8-point pledge by left

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by Jeremy Corbyn (Haringey councillor and prospective Labour candidate for The anger and will to fight is there: the job is to organise it round an effective campaigning left wing THE MAY local elections are a chance to strike a blow at the Tories and the SDP through the ballot box, to: boost the fight to save Jobs and public services from the Tory axe, and to give new confidence to the labour movement.

The example of Britain's one SDP council, in Islington, shows that the SDP will be no less destructive than the Tories if it gains control locally.

Tories or SDP in the town halls backing up Tories in Westminster are a recipe for devastation. But getting Labour into the town halls is only the beginning of the answer.

Many Labour councils have done just what the Tories wanted since 1979. And even the left-wing counby Martin Thomas cils which tried to fight finally flunked out - like the Greater London Council, which has recently collapsed in face of the Law Lords on its cheap fares policy..

For many decades, the ranks of Labour councillors have resembled trade union officialdom in being like quick-set cement. They easily absorb many militants ... who soon become rooted to the spot and cease to be so militant.

When struggles burst out from the rank and file, the councillors and officials too often provide a case-hardened obstacle.

Like trade union officialdom, the councils have introduced many activists to the world of perks, privileges, career openings,. and selfımportant committee manbp it sola separately 5p if sold separately oeuvring.

Where councillors refuse to conform - as many have very often they face purges. Manchester, Bristol, Mid-Glamorgan, Southwark ... many other areas reproduce the pattern reported from Sandwell on the back page of this supplement.

The struggle to come to grips with the present leadership, to replace it and to impose accountability, has affected the councils as well as the Labour Party nationally and the unions.

In many areas, Labour will be standing this May with a left wing manifesto and a substantial contingent of left wing candidates on its slate. This reflects a long process of debate, involvement in campaigns, and battles to change leaders. The OVER THE past ten years, firstly Dennis Healey and his IMF-inspired budgets, and then the Tories, have sought to use cuts in local government support as a way of passing on an attack on working class living standards.

This might be a self-evident statement, but the national leadership of the Labour Party and the TUC seem to have barely grasped the enormity of the attack, or the way that the Labourlifeblood of this process has often been new recruits recently brought into the Yet the problems are still not iesolved. The left-wing manifestos generally collapse into muttering or silence on the issue of how their plans for better services, expanded direct works, or low rents will be carried out in the teeth of Tory financial limits and legal attacks.

In these pages we try to give some elements of the answer.

Labour councils must see themselves as part of the working class fightback against the Tories. Well-intentioned local administration, however skilful; can achieve nothing serious against this government.

The Labour counciliors must be prepared to act as leaders in this fightback.

GLC Left

The GLC Left eventually voted for the budget with the London Transport fares rise, then called for Londoners in general to fight back by refusing to pay rises.

Lambeth Labour group piled on the rate rises, arguing that nothing else could be done until the 'big battalions' of the unions moved. Lothian eventually folded up saying that the union officials had let them down.

In every case, it was really a failure to lead. If we controlled inner city areas have been passing on Tory policies to their people.

London has been hit harder than most other parts of the country, with most boroughs having lost between £20 and £30 million since May 1979. In reality this represents a fine of over loU per scau de be popula- §16n nar hand of the nonala. tion by Heseltine.

The response of the majority of Labour councils has been either to raise the rates to offset the loss in central are to break the pattern, councillors must be prepared to use their positions against the Tories, to put themselves in the front line.

It means a risk of surcharge? Yes. Workers striking against the cuts risk loss of wages and jobs, tenants on rent strike risk eviction.

And councillors are much better placed to rouse mass resistance and defeat Tory penalties.

If they're not prepared to give a lead, they should not take leading positions.

Also, a Left which organises only in the Labour Party and does not also take on the conservative bureaucrats in the unions will find itself stranded in the void when it comes to the crunch - when the power of industrial action is crucial.

The reason why even the best of the GLC Left collapsed on the final fares vote was not that they are shysters or cowards.

They were isolated and saw no alternative. They had no organisation that could enable them to link up with militant groups in the LT unions. And it was similar in The policies Labour councils must fight for: housing, rents, rates, police....

Centre pages government support or to make massive cuts in service: it was not until the autumn of 1981, two and a half years after Thatcher came to power,: that even common advertising campaign was mounted by Labour councils.

There has been no national innal leaderchin of Tahnur councils to wage a united fight against Thatcher and Heseltine, but a myopic and blinkered NEC. response to say, 'it should be locally detLothian.

Likewise, the fight cannot be confined to local level. Even when it was allegedly left-wing, Labour's NEC had a shoddy record on the cuts. It just told councils to decide their own tactics -so long as they didn't break the law!

The TUC was as bad or worse. The only time it moved was then a special delegation hurried to Lothian to insist the council buckled under.

A fight can and must be started locally - but it also needs to be spread nationally.

And that has a double importance. What Labour councils do now foreshadows what a future Labour government will do: whether it will knuckle under or act against capitalism.

If Labour councils try to mark time, waiting for salvation from a future government, then they will guarantee that salvation never comes. Without the will to start confrontation locally, we will never be able to confront capitalism centrally.

The obstacles they will face: Heseltine's back page

(slington North)

ermined'. The Parliamentary Party went a stage further and sent Hattersiey round the country supporting every Labour Council: no matter that in Wakefield this meant massive cuts and dog-like obedience to Heseltine, while in other places there were attempts to fight back.

London Labour Briefing was founded after the 1979 election to provide a forum for left activists in London boroughs to talk to each other and to plan for a more united approach by Labour-controlled councils, the aim being to make them an engine in the fighting force against the Tories we need.

It soon became obvious that the existing Labour leaderships in most of the boroughs had no intention of leading this fight, hence Target 82 was founded to prepare and plan for the 1982 borough elections and support the selection of candidates who would fight for an aggressive and different sort of Labour council.

Since its foundation a substantial mailing list of activists has been created. A successful series of conferences have been heid, ensuring that not only will there be stronger manifestos, but manifestos that will have an emphasis on a changed method of council operation in terms of housing, ethnic minority groups, planning and environmental issues.

Signatures

The latest issue of London Labour Briefing contains a statement that has already been signed by over 100 co council candidates that pledges them to an 8-point statement to* refuse to cut council services, * defy the district auditor where it tries to interfere action against elected councutiors, * fight for a Labour victory to oppose the Tory government, * oppose racial and sexual harassment and make the police accountable, * seek to unite the trade union and labour movement to smash the Tory government, support the establishment of -an 'Association of Socialist Councils' * secure for a future Labour government an alternative democratic base • of support.

The prospects of massive Labour victories in London in May are very good indeed, but that support will only be retained if the newly elected councils actually band together to implement the manifestos that have been very painstakingly and democratically written by Party members.

There will be no easy road after May 6, but Labour victories followed by action by Labour councils against the Tories will do much to raise the morale of the labour movement and provide us with the basis of a campaign to secure the election of a Labour Government committed to a fight against capitalism, and not the obsequious reformist role that we have seen in the past.

Comrades in London who would like to take part in the London Labour Briefing/Target 82 mailing list should send £5 to the address below (£ 1 unwaged).

* Jeremy Corbyn, 28 Lausanne Road, London N8.

Experiences to learn Centre

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May Election Special

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