Force Mps to Back

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There is no purpose in seeking a logical argument with the Tory government on their latest proposed cuts in local government spending, argued GLC Ken Livingstone last week.

"If the government seeks to destroy local government, then we shall demand of members of the Parliamentary Labour Party that they make the proceedings of parliament inoperable in order to prevent the legislation being carried"

This call, made at a meeting of Britain's largest council, is an important break from the limited perspectives offered up by Labour council leaders in previous rounds of cuts.

By refusing to acknowledge any division between Parliament and local government, Livingstone correctly throws the spotlight onto the PLP, which has so far been all but inactive on the issue of Tory cuts.

Betrayed

Indeed workers seeking a road forward against the cuts have found themselves betrayed on all sides. Public sector union leaders have sat back and watched jobs being slashed by the thousand; councillors left' and right alike (including Livingstone's own council in Camden) have imposed cuts and rate/ rent increases--blaming them on the Tory government, and members of Labour's NEC and PLP have made tub-thumping speeches while offering no lead whatever to mass action to defeat Thatcher.

Livingstone has said that he now expects the PLP 10 back his call for a campaign of disruption in Parliament: it remains to be seen whether right wing Shadow spokesman Gerald Kaufmann will in fact do anything as positive as this..

But whether Kaufmann acts, it is clear from past experience that even a small number of committed Labour MPs could throw the machinery of Parliament into crisis-witness the filibustering of anti-abortion legislation.

Mass action

The demand for action to block the Tory offensive must therefore be levelled at every Labour MP, in particular those who put forward the most vociferous anti-Tory rhetoric.

But it must also be coupled to the preparation of mass action on a local level to resist the cuts, closures and rate/rent increases which the latest Tory measures are designed to impose.

For Livingstone to point the finger at Parliament is correct: but were he to seek by this means to duck the responsibility for mounting a mass campaign in London in confrontation with the Tories, he would be doing the workers movement no favours at all.

Certainly there appear to be: signs that. Heseltine's latest ultimatum demanding a further.. cut in council spending and his preparation of new legislation to control council budgets is forcing Labour councils into an impossible corner.

Last week Labour leaders of 77 major urban councils agreed that they would refuse to comply with Heseltine's demands for them to submit new, revised budgets: cutting a total of £800 million:

Instead most will resubmit the budgets unamended. while the GLC will send in a budget revised upwards to take account of the Labour council's election pledges.

The Tory squeeze on local government is of course only one aspect of their överall attack on the rights and living standards of the working class.

With anger running high over wages, unemployment and the cuts already imposed, conditions are favourable for a determined fight against further punitive rises in rates and rents.

Enough is enough. There have been too many retreats.

The whole labour movement must be put on a war footing and mobilised to bring down the Thatcher The first week of the Scarman inquiry into the Brixton riots has painted a graphic picture of the heavy police task-force sent in to harass and arrest black workers and youth.

Day One saw Deputy Assistant Commissioner Leslie Walker point out that apart from the ethnic groups "one's also got to consider the ordinary citizen in Brixton:"

This gulf in the eyes of the police between the "ordinary" (white). citizens and the supposedly criminat (black) elements has emerged as a consistent note in the inquiry.

Local police commander Adams used an analogy from military warfare to explain why police made no effort 10 inform community leaders of their operations.

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PRESS, Thursdar