Socialist Party councillors Dave Nellist & Rob Windsor represent St Michaels ward on Coventry City council. Articles by Dave & Rob will appear on this blog on a regular basis, please feel free to leave your comments about the articles below.
From an article by Dave Nellist recently published by ‘Coventry Advertiser’. The Advertiser is available free from garages and supermarkets throughout Coventry.
Now the election is over the real bill for the cost of the economic crisis is landing on doormats throughout our area.
In the first half of May, as a legacy from the outgoing government, a 20% cut in adult education funding at City College in Coventry brought the threat to 50 jobs, and inevitable larger classes or cancelled courses. Over in Nuneaton, George Eliot Hospital plans to shut two wards – at the same time that they are doubling the hated car park charges – to begin to deliver their share of £2.4 billion of NHS cuts in the West Midlands over the next four years.
In the second half of the month the new ConDem ‘austerity’ Cabinet (austerity for us that is, 18 of its 23 members are millionaires) announced the axing of 330 local jobs at the IT education agency, BECTA. Another 700 jobs at the QCDA and over 500 employees at the Skills Funding Agency, 2 more government bodies located in Coventry, are also threatened.
Those hundreds of jobs are our share, so far, of government cuts described as “low hanging fruit" – but they are only the first 10% of the further cuts coming in the emergency budget on June 22nd and the wide ranging review of government spending due in the autumn.
If you work at the City College, the Council or a government agency you're probably thinking "why me - what did I do to cause this crisis?"And the answer would be “nothing”.It isn't your fault.It's the bankers and the casino-like market system itself.
Tens and tens of billions of pounds have been poured into failing banks over the last 2 years to protect their shareholders, and the wider financial system, from the consequences of speculation.When I was at school the rule in banking was that they were only allowed to borrow and then lend £5 for every £1 they had in real money.In recent years around the globe banks have been lending £50 for every real £1 they had on deposit.When the crash came, they couldn’t repay their loans.
So it's not our crisis: this is the private debt of banks and speculators who gambled billions. Yet governments, including the last and the present one, are saying we, the public, must take responsibility for those debts.How does that work?
If I went and put £10 at Ladbrokes on a 'dead cert' for the Eurovision Song Contest and it got 'nul points’ I wouldn't expect you, the Reader, to bail me out and give me my £10 back.But that's what the banks expect us to do – rescue them from the consequences of their own gambling.
Just like that Icelandic volcano (and no, I can't pronounce it’s name either) rumbled for months before erupting, I think there's a subterranean mood of anger amongst ordinary working class and middle class people in this country.During the election Ken Clarke was said to be "astonished" about lack of outcry over the massive gulf between the Rich and rest which has developed in recent years. I don't think he'll have to wait much longer before people's anger, just like it did during the Poll Tax, erupts across the country in demands that public services be saved and that the bankers’ system must pay the price.
Copy of letter sent by Dave Nellist to the Foreign Secretary after Israeli attack on Gaza flotillaþ on Sunday 31st May.
Dear Foreign Secretary,
You will be aware that the Israeli Navy has hijacked the international flotilla of ships which was attempting to deliver essential humanitarian aid to Gaza. This attack outside of international waters this morning has resulted in fatalities estimated by the Israeli military itself as 10 and by news sources at possibly in excess of 20 with another large number injured.
There are nearly 700 people on board the boats; ordinary civilians from around the world, and also including Members of Parliament from a number of nations, eminent writers, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and 40 British citizens. They have all undertaken this mission out of concern for the people of Gaza, who are now entering their fourth year under siege, without access to basic necessities. They posed no threat to Israel, and were completely unarmed. The aid they were attempting to deliver included construction materials which would have helped the people of Gaza rebuild some of the homes destroyed by Israel in 2009; an occupation and massive death toll which provoked widespread anger in Coventry.
Those on board the boats face a serious threat - I call on you to end the UK Government's silence over Israel's aggressive actions against the flotilla, and intervene now to demand its safe passage to Gaza. I believe your obligation must be towards a group of citizens peacefully attempting to deliver humanitarian aid, rather than to a country which has placed the whole population of Gaza effectively in a prison camp.
Working people throughout the world will be horrified by the events of this morning and will step up the campaigns to bring about an end to the inhuman treatment of the people of Gaza. As a socialist I believe we need an immediate end to the siege and blockade that is taking place against Gaza by the Israeli Government, and support for the common interests of ordinary people on both sides of the divide as the basis for an end to the conflict forever.
From an article by Dave Nellist recently published by ‘Coventry Advertiser’. The Advertiser is available free from garages and supermarkets throughout Coventry.
By the time you read this, it'll all be over.No, not Coventry's chance of reaching the play-offs (though regretfully, that also), but the BOGOF election.You could have been forgiven for not knowing that you were getting two elections for the price of one, given the lack of media coverage of local candidates and especially of the Council election.Many people didn’t know until they actually got to the ballot box and were issued two different coloured voting slips.
For example, for weeks up to the end of March we had acres of newsprint on the state of Coventry's roads, particularly the potholes, yet hardly an inch appeared in the first three weeks of the campaign about who might run the Council and what their priorities would be.
Now that suits the big parties, because they get coverage about their national campaigns in the General Election and hope that people's voting intentions rub off onto the local elections.But for smaller parties, or independents, particularly those only standing for the Council, it has meant they have been completely erased from the debate.And you have been denied the information about local candidates and their priorities - the people you actually being asked to vote for, because you don't actually vote for the party leaders.
The election, in fact, seems to have revolved around the 3 americanised Presidential TV debates.With days before each Thursday's event spent pontificating on what might happen, and then days afterwards analysing performances. But much of the ‘analysis’ has been at the level of ‘the colour of ties’, or hand gestures and body language.The important issues, in fact the most important issue, were successfully sidelined.
The truth is there is already a national coalition of ideas, if not yet of personalities.It developed before the election.The central idea is that the billions of pounds borrowed to save the bankers and their bonuses should be repaid out of the pockets and services of ordinary working class and middle class people and their families.I believe the equivalent of ‘potholes’ will appear across wide areas of education, housing, social and welfare provision as those cuts bite.
None of the three big parties will admit the details, because as one local Labour councillor said to me as we debated before a school in Coventry, 'no politician can tell the truth about the post-election public spending cuts, or they won't get elected'.
The Governor of the Bank of England reportedly said as far back as March, that spending cuts and tax rises after the election will be so severe that the party which implements them will be so unpopular they won't win another general election for 20 years.
It also might mean that whatever mix of MPs have been elected, their overlapping agenda will be so unpopular that we might not have to wait another 5 years before the next General Election.Let's hope the seriousness of the recession, and the options for dealing with it, gets wider debate next time.
May I use your columns to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted Socialist in St Michael's and across the city last Thursday, and especially to those who helped with the campaign in any way. It has been an enormous privilege to serve as a St Michael's councillor over the last 10 years.
Although our vote in St Michael's increased by a brilliant 600 unfortunately, due to the General Election being held on the same day, and the increased turnout, we didn't hold the seat. The job for smaller parties such as ours was made immeasurably more difficult by the conscious decision of the print and broadcast media to limit their coverage to the big three parties alone, which undoubtedly translated into increased votes for their Council candidates. Even when we did get a mention, 48 hours before the election, we were given a different party's name! Clearly, in the future, we will have to find a way around that.
It has been said that the night was a "major disappointment for the Socialists". I think the real disappointment will be felt by those in St Michael's and elsewhere who see 'potholes' appearing across housing, transport, education, health, welfare and social services as the common agenda of the big three parties is rolled out - huge cuts in public spending, to pay back the billions borrowed to save the bankers and their bonuses.
Over 4,400 people voted Socialist in the local elections on May 6th, and 2,600 for us in the general election. We will try to find a way to reach those people with our bulletins and campaigns in the weeks ahead; preparing for the inevitable resentment, or even fury, as ‘Greece comes to Britain'.
