Beacon is being launched in the midst of Liverpool’s Covid-19 crisis.

While the pandemic itself has wrought havoc on many people’s lives, it is the Johnson government’s deliberate policy of perpetual crisis that has caused, and will continue to cause, devastating harm to both our city’s economy and our public health.

Whether it be the pandemic or Brexit, the current brand of Tory will deepen and exacerbate any difficulties, where there is no crisis, they will create one.

The reason why? The UK’s own Shock Doctrine, using the fear, confusion and disarray they create as a cover for looting public funds, putting the nation’s assets into private hands, and ensuring Tory cronies’ pockets are filled, no matter what the impact in terms of lives ruined and lives lost.

With few exceptions, our politicians are not calling out this massive transfusion of cash and assets from essential frontline public services into already super rich hands.

The Political Class talk of “incompetence”, as though it’s merely a management issue, instead of rampant greed and a rigged system that allows the privileged and the wealthy to become wealthier still while ordinary working people are brought to their knees.

In the absence of genuine, organised and mobilised, opposition to the Tories and their rigged system, a coalition of cranks, conspiracists and fascists is attempting to fill the void.

An array of chancers and crooks are cynically appealing directly to those who know something is wrong with this system, including young people previously inspired by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership.

These Establishment stooges, shamelessly using the cover of Liverpool’s previous working-class battles and the Hillsborough justice campaign, offer only dead ends and disillusion for those they dupe, and division, discord and defeat for the wider working class.

Beacon stands firm against attempts to divide and rule through these campaigns, which are drawn straight from the playbook of the Trump and Johnson regimes.

We call for a united working class response to the Tories’ deliberate mishandling of the pandemic, for a mobilisation of the people of Liverpool to ensure that we, the ordinary people suffering as Tory cronies rake in £billions, are not made to pay the economic and social cost of this pandemic.

We will oppose the attempts of Piers Corbyn, David Icke and QAnon to infiltrate, confuse and defeat a Liverpool working class that has a proud left-wing tradition of seeing off attempts to divide and rule.

Rather than rally behind the opportunist banners of cranks, conspiracists and fascists, Beacon calls for a mobilisation under our own banners, of which there are plenty, steeped in the history of our own struggles and our own victories.

We will be seeking to mobilise our communities and workplaces, through neighbourhood groups, social and solidarity economy organisations and trade unions.

We will publish our own “Manifesto for Liverpool”, built upon the pillars of socialism, democratic ownership and community empowerment.

In the meantime, we call for working class unity in the face of the immediate crisis, we urge socialists, trade unionists and community activists to organise and mobilise against the bill for Johnson’s scandalous handling of Covid-19 being placed at our door.

The fightback against the Tory Covid Crisis begins here, with a demand from the people of Liverpool for:

  1. A full, 100%, income guarantee for all affected by Covid-19 infection, shielding or isolation.
  2. No evictions for the duration of the crisis.
  3. The immediate removal of Serco and Deloitte from the Liverpool City Region Covid-19 response.
  4. Full government funding for a Liverpool City Region Track and Trace delivered by the NHS and local council public health departments.
  5. Unequivocal opposition to this Tory government and all who seek to divide and distract the Liverpool working class fight back.

The Liverpool City Region is a Beacon of hope for Socialists in the UK. We are the City that Dares to Fight Back.

Beacon Liverpool aims for a Socialist Liverpool and if you support this very simple aim, please register to hear regular essays and podcasts from a range of local political activists whose roots, both politically and culturally are embedded in the Liverpool City Region.

You can register at our website www.beaconliverpool.co.uk and you will automatically receive content straight into your inbox.

Please pass our web address to any friends, family or work colleagues that share our aim and follow us on Twitter @liverpoolbeacon.

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Beacon is a non-party platform to further the cause of socialism in Liverpool and the wider City Region.