security based on the following princip- ing in the 1988 act, the government has developed a specific agenda for social Anti-social, less security tended to focus on how many claimants will "lose out' as a result of the new regula- Public discussion of the changes in social security and housing benefit has WELFARE STATE Claimants wait at the Hackney Housing Office, East London The Tories* 1988 social security opposition across the political act has attracted widespread
• Direct cuts in benefit levels and entitle- ment. De-indexation of benefits from aver- age earnings. Freczing particular benefits tions: Individual cases of extreme hard- ship have been used with some effect to expose the immediate consequences of the government's reforms. However, for the spectrum - IAIN GAULT asks how the outrage be translated into victory.
or failing to raise them in line with prices Withdrawing a proportion of benefit from (child benctit for example). Increasing en- titlement periods for certain benefits. strikers' familics. the long-term implications of the recent changes, and, in doing so, begin to deve- Since their clection in 1979, the Tories left it is cqually important to understand lop an alternative socialist response. lighted the heartlessness and cynicism of FOR MANY PEOPLE. the social security changes introduced on 11 April have high-
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no B July/September 1988 ® Privatisation. Transferring central gov- emment reponsibilities to private ageocics of one sort or another: insurance compa mies and financial institutions in the case decessors. In a series of legislative: have made no secret of their hostility to certain aspects of the social sccurity system inherited from their post-war pre- the present administration. This is parti- cularly the case since their introduction took place just a few dayy after Chancellor Lawson lad announced a package of tax 12 cats amounting to some 12 billion.
reinforcement of the dependent status of maintenance, and a recognition that these scrve to reproduce the existing divisions within the working class, particularly be- We should be promoting an alternative system based on a guaranteed income for Secondly, a rejection of the family as a unit of assessment and of the consequent The third cirment of a socialist alterna- tive to the social security system demands a critique of the racism of the existing system both in terms of its day-to-day opcration and of its close connection with the employed and unemployed. WELFARESTATE continuation and exaggeration of the most: entire post-war social sccurity system, sus, but also, in many essential respects, a divisive and incgalitarian aspects of the From the time of its introduction, the despite embodying some real gains, is pro- foundly flawed from the standpoint of the working class and the oppressed. In re- ality Thatcher's social security "reforms" icpresent not only a discontinuity and a break with the post-war welfarist consen- *we should be wary of falling back on an system it established. • Stripping claimants oflegal rights, under of pensions, employers in the case of statu- • Attacks on 'universal' bencfits and in- crcased means-testing. Ovcrall a reduc- tion in scope of social security provision and increasing stigmatisation of clai- • A stepping-up of attacks on individual claimants. Increased staffing of fraud squads and 'specialist claims control units'. Introduction of the so-called non- prosecution intervicw, designed to inti- the guise of simplifying the system. Replacement of legal entitlement to 'single' and urgent necds" payments with midate people into withdrawing claims, tory sick pay.
Finally, we need an analysis which Is: capable of illuminating the connections: between the operation of the capitalist abled. Support for the self-organisation of system and the social marginalisation of groups such as the elderly and the dis- these groups and an acceptance of their demands, not least for a decent standard of living, is a priority for the left as a An alternative of this kind, supported and advanced by the labour movement and organisations of the oppressed could go sume way towards seizing the agenda for radical reform' of the social security immigration control: of the present system, to alter the balance her class. Socialists must also recognise it and, with cqual determination, promote bour. Thatcher clearly recognises this. and is determined, within the framework of forces even more decisively in favour of working class demands for "welfare and policies in the field of social security and post-war social security syster has pres- ented an unstable compromise between capital's need to discipline the working class and maintain its "incentive' to la- income maintenance which consciously uncritical defence of the previous system' Given the scope of the Tories' offensive, bilise the maximum possible number of there is a clear and pressing need to mo- individuals and organisations against par- ticular attacks and on specific issues. Coa- despite their limitations — play an impor- tant role in uniting claimants, voluntary organisations, and those trade unionists directly involved in administering the system, on a programme of opposition to However, in opposing the government's plans for social security, we should be wary of falling back on an uncritical defence of the previous system; a position litions such as Action for Benefits' can — a discretionary cash limited 'social fund". curs and restructuring.
system back from the Tories and into the hands of those whom it most directly af- fects. The self-confident promotion by the Torics of their idcology opposed to the *dependent socicty may yet prove their Socialist Workers Party (SWE) The broad left, historically blaming the CPSA broad left supporters, must change to regain power. With the controlled by Militant for every defeat since national level — only three of the eight Kinnockites elected opposition to the broad leit "joint" ticket with the right to the new NEC ran on a Basing itself solely on native can be mentioned briefly. First is a rejection of means-testing and of the 'insu- principle in relation to income Four clements of such a socialist alter- unify and strengthen the working class. Realignment in the CPSA misunderstood this situation, arguing that the Kinnockites CPSA was back to a straight were decisively beaten and left/right polarisation. Militant supporters of 18 to eight. which both the Labour Party and the major civil service unions have tended to Such a stance is an untenable one for socialists for the simple reason thar the wiped out the right. What may seein from the outside to be a smashed the left electorally: Public Servants Association (CPSA) conference the right Last year the left virtually AT THIS year's Civil and
13 Ieft grouping, including Labour supporters, its strategy couples A mainly independent hard Tolpuddle, but otherwise not This is the way to halt the build a lightback against the from the rank and file-based Briefing and Socialist Organiser democratic reforms in CPSA Tories. The broad left must imperus for change comes with class struggle politics crecping soft left bloc and survive • FERGUS LEE recognise this if it is to participating, the main socialist caucus. a union. Indeed, the broad left is seen as the body prepared to but is not a policy for running The broad left's problem is (shown by the high incidence support most of its policies. and conference continued to organise againse the Tories: outmanoeuvred a broad left may be electorally popular, year's tactics failed, as the more open to bureaucratic membership's will to fight of industrial action). Last CPSA full time machinery solutions than relating to how to mobilise the characterises most of the major result of this year's conference. In fact the realignment was guard right wing are merging bureaucracy, was forming — DHSS section executive since continuing. A soft left bloc, however, parchy: maling the with the rightward-moving The reminants of the old coalition is the significant 1987, but less manifest ar the type of force which Kinnockite forces. The Its representation is, clectoral victory of this based primarily in the TUC unions. SOCALIST OUTLOOK no 8 July/September 1988 and communist party members sweeping to power on the NEC left was back, clecting Militant general secretary (although he The 1984 split in the broad 84, allowed CPSA's right wing In just two years the broad supporter John Macreadie as in May 1987 with a majority random game of swings and left, when Kinnock loyalists predictable from the inside, formed their own broad left was eventually ousted), and where a long process of realignment continues. In to ruti the anion.
Huta acted in the same way. Sacked from by one lone worker, Andrzej Szewczuwa- niec. Through his own determination he gained in 24 hours the support of a major- ity of the 30,000 workers in the plant for the strike. Under the direction of Szewczu- wanicc, the strike committee led the Three old Icaders of Solidarity in Nowa In Nowa Huta, the strike was launched The spring