Send a message to Swansea Council - vote for the no-cuts, socialist candidate in the Uplands by-election!

I'm Ronnie Job, intending to stand for the Trades Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the council by-election in Uplands Ward.

Who I am:

• Education worker.
• UNISON steward.
• Secretary of Swansea Trades Council.
• Member of the Socialist Party (and before that, Militant) for over 25 years.

Standing because I’m a trade unionist:

I’m standing because I’m a trade unionist and I’m fed up of a Labour council attacking its own workforce because councillors prefer to make Con-Dem cuts rather than fighting them:

The Labour Group has been in power in Swansea Council for 2 years but it:

• Employs hundreds of workers on zero-hours contracts
• Has still not implemented the Living Wage
• Is cutting and outsourcing jobs
• Has told members of my own union branch and other council workers, facing a loss of income, to accept new contracts and “sign or be sacked”.

Standing up for council jobs and services:

I’m standing because I value council services. I sat in the public gallery earlier this year as the Council passed a budget for £26 million of cuts to services this year. Not one Labour councillor voted against these cuts or the proposal to make £45 million cuts over 3 years. That figure has now risen to £70 million as the Labour Welsh Government has passed on even more Con-Dem cuts and still not one Labour councillor has had the courage to speak out or vote to protect their constituents’ jobs and services.

Labour councillors often make statements like “it’s better we make cuts than somebody else does”, as a justification for voting Tory cuts.

“Better for whom?” is what I want to know.

• Is it better for the worker in social care on a zero hours contract and not getting paid for their travelling time, if it’s a Labour council imposes those conditions?
• Is it better for users of adult day care services that it is Labour councillors who are threatening to sell off or axe them?

If a Labour council passes on Tory cuts then the only people I think it’s better for is Labour councillors. Do they really mean, “it’s better we GET PAID TO make cuts than somebody else does”?

The central commitment that every TUSC candidate makes is to vote against all cuts.

Who the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition are:

The Trades Unionists and Socialist Coalition is exactly what it says on our banner. We are ordinary people - trades unionists, workers, users of council services who don’t believe we, our families and our communities should be made to pay for a crisis that was not of our making.

Socialism the alternative:

We’re socialists because if capitalism, this system of crisis based on profit, can’t afford decent council services provided by workers paid enough to be able to provide for their families in turn, then we can’t afford capitalism. Our vision of socialism is where the wealth and resources or our society are used for the needs of our community not the profits of a rich few.

Don’t waste an opportunity to send a message to Welsh Labour:

There are no planned council elections in Wales until at least 2017. This may well be the last chance before then that voters in Uplands have to vote for an alternative to the cuts-consensus of all established parties.

Don’t waste the opportunity to send a clear ‘no more cuts’ message by voting for the only no-cuts, socialist candidate in this by-election.