Solidarity not charity

Hull unions launch Unity Shop

(Click to enlarge)

Hull Trades Union Council launched its Unity Shop food bank initiative on 26 September. The trades council coordinates the unions in Hull.

Faced with poverty unseen for a generation, the trades council felt that it had to show solidarity to families struggling to put food on the table.

Millions of workers nationally, and thousands in our area, through no fault of their own, are facing a bleak future. The capitalist system has failed them.

Unity Shop provides solidarity, not charity, to those workers with food and other needs. Linked to this is a call to arms to fight to change the system that creates poverty in the first place.

The socially distanced launch was more low key than we had hoped, due to the restrictions of Covid. However, speeches from trades council officers - including Ken McCall and blacklisted activist Tony Smith, who have done most of the organising - were streamed and watched over 7,000 times. The highlight of the evening was Joe Solo's passionate singing and support.

Even before the formal launch, struggling families contacted Unity Shop for support. One mother had even blown up the launch picture in the Hull Daily Mail, to be able to read the telephone number of the shop.

Mick Whale, Hull Trades Union Council chair

Donate to the Socialist Party

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.

Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.

We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to click here to donate to our Fighting Fund.