Kicked out fo fighting

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IN A Glasgow District Council by-election on May 18, in the Fairfield ward in Govan, Pat keegan, standing as "Labour against the Cuts" won an overwhelming victory against the "official" Labour candidate (by 819 votes to 299).

Pat Keegan was Labour District Councillor for the area until he resigned in protest at the council's decision to close Govan baths.

Although both the Fairfield Labour Party branch and the CLP backed Pat as Labour candidate, the Glasgow District Labour Party narrowly vetoed his readmission to the panel and parachuted in an ageing union bureaucrat as the official candidate.

All the members of the Fairfield Labour Party branch now face expulsion for backing Pat Keegan in the by election. At least ten Labour District Councillors have already said they will resign if Pat's request to be re-admitted to the group is accepted. •And Militant supporters have argued that Pat 'must be expelled from the Labour Party, if he hasn't been expelled already" on the grounds that he is a "maverick"

The fight against the baths' closure is being continued and stepped up. Maria Fyfe, a leading member of the District Labour Group has publicly stated that if Keegan had lost then the Council would have re-opened the baths, but since he won they will not even consider the idea.

Pat Keegan told Socialist 'When I was re-elected the Labour District Councillor in 1980 I wrote in the personal message on my election address that I was prepared to fight the cuts along with all other organisations of the working class.

"We set up a Govan Cuts Campaign and had a campaign against the 31% rent increases which the council was demanding. We organised a rent strike which I joined as well, so that I would face the same attacks as everyone else in the rent strike.

"Although the strike is now being phased out, I think the fact that this year's increase is ony 8% shows that we achieved a small measure of success. I believe that the Labour Group listened to what we had to say because they were getting the backlash.

"In opposing the closure of the baths, too, I believe that I was faithful to my manifesto of 1980 in which 1 promised to protect services.

"I believe that the Labour Group should have shown greater leadership to other local authorities in Scotland. Then it wouldn't have been possible to pick them off. It could have led a campaign which could have been successful and united other councils by putting itself in the front line.

•'The branch and the constituency agreed with what I'd done (although they disagreed with my resignation) because I'd been acting in line with the political stance of the CLP on cuts and rents.

"If the District Labour Group had the same climate as the CLP then it would be a happier situation for Labour supporters in Glasgow and Scotland in general."