Nick Chaffey, Southampton Socialist Party
Just days after May’s council election, Southampton Labour council promised to cut £35 million by cutting council jobs, with its knock-on effect to council services.
Labour has been elected with their largest majority since 1990, the year of the Tories’ hated Poll Tax, following the sharp fall in support for the government.
Why is Labour proposing to make cuts? What needs to be done to defend jobs and services?
Since 2010, cuts to council funding by the Conservative government have removed over £1 billion from Southampton’s council budget. The effect? City-wide cuts to youth services, social care, adult services, housing and direct works – with 1,000 jobs cut.
Services saved
Campaigners over that time, including council trade unions, have fought to halt some cuts successfully. Oaklands Pool, Holcroft care home, Kentish Road respite centre, and more recently St Marys Leisure Centre, have all been saved from closure.
When first elected in 2012, Labour immediately moved to carry out Tory austerity, with another ‘emergency’ cuts budget. They were opposed by Labour councillors Keith Morrell and Don Thomas.
Keith and Don moved an alternative council budget in 2013 to protect jobs and services from proposed cuts. That outlined how a campaign to oppose cuts, with the mass support of council unions and the local community, could force the unpopular Tory government to retreat and instead restore council funding.
At the time, they were rebuked and told by the Labour council that the use of reserves and borrowing powers was illegal, and would bankrupt the city.
Keith and Don were kicked out of Labour for opposing cuts, and stood independently of Labour against austerity. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has stood consistently in Southampton, taking Keith and Don’s fighting stance. A list of workers’ candidates at the next general election would hold Labour’s feet to the fire, like Keith and Don did.
Ten years on from Keith and Don’s first stand against Labour cuts, council workers face a huge attack on jobs. Hard-pressed council tax payers face cuts to their services. We have seen tax, rents and charges rise.
The impact of austerity has been disastrous. Failing services have left the vulnerable without support. Council workers left delivering services are ever more stretched to breaking point.
The anger at rising poverty, hungry children, rising rents and homelessness has seen Tory votes fall to their lowest for years. Labour is now the largest party in local government for the first time in 20 years.
Is there an alternative to Southampton Labour’s proposals? What could Labour do to protect jobs and services?
The first step must be to withdraw these cuts, use their election mandate and mobilise support for a citywide mass campaign – restore council services, tackle the crisis of the lack of council housing, and adopt policies, such as free school meals, to show what difference an incoming Labour government would make to the lives of ordinary people.
Unite the Union policy is to call on Labour councils to set “legal, no-cuts budgets”. The trade unions should demand that an incoming Labour government commits to restore council funding to all Labour councils, who use reserves and borrowing powers to protect jobs and services between now and the next general election.
Southampton Labour used £20 million from reserves in its February budget to avert cuts before the May elections. The council retains substantial reserves, and powers to borrow.
Tories rejected
Support for Tory cuts has been rejected. The government is in a civil war meltdown. It may not last the next 18 months.
Southampton workers have been on strike against pay cuts. Council unions are now balloting to strike on pay.
What possible reasons can there be for not making a stand? Enough is enough. Mobilise a popular revolt against cuts that would gain support far beyond Southampton, and show other councils facing a funding crisis the way to win.
