“we need to come together for this radical & socialist alternative, addressing the multiple and severe crises people are facing after eleven years of austerity, when energy prices, food prices, rents & mortgages are going through the roof.”
John McDonnell MP
By Patrick Foley, Labour Assembly Against Austerity
On Thursday (May 19th), we’re coming together to challenge Tory inaction over the cost of living crisis and discuss the progressive solutions that our movement has to offer. Hundreds will be joining the online discussion alongside John McDonnell; Nabeela Mowlana, Young Labour student rep; Professor Özlem Onaran, University of Greenwich; Gemma Bolton, Labour NEC; and Laura Pidcock, Peoples Assembly Against Austerity.
With inflation set to rise to 10%, wages stagnating, and Johnson’s government clamping down on our right to protest, our collective resistance to the Tories’ agenda and the demands of our movement our crucial.
Promoting the event Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth, said that “the Queen’s Speech was yet more evidence that the Tories will always stand for corporate greed ahead of public need.”
He added that “they want to tell us there is no alternative – but there is, from redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation, to reversing the recent swingeing benefit cuts, to extending public ownership of energy and utilities to take down bills.
We need investment in our future, not more cuts and austerity. Join me in being part of discussing what a socialist economic policy looks like and our next steps as a movement.”
A fellow speaker at the event, Laura Pidcock, National Secretary of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, has openly challenged Johnson’s administration for pushing “heartless politics devoid of humanity – every politician who voted for the policies that got us here is responsible.”
Speaking to Labour Outlook about the importance of the event, John McDonnell highlighted the Tories’ “total indifference to the cost-of-living crisis millions are facing.”
He called on the Labour and Trade Union movement to respond by demanding “an Emergency Budget based upon two principles – the government providing people with targeted financial support and taking real action to control costs.
Redistribution of wealth must also be part of our programme – including an excessive profits tax across the economy – and the case for public ownership has never been stronger.”
With millions facing an unprecedented negative shift in their living conditions urgent action and a bold vision is needed. The former Shadow chancellor explained that “we need to come together for this radical & socialist alternative, addressing the multiple and severe crises people are facing after eleven years of austerity, when energy prices, food prices, rents & mortgages are going through the roof.”
Join John, Laura, Jon and more tomorrow for this urgent discussion at 6.30pm, Thursday May 19th. Together, we can show that our movement has the concrete and transformative solutions that are desperately needed to tackle the crisis.
- The #CostofLivingCrisis deepens – What is the economic alternative? takes place at 6.30pm, Thursday May 19th. You can register you place here, and help build the event on Facebook and twitter.
