Will Liverpool be a new Clay Cross?

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SHOOTING the foreman is a sackable offence. It's the kind of thing you dream of, but just don't do. Someone brings an air gun into work, you fire it accidentally through a plate glass door, and it hits the gaffer in the leg. How were you to know the fellow was behind the door?

Yet in Liverpool these days, workers aren't penalised for common human errors. They get reinstated on the understanding that air-gun practice is no longer permitted on council premises and may go on to become an advisor on trade union affairs to the Labour Council.

Liverpool today stands out, bloodied but unbowed, against the Tory government and the capitalist system which has been attempting to destroy the fighting spirit of this working class city for two decades or more.

Not wishing to follow the national trend, scousers registered a marked swing to Labour during the general election. Before June, the city had two Tory MPs. Today it has none. The Tory victory was just incomprehensible to working class Merseyside. It was as though the rest of the country lived on a different planet.

Another success chalked up by Labour this year was the victory at the city council elections in May.

Liberals For the first time in ten years, the Labour Party won a majority (51 seats) on the 99 seat council. The Liberals, whose pavement politics gimmickry had served them well for most of the previous period, were shown to be impotent when faced with the major problems of education, housing and unemployment.

The present council is dominated by the Militant Tendeney, the most significant force on the Labour Party left. As such, it is universally hated by the local media and a prime target for attack by the Tory government.

The Council does things which go against the grain of the councilor you like your stanis, CORGHO style of local government. One of its first acts was to abolish the office of Lord Mayor. But what would happen to the Mayor's poor old horses, asked the local press. ''They would make good glue" replied the chair of the council.

The new regime was committed too, to much more significant acts aimed at turning the machinery of local government to the benefit of the working class.

*Rents have been reduced.

*Council house provision would be increased.

*1000 extra jobs would be provided by the Council in the form of direct employment.

*School reorganisation would take place on the basis of Liverpool Labour marches against cuts this Saturday, 19th. Bas Hardy reports.

comprehensive education principles being firmly maintained.

*There would be closer involvement of trade unions and particularly shop stewards in the decision making processes of the council.

Such policies of course require money. Where does it come from? Not the rates. The council has firmly committed itself against rate rises to pay for its programme. It is even estimated that a 100% rate rise would be necessary if the council were to rely on this as a source of finance.

So the local authority wants more money from central government to deal with the multiplicity of problems Liverpool has. It is not going to get it.

The City will go bankrupt sometime next year unless the Militant councillors and their supporters abandon their stand and start to make cuts in council services.

It is doubtful that Liverpool will become another Lothian or Lambeth. The scenario is closer to Clay Cross.

Despite their numerous and grievous faults and shortcomings, the Militant councillors who provide the leadership of the Labour Group are much clearer and solid on their intentions than the amalgam of disparate leftists who hold sway in most Left Labour local authorities.

Nevertheless, there are a number of shortcomings in the whole approach of Militant which are potentially damaging to the future course of struggle against the Tories.

Major flaws

The Militant comrades, like most of the politically committed left, are inexperienced in terms of wielding governmental power. This has been compounded by the employment of their own organisational norms to local government.

In essence this means secrecy, boss politics, workerism and sectarianism. These four major flaws in the Militant's whole mode of operation are placing a Labour victory in next May's elections in extreme jeopardy.

In the field of housing, the Council's total commitment to council house policies are alienating Labour voters who are involved in the Housing Co-op movement. Purchases of housing stock from the private sector ry Saturday November 19 Assemble 11am at Shaw St, Liverpool, have been done without the knowledge of Labour councillors in the areas concerned and the housing stock involved has been sub-standard.

Militant comrades extoll the virtues of council housing but a large number of them live in Wavertree Garden Suburb and other suburban owneroccupied areas of Liverpool.

In the field of local government employment, individuals have been advanced for posts on the basis of friendship ties with Militant councillors. The Labour Party has been made to look ridiculous in the local press when the actual qualifications of these candidates have been examined. It is as if we now have left-wing variants of Bob and Bessie Braddock, the old Labour bosses in the city.

When dealing with the trade unions Militant has a noted hostility to the white collar sections, implying that they are "not proper workers"

The Militant have also attempted to transform trade union bodies such as the joint shop stewards committee into adjuncts of the Labour Party by arguing that only Labour-affiliated unions should be represented.

Independent Finally, we have seen that Militant have been abusing their position on the Executive Committee of the District Labour Party to reject prospective candidates for council if they are left wing but independent of Militant's political sphere. Existing right wingers on the panel remain untouched!

This commentator, however, Labour will march against cuts. does not wish to be a sideline scribbler. Whatever the faults of the Militant comrades at present directing the Counci, the left must squarely back them against King and the Tory attack. We must once again ARTI praise the comrades in their resolve to fight, and put every effort into their important mobilisation on November 19. This city is in the front line against the Tory offensive.