Education Information

8. For a real plan to tackle inflation

The policy that we need to deal with inflation should aim to protect the interests of the majority. It must not be driven by an effort to protect profits, which creates terrible problem for society as a whole, as was shown in the previous sections of this pamphlet. A socially minded policy will have the interests of workers, the poor, and the self-employed at the forefront. For that, it must be based on three pillars. First, wage rises should be at least equal to the rate of inflation across the board. There must not be any more income losses and certainly no income transfers from workers to capitalists. But this is only the first step. Wage rises should in truth be above the rate of inflation to begin to claw back some of the extraordinary losses that workers in the UK have had to endure during the last decade and more. There is no reason why the very large, typically very profitable, companies t covering 40% of all employment in the UK, should not be making pay rises that at least match the rate of inflation. There is also no reason why public sector 34 workers should not be receiving pay increases that are at least equal to inflation, when the government was able to spend enormous amounts of money to protect enterprises in 2020-21. The key to winning these increases lies with union organisation and collective bargaining. Industrial disputes are already picking up rapidly, but we need unions to be active and to emerge in many more sectors. 35

Above all, we need collective bargaining in all sectors. Inevitably this will mean sustained state intervention. New labour laws are urgently needed. The main

Figures for employment in frms employing 250 or more people. From: https://www.gov.uk/government/ 34 statistics/business-population-estimates-2021/business-population-estimates-for-the-uk-and-regions-2021 statistical-release-html Wall, Tom, 2022, “Industrial Disputes in UK at Highest in Five Years as Infation Hits Pay”, Observer (2 35 April).

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