For any Labour councillors willing to listen, the Swansea Trades Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) street ballot today (7-2-2015) sent a clear message: The people of Swansea want their representatives to stop voting for Tory cuts and start fighting them.
188 people participated in our
ballot. Not one of them wanted their Labour councillors to make Tory cuts; 100%
of them voted that they want “representatives who will fight the cuts”.
Unfortunately it appears that
they won’t get that from their elected Labour representatives. Just like in the
run-up to last year’s cuts budget, not one Labour councillor has spoken out
against, let alone indicated a willingness to vote against, projected cuts of
£80 million+ over the next 3 years.
The only defence they can offer
for their failure to fight Con-Dem cuts is to claim that it is better that they
make the cuts than somebody else does. People we spoke to today were furious
that all Labour councillors are getting paid to vote for £millions of cuts to
our jobs and services.
We asked people we balloted which
of the proposed cuts that will be considered by Swansea’s Special Cabinet
Meeting next week, most concerned them and invited them to write down a message
to send to Swansea councillors.
There are a whole range of proposals
that are worrying people we spoke to and making them angry, including the
outsourcing and cuts in leisure and social services, threats to close youth
centres and Plantasia, increases in charges for a number of council services
and cuts in funding for supported organisations like West Glamorgan Youth
Theatre.
Time and again though, the issue
that seemed to most anger people is the proposed cuts to education. That’s no
surprise; many had read the report in the local paper predicting that
primary-age pupils could end up being taught in classes of 40 if these cuts to
funding go ahead. In fact a number of heads of primary schools, including the
one my youngest son attends, have predicted to the Council that 15% reduction
in funding being proposed over the next 3 years could lead to classes of 42+
for some primary school pupils.
The people of Swansea have spoken
today and told their councillors that they expect them to vote against Con-Dem
cuts at the Special Budget Meeting on Tuesday and the full council meeting on
February 24. It was summed up in a message one woman wrote to councillors: “No
more cuts! We’ve had too many already!”
That’s what Swansea TUSC
supporters will be demanding when we join the lobby of the Council Special
Cabinet Meeting on Tuesday, from 4pm, Civic Centre.
Ronnie Job
TUSC Prospective Parliamentary
Candidate for Swansea West
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