Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1124/32157
From The Socialist newspaper, 10 March 2021
Why I'm standing for TUSC
We need councillors to prioritise housing need, not super-rich developers
Mira Glavardanov, North London Socialist Party
Enfield council is Labour-led. Labour councillors shed crocodile tears while implementing Tory cuts, with the excuse that 'there is nothing we can do'. They hide behind the 'illegality' of no-cuts budgets. In fact they are not illegal. But I'd like to ask, is it legal to kill people through austerity?
At the same time, Enfield council is borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds for the biggest housing development in London, Meridian Water - built on public land, but unaffordable for most Enfield residents. I have been active in the local campaign 'Meridian 4 Council Homes' which demands 100% council housing. There are 5,000 households on the council house waiting list in Enfield, but none will be housed in Meridian Water. The council is getting into debt to satisfy rich developers and investors, not the people in housing need.
Next door to Meridian Water, in a working-class, predominantly black and Asian area, is an old and polluting incinerator which the council plans to expand rather than turn into a recycling plant. The council wants to save money - burning is cheaper than recycling - sacrificing our health and lives. We support campaigners' call to "Stop the incinerator".
I was a member of the Enfield North Constituency Labour Party during Corbyn's leadership. We passed a motion that instructed the council to set a no-cuts budget. It hit a brick wall. I have come to the conclusion that the only way to fight against austerity is outside the Labour Party, more so after the takeover of the party by the Blairites.
We desperately need a voice that stands for the working class, in Enfield and the whole country. That's why I am standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in the Chase ward by-election in Enfield this May. We need an alternative to austerity, poverty and capitalism.
We need anti-cuts councillors, not private cuts consultants!
Luke Johnson, Rotherham Socialist Party
Labour-controlled Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) has declared that it has another £18 million 'savings' to make in the 2021-22 financial year to 'balance the budget'. This is in addition to £16 million in the last two years.
These cuts are already known to include the closure of vital public services, such as Addison House in Maltby, an adult learning disability centre. This is due to close at the end of June despite a high profile union and carers' campaign of 90,000 petition signatures, several big protests, and a judicial review.
Labour councillors justify further austerity measures by declaring that they have 'no alternative' but to pursue them. A job listing has appeared on the council website for a 'Head of Change and Innovation'. It seems RMBC are to pay a private consultant £550 a day to "achieve sustainable financial savings whilst ensuring services continue to meet the required outcomes of the council".
What this really means is probable job cuts, and further assaults on terms and conditions. It means council workers, including many of those who have been on the frontline during the pandemic, receiving less pay or pension.
Unfortunately, paying consultants to advise on public services is widespread. In 2019, a freedom of information request revealed that local councils across the UK had spent around £400 million on consulting firms in the preceding year alone.
In Rotherham, councillors are willing to make working-class people pay the price of the pandemic. The Socialist Party will fight these cuts. We will continue to put pressure on local authorities and councillors to use reserves and borrowing powers to set no-cuts budgets and, along with other local authorities, demand the funds from central government.
We need councillors prepared to vote against the cuts and put a fight up against the Tories. That is why I will be standing for election to Rotherham Borough Council for the Bramley and Ravenfield ward on 6 May, as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 10 March 2021:
NHS pay
NHS workers say: We are ready to fight Tory pay insult
Police disgracefully stop NHS pay protest
News
Super-deduction will help big business pay less tax
The 'old normal' meant poverty for young people
What we think
Tories keep bailing out bosses, while piling pain on workers and public services
Schools
Workers respond to 'back to school'
Workplace news
British Gas strikers reject deal and carry on fighting
Goodlord striker speaks out: 'workers have to fight for our skills to be appreciated'
Stop union busting on the buses: Reinstate Declan Clune and Moe Muhsin Manir
Leicester university workers ballot for action against redundancies
Sainsbury's pay offer shows future will only be 'great pay' if we fight
PCS leadership failures lead to concession bargaining on pay
Manchester bus drivers' indefinite strikers fight on
London bus drivers continue walkout
Rosa Luxemburg
150th anniversary of Rosa Luxemburg's birth
Wealth Tax
Would a wealth tax end poverty and inequality?
Campaigns news
Socialist women speak at inspirational International Women's Day online rally
Why I joined the Socialist Party - to fight for the future of the working class
Build subscriptions to the Socialist
Fighting fund target achieved - keep up the momentum
International news
Historic union battle at Alabama warehouse
10 years ago - the Fukushima nuclear disaster: "We came close to losing northern Japan"
Letters
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