James Gretton, Southampton Socialist Party
On 26 November, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Southampton Trades Council’s deputations to Southampton Labour City Council critiqued their complicity in Israeli war crimes and continuation of austerity, respectively.
Two years after the Palestinian genocide began, PSC detailed from their research how the council’s investment in companies financially contributed to Gaza’s destruction, approximately 70,000 killed thus far. With 2,000 constituents signing PSC’s petition presented to councillors, the message is clear: Southampton residents oppose the UK government facilitating Israel’s mass slaughter, and this council’s complacency.
Yet the consequences of the council’s failures are not just external; in each aspect of society, Southampton is struggling without a break from austerity. Representing the Trades Council, Carina Smith articulated the impact of cutting essential services predominantly for adult and social care. Nick Davies of Socialist Students spoke about the city’s 30,000 students struggling to cover the bare necessities under mounting debt, tuition fees and rent. Nick Chaffey encapsulated this failure of leadership by emphasising that the council is fully equipped to initiate a fightback and utilise its reserve powers.
For every repeat of “difficult decisions” and “no money left”, we must collectively refute these myths with “the money is there” and work to uncover what the council obfuscates to its constituents. Labour’s administrations in Southampton and Westminster echo Conservative and Reform dogma. Before entering the Civic Centre, Nick Chaffey proclaimed to the crowd of PSC, Socialist Students and union organisers that “united we are strong, divided we fall”. Before next year’s local elections, we call for trade unionists, students and workers must collectively stand candidates who fight for the anti-austerity alternative needed to revitalise Southampton.
