Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1152/33200
Excerpt from The Socialist newspaper, October 20, 2021
Brighton Bin Strike, 2013. Photo: Brighton SP (Click to enlarge)
Joe Mott, Brighton Socialist Party
Brighton bin strikers have voted to accept a deal that “ticks all the boxes and more”, according to GMB branch secretary Mark Turner. Yet the union accused the Green Minority-led council of being union busting by hiring private contractors to clean up the town center on Saturday, although the council cited health and safety concerns as the reason. Anyway, the atmosphere is not friendly.
The leader of the Green Council has refused to meet the negotiating team so far, and the strikers have been branded ‘terrorists’ by a local Tory councillor.
The Green-led council is set to cut more than £10million from the budget this year as part of a continued bid for Tory austerity. This latest attack on the terms and conditions of garbage workers was clearly the board looking for ways to cut costs.
Two weeks of industrial action led to the council conceding and offering a pay rise to a thousand council workers, as well as scrapping cost-cutting plans to change driver routes. It shows what can be gained through union action. Workers voted to suspend the action with immediate effect so that the deal goes in full through the council’s policy and resources committee.
Central government funding for the Council has been strangled during ten years of austerity. Without a fight back to demand the resources the city needs, the council will increasingly find itself in a battle with workers fighting to defend their jobs and services.
The Greens and Labor have shown they are unwilling to stand up for the working class. Brighton Labor councilors have voted in favor of green budget cuts this year. Brighton needs a budget that meets the needs of the city, decided by the community and the unions.
We need councilors willing to vote against the cuts and campaign with local people to demand central government money. That is why we are preparing a popular meeting on the budget and we are preparing to stand in the local elections in May within the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition.
Financial appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in many ways. It is clear to many that it is the working class that makes society work, not the CEOs of big business.
The results of austerity have been clearly demonstrated as public services struggle to cope with the crisis.
- Socialist Party hardware is more vital than ever, so we can continue to flag workers fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing, and more.
- We must be prepared for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm labor movements with a socialist program – a program that puts the health and needs of humanity ahead of the profits of the few.
Inevitably, during the crisis, we were unable to sell the socialist and raise funds as we normally would.
We therefore urgently call on all our viewers to donate to our Fight Fund.
In The Socialist of October 20, 2021:
News
Fight for a socialist recovery
The Conservatives responsible for the crisis of general practitioners
Container delay carnage argues for socialist planning
Socialist nationalization not bailouts for the bosses
Workplace News
Unite Trade Union Policy Conference
University workers vote to strike
Unite and fight for 30,000 permanent DWP jobs
Gwent Valleys Stagecoach bus drivers strike for fair pay
Reinstate Gary Evans! Llanelli postal strike
Napo AGM 2021: the union placed on a war footing
Scunthorpe quits strike to pay
The citizens’ budget
People’s budgets – a socialist response to cruel cuts
Brighton bin workers’ victory in sight
Fighting to defend homelessness services
Ealing’s popular budget – the cuts can be resisted
Northampton People’s Budget – cuts and privatization are a failed strategy
Fighting the cuts at the ballot box in Liverpool
fall of apartheid
The fall of apartheid in South Africa
Climate change
COP26: trade unions must fight for a socialist transition to renewable energies
Save the planet from capitalist climate catastrophe
International
Austria. Chancellor Kurz resigns amid corruption allegations
obituary
Obituary – Tony Davison: “I work for Militant, but Laing pays my salary”
Campaigns
“Are you the socialist taxi driver? »
Housing crisis: Conservatives and Labor are not on our side
Liverpool arms fair: Hundreds of protesters challenge police ‘dispersal zone’
Hackney Children’s Centers – more education cuts are devastating
The biggest protest yet to save Stratford Circus
Doncaster: Vigil condemns violence against women
Readers’ opinions
I am unemployed: for me, the vacancy crisis is a lie
TV Review: Squid Game
House
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