The following is taken from the recent Haringey Council workers' bulletin produced by local SP members:
Vote For Strike Action To Save Jobs And Services !
Haringey’s Labour-controlled council is axing approximately 1,000 jobs, over 20 per cent
of the council’s workforce.
The impact on the individual workers, and on services to the community, will be devastating.
In December 2010 our branch passed a motion which adopted a policy agreeing:
• To fight local and national cuts, including those in jobs, services and welfare benefits.
At today’s AGM there is a motion calling for strike action against compulsory redundancies. Socialist Party members working for Haringey Council call for support for this motion. However, many members will question why we have not been balloted earlier. The council needs to be clear that we are prepared to take strike action to defend all jobs and services.
We need a massive turnout on the 26 March demonstration called by the TUC. If the Con-Dem government does not back off from its aim of destroying public services and jobs, then all the public sector unions need to co-ordinate a one day public sector strike. And if
necessary, this should be followed by a one day general strike. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat (Con-Dem) coalition government is weak. With determined and decisive action they can be beaten.
We want councillors to stand up to stand up to the Con-Dem government The policy adopted by our branch in December also committed the branch:
• To call upon the Council to resist cuts in public services, and to join us in campaigning, publicity and lobbying the government to protect services, jobs, terms and conditions.
Our branch policy of calling on the council to resist cuts in public services must be pursued with vigour. But the only realistic and consistent way the council can resist cuts to public services is to refuse to implement the cuts and set a budget based on the needs of our borough, and unite with the Council workforce and the Haringey community in fighting for the resources to fund this from the Con-Dem government.
Every council worker understands that it is the Con-Dem government of millionaires that has slashed funding to local authorities, putting councils across Britain in a difficult position. But the difficulties facing council workers and service users if cuts are implemented far outweigh the difficult decisions councils have to make.
It is not good enough for Haringey’s Labour Council to just blame the Con-Dem government for the cuts, and then vote them through in the Council Chamber. The council had a choice - it could have chosen to fight to defend service public services and save jobs.
In voting for a cuts budget on February 24 Labour told us that they had no option but to comply with their legal responsibilities. It is true that if the council had refused to set a cuts budget it would at a certain stage have come into conflict with the law, but it would have been enormously popular with Haringey’s residents. The unions and Haringey Alliance for Public Services (HAPS) could have mobilised thousands in support of the councillors’ stand. It would then have been very difficult for the law to be used against the council.
Unlike in the past, councillors who refuse to implement a cuts budget cannot be surcharged unless they are found guilty of financial crimefor personal gain. However, they can be suspended from holding office. But other councillors could then be elected committed to taking the same principled stand.
It is not too late for Haringey Council to refuse to implement the cuts. There is still time to prepare before it would come into conflict with the law. The council can use its reserves and borrowing powers to avoid making cuts to gain time to build a mass movement in its support. Ed Miliband could give a lead by promising that an incoming Labour government would write off all local authority debts incurred from avoiding cuts.
Time for a new workers party
Unfortunately, while our union has rightly attacked the Con-Dem government for its vicious assault on public services, its criticism of the Labour council has been muted. This reflects the continuing support Unison gives the Labour Party, both politically and financially. Yet as Haringey Labour council leader Claire Kober admitted at a council meeting in January, had Labour won last year’s general election there would still have been cuts to local authority grants. For Haringey, this would still have meant 500 job losses this year and cuts of over £45 million to local services over three years. As a union we need to be clear: Labour cuts are not better than Con-Dem cuts. We should be opposed to all cuts in jobs and services regardless of which party is carrying out the cuts.
The Labour Party receives most of its funding from the unions. Union members must make clear we will not tolerate Labour’s collaboration with the Con-Dems’ cuts to jobs, terms and conditions, and our local services.
Council workers and local service users are not responsible for the financial crisis and government debt. We all know that fault lies with the greedy bankers and a system based on putting profit before the needs of ordinary people. The Con-Dem government represents the bankers and the very wealthy in society. The previous Labour government also put the interests of big business before the needs of working people. The unions should stop financing the Labour Party and help establish a new party to represent the interests of the working class. A party that will fight against cuts and privatisation, and for a socialist society based on meeting the needs of the millions and not the millionaires.
