“Instead of the meek opposition being provided by Keir Starmer, now is the time for Labour to put forward a radical vision of the future, putting people’s jobs & livelihoods ahead of the needs of the mega-rich.”
By Siân Errington, Labour Assembly Against Austerity.
Despite the Tory spin, faithfully echoed by much of the media, Boris Johnson’s Government is carrying forward their decade of economic class warfare – as exemplified by year upon year of vicious austerity and cuts – by using the crisis to continue their restructure of our economy to further benefit the very wealthiest.
Millions of people every day experience the destruction and privatisation of our public services, the real-terms pay cuts for public service workers and beyond, the drastic increase in job losses (with many more job losses to come unless further action is taken,) the rise and rise of insecure work (ensured by letting practices such as ‘fire and rehire’ rip), escalating poverty and deepening wealth inequalities that could be ended.
It is women, Black and Asian and disabled people that have been the hardest hit by both Tory austerity and their disastrous handling of the pandemic.
And we know the Tories do not have the ambitious policies needed to address the climate emergency – any action they do take is insufficient and designed to look after the wealthiest first.
But there is an alternative – polling shows the popularity of socialist policies. This includes policies such as expanding public ownership and a massive programme of public investment to – amongst other things – rebuild decent public transport, universal, world class public services and homes for all – and for substantial increases in public sector pay and the minimum wage as part of raising incomes for everyone.
Instead of the meek opposition being provided by Keir Starmer, now is the time for Labour to put forward a radical vision of the future, putting people’s jobs and livelihoods ahead of the needs of the mega-rich. To win again, Labour must stand for an ambitious, bold economic alternative on the scale needed to match the challenges we face and that can deliver a truly green, equal and socially just economy.
- Join over 20,000 in signing the People’s Plan for jobs and livelihoods at bit.ly/planforthepeople
- This piece is from the 8 page Labour Outlook summer update, featuring Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burgon, Bell Ribeiro-Addy & more– read & download at https://labouroutlook.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Labour-Outlook-june-2021.pdf
