The Tory government decision to lop 5%c off subsidies to local authorities has placed many Labour councils in a dilemma. Wanting to fight back - yet worried about going bankrupt in April - many of them have turned to rate increases as a "solution".
This has been the case with many councils such as Islington, Hackney and Lambeth which has projected rate rises for the coming year of over 56%. Speaking at a public meeting in December, councillor Kotz (Deputy leader of Hackney Council) explained that *Slogans are alright. but we have to live in the real world".
HEROICS?
The pressure on local councils has been so great that even layers of the socialist left have been drawn into backing these "solutions" Bernard Misrahi, for example, in a recent article in Socialist Organiser, argues that rate increases should be seen as a "temporary measure to give us more time" to build an effective anti-cuts campaign.
Misrahi backs up his arguments by saying that rate increases affect businessmen more than working people and that, anyway, "... a rate increase might mean a few less pounds in the bank - but cuts mean less day nurseries and an even longer wait for council house repairs".
Misrahi's arguments, reflecting a minority view inside the SCLV emphasise the need to keep Labour councils in power (without any undue "heroics") until a major campaign is underway to confront the Tories. "Refusal to raise enough money to meet expenditure", he writes. "will almost certainly result in the Tories sending in commissioners who will gleefully savage those services which have the greatest ideological significance.... WRONG PREMISE Misrahi's arguments miss the point. Just what are the cuts about? They're an attempt by the Tories to make working people pay for the current crisis. Tax concessions for the rich - to boost investment and profit - are to be paid for by working people in less hospitals, schools and social services.
Does putting up the rates challenge this basic assumption that WHAT supporters movement). th Halds off demands:
already on the dole.
living to offset inflation. burden of the present crisis? On the contrary, it merely passes it on to them in a disguised way. Tax concessions for the rich are to be paid not in cuts but in taking money directly out of working people's pockets. There's a real "distribution of wealth" for you! From the poor to the rich.
As for Misrahi's argument that rate increases will fall mainly on businessmen, this is equally incorrect. In boroughs such as Lambeth or Camden, for example, it is working people who will have to pay through the nose and, for them, rate increases are no different from rent increases.
LESSER EVIL But won't the temporary evil of rate rises at least allow Labour councils a chance of hanging on? As Pete Rowlands — arguing a similar case to Misrahi at a recent SCLV conference ... put it: "Better to have a Labour council in Lambeth. even it it has to raise rates. than to have the commissioners sent in by the Tories".
Such an argument is not new. It is exactly the same used by Callaghan, when in office, to justify his attacks on the social services. The only alternative 1o the Labour ПЕНИИ FI' ,TS "scalpel" was, he explained, the Tory "axe". Unfortunately, as Callaghan discovered in the "winter of discontent". working people have no loyalty to a government -even a "lesser evil' Labour one -which acts against their interests.
If Labour councils carry out the cuts - or the disguised form of cuts tale Increases represent - ten trey will get a similar response. And IMPRACTICAL socialist premise: that working such a position will be termed happen next year, and the lear atter. when the economic crisis once the path has been taken AAAL TEMPORARY cuts has been built. But this is for rate rises have done so as an alternative to mobilising mass action against the cuts.
people against the Tories when force.
in mobilising working people with "figures". Feb 9th.
Anti-cuts Round-up Middlesbrough: Backed by the TUC's Northern Regional Council, thousands of nurses, council workers, clothing workers and the Fire Brigades Union will be launching a mass anti-cuts demonstration on South Yorks: On February 18th, the South Yorks Association of Trades Councils will be launching a 24-hour strike against the cuts and Thatcher's economic policies. Backed by the 60,000 strong NUM and AUEW, all the main unions in S. Yorkshire are taking part.
Lancaster: Lancaster and Morecombe Action Committee has called for a rally against the Tory cuts and other policies on Jan. 19th. The rally has been backed by local Labour Parties, the Trades Council and the student union.
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SERVICE CUTS