Spokesperson Gary Mulcahy stated “The Consumer Council has claimed the NI Executive has to find £1.2billion in cuts to public services and are inviting selected individuals to attend this meeting to hear where cuts should be made. We understand the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson approached the Consumer Council to hold these events which will lay the basis for a consultation on where cuts should be made.
“The Stop the Cuts Alliance believes it is an abuse of taxpayers money to use the Consumer Council to argue that the NI Executive has to make cuts and to organise meetings in support of cuts. The cuts the NI Executive has already carried out this year has led to closures of accident and emergency units in Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey hospitals, the closure of libraries and cuts across all public services. The cuts which are expected to be announced in the Autumn will be devastating for ordinary people and will plunge the economy deeper into recession.
“The Stop the Cuts Alliance is uniting trade unionists, socialist and community activists across Northern Ireland to resist the cuts. The economic crisis was not caused by workers and local communities who will be hit hard by cuts. The recession is the fault of the wealthy bankers and speculators who have been bailed out with billions of our money.
“The Consumer Council is promoting the argument of the Tories and the parties in the Executive that cuts have to be made. The Stop the Cuts Alliance will be picketing this meeting, leafleting those attending to explain why all cuts must be opposed and will raise our objections to the meetings inside.”
The current battle over pensions is a defining one for our movement. Over two million workers from 24 unions took action together on 30th November in the biggest show of strength in living memory.
The one-day public-sector strike on 30 November is expected to involve nearly four million workers – the biggest single day of industrial action in Britain’s history. In the face of the Con-Dem coalition’s savage austerity, public-sector workers are preparing for a hard struggle to defend pensions, services, pay and conditions. This represents a potentially momentous turning point.