Jillian Creasy at Occupy Sheffield

Jillian Creasy spoke at the Rally for Occupy Sheffield, speaking out for Surestart, she said that “Women must fight the cuts!” The full text of her speech follows.

Rampant capitalism is ripping apart the fabric of society, destroying people and planet. Dave & Ed say they want “responsible capitalism”. I want “emasculated capitalism”. “Emasculate” means “castrate, effeminate” – that’s exactly what I mean!

The Coalition cuts, now supported by Labour, will affect women worst. I want to speak up for women – as paid & unpaid workers, as mothers, as elders.

• Paid workers
• - 2/3rd public sector workers are women – will be affected by the pay freeze.
• 50,000 of these (mostly women) earn less then £15k pa.
• Even these lowest paid will have to payer higher pension contributions.
• And in the private sector, ¾ women are not in a pension scheme at all.

• Unpaid workers
• 1 in 4 women in their 50s are caring for an elderly parent, saving the taxpayer and reducing their own earnings and pensions.
• Carers support services and advice services are being slashed: SCC is about to cut another 5% from the grants to voluntary groups; and if legal aid is cut, advice centres will be further harmed.

• Mothers
• The greatest unpaid job of all.
• Women no longer get Income Support if their children are less than 12 years old, and this will drop even further to 7 years old. They have to sign on for JSA (job seekers allowance).
• Surestart is under attack – less support for the most needy children and families.

• Sharrow Surestart
• 15% cuts last year, facing another 10% next year, have cut play and stay sessions, bilingual outreach workers.

• Elders
• Women live longer and have most to lose from cuts to adult social care.
• SCC will cut the adult social care budget by £15m, 2 old people’s homes are under threat, elderly and disabled people facing higher charges.
• Scandal of Southern Cross where care homes were used as pawn in money market.

• But women are fighting back
• The 30th November strike & rallies re public sector pensions & cuts – women were out in force.
• RCN (Royal College of Nursing) and RCGP (Royal College of GPs) (female chair, Clare Gerada) have called for Health and Social Care Bill to be withdrawn, spelling out that it is intended to privatise the NHS.

• Justice for All are fighting the cuts to legal aid and advice centres
• excellent conference in Sheffield yesterday (20th Jan)
•  (female) advice centre managers from across the north of England, lobbying the cabinet office and ministers.
• Sharrow Surestart is reaching out to local people to fight the cuts and fill the gaps.
• Disability Rights movement is growing in strength, locally disabled people are challenging the cuts to adult care services.
• Unions are collecting signatures to stop the closure of care homes.

So, take heart, and let’s emasculate capitalism!

Sheffield Greens, concerned that Housing Benefit cuts will mean Sheffield 6,700 people can no longer afford their rent, submitted a full council meeting question this week to ask what action the council would take?

From this month, the government is capping housing benefit payments across the private rented sector. Housing spokesperson Bernard Little, who asked the question comments

“Most people in receipt of housing benefit are pensioners, disabled people or families with children. It means that people on low incomes face the choice of cutting spending on food to pay their rent or having to move out of their home.

Most cuts will be about £10 a week. The Chartered Institute of Housing estimates an extra 6,700 properties in Sheffield will become un-affordable. In addition, single people up to the age of 35 will be expected to share accommodation, there will be extra cuts for people who have managed to find cheap accommodation and for very large families.

The Green Party believes there is no need for cuts in social welfare at the national level and that it is wrong to make people on the lowest incomes bear the highest cuts. We would make a far greater effort to provide much-needed social housing.

Locally, the Green Party would make the most of the discretionary funds available to the council, invest more in enforcement of standards in the private rented sector and extend energy efficiency schemes to reduce householders’ living costs.”

Peter Garbutt
Chair Sheffield & Rotherham Green Party

Simon Duffy runs the Centre for Welfare Reform in Sheffield, which works to “redesign the welfare state to increase social justice, promote citizenship, strengthen families and enrich our communities”. He is also a member of the Campaign for a Fair Society. He says :

“More than £7 billion of the total £27 billion which the Government is saving in Departmental budgets is to be borne by less than 3% of the people – those who are least able to bear these cuts”

Matt Bond studied Education & Disability Studies at Hallam University and is now a national NUS spokesperson on disability, as well as an active campaigner in Sheffield.

The event is being held on Wednesday 14th December at 7.15pm at St Mary’s Centre on Bramall Lane S2 4QZ, which has level access. Refreshments served at 7pm. It will be followed by the Sheffield Green Party Annual General meeting.

The Centre for Welfare Reform is based in Sheffield.

Their website is http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/

The Campaign for a Fair Society website is http://www.campaignforafairsociety.org/

Wednesday 14th December

7.15pm to 8.30pm

St Marys, Bramall Lane, S2 4QZ

Speakers

Mr Simon Duffy (Campaign for a Fair Society)

Mr Matt Bond (NUS Disabled Students)

‘More than £7 billion of a total of £27 billion which the Government is saving in departmental budgets is to be borne by less than 3% of the people – those who are least able to bear these cuts’ – Simon Duffy

Disabled Access – All welcome – Refreshments from 7pm

Followed by SRGP AGM (8.45 pm to 9.30 pm)

flyer for the event

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Sheffield Green Party will be supporting the strikes and protests in Sheffield on Wednesday 30th November.

Green Party spokeperson Bernard Little, who is an NHS employee and will be on strike himself, said

“We support decent pensions for all. The protests also draw attention to the government’s attacks on welfare and public services. People are angry about cuts to jobs and services which will harm the most vulnerable.”

Rally and March from City Hall, Barkers Pool from 12 noon .

Full Text Of Bernard’s Speech

My name is Bernard Little. I’m chair of Sheffield Green Party. We are supporting this strike. I’m a public sector worker, a therapy assistant at the Hallamshire Hospital and a member of Unison.

Nobody wants to strike, We’re public servants after all, doing responsible jobs. keeping the city going, educating our children, serving the most vulnerable in our neighbourhoods.

We’ve been forced into this strike because of relentless attacks on public servants by government. We’re left with no choice. Unless we take-a-stand it will get worse for everyone whether you’re in the public or private sector.

Cuts in pensions are a cut in pay. Many public sector workers are some of the lowest paid in the country. There is no need for these cuts, each year we lose £70 billion through tax evasion, £25 billion through tax avoidance and a further £25 billion of taxes that goes un-collected. It’s outrageous!

Public sector pensions are affordable. It’s a political choice about piling the UK’s debt burden onto the people who did least to create it.

In fact the Treasury has confirmed that increases in our pension contributions are not going into our pensions, they are to help pay for the financial crisis, a crisis which we were not responsible for.

The Green Party want a clamp down on tax evasion by the rich. We want a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions. We want an urgent review of the state pension so all of us can
live with dignity in our retirement.

Remember 10% of this country owns over half the wealth.

Remember the wealthy are paid hundreds of times the minimum wage, avoid taxes and hide their billions in offshore accounts.

Remember gambling with money is rewarded more than those who educate, who clean, who heal.

Remember 120 billion pounds of tax is lost from the public purse each year. There is no need for cuts to our pensions.

There is only a need for fairness and justice and for us to take a stand. Thank you.

Speakers will include Ali Hayward, Kathryn Littlewood from the Sheffield Centre for Independent Living and Matt Bond from the NUS.

We would really like people to create a selection of poetry and prose on the cuts facing disabled people on the day, but if you already have written some of this then it would be great to bring them along.

Please try and come and show your support and/or make a contribution to the event.

Poster for event

Disabled People United – Sheffield ‘facebook’ page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/213452475358679/

The Green Party has criticised Labour for not reversing cuts to Sure Start.  The new administration recently announced a realigned budget but this does not include any money for Sure Start.  Subsidies for childcare have been reinstated, but as Sure Start does not provide childcare, it will not benefit.

In fact, the Sure Start “core offer” provides help and advice for young families, much like baby clinics and community midwives and health visitors used to do.  The great thing about Sure Start is that it is based in the community and can bring parents together to help and support each other too.

Cllr Jillian Creasy comments, ” In the local election campaign, Labour activists supported the “Defend Sure Start Campaign” which gathered 5000 signatures and triggered a debate in Full Council.  At that debate, the Labour leader, Julie Dore spoke warmly about what Sure Start meant to her personally and Cllr Jackie Drayton, now the Cabinet Member for Children and Families, criticised the Lib Dems for cutting Sure Start.”

She added, “We pointed out at the time that, unlike the Green Party, Labour had not set aside enough money to save Sure Start. Supporting childcare, especially community nurseries, is valuable, but it won’t help Sure Start. Sure Start workers and families who value the service feel incredibly let down because they believed Labour was supporting them.”

She continued, “Labour has initiated a review of early years services. We hope that this recognises and supports the work done by Sure Start and that any future budget amendments bring it back into line with other services, like child care.”

Notes :
1 – The Green motion to full council on July 6th reads :
Motion proposed by Cllr Creasy, seconded by Cllr Murphy

This council
1. Agrees with the description of Sure Start in the introduction to the current Review of Early Years Services, which states that its primary purpose is “to bring services closer to families, so that they get the advice, help and information they need”;

2. Notes that members of the current administration publicly criticised cuts to Sure Start and supported the Defend Sure Start Campaign, helping to collect signatures for the 5000 strong petition and voting to “applaud and support the campaign”;

3. Acknowledges that the recent budget adjustments have only reduced the cut to childcare, not to Sure Start Childrens’ Centres core purpose provision in the city and that Sure Start has lost out in comparison to other Early Years Services;

4. Will therefore now do everything possible, for instance via the Review of Early Years Services and any future budget adjustments, to support the work of Sure Start Childrens’ Centres to enable them to continue to provide universal, open access, non-threatening, non-stigmatising services for parents most in need.

2 – The Green budget amendment can be viewed here.  “List of amendments” – page 15 onwards.

Relevant extract from the amendment :

(r) agrees with all the parties represented on the Council that support for children in the early years is a worthwhile investment and recognises that Sure Start Children’s Centres also encourage parents to help themselves and each other, contributing to community cohesion;

(s) recognises that early years provision is threatened by:-

(i) withdrawal of subsidies for the child care element of their activity;

(ii) withdrawal of funding for other services provided under their roofs such as breast feeding peer support, citizen’s advice, ESOL; and

(iii) the growing demand due to poverty, unemployment and new arrivals all of which place extra demands on their services;

(t) will therefore not reduce the grant to Sure Start this year;

21. will also undertake a thorough review of the structure and work of the Multi Agency Support Teams to determine if there is any overlap with Sure Start and create a more efficient and streamlined service in which most families get the support they need from a front line community based provider;

£805,000 was set aside to pay for this in the budget amendment– see financial analysis on page 19.