Nina's write up of the demo at Bootle Town Hall

The protest at Bootle Town Hall tonight was a fantastic show of unity by public sector workers. Around 200 people turned out in the cold to wave flags, hold up placards and sing chants such as: ‘Con Libs get out, we know what you’re all about: Cuts, job losses, money for the bosses!’ and: ‘You say cut back, we say fight back!’ A little lad of about ten, who was there with his mum, was leading a lot of the chants!

The protest was organised by the three main public sector unions, Unite, Unison and GMB, which have had their differences in the past but are united in the fight against job cuts and cuts to public services in Sefton.

Many of the protesters were carers who work for New Directions, which is in disarray and facing the chop.

Early on a man, who I believe is a councillor, asked protesters: “We need to make cuts – where do you propose we save money?” to cries of: “Tax the rich!” and: “Resign!”

A Labour councillor later told the group that all Labour councillors would be voting against cuts at the meeting.

A Unison activist, who I think was named Danny Summers, addressed the protest, saying: “There is an alternative to these cuts; let’s not buy into the myth that these cuts are necessary. The alternative is clear: £120bn every year goes unclaimed in tax, usually by the super rich; £78bn the Lib Dems said they would save by scrapping Trident. There’s more billions to be had with a Robin Hood tax, a tax on transactions in the financial institutions. The alternatives are there but this government does not want to look at these alternatives. The attacks on public services are an ideological attack; they see us as the peasants, that we should know our place in society. They say we should just put up with it but enough is enough – we’ll make these people pay at the ballot box at the local elections this year and in years to come. I say to Sefton councillors tonight: be bold, be imaginative, speak out for public services, for the young, the vulnerable, the elderly, who depend on your services, otherwise we’ll make you suffer at the ballot box.”

Glen Williams from Unison also spoke, criticising the contracting out of services to the likes of Capita and Arvato: “£260m of contracts and the promise of 450 jobs... none of those jobs have been created with a penalty of just £22,000. If you’re going to treat New Directions the same way as you’re being treated by Capita and Arvato, think again. We will fight this tooth and nail. Any votes for any cuts means not a single vote for an elected member (at the next election). We have got to vote these out if they vote through these cuts.” He later told BBC News Northwest: “The next step is to work with the council to propose alternatives to job cuts and misery for the people of Sefton.”

A Unison leaflet proposed saving money by: clawing back money from private contracts, creatively managing turnover of staff, making schools (which have £12m in reserves) pay for their services and extending loan repayments. It also stated that the council pays its top eight executives £1m a year, and pointed out that for every 100 jobs which are lost in the public sector, 41 will be lost in the private sector, and that for every £1 paid to a public sector employee, 74p is reinvested in the local community.
I didn’t stay for the council meeting itself because only 100 were allowed in. I had my baby with me, so we headed home just before the council meeting started. I’m sure the trade unionists did us proud in there though!

By Nina Killen (the other half of SACC)

The council voted through the proposed cuts program to cries of "shame!" from a packed public gallery.

Southport visiter

Nina and I spoke to Tom Bristow and had our picture taken for Friday's Visiter about SACC so look out for us!

Nina also attended the demo at bootle town hall and took some videos and pictures. We'll write this up in more detail soon but the local response was reportedly good with numbers having to be limited at the meeting and labour councillors promising to vote against all cuts. UNISON also made proposals about possible alternatives to cutting jobs and services.

southport anti cuts email blocked!

The email address attached to this blog - southportanticuts@hotmail.co.uk has apparently been blocked for unexplained "unusual activity" hopefully this problem is fixed now but you can always contact me by leaving a comment on this site or the facebook group - www.facebook.com/pages/Southport-Anti-Cuts-Coalition/180280585320389?v=wall

County court and magistrates' courts to close

As part of the government's cuts programme both Southport's county court and the magistrates' court are to be closed, it has been announced today. The national programme of court closures will see access to county and magistrates' courts (within an hour) reduced by 5% from 90% to 85% according to the BBC. I am assuming this is based on a car journey of less than an hour and this could possibly make access to county and magistrates' courts very difficult for the most vulnerable people and those reliant on public transport, which is also facing cuts and price hikes. We have already seen how inaccessible services can become if they are moved even a short distance away through the difficulty of having our children's hospital services moved to ormskirk. This is a cut we need to oppose. It leaves southport residents without proper access to legal representation. The cuts to legal aid will only compound the problem.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11993436

Botanic Museum Petition, The Full Council Meeting and UNISON rally.

I've just handed in my personal copy of the Southport Party's petition against the closure of the Botanic Gardens Museum. Southport Anti Cuts Coalition managed to collect 296 physical signatures and 6 email signatures. John Lee informed me that David Cobham has already collected 1100. Thanks everybody for their help and if you would like to add your support it isn't too late.

The full council meeting to decide the fate of the museum and other things in Sefton is being held on 16th december (Thursday). Please come along to the public meeting to speak in support of the museum. The Southport Party will be presenting the petition at this meeting in Bootle Town Hall scheduled to begin at 6.30pm on Thursday.

The agenda is here:
http://modgov.sefton.gov.uk/moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=143&MId=5375


Bootle Town Hall is on oriel road - L20 7AE

UNISON and PCS etc are holding a mass lobby demonstration at the town hall from 4pm. There will be representatives from the unions and Sefton Green Party there. Please come along and support this action which says no to cuts in Sefton, not just the botanic, but also other things like Sefton new directions. Our council has been told to make £38million in savings these cuts are unprecendented and will affect all of our lives. We are yet to find out where savings are going to made and what the precise consequences of the cuts will be. UNISON is going to produce a leaflet with alternatives to the cuts in Sefton.

Nina from SACC will be at the Demo this afternoon.

http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news/sefton_workers_rally_to_save_l.aspx

Anti cuts action

There is a march and a rally which is meeting outside Liverpool Metropolitan cathedral at 11am on Saturday 11th December.

There is also a demonstration organised by PCS and Unison to be held in Bootle on 16th December 2010.

The council are holding a meeting in bootle town hall to decide the fate of the botanic museum on 16th. John Lee of the southport party has very kindly emailed us a petition which needs to be back with him by Sunday so it can be presented on Monday. If anyone would like a copy of the petition please email me. You can complete it and email it back to me by Sunday or stick it through my letterbox at my home address (will give it out on request) and I'll sort it out.

If you would like your demonstration or event to appear here just e-mail me the details; Southportanticuts@hotmail.co.uk

First Meeting

The first meeting of the Southport Anti Cuts Coalition will be on 10th January 2011 at The Windmill pub on Seabank Road Southport at 8pm. Please e-mail if your organisation would like to send a representative : Southportanticuts@hotmail.co.uk

Feel free to turn up on the night. Individuals concerned about cuts are welcome as are representatives of any and all political parties, unions and local or national businesses. In the meantime it would be great if people could e-mail me their stories about any cuts to public services, institutions, welfare etc which have already occurred and are occurring now. If I want to publish them on the blog I will contact you first but it will be useful for setting the agenda for the first meeting.

The intention is not to interfere with any work any other organisations are doing but to help unify various groups so efforts can be organised and unified rather than separate and divisive. Just knowing what other people are doing can be helpful but currently there is no umbrella organisation which acts in this way in southport.

I'll put up details of the Agenda and attendance as and when I get them. The first suggestion is local opposition to the closing of the botanic gardens nursery - what are people doing, what has been done and what needs to be done?

Also, and perhaps more broadly, I am inviting local headteachers to come to this first meeting to speak a little about how their school will be affected by government cuts. I think the botanic gardens museum closure ties in with this since it is used by the schools as a teaching aid and demonstrates well how it is not just cuts to school budgets which affect education.

Hopefully there will be at least one doctor to speak about the nhs too.