Socialist Party Election Celebration Rally

Attacks on working people are mounting right across Europe. The so-called PIGS (Portugal, Ireland & Italy, Greece, Spain) countries have been to the forefront of these attacks. In Ireland, we have seen €7 billion of cutbacks, seriously damaging public services, including health and education. In Greece, there has been a 10% cut in wages and spending in the public sector, together with an increased retirement age, VAT increases and the freezing of pensions. Portugal has a plan to cut its deficit by €11bn over four years through a crisis tax on wages and cutbacks in public services. The Spanish Parliament has passed cutbacks worth €15bn on top of €50bn already agreed. Italy is due to implement "emergency-cutbacks" of €24 bn.

The Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes (CAHWT) has condemned as “pure scaremongering” claims by the Minister for Justice that fines for non-payment of the household tax could be taken from people’s pay.

The recent riots in the most unequal borough in the UK - Tottenham, London - in response to the shooting of Mark Duggan by police have many parrallels with the Brixton riots in London 30 years ago. In advance of a fuller analysis of the recent events, we repost an article for our readers from April of this year, where the Socialist Party of England and Wales (our sister group) loked back at the Brixton riots on it's thirtieth anniversary and warned that the "conditions for new 'Brixtons' are being prepared".