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UNITE & FIGHT

TO BEAT TORIES
sNHS students campaign against the Tories slashing their bursaries

HE PROFOUND CRISIS FOR THE

Tories was sharply expressed in
the last week by the desperate
lengths that Zac Goldsmith has gone to
in London to try to smear his mayoral
Labour rival Sadiq Khan.
The mayoral campaign should be a debate
about key issues like housing, transport and
the health service. But instead, Goldsmith
wants to claim that Khan is soft on
terrorism.
Even prominent figures in the Tories
say they are sickened by Goldsmiths
racist, islamaphobic campaign. But despite
the desperate smears and accusations of
Labours anti-semitism, Goldsmith was still
trailing Khan by nine points in the polls on
Wednesday.

Millions

Millions of people see these elections as a

referendum on Tory austerity.
The scale of the housing crisis means
many will vote for Khan who is pledging to
do something about it no matter how limited
the policies actually are. And yes, maybe
they do trust the son of a bus driver more
than the son of a multi-billionaire!
For millions the Panama papers has
exposed in concrete terms just how selfserving the Eton boys and their cohort are.
In the same way the recent Hillsborough
verdict has exposed the corruption of a
previous Tory government in collusion with
police and the media barons.
The broad public support for the many
thousands of doctors taking to the picket
lines in defence of our health service last

week further underlines the unpopularity of

the Tories agenda. Its not just that people
think that Hunt was wrong to impose a
contract on the doctorsits that people
want to support a fight for the NHS.
The Tory splits and in-fighting mean
they are under pressure and scrutiny over
their policies. Jeremy Corbyn and John
McDonnells leadership of the Labour Party
means that anti-austerity campaigners finally
have a voice in Parliament.

Climb down

Even with minimal campaigning by the

TUC, the Tories have been forced to climb
down on aspects of their Trade Union
Bill which will become law following the
Queenss speech on Wednesday 18 May.
Imagine what a serious campaign by the
unions could have achieved.
And now Cameron has been forced to
climb down after the Tories shamefully
refused to allow 3,000 unaccompanied
refugee children into Britain.

Although he hasnt named a figurehe

has said the UK will take more.
These reversals by a nasty but weak and
divided Tory government should give us
hope that they can be beaten.
The key in the coming weeks and
months is to do everything we can to back
anti-austerity campaigns, protests and
strikes.
We need to build a movement with
the strength to get rid of this rotten
government. The recent Peoples Assembly
demonstration of over 100,000 people
showed the scale of opposition.

Doctors

The PCS unions general secretary, Mark

Serwotka, is absolutely right to call for a
TUC day of action in solidarity with the
junior doctors. The doctors dispute is
a crucial fight for the entire trade union
movement and beyond.
The prospect of teachers fighting back
against Tory academisation plans also
raises the chance of the kind of coordinated
strikes that we need to beat the Tories and
break austerity. We cant wait for 2020 for
change.
The forthcoming Convoy for Calais
organised by Stand Up to Racism on
18 June also gives us a chance to build
meaningful solidarity with people stranded
in the camps in northern France. It can also
pile even more pressure on the Tories to
allow more people across the border.
Solidarity with the doctors, solidarity
with refugees and lets build a wider,
stronger anti-austerity movement that can
beat the Tories.

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