The confirmation today that 2,000 public sector jobs are to
go at Manchester City Council, as part of a planned budget reduction of £110
million, will come as grim reading for the people of that city.
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }
The confirmation today that 2,000 public sector jobs are to
go at Manchester City Council, as part of a planned budget reduction of £110
million, will come as grim reading for the people of that city.
According to the BBC News report:
“Savings of
£39.5m – or 21% – will be made at adult services where some charges will be
introduced. The council needs to make £109m of savings over the next financial
year, rising to £170m in 2012/13. It said 41% of job losses would be among
managers.Publishing the budget on its website the council revealed
that despite the cuts it will "be increasing our budget for looked after
children by more than £6m, in recognition of the levels of need that exist in
Manchester".Savings in adult services will be made by asking community
groups or partner agencies to take over.All public toilets will close, except those on Mount Street,
and swimming pools at Levenshulme and Miles Platting will shut.Five smaller libraries will close at Clayton, East City in
Openshaw, Rackhouse in Wythenshawe, Barlow Moor in Chorlton and Miles Platting,
while youth centres will be taken over by voluntary groups.Staff at Surestart centres will also lose their posts as the
council transfers early years provision to external partners. General waste collection
will collected fortnightly rather than weekly and streets will no longer be
cleaned overnight. Free parking on Sundays will end and on-street charging will
be extended to 12 hours between from 0700 to 1900.”
Unfortunately the best that the council leader “Sir” Richard
Leese can come up with is:
“Putting this
budget together has involved the most difficult, and in many ways, most
unpalatable process I have been involved in since I was first elected to the
council."I cannot and will not pretend that the financial
position in which we have been placed is anything other than bad news."Manchester is the fourth most deprived local authority
area in the country but is among the top five hardest hit local authorities."But we are doing everything we can to protect and
maintain the services which people need."
No fight here then. The Tory led government is relying on
councils to do the dirty work for them. All complaints about the cuts are being
met from Westminster with “It is down to councils to manage their affairs… cut
backroom staff… reorganise… be more efficient…” and so on. However, rather than
challenge these lies about how the cuts to services can be avoided, councils
are – in effect – going along with
this line by trying to carry out cuts, only “more fairly.” Well, we can see how
these “fair” cuts have worked out. They are just as bad as the “unfair” ones!
No Cuts!
Labour councils should not be acting as sub-agents for
Cameron and Clegg. They should refuse to carry out any cuts and tell the government
that any attempt to force a cuts budget through will be met by resistance from
the people. If these councillors
haven’t got the guts for a fight they should stand down at let other come in as
Labour councillors to do the job they were elected to do – defend the interests
of the working class.
The
cuts in Manchester are being replicated around the country as council after
council finalises their budgets.
Whether councillors chose to fight these cuts or not, the trade union
movement, starting with the public sector unions, must take a lead in
organising a fight back, mobilising both their own members and the wider
communities. The TUC demo will be
important but, to be honest, it should have already taken place. Time is now
critical. What is needed is a clear indication that the campaign will bring all
its forces into play. A 24-hour general strike could send a clear and
unavoidable signal to Westminster that these cuts are going to be resisted all
the way. Such a campaign could
have a major effect. However, in the final analysis, the only real solution to
the madness of capitalism is a political one. We need to arm the movement with a socialist programme
committed to the removal of capitalism, which is the only to end this nightmare
once and for all.
