Will Glc Fudge Until 1983?

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Ken final Tori "IF the Government destroys Lothian now, we will be next. Lothian's fight is our fight.. "9 Livingstone: the phase against the Greater London Council Labour leader Ken Livingstone has declared full support for Lothian. And he says: 'there can be no doubt that we are entering the final phase of the struggle against the Tories.

"Either we or Heseltine must eventually lose. The new powers [to limit rate rises, planned by Heseltine for 1983] would prevent a fudging of the issue."

Livingstone has called for Labour MPs to obstruct Parliament and stop Heseltine getting his plans through, and for unions to back this up with industrial action. d.

But the GLC has its own weight to throw into the struggle, which could make the difference between just calling on MPs and union leaders, and pushing them into action.

Will the Labour GLC throw all that weight into battle now, alongside Lothian? Or will it 'fudge' until 1983, see Lothian go down, and face a showdown itself from a weaker position?

It looks like it will fudge.

In its first three months of office, the new GLC has scrapped civil defence and welcomed the People's March. It has ordered a cut in tube and bus fares, and proposed a ban on office development in central London.

Ken Livingstone has boycotted the Royal Wedding and put out black flags for the H Block hunger strikers.

But on crunch issues the GLC has wobbled. After (predictable) legal advice that it would lead to a surcharge, the mani festo pledge of a cut in school meal prices was lost because of Labour GLC , members voting against it on the ILEA.

Tube workers

And the tube workers were initially presented with no more than an 8 offer The Labour GLC manifesto warned that its measures might mean another f1 a week in rates for London households by 1984. Now, already, with most of the major spending programmes hardly underway yet, households are being asked for £1.30 a week (plus more for ILEA).

Less than a third of that is for the fares cuts. The rest is mostly to cover ory cuts in central government grant to the GLC.

Ken Livingstone argues that rate rises are a rough redistributive measure which benefits the working class. But what effects will this package have for mobilising London's working class against the Tories?

The GLC currently faces - another possible threat of surcharge because of its block on council house sales. So is it going to go from issue to issue, worrying each time whether this is 'the one' for confrontation?

Letterbox

Is it going to take the rate-rise option of 'fudging the issues' (not legally open to Lothian), or is it going to draw the line, stick to its commitments, and decide to take on the Tories alongside Lothian?

Ken Livingstone's defiant radical gestures will have real value in rousing our movement against the Tories only if the GLC does stand and fight. Otherwise, to many workers it will seem like politician's politics .... loud words are spoken at County Hall and the bills come through your letterbox just the same.

Hundreds of left wing activists helped win the GLC for Labour with a radical manifesto, a manifesto which pledged to use County Hall as a platform to fight the Tories.

Now Lothian needs to have County Hall with it in the struggle. It's the job of the left wing to make sure it does.

Thom

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Socialist Organiser 6 August 1981 Page 14