Camden in -the clear
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-05-06Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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Nations. 31 Labour councillors from Camden, in North London, have successfully resisted a move from the District Auditor to have them surcharged to the tune of £950,000.
On Thursday April 29, High Court judges turned down an application by the District Auditor to have the councillors surcharged for conceding a £60 wage rate and a 35 hour week in the 1979 local authority manual workers' dispute. Camden's settlement was well above the national one.
The judgment was hardly flattering to the Labour council leadership: the judges found that there was no evidence that it had "colluded with the • strikers", or been "swayed by philanthropic enthusiasm"
Mobilise
But it does show that the Labour councils who rush to surrender at the least whisper of any legal threat - like West Midlands, over cheap fares, or Camden itself, in 1981, over manual workers' pay and cuts in direct labour - are conceding defeat too soon.
Threats of legal action are not the same as legal penalties. And even the strongest threats can be defeated, if there is the will to mobilise and to fight.