A personal message from Robert Griffiths
This is a capitalist crisis!
Tax the rich
Tax the rich
Annwyl gyfeillion, The people of Merthyr Tydfil and the Rhymney Valley have a rich history of fighting injustice, for a better society. I am proud to stand in the tradition of the Scotch Cattle, the Merthyr Rising, the Chartists, Keir Hardie and SO Davies. Yet for all the wealth created by generations of working people, Merthyr and Rhymney are still among the poorest, most deprived parts of Wales and Britain. We have major problems when it comes to employment, wages, housing, health, anti-social behaviour and the local environment. As your Communist MP, I would be fearless in raising these issues. I won’t be keeping my head down, feathering my own nest or furthering my parliamentary career. Instead, you’ll find me at your protest meetings, on your picket lines, supporting and representing you. I would be a full-time MP, taking home only the average wage in this constituency. The rest would be spent on your communities and campaigns. The British ruling class is one of the richest in the world. It intends to hang on to its wealth while you suffer low pay, poverty pensions, reduced benefits, poor housing and crumbling public services. What would frighten the rich and powerful most on May 7? YOU – electing a Communist MP and making world-wide news! Dros sosialaeth, for socialism, Robert Griffiths
Vote Communist Take the power with public ownership
Vote Communist
Election Communication Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney Constituency Thursday 7 May 2015
Robert Griffiths Welsh Communist Party candidate
policies for the millions not the millionaires find out more at www.votecommunist.uk
Printed by A Print, Unit 23, Enterprise Business Park, Newport, NP20 2AQ and promoted on behalf of Robert Griffiths by Roy Evans, 1 Pleasant View, Cilsanws Lane, Cefn Coed y Cymmer, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 2NU
Austerity is working ... for bankers and bosses
Take the power! with public ownership
Robert Griffiths for Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney
H Working people and their families didn’t create this economic crisis. Nor should we pay for it!
H We need to vote out the Tories and LibDems on May 7. But a Labour government should reverse the cuts, not continue them. We need public ownership of vital services, not privatisation.
H Robert Griffiths is general secretary of the Communist Party in Britain. He has worked in industry, the civil service and the voluntary sector and for many years was a TUC tutor for trade union reps and university senior lecturer in Economics and History.
It’s a crisis of the capitalist system caused by reckless speculation and big business profiteering. The bank bailout cost £1.3 trillion of our money – almost 20 times the annual government deficit. We’re paying for the bail-out with tax and VAT rises. And with cuts in public services, benefits and wages. But corporate profits and fat cat incomes have shot up since 2008, while wages have been frozen. In 1998, top bosses received 45 times the average pay – now they pay themselves 185 times the average. They make more in three months than most people earn in a lifetime! Today, one in five workers earn less than the living wage. Millions of people face benefit cuts, the Bedroom Tax and unfair ‘capability’ assessments for non-existent jobs. The Tory-LibDem regime wants more ‘austerity’ – which means privatisation of our NHS and schools and more anti-trade union laws to enforce low wages and zero hours contracts. Communists say we need a left-wing government – one that puts people before profit, peace before war and democracy before the EU and NATO.
Communists say a new government must: H Tax the rich, big business and City speculators. H Plug tax avoidance loopholes and close down British-run tax havens around the world. H Cut energy prices and take gas, electricity, water, buses and rail back into public ownership. H Use nationalised banks to lend to home-buyers, small businesses and productive industry. H Invest in jobs, ‘green’ technology and public services. H Return all privatised health services to the NHS. H Enforce equal pay for women and young workers. H Raise pensions and reinstate benefits and student grants. H End privilege in education and abolish fees. H Repeal the Bedroom Tax and build a million new public sector homes. H Scrap the Health & Social Care Act and return all privatised health services to public ownership. H Extend democratic rights in a progressive and federal Britain. H Scrap Trident and plans for more nuclear weapons. H Challenge NATO expansion and EU big business policies – stand up for popular sovereignty. A big vote for Robert Griffiths, the Communist Party candidate, will send a strong signal that workers and their families demand a new policy.
votecommunist.uk
He is the former Welsh president of AEU-TASS and currently represents the Unite union on Cardiff Trades Council. Robert is the author of numerous books and television documentaries in English and Welsh, including the biography of former Merthyr Tydfil socialist MP S.O. Davies and the official history of train drivers’ union ASLEF. He has three daughters and six grandchildren.
Tax the rich Vote Communist Take the power with public ownership