Do you reckon your own background has sort of prepared you for where you are right now? you know, you were brought up in a working class part of london, your family were working class and proud of it, and you were a union activist who suffered for your activities you were actually blacklisted at one point and got compensation for it. so, you ve been a fighter throughout your life. do you think this is why you are so ready to fight today? well, working class people have always had to fight. 0ur welfare state and our nhs, unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, were not given to us as gifts by the rich, by the ruling class, if you want to put it that way. we had to fight for them, from the time of the chartists. we had to fight for universal suffrage, we had to fight to get mps paid in the house of commons so working class people could go there. everything that we ve gained whether it s a collective agreement in a company or the nature of the welfare state has had to be fought for
In a working class part of london, yourfamily were working class and proud of it, and you were a union activist who suffered for your activities you were actually blacklisted at one point and got compensation for it. so, you ve been a fighter throughout your life. do you think this is why you are so ready to fight today? well, working class people have always had to fight. 0ur welfare state and our nhs unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, were not given to us as gifts by the rich, by the ruling class, if you want to put it that way. we had to fight for them, from the time of the chartists. we had to fight for universal suffrage, we had to fight to get mps paid in the house of commons so working class people could go there. everything that we ve gained whether it s a collective agreement in a company or the nature of the welfare state has had to be fought for through struggle. and if we give up our terms and conditions, we ll be back to another era, to a victorian or edwardian
Of london, yourfamily were working class and proud of it, and you were a union activist who suffered for your activities you were actually blacklisted at one point and got compensation for it. so, you ve been a fighter throughout your life. do you think this is why you are so ready to fight today? well, working class people have always had to fight. 0ur welfare state and our nhs unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, were not given to us as gifts by the rich, by the ruling class, if you want to put it that way. we had to fight for them, from the time of the chartists. we had to fight for universal suffrage, we had to fight to get mps paid in the house of commons so working class people could go there. everything that we ve gained whether it s a collective agreement in a company or the nature of the welfare state has had to be fought for through struggle. and if we give up our terms and conditions, we ll be back to another era, to a victorian or edwardian era, before any of us ha
In a working class part of london, yourfamily were working class and proud of it, and you were a union activist who suffered for your activities you were actually blacklisted at one point and got compensation for it. so, you ve been a fighter throughout your life. do you think this is why you are so ready to fight today? well, working class people have always had to fight. 0ur welfare state and our nhs unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, were not given to us as gifts by the rich, by the ruling class, if you want to put it that way. we had to fight for them, from the time of the chartists. we had to fight for universal suffrage, we had to fight to get mps paid in the house of commons so working class people could go there. everything that we ve gained whether it s a collective agreement in a company or the nature of the welfare state has had to be fought for through struggle. and if we give up our terms and conditions, we ll be back to another era, to a victorian or edwardian
Throughout your life. do you think this is why you are so ready to fight today? well, working class people have always had to fight. 0ur welfare state and our nhs unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, were not given to us as gifts by the rich, by the ruling class, if you want to put it that way. we had to fight for them, from the time of the chartists. we had to fight for universal suffrage, we had to fight to get mps paid in the house of commons so working class people could go there. everything that we ve gained whether it s a collective agreement in a company or the nature of the welfare state has had to be fought for through struggle. and if we give up our terms and conditions, we ll be back to another era, to a victorian or edwardian era, before any of us had sick pay. and many millions of people in this country are now in that condition, which is why many people are notjust poor, many of them are actually going into destitution. we don t want our members to go that way, and