5.30pm, Tuesday 22 June outside Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, Hove
On 22 June the government will unleash its “emergency budget” – £Billions of public sector cuts. This really is an emergency. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost on top of already soaring unemployment, public services will suffer enormously as resources are stripped out and our welfare state is dismantled.
On 22 June the government will unleash its “emergency budget” – £Billions of public sector cuts. This really is an emergency. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost on top of already soaring unemployment, public services will suffer enormously as resources are stripped out and our welfare state is dismantled.
The problems with debt were created by huge bank bailouts but it is going to be the working class that foots the bill. After the second world war, with even higher debt, the NHS and the welfare state was created. But now it seems debt will be used as the excuse to pull them apart while we continue to spend money on Trident nuclear submarines and while letting the super rich evade taxes.
We are protesting to say to the government that we won’t pay for the crisis, and to tell our councillors that their job is to represent us, not push through government cuts. All 54 of Brighton and Hove's councillors have been invited to attend and asked to support our demands. Come along on the 22 June to:
• Protect Jobs
• Defend Public Services
• Bring trade unions and campaigns together to organise a fight back against this Con-Dem government.
• Defend Public Services
• Bring trade unions and campaigns together to organise a fight back against this Con-Dem government.
This demonstrated has been organised by Brighton, Hove and District Trades Union Council and is supported by Unison, PCS, RMT and GMB trade unions, and Right To Work, Keep Our NHS Public, Youth Fight For Jobs and Brighton Benefits Campaign community campaign groups.
Contact: brightontradescouncil@gmail.com for more details.
And here's the letter sent out to all 54 councillors...
Dear councillor,
I am writing on behalf of Brighton, Hove and District Trades Union Council regarding the threat that many of our thousands of affiliated members in the city and our communities face from cuts in public sector spending.
On Tuesday 22 June the new coalition government will unveil its cuts budget. We have no doubt of the devastating effects these cuts will have on jobs and public services if they are carried out.
As these cuts make their way into local government budgets the task of carrying them out will fall to our 54 councillors. As a councillor currently serving office, your actions will affect the lives of thousands of workers, unemployed and everyone who relies on our public services in the city.
On budget day, 5.30pm Tuesday 22 June, we have organised alongside unions and community campaigns a lobby outside the standards committee meeting at Hove Town Hall to demand that all 54 councillors, as representatives serving the people of Brighton and Hove, refuse to vote through any cuts budget.
We would therefore like to invite you to attend and address the lobby on budget day to publicly agree to vote down any budget presented to the city council that will result in:
· Redundancies in the council workforce
· Cuts to the council’s public spending budget
· The privatisation of any part of the public sector
· Attacks on pay, pensions and working conditions of council workforce
· Increases in Council Tax
Ever since the trades’ council was established 120 years ago we have organised pickets, boycotts, public meetings, fundraising, protests and demonstrations to promote the interests of Brighton’s working population and the community as a whole. We will support our councillors in any campaign which aims to secure the necessary funding from central government to make sure the potential cuts outlined above are not carried out.
Please RSVP, if you would like to attend and speak at the demonstration or otherwise, to brightontradescouncil@gmail.com
Yours Faithfully,
Bill North
General Secretary, Brighton Hove and District Trades Union Council
