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Pamphlet: What We Stand For
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The TUC has worked out that the richest folk in the land get
subsidised massively in their old age by the rest of us. No change
there, then. £37bn is set aside by the Treasury as tax relief for
pension funds. This tax break is, of course, worth much more to those
on the higher rate of income tax. They get their hands on 60% of the
£37bn. Of this sum, nearly £10bn is grabbed by the top 1% of the
population, people on more than £150,000 a year.
Last week, a mob from the English Defence League (EDL), a rag-tag collection of football
‘service crews’ and other assorted hooligan and racist elements, mobilised in
the northern city of Leeds. Clearly hoping to capitalise on their ‘successes’
in Manchester (where they managed to mobilise several hundred people) and Luton
(where the absence of any counter-mobilisation by the labour movement allowed
the EDL’s thugs to attack Muslims in the street), several hundred of these
fascist yobs gathered in City Square. Over 1500 (see picture) came to oppose them.
In the build up to this weekend's conference of the 
Waste, big salaries and huge pensions, that’s the image the
Tories are trying to present of the public sector in Britain today. It’s a bit
rich coming from them, at a time when their rich backers in the City of London
have been exposed as a bunch of greedy parasites.
It was only a few months ago that public anger against the banks and an
unprecedented crisis of capitalism seemed to have an almost
revolutionary tone. Public consciousness and official opinion seemed to
have shifted decisively to the left. Yet this rage seems not to have
effected any political change at all and somehow the public debate
(i.e. the editorial line of the press and the rest of the media) has
swung far to the right. But the anger and opposition to bank bailouts
has not disappeared.
Figures published today (Wed) show a continuing rise in UK unemployment,
hiting 2.47 million as at the end of August. This figure is supposed to
be lower than expected - indicating that the recession is coming to an
end - but for those involved it is still high enough - not least for the youth!
Leeds refuse workers strikers have been out for nearly a month now.
Rubbish is piling up and the dispute has started to hit the national
headlines with reports in the main daily papers and on BBC Breakfast
(which noted that the strike has strong local support). Socialist
Appeal supporters in the Yorkshire area have been involved in giving
support to the strikers and have been visiting the various picket lines.
In March of this year, the People's Charter was launched at the House Of Commons and has since been backed by many labour movement organisations, trade union leaderships and the TUC. Based around six demands, the aim is to present a way forward which will ensure that the burden of the preesent crisis is not borne by working people. How effective are these demands? How could they be actually implemented? As part of the discussion which the Charter has opened up, we present the first of a number of articles which will seek to examine these demands from a Marxist perspective.
Nearly two decades ago. Robert Maxwell - former Labour MP, newspaper
tycoon and (so it turned out) conman died after 'falling' off his luxury
boat. Soon after all the scandals he was involved in were revealed to
an amazed world. He was living a great big lie and - worst of all - it
was at the expense of those former and then-current employees of the
Maxwell-owned Mirror Group who discovered that their pension fund had been milked dry by Maxwell.
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