London Labour needs more than new manifestoes!

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The July 5 conference of the London Labour Briefing saw a number of proposals on the •selection of candidates and the drafting of manifestoes in the GLC and municipal elections over the next two years.

First speaker to take up this theme was Ken Livingstone-a member of both Camden Council and the GLC.

He proposed a series of democratic reforms designed to increase members' control over Labour Groups on councils. These were:

1. Group observers from each ward, not just CLPs.

2. Group votes to be recorded and circulated.

3. GMCs to receive reports from and question Group members.

4. Group reports to be given priority in GMC agendas.

5. Regular Borough Conferences to discuss Council policies.

He pledged himself to vote against the budget of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), as he had done previously, if it included further cuts.

The present campaign to prevent the break up of the ILEA by the Tories is being seriously hindered in some areas by the effects of the previous year's cuts.

He argued for increasing the rate in Inner London, where the rate base is 75% commercial, and for using the GLC and the ILEA as organs of redistribution.

The lessons of the 1973 GLC manifesto should be drawn out.

JAMA The Labour Party's failure to implement its free travel policy had contributed in large part to the electoral defeat of 1977.

The new GLC Labour Group will have to be prepared to fight to implement its manifesto, and in so doing contribute to the fall of the Tory government, argued Livingstone.

Finally he reminded delegates of the need to pass conference amendments by 31 July.

Conference chairman Arthur Latham proposed that selection meetings ask candidates for the GLC election for an assurance that they would stand down if they were not prepared to fight for the GLC manifesto to be formulated at a London Regional Conference in October.

The conference broke up into workshops to discuss the GLC manifesto, links with trade unions, and problems of local strategy and control.

15t ON drawn up to impose a specific identifiable commitment on which the Group can be tied down.

Proposals included reduced class sizes, refusing recruitment facilities to the army and police, and the guaranteed re-employment of any GLC staff sacked by the Tories.

Democracy

The workshop on relations with trade unions focussed on questions of organisation and democracy.

The proposed constitutional changes to permit workplace brančhes would generate closer links.

There was a general trend in London CLPs towards more representation from white collar • unions and less from manual unions. This was regarded as an (4) of the Party constitution from leaders of either the Callaghan right or the 'left'.

It is the clause that the right wing find it impossible to remember, and the left' wing successfully forget, It is, in fact, the nearest the Labour Party comes to spelling out a commitment to a socialist policy of Now, with the Tories in and the Callaghan gang limberEVERY unhealthv trend and nonosed There should be more involvement by the Labour Party in trade union campaigns and vice versa.

But little was said in concrete terms as to how this could be achieved.

Inevitably the rates question dominated the final plenary session.

A series of speakers, mostly from Lambeth, argued for the strategic importance of the no rate/rent rises, no cuts position, in transforming local struggles into a challenge to the government.

The overal line they proposed was that 'left' Labour councils, and Lambeth in particular, were obliged to givę a lead at this point, in order that a mass campaign should be generated. the left on Party democracy at the 1980 conference, the Party bureaucracy itself has put on a 'left' face-issuing a badge bearing the wording of the clause and the slogan 'Remember Clause IV' overprinted in red.

The badge (20p) is available from the Labour Party at 150 Walworth Rd., London SE17. kea paint to add the necessary question mark at the end is available from most good do-ityourself shops.

Other speakers were less confident about the development of such a campaign, at least in the immediate future.

The public sector unions were not prepared to see developments that would put their jobs at serious risk, which the bankrupting of councils would certainly do.

Demands were also made on 'left' MPs to disrupt the functioning of Parliament and to ignore Callaghan's instructions in Westminster.

Limited

But it is clear that from the limited left reformist horizons of the Labour Briefing conference it would be extremely difficult to wage the necessary sharp fight to expose the vacillations and retreats of left" talking MPs or London councilors.

Only a programme of action which unambiguously rejects the viability' of capitalism and starts from the defence of workers' independent interests can provide a serious basis on which to fight the cuts.

This is why it is not enough to tinker with the Labour manifesto and democratise the organisational workings of the Party: a genuine alternative leadership must be built throughout the labour movement.

This means fighting for:

*No cuts! No rate or rent increases! Confront the Tory *Mobilise the unions! Occupy • facilities with closure, with supporting strike action in the public and private sectors!

*Unite the workers' movement in this fight! Build councils of action, drawing delegates from trade unions, workers' political parties, tenants' organisations, cuts campaigns, students, claimants' unions and pensioners' organisations-to extend and defend struggles against cuts and closures!

*No more Clay Cross-style isolation! Fight for generalised action against the Tory cutbacks in council spending-leading to a general strike to bring