The Socialist 21 April 2010

Stop these savage cuts: support the socialist alternative

Young people facing a fight for their future

National Union of Students conference: Campaign needed against fees and cuts

Left candidates excluded from media

Big business as usual for Liberal Democrats

TV debate - Party leaders compete for the same policies

Volcanic eruption brings travel chaos: Planned and integrated transport system vital

Planes, trains and automobiles

Cameron turns back clock on women's rights

Banks use microloans to fleece poor

Fast news

Doncaster - Jarvis's vicious sackings and workers' fightback

Portsmouth North: "An ordinary guy to represent ordinary workers"

Lewisham councillors' record

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Coventry: Standing up for public services

Colne Valley / Huddersfield: Kirklees' only fighting councillor

Spelthorne: "The trade union candidate guy"

A chance to put your questions to your local Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates.

Why the BNP offers no way forward for working class people

Anti-BNP protest

Progressive Workers Federation of Pakistan founded

Sri Lanka parliamentary elections: Rajapaksa's clan consolidates its rule

National Care Service - fact or fiction?

1936 - A play about the Olympics

Vote to boycott SATs

Civil service dispute continues

Fighting cuts at Coventry council

Strike ballot at Manchester Metropolitan University

Unison health conference

Laundry workers fight closure

Dover trade unions against privatisation

National Shop Stewards Network 2010 conference:

Previous issues, etc

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Coventry: Standing up for public services

Socialist Party councillor and TUSC candidate Dave Nellist, photo by Paul Mattsson

IN COVENTRY local Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist is TUSC candidate for Coventry North East, Socialist Party members Judy Griffiths (a CWU activist) and Nikki Downes (an NUT member) are TUSC candidates for Coventry South and Coventry North West. The Socialist Party will also contest all 18 wards in the Coventry city council elections.

Our candidates include sitting Socialist Party councillor Rob Windsor (who is defending his seat in St Michael's ward), trade union representatives, community activists, campaigners against student tuition fees and youth unemployment, veterans of the battle against Thatcher's hated poll tax, and leaders of the anti-PFI car parking charges campaign at Walsgrave Hospital.

All three establishment parties, New Labour, Conservatives and LibDems, aim to make working class people pay for the huge budget deficit by making huge attacks on our public services. All three parties agree that attacks on the public sector will be as severe as the 1980s, if not worse.

This means attacks on the NHS, services provided by local councils, the civil service etc. Look at the state of Coventry's roads - they prove that lack of investment in public services means real problems will be created!

Not only will any incoming government take the axe to our services, the use of private companies could also increase.

Socialists say that private companies have no role to play in provision of our public services. Look at the railways, have they got any better? Or look at the involvement of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) at Walsgrave hospital - which amongst other things means private companies making huge profits from charging for using the car park.

The Tories running Coventry city council proposed budget cuts of £72 million over the next three years. What was the reaction of the 'opposition' Labour group? Every Labour councillor voted for the Tory cuts. Some opposition! Only the Socialists, Dave Nellist and Rob Windsor voted against the cuts. Only the Socialists can be relied on to campaign against cutbacks!

We stand for good quality public services. The privateers have no place providing them - we want public ownership, democratically run by elected representatives, the workers who run the services and those that use them.

Britain is a hugely rich country but wealth is concentrated amongst a tiny minority. There is enough wealth to guarantee 'top class' public services without making cutbacks. The problem is public services are never safe under this casino capitalist system that we have.