Leicester TUSC Street Ballot: 100% Against Cuts

Listen to the people! That’s the message that local Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) affiliate, Leicester Independent Councillors Against Cuts, will be taking to a council budget-setting meeting on Wednesday 25 February.

For any Labour councillors willing to listen, the Leicester TUSC street ballot on Saturday 21st February sent a clear message: Leicester voters want their representatives to stop voting for Tory cuts and start fighting for the people.

Seventy-five people participated in our ballot. Not one of them wanted the Labour councillors to make Tory cuts; 100% of them voted that they want “representatives who will fight the cuts”.

Unfortunately, however, it appears that they won’t get that from their elected Labour representatives. Just like in the run-up to last year’s cuts budget, not one Labour councillor has spoken out against projected cuts of £50 million over the next three years, let alone indicated a willingness to vote against them.

The only defence they can offer for their failure to fight Con-Dem cuts is to claim that it is better that they make the cuts than somebody else does. People we spoke to on Saturday were furious that all Labour councillors are getting paid to vote for millions of pounds of cuts to our jobs and services.

The people of Leicester we balloted are saying to their councillors that they expect them to vote against Con-Dem cuts on Wednesday. That’s why Leicester two current TUSC councillors, Wayne Naylor and Barbara Potter, will be attempting to pass a no-cuts amendment to the city’s budget setting meeting this Wednesday.

Cllr Naylor and Cllr Potter’s amendment demands an increase in funding for public services. No cuts are necessary in Leicester, so come along to the lobby of the budget meeting (from 4pm at the Town Hall) and show your support for their impending face-off with the Labour Council.