Brutal council cuts must be fought with socialist policies

Jim McFarlane – Unison NEC member (personal capacity)

Cuts of around £700 million are currently being made by Scottish councils as they set their spending priorities for the next financial year.

This will inevitably mean the loss of more jobs and services from local authorities at the very time when there is an increased demand and need for improved services for communities trying to survive the cost of living crisis.

This is on top of well over a decade of austerity that has already seen the wipeout of tens of thousands of jobs in local councils along with the slashing of services.

Many local councillors, from all the main parties will claim they have no alternative as their funding from the Scottish Government is being cut in real terms.

This is a cop out and shows a lack of political leadership to stand up for the communities they claim to represent. They have a number of powers available to them yet choose to pass on the cuts or at best fail to present an alternative budget to meet the needs of communities.

Make no mistake, these cuts will mean the closure of community facilities such as schools, community centres, swimming pools and libraries in some areas.

It will mean reduced services for things like bins being emptied, road maintenance, public transport services and lots more.

At the same time charges for services, rents and council tax will increase by around 5% in most areas, adding the burden on to working class people to pay more for less services.

unions demand no cuts budgets

Trade unions representing tens of thousands of council workers  are calling on councillors to refuse to make the cuts and set legal no-cuts budgets.

As we have pointed out time and time again the elected politicians can use all available financial mechanisms to hold off further cuts whilst leading afight to win more money for council services.

These mechanisms include using reserves, borrowing powers, capitalisation and other measures, which could include the renegotiation and postponement of debt repayments. 

This would be a first step and would give time for the building of a mass campaign to win a return of the money stolen from local government services by the Tory austerity onslaught from Westminster and then transmitted through the Scottish Government to local councils.

Such a stand could ensure the resources for the setting of real needs budgets and a full reversal of the cuts to jobs and services we have all endured for more than a decade.

Just as was done by the socialist council in Liverpool led by the forerunner of the Socialist Party – Militant – in the 1980s that defeated Thatcher.

If elected councillors were to put as much effort into fighting the cuts rather than thinking up ways of making the cuts then we could be in a better position.

Ultimately council workers through their trade unions along with community campaigners will have no choice but to organise to fight the cuts. The cumulative effect of year upon year of cuts will inevitably mean workplace and community struggles will break out. 

The task of socialists and trade unionists is to unite these different campaigns. To fight for the maximum unity and to draw the correct political conclusions.

candidates who will fight cuts

If those MSPs and councillors from the SNP, Labour and Greens wont fight then we need to be prepared to stand our own candidates in elections who will fight.

By doing so we can help build the demands for a new mass political party that stands on the side of working-class communities with socialist policies to counter the capitalist onslaught on living standards and workers’ rights.

That’s why Scottish TUSC stand in elections in the absence of a new workers’ party.

The anger around poverty pay and inequality has seen the beginnings of strikes breaking out across the private and public sector. It’s a major indicator that working-class people have had enough.

The willingness to take action is clearly backed up by widespread public support for the strikes. It is a signal of what is to come.

Capitalist politicians from across the main parties have no real answers or solutions. 

• Councils and the Scottish Government should set no-cuts budgets using a combination of reserves, under-spends, borrowing powers and other financial levers already available to them

• Build a mass campaign for a return of the billions stolen by the Tories involving trade unions, communities and elected politicians who are prepared to defy the cuts. This would allow a full reversal of all the cuts since 2010
• Immediate steps to renegotiate, write-off and buy-out the hugely expensive council debt repayments, including PFI/PPP/NDP contracts in Scotland – expected to save billions in repayment costs.
• Scrap the council tax – For a progressive income-based alternative linked to ability to pay
• Trade unions to urgently convene a conference to plan a national campaign against cuts. Build mass protests and nationally coordinated strike action