Aberdeen Cuts Revealed

Jobs are to go, vital services are to be cut, education is on the verge of only being available to those who can pay for it. Yep that’s situation right now in the whole country. Every working class citizen in Scotland is going to feel the impact of the cuts the worst and Aberdeen has announced whats to go (this time round). Cuts in Aberdeen have already seen swimming pools shut, day centres for the disabled gone and it almost lead to the closure of the charity Glencraft (a charity that trains blind and partially sighted people to manufacture furniture). So without further delay here’s the “highlights” of the cuts!!!….

In total £70,000,000 worth of cuts have been revealed (some cuts proposed are not yet approved however with only £25.5 million of the cuts been implemented I can only assume that the proposed cuts will be passed easily). Aberdeen City council are not even  halfway through the measures to “save” (nice way of saying “cut”) £120,000,000. The confirmed cuts include a £9,000,000 drop in funding for services that help children with special needs. £1.4 million will be saved by “maximising class sizes” at secondary school. In a shocking move the funding to the Fire department is to be reduced to save £2.1 million! It wont be long until scenes like THESE  are hitting the streets of Aberdeen. However I feel that the most stingy one of all has to be the £173,000 saving the council will make on on closing two council-run care homes!

Two angry Aberdonians!

This announcement comes only weeks after Aberdeenshire announced plans to axe 900 jobs. Most of these jobs will lost be in education as both City and Shire councils have expressed an interest in cutting the number of schools and amalgamating many. In the list of jobs going  most are from the “ring fenced” sectors. Care assistants are set to lose out as are ; teaching assistants, nurses, fire fighters, paramedics. The list goes on and on! We were told by David Cameron and Nick Clegg that vital services would be “ring fenced” but they clearly haven’t. However being a young student from what many would consider a middle-class town I am used to be lied to by the Lib Dems. As for the Tories they were game for these cuts as it is an ideological want.

How can I spell this out to you? I can use three words, “Aberdeen is fucked”. We have been lead by an awful council who have managed to royally fuck everything up! I emphasise EVERYTHING! The case for socialism is as strong now as it ever will be. Aberdeen City Council has been lead by right wing policies aimed at making profits at the expense of the people. The councillors are rolling out savage cuts but continue to lust for Sir Ian Wood and his dreams of concreting over Union Terrace Gardens. Whilst the citizens of Aberdeen are walking the un-gritted streets as the council cannot afford to grit them the council are seriously considering

Time to show the "Red hand of Aberdeen" to the council!

subsidising this millionaire’s wee project so he can make more profit! It’s madness! As socialists we are fighting against these regressive cuts that are targeting the working classes and the vulnerable. It drives me round the bend when I hear people saying “Socialism doesn’t work”, what evidence is there to show this? Capitalism is failing, miserably! All you have to do is see how this country has been brought down to it’s knees by the rich bankers and this country’s solution? Punish the poor, punish the working classes, punish the students, punish the pensioners in fact punish anyone apart from the people who cause the crisis. That is way our country is run and it is great to see some resistance to this. From students in Aberdeen occupying Tory HQ to students doing mass walkouts in cities all over Scotland. Hopefully this will stimulate more militant action from Aberdeen.  Aberdeen is a great city but at the hands of capitalists it is becoming a soul-less,  poorly maintained city that is at risk of becoming gripped in mass poverty due the public sector being destroyed, the over-reliance on oil companies and the increasing size of the private sector.