DURING a recent emergency Cobra committee, the Prime Minister insisted he would use “every lever
available” to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. This current crisis, he claims, is a result of the escalating war
in Iran, which he believes will not have “a quick and early end.”

Sir Keir must imagine the British people to have an extremely short memory. This cost-of-living crisis is
neither nor unexpected: it is a periodic reminder of the inherent flaws of an unstable and disorganised
capitalist economy, doomed to repeat itself, to the detriment of the working class.

Such crises reflect the failure of capitalism to respond to the needs of the working class, opting instead to
bend to the will of the super-rich. Each time, the government points a desperate, blaming finger: it’s
because of Brexit! It’s because of Covid! It’s because of Russia!

Behind these distraction tactics lies a government that cannot act in the interests of the public.
For example, despite claims to the contrary, Starmer has dragged Britain into the US’s illegal war against
Iran through the use of British bases (of which two have already been used) and the co-ordination of UK
military planners with the US Central Command.

This does nothing to protect Britain from the inevitable economic fallout of the war; the price of gas in
Europe is now more than double pre-war levels, which has already started to affect working people and
small businesses.

Energy-intensive industries are equally under threat, due to escalating running costs and subsequent job
losses, resulting in the vicious cycle of near-stagnant economic growth and further job precarity.

All this points to more than a short-term crisis. It points to a system that is incapable of creating a
sustainable or productive economy fit for the workers who run it.

This is because the sole aim of our economy is to maximise and accumulate capital. We can therefore
consider all the money lost by workers in each cost-of-living crisis to be part of one act of accumulation,
lining the pockets of the super-rich.

Even with Starmer’s “levers,” workers from all industries suffer. One such “lever” is the government’s 4 per cent pay
award to teachers. Forgetting the fact that many teachers would choose proper funding for schools over a
pay rise, this amounts to a real-terms pay cut of £6,000 for a newly qualified teacher this year, and a cut of
over £50,000 since 2010.

Similarly, the Local Government Authority has offered support staff a 3.3 per cent pay rise for 2026/27, falling far
short of the NJC unions’ pay claim of 10 per cent and a minimum rate of £15 per hour. Unsurprisingly, a post-covid
report commissioned by Unison found that 96 per cent of support staff cannot cover living costs with their salary.

Additionally, with no sufficient funding being offered, any increased wages will come out of schools’ existing
budgets, causing redundancies and reduced services.

If staff are not being paid sufficiently for their labour, then where is all the extra money going? The answer is
no mystery: straight into the pockets of the super-rich.

A blaringly obvious example in education is the multiacademy trust (MAT) takeover. MATs take schools
out of local authority control, allowing its CEOs to relax fiscal policy and accumulate capital. Pay for the top
30 highest-paid academy CEOs ranged from £230,000 to £515,000 this year – certainly no crisis going on
for them.

Labour’s white paper Every Child Achieving and Thriving (2026) claims to remedy this to some extent,
insisting that “the pay of [CEOs] must be justifiable, transparent [and] evidence-based.”

However, this amounts to the mere regulation of capitalist accumulation, rather than its abolition. In other
words, it limits the amount of profit an individual can make from workers’ labour, without removing the initial
theft of their wages. After all, there is no guarantee that the limitation of CEOs’ pay will result in enhanced
pay for workers.

A solution to the cycle of crises can only come from the overhaul of the whole rotten system. Only a radical
economic programme aimed at raising the living standards of the working class will set Britain on the road
to sustainable growth. Even capitalists acknowledge that a higher quality of living correlates with greater
productivity, as evidenced by ONS data since 1970.

Therefore, we must return to basic socialist principles of economy to halt the rising cost of living for
workers.

It starts with a tax on the super-rich. Through heavier taxation of the ruling class, the economy would be
free to boost living standards through public spending, lifting wages across key sectors such as education,
health, transport, and so on.

Additional spending on key infrastructure (such as energy generation) would mean that Britain is not reliant
upon the US when it next decides to play havoc with the economy.

As a result of this, Britain would see a boost of productivity, as workers begin to enjoy a high-quality
standard of living and reap the benefits of their labour.

Unions will be essential. The negotiation of raised wages through sectoral collective bargaining would
guarantee that workers have more than just the bare essentials for living and working. It would secure
additional disposable income, in turn revitalising small businesses.

Finally, price controls on energy and utilities (made possible by investment in British infrastructure) would
further ensure that a good quality of living is affordable to all for the foreseeable future.

What makes these proposals “radical” is not that they are unrealistic or unworkable. They are only radical to
the super-rich, who would rather keep the working class in its place, crisis after crisis.

As a united front, fighting together for the good of working people across the country, our outlook on the
future is more hopeful than Starmer’s outlook on Iran.

This war against the working class will reach “a quick and early end.”