Anti-cuts work in Kent is building a head of steam despite opposition from the Labour Party in the area.

A campaign against the cuts is now fully operational in the Medway Towns, with burgeoning coalitions emerging from public meetings in other areas including the county’s administrative capital, Maidstone, where a Kent-wide meeting of anti-cuts groups and day of action is planned for the 5th of March.

Socialist Party members have been instrumental in forming or coordinating such groupings, which are springing up with increasing regularity as the cuts to jobs and public services bite.

In Dover, however, a recent ‘public meeting’ on 25 January called by the GMB union, disgracefully stifled public debate and the appetite for independent action against the cuts. Instead of using the gathering of 50 people to form a local, broad-based anti-cuts campaign, the meeting’s organizers simply told attendees to vote Labour and attend the TUC demonstration on the 26 March. Only three workers from the floor managed to speak despite the chair’s objections, and all were critical of the Labour Party and its pro-cuts stance.

The Socialist Party will continue to encourage the formation of independent, local campaigns in opposition to all cuts and ready to take a stand against all politicians wielding the axe.