DEFEND OUR PUBLIC SERVICES-NO CUTS
MAKE COUNCILLORS PAY AT THE BALLOT BOX
DEFEND OUR UNION BRANCH
STOP THE WITCH-HUNT
Up and down the country, local councils, be they Labour, Tory or Liberal Democrats are cutting our services and axing our jobs. Even Councillors from the Green Party have a record of voting for cuts. Where the BNP have been elected, their councillors have been ineffective and they have voted in favour of cuts.
This is in stark contrast to Socialist Party councillors who have not just consistently voted against cuts, but have led community campaigns outside of the council chamber. In Lewisham, Socialist Party councillors Ian Page and Chris Flood played a leading part in the successful campaign to stop the sell-off of council housing in New Cross and have supported the campaign to stop the closure of Deptford Job Centre.
Now, more than ever, we need councillors willing to fight for our jobs and our service. A recent confidential report from the Greenwich Council Labour group proposes the following:
Over £30 million of cuts to jobs and services
A “review”- in other words cuts- of terms and conditions for council staff; in particular evening and weekend working costs.
Reviewing sickness absence levels
Increased “productivity”. This means working harder but for no more pay!
Review all council services with a view to transfer to the trading company; a first step to privatisation
Review “Social care”, to consider “enterprise models” and “shared services”. This is about outsourcing social services.
Review of low priority activity. This means cutting non-statutory services.
The cutback will not be limited to council staff. The public will also suffer. For instance the report states:
“Review of eligibility criteria beyond care services” “ Restricted access to services” and incredibly “examine options to reduce demand and volume”.
We can’t accept this! Council workers will have to fight to save our jobs, wages, pensions and conditions. But public service workers should not have to fight alone. We all rely on essential public services. We have to be prepared to fight alongside those who also use our services.
In Greenwich, the UNISON branch has been at the forefront of fighting cuts to services and attacks on council staff. Once again, the UNISON branch is preparing to take a leading role. But the union leadership at a national level are tied to new Labour. They see the re-election of a Labour government as a priority.
That is why UNISON branch secretary and Socialist Party member Onay Kasab is still being attacked by the union leadership. He still faces suspension from office as a result of a vicious and brutal witch-hunt conducted by fulltime officials who want to make the union safe for new Labour. No trade unionist wants to see the election of a vicious anti-working class Tory government. But to simply argue that Labour would be a lesser evil will not do.
Whether there are 100 or 500 job losses as a result of cuts in Greenwich is not relevant. Our principle is that an injury to one is an injury to all. It is this unity that has allowed us to win our past campaigns. That is why every working class community threatened with cuts and privatisation should stand trade union, socialist or community activist candidates against the big parties at next May’s council elections
MAKE THE CUTTERS PAY AT THE BALLOT BOX
SAVE OUR SERVICES
If you would like to help in our work to build a campaign for a new workers party, to break the trade unions from New Labour then join us
Socialist Party demands:
-No public sector cuts
- No compulsory redundancies and cuts in wages, terms and conditions for public sector staff
- For a programme of public works to fight the scourges of unemployment and poverty, with local councils mounting a campaign to demand money from the national government if necessary
-For a new mass workers party to expose and replace the rotten politics of the mainstream parties.
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