ialism in one borough"
nalge OFICIAL IN mid-March the High Court rejected the appeal by 47 Liverpool Councillors against surcharge and a ban from office for 5 years. With the Auditor now thought unlikely to take action against any of the other Councils which delayed setting a rate in 1985 this brought to an end a phase in the resistance to the government's attack on government.
Yet the Tories' attack continues, even though their plans to force councils to privatise some services have been withdrawn for the time be ing. However, unlike in 1985, there has been no atfempt by the left coun cils to fight the government cut in funding.
In 1987 all the rate-capped conclis have resorted to a mixture "creative accounting" of revenue, massive lease-back arrangements, deferred purchase schemes and in cases, rent and rate increases to bridge the shortfall between income and expenditure. Thus the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) is leasing back the school desks from a finance company (next step
nulga DEFICIAL PICKET: naig OFFICIAL PICKET PICKET By JOHN PETERS District bathroom fittings. confronting demanding the withheld community local these community. variant of Kinnock's "dented shiela" restrictions placed by central govern ment (a "deficit budget") and begin to organise now for the confrontation, they have chosen to rely on the finan- of cial wizardry of Directors of Finance. capitalisation Instead of studying where those who borrowing. did attempt to fight, such as Liver pool and Lambeth, went wrong and to some draw the lessons for future they have chosen to declare a fight Impossible and save their own necks. The "creative strategy, while avoiding a simply builds up the blems for councils in future years Socialist Viewpoint No. 16 April 1987 p14
naigo naigo nalg OFICAL OFFIC PICKET PICK students?) and Brent Council is doing the same with its council tenants he will Rather than adopt a strategy of the government and return of funds mobilising council workers and the local working class rate-capped defence and expansion of globe and around a services based on the needs of the councils have chosen to evade this fight and adopt a Rather than declare that they will spend what is necessary regardiess of etc. battles accounting" fight, the financial pro
BUILD OFFICAL PICKET 0
with debt charges and lease-back
payment to be met. They are relying not on the mobilisation of the working
class but on the goodwill of a govern-
ment baling them out at sometime In
the future. Yet Kinnock has declared
Knot do this (if Labour Is elected) and the price of any relief would probably be massive cuts.
Three of the Councils which went Labour in May '86 but which are not
Ealing, Waltham Forest and Hammersmith & Fulham - decided on the equally disastrous strategy of massive (50-60%) rate rises to implemen' their manifestos. Supported by many on the Jeft, dubious arguments have been put forward to justify this policy - that after years of Tory rule the rates were considerably lower than in other. equivalent London boroughs, that they will be rate-capped anyway next year so they had to do it all in one go,
The fact remains, that unlike income tax, rates are not a progressive tax and the best that can be said for the rate rises is that they hit the better off sections of the working class more than the unemployed and those on a very low income. But what kind of a socialist strategy is it that sees the answer in transferring resources from one section of the class to another?
The chances of gaining support for any struggle against next year are drastically reduced by such high rate rises.
Whether or not cuts in jobs and services are contained within "creative accounting budgets becomes not
principle but one of how
leeway previous such measures still leave particular council. Liverpool City Council, Just prior to the debarrment of the Labour Councillors, could claim that a windfall from the abolition of County Council together with a 5% rate increase would prevent any cuts, whereas ILEA even with measures is still likely to be about E5lm short.
Inherent in creative accounting is that it is extremely difficult to get clear information about the financial situation and exactly what a particular budget means, hard to prove cuts are intended. Thus despite Liverpool's "no 700 jobs have gone in the last year Sheffield council 1s asking employees to look at ways to work more efficiently. "while posing possible cuts in its teaching staff. filling of vacancies is the most common cut of all and one of the most difficult for the unions to fight.
Alongside this refusal to confront the government is a new disputes between councils and their workforces. Inevitably, once a coun cil decides to make cuts or to strictly define its priorities" budget, conflict occurs possibility of the unions either opposing such cuts or raising about pay or working which upset these priorities.
While the unholy Media, Tories. Owen, Kinnock, etc.. have attacked the "loony left" cils for their limited ameliorate discrimination in housing. jobs, education, etc., against women gays and lesbians. black people and the disabled, they have generally kept relatively quiet about these attacks on workers' conditions and pay,
Thus in Liverpool the last weeks of the Labour Council saw almost every Tade Union in dispute with the council. GMBWU members in dispute over privatisation occupied the Town Hall - the council hired private contractors to break down the doors. NALGO members struck against the council's decision to close down community work teams and teachers struck for 3 days after the Council docked pay from those refusing to cover for absentees.
Both Liverpool and Lewisham have seen major disputes with NALGO demanding security screens in housing oftices as protection trom violent attacks from those frustrated at their inability to get adequate housing. Manchester NUPE housing branch struck over inadequate housing accommodation. Strathclyde library
rate-capping much Thus Merseyside all such exact making it cuts" claim, "all Non- workers and Islington housing of- ficers are engaged in long disputes over of wave NALGO members struck for a month in support of a claim for Inner Lon Weighting, something don within its members in neighbouring outer Lon- with the don boroughs. demands extensive attack on the conditions of conditions Its workforce. Until now redeploy- ment of teachers between schools has alliance of been voluntary. troduced a compulsory scheme for coun- moving about 1,300 teachers despite attempts to the disruption this will mean in schools. Party policy pulsory redeployment, ILEA did not consult with the Party and refused to negotiate with the teachers until the last minute. the way in which councils are attack. ing the unions. Association was NUT for organising a one-day strike against Baker's imposition of a pay deal, ILEA Immediately recognition. NALGO with an injunction because there had been no ballot before the strike, scrapping of the trade union facility time agreement those involved in workplace meetings to hear the housing aid workers' case. Camden only just drew back from taking disciplinary NALGO members who picketed a council meeting. Socialist Viewpoint No. 16 April 1987 p15
OFFI AL nalga OFFICIAL PICKET pay claims. Over 2,500 Baling already won by Ealing teachers and NALGO government The ILEA is intoducing the most delivery" This year it has in- Despite Regional Labour being against com- and "fortress". "local state" A new aspect to these disputes is means Thus when the Ex- ecutive of the Inner London Teachers suspended by the withdrew ment over Liverpool threatened Manchester threatened the For and to discipline support and action against It is clear that as councils pull back so too.
Jon Doble from any intention of fighting for adequate funding from the government they have to turn on those sections of their workers and their organisations which stand in the way of this climbdown. Any pretence of a joint campaign with the unions against the
Tis dropped in the headlong rush to stay in office at all tell heater be service
prioritisation resources", and even that NALGO is not a proper union because it is not affiliated to the Labour Praty (this often from those who give full support to the teachers) cannot hide the fact that these left leaders have come up against the limitation of municipal socialism — socialism in one borough
Ware retreating into their
While councils are of course the
Tand large employers, they have the choice of also acting as part of the labour movement. That
encourging and supporting the self-activity of the working class (and not just in "distant" disputes, like the NUM, but amongst their own workforce) and not backing away from confrontation with the govern-
finance, housing, etc. Their attacks on the unions ultimately weaken the whole labour movement including the councils themselves.
revolutionary socialists the position is clear. We encourage and
councils and councillors where their policies benefit the working class and the specially oppressed
confront the government; but when they attack their workers we stand four-square in solidarity with them and demand that councillors to
A contribution to the discussion Marxists and the
Labour Party ALF FILER, a well-known activist in Brent East CLP and a supporter of Labour Briefing, replies to our last issue's coverage of the struggle for Marxism in the labour movement and the Labour Party. WHILE not disagreeing with the general thrust of the article by John Peters in the last issue of Socialist Viewpoint. there is however a need to clarify and extend the debate regarding the role of Marxists in the Labour Party.
This discussion, while dating back to the "30s, and in some senses not having changed that much, requires a more detailed analysis than simply commencing with the need to "smash the ideological and organisational hold of the Labour Party over the working class."
The Labour Party does represent a barrier to the struggle for socialism in this country and at the same time is the only mass working class party within which revolutionaries must function if we are to use these class contradictions in our favour. But that also suggests that in winning militants over to our analysis, we must take care in using crude slogans such as "smash the Labour Party"
The emphasis must be to battle against labourism of the economistic, chauvinistic and pro-capitalist form, and counterpose to that our pro gramme of Internationalism, anti-Imperialism and antiCapitalism. Only when we have carried out a thorough struggle on this basis, having won the ideologial battle, can we then project the organisational requirements that must flow from this.
That is not to say there is a stageist approach to building a revolutionary Party, for the two go hand in hand The issue though is that in winning support for our politics we do not want to build up false barriers between Marxists and the militants we are seeking to win over, who do not yet see the need to "smash the Labour Party".
Of course we must argue for a l
Marxist analysis of the Labour Party and not get caught in the centrist trap of putting security of position in the Party above that of programme; but that does not mean either that we overlook tactics, especially when we are being confronted with a witch-hunting NEC who are only looking for excuses to expel comrades.
As the Capitalist crisis worsens, it is even more relevant for Marxists to push forward the slogan "Labour take the power", using this as an opportunity to argue on what basis Labour should take power. (Not to carry out the policies of the IMF and the ruling class but to challenge the power of
While fully aware that the Labour and trade union leadership are both unwilling and unable to pursue a proletarian programme, our sights at those millions who have
We must learn to concretise and update the concept of the tional Programme as the lynchpin to mobilising the increasing numbers being drawn into class struggle at dilferent levels. By providing practical assistance in a non-sectarian fashion, we can then earn the right to offer
leadership. else is merely talse posturing which will result in political impotence.
The reality of the modern Labour Party is that there are thousands of militants who are disillusioned with it; many more who won't touch it with a barge pole; others who see it as a vehicle for their own careers, some who are not really sure why they are in it in the first place. Party is relevant, not in the sense that it alters the objective role of Labour, but in terms of understanding how different social and political groups respond to the Labour Party and the challenges that emerge as a result.
Tissue of representation Lesbians, and other sections must be seen not as just another issue to adapt to, but a need to fundamentally rethink traditional Marxist analysis regarding the nature of the workng class in modern capitalist Britain.
A radical break with a Euro-centric analysis which is both sexist and racist by nature does not mean abandoning Marxism, as some have done. Socialist Viewpoint No. 16 April 1987 p16
but strengthening it in light of the post Second World War situation. We can not just rely on the limited writings of Trotsky & Co. to understand these developments; but we are able to draw on their rich experiences alongside those of the present day. Marxism is not a straitjacket but a scientific method to enable us to analyse events.
This also has relevance to organisational issues, when attempting to break fro a white male dominated hierarchical structure developed by previous groups. In aiming not to replace this with tokenism, we need first to locate discussion on the lessons of the sects in terms of an understanding of the relations between class, sex and race.
Dogmatic crude workerism of the SWP/Militant variety must be 1ejected. We must admit that even the traditional Bolshevik model is inadequate. To do so is not being revisionist in any sense but to advance the cause by advancing the theory based on practice and experience. Any other approach, by its very nature is anti-Marxist.
Revolutionaries in the Labour Party in Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s are a long way off from "smashing the Labour Party". betraying Conference policies but
Ware certainly not betraying Left" (a very unscientific and confus-
appears to be shrinking monthly after more boring GMCs; desertions are the name of the game at the present.
This puts even more pressure on these small forces who aim to "smash the Labour Party". If we are to provide an alternative pole of attraction to that of the old and new Right and the many varieties of opportunists, then we must present an analysis and a programme based on principles which can capture the imaginations of all those millions looking for a way ouf of the mess caused by capitalism.
We must question the routinistic practice of the Labour Party which often dictates the way many of us politically organise if we are to respond adequately. Il we don't, then that will prevent many women, lesbians, gays, Black people and those of us with children from being able to participate fully in the struggles for socialism.
South African connection: Hangers strikers protest at bosses BTR Students take the lead aga