The Socialist 24 February 2021

Where's the road map to jobs and wages Boris?

Where's the road map to jobs and wages Boris?

Johnson's 'road map' for schools: Act together to protect safety

Vaccine algorithm can't solve capitalist inequality

Garment workers and Covid: Dying for less than minimum wage

Starmer's speech a return to New Labour

Justice for Moyied Bashir

Uber drivers win case - they are workers

Social care: End privatisation and let workers decide how it's run

How militant trade unionism defeated the 1971 Industrial Relations Act

Usdaw elections - right makes gains but Broad Left builds

HMRC: Divisive pay deal leads to expulsions

Hinkley Point electricians fight 'deskilling'

"I'm here to fight for the future education of children in Hackney"

London bus dispute against low pay, pay cuts and longer hours

GMB members continue fight against 'fire and rehire' in British Gas

Scunthorpe steelworks scaffolders: Fifth week of action

Liverpool Unite branch supports 'no cuts' budget strategy

Scottish TUSC election campaign launch

Keep the fighting fund rushing in for a TUSC stand in May

W. Sussex children's centres on the chopping block

Coventry success building subscriptions

Socialist Students conference - postering

Save John Carroll Leisure Centre

Getting the Socialist out in lockdown

Pride flag is about unity in struggle

Tories tout toilet tensions

Nigeria: Abbey Trotsky on trial for assisting workers' struggle

Facebook v Australian government: nationalise the bosses' media!

Film Review: The White Tiger

Tories admit guilt for asylum seeker neglect

Tories target universities in free speech shakedown

PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT

020 8988 8777

[email protected]

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1122/32092

Search the site	Printable version

Home | The Socialist 24 February 2021 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook

Save John Carroll Leisure Centre

(Click to enlarge)

Geraint Thomas, Nottingham Socialist Party

John Carroll Leisure Centre, in the working-class Radford area of Nottingham, is threatened with closure in the latest £15.6m of cuts proposed by Nottingham Labour Council. Radford has seen most of its local services disappear, the leisure centre is virtually the only community amenity left.

Many services and groups operate from the centre, and the sports facilities provide local people with an alternative to street life. But over the years services have been run down, the last real investment in the centre was 15 years ago.

The 'Save John Carroll Leisure Centre' campaign (savejohncarroll.co.uk) has been founded by local residents and users of the centre in a determined bid to stop the closure, planned for June.

The closure would especially hit schools and older users who will struggle to travel to the next nearest leisure centre. The campaign is heaping pressure on councillors to oppose the closure in the March council meeting, but that will not be the end of it.

The council says that it is consulting on the closure proposals, but so far that has proved a sham. In a meeting with campaigners, the council leaders claimed that the centre is the least used, and that saving it would mean closing another two. It has clearly decided in advance that the centre will close.

We reject the attempt to pit working-class service users in the city against each other. Services should and can be protected. Councillors need to take serious action to block the cuts, using their remaining reserves and borrowing powers to defend services instead of propping up failing commercial ventures.

Passing on Tory cuts and removing services from the people of Nottingham is a political choice. The Tories are weak; even two or three councils taking a stand, and demanding funding from central government, could well result in yet another government U-turn.

There are no elections in Nottingham this year, but the Socialist Party is prepared to stand as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition against any councillors voting to impose cuts in future elections.

In this issue

Covid

Where's the road map to jobs and wages Boris?