So now we know who will wield the knife.
After days of political theatre, (or was it pantomime?) the deal has been done and the Liberal Democrats have decided to back David Cameron and the Tories. To the dismay of thousands who voted Lib Dem in order to keep the Tories out, Clegg and his team have already abandoned manifesto pledges and promises on PR in elections, Trident and Immigration in return for seats in the cabinet.
Here in Scotland, the Liberals have facilitated a Tory Government rejected by 85% of the electorate. Installed as Secretary of State for Scotland is a man, Danny Alexander, who just days before appointment was campaigning for that same post to be abolished.
Once the back slapping and photo opportunities have stopped the Con-Dem’s will set about their priority policy – £6 billion of immediate cuts in the public sector.
The coalition of Clegg and Cameron want to portray themselves somehow as the “new politics”, however, their proposals for cuts and sackings are the same old politics that has always been employed against working people throughout the decades – we pay for their mistakes.
Jobs, wages, workers conditions, pensions and public services are now within the sights of a government determined to make sure that it is ordinary people that will pay the price for the bail out of the banking sector.
MSPs in the Scottish Parliament have already been briefed by public sector chiefs warning of cuts in the Scottish budget of around £35 billion over the next decade. The chief economic advisor to the Scottish Government, Dr Andrew Goudie has reported to Holyrood’s finance committee saying;
“I am confident that the scale of contraction that we’re likely to see is going to be substantial.”
He went onto predict at least five consecutive years of extensive cuts.
Across Scotland, tens of thousands of low paid council workers are facing three years of cuts in wages following their employers (CoSLA) pay offer. Communities across the country will lose precious and much needed facilities. The elderly face cuts in their pensions, loss of free travel passes and the possible abolition of free personal care. Vulnerable members of our communities will lose vital services. Plans to scrap prescription charges will be under threat, the limited free school meal programmes in place will be withdrawn along with free eye care and the freeze on council tax levels. Bin collections will be less frequent, swimming pools and libraries will close, jobs will be lost and wages will be cut.
New Labour and the SNP will position themselves in opposition to these cuts and no doubt display breathtaking hypocrisy in the process. Had they managed to hang onto power Labour would also have forced through brutal cuts. During their 13 years in power they presided over the biggest ever growth in inequality, did nothing to reverse draconian anti-trade union laws, deregulated the banking industry and then flung billions of pounds of public money nationalising the debts of the banks whilst privatising the profits.
With one eye on future elections many Labour MPs no doubt judged that it was better to allow the Con-Dem coalition power in the short term in order to allow them to implement the cuts and then face the electoral consequences. Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England predicted the cuts would be so bad, the party implementing them would be, “out of power for a generation.”
The SNP have employed rhetoric of opposition to Westminster cuts but workers and communities who live in council areas controlled by the SNP know that they can be as brutal as any other party when implementing cuts.
As sure as the cuts will come – resistance will follow. Already across the country trade unionists and community groups have been organising in defence of jobs, wages and services. Parents have campaigned against school closures, communities are fighting to defend libraries, youth clubs and sports facilities. In Scotland’s largest city these campaigns have been drawn together under the banner of “Defend Glasgow’s Services.” BA Cabin Crew workers, rail workers, posties, bin men in Edinburgh and workers in Culture and Sport Glasgow have already shown that the resistance to cuts will be fierce.
Clegg and Cameron have formed a coalition determined to force through brutal attacks. Socialists, genuine progressives, trade unionists and communities need to be prepared to form coalitions of defiance.
Solidarity pledges to stand with all of those workers and communities prepared to fight back and defend jobs and services. We will campaign and work with others across the country, fundamentally rejecting the mantra of the main parties that cuts are the only way to deal with the economic situation created by the policies of the madhouse.
In doing so Solidarity will raise our vision of socialism and a real “new politics” that would ensure the redistribution of wealth from bankers, big business and the millionaires to working class people and their families.
A “new politics” that would campaign against social injustice and poverty, for a decent living wage and pensions for all, against hospital closures and local service cuts, for empowered communities and trade union rights, in opposition to racist discrimination and bigotry and all forms of oppression, for our civil liberties, and for public ownership and democratic control of our major industries, land and assets.
The battle for Westminster is over. The fight against the cuts starts now!
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The cuts are the symptom of the underlying disease – capitalism.
Let’s plan to link ‘cuts’, ‘public sector deficit’ and ‘capitalism’ at every turn.
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