Merseyside TUC, (in a personal capacity) SOCIALIST Outlook supporters have taken the lead in resisting privatisation of council houses across the North West. This is after organising a successful ballot against transfers on the Wargrave estate in St Helens last October -the first and only victory in the region so far.
St Helens Council is going ahead with the privatisation despite the 61% vote rejecting the sale of 800 houses. There are plans to carve up the estate in a totally underhand fashion which gets round the ballot results. The ballot prevents the council from forcing tenants to ----I SOCIALIST Outlook is more than just a newsI paper, It also has a growing presence on the I World Wide Web. The newspaper itself has a I developing site, and now supporters in West I Yorkshire have launched their own local site. • West Yorkshire's site provides an introducI tion to the programme and coverage of I 'Socialist Outlook. It includes links to make it I easy for readers to go to the national site and to those of the Fourth International.
•It also promotes policies, events and activi'ties "of local activists and campaigners with " whom we sympathise or agree". So far this coverage includes material about the Leeds Independent Labour Network and an 'unauthorised noticeboard' for the UNISON branch at Leeds Metropolitan University, fighting the censorship of their noticeboards at work.
Socialist Outlook's main site includes an archive of the newspaper, details of events, and other documents. For example, it carries ¡ information about trade union struggles and , links to the web sites of these and other i campaigning groups. It gives access to an transfer for at least three years. This new plan involves:
asking tenants to transfer voluntarily to a housing association Allowing people to stay with the council if they wish, but suggesting there will be no repairs for at least six years Selling off around 150-200 houses to private companies who will bulldoze them and build private homes A successful meeting of 50 tenants was held on the estate on January 26 to discuss the council's plans. After a lively discussion tenants these proposals Socialist Outlook in cyberspace cation. ideas. ism in the past.
West
Yorkshire's site provides an introduction to the programme of 'Socialist more important. Outlook' found at:
were unanimously rejected. Advice is being sought about their legality and ways investigated of taking the council to court for not carrying out repairs. Tenants agreed to try and unite The with council workers successful to lobby the council ballot result in St in the near future. Council plans Helens has sparked go much further a real mood of than the Warmilitancy across grave estale -the region they have similar plans for all council estates. The need to unite council tenants and the unions is very pressing. This has been made difficult by the Communist Party leadership of the archive of articles from the paper, Items from i the most recent issue go up soon after publiThese developments give an opportunity to promote our ideas to people who might not come into contact with supporters in trade union meetings or at other local events. The sites are also a resource for supporters and sympathisers to promote our activities and support our efforts to argue for socialist Web sites and e-mails will not replace all the ways we fought for revolutionary socialHowever as young people come to take these means of communication for granted, and more and more workers have access to the web through work, their unions, in libraries or at home, they are likely to become ever The Socialist Outlook web site can be http://www.labournet.org.uk/so/ The West Yorkshire supporters site is at: http://www.outlook.legend.org.uk/ local UNISON branch, who are resisting every attempt to build unity. The council has suspended a leading UCATT shop steward who has consistently fought privatisation to get him out of the way.
However the successful ballot result in St Helens has sparked a real mood of militancy across the region. The NW Region TUC decided unanimously to organise a conference of tenants and trade unions in March to co-ordinate the fight back. However, the secretary of the TUC is downplaying the conference and appears to be trying to reduce it to a talking shop.
To undermine these manoeuvres Merseyside TUC has called its own conference in February.
The conference is being used for a dual purpose: to galvanise the movement in the Merseyside area around an action plan to resist privatisation and to use as a lever against the NW TUC bureaucracy, The Merseyside conference already has impressive support Action plan A real fighting action plan needs to be agreed at the conference in order to successfully fight off privatisation. This should include • To form a joint trade union/tenants committee to discuss and co-ordinate action across the region which is inclusive and built as widely as possible • To organise a well planned series of meetings in all areas of the region where privatisation is ear-marked to galvanise tenants/trade union committees on a local level that can plan local meetings, leafleting strategies, etc. This action plan if agreed could be the springboard to force the bureaucrats of NW Region TUC into action and will go a long way to fighting off privatisation. McDonnell MP •The SOCIALIST OUTLOOK • 300 Club offers readers •and supporters the chance •to win a £50 cash prize or •alternatives each month• for just a E5 donation. • We get the cash we need to run campaigns and improve the paper - and •you get an excellent chance of a bumper pay-out, or the •satisfaction of knowing ayour donation was well spent!
To join the 300 Club, send • us a Standing Order for E5 'per month, or droo us a line • at PO Box 1109, London N4 • 2UU, and we will send you • a form. This month's lucky winners are (3rd prize) Fred Leplat • (2nd) Ted Heslin, and the top prize goes to Davy ones.
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