No-cuts stand piles on pressure to save services
Nadia Ditta, Southampton Socialist Party
After a more-than-year-long campaign, the Venny play park in Bevois has been refurbished and re-opened by Southampton City Council. Families have been thanking us for campaigning to save the park and described the difference it makes to their children. Just round the corner, scaffolding has gone up around St Mary’s Leisure Centre, which Socialist Party members were also involved in the fight to save, as part of the £1.5 million refurbishment programme.
We were told by our local Labour councillors that the council was broke. But we refused to accept their lies. What this shows is the money is there, if you are prepared to fight for it.
We’ve now had over a year of a Labour government and things are worse than ever. Labour’s cuts continue. Jobs and services face further cuts, council assets are being sold on the cheap, and council tax is set to rise by 25% in the next five years, alongside rents and parking charges. We’ve had enough. Our communities are fighting a war in our homes to find the money to pay the bills, the rent and buy food for our families.
At the same time, the profits of the utility companies and banks pile ever higher. The rich get richer. The economy is being run by the parties of the 1%, for the 1%. When is this going to end?
When we elect fighting anti-cuts councillors who will refuse to carry out cuts and fight for the restoration of government funding cut since 2010. Over £500 million has been stripped from the council budget. That’s why there is a crisis. We demand that money back.
The launch of Your Party has come at an important time. Close to 100 attended the launch meeting in Southampton on 27 October. I spoke about the work we have done in Bevois and the support we got for our anti-cuts and anti-war campaign during the May 2023 council elections. We won 848 votes (32%) in Bevois ward and over 2,000 votes across Southampton. That support piled on the pressure for the council to find the money for the Venny and St Mary’s Leisure Centre. At the meeting, we called for candidates to stand in May who will oppose the cuts and are building with Southampton Trades Council for a lobby of the council’s next meeting.
There is a political vacuum that needs filling. Currently Reform and the far right are whipping up racism and scapegoating vulnerable asylum seekers for problems caused by 15 years of austerity. Hundreds marched and rallied through Bevois last weekend in a show of solidarity to oppose the far right. That needs to be built into a citywide mass campaign, led by council trade unions, that unites our communities for a People’s Budget that meets the needs of all.
Southampton City Council has over £100 million in usable reserves, an increase since last year. This is our money. It should be used alongside council borrowing to deliver a budget that meets the needs of Southampton.
On Thursday 30 October we held a community workshop to discuss what we have achieved so far, what we need for our communities and how we can get it. The meeting was full of enthusiasm from the success we have had and fuelled by the ongoing problems we face. Our message is we can win!
