Prices up, Wages down...Summer of action needed!

Shell oil tanker drivers' strike was successful, photo by Bob Severn

The cost of bread and meat up 9% in twelve months! Milk, cheese and eggs up by almost 20% and heating oil leaping by a staggering 84%! Jump in your car and head for the pumps and it's the same story, as petrol hits 112p a litre.

Robin Clapp

Never slow to miss a trick, the greedy privatised energy companies are straining at the leash to hike up the price of gas and electricity again. Just last week they hinted that household energy bills could rocket by another 40% this winter.

And if all that wasn't enough, the cost of mortgages is rising at the same time as property prices are plunging, forcing thousands of families into negative equity.

We don't need lectures by Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, warning us that the "nice decade" is over and we're going to be in for a "bumpy ride". It's here already.

It's okay for some though. Those top bankers, hedge fund managers and stock market spivs who have helped to bring the economy down with their financial scams and scandals have pocketed £13 billion in bonuses this year.

New Labour business minister John Hutton applauds these parasites and celebrates the fact that "people can be enormously successful". But it's a different rule for the rest of us, with chancellor Alistair Darling lecturing against high wage claims because they will cause inflation. But inflation is what we've got now. And we're the victims, not the cause!

With millions of workers facing lower-than-inflation pay settlements and in some cases no increase at all, it's blindingly obvious that the government wants to drive down our living standards further and prioritise rescuing its rich city friends from the subprime and banking debacles.

Inflation hasn't been caused by workers fighting for a decent standard of living. Photo by Bob Severn

Inflation hasn't been caused by workers fighting for a decent standard of living. The real reason the bosses squeal when workers, like the Shell tanker drivers, go on strike and win better pay, is that it hits them in the profits!

Among the culprits behind price rises are those such as investment bankers, hedge fund holders and pension fund chiefs. After burning their fingers when the subprime housing market bubble burst, they turned their insatiable appetites to betting on commodity markets, pushing up the price of oil and foodstuffs.

Forced to reflect the growing anger of their members who are being told they must tighten their belts, even the TUC leaders have been woken from their slumber, with Unison general secretary Dave Prentis warning Brown that another large rise in energy bills would have a "massive effect" on workers and could lead to some pay negotiations being reopened.

Many public and private sector workers are at breaking point. While the rich have got richer, years of privatisation and cutbacks in public services have left Britain an even more unequal country than when Blair and Brown took over a decade ago. Brown's ambition to halve child poverty levels by 2009 are in tatters and 2.5 million pensioners now officially live in poverty.

New Labour is part of the problem, not the solution. The recent 10p tax fiasco summed up its priority - take from the poor, leave the rich laughing.

It is time for decisive action against this system that wrecks so many ambitions and livelihoods. Workers must organise to protect their living standards.

As the economic downturn unfolds and unemployment rises, the demand will grow that something must be done. We urgently need a new workers' party and trade union leaders who represent our interests. Join us in fighting for them, and in the fight for socialism.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
We must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.