West Scotland: Poverty and inequality needs a socialist solution

Lynda McEwan, Scottish TUSC candidate West Scotland region

Poverty in the working class area of West Dunbartonshire, like many areas in West Scotland, has been at record high levels for a number of years with continued cuts to services by successive Labour and SNP led councils, but the Covid pandemic has plunged residents into nightmarish conditions reminiscent of 1930s Britain.

Historically, West Dunbartonshire forged the way for industry in Scotland. It was dominated by shipbuilding, engineering and manufacturing, producing whisky, glass and textiles and provided employment for thousands of workers in the area.

However, deindustrialisation, heralded in by Thatcher’s Tory government in the 1970s began a process of rapid decline for this once thriving community. Well paid, skilled jobs were replaced by unemployment and a reliance on benefits, leading to generational poverty where some families never saw an adult in work.

Cuts to the NHS, a lack of social housing and the deliberate shrinking of the welfare state added another layer of misery to people already struggling to make ends meet. It’s no wonder then that when Covid 19 appeared in early 2020 the area has had one of the highest death rates in Scotland.

We know that the most deprived communities are worst affected and that poverty plays a huge role in those figures. Since the SNP were elected as a minority administration in 2017 in West Dunbartonshire they have meekly passed on Tory cuts.

They have become increasingly unpopular in what was a YES majority voting  area in the 2014 independence referendum. Their first budget attacked trade union facility time and made cuts to council services, which led to a joint trade union campaign against austerity that the Socialist Party Scotland, through our members, Jim Halfpenny, joint convenor of the EIS trade union and local organiser Lynda McEwan, both now standing as Scottish TUSC candidates in the West Scotland region, played an important role in reversing.

Lynda McEwan also organised two reclaim the night marches in the Vale of Leven against gender based violence and cuts. And the recent vigil in Dumbarton to remember Sarah Everard.

Ian Kerr from Irvine is also standing as a Scottish TUSC candidate for West Scotland. Ian is a decades-long socialist fighter who helped organise the mass non-payment campaign against the poll tax. Ian is also a disabled rights activist and a member of Socialist Party Scotland

Child poverty has increased, with over a quarter of all children in West Dunbartonshire living on the breadline, as has the number of people claiming benefits. Food bank use is at its highest with some feeding their usual amount for a week, in one day.

Many services are running at a reduced rate meaning those most at need are falling through the gaps. Domestic violence increased by almost 140% from April to August last year and despite heroic levels of workers working from home to provide frontline service, years of cuts and a slow response to the pandemic will inevitably lead to women and children being trapped in violent relationships with no means of escape.

socialist alternative

TUSC (The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) are standing candidates on the list in the Scottish elections in May to offer a socialist alternative to these cuts making politicians.

We will stand on an average workers wage and will reject donations from big business.

We call for the nationalisation of all privatised care homes and a £12 an hour minimum wage as a step towards £15 an hour.

All care workers and NHS staff should receive a 15% pay rise now and not the paltry and insulting 1% the SNP offered them.

We will demand more funding for women’s services in the area and for the child payment to be increased to £50 per week.

We will refuse to vote for cuts and say instead that the Scottish government should use all financial mechanisms, such as borrowing and  reserves.

We stand for the building of a new mass workers party, for a workers recovery from Covid, for public ownership and the socialist planning of the economy and for a mass working class campaign to win the right to indyref 2.