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From The Socialist newspaper, 23 February 2022
Brighton Green and Labour cuts - workers and communities fight back
Brighton bin strike. Photo: Brighton SP (Click to enlarge)
Brighton Socialist Party
Austerity has left Brighton without vital services, a housing crisis and rising poverty as wages are cut, with bills, council tax and charges on the rise. Over £170 million a year has been cut from the annual council budget by Tory central government since 2010.
Failing to resist Tory cuts, Brighton Green and Labour councils have carried out massive cuts to jobs and services. The Green council is now preparing to cut a further £18 million.
But council workers and communities have fought back. Moulsecombe Primary School fought academisation, and the GMB union won £4 million in wage increases for the lowest-paid council workers in Brighton.
Despite inflation being over 7%, the council is only setting aside 2% for the council workers' pay award. The council is sitting on £39 million in reserves, and this doesn't include assets they own or could borrow against to protect and improve services.
These resources could be used to set a legal, balanced, no-cuts budget and launch a mass campaign to restore government funding. There must be an end to cuts, closures, increased taxes, rents, parking charges and asset stripping.
We need a council budget to meet the needs of the city, and councillors who are prepared to fight. And we want to build a mass campaign uniting council workers, their trade unions and our local communities to fight for the £170 million stolen from Brighton by the Tory government, so we can reverse the cuts and build a socialist recovery for all.
The Socialist Party is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), with transport union RMT and others, to provide an electoral alternative to the pro-cuts political establishment.
Brighton TUSC meeting
- What do you want from Brighton council?
- Tuesday 22 February, 7pm, Phoenix Community Centre, 2 Phoenix Place BN2 9ND
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
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In The Socialist 23 February 2022:
News
Unite and fight for a decent pay rise
Johnson scraps Covid safety measures
Tories instruct teachers to wipe Britain's real history
International news
Ukraine: Workers' unity against capitalist warmongers and imperialist meddlers
Canada: Prime Minister Trudeau invokes Emergencies Act to end 'Freedom Convoy'
One year after the military coup in Myanmar
NHS
Privatisation and crisis in the NHS
Erdington by-election
The Erdington byelection and the fight for a new mass workers' party
Vote Nellist for a workers' MP in Birmingham Erdington
Workplace news
Tube workers strike in defence of pay, pensions and conditions
University workers continue strike against bosses' attacks
Coventry bin strikers lobby strike-breaking Labour council
Scunny scaffs action forces bosses to the table
Usdaw: 'Reinstate Max' week of action
Trade union support for standing anti-cuts election candidates
Barts NHS workers to walk out again on 28 February
Just Eat couriers continue action to fight pay cut
Rail workers strike in Sheffield
Students
Workers and students unite and fight
Fighting fees and marketisation after 2 March student walkout
Campaigns news
Restore Cardiff's slashed services
Brighton Green and Labour cuts - workers and communities fight back
Surrey: Unions and campaigns say stand as an anti-cuts candidate
Newham City Farm - closed with no consultation
London Socialist Party women's meeting
1 March: Socialist Party new website launch
Review
TV review: This is Going to Hurt
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2021