Pay cuts may drive short term profits and help governments balance the books — but they do nothing for social justice and also damage the economy. Here’s why: Yesterday, at Unison Scotland, we launched a report on the impact of real wage cuts on workers and the economy. It contrasts the increasing wealth of the richest [...]
Posts under ‘Earnings’
Labour politicians on the Rich List
Apr 27th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Most of the rich politicians in Britain, says the Times, are Tories as you would expect. Lord Ashcroft (worth £1,200m) leads the field, pharmaceutical magnate Lord Balleymond next (worth £860m), followed by the Marquess of Salisbury (275m) at no 4, and Lord Heseltine (£264m) no 5. However, rather surprisingly (or perhaps not after 13 years [...]
The Sunday Times Rich List – the antidote
Apr 26th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.The best antidote I have seen to the annual Sunday Times Rich List! A beautiful film illustration of the realities of wealth inequality. And in order to eliminate inequality, we don’t have to change the distribution to what most people regard as the ideal. We only have to change it to what people think it [...]
Against legal loan sharking
Apr 22nd, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Payday loans have become something of a sexy political topic. Stella Creasy has done a great deal of work to get it in the spotlight and Ed Miliband kicked off Labour’s local election campaign with a pledge to give councils the power to push payday lenders (and bookies) off the high street. Like the SWP, I’m [...]
Labour must defend the minimum wage
Apr 19th, 2013 by Calum Sherwood.As the economy continues to stagnate, with the Tory-Liberal government actively pursuing anti-growth policies which have driven out any hint of recovery , government fixation with austerity now threatens the consensus around the minimum wage as the government plans to use it a scapegoat to blame for the their failed economic policies. A few weeks [...]
What causes inequality?
Apr 5th, 2013 by Bryan Gould.The widening gap between rich and poor that has disfigured and weakened our society over recent decades is widely deplored, but there is surprisingly little understanding of how that growing inequality has been brought about. For most people, it simply reflects the natural order; the rich have each individually taken their chance, as anyone would, to [...]
Trade unions and the law
Mar 28th, 2013 by Andy Newman.Last Saturday saw the launch meeting of the new Campaign for Trade Union Freedom, created by the merger of the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU) and the United Campaign for the Repeal of Anti-Trade Union Laws. And yesterday saw the launch of the People’s Assembly initiative, aiming for a mass public [...]
Austerity isn’t supposed to help the economy – but to protect the rich
Mar 11th, 2013 by Mike Hedges.With Osborne’s fourth budget approaching, the Tory austerity programme is clearly in trouble. The news that a majority of people now think the cuts are not working is bad news for the Chancellor. This follows the stinging rebuke delivered to David Cameron on Friday by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which rebutted claims [...]
Labour must fight for women – and not just one day a year
Mar 9th, 2013 by Megan Davies.It’s nearly three years since this government was formed, and every day we see more evidence to shred Osborne’s myth that we’re “all in this together”. With a cabinet whose combined personal wealth is around £70 million, it’s hardly surprising that the poorest are bearing the brunt of austerity while millionaires – like themselves – [...]
Unequal wealth – the best illustration ever
Mar 5th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.This film will take just six minutes of your life. It is a fantastic illustration of just how unfair is the distribution of wealth. Not only is there a massive gap between the way people think things are and the way they think they should be (left and right alike), but there is an even bigger gap [...]
