The Tories and their Lib Dem poodles plan to take us back to the eighties with their wreckless cuts

Many in the public sector were shocked when Osborne announced in the budget that he wanted 25% cuts across all departments except Health and International Development.  We all knew cuts were coming but this felt far too deep and would result in many job losses and poorer public services.

To then hear yesterday that Danny Alexander wanted departments to plan for 40% cuts was a real punch in the guts to public sector workers.  Many will now be seriously worrying about their jobs, as such drastic cuts could result in hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost from the public sector.

The only two departments which will not be hit quite so hard are Education and Defence.  Yet Defence is the one department where the most obvious cuts lie, in Trident and Afghanistan.  These cuts could be made with little effect being felt by the British public.  The chances are that in Education it will be seen more politically acceptable to make higher education face the largest share of the cuts, which would be an attack on a sector which is already in great financial difficulty.

The big question is what the government thinks is going to happen to all those public sector workers they make redundant.  There is no abundance of job vacancies in the private sector to absorb such job losses.  Without a doubt these actions will lead to the highest levels of unemployment and poorest levels of public services in decades.  It will take us back to the dark days of the eighties.

Despite the rhetoric these cuts are not unavoidable.  There are numerous commentators offering examples of less harmful measures to deal with the deficit such as:

• Scrapping Trident and leaving Afghanistan
• Raising capital gains tax to 40%, as this would not affect the poorest in society
• Leaving the NI rise for employers in place
• Scrapping the married couples tax allowance
• Hitting the banks harder, who after all are primarily responsible for the mess we are in
• Bring in a higher tax level for those earning over £100k

These drastic cuts have to be fought.  I am not a person who calls strike at the drop of a hat and was not prepared to vote in favour of industrial action over pay this year, but there comes a point when we have to make a stand.

The only answer to these drastic actions is for all public sector unions to join together and work on co-ordinated industrial action, before it is too late and we end up with millions on the dole and third-rate public sector.

At the end of the day there are alternatives and these cuts have more to do with Tory ideology than being faced with no other option.

Greens support RMT

I was glad to see the following blog post from Derek Wall on the Socialist Unity site:

‘full support’ for RMT strike action in Tubelines: Green Party Trade Union Group
Green solidarity with public transport workers
Greens question Tory transport policy for London

The Green Party Trade Union Group fully supports the 1,000 Tubelines’ workers who intend to start the first of two 72-hour strikes, after the company tabled a poor offer on pay and conditions.

In line with trade union legislation, the RMT gave notice of their industrial action last Wednesday but have neither heard from Tubelines’ management, not Chief Executive Terry Morgan.

RMT members voted by a margin of three to one to take strike action over pay, pensions and travel facilities. The RMT’s general secretary. Bob Crow, has made the comparison with Metronet where workers doing exactly the same job as those who maintain track and trains for Tubelines on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, have been offered higher pay rates, a superior pension and better travel facilities.

“While the management of Tubelines has put much effort into scapegoating the RMT in this dispute by calling their action ‘political’, they haven’t bothered to sit down and negotiate a settlement. The only guarantee of a quick resolution to this crisis is for Morgan and co to sit down with the RMT and listen to the grave concerns the RMT have about the pay settlement for their members in Tubelines.” Stated Pete Murray.

Meanwhile, the break-down in communication between the management and unions has taken another turn for the worse with the resignation of Tim Parker, Chair of Transport for London. Parker’s resignation is the third resignation, as Darren Johnson, Green GLA member stated “Tim Parker is the third key figure to resign in less than four months, reflecting the rushed nature of appointments and giving an appearance of chaos in the new administration. Londoners deserve a
better deal from the man they have entrusted to run their city.”

Principal Speaker Dr Derek Wall said of RMT’s Bob Crow ‘Buy the man a drink’.

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2739

After New Labour's betrayal of trade unions it is time trade unionists started looking elsewhere for a party which will support their claims for decent pay offers and working conditions. Grass root trade unionists in the unions such as Unite and Unison also need to start questioning why they are bank rolling a Labour party which treats them with contempt.

The Green Party offers an alternative to New Labour. Visit the Green Party Trade Union group at http://gptu.net/pssess4X/3c/hpage.shtml


Weather: Friday - Tuesday rain, rain and more bloody rain. Cannot wait for my escape to France, the weather looks a lot nicer in Morzine

Listening to: Metallica