Heffer backs Liverpool fight
Socialist Organiser1984 1984-03-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 3 →
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Liverpool City Council has, over a period of time, been dominated by a coalition of Liberals and Conservatives.
They left the incoming Labour council in May 1983 with a very serious problem.
There had been a rundown of the services, a failure to increase tates when they could have been increased.
When the previous Labour government were giving pretty good levels of Rate Support Grant, instead of using that as the basis to develop services, the Tories and Liberals used it to keep rates down.
So when Labour finally took control, after years of Tory cuts in Rate Support Grant, they found an almost impossible situation.
Although Liverpool may not levy such high rates as happens in other parts of the country, the fact is, it you take the overall situation in Liverpool, it is not acceptable to increase rates by 60% - which is what they would have to do just in order to stand still.
So the council are absolutely right to say that they are not going to levy a high rate, that they are not going to throw 5,000 workers on the dole, that they are not going to put the burdens of this government policy onto the shoulders of working people, but that they are going to make a They are quite right to make a stand. They are quite right to make a fight of it. And they need the full support of the movement.
I haven't heard or seen an alternative budget to the one being prepared by the Council leaders. Whether one will be revealed to the Liverpool leaders when they meet Labour's front bench spokesperson John Cunningham I don't know.
I hope Neil Kinnock will understand the situation. I think it is important that he has further concrete evidence from the Liverpool MPs about the situation and I hope that arising out of that understanding, there will at the very least be no attacks made on positive developments.
The rest of the movement could let the National Executive and the Parliamentary leadership know what they feel about this. Resolutions from Labour Party and trade union branches wouldn't be a bad idea. The more response and support there is, the better.
See page 10: report from Liverpool, and other articles on the local government uts fight.