Newspaper defending the Welfare State Bundles of 25 £6 (unions)/ £4 (pensioners) Individual subs £5/£3. Union and LP affiliations £25. pensioners & unemployed £10 Write to WSN, c'o Southwark TUSU, 42 Braganza St London SE17 NMS protestors: battling at sharp end atic sabotage by Tory ministers.
• Local government spending cuts continue to squeeze education, housing and social services.
• Civil servants in benefits offices face huge job losses.
While all this has been going on, where were John Edmonds, Livingstone and the Campaign to Defend the Welfare State?
What information have they distributed to members of the GMB, TGWU, UNISON and the other sponsoring unions?
What campaigns have they supported to resist the cuts and closures and challenge the Tory offensive?
Wasted potential
The sad fact is that despite all the promise of last year's conference, all the resources at their disposal from so many big unions with publicity departments and press offices, all the popular anger at the Tories and their mean-spirited efforts to crush the welfare state, nothing serious has been done.
The only leaflet the Campaign has produced is one advertising its recalled conference, which again is on the very general theme of 'Economic Policies for Full Employment and Defence of the Welfare State'.
This year's conference, sponsored by the Moring Star and Tribune, again boasts a platform of dignitaries. Edmonds will speak again, as will Diana Jeuda from USDAW - a union hardly noted for its radicalism or its energetic campaigning for the welfare state.
Livingstone and three other Labour MPs will speak: but again campaigners, pensioners, those at the sharp end of the fight for benefits and welfare services will be relegated to the role of spectators, applauding the rhetoric of the platform.
By contrast, a very different campaign Speakers include: • TONY BENN MP • ALAN SIMPSON MP • JILL MOUNTFORD (Welfare State Newtork) • SARAH WELLINGS (NUS) • KEVIN SEXTON (NUS) • JOHN LISTER (London Health Emergency) Welfare State Network Saturday February 18 Malet St London Credentials /details ring 071-639-5068
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No.73-74, December 1994, Page 4