Fightback Fightback Fightback Fightback the Rich Get Richer, and

If anyone needed an explanation of why the Coalition collaborates with Thatcher so much they need look no further than the last budget of each government.They were exactly the same. Each was described as ‘neutral’, each was just the opposite and neither will do anything to halt the economic crisis in either state.

Far from being ‘neutral’, the budgets were constructed on the principle that the rich have to get richer and the poor ... well, you know the rest! No wonder the Tories’ budget was greeted so gleefully in the City of London when the Financial Times share index went up by a weekly record of 6% to an all time high. It’s not even as if the City of London was having a bad time of it and needed some help. The profits in 1983 for Big Four banks — Barand Nat West were a Staggering £1,704 million. When workers ask for wage rises the media and politicians scream about ‘inflation’ but when the bankers and speculators get large increases we are told that that is good!? For the rest of us we are told’ that there are some small tax deductions. We were not told these would be more than wiped out by National Insurance increases; electricity price rise, NHS and dental charges and of course the introduction of VAT on take away foods.. Not even the humble fish supper is safe in the battle against inflation!

### COALITION

BUDGET The Coalition budget was exactly the same. Dukes, Minister for Finance, said that PAYE workers were going to be better off and so were those on social welfare payments which increased by about 7%. Since inflation will be around 10%, PAYE workers will in fact be taxed more than before the budget and those on welfare payments will see a drop in living standards.

Neither budget did anything to help the unemployed — in fact they suffer most. In the North the average income of an unemployed person with a family has dropped 15% under Tory rule, while for a company director it has increased by 43%. The Tories certainly look after their friends. So does the Coalition, While . PAYE workers pay more they refuse to tax the massive profits of multinational firms who are lured to Ireland by the advertisement that Ireland is the most profitable location in Europe.

In reality this is what both budgets are all about. Both Thatcher and FitzGerald want working people to pay for the crisis of their system. In order to drag the bosses’ system out of its mess the workers have to take large cuts in living standards and suffer still greater unemployment. We are told that sacrifices now will benefit us later. These budgets show that the only our sacrifices are the rich.

There is an alternative. Instead of robbing the workers to pay the bankers we should do the opposite. The banks should be nationalised, multinational profits « Posters SOp each taxed and the money used to put the unemployed back to work. No doubt these proposals would be denounced as ‘extremist’, ‘communist’ and ‘simplistic’. Maybe they are, but what is extremist about wanting a job at a decent wage and to live in a house which isn’t a slum? That is not much to ask for, and if the politicians can’t deliver then the workers properly organised should do it for them. We should Fight Back Now!

from Merseyside Trade Union, Community and Unemployed Resource Centre, Hardman Street, Liverpool.

### Unions

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