Tenants organise to fight Tory ent hike

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As Heseltine tells councils to increase rents as the fight back is beginning to appear in Oxfordshire.

In an estate in Oxford one tenant on his own initiative collected over 600 signatures to a petition calling for rent strikes in opposition to Heseltine's housing cuts.

A Committee was formed and a meeting held two days before the Labour Group met.

Sanction for the Labour Group to increase rents by £3 and rates by over 3p was later granted at the General Committee by 47 votes to 38 despite strong speeches tor no rent and tate increases.

A resolution supporting the Rose Hill tenants and others prepared to carry out a rent strike was lost by 33 votes to 39.

Tenants groups

In the nearby Tory-controlled Cherwell District Council over 30% of the tenants are refusing to pay an increase of £3 (due to 'accounting errors').

The new Heseltine increase has yet to be discussed and implemented.

Out of this struggle thriving tenants groups have been set up in the Kidlington, Bicester and Bloxham areas and even in Deddington where there are only 12 council tenants surrounded by many home owners.

NA Further across the county, Tory-run South Oxfordshire District Council is to increase its rents by over £3.

A meeting called by three Labour Councillors on Monday 26 January attracted over 200 angry tenants. The Labour Councillors held tight control of the reins at the meeting, recommending that tenants apply for rent rebates.

"Difficult"

Bill Buckingham, the leader of the eight member Labour Group on the Council stated how difficult it was when they were in the minority. They had argued for "cushioning' the enect or ine increase lo a rise ol affand of tlan martend tina of £1.51.

Rumblings from the meeting indicated as had a local reporter in that evening's paper "that some tenants feel the Councillors and their cushions can get stuffed"

South Oxfordshire District Council though has actually made a profit from its housing revenue account of £307,000 and will be £594,000 in surplus if the increased rents are collected.

Reality came to the meeting when the Chairperson of the Rosehill Tenants Association, Dennis White, related to the Didcot Tenants what a Labour controlled Council was doing in Oxford and how the tenants were going to resist.

He insisted that. Labour councillors, whether in control or not, should be saying NO to 2902 Tenants demonstrate against Tor Heseltine:

«The Tories are taki thing away from us : nd ve '11 end up paralysed if we let lem A 'Council of Action' was formed which included those present at the meeting who were taking up the call for a rent strike: "What can they do? They can't kick us all out if we stick together," was the feeling and one mobile home tenant said if they evicted him he'd smash up his "concrete slab' first.

Another speaker from Oxford suggested ways in which the campaign would be successful; she stressed that it must not be isolated but link up with other tenants associations within their district, county and nationally.

And more importantly tenants must take the issue into the trade union movementespecially NALGO-for support.

Myth

What was most discredited at the meeting was the myth that we're daily told of the working class being unwilling to fight, sitting indoors, watching Dallas. Angry women kept getting to their feet venting years of frustration in the home and demanding action rather than appealing to the Tories' better nature.

Cent Act The agenda for the forthcoming Scottish Conference of the Labour Party reflects the growing concern within the Party not only with mounting a fightback against the Tory government but also with ensuring a greater degree of accountability of the leadership to the rank and file.

Four resolutions (Nos. 144147) from local Labour Parties precisely detail the ways in which Labour councillors* at district and regional levels must work more closely with and be more responsive to the policies and opinions of the . local Parties.

For instance, the resolutions specity that Labour Groups on councils shall "be bound by policies included in the election manifesto" and "the local Party to take the final decision on all issues of disagreement on the interpretation of Party policy".

Although seemingly more mundane than resolutions on general policy questions, these moves both express the demand for democratic accountability that is sweeping through the Party and are a key issue fight against cuts in the social services at a local level.

The conflict between the demands of local Labour Parties and right wing councillors has been seen recently in Glasgow where the Labour Group on the District Counci has been censured by the District Labour Party for selling houses and raising rents and rates.

Censure does not amount to control, but the passage of such resolutions at the Conference on 12-15 March will be a step towards ensuring that elected representatives of the labour movement at a local level do not, once in office, renege on their pledges and treat their promises to the working class with contempt.

The implementation of such moves would ensure a more

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part of the Tory cuts in local authority spending,

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