Nick Hart, Birmingham Socialist Party and Unite WM/6030 Branch Treasurer (personal capacity)
“I used to always vote Labour… but definitely not anymore!” Those words have been on the lips of workers we’ve been speaking to on doorsteps and high streets over the last month of campaigning across the West Midlands – and nowhere more so than in Birmingham.
In just the four years since the last council elections in Birmingham, the council has voted through £450 million worth of cuts, hiked council tax by 30% and waged a war on the bin workers which has led to rubbish piling up around the city.
Where have Reform and Greens been?
So where will that anger at Labour go on 7 May? Some are talking up Reform’s chances in Brum as the main option to punish Labour. But where were they when the families of disabled adults were protesting to save day centres? What have they done to pressure the council to create public housing in regeneration schemes, not unaffordable yuppie digs? And when have any of their candidates shown up on a picket outside bin depots?
The same questions could be asked of the two existing Green Party councillors in the city, whose alternative budget still left £97 million worth of cuts and £500 million sales of public land and buildings intact.
In addition, 72 candidates will appear on the ballot across Brum as independents, with as many as four vying for a single seat in some parts of the city. Among these are former Tory, Reform, Lib Dem and Labour councillors and candidates who have had their personal ambitions frustrated. It also includes two former Labour councillors who took the correct step of voting against cuts budgets and were expelled for their trouble and campaigners against day centre closures and gentrification.
TUSC is standing seven candidates in seats where we have a track record of campaigning to provide people in these areas with a principled, 100% anti-cuts record. However, we want to influence the debate on what kind of political voice working-class Brummies need beyond this election, and collaborate with others looking to build a new party on a principled basis.
To that end we have written to all independents, as well as the 27 standing for the Workers Party of Britain and five for Your Party, to ask if they will join us in pledging to vote against all cuts if elected, stand against oppression and discrimination, support a clampdown on landlords and a fair deal for bin workers.
Bin strike
The bin strike was named as the number one issue in this election by 56% of voters in one poll. Despite bin workers’ union Unite still being tied to Labour nationally, it has cut its affiliation funding by 40% and is giving no support, financial or otherwise, to Labour candidates in these elections. Instead, the union is using its political fund to get letters delivered around the city outlining candidates’ attitudes to the bin strike, so that residents can cast their vote accordingly.
It’s welcome that Unite is using the respect the bin workers have among a wide cross-section of different communities in Brum to channel the anger at Labour in what is becoming a highly polarised and confused election. Imagine what a step forward it would be though if in future elections Unite and other unions and community organisations were able to openly support and shape the policies of candidates standing not as independents, but in the name of a worker-led party? This is what TUSC supporters will be pushing for regardless of the result on 7 May.
As a council tenant, my area’s repairs contractor is changing yet again. I’ve seen a merry-go-round of countless private companies profiteering from housing repair contracts. We need to bring repairs back in-house. We need to end co-operation with spiv-like property developers such as in Perry Barr where the council has lost £300 million plus on the 900 properties from the Commonwealth Games. The old high street was demolished as part of the ‘redevelopment’ and is still a wasteland years on.
Unite the Union has reported that the council will lose at least £30 million on a skyscraper with 370 rented flats with no genuinely affordable housing.
We need to take over empty properties and use the council borrowing powers to build real affordable council homes. While canvassing a fish-and-chip shop, owner said he may vote Reform but honestly didn’t trust any parties, including Reform! He said: “It’s everything, not just housing, even £15 per hour isn’t enough. The local pub and bingo hall have closed, that should be a youth centre, I would help run it, I used to run a gym until the pandemic.”
We would agree that empty properties need to be utilised and local communities decide how.
Unite has been leafleting, declaring which candidates support a fair deal for the bin workers. Some parties state that they will resolve or end the bin dispute, neglecting to say in whose favour! Only TUSC has stated categorically that it should be resolved in a deal that is favourable to the bin workers. We haven’t found anyone blaming the bin workers!
Joe Foster, TUSC candidate in Perry Barr
