Volunteer

There is no question but that the Property Tax is the anti-austerity issue this year, writes Cllr Matthew Waine. The planned robbery of peoples’ wages, pensions & welfare payments by a government that includes the Labour Party is the final straw for many people.

Get involved today in fighting  the EU/ IMF/ establishment political parties’ austerity and bailouts. Build the socialist alternative to the capitalist crisis. Get involved in our election campaigns.

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 Scottish independence referendum is taking place on 18 September 2014. An average of this  year’s opinion polls indicates that currently one third of people would vote Yes for independence and  around one half would vote No. While there are differences depending on which organisation conducts  the poll, the trend over the last nine months has been relatively static.