Oppose Tory, Liberal and Labour cuts
Paula Mitchell and Bob Severn
As trade unionists prepare for the biggest ever public sector industrial action, many are also thinking about the political side to their struggle.
The movement against the cuts could force this government into real crisis, but many people also recognise that New Labour is no real alternative.
Labour councils are presiding over massive job cuts in local government – 140,000 local government jobs have been lost.
In the civil service, many workers have no confidence that a Labour government would reverse the enormous Tory/Lib Dem cuts.
All of us – workers, the unemployed, students, parents, children, pensioners, everyone fighting the ‘austerity’ cuts – lack political representation.
In the 1980s, under Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government, 20 Labour councils said they would refuse to cut jobs and services. Two – Lambeth and Liverpool councils – stayed the course and refused to listen to the ‘sensible’ – ie pro-cuts – instructions from the Tories and also Labour’s national leaders, and kept to the promises they were elected on.
Liverpool council – led by supporters of Militant, the forerunner of the Socialist Party – won £60 million of extra funding by mobilising the support of the people who elected them. This money was used to fund desperately needed jobs, homes and services.
But today there are not 20 Labour councillors, never mind councils, that are refusing to make cuts. Instead, they wash their hands by saying: ‘the Tories made us do it!’
We shouldn’t pay!
However, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) does not accept this. Any councillor that puts the people who elected them before their career should be prepared to fight for the needed funding to protect all our vital jobs and services. If they refuse to do this, they should stand aside.
TUSC first stood candidates in the 2010 general election in opposition to all cuts, and then in the 2011 local authority and Welsh Assembly elections, some standing under the Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts banner.
TUSC provides an opportunity for local groups of trade unionists, community campaigners and socialist organisations who want to stand candidates in elections to appear on the ballot paper, if they so wish, as part of a wider challenge – as TUSC candidates rather than as ‘Independents’.
TUSC is also willing to work alongside anti-cuts candidates of other groups.
TUSC will look to support anti-cuts candidates in the 2012 local and regional elections, including in the Greater London Assembly elections (see below).
If you oppose all cuts and privatisation, and want to help or stand as an anti-cuts candidate in the May elections, get in touch with TUSC today.
To become a TUSC supporter, and/or sign the GLA election pledge, go to www.tusc.org.uk
Alternatively, write to TUSC, 17 Colebert House, Colebert Avenue, London E1 4JP, email [email protected] or phone 020 7702 8667.
London elections: Support for trade union stand grows
Trade unionists are supporting the call for anti-cuts election candidates in the 2012 London assembly elections.
“We, the undersigned, support the call for trade unionist and socialist candidates to stand in the Greater London Assembly elections in 2012, committed to opposing all cuts, privatisation and PFI”
New PCS civil service union signatories, all in a personal capacity, include:
Adam Khalif NEC, GEC London liaison; Gordon Rowntree industrial officer; Ruth Saunders DWP regional committee; Dave Spagnol DWP regional committee; David Plummer London and south east committee; Candy Udwin; Alexis Edwards; Mark Benjamin; Joan Tracey Benoit; Linda Finch; Selina Wendt
To add your name to the statement go to www.tusc.org.uk or email [email protected]
