Hundreds protest against Glasgow day care cuts

Over 200 people attended the lobby of Glasgow City Council on January 23rd in order to demand the reversal of the plan to close three day care centres for people with learning disabilities. The turnout – which included day care centre users, their families, workers / trade unionists, and anti-cuts campaigners – was significantly larger than previous protests against closures and represents a rising level of anger against the cuts affecting the most vunerable in society, and a rising determination to do something about it.

Ian Leech (pictured speaking) Social Work Convenor from the Glasgow City Unison Branch, who are playing a key role in the campaign, compared the rally. Campaigners and service users gave impassioned speaches about the need to retain the day care centres. It was frequently outlined how essential they are to the standard of living of people with learning disabilities and how disgraceful it is that the most vunerable in society are being made to pay for a financial crisis caused by the rich who are getting off scot free.

The excuse often given by the council for the proposed cuts is that they want to help people with learning disabilties become more ‘independant’ – an echo of Tory minister Iain Duncan Smith’s repeated attacks on a ‘dependancy culture’, which he uses as a smokescreen to attack the poorest in society. Many of the speaches countered this by stating that in order to lead an independant life many people need a little support otherwise they can become completely dependant on their overworked families and isolated from wider society.

While the majority of the speaches were inspiring there was the usual bandwagon jumping from opportunist politicians. Cllr Susan Aitken and Bob Doris MSP both used the platform to make repetetive party political attacks on ‘Labour controlled Glasgow City Council’, and to a lesser extent the ConDems at Westminster. They piously condemned Labour for passing on Tory cuts despite the fact that Westminster passes the cuts on to the SNP governement at Holyrood, who have since carried out tens of millions of pounds of cuts and handed down more to pe passes at council level. Bob Doris MSP claimed ‘I don’t care who gains the credit for keeping these centres open’, after he repeatedly attacked the Labour Party and praised SNP efforts to raise opposition.

hypocrisy

The reality is that the SNP don’t even oppose cuts in Glasgow City Council. They agree cuts should be made but argue for different cuts to be made elsewhere that don’t attack the vunerable. They are also carrying out cuts from the Scottish Parliament and at every council they are in power. Politicians claim ‘we are all in this together’. The reality is that ordinary working and middle class people are all in this together in facing the attacks to our pay, conditions, pensions, jobs and services. At the same time the politicians are all in it together in the sense that the Tories, Lib Dems, Labour, SNP and also Greens all agree that vicious cuts need to be made whilst preserving the lavish wealth and lifesyles of the rich. All these parties are carrying out cuts wherever they are in power.

Anti-cuts campaigners should beware of pious politicians seeking to claim undue credit. We of course should welcome principled councillors, MSPs and MPs who campaign and vote against all cuts into anti-cuts campaigns, but so far none have done so in Glasgow.

However, Wednesday’s lobby marked a turning point for the Defend Glasgow Services campaign which is seeking to unite people into a mass campaign of opposition to the cuts. Trade unionists, workers, service users, anti-cuts campaigners and community activists should all coalesce under the Defend Glasgow Services umbrella in order to build the largest mobilisation possible to oppose every single cut being imposed in the city. Ian Leech a Socialist Party Scotland member made the point that this campaign should be linked with other local anti-cuts campaigns in a national network and by working in unison a mass movement of millions of people campaigning against the cuts can force the Westminster and Holyrood Governments, alongside councils into humiliating climbdowns.