EIGHTY-FIVE years ago, the first edition of the Morning Star’s predecessor the Daily Worker rolled off the presses — prompting a disbelieving phone call from the Daily Herald asking if it would come out the following day.

Decades after the demise of the Herald, this damn paper is still coming out — and its tasks are more important than ever, according to acting editor Ben Chacko.

“We face a general election this May — and the labour movement has to win it,” Mr Chacko said.

“Five years of so-called austerity have seen a transfer of wealth from working people to the rich unprecedented in my lifetime and terrible damage done to our society.

“The doors of our National Health Service have been flung open to private-sector parasites, the Royal Mail has been flogged off for a song to a bunch of greedy chancers and a poisonous and lethal war has been waged on people with disabilities.”

The Tories would go flat out to “destroy the last vestiges of our welfare state” if they are back into office in May, Mr Chacko warned.

“They are already talking of even more draconian assaults on trade unions’ right to organise and plotting with the European Union to introduce the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership which would set privatisation in stone and allow corporations to sue any government committed to public ownership and democratic control of the economy.

“But we’re fighting the election with our hands tied behind our backs because the coalition’s anti-democratic gagging Act seeks to stop labour movement organisations from campaigning.

“That makes the Morning Star, as the voice of organised labour, an absolutely vital weapon for everyone who wants to show Cameron and Clegg the door come May.

“This paper has survived through thick and thin, seeing off wholesaler boycotts, government bans and even nazi bombs, and we’ll keep fighting.

“But we need more daily readers in order to pack the punch the people’s paper deserves — and winning them will be our top priority in the coming year.”

Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said the Star was “unique in the world — the only English-language socialist national daily there is.

“It’s the responsibility of all socialists to make 2015 a bumper year for our paper to ensure that the voice of socialism gets a hearing.”