Firefighters Against Cuts Party

Information

There are an increasing number of Firefighters who are so frustrated by their local politicians that they are prepared to stand for election themselves. This is certainly the most effective way of getting politicians to listen. Hitting them in the ballots will literally bring tears to their eyes.

Those who have launched campaigns already will only have some idea of the panic they are causing amongst their political opponents. They are terrified.

If the ballot box is to be an effective means of progressing our pay campaign and other public sector issues it has to be co-ordinated. All candidates across the UK must stand under the same party name. That way a national picture will begin to emerge in the media. Every campaign will then benefit from the publicity generated by the others. Only when this is achieved will we be able to break this unholy alliance that seems to exist between the major political parties. We must force the political parties to disagree by threatening them in the ballot box.

It's time to really start fighting back. It's time to kick them in the ballots – and hard..

The mainstream opposition parties have offered little hope of providing any real opposition to the government in their attempt to defeat the FBU. Clearly we are to be an example to others who might be thinking of challenging them. Unfortunately on this issue, there is no real political difference between any of the larger political parties; they are united against us. Other than the usual petty point scoring in the commons, the only argument between them is basically how we should be beaten, and not as you would expect, is it in the public interest.

The governments arguments have been pathetic, and in most cases are contradicted by their own reports, if challenged effectively, we know that what they have said would not stand up. However the absence of any effective opposition has allowed the government to get away with it. None of the parties have shown any real understanding of the fire service, and if this is allowed to continue, the service as we know it, will be lost forever.

We have tried to persuade politicians at all levels of government, that this is a serious issue that is now far more than a wage claim. It is possible, that through lobbying alone, politicians will eventually catch up with the issues. Sadly this may be too late and we will have lost.

This dispute will probably go on for a long time and may extend beyond the elections.  These are the largest round of elections in the electoral cycle other than the general election itself, and all the political parties take them very seriously. They are also the largest test of public opinion, and therefore the best indicator of the government’s fortunes. They are an opportunity to send a message to the government and more widely to the whole political establishment. This is an opportunity we must not miss.

We have launched our own political party to contest the local elections.

The aim is not to take control of every local authority in the UK and award ourselves an enormous pay rise, although that would be nice. In fact it is highly unlikely that we will win any council seats. Winning council seats, if you are not an established party, is not easy. It requires a lot of campaigning and may take years to achieve.

We must endeavour to put up for election as many candidates as we can across the whole of the UK. This will seriously disrupt the electoral objectives of the mainstream political parties, and make the election results very unpredictable. This is a nightmare for the mainstream parties. They will be carefully calculating the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents and predicting their own prospects on that basis. They will not be expecting a new opponent.

Our aims must be to:-

1. Put pressure on the mainstream political parties at a local level by challenging them at the polls, and in doing so motivate them to take the dispute seriously. Create and exploit division within political parties, forcing them to question their respective positions.

2. Create the conditions to enable a political difference between the parties to evolve.

3. Gain publicity for the campaign at a local and national level, enabling us to more effectively get our message across.

Forming a political party will take the political establishment by surprise. If we can field hundreds of candidates, they will be shocked. If we can field thousands of candidates they will be terrified. They will take us seriously. This is an opportunity that we must take. There is so much to gain.

Less than 10% of the membership of political parties ever does anything other than pay their subscriptions. Of this 10%, most will do very little other than deliver a few leaflets. The fact is that all the parties find it very difficult to find people who are sufficiently motivated to become politically active. The activists therefore tend to be the councillors themselves, who spend a lot of their time simply ensuring they get

re-elected. They will write and produce their own leaflets, and have to arrange printing, sorting, distribution and delivery as well. Whatever the public perception is, there are in fact very few political activists in any party.

All the parties are gearing up for the May elections. Candidates will have been selected and objectives will have been set. They will know precisely where they are going to concentrate their resources. This will inevitably be largely in the key marginals, i.e. where the result was closest last time the seats were contested.

If we put up candidates in the marginal seats and even if it looks like we might be successful in getting only a small percentage of the votes, the result in that ward will be very unpredictable. Councillors who very often feel that the work they put in is not even appreciated by their own party will look to their own party for support. They will have no option but to try and neutralise the fire service dispute as an issue. They will be forced to address the dispute in their election leaflets. They will, in short, be forced off the fence.

Most party activists will not want to be questioned on the doorstep about the closure of local fire stations. Most activists will oppose service cuts themselves anyway. This is an issue they are hoping to avoid altogether. We can force this dispute onto the agenda by challenging vulnerable councillors in the ballot box. Most candidates have a terrible time getting other party members to knock on doors on their behalf. People who are prepared to do this are very rare indeed. If there is a difficult local issue, such as the possible closure of a local fire station, the people who are prepared to knock on doors will be scared off and will stay at home. We simply have to prime the public with the questions they should ask of doorstep canvassers. Simple questions such as “Who will rescue my family if you shut our Fire Stations?” and “If the firefighters aren’t working at night, what happens if we get a fire at night?” It is this sort of basic questioning that politicians most fear. These questions can be put into the public consciousness by use of press releases and letters to the local press.

This sort of pressure on local politicians will be passed up through to their parliamentary colleagues. They will demand that they adopt a position that they can sell on the doorstep. They will not accept that their MP`s should make their lives more difficult by holding a line that is damaging their electoral chances, and what is more, that they may not agree with.

Most councillors work very hard for their parties. During an election campaign they will practically live on fish & chips, and rarely see their families. If they lose their seats because their party has undermined their election campaign, many will withdraw from politics altogether. This fundamentally weakens a party, as it can take years to recruit new activists who will need to, and are prepared to, learn new skills.

Firefighters standing for election right across the UK as a means of political protest, will seriously damage the political establishment. If we do this, they will amend electoral law to prevent it happening again. This is a weapon we must use, whilst we still can.

Our political opponents and the media will try to define us in terms of left & right. We must resist all attempts to be categorised in this manner. We must maintain the position, that we are firefighters that have been forced into politics because of a complete lack of political representation from any of the mainstream parties. That we have lobbied politicians at all levels, and from all parties, without any success.  Many have simply not replied to our letters etc. The whole of the political establishment is united in their desire to reduce the effectiveness  of the fire service. Something we know will cost lives. Given that there is no effective opposition, our only option was to become directly involved in politics, form our own party to resist the cuts to the service. Like society generally, firefighters reflect all shades of political opinion and political activity. Most firefighters are not largely interested in politics, but simply want to get on with their lives. We are however united in our belief that cutting the fire service will cost lives. The public expects us to save lives, and they may be surprised, but they can be reassured, that we are asking them to support us in the ballot box, in order to do so.

By maintaining a high moral, but politically neutral position, we will be able to draw support from all sections of the community. We will also more easily attract firefighters who are prepared to be candidates.

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