Birmingham Against The Cuts - Another Productive Meeting

Last night was another very productive meeting of the Birmingham Against The Cuts group.

Budget Cuts

There was a lengthy report on the main features of the Council's £100m + cuts plan for 2012/3 including :

Adoption & Fostering - £1m cuts
Childrens Placements - £6.7m cuts. The consultation on the strategy has just closed.
Home Care & Adult Social Care Services - 118 home care jobs cut and a plan to privatise all adult care services
Shelforce - £2m cuts and jobs of disable workers threatened. Awaiting a Cabinet report
Adult Education - cuts of around 172 jobs threatened
Connexions - compulsory redundancies stopped but still up to £4m cuts
Leisure Centres - threatened with privatisation
Libraries - 28% cut in funding.

BATC is preparing a leaflet for the public highlighting 5 - 6 major areas of cuts around which we will be campaigning. There was discussion about preparing a Pledge which the public can send to their councillors about addressing the cuts in key areas.

We are also supporting a street protest in the city centre on the Chancellor's Budget Day, 21st March. We understand that PCS will be holding a protest too.

Connexions and Youth Unemployment

Charlie Friel, the UNISON Connexions convenor gave a report on the victory over threatened compulsory redundancies and the continuing financial cuts. He made really important point about the continuing need to campaign against youth unemployment. He said the the 16 - 24 year olds (a period of 8 years) have around 1.1 million unemployed. The remaining age range from 25 to 65 (40 years) have around 1.7 million unemployed. That's a startling reality check of the harsh effects of the crisis on a new generation of workers.

Privatisation of Leisure and Sports Services

Then we considered the £200 million Leisure and Sports services privatisation plan by the Council. People were genuinely outraged. The Handsworth BATC Group was quick off them mark in holding a protest stall outside Handsworth centre Saturday. They were amazed at the response from the public and quickly collected over 200 signatures to a petition opposing the privatisation.

Now BATC has asked all its local groups to hold a protest stall outside as many leisure centres as they can on Saturday 10 March. The details of local arrangements will be posted on the BATC website.

Workfare

Local anti-workfare groups, including Right to Work and the UKUncut organisation are organising a series of events :

Saturday 3 March outside Poundland in Union Passageway, City Centre
Wednesday 7 March 7.00pm a Kings Heath Anti-Workfare meeting at the All Saints Centre
Thursday 29 March Public Meeting at the Council House

NHS Bill

BATC will be organising a protest outside the City Road Hospital after work on March 7th to coincide with the national lobby against the NHS Bill. City Road are making huge cuts in health service budgets.

Save Our Railways

BATC is supporting a public meeting in late May/early June organised by the rail unions to highlight planned cuts in rails services and the massive hike in rail fares.

Saltley Gate Commemoration

The West Midlands Anti Cuts Groups are planning a weekend of events to mark the 40th Anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate at the end of June, with a special performance of the Banner Theatre Saltley Gates show and a Saturday campaigning and organising conference.

Impact of Cuts Against the LGBT Community

One of our BATC members is researching the impact of cuts on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. He has already identified cuts to homeless people, many of whom are LGBT; changes to housing and other benefits; cuts in spending on HIV and health services for transgender people; and the return of discrimination along the lines of the hated Section 28 in Free Schools. BATC will support leaflets and campaigning for the Birmingham Pride events later this year.

Next Meeting - Monday 12th March, 6.30pm, Birmingham UNISON Branch Office