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Search site for keywords: Anti-cuts - Cuts - Labour - Green - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Support anti-cuts candidates - for Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts
Only a third of the population think cuts are necessary, yet in the local elections in five weeks time, all of the candidates from the main parties will be supporting cuts.
In the 1980s twenty Labour councils promised to fight the cuts, even though only Liverpool and Lambeth stood firm in the end. Today every Labour council in the country has voted through a cuts budget.
This is a reflection of the right-wing pro-capitalist nature of the Labour Party today. Ed Miliband has made it clear that a new Labour government would also carry through cuts, just more slowly than the Con-Dems.
Greens rule out voting against cuts
The vast majority of Green councillors also rule out voting against cuts. For example, Samir Jeeraj of the Green Party was a platform speaker at the November conference of the Coalition of Resistance (CoR), in the workshop on 'what should political representatives do?' He argued that "many of the tools used by radical councils in the 1980s are no longer available to councillors".
Therefore, it is no longer possible to take the 'Liverpool and Lambeth road'. Bill Randall, the convenor of the Green group on Brighton city council (the largest group of Green councillors in the country), stated clearly: "We can't stop the cuts, but we believe the blow can be softened by adopting an open-book approach involving councillors, staff, trade unions, the third sector, the business community and services users to find ways to deal with the grievous cuts inflicted upon our city by the government.
"We urge other parties on the council to join us in negotiating the best possible outcome for the city in these very difficult circumstances". This is identical to the position put by New Labour.
Anti-cuts candidates necessary
Anti-cuts campaigns up and down the country should be discussing standing anti-cuts candidates in the elections. Without this essential strand to the movement against cuts many local councillors will think their positions are safe no matter how unpopular the cuts they implement.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is supported by militant trade unionists including Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, Janice Godrich President of the PCS, and Nina Franklin Vice President of the NUT.
It will be standing as many Trade Unionists Against Cuts Candidates as possible across the country on 5 May.
The Socialist Party sees this as a step towards building a mass independent workers' party. At the moment New Labour still receives over 90% of its funding from the trade unions, yet it acts in the interests of big business and the bankers not ordinary trade unionists.
Trade unions should stop funding New Labour and instead begin to build a new party that stands in defence of public services and working class peoples' interests.
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Finance appeal
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.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
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