BAPS believe that :
• Public services should not be run for profit.
• Barnet will lose the experienced staff and infrastructure needed to bring services back in-house when the outsourced services fail.
• The One Barnet Programme will further damage the local economy.
• There are positive alternatives to cuts to the NHS, libraries and benefits.
• If this mass privatisation goes ahead in Barnet, it will spread like a virus to other communities.
BAPS has submitted over 8,000 signatures on a petition calling for a referendum so that Barnet residents can have their say on this high-risk programme. The Council has refused to listen.
Join the ‘Barnet Spring march’ on Saturday 23rd March, meeting at 11am at Finchley Central Station. The march sets off at 12pm to Friern Barnet Community Library (which has had it’s own fantastic victory recently). This is a watershed battle and it is a must attend event for all SWAN supporters and social workers. Helen Davies (Chair, Barnet Unison), explains why below:
Why social workers should come to the Barnet Spring March?
If you believe that at the heart of social work is the idea of advocating for social justice then this is the reason you should be marching with us. Barnet is in the process of handing over a massive contract to Capita (£750million) with the possibility of one more to follow worth £250million. These contracts are for 10 years and engulf most of our services. What say will Councillors really have over our services when this happens? This attacks the notion of local democracy. It will result in a few hundred job losses. At the same time the Council is attacking union organisation with a proposal that our resources to organise should shrink to almost nothing next year. In every way Barnet Council is attacking the ability of workers and residents to have any say at all against the interests of Big Business. We are reduced to being the consumer. Finally if you hate what the ConDem Government is doing to working class people, employed or otherwise, then Barnet 23rd March is the best place for you to be as you will be able to demonstrate with us against this Conservative Council.
