Covid spreading, poverty rising, rich get richer, fight for socialism!

Heathrow workers Strike Photo: Socialist Party (Click to enlarge)

Isai Priya

There are many crises facing workers and young people. The health crisis, with our NHS stretched to breaking point, pay cuts, job losses, and poverty.

We have heard many times from Boris Johnson and other right-wing politicians that we are all in this together. But are we? Throughout the pandemic, it has been one rule for them and another for us.

As parents, we have had to fight for food for our children. As workers we have had to fight for health and safety in our workplaces. As young people we see our future destroyed before our eyes.

We have watched MPs allow themselves to claim up to �10,000 for working at home while the rest of us got a 20% pay cut, and public sector workers a pay freeze.

The misery of the pandemic clearly isn't universal. Oxfam calculates that the combined wealth of the ten wealthiest men in the world increased by �400 billion from mid-March to the end of 2020 - more than enough to vaccinate everyone in the world against Covid and reverse the increase in poverty it has caused!

The total wealth of billionaires hit �8.8 trillion in December - the same amount the G20 governments have spent on Covid recovery.

The Covid-19 pandemic has graphically exposed the class inequality that exists within capitalism. By 2030, without 'drastic action', half a billion more people than at the start of the pandemic could be living in poverty - 'living' on less than �4 a day.

An urgent fightback is needed to save our lives and livelihoods. We should not be punished for the actions and policies of pro-big business governments and the greed of profit-driven multinational companies.

Take the wealth from the 1% and reinvest it into funding our healthcare, public services and decent jobs and pay for all. Fight for a socialist alternative to the capitalist profit system.

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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.

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.