The Graig Factor
The newsletter of the Graig Socialist Party
issue no. 1 June 2011
Local politicians think we don’t care.... ...but really we just don’t care for them! Now on the 30th of June 100,000s of workers will take strike action over the governments plans to attack their pensions and this will include many workers throughout Rhondda Cynon Taff.
The turnout for the recent Welsh Assembly elections were down from the elections four years ago. All the politicians in Rhonndda Cynon Taf seem to think its because we don’t care! How wrong could they be? The reality of the situation is that the turnout was down because we had no real choice to make in the elections, the four main parties in Wales have become virtually indistiguishable from each other, all offering an array of cuts for us to choose from. The only choice we were given was who would weild the axe that makes the cuts, but most people don’t want the cuts in the
Members of the National Union of Teachers, University and College Union, Public and Comercial Services union amonsgt others will be taking strike action to defend their pensions.. first place. The flipside of the coin is that on March 26th of this year over 700,000 people marched through central London (including hundreds if not thousands from RCT) in opposition to the cuts, yet this has recieved very little media attention, instead the politicians blissfully ignore this and simply pretend we don’t care, but really we ust don’t care for them or their cuts!
It is clear that we all need to fight back now to defend our future. We won’t get any help from the council thats for sure. The council claim that they are against the cuts and want to sheild them from us, but then they pushed through savage cuts to the wages of the 10,000 strong workforce and still have a surplus of £2 million! Hardly fighting the cuts!
PUBLIC MEETING The fight to defend the NHS Come along and hear how the Welsh Assembly want to cut over £1 billion from the NHS, but more importantly how we can fight to stop this.
Wednesday 8th June, 7.30pm, Pontypridd Museum
rctsocialist.blogspot.com
The Graig Factor
The newsletter of the Graig Socialist Party
issue no. 1 June 2011
Page 2
Last time around when the Labour administration in Cardiff tried to reorganise the NHS they proposed to ‘reorganise’ the Prince Charles and Royal Glamorgan hospitals, which effectively meant closing down half of each hospital!
Not enough cash in the elderly to bother A local care home, Ty Gwynno is facing the threat of closure along with other care homes run by Southern Cross which will leave the elderly residents with no home! The reasons behind this are simple, taking care of the elderly doesn’t make as much money as they thought and these privatised care homes are putting the lives of people in serious jeopardy in their serious pursuit of profits at our expense.
It is clear that we can not rely on any of the main parties in Wales to defend us from the cuts. The council had a real choice, they could have refused to implement the cuts and fought against the con -dem government. Instead they made savage cuts to council workers’ living standards and raised the council tax whilst they were at it!
NHS It seems that nothing is safe in the hands of politicians now. The Welsh Assembly government who claim to be protecting us from the effects of the cuts have committed themselves to making £1.9 billion worth of cuts to the funding of the NHS. There are no two ways about it, this will mean massive cuts in the service provision and cuts in jobs, pay and conditions for those who work for the NHS.
“There is a real choice for Labour councillors to make in RCT either they are against the cuts or not, if they are against the cuts then don’t implement them. Set a budget based on the needs of people and we will fight alongside you, if you don’t we will fight against you!”
At the same time as this Veolia Transport are to cut several bus routes in RCT which includes the services run through Graig, to Penycoedcae and the bus service to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. Once again making the most vulnerable pay the price because the routes are not profitable. Both these questions beg the question, why are these public services in the hands of these vultures who will only run them if it makes them a tidy profit
Glyn Matthews, Welsh Assembly candidate for TUSC
At the time Socialist Party members campaigned against the ‘reorganisation’ and eventually the proposals were dropped. Already we have received a great response from our regular campaign stalls in Taff Street, but we need more people to get involved with the campaign.
If you like what you read then why not get in touch with us, and you could get involved. You can contact us by calling 07931955007 or e-mailing glyn.matthews.rct@gmail.com. You can also take a look at our blog the address is below.
rctsocialist.blogspot.com