Protest against cuts, Stockport, Dec 2015, photo Bridget Russell

Protest against cuts, Stockport, Dec 2015, photo Bridget Russell   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Merry Christmas from Stockport council

Laurie Carefoot and John Neill

Councillors in Stockport, Greater Manchester, met shortly before Christmas to debate what sized lump of coal they should put in the stockings of the borough’s poorest children.

On 16 December the leader of the council and council executive decision makers, all of whom belong to the Liberal Democrats, met to discuss a proposed £3.2 million in cuts to the children and family services budget.

These cuts would see £2.3 million being cut from their staffing budget and a further £840,000 being cut from their commissioning budget, which provides vital funding to community groups and key services in the area.

This was all part of a massive £21 million worth of cuts to services in Stockport discussed in the sessions leading up to Christmas, in what one local activist called: “A Christmas present Ebenezer Scrooge would be proud of!”

Unite union members organised a demonstration outside the town hall against the proposed cuts. Socialist Party Manchester and East Cheshire branches participated, handing out leaflets and selling the Socialist.

Local activist groups, community groups and community services users had been invited to come along in solidarity with the objective of sending a clear message to the council’s decision makers, showing we oppose their proposals and budget cuts.
Such cuts can only result in job losses for council employees and the loss of yet more vital community provisions supporting children, young people and their families.

 photo Bridget Russell

photo Bridget Russell   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

These cuts will have a disastrous impact in a constituency that already suffers from a massive polarisation in wealth.

The council, a close split between Labour and the Liberal Democrats with a small majority for the latter, has like so many across the country shown utter contempt and disregard for working class people.
The Lib Dem council leaders who have proposed this budget are making more and more people suffer from their brutal cuts to services.

The local Labour group has not responded to questions put to them about whether or not they are prepared to fight these cuts.

The Socialist Party stands in solidarity with both workers defending their jobs and with working class people determined to fight back against the cuts.

Iain Roberts, deputy leader of the council, who announced the £21 million in cuts earlier this year, approached the demo and was questioned by Socialist Party members about the possibility of using the council’s reserves to protect services from cuts.

He told protesters that he was ‘just doing his job’ and wrongly claimed that for a council to refuse to carry out cuts would be ‘illegal’.

He also went on to say that he and other councillors would have ‘a much bigger effect’ on the government’s decisions than protesters would.

We would like to remind councillor Roberts of the many times when protests and unified action of the working class have not simply ‘changed the government’s mind’ but forced it to back down.