Fighting the cuts - no more talking, time for action‏

The movement has been caught short. The turmoil of defeat and confusion over the shape of the Government left a vacuum in the left response to the ConDem Government. The Labour Party is tied into an internal leadership election and responses to Cameron have so far been weak and fragmented. So too the collective union responses. We don’t have the luxury of awaiting a post conference season to develop a more effective response against cuts that are taking shape now on a collective basis.

What can we do now?

Immediate battle team to take on the media – rapid responses needed to coordinate messages between unions. This can’t be a centralised issue every region needs to up its game.
Mass programme for communication with MPs - localise the impact of cuts and publish their responses – let’s get personal on the Tories and Lib Dems who are proponents of cuts and shame Labour MP's who do not defend our members.

Stop sitting on the fence on the Labour leadership election – we want a Labour leader that represents the interest of our members. – Let's poll them and publish their responses- if they get off their knees long enough they might even become an effective opposition.

BSF - a strategy to attack the cuts programme using local councillors, MPs, Parents and Parent Governors – for church schools lobby foundation governors and diocesan directors of education. Construction jobs are down the pan in the poorest areas if this is slashed.

Pay for advertisements in the national press - to warn parents of the dangers of Academies, why they should demand a vote on this issue and vote no. Gove is an incompetent twit we should go for his scalp.
It’s the Jobs stupid! - Stop letting the Tories get away with job losses as if they are useful collateral damage. The loss of jobs will hit families, poorest first and jeopardise the recovery with loss of tax yields to the Treasury. There are enough economists who disagree with the Government who are being drowned out – we need to put them into the spotlight. Members are losing jobs across all our sectors. If we do nothing else this is the crucial battle we have to win.

Lest we get dragged into a conference panacea of marching for jobs, marching against cuts, marching for more yogurt knitting circles - let's get real – a 15 second slot on BBC news covering some tired looking ultra left placard wavers will not do the work that we need to do. In itself such action is insufficient and is a cop out response unless part of an intense local, regional and national campaign

It’s back to good old fashioned campaigning basics. We been here before and we can and must get our act together and now.