Nursery cuts campaign launch

"Enough is enough. It's time for the working class to make a stand!" Gloria from the striking Unique care workers set the tone for an evening of class anger. This was at a meeting to launch the election campaign of anti-cuts campaigner Mel Mills, in the Ashbrow ward of Huddersfield.

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge

Mel, a campaigner against nursery cuts, has the support of all who use and work at the three nurseries that are threatened with closure. She also has the support of the striking Unique workers and huge support in the local community. Mel spoke of the experience of working class mums having to choose which bill to pay each week, of robbing Peter to pay Paul, which saw almost every head in the room nod.

She described her previous experience of voting, when you tick a box and just hope for the best, not having any faith in the parties, and the room nodded again.

It is no accident that the nursery campaigners have taken the momentous and crucial step from being campaigners to becoming canvassers in the election. They have seen Labour, Liberals and Tories competing over who is the most useless.

Every speaker at the meeting made the point that Save Huddersfield NHS councillor and Socialist Party member Jackie Grunsell is totally different.

She has been a lone voice on the council, standing up against the cuts, bringing women from Unique and the nursery campaign to the council to get their voices heard. This meeting marked the end of accepting the status quo and the start of finding a voice.

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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
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