Anti-cuts, public services

Health, education, housing, benefits, local councils, ...

Cuts round-up

The government has cut central grants to local councils by £1.166 billion. The government say that no council would see their grant drop by more than 2%. But at the same time they have imposed a one-year freeze on council tax rises. That may be repeated next year. In Scotland the SNP-led government froze council tax for three years from 2000. In any case huge cuts are being made everywhere. Some of the councils facing the biggest cuts in central funding are Birmingham (£12.6 million), Liverpool (£9 million), Kent (£8.7 million) Essex (£7.5 million) and Durham (£6.3 million). In many places...

Attacking lowest-paid school staff

Tower Hamlets unions have held their first anti-cuts meeting in preparation for the anticipated driving down of working class jobs, wages and services in the borough. The Labour-controlled council plans to announce £10 million worth of cuts from its budget at the next cabinet meeting. This will have a devastating effect on both service users and providers. At the meeting some mentioned cuts which were already happening, and without any reference to the unions. Labour’s so-called determination to defend “front-line” services were given the lie. One cut mentioned was to school transport, which...

Anti-cuts committees emerge

Anti-cuts committees are now being set up in areas across Britain. The quicker, the better! Local Trades Councils, if they have any life at all, are the best bodies to initiate such committees. If committees are initiated outside trade-union structures, for example by community groups, they should move to base themselves in the labour movement, winning affiliations and delegates from trade unions. The committee must, however, be broader than the Trades Council, drawing in delegates from community groups, ward and constituency Labour Parties, and workplaces, as well as trade unions. The...

How to fight the Tories’ plans for schools

Speeches from the opening session of Ideas for Freedom 2010, "How do we fight the Tories' plans for schools?" (10 July) The chair was Gemma Short, a first year teacher and AWL member from Sheffield. Jean Lane, teaching assistant and UNISON activist in Tower Hamlets I’d like to concentrate on the cuts we’ve faced up until now and how they are going to multiply in the coming period, particularly after the October spending review. Turning outstanding schools into academies is going to take money out of the central Local Education Authorities that fund all of the schools in their area and all of...

Network Rail boss gets very rich while bullying workers

By Dale Street Only days after the Tories’ ‘emergency budget’, in which benefits cuts and a pay freeze for public sector workers were announced, the Network Rail (NWR) remunerations committee approved bonus payments amounting to £2.4 millions for just six NWR executives. The biggest winner in this bonus bonanza giveaway was NWR Chief Executive Iain Coucher, who had announced his resignation only shortly before the bonus payments were made public. Coucher was awarded a bonus of £641,000, on top of his annual salary of over £613,000. Coucher will be walking away from NWR after having been paid...

Lambeth anti-cuts committee launched

An initial organising meeting attended by 19 local residents and workers met today [30 June] at the UNISON office. Representatives of the local Pensioners' and Tenants' movements were present, alongside members of local branches of the University and Colleges Union (UCU), the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Lambeth UNISON. The meeting agreed the following statement: We, the undersigned resolve to work together to resist cuts in public services in Lambeth and beyond. We oppose: * The cuts and redundancies announced by the Council in May; * Further cuts arising from cuts in Grant Aid...

The Budget: what union and Labour leaders say

All the leading figures in the unions and Labour Party condemned the Lib/Tory coalition's 22 June Budget. Almost none, however, said what they will do to combat the wave of cuts due to roll across the next five years. Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, focused on denouncing the Lib-Dems for complicity with Tory policy. "The mask slipped to reveal this government for what it is - Tory slashers of services... If they do not disassociate themselves from this, then the Lib Dems will have to bear the responsibility". A follow-up message from assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail...

Oxford anti-cuts campaign

Around 30 people attended a “Save Our Services” meeting in Oxford on the 20th of June to discuss how to resist cuts in local public services. Activists from green alter-globalisation activist network People and Planet had provided a lot of the footwork, postering Oxford and leafleting door-to-door. Trade unionists and local activists spoke. A further meeting is planned for 1st July, 6PM, Cheney Community Centre. More information: www.odtuc.org.uk

Prepare for class war!

The first Budget of the Tory-Liberal government has staked out the ground for an enormous assault on the working class in the period ahead - on our living standards and, maybe, on our remaining trade-union rights. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) dotted the i here by proposing tighter anti-union laws to quell any working-class revolt. The Budget itself began the assault. More will be spelled out in the autumn. The Budget plan is harsher than the measures of the Thatcher government 30 years ago. £82 billion of cuts in annual public spending. A wage freeze for six million public...

Financial Times calls Budget "this bloodbath"

The 22 June Budget means public spending cut by 25% almost everywhere except health by 2014-5. The details will not be spelled out until the autumn spending review, but the certainty is (as the Financial Times headline put it): "huge jobs cull looms as services hit". Public sector workers also face a two-year pay freeze (with a tiny exception for some lower-paid) and increased pension contributions, i.e. a cash cut in take-home pay at a time when inflation is running over 5%. VAT will rise from 17.5% to 20% from January 2011, in effect raising the prices of most goods and services by a further...

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