Lambeth conference Nov 1: let's start the real fight to halt the cuts!
Socialist Press1980 1980-10-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →
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The conference against the cuts convened by marks a focal point for those militants seeking a way forward against the Tory offensive in the public sector.
But it will also form a stamping ground for numerous 'left' talking councillors seeking to register a token vote of protest before implementing the Tory cuts.
The draft resolution tabled by the organisers leaves many loophol es for such elements. But a series of amendments put forward last week by the Leicester AUEW 16 Branch, and supported by Socialist Press, Socialist Organiser and the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement, aim to lay the basis for a generalised struggle against the cuts.
Commitment
They specifically demand that the resolution's call for joint action:
"should not mean CLPs or Labour councillors using the inactivity of others to justify implementing or accepting cuts themselves"
They add the commitment that:
"We pledge ourselves to fight to commit the whole labour movement to the following policies:
Cancellation of debt NUAR AGAINST THE CUTS charges. Open the books; nationalise the supply industries, eg. drugs, food and building, and the banks and finance institutions without compensation under workers' IAL SERVICES Lambeth cuts demonstration control.
2) No charity funding of facilities! Black private sector use of facilities!
3) Funds of public services to be (as a minimum) protected from inflation in line with a cost index worked out by labour movement committees"
A weak-kneed section on Town Hall unions is deleted and replaced by a declaration that:
"This conference calls on trade union organisations at all levels [from TUC General Council to branches and shop steward committees] to pledge themselves to and campaign for all-out strikes and occupations of workplaces as soon as any Labour council faces receivers commissioners, or is surcharged, for taking a stand against the cuts.
"The struggle may centre around the public sector unions at first, but conference calls on other workers, especially the strong sections like the miners and engineers, to join this fight to force the Tory government to back down on the cuts or get out. Conference also calls on Labour councils and Labour Cont'd p.11, col. 2
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WANDSWORTH NALGO