A balance sheet on the Left councils

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its own trainees over the odds. It An article in London Labour has actively supported the Briefing by Jan Wallcraft, the health workers and other woman imprisoned for fares But for Marxists such records dialectics of it:

have to be less decisive than the wife... After years of cynicism political record in terms of and confusion about politics... organisation, confidence and I was attracted to the Labour awareness of the working class Party in 1981 by the clear, progenerally, of the labour move- gressive, sensible policies of the ment, and immediately of the GLC... It didn't sound like the That political record is bad. hearing from politicians. So The left councils have done many useful things. In Islington, for example, the council has made important stands on Ireland and on gay rights (though the council leadership is now trying to play down the latter). Its record in relation to the council workers, though not brilliant, is much better than that of its SDP predecessor.

It has involved tenants, quite successfully, in planning rehabilitation work on their estates. It has frozen rents. It has maintained services.

It has given a lead for the struggle against YTS by paying workers in struggle.

of municipal administration left in the labour movement.

IN THIS third and final part of his discussion article surveying the experience of 5 years of the Labour Left in local government, MARTIN THOMAS moves on to look at alternative policies and the prospects for the period ahead.

refusal, eloquently describes the "I am a working-class houselies and claptrap I was used to Become a supporter of the Socialist Organiser Alliance - groups are established in most large towns. We ask £1.50 a that when the GLC came under attack, I felt that there was something there worth defending, and that I would do whatever was necessary to fight for a cause that was clear, simple, and just, as the fares issue then was.

"Unfortunately, the issue did not remain so simple. By the time the GLC had voted through the Budget approving the fare rises, it was hard to see clearly any more who or what we were fighting.

On the one hand, Ken Dave and Valerie and the rest were campaigning vigorously and wholeheartedly for resistance to the fare rises, and on the other hand, they were allowing themselves to be made responsible for implementing the Law Lords' ruling.

'... To cooperate with injustice, however tactically advisable it may seem at the time, must be self-defeating in the end, because it obscures the issue, and confuses potential supporters. It shows a lack of faith by the elected councillors in the labour movement, and can be seen as a cynical betrayal of the powerless and dispossessed.

Worse

Looked at from the angle of the development of the Left, the position is even worse. A whole segment of leftists, who could have become an educating, organising, inspiring force for broader sections of the labour movement, have allowed themselves to be captured by the bourgeois structures of local government.

The problem is politics. In every case, thè left councils went into office with no perspective for fighting or at best (in the case of the GLC) with a fudged, half-measures perspective. This political inadequacy was not something imposed on the labour movement from above by this or that clique, but a reflection of the movement's general The left, having got into council positions, has adapted itself to the limits of the established structures (because it had no clear idea of how to fight them), and then become a force trying to educate the rest of the labour movement to accept those limits.

AN ALTERNATIVE POLICY In the Islington Socialist Organiser Group, in particular, and through the paper, we have developed an alternative perspective. We have argued the issues through in more detail than any other current on the left.

It was summarised as follows in the resolution drafted by us, in consultation with other comrades, for the Islington budget debate:

•'This Joint Meeting (of the concil Parties up and bel Government Committee) agrees the following Programme of Action to resist the Tory Government's attempt to destroy jobs and services in Islington, through their cuts in Rate Support Grant and penalties on Council spending.

•'That at the Council meeting on Tuesday March 8 the Labour group shall submit a motion refusing to make a budget at that meeting and demanding that the government restores the full level of Rate Support Grant required to meet the needs of the borough.

•That the Labour Group shall make a 'Statement of Intent' (see below) at the meeting to implement a budget for 1983-4 which fulfills the Party's manifesto and other immediate needs of the borough without increasing the financial burden, through rent or rates, on the people of Islington.

•That the Labour Group calls a Special Meeting of the Council for Tuesday March 29 at which, •The March issue of Islington Focus shall reprint the Labour group's 'Statement of Intent' in full and carry as much supporting material as is possible.

• The Local Government Committee and the Labour group shall press strenuously at the London Regional Conference of the Labour Party for support for our plans, through an emergency resolution declaring London Labour's full support to Islington, through financial aid for our campaign, and appeals for help with mass canvassing.

'The Labour group shall approach Labour groups in other London boroughs and on the GLC to get them to provide assistance to Islington and to follow a similar course of action.

•The Labour group shall appoint a full-time legal adviser, with specialist knowledge of local authority finance and legislation and sympathetic to the campaign, to investigae the various tactics needed to best pursue the course of action decided.

"Plans shall be made for dealing with resistance from senior officers. These plans shall be made in detailed terms which would allow members to assume direct control of all Council affairs, and shall be in hand by the Special Council meeting of March 29.

"Plans shall be made to ensure that contingency funds, lodged with other Labour Authorities or other sympathetic institutions, are in hand by the March 29 Special Council meeting in order to be able to continue paying employees for as long a period as possible after the banks refuse to deal directly with the Council."

This is the Statement of Intent referred to:

"Islington Council's Labour Group plans, together with the labour movement of the borough, to press forward with its plans for improving housing, of 'no cuts' would be £71.3 million, not £77.3 million. Another £6 million taken away.

'This means the total Tory Surcharge on islington is £9 million. The government want us to force you, the people of Islington, to pay that difference through higher rent and rates. We refuse to force you to pay this Tory Surcharge. It would be an impossible burden at a time when real wages are falling and unemployment soaring.

"They are cutting back the money they give to islington and want you to pay. To balance the council's budget after the Tory , Surcharge we would have to increase our total rates bill from {40 million last year to over 250 million in 1983. It would mean a 30% rise in rates.

Real cost 'But the real cost of our extra services, and inflation on existing services, only adds up to £2.5 million, and it should only mean a 4% rise in rates if the Tories paid their share.

•The Tories owe us the £9 million we need to keep the Council's services running. We demand they pay up!

'The Tories will not admit they are trying to rob us. They will accuse will rending despite the fact that Islington's problems are getting worse. The only thing we can do, if we are not to make you pay the "Tory Surcharge' , is to run an 'unbalanced' council budget in 1983-4.

''The Tories will use this as an excuse to try and take control of the Council away from your elected councillors. They will try to hand the Council over to unelected officials who they will order to carry out their robbery for them by cutting services, slashing jobs, and increasing rents and rates. We will, together