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No to scapegoating...

DONT LET THE TORIES PLAY DIVIDE AND RULE

ory chancellor George Osborne boasts that Britain is recovering. He says that a fall in the inflation figures to 2 percent shows austerity is working. But for most people things are getting worse. Inflation may be falling (by the governments fixed CPI figure) but wages arent keeping up with the cost of living. The Retail Price Index (RPI) shows prices rising by 2.7 percent. Average wages have fallen (in real terms) by over 8 percent since 2008. The government knows that its unpopular, so it is playing divide and rule. The attempt to deflect blame away from the rich will grow stronger as we get nearer the European elections and the 2015 general election. Claimants are targeted as lazy and good for nothing to justify huge cuts in welfare spending. The Tories have just announced if they are re-elected theyll cut 12 billion more from the welfare budget. The current Channel 4 show Benefit Street was a hatchet job on a working class community in Birmingham. The real story is different. The latest revelation that up to 40,000 people are being, even by the governments own rules, wrongly forced to pay the bedroom tax underlines that its the poor who are being robbed.

council houses. If we let the Tories and the press divide us well all suffer. The only people who benefit from division is the bosses. We need a united fightback by the trade unions and campaigners against austerity. On 4 February thousands of London underground workers, members of the RMT, will strike to defend jobs and services. The workforce is made up of workers from all over the world. Together we are stronger.

United

RMT protest over job cuts on the tube

week because it proved there was no case for tightening migration rules. Are migrants undercutting wages? No. Its the bosses and the government who are freezing and curbing pay to boost profits, while cutting taxes for the superwealthy.

On 22 March the TUC, Unison, Unite, PCS, UCU, NUT, GMB and Unite Against Fascism are organising Stand up to Racism and Fascism events in London, Cardiff and Glasgow. The events will challenge the divide and rule message pumped out by the Tories, UKIP and the likes of the BNP and argue for a united fightback against austerity.

Get involved #M22 uaf.orG.uk

Suffer

Migration

Were also told to blame migrants for our problems. Home Office officials are even being given gift vouchers, bonuses and holidays as incentives for rejecting asylum and migration applications. Cameron says that relations with the European Union have to be renegotiated to cap migration. He says migrants are undermining British workers. Labours leader Ed Miliband has chimed in to back Cameron up. But theres absolutely no evidence for these claimsif anything the opposite is true. Cameron had to squash an official government report on EU migration this

Is the NHS under strain because of health tourism and migrants? No. Cuts, A&E closures and oversubscribed GP services are to blame. Migrant workers are keeping the NHS running. Are migrants to blame for forcing up the cost of housing? No. The latest housing bubble is driven by speculation not migrants. Whats needed is more affordable homes and

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