The Socialist 15 September 2010

Join the fight against cuts

Join the fight against cuts

Decisive action can defeat this government

TUC backs youth jobs demo

TUC told to name the day

TUC: Build for action against cuts

Stop the 'slippery slope' to two-tier education

How will the Browne Review into university funding affect you?

Student strikes can win results

Women and the struggle against oppression

Royal Mail: Con-Demned to history?

Privatisation's giant wrecking ball

Fight the jobs cuts massacre

Middlesborough local union-led public services alliance set up

Fast news

General strike in France

Osborne targets the needy

Labour councillors challenged in Hastings

Shropshire: showing socialist alternative gets results

London Underground: Action biting against job cuts

UCU executive pulls out of strike ballot

Fight for jobs at GSK

Workplace news in brief

Mood of defiance in Huddersfield

Hull park rangers protest

How do we vote to stop the cuts?

Nottinghamshire: Campaign saves vital service

Lobbies warn councils of workers' action

Socialism 2010: How can we save the environment?

All-India general strike: Eyewitness report from Chennai

Fighting oppression in Kazakhstan

PDFs for this issue




Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/638/10234

Google search the site	Printable version	email to friend

Home | The Socialist 15 September 2010 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Bookshop

Labour councillors challenged in Hastings

Socialist Party members recently spoke to a couple of Hastings Labour councillors who claimed they were socialists and that they were putting socialism into action in Hastings.

The new Asda supermarket in Silverhill is advertising 350 jobs; 1,600 people applied for them in a single day! Is that socialism?

Hastings Labour council has made 'in-year' cuts of close to £300,000 and is preparing for more cuts after the 20 October comprehensive spending review.

At least two youth centres are scrambling for funding to deal with the cuts already made, and the 43% of people in employment in Hastings who work for the public sector are holding their breath waiting for the axe to fall.

We asked the councillors why they are not making a stand against these cuts and they replied they had no choice. They both argued that if they took a stand their jobs and lifestyles would come under threat - never mind the jobs and lifestyles of ordinary people!

We made it clear that if they set a budget which reflected the local needs of people for jobs and homes, instead of the cuts the government demands, and then wage a campaign to mobilise local people behind such a budget, then they can win concessions.