Gary Drabble, Sheffield North West Socialist Party
£500 million has been robbed from Sheffield Council budgets over the last 14 years by the previous Tory government. This has resulted in huge cuts to jobs and services.
At the general election, Labour was elected promising change, but the cuts continue. Nothing is being done about the housing crisis in the city.
The Labour, Green and Liberal ‘cooperative council’ is pushing ahead with the privatisation of services, most recently of sport and leisure centres.
Following a successful resolution passed by the Sheffield Unite the Union branch for ‘not for profit’ workers, Sheffield Trades Union Council agreed to campaign for a no-cuts, people’s budget. The Unite motion called for an end to privatisation and austerity, and restoration of government funding to 2010 levels.
A well-attended public meeting to build the campaign heard from Simon Jenkins from the union branch whose resolution initiated the campaign, Unite national officer Onay Kasab, and Derbyshire council Unison union secretary, Martin Porter.
The meeting then had workshops on housing, services, and privatisation, which developed ideas for taking the campaign forward by engaging with trade unions, service users, tenants, and residents. It discussed how to hold councillors to account for continuing with cuts.
A report of the event will be considered by Sheffield Trades Union Congress executive to determine the next steps, and to consider holding a protest against cuts at the council’s budget-setting meeting.
