The proposed job cuts at Leicester City Council have to be opposed. Good to hear Gary Garner tell Soulsby that he’s betrayed his Labour principles, but unfortunately Labour have no principles on cuts as shown last week in statements from Ed Balls and Jim Murphy. We have no choice but to fight. LAC stands ready to support the city council unions shoulder-to-shoulder.

PCS Left Unity National Committee

DEFEND PENSIONS - ESCALATE ACTION

NAME DAY FOR NATIONAL STRIKE

Organising Conference Saturday: Friends Meeting House

(opp. Euston Station) 7^th January 2012 11am – 4pm

Chair: Janice Godrich PCS President

Speaker: Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary

(other speakers to be announced)

Event open to any activist in any union that took action on N30 

November 30^th was the biggest show of strength from Britain’s trade unions in living memory. It shook the coalition government and provided a firm foundation for the escalation of industrial action to defeat the unjustified attack on pensions and to challenge the coalition’s pay freeze, cuts and privatisation programme.

At the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group Mark Serwotka on behalf on PCS argued the TUC should set the date for a further day of nationally coordinated strike action to bring the government into serious negotiations. Although there was some support for this position the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber argued that all the unions should sign up to a so-called “Heads of Agreement”, this means the core issues, on which we took action, working longer, paying more and getting less, are surrendered, just  as the government have wanted. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, argued for acceptance of this “deal”.

It is almost beyond belief that when the confidence of the movement is at its highest point in decades as a result of November 30^th and with an additional 100,000 recruits due to the action such an abject surrender is being considered. Now is the time to set the date, as early as possible in 2012, preferably January, for a further day of nationally coordinated industrial action which can be escalated by bringing even more unions on board including workers, like those in Unilever, fighting to defend private sector pensions.  

The PCS Left Unity National Committee invites all activists from all unions to an organising conference on the 7^th of January to debate how we can build the campaign to defend our pensions and fight the cuts and prevent any unacceptable “deal” that makes us work longer, pay more and get less.

This will be an organising conference, not just a debating forum. It is intended to arm activists with the issues so they can go back to their workplaces and into their unions in order to build a campaign that will secure justice on pensions.

To cover costs there will be a registration fee of £5 for waged delegates.

FAIR PENSIONS FOR ALL - STOP THE CUTS - NO PRIVATISATION

The City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, has suffered a personal tragedy this week with the death of his wife and is entitled to the normal sympathies but the announcement of £600,000 cuts to services like homeless hostels, libraries and bus services (already inadequate) are a collective tragedy for people in Leicester and expose Labour as being nothing less than the agent of the class enemy, the Tories and their Lib Dem stooges. In May this year, the electorate of the city gave Labour a massive majority. Did they vote Labour to get Tory policies and cuts? No they didn’t! Team Labour at the City Council should be protecting its citizens and not inflicting the pain for the coalition.

Will any Labour councillior stand up to say they are opposed to the plans? 

We call upon the City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, and his mayoral team to call a conference early in 2012 and before budgets are set inviting other Labour controlled councils in Britain to join with Leicester’s massive Labour majority in hammering out a national strategy of refusing to implement the cuts being imposed by the Tories and Lib Dems.

We believe that Labour councils should set needs budgets protecting vital services and jobs and in so doing refuse to pass on the cuts being demanded by the coalition.

To back this up Labour councils should take the campaign to the trade unions, workplaces, estates and communities to win the support of the electorate and to engage them in activities such as demonstrations and strikes to support the demand that the government must be forced to find the money to maintain jobs and services.

In Leicester, Labour received a massive electoral mandate unlike the coalition government who no-one voted for. We believe people in Leicester did not vote Labour in order for them to do the dirty work of the Tories and Lib Dems and if Sir Peter and his team do not provide the lead for pratically opposing the cuts, the electorate will not forget and Labour will no longer be able to rely on the popular support of the citizens of the city.

The need for a strategy is urgent and Leicester can play a historic role in creating this. There should be no delay and we demand that Sir Peter and his team set the date now for the national conference as the first necessary step.   

‘Neither necessary nor inevitable’
ORGANISE TO FIGHT THE CUTS!

Cuts will destroy livelihoods and the life of local communities. They will make the economy worse, not better. That’s why unions, staff and the public must say:
‘There IS a choice’ and demand ‘NO CUTS - DEFEND PUBLIC SERVICES’.

Come to the meeting:

Arm yourself with an alternative!
An open discussion and workshops dealing with issues such as economics, tax and what decent public services should look like.

Organise against the cuts!
Help to bring all the anti-cuts campaigns together. Get involved in planning activities! 

Read about the Alternative here:
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/campaign-resources/there-is-an-alternative-the-case-against-cuts-in-public-spending.cfm