Amy Sage, Bristol North Socialist Party
Households are set to become another £100-a-year poorer from April, as councils prepare to put up council taxes yet again.
Even more in places like Birmingham, where the Labour council has been given special permission by the Tory government to raise it by 21% over the next two years.
Working-class communities are being forced to pay, again, with even more cuts to vital public services. In many local authorities there is simply nothing left to cut. Councils are selling off anything they can, attempting to balance budgets after over a decade of Tory cuts.
We need politicians prepared to stand up and fight. To demand that ordinary people aren’t forced to pay for the mess that the Tories and the bosses have put us in.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is not building that fightback. In councils up and down the country Labour councillors are passing on the Tories’ cuts for them.
As councils meet to discuss their budgets for this year, we call on councillors to set budgets that reflect the real needs of our communities, and to do this as part of building a campaign for the money from central government. After all, the money is there – the super-rich keep getting richer!
After a decade and a half of Tory rule, people are desperate to get them out by any means possible. Many will vote Labour through gritted teeth for that reason.
Millions will have watched the disgraceful shenanigans of the Gaza ceasefire vote in parliament and drawn the conclusion that all the mainstream politicians, including Starmer, are only there to act in the interests of themselves and their rich mates.
Well, we need our own workers’ representatives in parliament and in the council chambers. Working-class people need our own political voice.
We need workers, trade unionists, community campaigners and students who are willing to stand up and say ‘no to war’, ‘no to cuts’ and ‘yes to a socialist society run in the interests of all, not the few’.
Help us stand as many working-class fighters as possible under the TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) banner in the 2 May local elections, and fight for a workers’ list of candidates to contest the general election when it comes.
