000 individuals in the country are £47.8 billion richer, austerity, economic crisis and capitalism mean 3.7 million children now live in poverty.

Working-class and poorer people donate most generously to charity. Charities run on a top-down capitalist basis will always have these problems.

The Socialist Party fights for the working class to have democratic control over the resources in society.


Violent private prisons

Private prisons are more violent than public prisons. On average, violent assaults are 47% more likely in for-profit prisons according to data provided to Corbynista shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon.

In 2018, the Prison Officers Association (POA) took unofficial strike action to demand sufficient staff to help alleviate rising violence.

The Socialist Party calls for the prison and probation services to be fully funded and renationalised to ensure the safety of all prisoners and workers. Reverse the staff cuts now.

A democratically controlled socialist justice system would work for protection and rehabilitation, not private profit.