Unity! WHO IS Communist Party bulletin Anti-austerity special
PAYING FOR THIS CRISIS?
« ver since the economic and financial crisis broke in 2008, workers and their families have been told that 'were all in this together'.
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Yet the reality is that the burden has fallen on the millions, not on the millionaires.This is a crisis of the CAPITALIST system, caused by greed, speculation and the ruthless drive for profit. It's the Tories, the LibDems and their paymasters in big business and the City of London who are 'in it together' – to make sure that workers, the unemployed, the sick, the disabled, pensioners, young people and students pay the price for capitalism's failure.
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CUTS IN PUBLIC SERVICES AND BENEFITS The last Labour government planned £130 billion spending cuts. The Tory-LibDem coalition has added an extra £439 billion up to 2018. Already the cuts are biting deeply with local services being slashed, public servants losing wages and pensions and the unemployed and disabled losing benefits and even their homes. And four-fifths of the cuts are still to come.
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MASSIVE JOB LOSSES Unemployment in Britain remains around two and half million people, even on the government's fiddled figures. That includes a million young people aged 16-24. There are five unemployed workers for every job vacancy.
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PRICES UP, LIVING STANDARDS DOWN The oil, gas, electricity, food and supermarket monopolies are enjoying a bonanza. Prices, profits, dividends and fat cat bonuses are rocketing while a million more people were plunged into poverty last year – a third of them children.
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TAX CUTS FOR BIG BUSINESS Both the Tory-LibDem and New Labour governments have slashed corporation tax on profits far below the levels in the USA, Germany, France and Japan. Yet even now, corporate tax dodgers rob Britain of £25 billion a year in lost tax revenues.
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MONEY WASTED ON WAR Britain's foreign wars and weapons of mass destruction mean we spend up to £10 billion a year more on the military than most developed countries. Replacing the Trident system will waste at least £90 billion more up to 2045.
FIVE REASONS TO JOIN THE COMMUNIST PARTY! Communist Party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Rd London CR0 1BD 02086861659 @communists1920 office@communist-party.org.uk
THE PARTY FOR PEACE, JOBS & SOCIALISM
BRITAIN FOR THE PEOPLE NOT THE BANKERS S
o far, more than £1,350 billion of public money has been committed to bailing out the banks and financial markets in the City of London. Just half of that money would pay for: «400 new hospitals AND «3 million new homes AND «500 new schools AND «Electrification of all main rail lines AND «A national water grid AND «Solar panels on all public buildings AND «5 million new jobs and apprenticeships Instead, the money has been handed to bankers.
CAPITALISM, WE CAN’T AFFORD IT!
21st CENTURY
MARXISM 2-3 November 2013
Clerkenwell, London
A weekend of discussions, debates, education, music, poetry, film and culture with speakers from across Britain and overseas
Book tickets from £6 & info at www.marxism21.org.uk
A People’s Programme Britain is still one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But most of the wealth is in the hands of the super rich and big business. The richest 10 per cent of Britain's population own £4,500 billion in declared personal wealth (44 per cent of the total) and around £10,000 billion in industrial and financial assets overseas. There is no need for austerity. It's a cover for the wholesale privatisation of health, education and other public services that can be taken over by big business for profit. The Communist Party proposes a left wing programme of policies to create jobs, rebuild industry, enhance our public services, promote social justice and plan for society's sustainable energy and transport needs.
Policies for the People
«Slap a 2 per cent Wealth Tax on the super rich, raising £90 billion a year – twice this year's public spending cuts. «Reverse the recent cuts in corporation tax for the biggest companies and increase the top rate of income tax to 60 per cent. «Impose a windfall tax on energy, retail and banking monopoly profits and a financial transaction tax on the City bankers and speculators. «Abolish the tax haven status of all territories under British jurisdiction. «End austerity and privatisation and invest in health, education, housing, public transport, renewable energy and the environment. «Control gas, electricity and water prices and take all the utilities and public transport back into public ownership. «Stop the privatisation of Royal Mail. «Nationalise the banks and direct funds into manufacturing, small businesses, cooperatives and housing. «Scrap Britain's nuclear weapons and withdraw from imperialist wars and occupations. These are the kind of policies contained in the People’s Charter, adopted by the TUC and many trade unions
SAVE OUR NHS PATIENTS BEFORE PROFITS AY COMMUNISTS Sorms
ll f o ti of privatisaru g companieHsS d p to • S g in the N l profiteerin f e denta • Restore nre all treatme t sfotar ff and a • Fund extr ie facilit s frivoem progress taxation
d a • End PFI an n in the NHS
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rivatisation is sweeping through the NHS across England. Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), 118 building and projects have saddled the NHS with payments totalling £79 billion over the next 35 years – for assets worth £12 billion. Some NHS trusts are paying up to 8 per cent of their income to banks and building companies and are heading for bankruptcy. The giant drug and finance
companies are moving in to take over the commissioning of NHS supplies and services. Private sector diagnostic and treatment centres have joined 'Big Pharma' on the NHS gravy train. Because the Welsh government has refused to jump into the privatisation swamp, the ToryLibDem central government has cut the annual block grant to the Welsh National Assembly more deeply than in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Read and order copies of the CP’s programme Britain’s Road to Socialism online at
www.communist-party.org.uk DAILY PAPER OF THE LEFT £1 FROM YOUR LOCAL NEWSAGENT www.morningstaronline.co.uk
The EU - no friend of the workers!
New pamphlets on the European Union available from the Communist Party £2 each (+50p p&p)
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cross Europe, austerity and privatisation policies are being enforced by the 'Troika' – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Governments that show reluctance are replaced by unelected bureaucrats, as happened in Italy and Greece. Britain also submits its spending plans for approval, although our unelected Tory-LibDem coalition enthusiastically supports EU diktats. In Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Spain and Ireland, it's not the people who are being bailed out by public money and the Troika – it's the German, British and French bankers who gambled on government bonds. The EU is no friend of workers and their families. It leads the drive to privatise utilities and services, cut pensions and benefits, extend working lives, undermine trade union agreements and worsen job terms and conditions. The EU is an anti-democratic big business club, dominated by the giant monopolies. The dream of a 'Social Europe' is an illusion. That's why Communist Party calls for: • Solidarity with the workers of all countries. • Britain's withdrawal from the EU on socialist policies • For an independent foreign policy based on peace, cooperation and solidarity between sovereign states. For the latest news and analysis visit:
no2eu.com
Order online communist-party.org.uk or by post Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, London CR0 1BD
PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY A MASS MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE
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cores of trade union, community and political bodies have joined together to launch the People's Assembly Against Austerity. The aim is to build a broad, mass, campaigning movement to challenge public spending cuts and privatisation. This will be needed whichever government is in office after the next General Election.
Local People's Assembly organisations are being built across Britain. They need to be genuinely broad-based and democratic, with strong links to the local labour movement. A democratic conference of People's Assembly supporters in 2014 will begin to develop an alternative programme to the politics of austerity. We need policies that serve the millions not the millionaires! e:office@thepeoplesassembly.org.uk w: thepeoplesassembly.org.uk t: @pplsassembly p: 020 8525 6988 William Rust House, 52 Beachy Rd, London E3 2NS