Tag Archives: austerity

By Mark Evans, Swansea and West Wales Socialist Party My family’s recent experience of the NHS was an example of what most people know – the NHS in Wales is on the critical list. My wife’s mother suffered a fall and, after waiting for five-and-a-half hours for an ambulance, then spent over five days on a trolley in A&E with ...

By Alec Thraves Swansea Unite retired members branch, probably one of the largest and most active trade union branches in Wales, invited our new Swansea West Labour MP and recently promoted Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell, to address our meeting on the performance of first seven months of the Starmer government. Around 30 Unite members, ex- shop stewards, conveners and activists, ...

By Aris Prevost (Cardiff University Socialist Students) Cardiff University has announced a massive slate of cuts, with up to 400 jobs at risk, along with entire courses facing closure. The School of Music, Nursing, Modern Languages, and the School of Religion and Theology are set to be completely cut. And other courses are being combined into new schools, a cover ...

By Dan Townsend (Pontypridd, RCT Socialist Party) Storm Bert has left communities across South Wales reeling. Streets have turned into rivers, homes are waterlogged, and Pontypridd’s lido – lovingly restored after the 2019-20 floods – is once again in ruins. While the destruction may seem natural, the root causes are anything but. RCT’s valleys, historically shaped by industry, now bear ...

By Joe Fathallah (Socialist Party National Committee) Keir Starmer’s New Labour government has announced its plans to raise tuition fees for the first time in nearly ten years. And such is the depth of crisis in university finances, this will not be enough to solve the funding crisis in higher education. Uni bosses will still go ahead and attempt to ...

By Mariam Kamish (RCT Socialist Party) Like most councils in Britain, RCT Council faces a funding gap, after years of austerity under Tory and Labour governments. And councillors are proposing devastating cuts. The Labour council is trying to divide us. The consultation process asks you to explain how a cut or closure would affect you – and where you think ...

In an unusual move, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publicly praised Rachel Reeves’s first Budget speech as ‘sustainable’. Meanwhile, the editorial of the main newspaper of British capitalism, the Financial Times, welcomed it as having “begun to fix the foundations of Britain’s economy from a difficult starting point”. When sources like this praise a Budget, working-class people can be certain ...

By Dave Reid Labour-run Caerphilly council has doubled down on its £45 million cuts agenda by announcing 600 job losses at the authority. This follows threats to close meals on wheels, Blackwood Miners’ Institute and Llancaiach Fawr house (as reported in The Socialist Issues 1287-1292). At its latest meeting the Labour administration gave in to pressure not to close the ...

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 ...

By Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council (in a personal capacity) Caerphilly Council’s cabinet is proposing to close two South Wales Valleys cultural icons and end an essential service to the community. Not out of financial necessity – but on the advice of a consultancy firm. The plans – out for public consultation until 10 September – include the closure ...