Councils must defy cuts

The letter below is from Tony Mulhearn, who was a leading councillor in Liverpool's Labour council when it fought Thatcher's vicious attack on that city between 1983 and 1987. Tony was also president of Liverpool District Labour Party. The letter was sent to the Liverpool media.

DEMANDS FOR cuts in jobs and services are orchestrated by the friends of those people who caused the crisis - the pigs whose noses are firmly back in the banking trough. Vince Cable can condemn the excesses of the fat cats, but nothing will happen without the agreement of the same fat cats.

Cameron and his henchmen are straining at the bit to slash the hard-won benefits fought for by generations of working people. Every local authority leader faced with demands for cuts prefaces his or her response with the mantra: 'cuts are necessary.' This is completely false.

Not a single cut nor a single job loss should be accepted to remedy a crisis caused by the obscenely rich so beloved of Cameron, Blair and Mandelson!

We are told that Liverpool council must save the equivalent of the wages of 3,600 employees over the next three years. £110 million, we are told, must be saved between April 2011 and March 2014.

Who says so? A cabinet composed of multi-millionaires, the rabid right that historically has opposed every public provision in health, education and social services, while supporting privatising the utilities, which proved to be a cash bonanza for the bloated chief executive officers of companies.

The latest report on BT's call-handling arrangements with the council exposes further the lie that privatisation can 'save' the taxpayer money. BT has overcharged the council to such an extent that £23 million a year could be saved if the council terminated the contract.

It's time Joe Anderson, the Labour leader, declared Liverpool's opposition to any further cuts in jobs and services. All those opposed to the cuts are urged to support Liverpool trades council's anti-cuts initiative.

May 2012 local election reports

TUSC: the electoral alternative to the parties of the rich

Largest mayoral rally in Liverpool shows impact of TUSC campaign

Vote for a socialist alternative

Hundreds of Liverpool Sure Start parents demonstrate against cuts

A packed launch meeting for Tony4Mayor campaign in Liverpool

Cuts:

Bristol East Socialist Party: There is an Alternative

Demo against cuts at Salford university

Walthamstow Socialist Party: France - Greece - Austerity rejected!

Back to work? How the system fails the unemployed

Liverpool:

Liverpool Socialist Party: Marxist Economics

Liverpool Socialist Party: A Marxist view of history

Liverpool Socialist Party: Housing crisis - a socialist solution

Labour:

Leadership shows weakness at CWU conference

Building the electoral alternative in Brent

Election results: How did TUSC do?

Council:

Council workers in Cheshire strike against attacks on pay

Victory for Greenwich Unite library campaign

Greenwich libraries - fighting back can win

Labour Party:

Obituary: Arthur Deane

Manchester Socialist Party: The role of the Labour Party

Unite rules conference - steps forward for members