The Mayor has presented the budget, but we can still stop the cuts!
Town Hall (Catford), 6:30PM, Monday 29 Nov.
Come and tell the councillors to vote against the cuts, outside (and inside) the council meeting. No closures of libraries, Early Childhood centres, Open Doors advice services, no job losses, no privatisation!
We know many councillors do not want cuts, but feel pressured into voting for them. Our message to them is simple: Vote for what you believe in, how would you even consider any other action?
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LEWISHAM ANTI CUTS ALLIANCE PRESS RELEASE
NO TO CUTS IN JOBS, BENEFITS AND PUBLIC SERVICES
LOBBY of the FULL COUNCIL
MONDAY 29 NOVEMBER
6.30 pm, TOWN HALL, CATFORD
On Wednesday 17th November Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance alongside several trade unions: NUT, Unison, GMB, Unite and UCU lobbied the Mayor & Cabinet where Steve Bullock agreed to at least £16m cuts in public spending.
He will present his budget to full council on 29th November where Labour Party councillors have the chance to defend the people they were elected to represent and vote against the budget and every single cut contained in it.
Steve Bullock is clear that this is just the beginning and that cuts could exceed the predicted £60 over three years.
We believe that these cuts will have a devastating effect on people’s lives. Services such as Opening Doors, 5 libraries and a children’s centre are earmarked for the first phase of the cuts. In the 2nd phase there will be a reduction in Early Years provision adult social care, temporary housing accommodation, libraries as well as many other services which improve the lives of people who live, work and study in Lewisham.
We are told that these draconian cuts imposed by central government upon Lewisham local authority, are necessary because of high levels of UK debt. However we do not accept the inevitability of these cuts. The poor are being made to pay for a financial crisis, which was caused by the greed for profit. The money to offset the debt is available through avoided and uncollected tax, the banking assets that are now owned by the UK government after the banking bailout.
Steve Bullock says on his bog that: “I am clear that my highest priority is to try and protect those whose needs are greatest”. We think that he and other Labour Party councillors should extend their duty to defending all their constituents who overwhelmingly voted for them in the last election and refuse to pass this cuts budget.
Lewisham Ant Cuts Alliance is lobbying the council on Monday 29th November to send this message to Labour Party councillors in particular: “ Don’t vote for the budget. Don’t tell the people of Lewisham that there is no alternative. Join us in helping to build the anti cuts movement by mobilising unions, tenants associations, and community activists with the central demand that the coalition government restores the money for local services.”
Lewisham borough is not a safer place to live even though they cut all the local services.