Dundee anti-cuts candidates demand stolen money is returned

The Scottish Anti-Cuts Coalition (SACC) candidates in Dundee unveiled their manifesto today (picture of left to right. Rory Malone (Lochee ward) Jim McFarlane (Strathmartine) Raymond Mennie (West End) Wayne Scott (Coldside) Derek Milligan (Maryfield). The other two candidates are Sinead Daly (North East) and Linda Rose (East End)

 SACC’s key pledges include
    •    Refusing to make cuts and fight for a return of the £23 million money stolen from Dundee since 2010.
    •    SACC candidates pledge to refuse to vote for a single penny of cuts demanded by the Tory/LibDem coalition
 
 
Jim McFarlane a SACC candidate for the Strathmartine ward said
 
“Between 2010 to 2013 a shocking £ 23 million will have been cut from Dundee City Council’s budget. The result of which is lost jobs to the city as a result of the non-filling of vacancies, effective cuts to the incomes of thousands of families due to public sector wage freezes, and reductions in the quality of services to the people of the city.”
 
“This cannot go unchallenged. Under the SNP administration in Dundee neither they nor Labour, not even a single councillor, has been prepared to stand-up and refuse to implement the cuts.”
 
We are standing a team of seven candidates across the city that is unrivalled in terms of its experience of leading campaigns and fighting for the interests of working class communities in our city.
 
Our central pledge to the people of Dundee is that we will refuse to vote for a single penny of cuts. Cuts that have been imposed on our city by governments in Westminster who spent £37billion, bailing out one bank – RBS. Who are cutting taxes for the rich, the millionaires and big corporations, while imposing savage austerity on the majority.
 
A tiny fraction – 0.00062% – of the money used to bail-out RBS would mean no cuts to Dundee’s budget and would return spending on our essential services back to 2009 levels. “

 
SACC candidates in Dundee are

Jim McFarlane – Strathmartine (Jim is Chairperson of Dundee City Unison and a longstanding Dundee socialist)
Rory Malone – Lochee (Rory was for nine years the branch secretary of Dundee City Unison and a prominent trade unionist)
Raymond Mennie – West End (Raymond is a veteran trade unionist, socialist and community campaigner)
Wayne Scott – Coldside (Wayne, 19, is one of the youngest ever candidates to contest an election in Dundee and is a members of the Youth Fight For Jobs campaign
Derek Milligan – Maryfield (Derek is a GMB shop steward in Dundee’s Remploy factory which is threatened with closure)
Sinead Daly – North East (Sinead works with Dundee Women’s Aid and is an active socialist)
Linda Rose – East End (Linda works at Remploy and is an active trade unionist.)

 
We will
 

    •    Oppose all cuts to jobs, council services, workers pay and conditions – we reject the claim that ‘some cuts’ are inevitable to our services.
    •    Fight for a massive investment programme to build new council housing helping to create jobs and apprenticeships for our young people.
    •    Vote against all increases in council tax, rent, school meals or service charges to compensate for cuts
    •    Oppose all privatisation of council jobs and services, including the transfer of council services and housing to ‘social enterprises’ or ‘arms-length’ management organisations, which are first steps to privatisation
    •    Give full support to trade unionists and local communities who are fighting the cuts
    •    Argue for councils to set a No cuts budget that meets the needs of the local community.
    •    At the same time we will work to build a mass campaign to force the ConDem government to pay back the money stolen from local government to bail out the bankers and the rich.