Communist Party General Secretary Robert Griffiths today called on workers to “reflect and regroup”, as today’s decision to tax workers to pay for social care (effectively twice as we do it already), “is the opening shot in a protracted struggle with attempts to shift the burden of paying for the breakdown of capitalism, onto workers and their communities.”
Robert pointed to, “major changes – sold to us as real long term solutions – which the government has in store for us. First they leak to the press, then they apply the scalpel. Prescription charges for the over 60s. Extension of fee paying road services. Removal of a cap on energy prices. The Policing Bill and the Health and Social Care bill, intensify the shift to privatised health provision and threatens repression against those who protest.
In all this, the quiescence of the Labour leadership is inexcusable. Now is the time to take a longer look at how we want our services run and delivered, the rights and pay of those who staff them, and how such services can be made accountable. All opponents of government moves should link arms, the alternative is we are picked off bit by bit, one by one. We may have lost this opening battle. The point is to do battle in a way that wins the war for workers. The TUC general secretary has echoed what communists have said for a long time. Change is needed. It should be paid for by capital NOT labour. “