How do we stop the cuts?

Bob Whitehead wrote this for the site of Birmingham Socialist Resistance.

How do we stop the cuts? There is no realistic answer outside of huge mobilisations that unite service providers and users. The recent uprising of the students needs to be copied and multiplied by the unions, communities and working people in general. We could take a leaf out of the Tunisian people’s book. Without events that dwarf the TUC demonstration in March, important as it is, the ConDem government and the ConDem coalition that runs Birmingham City Council will not take much notice.

However, there is another side to the story and that concerns action at the local political level.

At present, out of 120 Birmingham Councillors, the Tories have 45, Labour 41, LibDems 31 and Respect 3. That gives the local ConDem coalition 76 seats, against 44 for Labour and Respect combined; a majority of 32. It represents a comfortable majority for their budget slashing proposals when it comes to a vote on Tuesday March 1st.

On that fateful day, Respect will presumably vote against the budget, as they did against the big cuts earlier last year. There is an indication that Labour will present its own budget, and therefore vote against as well, unlike last year when they abstained. Let us hope that this small step forward takes place. But even if it did, it would still need 16 LibDem Councillors out of 31 to vote against the budget to halt it in its tracks. This is hardly likely, but even a small rebellion would be of importance.

The Lib Dems are in an uncomfortable position. They gained many seats, including inner ring areas at the time of the Iraq war, out of voters’ disgust with Labour’s warmongering and the stampede to the right under Blair. But since then they have supported the invasion of Afghanistan and are complicit with the full scale attack on the welfare state being launched with the Tories. This attack will have a disproportionate attack on poor and inner ring areas. They should be called to account and pressurised to vote against, or at the very least abstain, on this draconian budget. After all, some of their seats might be in danger, and that is what comes first in their minds.

Then there is the question of the Tory majority of only 4 seats over Labour. Who knows what will happen in the May elections? It could be that the Tories soft pedal in seats where the LibDems might lose in order to maintain the status quo. But it is not inconceivable that Labour could scrape a small majority. If that were to happen it would explode the rationale for the LibDem coalition with the Tories. Clegg justified his decision to go in with the Tories by saying that the largest party has a right to take power. If Labour won a majority in May, the LibDems would logically have to swap their current coalition partner for Labour. This is not to say that they would of course, it is just to apply Clegg’s argument at the local level.

This gives the LibDems a further reason to look over their shoulder. Which way is the wind blowing and how can they run (or crawl) with it?
As for Labour, if they present their own budget, it is not going to be a needs-based budget. We only have to look at their national commitment to halve the capitalist deficit within four years. Yet, it could be slightly less bad than the one the local coalition is cooking up.

If they were really intent on taking power in May, they would announce their intention to roll back at least some of the cuts if the budget goes through in March. Even a muted clarion call would put them in a stronger position for electoral gains.

Labour Party members and Councillors are welcome to come along to Birmingham against the Cuts and get involved in its activities, but they must be clear that this body is based on a no-cuts position and that does not allow voting for a slightly less drastic budget than the coalition. If Councillors want to defend the communities that they represent, they should also wage a fight within the Labour Party for a needs-based budget to present as an alternative in March. This may be as fanciful as sufficient Lib Dem Councillors rebelling in order to block the budget, but it is the only principled course of action. Presumably however, something like that will be adopted by the three Respect Councillors; voting against both budgets and arguing for a needs-based alternative