Tag Archives: Caerphilly

By Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council Caerphilly Council, forced onto the defensive in the High Court on Thursday, showedcontempt for our small Valleys communities, fighting to hold onto libraries you can walk to.‘If you choose to live 12 miles down a farm track’, their barrister told the court, ‘that’s yourchoice!’ Such is the council’s scorn for the working class ...

By Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council  In scenes of pandemonium, the chair of Caerphilly Council’s Joint Scrutiny Committee shouted me down, demanded I leave the podium, and threatened to have me thrown out of the council’s 2026 budget meeting. I had called on councillors to break ranks and table a motion to overturn last year’s decision to close ten ...

By Geraint Thomas (Caerphilly Socialist Party) It was a crushing result for the capitalist establishment parties at the Caerphilly Senedd by-election on 23 October. Labour and the Tories together got a combined 13% of the vote. Together, they won the support of barely over 6.5% of the total electorate. Labour’s vote plummeted by 35.4 percentage points. The turnout, at 50.4%, ...

By Mariam Kamish As Labour leader of Caerphilly Council, Sean Morgan cut 600 jobs last September. Meals on Wheels and Blackwood Miners Institute only escaped Labour’s axe after massive protests organised by trade union Unison. Under his leadership, the council did manage to close the very popular Llancaiach Fawr manor house – an act of historic vandalism. And then they ...

By Mariam Kamish, Caerphilly Trades Union Council secretary ‘Rebel councillor’ Brenda Miles has joined campaigners marching to save the ten local libraries that Caerphilly Labour council wants to close or offload. Councillor Miles says this would put the council in breach of its statutory duty to provide library services. Our march set off led by local children dressed as story ...

Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council Caerphilly Council voted on 14 May to close ten libraries and one of three threatened leisure centres, two to stay open with reduced facilities and shorter hours. Caerphilly Trades Union Council and local campaigners are working to link up the local areas for a fight to save them all. For the second time in ...

By Mariam Kamish, Caerphilly Trades Council Secretary Public Debate! We had a hard time persuading a Plaid Cymru councillor to take part. Would Labour send someone to represent the council? In the end, they didn’t. But the room filled with people determined to save Abertridwr library. In the front row sat two young boys who’d come on their own. Posters shone ...

By Mariam Kamish “They don’t understand our lives – the people who make these decisions. Without the library, my granddaughter would be trying to concentrate on her homework, sat in front of the telly.” Caerphilly Labour council is closing ten libraries and three leisure centres. People are fighting to save Abertridwr library. ‘Use the hub library in Caerphilly’, the Labour ...

By Mariam Kamish Mariam Kamish, Caerphilly Trades Union Council secretary “Blackwood Miners’ Institute is staying open”, I told the meeting, “because people fought for it. Why not Aber Library? If we fight, we can win.” Eagerness wiped frustration off the faces around the room. “Put down your details”, I said, writing my own and passing on the sheet. “You can’t ...

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 ...