SNP and Corbyn-Labour must refuse to make the cuts and defy Tory austerity

From November 2015 the Scottish Government and then local councils will begin drawing up their budgets for the coming year.

They have a choice: defy the Tory cuts and stand up for the people they represent or implement another savage round of austerity that will be a disaster for our communities.

The line in the sand in this battle must be, do you fight every measure that punishes the working class, the young and the poor – or do you swallow the Tory lie that cuts are necessary and therefore nothing can be done?

We know the Tories plan to push through devastating cuts to tax credits, welfare and public services that will destroy the benefits and services we all rely on.

They also plan to ramp up their war machine over Syria. And they want to remove the democratic right to strike because the unions represent the biggest potential challenge to their austerity agenda.

For the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party and the SNP this is the test for their “anti-austerity” credentials.

Jeremy should immediately call on his councillors, MPs and MSPs to vote against all cuts and back the setting of no cuts budgets. The SNP leaders should do the same.

But in reality the overwhelming majority of the Labour MPs and councillors have been voting for and implementing Tory austerity since 2010.

Similarly, the SNP leaders have no intention of defying Tory cuts, despite being elected as an “anti-austerity” political alternative.

They are letting down hundreds of thousands of people who backed the SNP looking for a fighting opposition to cuts.

We cannot accept SNP and Labour MSPs and councillors continuing to slash more.

no cuts policy

Socialist Party Scotland is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which was co-founded by Bob Crow the late general secretary of the transport workers’ union (the RMT) in order to stand anti-austerity candidates in elections. TUSC will work with any SNP or Labour councillors and MPSs who back the call to refuse to implement the cuts, calling on them to produce people’s no-cuts budgets.

But we will also be ready to stand against any politician who votes for cuts no matter what party badge they wear.

The five Glasgow council trade unions – Unison, Unite, GMB, EIS and UCATT – are calling for a no cuts budget.

They are demanding that the Labour council refuse to make the Tory cuts and help build a mass campaign of political opposition to win back the over £350 million stolen from Glasgow since 2010.

This is exactly the policy that the heroic Liverpool socialist councillors, led by supporters of Militant – the forerunner of the Socialist Party – fought for between 1983 and 1987 when they defeated the Thatcher government and won tens of millions in extra funding for the city.

Socialist Party Scotland and Scottish TUSC are preparing to stand in the Scottish elections on this central policy.

We call on the rest of the socialist left in Scotland to take a similar bold stand and help build the biggest possible 100% anti-austerity alternative.

The Scottish Government and councils must refuse to do the Tories dirty work and instead be a bridgehead for a mass campaign of defiance against austerity.