Don’t just fight the bedroom tax, scrap it entirely!

It’s easy to say what you’re against. We do it all the time but it’s harder to say what you’re for. In terms of the bedroom tax many are against it in principle yet can we trust them? The labour party campaign against this tax yet Ed Miliband can’t decide if he supports it or is against it. To me we can never trust the labour party under any circumstances history tells us this. Labour were in words against the poll tax yet labour councils were some of the most vicious in implementing the tax. It is the same today labour councils will implement the so called bedroom tax and cry crocodile tears after. But things do not have to be this way. Politicians keep inviting us to feel sorry for them as they have to make tough choices - choices of whose jobs, whose terms and conditions, whose services to cut. That's not a tough choice as far as we're concerned. If you represent working class people you don't make cuts. People who do face real tough choices are those who live in the 660,000 households affected by the bedroom tax. They face choices like: "Do I try to pay my increased housing costs or put food on the table? Will I face the threat of eviction for being behind in my rent or will my family go hungry?" A large portion of the victims of the bedroom tax are disabled; 63% of affected households have one or more disabled person. Stephen Palmer of Merthyr is being charged bedroom tax but his 'spare' bedroom isn't empty - it is filled to the brim with his essential kidney dialysis equipment! The bedroom tax is supposed to be about maximising the use of existing social housing, by 'encouraging' people to downsize. If you are poor, receive housing benefit and in social housing, you now have no right to be secure in a home filled with family memories and part of a community, surrounded by friends and neighbours. If the size of your household changes through kids growing up, hospitalisation or even bereavement, you are expected to move or pay a huge penalty. Even if you don't mind moving, in many parts of the country finding smaller accommodation is impossible. According to Welsh local authorities, there are just 400 single-bedroom properties in social housing in the whole of Wales and four (out of 22) council areas have no single-bedroom homes available. And there's no help with the substantial costs of moving anyway. A month into the bedroom tax, thousands of people are finding they can't pay. It is perhaps the single most blatant attack on the poorest in our communities. It has to be fought along with the whole raft of Con-Dem cuts. To charge tenants who are already on low incomes for having a room where people they are close to can stay is just about the meanest trick of a government which has a world-class reputation for mean tricks. The government says: 'take a lodger'- but why should people share their homes with someone they hardly know, when they want to share their homes with those they are close to? The government says: 'get a few extra hours work'. What planet are they on? Don't they realise that everyone is having their hours cut! The government says: 'move to a smaller property or a cheaper area'. Where are all these one-bedroom properties? They don't exist. And why uproot yourself to a new area, away from schools, contacts, and support networks? The bedroom tax is an outrage, and that's why people are getting angry. Half the people signing petitions against the tax aren't even hit by it, but they know people who are affected - family, friends, and neighbours - and they think it stinks. Protests are taking off - not just demonstrations but targeted protests at Labour councils who, for all their 'campaigning' against the tax, will implement it to the hilt, and against housing associations who are busy taking on more 'enforcement officers' to 'deal with' the tenants who fall behind on rent. That's why we need to build street networks and 'telephone trees' to quickly respond to threats by bailiffs. No evictions of tenants who fall into rent arrears as a result of austerity cuts. Organise local campaigns to oppose the tax and defend our homes, and link them to existing anti-cuts groups Stand candidates against councillors who try to evict us. Build a new mass workers' party that draws together workers, young people and activists from workplaces and anti-cuts campaigns, to provide a fighting, political alternative to the pro-cuts parties Cap rents and build homes. Invest in a major programme of council house building and refurbishment to provide affordable homes for all and decent jobs End low pay! If workers are paid a genuinely living wage they would not need to claim housing benefit Fight all the cuts. Trade unions must build for a 24-hour general strike as the next major step in the campaign against austerity For a socialist alternative to cuts and capitalism with a democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people - not the 1%.

Make the bedroom tax unworkable

In similar ways the bedroom tax has been the straw that broke the camels back and a little like the infamous poll tax which saw Margret Thatcher finally defeated this bedroom tax could become David Cameron and the tories very own poll tax. We need to make this tax unworkable with mass resistance and mass civil disobedience needed to defeat this vicious tax. The socialist party says : • No evictions of tenants who fall into rent arrears as a result of austerity cuts. Organise local campaigns to oppose the tax and defend our homes • Stand candidates against councillors who try to evict us. Build a new mass workers' party that draws together workers, young people and activists from workplaces and anti-cuts campaigns, to provide a fighting, political alternative to the pro-cuts parties • Cap rents and build homes. Invest in a major programme of council house building and refurbishment to provide affordable homes for all and decent jobs • End low pay! If workers are paid a genuinely living wage they would not need to claim housing benefit • Fight all the cuts. Trade unions must build for a 24-hour general strike as the next major step in the campaign against austerity • For a socialist alternative to cuts and capitalism with a democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people - not the 1% Many of those actively taking part in anti bedroom tax campaigns are mostly those not affected by this tax but want to get involved and lend solidarity all the same. More the better i say. It says everything about the major movement and politicisation that could develop that most of those participating are not affected by the bedroom tax but are acting in solidarity. The rage against the rich and their political representatives is palpable - the sheer injustice of bankers' bailouts and their bonuses, MPs' expenses, pay-day loan sharks, foodbanks, food prices, unemployment. There is also an understanding that those in power will not cease their attacks on the working class and gains of the past such as social housing unless they are forced to. 'Spare room' myth-busting! Myth #1: people have 'spare' bedrooms So-called 'spare' rooms aren't spare at all. The government's criteria mean children and young people are forced to share bedrooms with siblings - up to 16 if they're the same sex. They don't take into account people's disabilities which might mean they occasionally need someone to stay over to help them or to sleep separately from their partner. And if parents are separated, only one is entitled to have a room for their child. Myth #2: the bedroom tax is going to 'encourage people into work' It's hard to encourage people into jobs that don't exist. In some areas there are up to 20 jobseekers for every vacancy. And the government continues to cut more jobs from the public sector. Figures have shown all the schemes they've tried, including their heralded Work Programme, have failed to increase the numbers getting jobs. Besides, many of those affected by the bedroom tax are already in work - 90% of new housing benefit claimants from 2010-2012 have a job but are so poorly paid they are still entitled to support with housing costs - a bailout for stingy, low-paying bosses. Myth #3: the bedroom tax will result in a reduced housing benefit bill The housing benefit bill is so big because of high rents - mainly in the private sector but now social landlords can charge 80% of the market rate too. Private sector rents have increased by 86% in 40 years. The best way to reduce it is to introduce a cap on rents. People have been forced to move to urban areas to look for work, increasing the need for affordable housing. But the amount of social housing being built has fallen at the same time as the existing stock has been sold off. What the government really wants to do is attack the welfare state in every way possible and to force working and middle class people to pay for the bankers' crisis. Myth #4: it's only fair to create parity with the private sector The reduction in housing benefit for a spare room in the private sector hasn't always existed either. And the real problem is that there isn't enough decent housing, and virtually none that is really affordable. People being hit by the bedroom tax have nowhere to move to because of the massive shortage of social housing - mainly as a result of decades of successive governments continuing the sell-off of council housing. Myth #5: the £500 benefit cap is only bringing benefits in line with average wages This figure doesn't include benefits that people in work have to claim, including child benefit and working tax credits. That so many people earn less than £500 is a disgrace, best tackled by increasing the minimum wage, not bringing benefits even further into poverty levels. Those who are fighting this savage attack should stand in elections and join other anti-cuts campaigners in building a new mass party, based on ordinary working class people, to put an alternative to austerity on the agenda.

Thatchers brutal "them and us" legacy

Alistair Tice, Socialist Party regional secretary, Yorkshire Millions have been waiting for this day, 8 April 2013. Margaret Thatcher will never be forgiven for the devastation that her Tory governments' policies wrought on working class communities in the 1980s - and is still being felt today. "I would suggest as a memorial to Mrs Thatcher that instead of the usual headstone or statue, a dance floor should be erected over her grave". This was proposed by a writer to the Observer paper from Durham, a former mining area, on the 30th anniversary of her coming to power. Seeking to avoid the anger and opposition that a state funeral for Thatcher would invite the government is nonetheless planning a state funeral 'by any other name'. Having spared no venom to attack millions of low-paid, unemployed and disabled people forced to subsist on benefits, Downing Street discovered it had a delicate side and has declined to say how much the 'ceremonial funeral' will cost the public purse. No doubt it will be in the millions. Nonetheless many ex-miners and their families, trade unionists and socialists are now dancing - in celebration of her demise. The Guardian reported on the response in Orgreave, a town famed for the major attack on striking miners orchestrated by Thatcher in the 1980s. One veteran "said he was thinking of getting t-shirts printed saying 'Thatcher's in hell - she's only been there a few hours and she's already closed down the furnaces'." The Guardian described responses to her death: "Propping up the bar, the men compared text messages they'd received throughout the day. A typical example: 'I enjoy a good swim. But if someone asked me what my favourite stroke was I'd say Maggie Thatcher's.' Another proudly brandished a text message he'd received just after 1pm saying simply: 'Parteeeeee time.'" Myths 'By your friends shall ye be known' is a well-worn cliché but in Thatcher's case it is insightful. Many have taken to social media to remind us of who Thatcher counted among her pals - murderous Chilean dictator Auguste Pinochet and former US president Ronald Reagan, her co-architect of brutal neoliberalism. But at the same time, politicians, press barons and editors are fawning and flattering in the praise they spew out for her as the prime minister who they say made Britain great again. She was nothing of the sort. Tory MPs and right-wing commentators on the BBC and elsewhere also use the opportunity to attack the trade unions. In analysing her role and legacy, we must start with de-bunking some popular myths. The film industry tried to sell the Iron Lady as a feminist icon. Thatcher was the first female prime minister but her reactionary policies set back previous advances towards women's equality. Her commitment to 'Victorian values' and belief that "there is no such thing (as society)" were the ideological justification for cutting public services and pushing the burden onto the family, which in most cases meant women. She opposed 'subsidising' mothers to go out to work saying it would have discouraged them from staying at home to look after their children. Over half of Britain's working women were denied the right to maternity benefits, paid maternity leave and shorter working hours. Publicly funded childcare fell to the lowest level in western Europe. While being a grocer's daughter from Grantham rather than an aristocrat or millionaire may have made Thatcher more determined to succeed as a politician in an old-boys club, it was the economic and political conditions in Britain in the 1970s that allowed her right-wing policies to come to power rather than any personal qualities. Economy Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary, has previously remarked that: "Friedrich Engels, alongside Karl Marx, the originators of the ideas of scientific socialism, commented that each era calls for personalities required by objective circumstances. But if they do not exist in a rounded-out form, it 'invents' them. Thatcher, without any of the scruples or hesitation of the aristocratic Tory grandees, was the brutal face of British capitalism required by the situation. She not only polarised society but the Tory party itself." Twenty years earlier during the post-war economic upswing and mixed economy consensus, she would not have become Tory leader or, if she had, not as a Thatcherite. But the economic stagnation and industrial strife of the 1970s meant that the ruling class abandoned the post-war settlement of mildly re-distributionist and Keynesian policies in favour of attacking the living standards and rights of the working class in order to restore the profitability of an ailing British capitalism. Thatcher, a convert to the monetarist, free-market ideology of Hayek and Milton Friedman, replaced the defeated prime minister and Tory 'wet' Ted Heath in 1975, and won the general election in 1979. However, it was the Labour leadership that prepared the way for Thatcherism by starting to implement neoliberal policies in the 1970s. Thatcher won three general elections and stayed in power over eleven years, giving the appearance of being both popular and impregnable. However, she was neither. According to opinion polls, she was, during her time in office, actually the second most unpopular post-war prime minister. But the Labour leadership failed to take advantage of this. On the one hand it had failed to tackle the problems of the working class and on the other hand it had directed its energy against challenging the left, particularly Militant. In this it revealed its degeneration from a pro-workers' party at bottom to what it is today, indistinguishable from the other pro-capitalist parties. After the 1981 inner-city riots her personal approval rating was only 23% and a Times headline read: "The most unpopular prime minister since records began". After defeating the miners' strike in April 1985 the Tories were 5% behind in the polls and in April 1990, when the poll tax was introduced in England and Wales, they were 24% behind Labour! Popularity? In other words, at the height of class struggles which polarised society, Thatcher was clearly seen as fighting for her class against the majority of society, the working class. Much of her perceived strength was actually the reflected weakness of the trade union and Labour leaders. While her 1983 election victory owed most to the so-called Falklands Factor, Thatcher jingoistically wrapping herself in the union flag to defeat the "enemy without" at the cost of hundreds of lives, the right-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP) split-off from the Labour Party and the beginning of the witch-hunt against Militant supporters (the forerunner of Socialist Party) meant that Labour was divided and seen as unelectable. Had the pit deputies union NACODS acted on their big strike ballot, had the docks and railway solidarity strikes lasted longer, and if the TUC leaders had called a general strike in support of the miners, then the Thatcher government could have been brought down in 1984/5 like the Heath government was in 1974. Even then, Labour leader Neil Kinnock lost his party's poll lead by attacking NUM president Arthur Scargill and the Militant-led Liverpool City council in the run-up to the 1987 election. But Thatcher was beaten. Her government was forced to retreat in 1981 when the South Wales miners threatened to strike against pit closures. Liverpool Liverpool City Council, by mobilising mass support for its policies of building houses and creating jobs, forced the Tory government to concede an extra £60 million funding in the summer of 1984. This was heralded as "Danegeld" by the Times - Danegeld was the tribute in gold demanded from the English rulers in the 13th century by the invading Danes in exchange for not engaging in pillage and plunder. Thatcher then used these retreats, although forced on her, to prepare more thoroughly to defeat first the miners and then 'left-wing' Labour councils. Poll Tax After winning the 1987 general election, Thatcher made the mistake of attacking all the working class at once by introducing the Poll Tax, a punitive and regressive charge on all adults for local services. She declared the 'Community Charge' as her flag-ship policy. Militant warned it would be her Titanic. Starting in Scotland in 1989, where the tax was to be introduced first, Militant helped initiate a campaign of mass non-payment organised by anti-poll tax unions, which spread to the rest of Britain in 1990. At its height, 18 million people were refusing to pay the poll tax, the biggest campaign of civil disobedience ever. Just after the so-called poll tax riots in Trafalgar Square (caused by the police attacking a 200,000 strong demonstration) the Tories were 24% behind in the opinion polls. Despite courts, bailiffs and jailings, non-payment grew making the tax un-collectable. It was this mass opposition and unpopularity that persuaded the Tory Party to sacrifice their heroine, and with her the poll tax which was immediately scrapped by her replacement John Major. Thatcher herself was later to lament in her memoirs: "The eventual abandonment of the charge represented one of the greatest victories for these people [the organisers of the anti-poll tax demonstrations on 31 March 1990] ever conceded by a Conservative government." [Margaret Thatcher, 'The Downing Street Years', p661.] What this showed is that all Thatcher's perceived strengths, as a resolute, determined, single-minded strong leader, epitomised in her famous "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning" speech, turned into their opposite when her divisive policies completely undermined social support for the Tory government. Decisive was the leadership offered by Militant in the campaign of mass non-payment. Then she was seen as arrogant, stubborn, pig-headed, and unwilling to listen to her cabinet, leading to Tory splits and her removal. In sinking the retreating Argentinian battleship Belgrano and in her year-long "civil war" against the miners, the "enemy within", Thatcher displayed the brutal cold-heartedness of British capitalism. But she herself became the victim of the ruthlessness of her own ruling class. We'll shed no tears for her demise. She will be remembered forever for destroying manufacturing industry and causing permanent mass unemployment. Her monetarist policies of high interest rates and slashing public spending turned the recession in 1979-81 into a depression. Manufacturing output fell by 30% by 1983. Industries like steel, coal and engineering were decimated and whole communities with them. The former 'workshop of the world' became a net importer for the first time since the industrial revolution. Unemployment rose by over a million in just one year, peaking at 3.3 million in 1986 with a 'lost generation' of young people thrown on the scrap-heap. Thatcher, representing finance capital, believed that de-regulation, especially of the City, would lead business to prosper and wealth would "trickle-down." Combined with the proceeds of the selling off of council housing and mass privatisations of public utilities, there was the appearance of growing prosperity reflected in the 'yuppie' and 'loadsamoney' culture but this was superficial and only ever benefited a small minority. Her much-vaunted "share-owning democracy" never materialised, as workers quickly sold their shares and the financial institutions became the 'masters of the universe'. Legacy By the end of the 1980s, 12.2 million people, over a fifth of the population, were living in poverty, and the gulf between the richest 20% and poorest 20% had widened by 60%. This increase in inequality was to widen further under Blair's New Labour government as it continued Thatcherite policies of curbing the trade unions, privatising state resources and deregulating the City of London. In 2001 Labour's Peter Mandelson tellingly said: "we are all Thatcherites now", before enthusing that he was "intensely relaxed about people becoming filthy rich". Thatcher herself claimed that New Labour (Labour's conversion to capitalist neoliberal policies) was her greatest legacy and Labour leader Ed Miliband has praised some of Thatcher's key policies, stating: "Some of what happened in the 1980s was right. It was right to let people buy their council houses. It was right to cut tax rates of 60, 70, 80%. And it was right to change the rules on the closed shop, on ballots before strikes. These changes were right, and we were wrong to oppose it at the time." This complete capitulation to the market has now led Labour to accept the Con-Dem coalition cuts and pay freeze, making the need for a new mass workers' party even more urgent. It is fitting that Thatcher should die at the very time when free market capitalism, in the middle of its worst economic crisis for 80 years, has so spectacularly failed. She sought to "roll back the frontiers of socialism" but it is now those very ideas of socialism that will make a comeback as increasing numbers of workers and youth look for an alternative to the austerity, war and environmental destruction that is global capitalism today.

Thatcher is dead! Now bury her legacy of cuts, poverty and unemployment.

A breaking news story broke on my twitter feed earlier just before lunch today. The news that former prime minister and enemy of the working class Margret Thatcher had passed away in the early hours of the morning from a stroke. She passed away peaceful. I am not celebrating her death but I can fully understand the feeling many have towards her. I grew up after she left office so never knew what it was like but I can fully appreciate the anger, the hate and division her reign created. I knew this day was coming and the outpouring of emotion from many I know is huge a sense of anger relief, jubilation even and a lot of Tories pouring praise on her legacy of course. The BBC has gone into over drive giving anyone who was anyone around her a platform to tell us how great she was despite ruining British industry, driving many into poverty and dividing people long before this current con-dem government were around. I don’t ever celebrate anyone’s death as a rule but I c can understand the sheer detesting people affected by her policies ex miners, mining families and all those affected I feel total solidarity with today. The feeling from many in the media will be a sense of sadness as one of their own passes away but I am sure hoping she doesn’t get a state funeral it just would be an insult to many I feel. We must be aware that the liberals will be out in force too crowing about we should respect her legacy yet I also think we must appreciate the level of emotion wrapped up in her passing. She divided us beyond imagination. Yet we face a similar government today determined to go further than Thatcher ever dared. This must be on our minds while thinking of her demise. The 8th of April will be remembered for the day the iron lady was no more. From the poll tax to the miners strikes to the riots to the destruction of British industry her legacy won’t be forgotten in fact the current crop of Tories and new labor are carrying on her ideas today. The woman is dead yet her ideology lives on. We must not celebrate too much but redouble our efforts to eradicating her ideas of individualist ion and fight for socialist change for a society which can benefit the many not just the few wealthy individuals.

The inspiration of Tommy Sheridan

I know as a Marxist I am not supposed to focus on the individual in history and see things in a class analysis but Tommy is a big inspiration to me coming into the movement. Tommy Sheridan a prominent Scottish Socialist has dedicated his life to fighting oppression and exploitation wherever it has emerged. A huge character on the left in British politics Tommy has inspired many to search inside themselves for that collective strength and bond that all humans feel but yet is beaten out of them by this rotten capitalist system. Tommy holds up the traditions of democratic socialism and despite what certain people may say about him about his exploits with the Scottish Socialist Party and his court cases with the Murdoch press I’ve looked past that and seen a genuine working class fighter prepared to sacrifice his own standing in society for the benefit of others. Just take the other weekend a demonstration in Glasgow against the bedroom tax which Tommy and other socialists have played a big part in building made a fantastic speech where Tommy stated quite clearly in everyday language that everyone could understand why we must oppose this rotten tax and the government at large. Tommy although not directly affected by this vicious attack on the working class and the poor offered his full and utmost solidarity with all those fighting the tax and even though not directly affected pledged to stand by any of those who wished to fight this brutal tax to the very end including fighting evictions. But Tommy a life long class fighter has fought battle after battle on behalf of the working class. He has bravely taken on the News of the World and Rupert Murdoch and is gradually trying to clear his name in the face of huge media lies and former comrades lies about him The News of the World attacked Tommy on the smallest of basis’s and looked to destroy his and the Scottish left for many years and in many ways they did but Tommy Sheridan is made of stronger stuff than that and is fighting back the only way he can and that is through class struggle and supporting working class struggles. Throughout his court case of purgery back in the later part of the last decade against news international was seen as payback for Tommy Sheridan’s leading role during the mass anti-poll tax movement in the late 80’s and early ‘90’s. A mass movement of ordinary working class men and women that cost the then prime minster, Margaret Thatcher, her job. Tommy Sheridan rubbed salt into the gaping wounds of the political and legal elite by being elected from his prison cell in Saughton Prison to Glasgow City Council in 1992. It’s also payback for being a thorn in the side of the establishment as a socialist MSP in the Scottish parliament for 10 years - when he lived as a workers’ MSP on a workers wage. But above the ruling class wanted to inflict a defeat on Tommy Sheridan in order to send out a warning to every worker, every trade unionist and every socialist - don’t stand up and fight. Accept the onslaught of cuts and attacks while the millionaires and billionaires walk away without a scratch from an economic crisis they created. Thankfully this has not been the case and Tommy is now out of jail and fighting fit and fighting the good fight once again. Tommy Sheridan was a leader of the anti-poll tax movement that was central to organising the mass non-payment campaign that defeated the Tory government in the early 1990s and in the process ended the career of Margaret Thatcher. He served a four-month jail sentence during that campaign as a result of his leadership of it, and he was elected from his prison cell to Glasgow city council in 1992. Tommy was elected as a socialist living on the average wage of a worker to the Scottish parliament in 1999. It was this that made him the target of the Murdoch media empire whose stable of papers include the Sun and News of the World, papers with a long record of attacking workers, trade unionists, asylum seekers and socialists. The vendetta against Tommy Sheridan is part of a campaign to destroy any opposition to the billionaires and the capitalist system. Tommy Sheridan continues to inspire many people to socialist ideas like myself and will continue to do so. We need figures like Tommy to bring ordinary people towards the ideas of socialism and eventually Marxism as a step towards changing society. I am a big supporter of Tommy and his speech’s inspire me hugely he and others like him give me confidence that we can struggle and even if we are in small numbers at times our ideas will catch a echo with the mass’s of workers at a given time in history and we as socialists are on the right side of history.

Kill the bedroom tax , defend all at risk, cant pay wont pay !

As we edge towards April when the much disputed bedroom tax will come into force protests are growing by the week with many protests happening in towns and cities up and down the land. I would like to add that many of these protests were hijacked by the labour party to sit itself as against this tax despite being for a similar tax in 2008 in fact. Could this be what tuition fees were to the lib dems for labour? Time will tell of course. David Cameron and his multi-millionaire family have four homes, mansions in reality. Tory welfare minister David Freud, who is bringing in this law, owns an eight-bedroom mansion and a £1.9 million London home. These well-housed millionaires want council house and housing association tenants to lose 14% of their housing benefit if they're deemed to have one spare room, 25% if they have two. There are things councils can do. There's a huge pot of money from the sale of council houses. Ring-fenced, because of legislation brought in by Margaret Thatcher and not repealed during three terms of a Labour government. And nationalising the banking system under democratic workers' control would free up more resources. This will hit 660,000 households including many disabled people and low-paid workers. Tenants are faced with an impossible choice of moving from their family homes or being left with a much smaller income. This situation will only get worse in October when benefit caps are introduced under 'universal credit'. In Scotland working class people are already getting organised On 13 March over 100 people packed into a Glasgow public meeting to build for the 30 March demonstration against the hated bedroom tax. The meeting, bringing together people from across the West of Scotland, agreed to launch a West Scotland Federation of Anti -Bedroom Tax campaigns. Well-known socialist campaigner Tommy Sheridan gave a rousing accounts of his experience of how millions of working class people "melted the iron lady", Margaret Thatcher, by defeating the poll tax through mass non-payment. The lessons of that struggle, Tommy said, can play a vital role in mobilising resistance, and winning the struggle against the bedroom tax today. Socialist Party member and Unison activist Nicola Crawford outlined her experience of building a campaign in Shawlands and Pollokshaws in Glasgow. After a successful public meeting, street meetings of tenants increased the spread of the campaign and gave confidence to more benefit claimants to get involved. Nicola called for a national campaign to build mass resistance to evictions and raised the demand for a council house-building programme. The meeting agreed a resolution calling for the scrapping of the bedroom tax and for a massive programme of council house-building to provide affordable homes for all. The campaign's demands include: • Scrap the bedroom tax • Support those who cannot and will not pay this austerity tax • No evictions for rent arrears. Build an army of anti-eviction campaigners to stop evictions • Councils should rule out eviction for bedroom tax and fight the cuts • Write off all debt due to the bedroom tax. Demand compensation to councils and housing associations as part of a mass campaign to win back the money stolen from public services by the Con-Dems • For a major programme of council house-building to provide affordable homes for all The pressure being put on the government and local councils is starting to tell we may have to prepare ourselves to defend those being evicted from their homes at this point labour party members and officials will leave the campaign and stick to empty rhetoric. They could pledge to reverse this tax if elected yet no such pledge looks likely. So it’s left to us the organised labour movement and the socialists to get organised and raise the ideas of mass resistance. It will be tricky as those affected are more in some areas than others no doubt quite deliberately thought out by the Tories but we must link up where a common issue arrises. This can be defeated and we must link it to the need to fight all cuts and raise the need for a working class political alternative which could mean supporting or standing for TUSC this may in the local county council elections TUSC is looking to contest.

Council tax benefit cuts, attacking the most vunrable again, all cuts must be fought

Another vicious attack on the most vulnerable has been launched by the Con-Dem government by slashing the amount of council tax benefit people receive. In fact, they want to completely abolish the benefit at a national level in April 2013. Instead, local authorities will be given the responsibility of dishing out the money but with 10% less in the pot. Bob Neill, Tory Local Government minister, speaking on Radio 4 defended it as "an incentive for councils to get people back to work". But where are the jobs many ask? The only proviso that has been set by the government is that councils should pay the full amount to pensioners and 'protect the vulnerable'. As for who is defined as 'vulnerable', that's for the council to decide. There are currently almost six million people who receive council tax benefit. Of these, 62% are under 65 and many have 100% of their council tax paid for them. These changes will mean that people, already living in poverty in many cases, will be asked to cough up something towards it. Every council in England is being asked to consult on the cuts they are making (Scotland has decided to make the 10% cuts elsewhere and Wales is passing the 10% cuts on to benefit recipients). But residents are only being given the choice of deciding who should be forced to pay more. If completing the questionnaire for Harrow Council, you can choose who should get more benefit: those who 'can't work' or those 'who can work but are unemployed'. There is no option for the council to fight this cut from the government. Manchester City Council is looking at cutting the benefit by 15-20% for everybody while others are looking at reducing the savings you can have while still being entitled to the benefit - Waltham Forest is asking if people with savings over £6,000 should have to pay more council tax. Nottingham City Council recently held consultation meetings, two of which took place in the most deprived areas in the city: St Ann's and Bulwell. Each of these meetings had over 30 people at them, mainly unemployed and disabled people who are already suffering from the cruel attacks on benefits and the rise in the cost of living. We were separated into groups and asked who we think should pay for this cut. One woman remarked, "We shouldn't pay anything, what about the bankers and the rich who have caused this mess?" Other comments were unfortunately divisive and were encouraged by the council officers completing the consultation. Blame was quickly diverted from the government of millionaires to single parents, immigrants and people who are long-term unemployed. We must be clear these cuts are no fault of single parents, immigrants or any section of the working class. Councillors instead of deflecting blame onto those already feeling the bite of these vicious cuts are being made to squabble over who should pay up more for mistakes not of their making. Mistakes of the bankers who recklessly gambled away our economy in 2008. The socialist party feels there is great potential to link up disputes locally by uniting all who wish to fight these cynical cuts and there are similarities to the vicious poll tax which Margret Thatcher fell on her sword trying to force though in which the socialist party’s predecessor Militant successfully lead a 18 million strong mass non payment campaign which made the tax unworkable. The Socialist party believes local councils should refuse to pass this cut on and instead mount a fight back and demand the reversal of this cut and the full funding to meet the needs of its most venerable in its community. Already in the press, parallels are being drawn with Thatcher's Poll Tax. There is certainly a huge amount of anger that could be channeled into an anti-Poll Tax style campaign: building in local areas and linking up nationally into a mass campaign, defending people who are being threatened with being taking to court or imprisoned. If there is a discussion in every town and city about how to respond to this cut and the farce of consultations being held by the councils, it could quickly snowball into a campaign. There could be pressure exerted onto the Labour and Green councils to resist this attack and force the government to save council tax benefit! If our councilors refuse to fight, local people should stand in next year's council elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and fight the government ourselves. Which I intend to do if I get the chance. These cuts are not going away wishing them away or blaming Tories will not do we need a concerted fight back today not tomorrow or after 20th October, People are struggling today. With extracts taken from Becci Heagney’s article on http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/14982/06-08-2012/council-tax-benefit-cuts

The NHS is not lost, we can still win!

With so many feeling the NHS is seemingly lost if it goes through the houses of parliament and many feeling dejected we must remind ourselves that the poll tax was made law before it was defeated along with Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government .
It is nonsense to tell people we only have so many days to save the NHS or if the lords don’t save us no one will. Some have even started calling for us to lobby the queen to save the NHS, yes you heard that right the sodding queen!!

Unbelievable you may think but sadly true and the desperate state of people is clear their petitions and emails to their MP’s have not worked as we pointed out unsurprisingly we need more militant action now moving on to the industrial plain.

But to start with a mass national demonstration to bring all the forces together on a similar scale to march 26th last year and then use the threat of strike action as a tool to force the government back on this.
I don’t for one moment have any illusions that the labour party or unison are interested in a real battle after all it was much of the same labour party policies that got the NHS to where it is today so they cannot be trusted. We must do it alone with trade unions willing to fight a proper battle and community activists and NHS users to all come together to fight to the very end on this. More of the same wont work we need to escalate the action and put a shot across the government’s bow that we mean business and not letting our NHS go lightly.

It is key now that we start thinking of standing nurses, doctors and medical workers in elections not under labour but as TUSC or independents to gain a political voice. I have already read some are thinking of doing this as an act of revenge on the government. The vehicle already exists for this to happen with TUSC workers can move on to the political plain and mould TUSC into a fighting campaigning electoral force that can raise the banner of the NHS.


The NHS can still be saved we must not get demoralised or dejected but keep on fighting and step up the campaign in every town and city across the country. Leading to mass national industrial action if need be.

Let’s make the NHS Cameron’s poll tax and have the Tories out as soon as we can!