Socialist Appeal No. 193: Editorial

The result of January’s by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth confirmed what many must have already suspected – Cameron’s Tory Party and his coalition partner Clegg’s Lib Dems are falling fast in the polls. The reason is clear – growing opposition to the government’s policies of cutting jobs and services to pay for the bosses’ crisis.

We have now entered a critical period. The cuts are no longer on the horizon; they are knocking at the door.  Over the next few months, local councils will be finalising annual budgets for the next financial year, agreeing what services should be reduced or cut and increasing charges for those which remain.  For the labour and trade union movement the time for talk has passed, action is now needed.

Councils

Labour councillors need to understand that they cannot just act as agents of central government on this. Where Labour controls a council, they must be ready to refuse to implement these cuts. Simply announcing that they will pass a budget which cuts jobs and services, only ‘fairly,’ is not an option. A cut is a cut – fair or not. Given the scale of the reduction in funding, it will be impossible to cut services in a way that does not hurt the poor and needy. The best way to build an effective campaign against this bosses government is to lead by example and refuse to comply with their demands.

Some will say that if Labour councillors refuse to set a cutter’s budget then central government will simply come in and takeover the council and set a budget anyway. If they do then they should be met by striking staff and mass protests from the community on the streets. In the 1980s, serious opposition to Thatcher’s cuts was restricted to a few councils, most notably Lambeth and Liverpool. The rest caved in after a token stand. This time, all Labour councils must stand up and be counted. This would create a nightmare scenario for Whitehall if they attempted to run the council themselves. In any case, it would then be very clear that it is the coalition carrying out the cuts and not local councils.

Larger fight

Those councils and councillors who decide to resist the cuts should not be left to fight alone. Their struggle needs to be part of a larger fight by the movement against the austerity measures. The trade unions are key to this. We welcome the decision of the TUC to call a national march on Saturday March 26th in London. This will be massive, the largest such event for a number of years. However, walking through the streets of the Capital will not stop the cuts by itself. Indeed many of the key votes will have already taken place. This demo should be taking place now, not in two months time. The trade union movement should now be looking towards widening and deepening the campaign against Cameron and Clegg. This must include coordinated industrial action involving all trade unions. A one-day general strike would be a first step toward further united action. All workers are affected by the cuts so all workers should be involved.

The Labour Party nationally also needs to rethink its position. It is not acceptable for the Labour leadership to be offering no serious alternative. Indeed, Ed Miliband now says that Labour would have carried out major cuts had they won the general election.  They argue that the cuts are just ‘ideological’ yet they seem bound by the same ideology – the ruthless demands of capitalism. What is needed here is a break with such policies and a clear turn towards socialism. If the current leadership cannot do this then we need people who will. So far as the May elections are concerned, Labour should stand on the position that, where they take control of councils, any cuts passed by previous administrations will be reversed. This is how to get the voters out.

The movement of the students has shaken this government. Think how much more shaken they would be should they find themselves up against the might of the whole labour movement. They fear what will happen should the working class start flexing its muscles. It is time that fear was realised.