Liverpool city council catastrophe

After 20 years of slashing jobs, privatising, and cutting services, espoused by Liverpool’s ruling parties New Labour and Liberal Democrats, wedded to the same free market policies, the local authority workforce is now faced with a catastrophe.

Tony Mulhearn

1,500 will lose their jobs and many will join an already high number of families without a wage earner. And in spite of council leader Joe Anderson’s pledge that the poor will be protected, services will and already are suffering.

The spectacle of a Labour leader, yes a Labour leader, going into an alliance with the party that is in an alliance with the millionaire Tory cabinet represents a catastrophic abdication of leadership by a Labour Party which was elected to protect the working families of the city from the Tory onslaught.

‘There is no alternative’ claims the Labour leader. There is always an alternative to supine capitulation, and that is simply to fight. Say ‘No’ to the ConDem ideologically driven cuts. A coalition with the organised Labour movement, instead of a coalition with the capitalist parties and their allies, would be a major step in indicating to the Tories that they have a fight on their hands.

Joe Anderson continues to falsify the policies of the brave ’47’ who refused to cut jobs and services after being elected in 1983, and defied Thatcher. He told the council workforce that the 47 were responsible for Labour’s decline in the city. That is a complete falsehood. The 47 received magnificent support from the council workforce and the wider trade union movement and at the ballot box. If some leadership was shown in this present crisis then that support would again be forthcoming.

A desperate situation requires courageous leadership. That leadership will come from the Liverpool Trades Council that is against ALL cuts in jobs and services. Also the official policy of the TUC is to oppose all cuts. This is something the Joint Trade Union Committee which represents the council workforce needs to recognise.

Workers in Liverpool can come to Ricky Tomlinson’s Green Room on Thursday 10 February to hear Ken Loach and trade unionists work out a strategy to resist the cuts.

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Appendix:

TEXT OF FRONT PAGE OF LIVERPOOL TRADES UNION COUNCIL LEAFLET

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Fight the Cuts Open Public Meeting

Thursday 10th February 7.30pm at

The Green Room, Duke Street, Liverpool

The ConDem government plan to make ordinary workers pay for an economic crisis caused by the greed of Bankers, spivs and speculators. And while we suffer cuts in jobs and vital services, as well as attacks on our pay and pensions, we see company directors enjoying pay rises on average of 55%.

Multi millionaire government ministers tell us we’re all in this together but their rich friends cost this country over £100 billion in lost revenue as a result of tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax loopholes every year.

Come to our Public Meeting for a Discussion about the Alternatives to the Chaos of Capitalism

Speakers include:

RICKY TOMLINSON Jailed Shrewsbury Picket, Actor and Socialist

KEN LOACH Socialist Film Director

TONY MULHEARN Surcharged Socialist Councillor

LIZZIE O’ROURKE – College Student – Suffering from Government Cuts in Education Maintenance Allowance

EMILY KELLY Public & Commercial Services Union National Executive Committee

UCU Hope University – Speaker on University Job cuts

MARK HOSKISSON – Secretary Liverpool Trades Union Council

Chair: Daren Ireland President Liverpool Trades Union Council

Come and listen to the speakers and join the debate. Ask your branch to affiliate to your local Trades Union Council and send a delegate. This is how we can coordinate the activities of all our trade unions and help build a mass movement which can fight for a better future for us all. All trade union representatives and activists are urged to attend.