Councils cri CAN BEAT HESELTINE

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If Heseltine has his way, council tenants and all users of council services are next... TINE This week several Labour coun London from our council leader ONE OF the growth indus ries in Islington after th council elections in May, wa IS the production of badge acclaiming the 'Socialis st Republic of Islington'. ' Hov ever, the harsh realities c of the impact of Thatcher mor etarism on the developmen of socialism in one boroug has gradually depressed th market for these badges.

We were elected on socialist manifesto whic had been developed after tremendous effort in consu tation and participation bot within the Labour Party an with trade unions, tenants organisations and commun ity groups.

The programme we wan to mount is financed in thre ways, by central governmen grant, local council cnarge am=. (mainly rents), and the rates We all know that payin for local services by hig rates and rents constitutes a attack on the living stan‹ ards of working class peopl So to mount our essenti: programmes we must hav proper funding from centr: government in the bloc grant they allocate to us.

Yet since 1976 centra government has cut th money it allocates to loc: authorities. Looking a London alone, these cu backs have been particularl vicious.

Since the Tories too control fondon has las VIL JILL £500 million in real term: Government used to mee 66.5% of local government expenditure, but this has now been cut and in 19834 the Tories have said they will only meet 54.0% of our expenditure.

Inner London is the only education authority in the country where the government makes absolutely no contribution to the education service: ILEA have lost all their grant since Thatcher took over.

Centrally

The Tories have operated their cuts in two ways. They assess centrally how much they consider local councils should spend, and they allocate grant accordingly. Thus for example, in social services, comparing central government expenditure assessments with local authority budgets, they have said that in 1982/83 London is 'overspending by £128 million on services such as home helps, meals-on-wheels, proVSIOn for the physically and mentally handicapped and so on. Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster are as guilty as Islington and Camden for allegedly spending too much.

Secondly, the Tories have developed a particularly vicious weapon to cut grant and specifically hit Labour authorities. If you spend above the targets they set you, they penalise you by fining you a certain sum for every additional pound you spend.

This year, every pound Islington spends cabove its permitted level costs us £1.60 because we are fined 60p in loss of grant. Next year, Heseltine " intends to concentrate his attack more directly on Labour authorities by dramatically increas ing his penalties.

Lose In Islington we fear this may lose us a further £10 million in grant as compared to the £2 million we lose in penalties in the current year, and as compared to the £3 million it would cost to implement our manifesto immediately and in entirety.

This merciless and criminal attack on local government cannot even be justiified in terms of public expenditure cutbacks. The truth is that between 1975/6 and 1981/82, local government expenditure has been cut by 20% while central government expenditure has

REA DISTA

gone up by 8%.

The Tories have chosen to spend more on defence, the police, the dole and war, at the expense of the old, the disabled, the young and the poor.

What can socialists do? Obviously we must campaign for more moust campaign to expose the m ASOcYA HP uPA 1nul wrongness of the Tory assertion that local authorities are profligate and waste. ful.

In Islington we have initiated a new grouping of all London Labour Leaders, so that a concerted attack by Labour boroughs on the Government can be mounted. Islington has also taken a lead in the formation of the Association of Socialist Councillors, which similarly aims to bring together Labour councillors across the country. We are working together with the Trades Council, community groups and tenants' associations to develop grassroots support.

Options

We are examining the options for open confrontaton with government.

The fact is that the legislation has been contrived by the Tories to make the Clay Cross option virtually impossible. For example, were we to decide neither to cut services nor raise rates, this would not result in elected councillors being surcharges and martyred into Holloway or Pentonville Prison.

The effect of a no rates, no cuts position would be either that the bureaucrats would have a statutory obligation to implement cuts, or that the council would somarannlt into hanbrintow and the people then on the front line would be council workers for whom there would be no wages, and the old and the disabled for whom there would be no services.

We are looking at withholding the police precept, at rescheduling our debt and other ideas, but these options do not, at first glance, appear viable.

So the question we must concentrate on is, where do we go in the short term? In the longer term, the return of a •Labour government committed to socialist policies must be our aim, but what do we, elected councillors, do in setting the rate for next year?

FOR A Margaret Hodge: We are ation' SOCIALIST Organiser supporters in Islington have argued against budget-balancing rate rises as an option.

We do not do this because we have a cut-anddried answer as to just how a ronfrontation with the CinvLY MUTernment on the basis of no rate rises/no cuts could be managed to tactical advantage - for the next local SO meeting (see What's On, p.15) we have invited an expert on local government law to discuss this - but because we feel that strategic options should not be confused by tactical problems.

The experience of Lambeth and Lothian showed that Labour councils which try to finance left-wing policies out of hard-press ratepayers' pockets end up losing any will and any credibility as fighters against the Tories, and sliding into cuts.

Working class people in Islington, as elsewhere in big examining the options for confrontcities, have been hard hit by rent and rate rises over rec-. ent years. 'Socialism on the rates' will not get their support - especially if the local socialism is unable to do anything decisive about central nrnhlems like housing But the fight against Heseltine is not oniy, or even mainly, a question of what councillors do.

Whether councillors are wheeled in tumbrils down Caledonian Road, or the Tories find more subtle methods, the outcome will be decided by the action of council workers, other trade unionists, and tenants. What can be expected of socialist councillors is that they give a lead, use their position to the maximum, and give all support they can to local workers and tenants.

Crucial is not what tactics we can work out next spring - though that could be very important - but the ISLINGTON is probably the most left wing of the Labour councils elected this May.

Islington had for some years been an arena of battle between an entrenched Labour right wing and newer, more left wing, members. After the founding of the SDP, this battle culminated with all three Labour MPs in the borough, and a majority of the 50 (out of 52) Labour councillors, going over to the SĐP.

Islington became the first ever SDP council. But in May an active, vigorous Labour campaign swept out the SDP. One SDP councillor retained his seat by one vote, the other 51 seats were taken by Labour.

Accountability of Labour councilors to the Labour Party - or lack of it! - had been a central issue in the previous political battles. The new Labour group operates a probably unique system whereby major policy decisions are taken by quarterly joint meetings of the councilors and the Local Government Committee (an elected inint committee of the three local constituency Labour Parties).

The July 19 joint meeting, on the initiative of Socjalist Organiser supporters, resolved: "to formulate a clear statement of intent: to carry out our manifesto in the next financial year without increasing the financial burden, through rates, on the people of the borough.

"We will prepare material for mass distribution which explains, simply, how much extra funding this will require, our intention to Nadine Finch (secretary, Islington Labour Parties Local Government Committee ISLINGTON'S Campaign against Heseltine so fat has been conducted amongst Labour leaders and councillors and in the press.

It is now time that the campaign reached the people of Islington, who are those who will gain from the new and restored services brought in by the new socialist campaign to rouse Islington to revolt against both the rate-rise and the service-cut versions of Tory robbery. And it is for the campaign that the rate-rise option is damaging.

If Labour councillors appeal to the people of Islington on the slogan - 'Here we stand, defiant against the Tories! Mind you, next spring we may have to back down and raise the rates' -then the outcome is predictable. By next spring rate rises will be not an option, but the only option.

To make Islington's Labour council more than a humane administrator for Tory policies with a few left wing restures, we need a mass campaign against Tory policies. And for that campaign we need a policy of no rate rises, no cuts.

Pat Longman is a Labour councillor for St George's ward, Islington. dagtom launch a mass campaign get it, and our commitme to carrying out our poli even if the government refl es to provide the money"

The Labour council t reversed all major SDP cu promised a freeze on ren helped fund an unemploy centre; opposed discrimi tion against gays in empic ment, social services, a housing; started plans to ‹ centralise council servic so that they are more ava able and accountable, a repeatedly and publicly su ported the NHS workers.

Yet as the Local Gove: ment Committee put it September: "Every person Islington now faces the sta choice of abandoning i manifesto on which the L our Party swept to power imposing a massive rate r (of 40-50%). to allow 1 Central Government 1 again cutting its support Islington Council"

To combat both the alternatives, the Islingt Labour Parties' policy is campaign this autumn a winter to get more mon irom ine government... « start from the position tr the rate burden should n be increased, and that t Government should make the difference instead imposing penalties"

The policy is not a def ite no rate rise comm ment. Such a commitme was proposed by Social Organiser supporters for t May manifesto, and defe: ed. The actual decision • the rates will be next sprir and many councillors al Labour activists clearly fe that, campaign or no cam aign, rate rises are inevitabl Labour Council and lose 1 the penalties imposed Heseltine and the To government on the pc inner city area that is Isli ton.

The Local Governme Committee has booked i Co-op Hall in Seven Siste Road for a debate wi national speakers on Jar ary 21. The debate w centre on possible solutio the economic a: employment problems Islington.

Leaflets that can be us by wards for their own loc ised campaign, following from the large meeting, a being prepared moment.

•The debate will aim bring in those not usual interested in Labour Par meetings, and the local cal paigns will try to reach me! vers of the communi where they work, whe they live, and where th pass their free or unwag time.

The need for the cal paign to reach out to t community in its territo cannot be stressed enoug Meetings in the Town Ha and press statements issu from the steps, will ner reassure those who have se all ine promises ana pla of previous Labour adm istrations disappear ov night. We have to win th confidence.

In the next few mont by campaigning arou employment, by suppo ing the Health Strike a opposing the disastrous pla for the Archway Road, t Labour Party has a chan to put its presence where mouth is.

The moves it makes decentralise council servic and bring them into the cr trol of the people of Islin ton will also be an acid tr of our commitment to t Deoble we hope are going support uS in the against Heseltine's policies.

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cils in Londor are mounting a joint 'Save

Heseltine' campaign. Islington L

Margaret Hodge explains

c sis MSPORTICNER

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