Hundreds march against Caerphilly council cuts

Build the pressure!

By Geraint Thomas

“Save our ‘stute”, chanted the hundreds marching through the town of Blackwood against the eye-watering £45m cuts proposed by Caerphilly council (see article). Cheered on by passers by, onlookers, and cars, the march rally took place at the square overlooked by the threatened Blackwood miners’ institute.
The working class people from across the community were rightly furious at these cuts, and took up our leaflets and papers happily. People understand the callousness of the cuts, and the effect that gutting these services and institutions would have on the community. The waste of going through consultants, as well as the winter fuel payment cuts by Westminster, came up regularly in our conversations.
This only highlights that the governments (now Labour at every level) do not care about working class communities’ needs. At least, not enough to take on the interests of big business instead.
Although a Plaid Cymru Senedd member and councillor spoke at the rally in support of the campaign, we know that they do not have any fundamental answers to the question of austerity. In practice they are likely to carry out different cuts instead of no cuts.
It’s never been more clear that every gain made, every service ran by councils, have been won by working class struggle. The anger was palpable, and people were looking for a lead from the unions, as we are ready to fight to keep what we have left.
We in particular think that the council workers’ unions and branches across the area call for the following:

• A consultative ballot for industrial action against all service cuts.
• Build for support across the borough
• A follow up lobby of the council.
• Suspension of funding for any councillors supporting the austerity package, and suspension from the unions of which they are members.
• Caerphilly council to launch a campaign to demand sufficient funding from Welsh and UK governments to maintain services and restore previous cuts
• Demand support from the trade union movement at a regional and national level. Call for serious pressure on the Senedd and Westminster to fork up the cash. If Labour MSs and MPs won’t support our communities, we should ask why our unions are affiliated to them, and why we don’t have a party of our own instead