Fight the closure of Clydebank Women’s Aid
Lynda McEwan West Dunbartonshire
Clydebank Women’s Aid, which has served the area for four decades, has announced it is set to close due to inadequate funding.
West Dumbartonshire has the second highest rate of domestic abuse in Scotland, so the decision by the local Labour council flowing from SNP Scottish government cuts, not to give Women’s Aid the support it needs should be viewed as a deliberate extension of the capitalist state’s role in oppressing women and children despite these parties posing as progressive and on the side of women . The cut to Women’s Aid takes place alongside major local cuts to council, Health and Social Care and NHS services as well as council tax rises.
Women’s services are disproportionately affected by austerity and the closure of this service will have catastrophic consequences for working class women.
Domestic violence, often framed as a moral, individual failure, is part of a broader result of capitalism’s inability to provide decent housing, jobs and services and fetishisation of the nuclear family which upholds the system by reinforcing control, maintaining the division of labour and perpetuating inequality.
The removal of the vital service which provides access to emergency accommodation, legal representation, mental health support and financial assistance will lead to women being trapped in violent relationships.
It also flies in the face of West Dunbartonshire council becoming the first local authority to implement a zero tolerance policy on domestic abuse with their No Home For Domestic Abuse policy which was introduced in 2018. How can they effectively provide such a service if they are deliberately underfunding the essential infrastructure that makes it possible?
The cost to society from defunding Women’s Aid is immeasurable. Domestic abuse already places enormous pressure on police, health services, housing departments and the courts. Women’s Aid reduces the burden. It prevents women from being murdered and helps break the cycle of generational trauma. For children it means growing up surrounded by fear and anxiety which severely impacts their security, education and future.
Socialist Party Scotland calls for West Dunbartonshire council to immediately fully fund Women’s Aid and reverse the closure. Rather than cut such services should be expanded, to meet the needs of the area which faces social crisis. Councillors could set an emergency no cuts budget reversing this year’s cuts and increased charges by utilising all financial mechanisms including borrowing, reserves, recapitalisation of debt, cancellation of PFI/PPP. They could then launch a mass campaign uniting with the trade unions and the community to demand the return of the funding cut from the area by Holyrood and Westminster for decades. Such funding could be used to set a needs budget to expand and fully fund high quality public services.
Ultimately services like Women’s Aid have faced a precarious existence not only having to fight for funding every year but because of successive Labour and SNP West Dunbartonshire administrations making cuts. Thats why we as part of the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition are fighting for a new mass workers party based on the trade unions that fights for socialist policies. Scottish TUSC along with trade union branches and Collective Scotland have initiated a conference on October 4th
Holyrood 2026 – For working class, trade union and socialist alternative
- Saturday October 4 1pm, Renfield Centre, Bath Street, Glasgow
There is a community campaign meeting to fight the Women’s Aid closure – Wednesday 18th June 6pm Y Sort It Clydebank G81 3EA
