Dundee £17 million cuts bombshell: No cuts budgets and mass trade union action can defeat austerity

Text of a Socialist Party Scotland leaflet 

The biggest ever cuts budget has been unveiled by the SNP-led council. Rather than stand up to the Scottish and Westminster governments and demand back the £130 million stolen from Dundee since 2010, the administration is proposing to slash jobs, attack services and hike up rents, council tax and charges for everything from breakfast clubs to car parking.

Cuts, cuts, cuts

The trade unions were given one day’s notice of the plans to slash jobs in education.

• Education Resource Workers and Pupil Support Workers are to be cut.
• The Kick It/Kick Off service is to go completely. Bell Street music centre will close.
• Social Care Workers are having their conditions attacked and their wages cut.
• School teaching posts will go across the board.
• Voluntary organisations that rely on council support, including violence again women services, are to get a 5% cut in funding.
• Council tax will rise 3%, council rents by almost 4%.
• There will also be a new charge for emptying brown bins for garden waste, opening the door to additional charges on other bin collections down the line.

All-in-all it represents austerity on steroids. It’s the consequence of Dundee councillors bowing the knee to Tory cuts again and again. It means the cuts get deeper and deeper every year.

And yet none of this has to happen. Elected councillors have the power to refuse to make cuts and set no cuts budgets. A key first step in building that resistance would be for Holyrood and local councils to set no-cuts budgets using the powers they currently have.

For councils for example borrowing powers, reserves and capitalisation could be used to set a legal no-cuts budget. A no cuts budget allied to a mass campaign involving the trade unions, communities and elected politicians would have a huge effect.

Such a stand, alongside a programme of sustained and coordinated strike action by the trade unions on pay, workload and cuts, could force both Holyrood and the weak Tory government to retreat and win back the money to fully fund jobs and services in Dundee and across Scotland.

Liverpool

The Liverpool socialist council in the 1980s was hugely influenced by the policies, tactics and strategy of Militant – the forerunner of the Socialist Party.

That council refused to make Thatcher’s cuts, built a mass campaign alongside the working class of the city that included a citywide general strike and mass demonstrations and won millions in extra money to build thousands of council houses, nurseries, sports centres etc.

If SNP and Labour MSPs and councillors refuse to make a stand, the mass mobilisation of public sector workers and local communities can still have a huge impact.

The marvellous example of the equal pay strike in Glasgow in October has forced the SNP-led Glasgow council to the table. In fact the council have borrowed £500 million to settle the dispute which proves again that the council have significant powers.

Decisive action by the organised working class would turn the tide against the austerity agenda. It could even force some councillors and MSPs into taking a real anti-austerity stand and refusing to make cuts.

What is clear is that the mass mobilisation of the trade union movement will be crucial in the months ahead.

political alternative

The SNP leaders have failed to fight Tory austerity, despite their rhetoric. While we welcome both Jeremy Corbyn’s and Richard Leonard’s victories over the Labour right wing, they need to use these steps forward to call on all Labour councillors to stop implementing Tory cuts as a step to building a real left and anti-austerity Labour Party.

Socialist Party Scotland and Dundee Against Cuts have been prepared to stand against SNP and right wing Labour politicians who are voting for cuts.

We stand for election on a principled no-cuts and socialist platform. We would encourage trade unionists and community campaigners to fight with us and Dundee Against Cuts to help build a principled political alternative to the cuts politicians

socialism

Capitalism today has austerity locked into its DNA.While opposing every cut today we also need to fight to change the system. It is a broken system that benefits only the rich elite, the 1%. In order to fight cuts effectively, it’s also necessary to stand against the economic system that delivers austerity and fight for socialism. Join us today

SOCIALIST PARTY SCOTLAND SAYS:

● REJECT THE £17 MILLION CUT to Dundee’s jobs and services. Demand the Scottish government fully fund a budget for the city’s needs

● COUNCILS AND THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT should set no-cuts budgets using a combination of reserves, underspends, borrowing powers and other financial levers. In the case of the Scottish Government, start taxing the richest

● BUILD A MASS CAMPAIGN for a return of the billions stolen by theTories involving trade unions, communities and elected politicians who are prepared to defy the cuts

● OPPOSE ALL CUTS to jobs, wages and attacks on services

● SUPPORT TRADE UNIONS balloting for strike action to defend jobs, terms and conditions of work and council services

● NO TO COUNCIL TAX RISES, rent increases and extra charges for council services which is just another form of austerity

March against the cuts Saturday 16th February 11.30am Assemble Unite offices, Hawkhill Dundee

Socialist Party Scotland public meeting

Tuesday 19 Feb 7.30pm DVA building 10Constitution Road

Speaker Jim McFarlane Dundee City Unison secretary (personal capacity)