14.03.1996

Council cuts demand national action

Workers have taken to the streets in Scotland, London and around the country against Tory government cuts, ably assisted by Labour councils

Liverpool city council has set the highest council tax in England. It is the latest in a series of horror stories around the country as Labour and Tory councils slash services, and impose pay and job cuts to balance the books.

The meeting to set the tax in Liverpool was delayed until the last possible moment. In an atmosphere of crisis the council called on council workers to take a pay cut of five percent to avoid compulsory redundancies. This particular ploy by the Labour group failed but a final budget was set that includes cuts in services, redundancies and cuts in pay. Councillors attending the budget meetings were met by large and militant demonstrations representing unions and affected sections of the local communities.

The crisis in Liverpool is chronic and has lasted over 10 years. The present Labour group are ‘moderates’ brought in with promises to put Liverpool right after the Militant councillors and other socialists were expelled. Their promises have been proved to be so much hot air as they have failed to tackle Liverpool’s structural crisis. The crisis is worse in Liverpool because the population is falling as people move from the centre to outer areas on Merseyside. At root it is a crisis caused by years of central government underfunding.

Liverpool is the tip of a national iceberg. Schools, systematically stripped of needed investment, have outdoor toilets for which a key must be requested. Parent support initiatives will be abandoned and special needs and nursery provision are under threat.

The working class suffer as providers and users of essential services. Faced by this, the Labour Party organises no opposition.

Forced to run a gauntlet provided by hundreds of angry parents, union members and service users, the council has descended into petty squabbling. The workforce is being asked to mask an underlying failure to face a political challenge.

Liverpool’s crisis demands a political response. Workers will consider strike action, but know that this would result in a reduced wage bill, allowing the council to balance its books. A strike by workers would make sense as part of a campaign against underfunding – it is a mark of the political degeneration of Liverpool Labour that today’s councillors have no thoughts of coordinating opposition.

There is still a residue of Liverpool ‘Local’ Labour councillors. In May Militant will stand in a number of wards. The need to draw this opposition into one coherent force is clear. It is still possible that rival left candidates may stand against each other in May. More than this Liverpool requires firm revolutionary leadership. The problems of this city will not be solved by acquiescence - only by militant resistance to this government.

Resistance in one city is not enough.

Class politics means a wider political programme is needed. A programme which unites Liverpool and the whole of the working class throughout Britain. A programme which locks local resistance into a national challenge to the state that is bleeding us dry.

Chris Jones