http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-18125-f0.cfm?regional=3#public
The Alliance will seek to:
- build community alliances at local level, bringing together Trade Unions, community, voluntary and faith organisations
- research and analyse policy proposals for the public sector
- respond to attacks on public services and jobs and support union and community campaigns and co-ordinate action wherever possible
- promote an agenda which recognises the valuable role of public services in the local and regional economy
- engage workers, service users and communities in determining the future delivery of public services.
“We called this meeting about 6 weeks ago, knowing we faced a real battle whoever won the general election. However I don’t think any of us thought we would be responding to a declaration of war.
The coalition government has made a declaration of war on public services, public sector workers their families and a declaration of war on the unemployed, elderly and vulnerable.
WHERE CUTS MADE
Welfare benefits, VAT, public services, public sector wages and pensions are where the savings are to be made to address the public deficit.
The stark contrast with the proposed 1% year on year reduction in corporation tax says everything about who will suffer.
Fairness Osborne trumpets is skin deep.
No wonder the Tories were cheering – but the Lib Dem’s should be trembling.
Budget’s key objective – slashing the deficit is premised not on economic logic but ideological dogma.
As the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman and others have argued there is no rationale for cutting deficits so fast and so deep when the global economy is still barely out of the hole into which is plunged thanks to the banking crisis.
It's economics for dummies to suggest that cutting spending and raising taxes reduces demand – someone who just been laid off can’t buy much – and could choke off recovery before it has begun.
UNITED STATES
Always the land of free market turbo-capitalism is warning restraint on savage cuts. Obama last week wrote to G20 leaders.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has revised its growth forecast for the next year by £5bn as a direct result of the budget. Osborne’s own experts believe the budget will have negative immediate effect on growth.
VAT regressive – costing poorest twice as much proportionally as the most well off.
What not in budget – 75% of deficit will be paid off by spending cuts – and the detail on those wont come until October.
Freeze on council tax – sounds appealing until you realise that it will force councils to cut services – from libraries to social care – to meals on wheels – on which the neediest rely.
Raising of tax threshold sounds good till you see that estimated 3million households at the very bottom of the income scale will not benefit at all from it.
Single parents will be expected to look for work as soon as youngest child goes to school.
• 15,000 lone parents could get jobs say the Government – which will help reduce child poverty.
• It does not say where these jobs might come from, or how anyone can afford childcare so that a mother is freed to work.
• The implication is clear a child is the responsibility of the family, not the state.
Soft touch approach to the City. Levy on banks little more than rounding error. Bankers can pay out of their petty cash – on Capital Gains listened to Mail, Telegraph and Tory right
Few nods towards fairness – nods all they are. Under rhetorical veneer of progress this was a budget rooted in evidence free, deficit slashing that will hit poorest hardest.
Universities, social services and police in firing line.
Health – Andrew Lansley indicated new austerity for NHS. Slash management costs by nearly half, cut health quangos, admin – third, increased savings.
McKinsey report – include radical proposals decommissioning some services, relaxing staff patient ratios, and cutting up to 110,000 jobs – 10% of entire workforce.
It is not just about cuts - the proposals for Swedish style free schools and a massive expansion of the academies programme will radically change education, introducing the ,market and an increased role for the private sector in running schools and providing services to schools.
COUNCILS HEALTH COLLEGES ALREADY;
Already in this region before the budget hospital trusts were facing cuts of 20% over the next 3 to 5 years
every council was dealing with cuts,
all further education colleges are making redundancies.
In the police we have witnessed the first privatisation in the country of the control room and other services at Cleveland.
We were dealing with increased commissioning and procurement in health and local govt as the introduction of the market – opening up services to competition is used to drive down costs. And these trends are likely to accelerate at an alarming rate
The North east will be particularly devastated.
As the additional cuts announced will have a devastating impact on services, families and our communities and the regional economy.
They will fall disproportionately on poor families that rely most on public services and that means they will fall disproportionately on those areas with the highest levels of unemployment and poverty – of which the north east is one
The impact on the North east will be even because we have the highest proportion of jobs in the public sector.
• There is almost unanimous response that the north east has little to cheer and that we face the very real prospect of a double dip recession whatever happens in the rest of the UK.
• 1 in 3 jobs in our region are in the public sector.
• 75% 0f new jobs in the last 10 years in the region have been in the public sector.
• 35,000 jobs in the private sector are directly dependant on public sector spending.
• Osborne said he would not cut capital spending any further, But the schemes he has put on hold already total £300 million and would have produced something like 3000 construction jobs.
It is a nonsense for Cameron to say the north east economy is too dependant on the public sector. Without the public sector there would be no north east economy.
The aim should be to grow the private sector to create growth and reduce the so called dependence on the public sector. But as we know it was the Tories under Margaret Thatcher who devastated our manufacturing base.
Steel, coal, ship building destroyed by a Tory Govt committed to the free market and neo liberal policies.
This new Tory Govt wants to finish the job and lets be clear this is a vicious Tory Govt - there are no liberals in the Cabinet – they want to finish the job destroy our public services and the north east economy.
We already have the highest level of child poverty in the UK, the attacks on public services, public sector pay, pensions, jobs, welfare benefits will drive more people and more families into poverty.
Let’s destroy the myths.
More than 54% of workers Unison represents in Newcastle Council earn £18000 or less a year. 1500 workers are on less than £7 an hour
The average pension for a council worker is £4000. FOR WOMEN IT IS £2600
hardly gold plated.
Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem cut with care
When announcing last weeks £6 billion immediate cuts Alexander said the Lib Dem’s role was to CUT WITH CARE and went on to cut free swimming for the over 60s, library refurbishments, the hew North tees hospital and landed councils with having to make immediate in year savings – Northumberland County Council have said they will have to get rid of 100 jobs immediately. £35 million to be cut from frontline Council services in the region this year – funding for pupil support in schools in the most deprived areas. advice and support to help young people into work – cut.
Clegg, Cable, Alexander should be ashamed. They were elected on a commitment to oppose immediate cuts
To maintain public spending to secure the recovery.
And we will hold them to account
We face the fight of our lives.
This is not just a fight against cuts it is a fight against a planned and sustained ideological attack by neo liberals.
We have seen them succeed in Chile Colombia, Russia, Argentina and many more creating and exploiting economic and political crisis to drive through extreme right wing policies attacking the public sector, rolling back the state, supporting the free market.
And we are now seeing the same shock awe approach across Western Europe/ Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Romania, and now the UK.
There is a common agenda
- Cut spending,
- attack public sector pay and pensions,
- attack welfare payments,
- privatise and open up services to the private sector
- And attack the trade unions.
The CBI proposals to further limit our ability to take strike action requiring 40% of those eligible to vote to vote for action.
There are likely to be attacks on check off and we all know about the tax payer’s alliance attack on facility time.
PLANNED AND ORGANISED
We need to be just as planned and organised, there is widespread opposition to these policies, - a poll has shown more people would support income tax increases to save public services.
In workplaces and communities union activists talk of growing anger.
We need to mobilise, organise and build the resistance.
We need a 4 prong strategy;
1) an alternative economics agenda which challenges the radical neo liberal policies we are now experiencing. And we have one we hope can be adopted tonight
2) A political agenda – exposing that there is no mandate for these policies and for the Lib Dem’s to with draw from the coalition and for a general election. We should seek discussions with Lib Dem councillors about the impact of the cuts.
We will seek labour party support for our campaign and for Labour Groups and labour councillors to support our campaign
3) We need a workplace strategy which takes our message into the workplace and will encourage workers to take action against privatisation, attacks on pay and compulsory redundancies if employers refuse to support these demands. Many councils and health trusts actually do support our strategy and we will work with these but where they don’t we will take them on.…..
4) We need a broader campaigning strategy and we need action
• We need to build campaigns in towns and cities, regionally and nationally.
• The Public Services Alliance we launch tonight will build and coordinate the campaign,
• building community coalitions,
• working with community groups, voluntary organisations, faith groups, engaging and involving students and young people;
• to defend public services and campaign for an alternative economic agenda.
We should organise meetings in towns and cities to set up campaign groups, community coalitions.
• We will work with service users and community groups to produce proposals for the future of services which meet peoples needs. Worker and user plans to ensure the future of our services
Cameron launches a consultation exercise with public services workers able to tell him where cuts can be made – we will respond arming our members with the information – tax the rich, invest in public services to secure the recovery, protect the needy and vulnerable.
Unions are uniting regionally and nationally to mobilise and take action in workplaces, and on the streets.
The comprehensive spending review announcements on October 20th when we will be told the full extent of the cuts should witness the biggest mobilisation ever as workers and our communities take to the streets.
The Durham Miners gala on 10 July should be a focus for our regional campaign we will show workers, TU’s and communities united and up for the fight.
The attacks are taking place across Europe and we need a Europe wide response we are planning for European wide day of action on 29 September. We will be organising demonstrations regionally, nationally and in Brussels along with TU’s throughout Europe.
Before the election Clegg warned of a Greece style response to slash and burn policies he was right the fight is on and we are ready. TU’s were formed in such times to defend our members and communities and we will not let you down!! Yes it will be fight of our life but this is our time, the reason unions were formed.
We will resist we will fight we will strike!!”
