LABOUR A. At the moment we develop our policy through the borough-wide local government committee. But then we find ourselves cut off by an autonomous Labour Group on the Council which seems to think that it's in those positions by right.
I feel that come 1978 Newham is going to see a Labour-controlled Council the likes of which has rarely been seen in unis country. by inen the rignt wing candidates will find themselves isolated in areas where Labour candidates have never been returned. Simultaneously you'll have the disappearance of the aldermanic system, and the right-wing elements that hold the aldermanic positions on the Council are for the first time in twenty years going to have to fight to be adopted as candidates - let alone elected.
In the meantime, because of the commitment that is developing on the left, more and more people are putting themselves forward as potential candidates for Newham Council. There is a strong possibility of a group of people moving onto Newham Council and using Newham Council as a plattorm to demand that the Labour Government adheres to the Labour Party programme and questionsithe position of those who deviate.
As an elected body, as tribunes tor the loca people, Labour councillors should point out how central government is abdicating, how central government is restricting them and placing obstacles in the way of tulfilling policies. They should perform an agitational function to rouse the working people in the area and challenge the policies of central government. There is absolutely no otner unction tor a local Labour counci at a time like this The left has made the mistake recently of looking back to Clay Cross and yelling at Labour coun cils to do a Clay Cross when there is no way that that can be done. Clay Cross was about a compara tively small amount of money which the Council Just Happened to nave ano thev were later sur charged for it. But you can't just dig up £2 million out of your own pockets.to maintain and expand services. The central government rate support grant has been cut to make sure you don't have that £2 million, and even if you did find that money by raising the rates, the Government has assured everyone that they will cut the rate support grant penny for penny if rates are put up.
Newham Council is funded daily by short-term loans. You can get Securicor driving up delivering money hot from the money markets. That gives us a choice: are we going to be dependent on the money markets, or are we going to find some totally different way of meeting the needs of the local community? And if we are, then surely it would have to be part of an overall, integrated national policy.
That means that when we are urging local people to fight the cuts, we have to fight for total and continuous disclosure of information. What we've had in the past is Labour groups on councils meeting in virtual secrecy and deciding on the posit ions they are going to adopt. They're answerable to no-one. The local population has no say at all in -now mese cecisions are arrived at Quite often even local government committees full-time officials" reports. financial institutions. twelve-foot circles. con nave any say in now decisions are arrived at, because the terms of the standing orders of many councils mean that it a decision is not arrived a1 by any particular subject committee like education or social services, then it's left to the chairman and full-time officials to arrive at answers based on the Bus aosolutely essential that we start establish. ing some real accountable socialist councils. Now, having said that, if Newham was to go it alone we would get smashed. There is no way you can take over Newham Council with the situation on interest repavments as is arme moment ne marr leadership. demand that has got to be raised before anything else is for the nationalisation of the banks and all A. These 'local' questions immediately raise the central political issues. There's no way to avoid them. One can hardly put a three-foot rope round a dog's neck, tie it to a stake, and ask it to walk around in about ine curs INTERVIEW BY MICK GOSLING Red Weekly asked the comrades if the Lab our Party in Newham North East had tried in practice to go beyond being simply an electoral machine by involving people in the area in a campaign against the Government's policies had it, for instance, affiliated to the local anti-cuts campaign?
A. We're not affiliated to any of the local action groups. The local party's maintained the position that people who feel strongly about these issues should come into the Labour Party and fight from within the Labour Party, and in doing this they would also be fighting against the reactionary B. That's an attitude / don't agree with myself. / see the two things as something very different: tere is on one rever the Labour rarty struggle, and on another level there is the very direct things that the East London Action Committee Against the Cuts is concerned about - and quite honestly, it's about time Newham North-East Labour Party affiliated to the ELACAC. It's the only body of any worthwhile nature which is actually doing anything
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