Jeremy Corbyn‘s Peace and Justice Project is preparing for its “5 Demands” conference – where him, it, and a host of guest speakers will lay out just exactly what needs to change in the UK to make it a functioning country that works for all of us. The first one? Like most of us need, it’s a ‘Payrise for All’.
The Peace and Justice Project: a conference of ‘5 Demands’
As the Canary previously reported, the Peace and Justice Project’s 5 Demands are five key policies that have risen up as popular demands for our country’s progressive movements as solutions to the challenges we face. Now, it’s taking the next step to bring these policies to the masses.
Next month it will host a conference on these 5 Demands – and how society can win them. From climate breakdown to an overstretched NHS and from a failing economy to conflicts around the world, you can join Jeremy Corbyn and voices from across the movement for what the Peace and Justice Project calls an “empowering and educational series of discussions”.
The event will be held on Saturday 13 April at Hamilton House in Central London. It starts at 10am with panels on the 5 Demands:
- A Payrise for All.
- Green New Deal with Public Ownership.
- Housing for All.
- Tax the Rich to Save the NHS.
- Welcome Refugees in A World Free from War.
First is the issue of how much bosses pay us.
We all have a right to dignity in life
The Peace and Justice Project said:
After years of real-term wage cuts, too many people up and down the country are faced with having to choose between feeding their children or heating their homes in the fifth richest economy on the planet. That isn’t, and shouldn’t be, acceptable.
That’s why A Payrise for All is one of its 5 Demands that is desperately needed to build a real alternative in this country.
Ian Hodson, president of the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), wrote for the project that:
Everyone has a right to live and work with dignity. We all have a right to withdraw our labour if we are not being treated fairly. As the saying goes: “the difference between a worker and a slave is the right to withdraw your labour.”
I believe not only should we defend our rights and freedoms, but we should be vocal in our support for giving nurses, teachers and public sector workers an above-inflation pay rise, implementing a minimum wage of no less than £15 per hour, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts and reversing cruel benefit sanctions.
So, the BFAWU will be joining the first panel – A Payrise for All – at the 5 Demands conference on 13 April alongside Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, author Ian Allinson, and disability rights campaigner David Rollins.
5 Demands: crucial in a general election year
The Peace and Justice Project said:
We will also be exploring our other demands from a green new deal with public ownership to welcoming refugees in a world free from war.
We want to continue campaigning on our 5 Demands as we move towards a general election. Help us put these policies back into the mainstream…
You can book tickets for the 5 Demands conference here, and you can support the project here.
Featured image via the Peace and Justice Project
