Socialist Party comment on Council's potential budget cuts

We weren’t invited to the meeting at Fwrnes last week and scandalously neither were the local government Unison who Socialist Party members joined in protesting outside.

A great picture of that lobby was included in the BBC’s coverage of the meeting (photo left).

Misery for town centres and the disabled will certainly follow if this budget is implemented as well as misery for council workers, council users and the whole wider economy. We have consistently warned that the cuts made by the Con-Dems and implemented by Labour led Carmarthenshire County Council were the thin end of the wedge.

We always oppose all cuts firstly because there is no need for cuts in the first place as there is plenty of wealth out there-look no further than the rich and big business. The rich have got richer and big business has around £800 billion lying idle in its coffers as they can’t see a profitable place to invest.

Meanwhile food banks, cash your pay checks, pawn and charity shops inhabit our high streets. Through cuts to their terms and conditions to council workers, they and their families are suffering hardship and poverty in growing numbers. All this and for a financial crisis we did not cause.

Why should workers and the people of Carmarthenshire suffer for the crisis of the banks and Capitalism?

It is calculated that even with the most optimistic economic forecasts we will be suffering cuts even in the mid 2020s but the reality is well before this time if cuts are allowed to continue at their present rate there will be very little left of non-statutory services left to cut by then.

We call on this Labour led council to refuse to implement cuts and set a needs budget like Liverpool city council successfully did in the 1980s. But as well as this unions, especially Unison whose Carmarthenshire local government branch have pledged to fight cuts, must spearhead a mass campaign.

This is a fight we can win. We may not be able to rely on Labour or Plaid Cymru councillors but we have a reservoir of support to tap, in service users in the communities we serve, who value the services provided. Militant action linking with service users and with other trade unionists taking action can win and like the late Terry Fields MP stated in his maiden speech in parliament, “A militant is only a moderate who has got up off his knees”.

Scott Jones

Llanelli & West Wales Socialist Party