Glc: the C

Scan page 2

Charlie Rossi, vice-chairman of the GLC, gives Socialist Organiser "a view from the dais' Labour came to power in May of last year at County Hall with a strong working majority both in the Greater London Council and in the Inner London Education Authority. Am I right in believing that a substantial majority of comrades "affiliated" or associated themselves with Briefing before and immediately after the election?

Yes, at a guess there must have been 35 or so at the initial Briefing caucus immediately after our victory... and that included Andrew Mackintosh, the former Leader. Or at least he had attended two Briefing meetings prior to the election - to the best of my knowledge.

How many members of the Group now regard themselves as belonging to Briefing, one year after the election, one year into office?

Ithink there are now only to ask the Secretary of the Briefing. group, Andy Harris, for the precise Many comrades in the constituencies and Transport Unions cannot understand why the comrades have abandoned the policy which Ken called for, defying the law.

Well, I certainly voted for it. I came down from the Dais — you know I am Vice-Chairman of the Council -to vote with the Left comrades, consistently all the way to the Budget.

How many members of the Group supported the Party Manifesto in opposing the doubling of the London Transport fares?

18.

Did it include No.

Ask him!

Why did all the comrades including • the 'hard left' [sometimes jokingly called the 'loony • left'] - Dave Anal Harris — eventually suport the Budget, that included the LT fares structure which meant acquiescing in the doubling of fares -as it were under duress?

In order" to get the Budget through. We all had to do it in the end. People may have taken the view that the alternative was that they would have lost their powerbase. This is not my view, I am not wholly Majority Opposition.

There appears to be no great enthusiasm on the part of the unions at County Hall for this left wing administration. Why is that?

It's true. They don't seem to be getting anywhere. Nothing has been done for the manual workers, but the chairman of the Staff Committee seems to be afraid of NALGO. Blue collar workers seem to be getting nowhere very fast.

A good example of this is the messenger service, who have found all their overtime cut, and their wages depleted while the security services seem to be getting everything and being strengthened in their staffing complement. Many comrades on the GMCs and in the trade union branches have been frankly shocked by the enormous salaries that have been assigned to new posts created by the new left Labour administration. Figures in the neighbourhood of £35,000 have been quoted and paid to' a new Chief Officer in the Enterprise Board.

Do these exorbitant salaries play right into the hands of the Tories who needless to say exploit this to their own advantage? Has not Valerie Wise complained about it?

Many of us are very concerned about the high salaries offered for these new appointments, when the lower ranks are not being attended to. How do the leading comrades justify it?

They say the old officers would look down on the new officers, and take them as second class citizens unless they were placed on the same salary grades or levels.

What would you do then?

Get rid of the old officers and appoint new officers at reasonable salaries. think that's what Ken told Briefing he would do! What about the Inner London Eduction Authority.

by NADINE FINCH [chair LGC] How do you explain the fact that our school meals

----- pull-quotes -----

20 paid up members at present. I think you'll have