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What We Stand For..... We are standing in the District Council elections to ensure that a challenge is offered to the betrayals and wage cuts of the Labour MPs and councillors and of the trade union leaders: to see that a voice is given to those who are fighting back.
Our loyalty is to the working class and those who fight alongside it. We stand with those who answered the call of NUPE, NALGO and the STUC on March 19th, with the thousands who went on strike in defiance of the courts ban, and with the 10,000 who marched through the streets of Glasgow against the cuts.
We stand with the busworkers in
their fight against fare increases and garage closures; with the workers in. British Leyland who have been on strike against the wage cutting policies of their leaders.
We stand for a united movement of all those opposed to the Social Contract who are prepared to fight back. Such a socialist opposition would unite people inside and outside the Labour Party. It would reject any Social Contract with the employers and fight for socialist policies against the right wing leaders. This is the only realistic alternative to the misery and poverty that big business and its accomplices in the government want to stick down our throats.
The usual cry from the Labour leaders is that there is no alternative to the misery of wage cuts and unemployment. We say there is another road open to working people.
* Against Unemployment: Jobs for all through a reduction of the working week to 35 hours and a ban on overtime without loss of pay. A massive programme of public works to create new jobs. Any firm incapable of guaranteeing work should be nationalised without compensation under conditions imposed and controlled by the workers themselves. * Against Inflation: The maintenance of the purchasing power of wage packets through the inclusion of cost of living threshold clauses in all wage agreements. A minimum wage of £50 a week and pensions equal to the minimum wage. Big across the board wage increases of at least £15 a week to compensate for the last two years' wage cuts. An immediate freeze on prices of big business and an end to VAT.
* Against Social Spending Cuts: Restore the cuts in housing, health and education. Eliminate all personal charges, extend the social services with spending inflation-proofed to keep pace with rising costs. * Make the capitalists pay for their crisis: Nationalise the banks, insurance companies and other money lenders; reduce interest rates. The tax system must be directed against big business and the multinationals, not workers or small traders. For an end to the waste of arms expenditure. Abolish the monarchy and other hangers on. * Against the Crisis bearing down on women: Equal pay for women; free abortion and contraception on demand; free 24 hour nurseries. * Against racist divisions in the working class: Repeal all immigration acts stop the break up of Asian families. * Against the imperialist war in Ireland: Withdraw the troops: the Irish people must be allowed to determine their own government and future.