In the last two branch meetings held in Barnstaple, members of North Devon Socialist Party met to plan ahead in the coming months.  Topics for discussion included anti-cuts campaigning, the world situation, and many other matters, but the main purpose of the meetings was to discuss our approach to the May council elections and to the Socialist Party national congress, which is held at the end of the month.

On the elections, it was decided that, in the current crucial period, North Devon Socialist Party should put forward two candidates for the District and Town councils in May, under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) banner.  We intend to campaign intensively in the two council wards we have selected, trying to meet and talk with as many of those living in the ward as possible.  We view the standing of TUSC candidates, in North Devon and elsewhere, as crucial to building the anti-cuts movement.  TUSC can provide a genuine anti-cuts alternative to the other parties, which all vote through cuts in the council chambers.  We intend to present a detailed, practical programme that TUSC councillors would push for in the council chamber, and wider anti-cuts movement.

The candidates we selected were Paul Dyer, an active and experienced trade unionist and campaigner, who is heavily involved in the anti-cuts movement in North Devon and nationally, and Doug Lowe, who serves as co-chair of North Devon Anti-Cuts Alliance.  Both candidates have signed the Anti-Cuts Election Pledge.

On Party congress, as always, we thoroughly discussed the documents being presented to Congress, and voted on them, and on the identity of our delegate to the Congress.  The National Congress is the major decision-making body of the Socialist Party, where the direction of the party is democratically-decided.  There will be a report on the Congress at the beginning of March on this website.

Meanwhile, we continue to work to build the anti-cuts movement, and the next major event for this is a protest against the savage cuts budget proposed by the County Council.  We call on all those opposed to the cuts to join North Devon Anti-Cuts Alliance and Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance outside County Hall in Exeter, 1.30pm - 3.30pm on Thursday 17th February.

NSSN anti-cuts conference

Saturday 22 January 2011

11.30am - 3.30pm

South Camden Community School

Charrington Street, London NW1 1RG (by Euston Station)

www.shopstewards.net

Contact us socialistpartydevon [at] gmail.com if you are interested in going.

Socialist Party members across Devon have been busy helping to build anti-cuts campaigns in Exeter, North Devon and Plymouth.  Below are some brief reports on events so far:

Exeter

On Tuesday 9 November over 70 people attended the Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance launch meeting. This alliance was established as a federal, bottom-up organisation by members of the Socialist Party and other trade union activists.

The alliance's aims are to lead the fight back against the unfair and unnecessary Con-Dem cuts and unite workers, youth and the community in the struggle.

The meeting was a great success. The speakers included Phil Chadwick from the CWU, who outlined the devastating affect privatisation of Royal Mail would have on communities; Rob Edwards from Youth Fight for Jobs who inspired the meeting with historical examples of the anti-cuts battle of Liverpool city council in the 1980s and the anti-Poll Tax movement a few years later; and Phil Bialyk from the RMT who pointed out the nonsense of Tory claims that we are "all in it together".

Mark Baker from the PCS NEC was the last speaker. He covered the dire need for united national trade union action and pointed out the TUC's lack of leadership.

He therefore urged others to support the PCS in calling for a national demonstration as soon as possible.

The discussion was equally as electric with comments about the situation of the Irish working class, the need for public activity and the task of building more anti-cuts organisations.

It was unfortunate that the Labour leader of Exeter city council who came into the discussion, refused to answer whether he would be making cuts, disgustingly calling the policy of 'no cuts' as "populist".

However as Andrew Duncan, a member of the Labour Party and on the steering committee of the Anti-cuts Alliance, said: "We will take a logical position; if councillors are against cuts we will support them, if they are for cuts though, we will fight them and even stand against them in the next election".

North Devon - http://northdevonanticuts.wordpress.com

The North Devon Anti-Cuts Alliance has now held several organising meetings, with new members and ideas at every one.  Our initial work has been to build the movement by getting out onto the streets talking to people, and distributing our leaflets arguing against the lies of the ConDem government and the media.  We have also intervened in several meetings held by the County Council called 'Tough Choices', where we challenged the logic behind the cuts and called for the council to set a no cuts budget.  Plenty of activity is planned for the coming months, including protests, a public meeting, and plenty of getting the ideas out to people, most of all the fact that we can defeat these cuts.

Plymouth

Socialist Party members are involved in the Plymouth Right to Work campaign, but have also held their own anti-cuts public meeting and more recently, a rally against education cuts.  Anti-cuts work in Plymouth involves combining such meetings with regular stalls in the City Centre.