Council cuts result

Published 13 Jul 2010 09:30

Thanks to everyone who supported the Joint Trades Unions' call to lobby the council meeting on Wednesday June 30 against cuts in jobs and services.

We got a result in as much that any decision on compulsory redundancies will be made by elected members and taken out of the hands of officers.

It is up to us to apply the necessary pressure on elected members to make them see that such attacks on their workforce and community would be political suicide.

We have been saying all along that we are not alone, that we are part of a movement of resistance.

For example, Bob Crow of the transport union RMT has said that this right-wing Tory Government propped up by Lib Dems has binned every commitment it gave to voters in order to grab a slice of power.

He went on to say that this Government has now thrown down the biggest challenge to the trade union movement since Margaret Thatcher took on the National Union of Mineworkers and he had no hesitation in saying that it will take general and co-ordinated strike action to stop its savage assault on jobs, living standards and public services.

The leader of the civil service union PCS, Mark Serwotka, has called for united action to resist the Tory-led attack and has urged unions to form alliances with community groups and campaigns to mount "the biggest show of united resistance since the success of the anti-Poll Tax movement".

Building this alliance is key.

Apart from facing cuts in their public services at a time demand for these very services are rising, many in the community face attacks on their benefits.

The long term sick on Incapacity Benefit and the new Employment Support Allowance are facing more stringent tests with the intention of getting them off benefit and forcing them to look for non-existent jobs.

Not content with that, the emergency Tory/Liberal Budget saw forthcoming attacks on the severely disabled who claim Disability Living Allowance.

This Government made up of multi-millionaire ex-public schoolboys seek nothing less than the destruction of our Welfare State which was constructed after the war when this country was bankrupt.

We are the fifth richest nation in the world so do not swallow their guff about the need to bring down our national debt being the priority.

They want to privatise our services to enable their super rich friends in big business to gain ever more profit.

We should be under no illusion that this lot are after our jobs, our wages, our pensions and our services.

We need to create the maximum unity across Britain, building a mass movement that will ensure this Government of the ruling class are out of office long before their five-year term.

Whether we work in the private or public sector, whether we are front line or backroom workers, whether we are unemployed, sick or retired, do not let them divide us.

Play your part in building the resistance in West Dunbartonshire as part of a national, indeed international movement, of working class revolt.

Remember, we are many - they are few.

Tom Morrison, co-ordinator of West Dunbartonshire Trade Union Against the Cuts

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This letter appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 13 Jul 10

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