Support the trade union and socialist candidate in Rutherglen and Hamilton West

Chris Sermanni – Scottish TUSC candidate

The constituents of Rutherglen and Hamilton West, like everyone else in the country, are suffering the biggest cut to their living standards in recent memory. Inflation and the general cost of living have skyrocketed. 

The average household food and energy bills have increased exponentially. Mortgage rates and rents have risen. Wages and benefits, of course, have not increased in line with this. 

The political response to all of this from the parties in power has been to ask ordinary people to, once again, tighten their belts and suck it up. Many families in Rutherglen, Cambuslang, Blantyre and Hamilton live in poverty, often working for low wages, 

Public spending has been decimated since the Tories came to power. It is estimated that more than half a trillion pounds was robbed from services between 2010-2019. 

cuts 

You can see the devastating impact this has had on services for the people of this constituency. NHS waiting lists are significant both for surgery and at A&E. Spending on social care is wholly inadequate – £15m was cut from the South Lanarkshire HSCP this year alone. Roads are often in a state of disrepair. Sport and Leisure facilities have been slashed, and more are in danger. 

None of the political parties are standing up for local people. 

I know only too well the yearly political dance that takes place when setting council budgets, where Labour, SNP, Lib Dems, Tories and Greens point the finger at each other, proclaiming that their cuts budget is more progressive than the others, rather than fighting for the funding required to set proper needs led budgets for vital services in the local area. 

Both the SNP and Labour have had control over South Lanarkshire Council, and have passed cuts on in this manner. 

The SNP at a national level is content to promise jam tomorrow, whilst passing on budget cuts from Westminster with no resistance. 

Their proposal for a National Care Service was heralded by the party as “the most ambitious reform of public services since the creation of the NHS”, but instead of eliminating profit from care, and tackling the disgraceful levels of low pay endemic within the sector, it aims to enshrine to role of the market in providing services. 

There is no commitment to trade union rights for workers either, which would be crucial in driving up pay, rights and terms and conditions. 

Ordinary people have no illusions in Labour delivering any change. 

The party has lurched to the right under the leadership of Keir Starmer, who has spent his time as leader reversing any promises made when elected as leader that would have resulted in gains for the working class. 

The language he uses is unambiguously anti-worker, commenting that he will go further than Blair on changing the culture and DNA of the party, calling these changes “Clause IV on steroids”. 

The recent strike wave of the last year signals that people have had enough of being subjected to continued austerity and constant wage suppression. 

There is a growing appetite to fight back, and the trade union movement is at the forefront of this. Education workers in South Lanarkshire – and in 23 other local authorities – voted to strike over the pay offer made to local government workers by COSLA and will take action in the coming weeks if a significantly improved offer is not made. 

As a council worker myself, I congratulate South Lanarkshire Unison members on their determination to fight for pay justice. Whenever action is called, Scottish TUSC will be on the picket lines supporting council workers. 

The Tory government is only too aware of the power held by the workers movement in fighting against their agenda, evident in the series of anti-trade union laws passed over the last few years. 

Trade unionists see the impact cuts make daily, and as none of the capitalist parties will fight for us, we need one that will. Scottish TUSC are committed to building a new mass workers’ party that will stand up for the working class and taking wealth out of the hands of big business and the billionaires. 

We need a massive increase in public spending to properly fund health and social care services, inflation proof pay and benefit rises, an immediate increase in the minimum wage to £15 with no age exemptions. 

public ownership 

Public ownership and democratic control of big business and mail, rail and energy companies are required to end their rip off profiteering at the expense of workers and the public. 

We need to own and control the banks and big business generally in order to implement socialist policies that would really change the lives of working class communities. 

A mass programme of council house building to end homelessness and help those trapped paying exorbitant rents to private landlords. TUSC stand on these policies and more. 

If elected, I would only accept the average wage of a skilled worker and donate the rest to back to working class and socialist causes. 

I’m standing on policies that will make a real difference to lives of the working class. 

Starmerite Labour 

Scottish Labour’s candidate is Michael Shanks. Shanks was the chosen candidate of the right wing Scottish Labour leadership. Shanks actually wrote a blog about leaving the party in 2019 when it was under the left leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. He only returned once pro-capitalist Keir Starmer became Labour leader in 2020. If elected, Shanks will add to the dominance of the pro-capitalist parliamentary group of Labour MPs who have extinguished the last vestiges of Corbynism from the Labour Party. 

Cuts-making SNP 

The SNP candidate is Katy Louden, an SNP councillor in South Lanarkshire. Both she and the SNP, when leading South Lanarkshire council, implemented cuts that saw tens of millions cut from local authority budgets. 

Like their MSP colleagues at Holyrood, SNP councillors only ever make cuts to council budgets and have steadfastly refused to stand up to Tory austerity. Council workers have had to take strike action to force pay improvement from these politicians. 

Donate to Chris’s campaign

Chris Sermanni lives in Cambuslang in the constituency and is a shop stewards convener for the trade union UNISON and a member of Socialist Party Scotland. You can support the trade union and workers’ candidate, standing on socialist policies, by making a donation here.