The Socialist 26 September 2012

Action against austerity

Action against austerity

Teachers: march together, then strike together against austerity

Reasons to join the 20 October demo, reasons to build for a 24-hour strike

General strike, the biggest weapon

Model resolution for a 24-hour general strike

Labour Party conference: Can Labour give a lead in the fight against austerity?

Afghanistan war: end this 'pointless waste of life'

Spain: March on Madrid kicks off a hot autumn of struggle

South Africa: 'Lonmin settlement a victory - struggle pays!'

TUSC conference: A step forward for working class political representation

Murdoch empire: a whole barrel of bad apples

Action needed to save NHS from privatisation

Them & Us

Workers strike as Argos tightens the screws

Knowsley council fears anti-privatisation campaign

Solidarity with workers sacked from Crossrail

Workplace news in brief

No excuse! Thousands protest against victim blaming on London Slutwalk

Scrap student fees

Enthusiastic start to the year for Socialist Students

Why Hull council should defy the government's cuts to services

Tameside library closures - "Get used to it" says councillor

Opportunistic speeches at Hull march against NHS cuts

Cellist Alfia Nakipbekova speaks out about Kazakhstan

Opencast mining: "Protect us from Provectus"

Belfast Outdoor Relief Strike 1932

Previous issues, etc

Print this issue

PDF version




Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/735/15304

Google search the site	Printable version	email to friend

Home | The Socialist 26 September 2012 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Bookshop

Why Hull council should defy the government's cuts to services

Mick Whale, Hull NUT teachers' union secretary

'Because you have all done so well, we are going to give you some more cuts to carry out'. This was the message from Local Government Minister Eric Pickles to a recent meeting of the Local Government Association.

In effect, Pickles was saying that the complete absence of any organised opposition from Labour local authorities has encouraged the Tories to impose more suffering on the poor and vulnerable.

Steve Brady, Labour council leader in Hull has called for a campaign against cuts but has also repeatedly stated: "Hull city council is not going to do a Liverpool".

Brady, probably aware that if he "does a Liverpool" the Labour Party leadership will attack him, blamed the Liverpool councillors' stand for the witch-hunt and destruction of the Labour Party in Liverpool in the 80s.

Hull trade unionists have called Steve Brady to account for this. They explain that a key task for Labour in Hull should be to draw up a 'no cuts' budget based on need and go to the people of Hull for support.

Petitioning and lobbying for the no cuts budget, as used in the campaign that defeated a job threatening caravan tax, would help.

Worryingly, a recent Labour group meeting in Hull seemed to be preparing a plan that could mean widespread cuts in terms and conditions and probably job losses as well. Steve Brady himself refused to rule out compulsory redundancies.

Labour has to make its mind up. Either it is going to fight the cuts or implement them. Four Labour councillors voted against the cuts proposals in the group meeting and the unions have written an open letter to all the labour councillors demanding that they stand strong against the cuts.

Liverpool in 1980s

In Liverpool, in 1983, Labour councillors put themselves at the head of such a campaign with a clear commitment that they would not implement Tory cuts.

That built the campaign that forced the Tories to climb down. In 2012, if Labour in Hull put themselves at the head of a similar campaign, the fight against the cuts would be enormously strengthened.

Last year council trade unions provided the foot soldiers that won Labour office in Hull to stop the cuts.

They will not sit back and let a Labour council implement cuts. One way or another there will be a fight against the cuts!

'Doing a Liverpool' refers to the struggle by Liverpool city Council in the 1980s against the Thatcher government's cuts.

Significantly the Labour party in Liverpool at that time had a fighting socialist leadership, provided in large part by Militant (the forerunner of the Socialist Party).

The Liverpool councillors made a clear stand against the Tory cuts and got mass support from the people of Liverpool.

The campaign waged by the councillors, local authority trade unionists and the wider community in Liverpool was successful in reversing most of the cuts in 1984.

Unfortunately, the council was left isolated in 1985 and was defeated, bloody but unbowed. Significantly, it was the intervention of Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader at the time, which gave the green light to the Tories to bring the full force of the law against the Liverpool councillors.

Eventually, having defied the government for four years and won lasting gains for the city, the councillors were dismissed from office in March 1987 and surcharged (for losses caused by delaying the setting of the rates).

This last point is not something that the labour movement in Hull is asking the Labour councillors to do at this stage.

In this issue

Fightback against austerity

Action against austerity