The Socialist 29 May 2013

767

Evict this millionaires' government

Campaign to stop bedroom tax evictions!

No to terrorism! No to racism! No to war!

Unite to fight racism!

Even the cutters say cuts aren't working!

This is what's 'not to like' about Free Schools, Boris

Nasty party exposed by equal marriage bill

Stop the NHS privatisation rip-off

Rotten greedy banks still threaten crisis

PCS conference sends defiant message to the government

PCS Land Registry delegates commit to action

Strike action needed to save Royal Mail

Wales TUC conference - a missed opportunity

No future with Future Directions

Fire service cuts

Workplace News in brief

Haringey TUSC: trade unions and communities prepare for 2014

'Brilliant' South West conference sees record turnout

Fund the fightback in the SP collectathon

Boosting South West Wales paper sales

Socialist Party youth organisers meeting Sunday 30 June, 10.30am-4.30pm, London

Oppose Kazakhstan regime's latest campaign clampdown

South Africa: Eye-witness to the developing struggle

Riots expose inequality in Sweden

Sri Lanka: Working class beginning to move forward

Salford Socialist Students help lead fightback against job and course cuts

London students fight union closure plan

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Evict this millionaires' government

Scrap the bedroom tax

Leeds anti-bedroom tax demonstration 21 April 2013 , photo by Mid Shelley (Click to enlarge)

New data shows that greedy Con-Dem MPs in the cruel cuts Coalition made over £7 million doing outside jobs.

Not content with creaming off their expenses they take on directorships in profiteering companies too. Among them 17 declared more than £100,000 in income during the 2012-13 parliamentary session.

Bankers, hedge fund managers and property magnates are also stacking up the cash. Big business is literally hoarding billions - an estimated £850 billion. At the same time, they use offshore havens and clever accounting to avoid paying tax.

Imagine if it was suggested they'd be evicted if they didn't pay their taxes? Instead, many pro-big business governments argue they can't force the wealthy elite to pay their taxes in case they leave.

The implementation of the bedroom tax is taking the idea there's 'one law for them and one law for us' to new extremes. Some of the poorest in society are being threatened with eviction since the Con-Dems singled them out for special suffering - a cut of hundreds of pounds a year from already very low incomes.

The degree to which we are suffering austerity is devastating. It is reflected in the rapid expansion of food banks.

In the last four years there has been a ten-fold increase in payday loans as incomes don't stretch to the end of the month. And now the government is proposing more cuts to be announced at the end of June for 2015-16.

Enough is enough!

We can't take the pain - already tens of thousands across Britain have shown they simply cannot pay the bedroom tax. And there is a massive mood to fight it.

Join the struggle and we can defeat this tax and, by building a mass working class-led movement, the pro-austerity government too.

No evictions of tenants who fall into rent arrears as a result of austerity cuts. Organise local campaigns to oppose the tax and defend our homes, and link them to existing anti-cuts groups. Build anti-eviction armies in every area to protect people's homes
Stand candidates against councillors who try to evict us. Build a new mass workers' party that draws together workers, young people and activists from workplaces and anti-cuts campaigns, to provide a fighting, political alternative to the pro-cuts parties
Cap rents and build homes. Invest in a major programme of council house building and refurbishment to provide affordable homes for all and decent jobs
End low pay! If workers are paid a genuinely living wage they would not need to claim housing benefit
Boardroom tax not bedroom tax. Make the rich pay for their crisis including nationalisation of the banking system, major corporations and utilities under democratic control with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need
Fight all the cuts. Trade unions must build for a 24-hour general strike as the next major step in building a mass campaign against austerity
For a socialist alternative to cuts and capitalism with a democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people - not the 1%

In this issue

Scrap the Bedroom tax

Evict this millionaires' government