Generations United Against Austerity!
Today, with Hazuan Hashim I will be filming the first ever ‘Generations United Against Austerity’ Conference in Liverpool. The conference has been organised by the Merseyside Pensioners Association (MPA) in conjunction with students from Liverpool Hope University and is supported by a range of Trade Unions. The conference will be included in a new feature film ‘Austerity Fight’ which will be premiered in June 2017. It will follow the numerous campaigns in the UK against the regressive Austerity policies of the Tory government.
The MPA is a campaigning organisation of Merseyside pensioners who meet on a weekly basis. As well as campaigning for justice for pensioners they have been particularly active recently in fighting to save the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Last week a delegation from the MPA went to lobby MP’s in parliament about a number of concerns facing millions of existing and future pensioners.
There are approximately 11m older people over state pension age living in the UK, of which around 4.5m pay tax at the standard rate and less than 250,000 pay at the higher rate. The remaining 6.4m have an income below £11,000 and do not pay any income tax at all. The vast majority of older people are therefore not wealthy. Nevertheless, every year pensioners make a net contribution to society of £40bn through taxes, payments and unpaid volunteering/caring: more than the cost of pensions, care and benefits. Any suggestion that older people are therefore a financial burden on society is nonsense.
The austerity policies of the Tories have targeted young and old. The NHS is chronically under funded and is being privatised. Students are leaving college with huge debts, children are living in poverty and millions live precarious lives on ‘zero hour contracts’. ‘Austerity Fight’ will challenge the notion that we have to live in a world where public services are cut, worker’s rights are removed and poverty is a daily reality for millions. It champions equality, practical alternatives to Austerity and a vision of a world based on co-operation rather than the greed of a global super elite.
Merseyside Pensioners campaigning to save Liverpool Women’s Hospital
Merseyside Pensioners at a Liverpool NHS Rally 2016
Merseyside Pensioners at a Liverpool NHS Rally 2016
Uk housing stock is poor, tens of thousands of older people die every year from the cold and fuel bills keep rising.
Members of the MPA supporting Junior doctors at the Royal Liverpool Hospital 2016
Demonstration against Austerity, London 2015
As a direct result of tax and benefit decisions made since 2010, the Institute for Fiscal Studies project that the number of children in relative poverty will have risen from 2.3 to 3.6 million by 2020.
