Young Communist League leader Johnnie Hunter has slammed calls by the Bank of England and government ministers for pay restraint in order to combat inflation.
‘People everywhere should treat this ruling-class attempt to shift the blame and the burden onto working people. It’s the energy companies, banks and retail giants who have driven up fuel, food and housing costs in their greed for greater profits’, he told the Communist Party’s political committee on Tuesday evening (July 10).
‘Workers and their families have suffered real cuts in their incomes and living standards, while the fat cats continue to enjoy the cream’, he argued.
Mr Hunter, a delegate to the recent Unison conference, urged the labour movement to uphold the essential role of unions to fight and when necessary strike for higher wages.
Instead, Labour leader Keir Starmer and his officials continue to pull their party to the right, purging socialists and gerrymandering selection processes to fill the Parliamentary Labour Party with ‘tame stooges’.
‘Like Unite, Labour-affiliated trade unions should demand and fight for radical economic and employment policies from the Labour Party in return for working people’s money’, Mr Hunter continued.
He warned that Britain’s ruling class wanted to rupture the link between the labour movement and the Labour Party, pouring huge donations into party coffers and lobbying Starmer and Shadow Cabinet members for even more big business-friendly policies.
‘Today, only the Communist Party stands unreservedly for policies such as price controls, renationalisation, a wealth tax on the rich, the repeal of all anti-union laws, millions more council houses and an economic plan to combat climate change and create full employment’, the YCL general secretary insisted.
Britain’s Communists condemned the latest NATO summit, in Lithuania, which they said will only perpetuate the Ukraine War rather than begin the search for a ceasefire and peace negotiations.
‘The accession of Sweden to this aggressive nuclear first-strike bloc demonstrates how, after provoking the conflict which President Putin so recklessly escalated, the NATO powers have manipulated public opinion to present NATO as a guarantor of peace’, the CP political committee declared.
