By James Ellis, Hastings Socialist Party
The
May 2012 local elections saw Labour retaining control of Hastings
council, gaining 5 seats from the Conservatives in the process. The
Liberal democrats lost all of their seats. When viewed in the context
of events nationally, this result is a rejection of the Con-Dems
policies of austerity. It is also plea to the Labour party to defend
the interests of ordinary people and protect them from this
governments savage cutbacks. Council leader Jeremy Birch claimed that
with this result the people of Hastings had “sent a message to
central government that they are not happy with the policies of the
two coalition parties." So then, it is the task of the Labour
party to stand up for the people of Hastings in opposition to these
brutal austerity measures. However, thus far, they have been doing
quite the opposite.
Since
its election in 2010 the Con-Dem government have been adamant that in
order to solve the economic crisis public services must cut at an
alarming rate. The working people of this country are facing attacks
on multiple fronts. Pensions are being slashed, unemployment is
spiralling, the NHS is being sold off, public services are being
gutted, charities are going bust, and young people are being forced
out of education. This list of attacks goes on and on. What this
essentially means is that even though this was a crisis caused by big
business and the banks, it is the working people of this country that
are being made to pay. Hastings has been one of the hardest hit by
the cuts.
Over
the 3 year period from 2011/12 to 2013/14 Hastings Borough Council
will see its government grant slashed in half from £12.7m to £6.6m,
a loss of £70 for every person in the borough. On top of that it is
likely there will be the loss of all the government capital funding
for housing renewal which has been worth £1.5million per year to
Hastings. Jobs have
been lost
in housing, waste, street wardens and regeneration, with more
losses expected to follow. Funding to help homeless people stay in
B&B’s has been cut, and youth services, like Connexions, have
been forced to close. Hastings council, after seeing the East Sussex
county budget for children’s services reduced by £20 million,
decided to make the greatest cuts to open-access early years services
and youth centres. This will see many parents unable to get care for
their children and reduce support for young families. This is only a
selection of the many cuts facing the people of Hastings. What this
essentially means is that Hastings faces a toxic mix of rising
unemployment, reduced prospects for young people, and the removal of
vital support systems. All this is on top of the attacks on benefits
and healthcare! Hastings needs its council to defend it against these
cruel cut-backs.
However,
both nationally and locally, the Labour party has not been standing
up to these cuts. Infact, it has been supporting them and
implementing them. The leadership of the Labour party has declared it
believes these cuts are necessary. It claims it would cut back
slower, but essentially still endorses the idea that the way out of
this crisis is to make working people pay for it. Recent reports show
that these cuts are not working; in fact they are making the
situation worse! Government borrowing is on the increase and the
deficit has risen by 3.4 billion in the past year. So why exactly are
the cuts necessary when all we have achieved is a reduction of the
quality of life for the majority of working people and an increased
level of national debt?
The
government is pursuing these cuts because of its links with the
finance sector; it can see no way to achieve profits in the British
economy other than backing those who demand low taxes for big
business and the rich, and significant cuts in public spending in
order to improve the prospects of their colossal financial
investments.
It
is true that while there are those in Labour that fully support the
idea of the cuts, there are also those who do not like them but think
there is no other option. Labour councils claim they have no choice
but to pass on these governments cuts. However, a look back at recent
history shows that there is indeed another option.
In
1984 the Liverpool city council was being led by members of the
Militant (an organisation that worked within Labour, and has since
left to form the Socialist Party), and all 47 Labour members in the
council agreed to follow Militants lead and oppose Thatcher’s
planned cuts to the Liverpool budget. The
government's policies meant that in order to balance the books a
local authority would either have to increase the rates, sometimes
massively, to compensate for Tory cuts,
or savagely cut back on jobs and services. Liverpool council refused
to implement these cuts, and instead demanded extra funding for the
creation of houses and jobs. As well as actively defying Thatcher by
not making cuts, the Labour council, led by the policies of Militant,
also arranged a demonstration on budget day in March 1984, when a
one-day strike took place supported by 30,000 local authority
workers. 50,000 marched through the city in support of the council's
proposed deficit budget. In the end Thatcher gave up and Militant
achieved a victory that secured extra funding which enabled the
council to carry out its electoral programme. This included the
building of 5,000 houses, opening six new sports centres, creating
2,000 jobs and refusing to carry out £10 million-worth of cuts.
This
stand was unfortunately not repeated across the country, and the then
leadership of the Labour party concentrated on attacking those like
the Liverpool councillors who stood up to Thatcher, eventually
helping to get them removed from office.
Hastings
Labour council needs to follow the lead of the 47 Labour councillors
from Liverpool. Their example shows that every council does have a
choice when it comes to the cuts. The Labour council has not been
forced to implement the cuts, it
has chosen to. The
choice is clear. Either attack the working people of Hastings while
apologising and declaring not to have any other option, or take a
stand and defend the interest of the people that this council claims
to represent. Hastings council should refuse to make any further
cuts, and demand that the government gives them increased funding to
embark on a programme of house building and job creation that is so
desperately needed in Hastings. Standing alone the council would be
unable to do this, but if they organised the working people of
Hastings and created a mass campaign to back them up, involving
demonstrations and strikes, then they could win. If this strategy was
taken up by multiple councils across the UK then the cuts could be
stopped. There is huge anger locally about the cuts, and Labour
should channel this anger into action against these savage austerity
measures.
Some Labour councillors have already taken an admirable
stand and voted against the cuts in their council. Two councillors
from Southampton, Don Thomas and Keith Morrell, refused to follow the
party line claiming “we didn't become Labour councillors to make
cuts and we won't”. Other Labour councillors have resigned over the
cuts, such as Lynn Jeffries from York who attacked the party for not
listening to local residents and deciding to make cuts to care
services before any consultation had taken place. However, these
councillors are in the minority within Labour, and most councillors
are not willing to follow their lead.
Whilst
it is clear what all Labour councils should be doing, are they likely
to do so? The answer, unfortunately, is no. The leadership of the
Labour party has come out time and time again in favour of cuts and
has consistently refused to back strike action to defend workers
rights. Whilst there are still those within the party who are
committed to fighting for the working class, they unfortunately do
not and cannot take over the leadership of the party due to an
undemocratic internal life and a lack of numbers to push for such a
change. It is an often said these days that there is little
difference between the main three parties, and this is clearly the
case. All the parties would rather see the working class pay for the
economic crisis, than lay the blame where it belongs, at the door
of big
business, the banks, in short: capitalism. For
this reason, there needs to be a new mass party of the working class
who would be willing to stand up for workers rights and fight the
cuts, and also have a clear programme of how to get out of this
economic crisis.
There is the beginning of such a party in the Trade
Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). While still a small coalition,
it has the backing of several unions including the RMT and PCS, and
is the only political party who oppose all cuts. There are many
alternatives to the cuts that are being ignored. For a start simply
taxing the super-rich at a higher rate would bring in a lot of
revenue. Closing the tax loop holes and stopping tax evasion by big
businesses and the rich could bring in up to £120 billion a year,
which alone is nearly the entire deficit! It is estimated there is
about £700 billion in wealth in the accounts of large private
businesses and the banks that they are refusing to invest in the
economy as there is nowhere profitable for them to do so. These
businesses should be forced to invest this money into the economy and
if they refuse their wealth should be nationalised. What is more
important, the profit of the 1% or the living standards of the 99%?
We need a party who is willing to make these arguments and stand up
for the hard working people of this country. If Labour councils are
willing to oppose cuts and defend ordinary people, then they should
have the full backing of unions, activists, and the working people in
their district. However it is not enough to sit around and wait for
the Labour party to take action. If Hastings Labour council are not
willing to oppose cuts then the working people of Hastings need to
organise, protest, and build a political alternative to Labour who
will be willing to make a stand against this cruel coalition. TUSC
can be that alternative.
It
is clear that such an alternative is needed, and establishing one
will be a significant step forward for the working class. It is the
opinion of the Socialist Party that while a new workers party would
be a big step forward – allowing debates to take place nationally
on how to oppose austerity and how to build working class
organisation – it is the capitalist system itself which needs
replacing with a socialist society. The wealth and potential of
society could be run democratically in the interest of the majority,
not a tiny minority whose only criteria of success is their own
profits. In our opinion, a new workers party would need to have
socialist policies aimed at the establishment of a socialist society.
