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Great solidarity shown at Oxford Cuts meeting

adelayde | 14.09.2010 15:01 | Public sector cuts | Workers' Movements | Oxford

Oxford Save Our Services meeting, which took place last night was the first step in building a great local movement of solidarity, support and resistance in light of the heinous public sector cuts proposed by the current UK government.



People began to arrive a little bit before the scheduled start time of 6.30pm to find the room in at the Friends Meeting House on St Giles resplendent with plates of sandwiches, crisps and juice. There was much anticipation in the air as people met new people, saw old faces and saw that they were in reality not alone in their fear and disgust at the Cuts.

Approximately fifty people in total attended the meeting, which postponed its start until 7pm to ensure that everyone were there it for the start. The meeting was attended by local Oxford citizens from all walks of society, including those working in the public and voluntary sectors, who are already or will be directly affected by the savage cuts proposed by central government and city and county councils.

After an introduction where it was explained that Oxford Save Our Services was formed immediately following the announcement of the cuts due to deep concern over the massive impact they will have on the community and the poorest people within it, especially those on benefits or living in council accommodation. To illustrate the impact already seen, it was mentioned that already schools and parks projects in Barton have been halted, care centres closed and that all speed cameras within Oxfordshire county have been turned off.

During the first part of the meeting, "Mapping the cuts", people got together in groups to discuss how they are or may be affected by cuts in services in the Oxford area, as well as what their immediate fears were, based on both confirmed and announced cuts and hearsay.

Voices from many parts of the community were heard, including:

* Local employers and business people worried about the loss of support for local businesses due to abolition of the regional development agencies and possible cuts to services such as Business Link and the loss of Local Employment Partnerships.
* those working in the care sector seeing their own organisations having to decimate staff numbers and wondering not only how to support themselves in unemployment, but also who would be helping those most vulnerable in our communities, once they no longer could. For example, workers at South and Vale Carers ( http://www.svcarers.org.uk/) have heard that their organisation is to cut staff from 45 to just six.
* students concerned that rising fees will cause many people not to enter further education and mean that those mid-income-earners that do will be in debt for much of their early working lives.
* those working in local hospitals who have heard the demands for huge cost savings and who believe them to be 'impossible to implement' (refer to  http://www.keepournhspublic.com/index.php).

During these discussions, it was heard time and time again that the argument in question was not which services should be cut, but whether ANY services should be cut at all.

The meeting went on to show the video produced by No Shock Doctrine for Britain ( http://www.noshockdoctrine.org.uk/) that criticises George Osborne, David Cameron and the rest of the Con-Dem Coallition Government for policy based on dogma rather than sound economic sense. The video was well received by all and seemed to strike a chord with what everyone themselves had been thinking.

There followed are more in-depth session on whether the Cuts are necessary, what alternatives to cuts there could be and what we can do next.

Overall, all there showed great solidarity and sympathy with each other and great determination to stand up and fight these ill-thought and dogmatic cut proposals. The meeting showed that Oxford Save Our Services is a movement with a future and that everyone is both concerned and heavily opposed to what is happening and being planned.

Watch that space!

adelayde
- Homepage: http://oxfordsos.org.uk/

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Thanks to all the organisers

14.09.2010 17:21

Well done to everyone who came along. These cuts can and must be fought.

the magnificent spider of doom


What next?

14.09.2010 18:16

I was at the meeting, and was really pleased to see that I wasn't alone in think both that the cuts are wrong and that we can do something to stop them. It was also great to see such a variety of different people from all sorts of backgrounds there.

At the end of the meeting there were quite a lot of 'what next' dates given out. I've forgotten many of them, but two of the most important seemed to be ...

=============================
Next Oxford Save Our Services meeting
=============================
Monday 27 September. 7.00pm. Venue to be confirmed. (There were so many people at this meeting that the organisers seem to need to revise their original plans and find a bigger venue. Nice problem to have!)

===============================
National day of action to save our services
===============================
20 October (the day of the Comprehensive Spending Review. There's definitely a big 'do' in London, but hopefully stuff in Oxford as well. You and me will know more if we get to the Oxford SoS meeting on 27 Sept.

Resist


We can also take the fight to the Tory party conference

15.09.2010 19:34

Tory cuts wreck lives

Demonstrate at
Tory Party Conference
3rd October

Supported by Oxford Right to Work
Oxfordshire UNISON Health branch, Oxfordshire NUT,
South Central No1 CWU
and Oxford & District Trades Council

Book your coach seat c/o the website

Ian Mckendrick
mail e-mail: contact@oxfordrighttowork.org.uk
- Homepage: http://oxfordrighttowork.org.uk/


Dates for your diary

16.09.2010 22:18

Hi thanks to everyone that came, took part and contributed to this event. By acting together as a community, locally and also nationally we can defeat these reckless and destructive cuts before they happen.

Dates for the diary
23 September 7pm Town Hall Oxford Trades Council open community meeting for all groups and unions against the cuts

27 September Save Our Services next campaign meeting. Let's put all those amazing ideas into action, join the meeting and donate the skills we have between us

20 October Day of action against the cuts, when unions, community groups, NGOs, campaigns and
faith groups across the UK will act together to display a defence of public services that we all rely on.

Hope to see you soon!

jumbo
mail e-mail: jimcranshaw@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.oxfordsos.org.uk


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