INSIDE: • Lesbian and gay Pride Centre pages • Liverpool Page 3 Just seven months after the Tories got rid of Thatcher, just a couple of months after saying the Poll Tax will go, the Tories are in deep crisis again. Not only are Labour 10 points ahead in the opinion polls, but the Tories are beset by a deep recession, rocketing unemployment and a new faction-fight with Thatcher and Ridley over Europe. Unlike the early 1980s unemployment is hitting deep in the Tories southern heartlands. NHS cuts are deeply unpopular. Even small businesses are complaining about the exorbitant interest rates being charged by the banks. Many Tory MPs are beginning to confess that the game is up, and they will probably lose the next election. The Tories never had majority support from the electorate in all their 13 years in office. Their difficulties will be greeted with glee by millions But, faced with the new attack of unemployment, wage restraint, huge DUOTO. John Harris AF cuts in the NHS and local government, the answer is not to sit back and wait for action from an increasingly complacent Kinnock. Though he is basking in the reflected glory of a new anti-Tory mood in the electorate, it is quite clear that if Kinnock is elected he will do nothing to reverse the Tories' worst measures - including privatisation or the cuts in public services. The 'new model' Labour Party offers nothing new. Its leaders have learned nothing and forgotten nothing from the failures and betrayal of the Wilson governments of the 1960s and 1970s. Resistance has to be built now. The lessons of the early 1980s, when the unions did little to resist unemployment, have to be learnt. The labour movement must raise the demands for work sharing with no loss of pay, for a shorter working week, and occupations to resist closures. Waiting for Kinnock will no stop the effects of the recession pushing unemployment up to 3.5 million, and making deep inroads in living standards.
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