[Nik leader The major factor in her decision…]

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Nik leader The major factor in her decision to join was the determined stand that Lenin and the Bolsheviks took against the imperialist (1914-18) war. Kollontai was deeply shocked when German socialists caved in and voted to support 'their ruling class in the war.

EMOTIONAL

Her political development after the revolution brought out the weaknesses of her politics, which was always based primarily on her emotional reaction to injustice and poverty, rather than a scientific understanding of Marxism.

In 1920, she was in the leadership of the Workers Opposition. This faction within the Bolshevik Party opposed several aspects of party poncy. In particular, they criticised as "undemocratic" the use of bourgeois specialists with technical skills, and argued for immediate workers' management, ignoring the need for workers to acquire these skills first.

CRITIC

Although Kollontai was a left' critic of Lenin in 1920, she was unable to maintain a consistent stand against the real threat workers democracy and the development the revolution: the rise of Stalinism.

In 1922 she began the diplomatic career which was her main activity from then onwards, She died in 1952, after managing to escape the Stalinist purges of the 1930s-a major feat for a former Bolshevik leader. One of the factors which enabled her to survive was hef refusal to join the Opposition led by Trotsky in the late 1920s. In fact, in 1927 she wrote "The Opposition and the Party Rank and File"-a reply' to Trotsky's opposition to the growing bureaucrațisation of the party.

Kollontai was by no means a conscious Stalinist, but her inability to analyse and respond scientifically to the developments during and after the revolution made her inconsistent and wavering. Her starting point was her emotional reaction and a superficial understanding of "what the masses want" rather than objective assessments. It was this weakness that led a brilliant orator and leader of working women into the reactionary camp of Stalinism.

wis на 'YOUR HOME IS MY CASH!

If trade unionists, tenants and housewives are going to fight the cuts successfully, they will need to be crystal clear about how local authorities get their money, what they do with it and who benefits.

For a start, in order to fight cuts you need to be able to identify a cut when you see one. Anybody can recognise a boarded-up day nursery, but what happens when they start Juggling the books, taiking about "clawbacks" and 'notional' improvements?

And what do you do when the local paper, in the midst of all this, starts a people to provide the services they used to get as a right from the welfare state?

This article is intended as a brief guide to council financing to enable our readers to know what to look for when they start digging for skeletons in the council books.

Basically, local government income comes from three sources: a) government grants; b) rates, which are really a local property tax; c) income from rents and services like swimming baths. The government grant is by far the largest of these, normally adding up to about 60% of the total income, which is why in the end it is the government who control council purse strings.

This government grant is based on the Treasury assessment of. three elements.

Firstly there is a 'needs' element to help councils cover their obligations to provide