Axe-man Swinney does Con-Dem’s dirty work

As the lively and colourful Scottish Anti-Cuts Alliance and PCS protest at the Scottish parliament made clear – we didn’t cause this crisis and it’s about time the elected politicians refused to make the cuts. The alternative would have been to set a needs budget and to have demanded a return of the billions stolen by the bankers and the Con-Dem government. Such a stand would gain mass support.

Instead the SNP-led Scottish government announced a range of savage cuts in their spending review statement. Finance secretary John Swinney, confirmed the governments intention to implement the full £3.5 billion in spending cuts up to 2015.

For public sector workers who are facing the brunt of the attacks, it’s a declaration of war against their pay, pensions and jobs. Unison have pointed out that a total of 31,000 public sector jobs in Scotland will have been axed last year and 2011/12. The rate of job losses in the public sector will now accelerate as the impact of the cuts hit home.

On top of this 500,000 workers in Scotland now face a wage freeze at least until April 2013. Local government workers had already seen a three-year pay freeze imposed on them by CoSLA. But yesterday’s announcement also means that workers in the civil service, the NHS etc added to the workers in the charity sector and voluntary organisations – many of whom endure even worse pay and conditions – are facing further years of cuts in living standards.

As a result of the SNP’s budget almost 700,000 workers are facing year-on-year wage cuts. With inflation running at 5% and rising, it means 10% to 15% wage cuts for almost one-third of the Scottish workforce. Even the token £250 wage increase for those earning under £21,000 – and many employers will not implement it – is a wage cut after inflation.

This level of austerity is not enough for the SNP. The Con-Dem’s pensions tax – another 3.2% wage cut – will be implemented in Scotland for workers in the NHS, teachers, the fire service, the civil service and the police. Scottish local government workers will not face this tax rise at the moment.

John Swinney also made it clear that after 2013 there was no prospect of wage increases that keep pace with inflation. Only “modest” below inflation rises would be possible – in other words more pay cuts. 

If the SNP think their spending plans will help “grow the Scottish economy” as they claim, they are deluded. You cannot impose public sector job cuts and reducations in living standards on this scale without driving the economy into the ditch.   

The SNP’s spending review also saw major cuts in local government funding, affordable housing (50% cut) and Further Education (15%). Even the NHS, which is supposed to be ring-fenced, will see real cuts of up to £400 million by 2015. Inflationary costs and the impact of private finance in the health service will mean further jobs cuts among NHS staff.

Scandalously, the SNP have allowed the imposition of sky-high tuition fees on students studying in Scotland from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The deep cuts to colleges – whose students are overwhelmingly working class young people – will lead to an eruption of anger among staff and students. The SNP’s pledge to provide “modern apprenticeships” for 18- 24 year olds are not new. For modern read low paid, with no guarantee of a job at the end.  

An indication of the impact of the slashing of budgets was graphically shown when Glasgow City Council announced within hours a further £13 million in cuts for the city. It now means a £61 million cuts package for this year. Local councils across Scotland will also seek to accelerate cuts in the wake off the SNP’s review.

Many of the cuts have been hidden by Swinney in so-called “efficiency savings”, which are running at 3% per year. He was forced to admit that the criteria for efficiencies were “delivering the same service for less money”. What else is that but cuts based on lowering pay and “headcount” in the public sector, with workers having to work harder with fewer staff.

The SNP’s initial reforms, including the freezing of the council tax and free prescriptions are like a sticking plaster on a gaping wound, compared to the effect these cuts will have on the lives of millions of people across Scotland. They have shown they are not prepared to lift a finger to fight the Tory/Lib Dem savagery. Instead they are simply a delivery mechanism for the deepest cuts Scotland has seen in generations.

The trade union movement must respond and quickly. The decision of Unison to continue with a ballot among its Scottish local government membership for the 30th November is welcome. The Unison Scottish secretary’s statement that the strike was off, made within hours of Swinney’s statement, has now been removed from the Unison Scotland website.  

A shutdown of the public sector at the end of November would have a huge impact in Scotland, as it will across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It’s a strike not just against the Con-Dem austerity, but also now the SNP who are unmasking themselves as Cameron and Osborne’s “little helpers.”  Despite their mealy-mouthed words of regret.

As the PCS made clear “The PCS members in Scottish Government will be taking strike action on 30 November with millions of other public sector workers on pensions, but the extension of the pay freeze by our own government and employer will provoke anger as never seen before.” Scottish public servants will be very angry that they are facing this double whammy from Westminster and Holyrood.”

With many unions balloting in October it is vital that meetings are organised in every workplace to urge a massive vote in favour of action. The unions must pull out all their resources to build for a mass demonstration on October 1st in Glasgow as a step to a mass strike on 30th November. This is not just a fight to defend pensions. For millions of workers it will be seen as a chance to have their say on the brutal austerity being meted out by the rich and the millionaire politicians.

More than ever we need a political voice for workers and those communities facing the cuts. The decision by leading trade unionists in Scotland, including Socialist Party Scotland members, to call for a conference to discuss standing anti-cuts candidates in next year’s local elections is timely.

Candidates that will refuse to implement cuts, will fight for needs budgets and will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with trade unionists and communities opposing the cuts agenda, are along overdue.

Ultimately, as John Swinney and the SNP have clearly demonstrated, talk, and only talk, of opposition to cuts is meaningless. What we need is action and principled opposition. It’s time to build that alternative.   

Standing anti-cuts candidates for 2012

Saturday 22nd October 2pm

Renfield Centre, Bath Street, Glasgow 

email anticutscandidates@hotmail.com for more info