“In my mind there can no longer be politics without the planet and no long -term security for the planet and our communities without socialism.”
Laura Pidcock MP
We exclusively publish below Laura Pidcock MP’s speech from the #ToriesOut demonstration in Manchester.
“What an incredible turn out.
Thank you, every single person, for being present, for coming out in your numbers and making time in your busy lives.
On these streets is where we find our power and our energy. Together, here, is where we know we are unstoppable.
From every corner of the United Kingdom, working class people in all our glorious diversity, here to say we will never give up fighting for a better society, in the pursuit of world that ends greed, exploitation and war.
We know that there is a better way and that another world is possible.
Because it does not need to be like this. Pay stagnation, grotesque inequality, privatisation, people working so hard but still in poverty, people not able to feed their children, our beautiful schools and NHS, ripped apart for the benefit of private vultures and, of course, the rise of racism. The planet is on fire because of the economic system that this government props up and supports and we are saying no more!
Because we believe the science, we understand that we have a matter of a few years to stop the planet being uninhabitable for the next generation, we care what is happening to our brothers and sisters in other countries who are already feeling of the climate catastrophe and the unprecedented levels of carbon in our earth’s atmosphere.
Each one of us here takes inspiration and motivation from Greta Thunberg and we all know they attack her because they fear her power. The simple power of speaking the truth. The purity and clarity of her message is revolutionary. Solidarity with you Greta, we are all with you.
And what we also know is this, those who defend the capitalist system uncritically as it ravages the planet, as the seas rise and thousands of species are made extinct because of unnecessary consumption, species which are so beautiful and so important to our perfect ecosystem, those who defend this destruction are also the defenders of injustice, greed and short term profit in our society. We need to turn that world upside down. We need a different economic and social system.
In my mind there can no longer be politics without the planet and no long -term security for the planet and our communities without socialism.
And so, the Conservatives in there, they become more and more extreme because they are desperate, they know that the system they try to justify and defend offers humanity only problems and it is we, our movement, who have the solutions.
So at the next general election, I will oversee the greatest shift in power from employer to worker: we will implement an overnight pay rise, we will restore the power of the trade unions to represent and negotiate, ban zero hour contracts, increase the power that workers have to negotiate what they should be paid and what their working life will be like. We will ensure that there is protection from exploitation and that work pays.
And it is the Labour Party who is leading the way with our Green New Deal, to be carbon neutral by 2030, we are leading the way in the world because it is bravery or extinction, barbarism or socialism.
And we will not, cannot let the next General Election only be about Brexit. We won’t let the millionaires and the billionaires and their representatives in Parliament allow it to only be about that. We will shine light on the whole experience of our class and our communities, and we will not let our differences on Brexit sow division and let the chance of a lifetime slip between our fingers.
We are cleverer than the people who have bet against the pound; who wish for us to crash out without a deal – those very same people who back this despicable Prime Minister. Brexit will not define us at the next General Election: our focus will be the end of austerity. When we are at the ballot box, we will be there in defence of NHS from Trumps greedy hands. Our minds will only think of the pain and suffering that we have the ability to end. That will be our discipline.
We have simple demands: that no child goes hungry, that no bombs are dropped and that our planet outlives this destructive period. But it – and this is important – it is all of us that will make this happen. Only by all of us, working collectively and focusing on what we need as a society, can we achieve this. So, look after yourself, steel yourself for the ideological battle ahead. When they lie about you, when they laugh at you, when they try and break your spirit, remember they fear your power and they know you are part of a beautiful, strong, peaceful movement which will change things forever. I am proud to stand alongside you.”
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