16.11.1995

Labour mafia in Scotland

TO HAVE a vision of Britain under Labour control, you only need to look at the job the new Labour councils are doing in Scotland. Labour-controlled authorities are poised to impose swingeing cuts in services coupled with massive council tax increases. Workers face redundancy and schools will be closed.

And it is no good just blaming the Tories, as no extra money has been earmarked by Blair to bail out the new unitary authorities. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) is proposing a ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ solution which will “balance funding levels” across the 29 authorities for a transitional period of three years. This would give additional support to Scotland’s four cities to the detriment of smaller non-Labour authorities. And still, the financial shortfall will be large.

The only way to maintain what Labour’s town hall bureaucrats call a “legal” budget is to make cuts and increase taxation. The thought of saying, ‘Stuff the legal budget - let us fight for working class needs!’ has never entered their traitorous little heads.

In Dundee alone the shortfall will be at least £12 million. Two secondary and four primary schools, a child and family centre, and an old people’s home are being targeted for closure as a means of saving money.

The school closure proposals are particularly significant, as the local Labour Party has had “no school closures” as a manifesto commitment for the last ten years. In fact, when Labour first came to power in Tayside Region in 1986, it was as the result of a campaign against proposed Tory school closures. Many of the Labour activists who were part of that campaign have been bought off with council seats or council jobs, or have since left the party.

The Labour leadership in Dundee and throughout the county are gutless and ineffectual. We must offer the working class a real alternative. Kate McLean, the leader of Dundee’s new council, has called for support from Tory and SNP councillors in imposing these cuts. She has said that there will be a formal consultation exercise with the communities involved.

We must work for a massive mobilisation of people to picket and disrupt the council’s budget early next year.

Mary Ward