by Jay Coward, Prospective Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate for Lewisham mayor
Lewisham Labour council is closing the local shopping centre, replacing it with unaffordable housing. It is also planning £33 million of cuts, including: £9 million from children’s services, including £800,000 exclusively from disabled children; £850,000 cuts to adult social care; raising council tax by the maximum 5%; and reducing council tax support from 75% to 50%.
Photo: London SP
It’s a bleak slate of cuts. However, Lewisham Green Party mayoral candidate, Liam Shirastava, spoke before the council budget-setting meeting, voicing opposition to the cuts, saying he will fight them, if elected mayor.
We thought this was a prime opportunity to ask him to sign the trade unionist petition calling on Zack Polanski to instruct any Greens standing for May’s elections to take a no-cuts approach. A number of Greens at the protest outside the council were receptive to this. But Liam still hasn’t responded.
Liam proposed a £17,000 pay cut to the mayor and council cabinet salaries. However, that would still leave Liam with a £70,000 salary, if elected.
That’s hardly representative of people in Lewisham. And it’s a far cry from the pledge to take an average workers’ wage, which Socialist Party member Andy Beadle made when he stood as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate for Lewisham mayor in 2022.
Liam proposed using £2 million of reserves to avoid cuts. But how will this stop £33 million cuts? Even Lewisham Labour used £21 million of reserves to balance the budget last year.
We need no cuts. And to mobilise workers and young people to campaign for the funding our services need.
Without a commitment from Liam, that a Green mayor would do what is required to stand up to Starmer’s austerity, we have decided that we need to put forward a candidate campaigning to oppose, end, and reverse all cuts. I will be standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
Lewisham Shopping Centre should be renovated, not knocked down. Austerity and poverty must be combated, by the council using every possible tool – including borrowing and reserves – to reverse cuts and build a mass campaign to twist the government’s arm into paying up, instead of forcing workers to pick up the bill.
We need better, higher paid, and safer jobs and more of them, securing a £15-an-hour minimum wage. No more widespread unemployment, with only subpar pay being the alternative.
We need affordable, high-quality council housing for the thousands of people and families on the waiting list, and those who will be on it in future.
A council budget framed around the needs of its people will mean better pay, better and more housing, better and more jobs, accessible services and healthcare. Youth centres paid for by the council to keep kids off the street. And measures such as free school meals for all students.
We need a democratic, mass workers’ party, and a voice that fights for us, the working class. Jobs, homes, and services for all!