TUSC Public Meeting Tomorrow – Why We Need Anti-Cuts Councillors

Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition

Fighting Austerity – Why We Need Anti-Cuts Councillors

Tuesday Dec 3rd

7.45pm

Youth Hostel, 14 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA

The government is demanding Bristol City Council cut £90m from their budget in the next 3 years. This is one quarter of the total budget, already reduced by years of austerity.

This will mean 1000 people could lose their jobs. Services will be shut. This will hit hardest in so-called discretionary services like libraries, parks and public toilets. These are vital to Bristol but don’t have to be provided by law.

Services that remain open may be privatised or run by volunteers, not trained professionals. Charities may be expected to step in but Unions and anti-cuts campaigners will be working hard to stop this, starting by lobbying consultation meetings.

But will our mayor and councillors listen? They have already shown themselves to be dependable servants of the Tory government, pushing through the cuts locally. Last year’s cuts budget went through with only one vote against.

While anti-cuts activists don’t have a political voice we are fighting with one hand tied behind out backs. We need local representatives who will stand up for local people, not this shameful shower of collaborators. Last year Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts stood for mayor to oppose all cuts. We said the budget should be based on what local people need, not Tory demands for austerity. We should fight to get back the money they’ve stolen. Next year we’ll be standing in every council seat in Bristol. But we don’t just need your vote, we need your help. Join us in supporting every protest, industrial action and occupation needed to stop these savage attacks on ordinary people.

Stop Ferguson's Cuts Onslaught

From: https://www.facebook.com/events/233003383532465/236066863226117/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

Mayor George Ferguson is due to announce a further £90 million per year of cuts to Bristol City Council which, if passed, will destroy most of the public services we enjoy but that it would not be illegal for them to cut! An estimated 1,000 more workers will lose their jobs (800 FTE) and Bristol will never be the same again!

BADACA along with the unions and other campaigners will be protesting outside and intervening in various meetings over the coming weeks to build the campaign against this savage attack on the people of Bristol by the mayor & his cabinet.

Monday 18th November - demo from 5.30pm - meeting (booking required) 6pm: It has been trailed that the cuts will be announced at this event in Great Hall of Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ To book:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/7715199369

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pace/public-events/mayor-debate.html

The mayor will also be personally attending these four public consultation meetings on the budget:

Tuesday 26th November - demo outside from 5.45pm - meeting (booking required) 6.30pm to 7.30pm - Henbury School, Station Road, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7QH To book: https://budgetnorth.eventbrite.com/

Wednesday 27th November - demo outside from 5.45pm - meeting (booking required) 6.30pm to 7.30pm - The Park Centre, Daventry Road, Filwood, Bristol BS4 1DQ To book: https://budgetsouth.eventbrite.com/

Thursday 28th November - demo outside from 6.15pm - meeting (booking required) 7pm to 8pm - City Hall (Council House), College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR To book:https://budgetcentral.eventbrite.com/

Friday 29th November - demo outside from 6.15pm - meeting (booking required) 7pm to 8pm - Bristol Brunel Academy, Speedwell Road, Speedwell, Bristol BS15 1NU To book: https://budgeteast.eventbrite.com/

http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/council-and-democracy/budget-consultation-meetings

Then on Tuesday 3rd December is another of Ferguson's "aimed at residents rather than political or pressure groups" Question Times this time at Great Hall of Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ - demo outside from 6.15pm - meeting (booking required) 7pm To book: https://mayorqtdec.eventbrite.co.uk/

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pace/public-events/mayor-qt.html

And finally there is Cabinet Meeting on Thursday 5th December at 6.30pm (venue TBC)

See also our Facebook event page for our lobby of the full council meeting on 17th December when there will also be a full Bedroom Tax debate in the council in response to our petition exceeding 3,500 signatures: https://www.facebook.com/events/223992244443413/

George Ferguson’s ‘Vision for Bristol’ examined

Bristol’s elected mayor George Ferguson announced his ‘vision for Bristol’ behind the closed doors of a ticket-only event. The well-heeled audience was treated to honeyed words about thriving people and flourishing communities. But talk is cheap, his willingness to slash jobs and services at the request of the Con-Dem government shows what we can really expect.

We take a look at what he said and what we think he really means…

“I have spent the last year listening to people across our communities.”

… and then doing exactly as I please. I’m only consulting on half the cuts I’m making.

“Many feel stuck… in jobs with no prospects. Or worse still in no job at all.”

And another 1000 will be soon, once I make my redundancies.

“I’m the most travelled UK mayor – even more than Boris”

I love going on tax-payer funded jollies

“I am driven by a strong belief in public services”

…which I’ve already cut by £35m, with another £90m cuts coming over the next 3 years.

“Great cities help us to feel connected.”

I’m cutting wardens in sheltered accommodation, support for older people, funding to community groups, community transport and subsidies for night and Sunday buses.

“And of course, Bristol’s homegrown Hargreaves Lansdown.”

I love billionaire tax avoiders.

“We need to define being a green city in our own image.”

I’m cutting the maintenance of our parks, pollution management and anti-fly-tipping work.

“There are many haves – including most of us here – but far too many have nots.”

I’m glad I’m saying this in front of my own people, not too many oiks who might criticise me.

“We must ensure that all citizens have access to high quality education”

I’m cutting libraries and museum services.

“We must do what we can to ensure all citizens are able to enjoy good health and well-being.”

I’m cutting parks, sports development, sports centres and supervised play areas.

“We must ensure Bristol people live in decent affordable homes.”

But I’ll evict you if you can’t pay the bedroom tax.

“The lion’s share of the work in others will fall on the shoulders of the private and voluntary sectors.”

Even more of your services will be handed to profit making private companies. Or maybe voluntary groups, except I’m cutting their funding too.

“We have no choice – we have to present a balanced budget”

Never mind ‘Putting Bristol First’, when the Tories say jump, I ask how high.

“We must make the council more responsive by cutting bureaucracy, unnecessary and expensive meetings”

I don’t like being scrutinised by councillors or the public, all this democracy gets in the way of me doing what I want.


“We live in a world where people can collectively and immediately express their views through social networks”

If you’re not on the internet you won’t have a say. You can go online at your local library, except I might be closing it.

“Bristol should be a place… where communities flourish.”

“I’m cutting the funding for community groups and the St Pauls Learning Centre.

“I give myself 7 out of 10. So, what might I have done differently to earn 9 out of 10?”

I can’t count to 10

What a study in hypocrisy. If you want candidates who do what they say and really will stand up for Bristol and oppose all cuts, then support Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts.

Stop Ferguson's £90 Million Cuts - Joint BADACA/ People's Assembly/ Unite the Resistance planning meeting on Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Joint BADACA/ People's Assembly/ Unite the Resistance planning meeting on Wednesday, 20 November 2013 19:00 @ Community Art Space, 3rd Floor, Hamilton House, 80 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3QY
This coming Monday 18th November, mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson is due to announce a devastating £90 million of further cuts to our local services. This will result in another 800 FTE job losses - estimated by Unison to be over 1,000 workers including part-timers.

It is unclear at this stage how much detail will be available but Ferguson will be speaking at six different events over the next three weeks, four of which are 'Budget Consultation' meetings so presumably we will know at least what areas are going to be cut.

These cuts must be stopped - this would represent about a quarter of what remains of the council's budget putting at risk any council service which is not required by law. Bristol's councillors must stand up to Ferguson and vote the budget down and Ferguson must stand up to ConDem's like he said he would in the election campaign.

This joint planning meeting is called by BADACA in conjunction with Bristol People's Assembly Against Austerity and Unite the Resistance. We will also be inviting Bristol Trades Council to attend and all trade unionists whether in local government or from other areas.

We hope, among other things, to plan protests and interventions at the various consultation and other council meetings coming up; agree wording for a petition to go on the council website to try to force a special debate; agree a strategy for putting pressure on councillors; organise a press campaign and talk to the unions about their ideas for the campaign and how we could work together.

If Ferguson and his Cuts Cabinet get away with what is being proposed, Bristol will never be the same again. They must be stopped. Come and join the campaign and let's say no to austerity once and for all!

Lobbies and other council meetings, details here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/233003383532465/

BRISTOL COUNCIL: £90M Cuts, 1000 Job losses, services slashed… DEFEND JOBS AND SERVICES!

The government is demanding Bristol City Council cut £90m from their budget in the next 3 years. This is one quarter of the total budget, already reduced by years of austerity.

This will mean 1000 people could lose their jobs. Services will be shut. This will hit hardest in so-called discretionary services like libraries, parks and public toilets. These are vital to Bristol but don’t have to be provided by law.

Services that remain open may be privatised or run by volunteers, not trained professionals. Charities may be expected to step in but Unions and anti-cuts campaigners will be working hard to stop this, starting by lobbying consultation meetings.

But will our mayor and councillors listen? They have already shown themselves to be dependable servants of the Tory government, pushing through the cuts locally. Last year’s cuts budget went through with only one vote against.

While anti-cuts activists don’t have a political voice we are fighting with one hand tied behind out backs. We need local representatives who will stand up for local people, not this shameful shower of collaborators. Last year Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts stood for mayor to oppose all cuts. We said the budget should be based on what local people need, not Tory demands for austerity. We should fight to get back the money they’ve stolen. Next year we’ll be standing in every council seat in Bristol. But we don’t just need your vote, we need your help. Join us in supporting every protest, industrial action and occupation needed to stop these savage attacks on ordinary people.

Public Meeting

Fighting Austerity – Why We Need Anti-Cuts Councillors

Tuesday Dec 3rd, 7.45pm, Youth Hostel, 14 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA

 

 

George Ferguson imposes £35m of cuts on Bristol...with a little help from his friends

By Tom Baldwin, Trade Unionists & Socialists Coalition mayoral candidate 2012

The opposition to £35m of cuts in Bristol took on a vocal and vibrant expression last week as about 70 people turned out to lobby the council and George Ferguson, the city's 'independent' mayor. Banners and flags from all of the local authority trade unions, the Bristol and District Anti-Cuts Alliance and the Disability Equality Forum represented the broad spectrum of opposition to these attacks.

Unfortunately the mood of protesters outside the council chamber found no echo inside. Those who braved the public gallery were treated to a game of spot the difference as the mayor and Tory, LibDem, Labour and Green councillors all made indistinguishable speeches. One after another they got up to say how much they hated the cuts, only to claim there was choice but to pass them on. There's a word for people who say one thing and do another - hypocrites. Whether they’re made reluctantly or with enthusiasm, these cuts will hurt just the same.

Labour are the only party not to have joined the mayor’s cabinet, despite most of their Bristol councillors wanting to. When it was her turn speak the Labour leader rose like Spartacus and announced her group were so disgusted they were going to… abstain from the vote. They claimed this was in the spirit of a new, consensual age of politics in Bristol, ushered in by the election of an independent mayor. What’s new about the butchery of our public services and attacks on working-class people? Speaking to anti-cuts protesters one councillor tried to justify this collaboration with the hope it would win Labour 5 more seats in May’s elections. What good are 5 more abstentions when the Tories and their stooges are trying to obliterate our living standards? In the end only one Labour councillor voted against the cuts budget and it’s not even clear that was on purpose!

The mayor, Ferguson said he'd lost sleep thinking about the impact of these cuts but as a millionaire businessman he's unlikely to feel the impact. The 330 council workers due to lose their jobs will though, along with users of children’s centres and countless others. We won’t get very far on sympathy and abstentions. What we need is a mass campaign to stop the cutters in their tracks, whatever their political allegiance. Lobbies and demos will form a part of that but it’s strike action that will hit them the hardest. With the vast majority of people’s lives being made harder we’re strongest when we stand together. A one-day general strike would be a turning point in the fight against austerity. That struggle would also be stronger if it had a voice on the council benches, standing up against all cuts to our living standards no matter who makes them. That’s why Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates will be standing across Bristol in May to give a real alternative to the cutters.

BADACA: Help take the smile off George Ferguson's face next Tuesday

Tuesday 26th February - From 1pm - Lobby Bristol City Council

This is the full meeting of Bristol City Council where a vote will be taken on George Ferguson's budget - £35 million of cuts and 330 jobs lost. Despite the inconvenient timing we need to get as many people as possible to a lobby from 1pm outside the Council House and as many people as possible in the public gallery for the meeting. We have written to all councillors calling on them to speak out against the budget. A large and vocal lobby and a packed gallery may encourage them to do this. Please come if you can an publicise among others - even if you can only get there for a short time in your lunch hour it will help. Bring banners, flags, placards etc. Facebook here.

Tuesday 26th February - from 5.30pm - Lobby the Institute Of Directors

In previous years the council's budget meeting has gone long into the evening. This year, George Ferguson is attending an IOD event at 6pm - meeting his big-business friends. This means that either the council meeting will be guillotined or will continue without him - meaning he won't have to hear what councillors think of his budget. BADACA is organising a protest outside the M Shed Museum where the IOD event is taking place. Please join us there from 5.30pm. Bring banners, flags, placards etc. A flyer/poster for this can be downloaded from our website here. Facebook here

BADACA: Questioning Ferguson’s Cuts…

At tonight’s (24/01/13) meeting of Bristol mayor Ferguson’s cuts cabinet BADACA submitted the following statement…

To mayor George Ferguson:

When elected you promised a new approach to politics. Just a few months later and the reality is disappointingly familiar. The £35m of cuts in your budget will mean jobs lost and services under attack. Community transport and children’s centres are just two of things that will be hit. You’ve raised council tax by 2%, faster than wages and benefits are rising. Making people pay more for less is a kick in the teeth at a time when its getting harder to make ends meet. With another £65m due to be made over the next 3 years Bristol’s services will be butchered unless this assault can be stopped.

We note you have joined representatives of other cities in criticising the government’s cuts to council budgets. We agree, but those words will ring hollow as long as you continue to do the government’s dirty work and pass on the cuts to Bristolians. Ordinary people are sick of being made to pay for the bankers’ crisis and they’re sick of politicians who say one thing and do another.

These cuts are not a force of nature, they can be stopped. They’re being pushed by a Tory government hell bent on making the rich richer and the rest of us worse off. Letters alone won’t sway them from this course, we need a mass campaign to win back the money they’ve stolen from the city. That would be far stronger if you refused to implement the cuts and made the case for protecting our jobs and services. Otherwise the young, elderly and infirm are once again being sacrificed so that the rich and powerful can continue with their gold-plated lifestyles. Making these cuts breaks your promise to ”not leave this city any less but rather greater than I found it.”

We call upon you to throw out this cuts budget and consult on a one based upon what Bristol needs. We call upon anyone with a conscience to refuse to take part in a cuts cabinet.

While these attacks continue the Bristol and District Anti-Cuts Alliance will fight them cuts by every means necessary. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with council employees, trade unions and service users. There will be no hiding places for the cutters, as we expose the true effects of your damaging vandalism through a relentless series of lobbies, demonstrations and direct actions.

No to all cuts to jobs and services!

The statement was moved in the council chamber by BADACA’s Tom Baldwin.

Questions to the mayor were also submitted by others including Bristol City Unison’s Branch Secretary, Steve Mills and various councillors.

In a show of arrogant disregard for the democratic process, mayor Ferguson questioned the mechanism by which members of the public, pressure groups & even elected councillors can question the mayor & the cabinet…

LibDem councillor, Gary Hopkins asked:

“Have you decided to stop giving responses to Cllrs and members of the public who put in statements or will you continue with the previous practice?”

To which the mayor replied:

“This is semantic quibbling and is not a good use of anybody’s time, and I’d ask you yet again to think carefully about how you use the question system to ask me about matters of policy rather than abusing it by making partisan points…”

Steve Mills of Unison asked a series of perfectly legitimate questions on behalf of his members, many of whom are facing redundancy under Ferguson’s swingeing cuts. However Ferguson in his responses attacks Steve & his members saying things like:

“You ask nine questions disguised as one in a manner that does not fill me with confidence that you mean to work co-operatively as I would have hoped from a responsible trade union. This kind of question brings the system into disrepute…”

“I am unused to this naked political form of questioning that I am sure has nothing to do wit Bristol’s welfare or care of your members and is all to do with Party point scoring in place of responsible involvement.”

And… “I have to say I am certainly not encouraged by the naked political nature of these questions to meet the questioner but I did meet with a dozen or so Trade Union representatives on the very morning I released my budget proposals to begin that very conversation, and we had a constructive discussion of the difficult circumstances which we find ourselves in.”

Clearly, Ferguson as an ‘independent’ considers himself above politics and is only interested in engaging with the confused and the obsequious. This will only encourage BADACA supporters and local unions to do all in our power to defeat these vicious cuts!

http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/2013/01/24/questioning-fergusons-cuts/

Lobby of Bristol CIty Council: Stand up against £35m of cuts in Bristol!

Join the lobby tomorrow from 5pm at the Council House
George Ferguson's proposed budget will mean:

• -330 job cuts, including around 100 compulsory redundancies
• -Attacks on children's centres
• -Cuts to community transport
• -Confirming the closure of care homes and day care centres
• -32 fewer PCSOs
• -More council houses lying empty
• -More services lost to unaccountable, profit-hungry private companies
• -Worsening services across the board
• -No new swimming pool and recycling centre that were promised

And to add a final kick in the teeth we're expected to pay 2% more council tax for the privilege!

http://www.facebook.com/events/334931303286340/

BADACA: Fightback Against Ferguson's Cuts

BADACA Circular:

A rare additional email from BADACA because we need your help to build the fightback against Ferguson's Cuts - £35 million of cuts including up to 100 compulsory redundancies.

We want you to join in:

Lobby Of Cabinet Meeting - Thursday 24th January. Meet outside the Council House from 5pm. Cabinet meeting starts at 6pm. Bring banners, placards & friends. Facebook here.

Stalls – we plan to run street stalls in as many parts of city as possible. If you can help with this please email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk as soon as possible and let us know where and when you could help.

We have only a few weeks to build a fightback against these cuts. Please do help if you can. Please pass this information on to anyone else you know who may be interested.

The full details of the proposed cuts are on the BADACA website here. These include:

• access to Children Centres drastically reduced with the loss of 55 jobs
• funding of community transport to be slashed
• the new East Bristol swimming pool to be scrapped
• the programme of closure of care homes and day centres for the elderly and vulnerable endorsed
• In the words of the Evening Post, it is planned to 'squeeze better value out of commercial contracts for home care provision'. The council's own service was privatised resulting in a lowering of standards. It is now likely to deteriorate further.
• And the Green Party's reward for giving their support to these cuts is – the scrapping of Hartcliffe’s proposed new recycling centre!

And of course Council Tax will be increased by 2% at exactly the time when many people, in and out of work, will find their benefits cut.

If you want more information about any of the above, email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

Tom Baldwin's speech at TUSC Rally

An ex-liberal democrat intent on cutting £32million from Bristol may be the new mayor, but we can still look back on what was an excellent anti-austerity campaign from the Trade Unionists & Socialists Coalition - here is one of the highlights.