North Ayrshire Council Election
The Outcome
By Campbell Martin
The Scottish Socialist Party continues to emerge from the darkness caused by the catastrophic media circus that followed the now infamous ‘Sheridan trials’, and last Thursday’s Council Election put the party firmly back into North Ayrshire politics.
It is significant the party’s problems stemmed from an entirely non-political issue and that the climb back to credibility is being built on the core principle that sets apart the SSP from other parties – a radical alternative to social and political order.
Even through the darkest period in the party’s history, the SSP maintained its belief in fighting for a fairer, more just and better Scotland. Redistributing wealth, tackling poverty, creating hope and opportunity, fighting fuel poverty in a land of plenty, opposing imperialist wars and axing the unfair Council Tax are just a few of the policies developed and articulated by the Scottish Socialist Party, while the so-called mainstream political parties all support cuts to jobs and services, and tell us there is no alternative for ordinary men, women and children but to continue enduring intolerable hardship.
Last week the SSP proved more and more people in North Ayrshire want a different society, and are prepared to vote for it. Against a background where only the ‘big parties’ received media coverage, and where virtually every news bulletin fed into the self-fulfilling prophesy that the Council Election would see a low turnout, the SSP got its message across by taking to local streets and speaking to real people.
Clearly, we would have preferred that more of the electorate backed social change, but even gradual progress is to be welcomed on the road to building a better country. Every SSP member in North Ayrshire is genuinely grateful for the support the party received at the ballot box.
For me, the most disturbing aspect of the Council Election was the number of people who stayed at home on polling day. North Ayrshire Council has a budget running into hundreds-of-millions of pounds: the local authority delivers services on which we all rely, yet so many decided not to bother electing representatives to oversee the work of the Council. It’s a complete cop out to claim all politicians are the same: they’re not!
Yes, it may be almost impossible to slip a fag paper between the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems. Yes, the SNP is fast transforming into just another establishment party, albeit one based in Scotland, but the Scottish Socialist Party is very different. SSP policies put the interests of people before those of capitalist, multi-national corporations, but major media-owners (more capitalists) won’t report the facts. The public are left in the dark through a strategy of censorship by omission: only pro-capitalist political parties are allowed coverage, which leads to the erroneous impression that all politicians are the same.
What kind of democracy is it that allows a situation where some political parties are actively promoted through wall-to-wall media coverage, while others don’t even rate a mention? For weeks ahead of the poll, national newspapers and television reports told us the local government elections were going to be a straight fight between the SNP and Labour, and that it was going to be a low turnout. The public duly took their lead, staying away in droves, while those who did make it to a polling station provided the polarised result demanded by the media barons.
This reality was borne-out in North Ayrshire, where we now have 12 SNP councillors and 11 from Labour (with six Independents and one Tory making up the rest): we also saw turnouts drop to around 30-40 per cent.
So many people have been indoctrinated into believing politicians and political parties are all the same, more think there is nothing they can do to change their lot: which is why they acquiesce, toe the line and elect parties favoured by the capitalists who control the media. The Tories and Lib Dems in London, the SNP in Edinburgh, and Councils across Scotland, now run by the SNP and Labour, will all deliver the social, commercial and economic structures demanded by the capitalist spivs and speculators of ‘the markets’. They got the political make-up they wanted.
The SNP may well replace Labour as the administration of North Ayrshire Council, but don’t expect to see major changes: the cuts to jobs and services will continue. There should, though, be a reprieve for offices of the Citizens Advice Bureau that are under threat of closure: SNP candidates gave hustings commitments to save the local service, but this must not be at the expense of the Council-run Money Matters team.
It will also be interesting to see if SNP councillors will take the opportunity to reverse Labour’s withdrawal of Wardens from Sheltered Housing units. Perhaps councillors could also look at introducing a Public Petitions Committee to give local people direct access and the opportunity to raise issues of concern.
Rightly, the SNP will celebrate their relative success in North Ayrshire; but in reality, very little actually changed at last Thursday’s (May 3rd) election.
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Coalition in crisis: kick them out!
By Richie Venton, SSP National Workplace Organiser
As the council election caravan moves on, working class people continue to face appalling cuts to their living standards; they are left with no option but to 'struggle or starve'.
The chief architects of the cuts to pensions, wages, benefits and community facilities were hammered in the council elections. The Tories lost over 400 councillors, in a tidal wave of revulsion at their cuts and their sleaze.
Their junior partners in crime fared even worse at the hands of a furious population, many of whom feel cheated and betrayed by the LibDems. The carnage included the loss of 80 out of 151 LibDem councillors in Scotland.
Despite the SSP vote suffering from the crushing squeeze between the two tribes of Labour and SNP going to war, enhanced by the brutal, self-fulfilling media lie that this was a two-horse race, we beat the LibDem party of government in many of the seats we contested! Mind you, so did an Edinburgh 'penguin'!
No mandate to rule and ruin
The millionaires' Coalition has even less of a mandate for their eye-watering butchery to jobs, services and incomes than they had before May 3rd. That applies with special force in Scotland, where they have plummeted to the status of fringe parties, mostly isolated to a few rural pockets in the Borders and South Ayrshire in the case of the Tories.
The Westminster butchers are in deep disarray, drowning in a sea of sleaze around the Murdoch scandal and the descent of the economy into a 'double-dip' recession for the first time since 1975 - and the longest economic depression in decades.
With that background, Cameron, Clegg & Co are all the more ruthless in their desire to make working class people pay for the crisis, whilst those who perpetrated some of the worst cuts are wallowing in wealth.
But they are weak, vulnerable and divided, with right-wing Tories decrying the presence of the LibDems, and even a Tory MP publicly sneering at Cameron and Clegg as "two posh boys who don't know the price of milk" - an assessment that finds massive resonance amongst those at the receiving end of their upper-class callousness.
Slasher Hutton on £100,000 a day!
Millions of public sector workers have had their first taste of increased chunks of their wages being deducted as pension contributions last month - with a lot worse to come next year and the year after unless the government is defeated by united action.
Meantime, Labour Lord John Hutton - 'Slasher' Hutton to those suffering the assault on six million public sector workers' pensions that he was chief author of under the previous Labour government - has landed a £100,000 a day job as chair of the part-privatised civil service outfit, MyCSP.
68 is too late!
Opinion polls confirm massive opposition to the later retirement age being pushed through, which means every female worker under 36 faces an extra 8 years in work before she can get a state pension, and every male worker in that age-group an extra 3 years.
Whilst over one third (36 per cent) of families currently rely on grandparents for child-minding, and councils jack up the cost of council nursery places as part of the cuts agenda, the government wants to force millions to work longer, denying them a healthy retirement and robbing them of time with their grandchildren.
A child born today will have to work well into their late 70s if Coalition plans are not derailed by strikes, protests and civil disobedience.
Even Tory voters are rebelling against this abomination of a plan! A recent YouGov poll found 53 per cent of Tory voters against raising the retirement age, with 35 per cent of them criticising the fact it will lead to even fewer job opportunities for young people.
Across the board, 62 per cent of people oppose making workers work longer for less on retirement - despite an incredible 38 per cent of those polled not even being aware of the planned delay in retirement!
This country is poised to have the latest state retirement age in Europe, as well as some of the lowest wages, longest working week and poorest holiday entitlements.
The moneyed class and their governments try to drag us out of recession by preaching the gospel "shop 'til you drop" - whilst slashing workers' spending power!
Now they want us to literally "work 'til you drop" - to ensure the CEOs of big private businesses can continue to wallow in their current average pensions of £175,000 a year.
M10 strike rekindles the fires of resistance
The strike of up to half a million public sector workers on 10 May - including PCS, UNITE, UCU and RMT members in the civil service, health, MoD and education - should be the flame to re-ignite the fires of resistance that too many trade union leaders have tried to dampen since the magnificent strike of two million on 30 November.
These unions plan further coordinated action in late June. PCS is also taking industrial action in specific departments and sectors, alongside a generalised overtime ban from now until late June. And they have raised the call for a united demo against the cuts this side of the summer.
Demand an immediate mass demo
One of the trade union 'leaders' who did most to stall the momentum after N30 is UNISON's Dave Prentis. Now, in an attempt to save face amongst members increasingly angry at being 'sold a pup' by Prentis, he has called for a mass trade union-led demo in the autumn.
Why wait that long? Active members of every union should argue for a huge Saturday demo over the next couple of months, demanding that either the STUC call it in Scotland or a 'coalition of the willing trade unions' do so.
Not instead of a broader, bigger strike in June, but in addition to it, as a means of reaching out to workers in local government, education and the private sector who are not part of the M10 strike. Not just on pensions, but on other cuts and attacks on rights, jobs and benefits.
Coalition can be beaten
The recent council elections saw hundreds of thousands voting either SNP or Labour as a means of punishing the Westminster cuts Coalition. They won votes primarily because they are not the Coalition!
The electoral decimation of the chief architects of cuts should be the green light for the trade unions to unite with community groups and socialists in decisive, early action to drive the crisis-ridden Coalition back further. They can be beaten. They can be driven out of office.
The response on the streets to the SSP's central message 'no cuts, tax the rich' was infinitely larger than the votes cast for our uncompromising socialist case, partly because people were browbeaten with the media message of a 'two-horse race', partly because Labour and the SNP lied through their teeth with talk of creating jobs, and people often gave one of the 'big two' their first two votes, giving the SSP third or fourth preference.
Pound new councils with demands to reverse the cuts
In several councils, the biggest party has changed from one to the other, so the trade union movement and community organisations should join with socialists in pounding these councillors with demands to reverse the cuts of their predecessors - or stand exposed as fakers gaining votes under false pretences, engaged in a cynical exercise of shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic. Now is the time to besiege them with such demands, fresh on the heels of them taking office.
Capitalism doesn't work
The battle against cuts, both at local council level and nationally on the pensions issue, is critical in the broader resistance to the systematic dismantling of workers' rights, benefits and frontline services gained by past generations through struggle.
Plans to usher in regional pay; slash the right to challenge unfair dismissal from work; curtail the right to have functioning union shop stewards to stand up for members; and the core aim of rampant privatisation of what remains of public property - all these and more are the inevitable product of a capitalist system that is based on exploitation for profit, that simply doesn't work, that condemns a whole generation to permanent mass unemployment, and that seeks to slaughter working class conditions in defence of profit margins and privileges for the obscenely rich minority.
Capitalism means cuts, mass unemployment and mounting poverty from the cradle to the grave.
Socialism - based on taxation of the rich, wealth redistribution and democratic public ownership - is the only means of escaping 'eternal austerity'.
Those who strike back in May have an important part to play in building a future worthy of the name - a socialist future based on people, not profit.
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March 21 - Kilwinning
Great reception from the public in Kilwinning. Real anger over savage spending cuts and mass unemployment.
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Why I joined the SSP
COLIN MARSH, from Ayrshire, spoke to Richie Venton about his experiences as a young unemployed person, and why he's fighting back for the future.
"I have been unemployed for 6 months. I left school with plenty of qualifications, including Highers. I then went on to get a HNC in art and design, amongst other spells in further education.
"I'm a fully-qualified luthier (guitar maker and repairer), which is a skill spreading over into carpentry. I trained in this for two years in Glasgow's Anniesland college, in 2004-2006. Since then I have had several spells of being a self-employed kitchen fitter. I fell into this because there was no work in what I wanted to do, and a mate asked me to give him a hand. It's not that I ever want to be self-employed or a businessman in any shape or form! But kitchen fitting has gone downhill in the past 3 years, whereas it used to be fairly regular. Nobody has any money, so they cut back.
"I have to sign on, then off again when I get a bit of work. I've been unemployed for the past 6 months. Being out of work stunts your personal development. I can't move out of my parents' house, everything is put on standby. Money is the stumbling block. There's no way I would get a council house. As a young single male with very few housing points, I would probably be on the waiting list for about 20 years! So the only accommodation available would be in the private sector, where rents go through the roof. This damages your mind-set. You lose a bit of self worth. It's a depressing situation, being a 27 year old still living at your Ma and Da's. I've had my own independence in the past, so this is a step back, a downer.
"Being unemployed means you're constantly skint, so your mates tend to stop phoning to invite you out, because they know what the answer's going to be. You tend to get shut off because of the financial situation, isolated, cut off socially through money constraints.
"What's the answer? They should bring back manufacturing to towns like Irvine. There's plenty of work that needs doing; the place is falling to bits, and needs fixing.
It used to be you could get a job no problem in computer factories, but that's gone too. Reinstating industry would give people like myself a chance to use and develop their skills. The de-skilling of work means the skills and qualifications I have count for nothing.
"How pay for this? Tax the rich, I'd say.
"I've joined the SSP because I've always been a socialist, but facing the Tory government I felt it is time people started standing up against them.
"Although Labour was just a continuation of the Thatcher years, I suppose we were all lulled into a false sense of security. The new savagery we face means we have to stand up and do something about it.
"The SSP represents young people and working class people honestly. It's the only party with ordinary people's interests at heart; I've not gained the impression there are many careerists knocking about in the SSP!
"If young people don't fight, we'll definitely lose. And we've got to win for the sake of the future."
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March 17...building support in Troon
The Scottish Socialist Party campaigned in Troon on Saturday (March 17), receiving great support from the local public.
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Students back SSP call for jobs
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North Ayrshire councillors pass £23million cuts
Activists from the North Ayrshire Branch of the Scottish Socialist Party lobbied and petitioned the budget meeting of Labour-controlled North Ayrshire Council (February 1). Despite the petition, signed by 1,178 local people, councillors of all parties ignored calls to set a budget that meets the need of communities in North Ayrshire. Instead, Labour, SNP, Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors pushed through further savage spending cuts totalling £23million over the next three years.
This new wave of cuts - on top of multi-million pound cuts in previous years - will hurt some of the most vulnerable people in North Ayrshire, and will lead to further cuts to services that local people desperately need. In addition to slashing services, North Ayrshire Council has already made redundant 400 workers.
North Ayrshire councillors have ignored the voice of local people, and have turned their backs on the communities that elected them. Instead of standing up for the people of North Ayrshire, they chose to punish them by imposing cuts ordered by Tories and Liberal Democrats in London and the SNP in Edinburgh.
The petition presented by the Scottish Socialist Party to the budget meeting of North Ayrshire Council read:
The attached petition, containing the signatures of 1,178 North Ayrshire residents, condemns multi-million pound cuts implemented in past years by North Ayrshire Council, which have impacted on services and have compounded the district’s disgracefully high levels of poverty and deprivation: condemns savage funding cuts imposed on North Ayrshire Council by a Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government that has no mandate in Scotland: further condemns the SNP Scottish Government for accepting Westminster cuts and passing them to Councils, instead of standing-up for the people of Scotland: calls on North Ayrshire councillors to protect jobs and services by refusing to implement further cuts in the budget for 2012/2013 or in subsequent years: demands councillors put the interests and needs of the people of North Ayrshire before implementing Tory-Lib Dem and SNP cuts: further demands North Ayrshire councillors set a ‘No Cuts’ defiance budget, and agree to actively support and encourage a mass campaign for the return to North Ayrshire of millions-of-pounds cut from the Council’s funding by governments in London and Edinburgh.
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NORTH AYRSHIRE PUBLIC AGAINST THE CUTS
Members of the public in Saltcoats and Irvine queue to sign the SSP's 'Stop the Cuts' petition.
The strength of public anger against cuts being imposed by politicians in London, Edinburgh and Irvine has been demonstrated by the hundreds of people who have signed the Scottish Socialist Party's petition.
The SSP is the only party on the side of the people, campaigning to stop the cuts - cuts to jobs, cuts to public services, cuts to benefits, cuts to pensions, cuts to education - and all to pay the debts run-up by multi-millionaire bankers in London.
The Scottish Socialist Party believes the ordinary people of North Ayrshire should not be paying the debts of millionaires and billionaires.
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NO CUTS - TAX THE RICH
North Ayrshire SSP activists were to the forefront of 15,000 people who marched through Glasgow on October 1, calling for an end to the savage and unjust cuts being imposed on the poorest members of local communities by Tories and Liberal Democrats in London, the SNP in Edinburgh, and Labour councillors in North Ayrshire.
Ordinary men, women and children in North Ayrshire shouldn't be paying the debts of multi-millionaire bankers in London. Instead of punishing the poor by cutting jobs, public services, benefits and even pensions, we should be forcing the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Every year multi-national corporations and company directors avoid and evade £120billion of taxes. Every year those millionaires and billionaires are stealing £120billion from our pockets.
In Scotland, a modest 10 per cent tax on just the wealthiest 100 people would raise £1.6billion.
There is no need for any cuts! We should be taxing the rich, forcing them to pay their fair share.
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“All the so-called ‘mainstream’ political parties – SNP, Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrats – are now on the right of the political spectrum, embracing the free-market capitalist system that has brought world economies to the brink of bankruptcy. It’s just the SSP that’s over there on the left, with the people of Scotland.”
Campbell Martin
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North Ayrshire has the highest unemployment and some of the worst poverty and deprivation in Scotland, yet Tory and Lib Dem politicians in London, and SNP politicians in Edinburgh tell us we have to accept savage cuts to public spending and services in order that millionaire bankers can be bailed-out. Labour politicians are no better. If Labour had won the 2010 UK General Election, rather than the Tories and Liberal Democrats, they too would have slashed public spending, hitting the poorest hardest.
The Scottish Socialist Party is campaigning in North Ayrshire to protect local people against the cuts imposed by wealthy and cosseted politicians. There is no need for any cuts. Instead, we should be investing in the public sector and creating jobs. We should also be introducing a fair taxation system, which sees the rich pay their fair share.
In North Ayrshire, the Scottish Socialist Party also opposes the austerity budget passed by the Labour administration of North Ayrshire Council, with the help of three so-called Independents. Again, cuts are not necessary. Many local people desperately need Council services, so why is the local authority cutting those services and looking at making people redundant. Again, we should be investing to ensure we provide the services people need and securing the employment of Council staff.
The Scottish Socialist Party condemns North Ayrshire Council’s cost-cutting plan to close many local public halls and libraries. These facilities belong to the people and provide essential focal points for local communities. The Labour councillors behind this idea must be stopped.
All of the so-called ‘mainstream’ political parties active in Scotland – SNP, Labour, Tories, Liberal Democrats – are now on the right of the political spectrum, supporting the capitalist system that has brought western Europe to its knees. All of these parties support the cuts that are hammering ordinary men and women here in North Ayrshire and across Scotland. Only the Scottish Socialist Party is on the side of the people, opposing the cuts and fighting for a better, fairer Scotland.
Everyone can help in that fight, so why don’t you come and join us.
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