SOCIALISM IS THE SOLUTION - IS THE PROBLEM, 6 MAY 2021 - Communist Party of Britain
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
THE
COMMUNISTS’
M A N I F E S TO
C A P I TA L I S M IS THE PROBLEM,
SOCIALISM IS THE SOLUTION
VOTE COMMUNIST #1
GREATER LONDON ASSEMBLY
6 MAY 2021Published by Election Agent Lorraine Douglas; 42A Walmer Terrace, London SE18 7EB on behalf of the Communist Party, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, Croydon CR0 1BD
CAPITALISM IS THE
PROBLEM, SOCIALISM
IS THE SOLUTION
VOTE COMMUNIST #1
ON 6 MAY
Communists have bold, popular and progressive policies. You won’t read
about them in the national newspapers because the billionaire press owners
don’t like political parties that refuse to be bought out. We hope you’ll take
a few minutes to read on.
The elections for London Mayor and the Greater London Assemblyy are
being held a year late because of the COVID crisis and when much of the
country has barely emerged from its third lockdown. Fifteen months after
our first cases, Britain has had the deepest recession and one of the highest
death tolls of any developed country, long after others have either avoided
the need for lockdowns at all or got, and kept, COVID under control after
their initial outbreak with effective test, trace and quarantine systems.
The Communist Party is standing nine candidates in the All-London party list
for the Greater London Assembly and calls on Londoners to use their first
choice to vote for the future and vote Communist.
THE COVID EMERGENCY
Londoners have been hit particularly hard by the government’s
mismanagement of the pandemic which has so far seen over four million
people in Britain infected and more than 120,000 dead, many of them
workers in our health, transport, education, care and construction sectors.
Instead of harnessing the skills of our NHS and public health workers to run
test and trace, the government handed a staggering £22billion to private
companies to do so and which have, so far, failed to hit their targets or stop
the spread of the disease. We only need compare their performance with
the success of the vaccine roll-out – managed and delivered by the NHS –
to see the folly of handing public service contracts to unqualified cronies in
the private sector.
COMMUNIST PARTY LONDON 1Front line Londoners have seen some of the highest rates of infection in the
country. Black and Asian families have suffered appallingly high infection and
death rates because they are more likely to be working on the frontline,
more likely to be low-paid and more likely to be overcrowded at home,
showing the lethal effect of discrimination and growing inequality in Britain’s
capital city. The Indian Workers’ Association (GB) along with over a hundred
other campaigning organisations fear that the current vaccine amnesty does
not go far enough to the win the trust of undocumented migrants and have
called for the establishment of a firewall between healthcare providers and
the Home Office because, despite assurances, the government has not given
any guarantee that data sharing will be suspended during the pandemic.
While the extension of the furlough scheme is welcome, the government
has still failed to help those in the greatest need – on zero hours contracts,
the minimum wage and those with no entitlement to furlough payments.
Statutory sick pay is not enough for people to live on, and some employers
are penalising workers who comply with the regulations, meaning many
Londoners cannot afford to self-isolate if they get COVID.
We’ve paid the highest price of government incompetence, cuts and
cronyism.
London’s Communists support our frontline workers. To keep our services going
and to help our kids get back to school safely it is essential that workers most at
risk of infection are now prioritised for vaccination as we come out of lockdown.
This will help stop the spread, reduce risk and rates of infection among school
staff and students and so reduce the additional disruption of constant class
closures due to the need for teachers and students who test positive to self-
isolate. We support full financial support to Londoners who get infected with the
virus so they can afford to self-isolate without worrying about whether they can
pay their bills or feed themselves and their families.
AGAINST INEQUALITY: FOR PUBLIC SERVICES
This crisis hit Britain after 10 years of austerity decimated public services and
increased inequality and poverty throughout the country.
40% cuts to the local government grant since 2010 have led to the loss of
around a half million council jobs in Britain and major cuts to public services,
including libraries, youth services, environmental health and the wholesale
privatisation of adult care.
2 THE COMMUNISTS’ MANIFESTOFire stations have closed at a time when the risk to Londoners of high-
rise fires was exposed by the tragedy of Grenfell.
The London Ambulance service has been decimated – calls which would
once have resulted in an emergency response can now take hours.
London NHS hospital trusts reported multiple risks in January 2020, even
before the Covid crisis struck.
The Metropolitan police service, which had its budget slashed in 2012,
saw its performance on solving crimes described by the Metropolitan
Police Commissioner Cressida Dick in 2019 as ‘woefully low’.
Crime, and the fear of crime continues to blight the lives of Londoners.
Successive mayors have failed to develop and implement effective
measures to combat gang violence and the exploitation of young people
by organised criminals. The appalling rate of murders among London’s
youth is an indictment of political impotence and a failure to provide the
resources needed to protect our young people from harm.
The systemic failure by the police to protect women from domestic
violence, sexual harassment, and assault and its ongoing failure to
eliminate racism in its ranks requires immediate action by the Mayor and
government
The City of London remains the centre of global money laundering, tax
evasion and tax avoidance, it is often accused of being a global hub for
financial crime.
The City is responsible for two-thirds of the world’s tax havens, mostly in
the Caribbean. They may be legal but their morality and utility is
questionable: it is estimated that 10% of the world’s GDP is currently
sitting in tax havens.
At 7% in December 2020, London has the highest unemployment rate in
Britain and has seen the largest number of jobs lost due to Covid. Retail,
hospitality and London’s nightlife are among the worst affected; sectors
which traditionally employ large numbers of women and young people
and who have been hit hardest by job losses. The loss of affordable
childcare is forcing many women out of work and onto benefits.
COMMUNIST PARTY LONDON 3The answer to austerity and unemployment, underemployment and zero
hours contracts is organisation. The Communist Party supports workers
fighting for secure jobs, decent pay and conditions. We urge all workers
to join unions and seek collective solutions to workplace issues of low
pay, bullying, speed-up, lack of contracts, job insecurity and long hours.
London Communists demand a reversal of the cuts to local government, the
NHS and our emergency services and for privatised services to be brought
back in-house and fully accountable to the GLA and London boroughs. We
need to see investment in jobs and good quality apprenticeships.
Our plan for high streets includes building council homes so they become
places where people live as well as work. We will support the arts, music
venues and the leisure industry to ensure Londoners can continue to enjoy a
rich and varied cultural life, preserving jobs that employ thousands and are
essential to the London economy.
Communists will fight for the GLA and London boroughs to use their licensing
powers so that Londoners are treated fairly at work, get paid enough to live
on and have the protection of proper contracts of employment. We support
the provision of universal, subsidised child care and improved maternity and
paternity rights.
Following the success of Glasgow’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) which
achieved a 54% decrease in homicides since 2010, Communists support the
belated establishment of a VRU in London and the treatment of violent crime
as a public health problem. A permanent solution for this sickness requires
investment in youth services, top quality apprenticeships providing a route into
well-paid, secure jobs and access to decent, affordable homes.
Communists also demand the closure of all tax havens under British
jurisdiction,
a full-scale investigation of the City, its associations with organised crime and
money laundering and the impact of its activities on the London, UK and
international economies.
4 THE COMMUNISTS’ MANIFESTOHOUSING FOR THE PEOPLE
The housing situation in London isn’t just a crisis, it’s an emergency. The level
of homelessness is a disgrace. Nearly 60,000 London families are stuck in
temporary accommodation after becoming homeless. Almost half of these
are placed outside their home boroughs, some outside London altogether.
The private rented sector is unaffordable, with rents averaging nearly 75% of
Londoners’ incomes. The housing benefit bill is now over £22 billion a year –
3% of the government’s budget and more than it spends on police and fire
services combined. Most of this money is a taxpayer subsidy direct to
private landlords.
Between 2003 and 2020 London suffered a net loss of over 13,500 council
homes to estate ‘regeneration schemes’ carried out by private developers,
on top of the 20,000 lost under the Right to Buy since David Cameron’s
government increased the maximum discount for sitting tenants to £112,000
for homes in London in 2012. This is despite over 113,000 London
households on council waiting lists. As over two thirds of London boroughs
now restrict access to their lists to only those in the greatest housing need –
homeless, medical needs and severe overcrowding – the true demand for
council housing is hidden.
Leaseholders and tenants now have the added worry that their homes are
both unsafe and worthless because of cladding and building defects. Those
living in blocks over six floors high will only receive the costs of cladding
replacement but will still be liable for the cost of all other remedial work, this
despite the 10 largest housing developers making over £1billion profits
between them last year during the pandemic. People living in blocks of six
storeys or less will get no help at all toward these costs.
The continued sale of public land to private developers is doing nothing to
alleviate London’s housing emergency. Major hospital sites; prison, railway
and TFL land; school playing fields; land owned by the boroughs and other
public bodies are all up for grabs, allowing developers to control the supply
and therefore the price of housing.
Communists demand that councils take back control of housebuilding and for
the GLA to play a key role in developing a housing plan for London. We
support a mass council-house building programme, with construction workers
and design and build teams directly employed so councils once again become
COMMUNIST PARTY LONDON 5centres of excellence for the delivery of homes. This will help develop high-
quality apprenticeships and secure jobs for workers in an industry
characterised by bogus self-employment and zero hours contracts and where
national pay and conditions negotiated by the unions are constantly under
attack by major companies.
We want a ban on the sale of public land to private developers and for all
public land designated for development to be built on by councils; we want to
see compulsory purchase orders used to take control of land, homes and
buildings that are lying undeveloped or empty, for use as council homes. We
want to see unsold shared ownership homes converted to council rented
homes.
Freeholders and developers must be required to pay the costs of cladding
removal and remedial works to building defects, for all blocks affected, not
just those over six storeys high. Government must underwrite these costs and
leaseholders must be protected from unfair service charges.
We want proper regulation and compulsory licensing of the private rented
sector, rent controls on a London-wide basis and proper funding for
enforcement services.
Communists demand an immediate, permanent end to homelessness and for
all Londoners to have a secure, affordable home.
More on the Communist Party’s housing policy
https://tinyurl.com/r6fa79we
TRANSPORT AND POLLUTION
In London, 9,400 premature deaths are attributed to poor air quality each
year at a cost of between £1.4 and £3.7 billion per annum to the health
service. Traffic pollution is a major contributor to poor air quality.
London’s public transport system is among the most expensive in Europe
and has the highest fares. The government has forced the Mayor to increase
the congestion charge to £15 per day and TFL fares by 1% above inflation as
a condition for granting a cash bail-out to cover the loss of income caused
by the COVID crisis. This is an outrageous tax on Londoners, even more so
considering the billions handed to Tory friends and donors to mismanage the
COVID response.
6 THE COMMUNISTS’ MANIFESTOLondon needs an integrated transport policy which is designed to get people
into public transport and out of their cars. While supporting, in principle, the
extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone the Communist Party opposes
the extension of charging as this will disproportionately affect people who
are low paid or on zero hours’ contracts who are dependent on their cars
for work. This will particularly affect low-paid shift workers, home care
workers and delivery drivers who can’t afford to upgrade to vehicles
exempt from ULEZ charging.
There can be no justification for approving the Silvertown Tunnel. More
roads mean more traffic. Greenwich and Newham where the tunnel will be
sited, have some of the highest pollution levels in London. It will inevitably
result in more congestion along with years of disruption for residents while
the tunnel is being built. To add insult to injury it is intended to apply a toll
charge, not just to the new tunnel, but also to the Blackwall tunnel – making
all three of the main river crossings east of the Rotherhithe Tunnel toll
roads, a slap in the face for Londoners.
The much-delayed Crossrail will bring a welcome reduction to commuting
times for people travelling across London. But for the full benefits of this
service to be realised in reduced traffic the fares must be affordable.
The Freedom Pass, free travel for children and concessionary fares for students
and job seekers must be protected.
London buses must be brought back under public ownership and control
with parity of pay and conditions across the service.
London needs improved connectivity between south-east and south-west
and north-east and north-west London, reducing the need for people to
travel into zone 1 to get across town. Reducing journey times and fares will
also encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport.
Communists support improved cycle routes and traffic calming measures,
but these need to be subject to proper consultation with, and the support
of, the communities affected by changes to road systems, along with full
environmental impact assessments that take into account the effect of
increasing traffic congestion and journey length.
Communists demand that all major infrastructure projects have full, independent
environmental impact assessments and that no project be approved unless it can
COMMUNIST PARTY LONDON 7be shown to meet international carbon reduction targets. The GLA and boroughs
must consult all communities affected by the introduction of new cycle lanes and
residential road closures and fully assess the impact on road congestion and
pollution before they are made permanent.
Scrap the Silvertown Tunnel, along with proposals to introduce any more toll
roads in London.
Scrap the TFL fares increase, the increase to the congestion charge and
extension of ULEZ charging planned for later this year. Fares should be
progressively reduced to levels that will encourage greater use of public transport
and a reduction in car use. Commit to retaining the Freedom Pass, free travel for
children and concessionary fares.
Bring London’s buses back under public ownership and control, with a fair deal
for all drivers and transport workers. Communists support all bus workers in their
fight against pay cuts and attacks on their terms and conditions of employment.
Transport workers must not be made to pay the price of the COVID pandemic.
FUNDING OUR FUTURE
Where will the money come from to implement our Manifesto? The
COVID pandemic has changed the debate around government involvement
in the economy and the role of the state and public institutions. Having
raised generation after generation in the sixth richest country in the world,
to be told by Labour and Conservative that there 'was no magic money
tree', it suddenly seems there is, so long as you’re mates with the
government.
Our ambitious range of economic, social and cultural policies will be
financed through a more progressive tax regime and revised public spending
priorities.
8 THE COMMUNISTS’ MANIFESTOCOMMUNISTS SAY IT’S TIME TO CHANGE
Britain is at a crossroads. We can choose more of the same, or we can
demand better. Its not a difficult choice:
This is socialism This is capitalism
Long term investment Crisis and austerity
Economic planning Insecurity
Full employment Unemployment
A world-class NHS Privatised health and social care
Homes for all Homelessness
Green energy A climate emergency
Redistribution of wealth Poverty
Food for all Foodbanks
Affordable public transport Unaffordable public transport
An end to racism Racism
Equality for women Oppression of women
A future for youth Education debt
Dignity in old age Fear of old age
Real democracy Monopoly power
Social justice Crime and corruption
Peace Militarism and war
The Communist Party stands for ending a political and economic system that
offers nothing to the people of Britain. Our programme Britain’s Road to
Socialism argues that the essential needs of humanity and ending all forms of
exploitation and oppression cannot be achieved under a system which
values profits above people. Available at tinyurl.com/BRSprogramme
Take a chance on change, use your first preference in the All-London vote
VOTE COMMUNIST #1
London Assembly
May 6th
COMMUNIST PARTY LONDON 9You can also read
