Rate-Rent Strikes

Scan page 7

From the lively discussion on rent and rate strikes a number of key elements emerged that are vital to build such actions.

Alisdair Jamison of the Basingstoke Tenants Action Group underlined the necessity for extensive propaganda-in the form of bulletins, broadsheets, and frequent estate meetingsnot simply to persuade tenants of their strength, but also to make clear the limited powers at the disposal of the councils.

"We need to show that the struggle is a difficult one for the Council as well as the tenants."

Linked to this fight to build the confidence of the tenants is the necessity to prepare well in advance the organisation of pickets against any possible evictions, and to seek out industrial support from local unions both in local government and in local industry.

The immediacy of this struggle means, as John Docherty from Paisley pointed out, that the tenants' organisations are now emerging in a socialist economy.

And the reactionary role of the right wing "mafia" who run most Labour Groups was exposed by many speakers, including Coventry tenants' leader Les Bennet, who condemned the expulsion of 12 councillors from the Group for their 'no rate/rent increase' It became very clear that the fight must be taken beyond the tenants' movements, into a fight for new leadership and accountability within the Labour Party if the necessary movement is to be built.

Ray Davies