Tory cuts? Martin
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-01-13Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 7 →
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at some issues Monday Wednesday Thursday Frichuy Saturday Sunday Thomas FOR OVER three years, 'no cuts, no rate rises, contront the government' has been a major policy plank of Socialist Organiser. In Islington over recent months we have been discussing how to turn the general principled policy into detailed tactics.
This summary of some of our ideas may be useful.
Islington had a pretty democratic discussion on the Labour manifesto for May 1982, culminating in a conference of the three Labour Parties. Socialist Organiser supporters proposed 'no rate rise policy and we lost. The majority attitude was roughly that cuts are intolerable, big rate rises are into!erable, and going for bust is impractical.
The council ..Labour however, decided by quarterly joint meetings of the Labour group and the Local Government Committee (the joint committee of the three Labour Parties for council affairs). This is - as far as I know - a uniquely democratic arrangement, and indeed strictly speaking one outlawed by the Labour Party nationally.
At the July 1982 joint meeting SO supporters made detailed proposals for a campaign for money from central government - and won. These proposals implied a policy of no rate rises.
(Or rather, no high rate rises. In truth it makes no difference whether we say 'no rate rise, not a penny inñation' , or any similar formula: the issue is whether Labour is going to balance the council budget at the expense of domestic ratepayers and small shopkeeper, or January 3 10 17 24 31 A 11 1926 12 27 13 20 14 21 28 1229 16 23 30