Solidarity 187, 16 December 2010

The Tories' NewSpeak

I work with a voluntary organisation in a big northern city. We offer a drop-in centre — washing facilities, food, health and housing advice — to people who are addicts, often homeless and with mental and physical health problems. Last year, we had 2000 visits from clients. We did this on £70,000 of funding. More than half came from our local council. We got a new form from the council a few weeks ago. Can we tell them how much it would affect us if they cut that grant? 1. a bit; 2. quite a lot; 3. a lot? (Give percentages). So we answered the question. Answers. 1. 5% cut. No more training...

Scottish UNISON calls on councils to refuse cuts

The Scottish Unison Council, made up of delegates from all branches in Scotland, voted on 3 December for a call that the Scottish Parliament and local councils should defy Tory cuts and set “needs budgets”. This is the first time in the current anti-cuts agitation that a large body in the labour movement has raised the call for councils to defy the cuts. Solidarity has been raising the call for some time, but even the rest of the left press has so far been hesitant about it. In the 1980s, that call won wide support, though in the end all Labour councils — even those known as “left” like...

Demand that Labour defy the cuts!

Recent government announcements have revealed just how enormous local government cuts will be, with the poorest areas suffering the most; it has also become clear how devastating “efficiency savings” will be for frontline health services. In a move that even sections of the mainstream press are describing as “revenge”, the Tory-led coalition government has wielded the axe directly against Labour-controlled councils, in working-class areas, protecting Tory councils in richer areas from the worst of the cuts. In London alone, areas like Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham face cuts of nearly 9%...

"The future of the National Shop Stewards' Network"

National Shop Stewards Network committee members have objected to moves by the Socialist Party towards presenting the NSSN as the sole coordination of the anti-cuts battle, and maybe as an electoral vehicle. We publish their statement (slightly abridged). For our part we support all the conferences and positive initiatives taken by NSSN, Coalition of Resistance, or Right to Work. If the anti-cuts movement is to grow and develop the frantic competition between different “fronts” has to stop and be replaced by realistic cooperation. Below, as "comments", we add the reply from the SP and...

Wikileaks and the right to know

In 1917, after the October revolution, the Bolsheviks immediately published all the secret treaties of both the Tsarist government and the unelected provisional government of the February revolution. In the 1972-4 the Watergate scandal, exposing US government dirty tricks against political opponents, led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon and hugely and permanently increased popular mistrust of government in the USA. Contemporary journalist and malcontent Hunter S. Thompson summarised Nixon as a man who was 'criminally insane, and also President of the United States'. It's anyone...

Palestinian workers mobilise

The Democracy & Workers' Rights Centre , a radical trade-union NGO based in Palestine, reports on Palestinian workers' recent mobilisation. In a historical move, 25 Palestinian unions and federations mobilized today in the public and private sectors to protest against unilateral decisions from the Palestinian government regarding the introduction of amendments to the tax law, the civil service law and the compulsory health insurance law, the proposed optional implementation of the pension law for the private sector, the draft trade union law, the draft strike law for the public sector and...

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