Fighting The Cuts

Last night I attended an open meeting called by North Staffs Trades Council to discuss the cuts. Speakers included:

Jason Hill (N Staffs TUC President)
Neil Singh (Communication Workers’ Union)
Tony Conway (Public and Commercial Services union)
Liat Norris (Youth Fight for Jobs)
Andy Bentley (UCU)
Chris Bambery (Right to Work)

I was pleasantly surprised at the attendance which was approaching 100, and although there were too many speakers that dragged on a bit too long, there was some good discussion afterwards. The following post is based on my intervention at the meeting (in italics) with additional argument that would have been too long to have included at the meeting.

1. In 1983, myself and Jason Hill stood as Labour candidates in the same Burslem Central Ward for election to the City Council on a platform of opposing any Cuts, or rent or Rate rises . One reason for standing, and one reason some in the LP wanted me to stand, was that for several years I had argued that Councillors should not vote for Cuts or rent and rate rises. Some people thought that either we would not stand on the basis of such a position, or we would cave in like other Councillors. We didn't, and were expelled from the Labour Group.

A few months after we were elected with huge majorities, the Chair of Housing, Mick Williams, proposed a 50p a week rent rise. We took the issue to the Branch, and won a majority to support our position of not voting for it. Despite the Branch taking a clear decision, when it came to the Full Council Meeting, only Jason and myself walked out, and issued a Press release drawn up by the Branch. The other Ward Councillor, Jean Edwards, remained and voted for the rent rise. Soon after we were expelled from the Labour Group.

2. But, its important to understand the context in which that stand took place. There had been continual fights during 1970's over cuts. Miners had kicked out the Tories in 1974. Unions were still strong, and around the country there were some Left Labour Councils, also making noises about resisting the Cuts. In addition, there were thousands of revolutionaries in the LP, and outside. There was a possibility of linking all that up if the right lead was given for a unified struggle against the Tories. Despite all that we failed. So, the possibility today of being successful on the basis of arguing for individual Councillors or even entire Councils to defy the Cuts is nil.

Its one thing to demand that labour Councils, and Councillors take a strong stand against the Cuts, and use their position to mobilise a mass campaign against them, but in the absence of such a mass campaign, demanding that they make such a stand is nonsensical Ultra-Leftism. It would be like sending in a Shop Steward to make significant demands from the bosses, when the members have visibly shown they are not prepared to do anything to win them. Rather than building a movement it would only expose the extent of our weakness, and worse, it would mean that those Councillors who were prepared to use their position to try to mobilise a fight, would be removed from office, as the Government simply put in Commissioners to run Local Government, probably hastening the privatisation process, and even undermining the existence of Local Government altogether.

3. If the only way of winning then was on the basis of a Unified campaign then even more today that applies, because the movement is weak, and the leadership is even weaker. The starting point has to be to build at a very grass roots level a mass campaign. Just calling for big demonstrations without having done the groundwork to ensure large numbers turn up to them, or calling on Councillors or Councils to engage in adventuristic acts of defiance without such a mass campaign is counterproductive because not only will it fail, but it will expose just how weak we are.

4. We also need to ensure that a mass campaign really is unified too. The danger at the moment is that the TU bureaucrats if they do organise campaign will do it on the basis of defending jobs and conditions for Public Sector workers. That will be divisive, because at the end of the day Public Services should be about providing vital services to the working class not just providing jobs for Public sector workers. We have to unite those workers with the workers who receive the service.

Chris Bambery had pointed to the strikes in Greece as an example of the way forward, but, in reality, that is not a good model. Despite, months now of large strikes, mostly by Public Sector workers, there is no sign of them making any headway, or of having any vision of where the strikes might lead. In fact, in some ways the strikes are doing the Government's job for it. The Government says it needs to cut spending, to reduce services, and that is exactly what the strikes are doing! A better model than Greece, is France in 1968.

5. If a school is to be closed, or teachers axed. We should argue for the school to be occupied by the teachers and parents and students. The Tories say they want to put ordinary people in control. Here is an opportunity; we can follow the example of workers in France in 1968, who occupied the factories, and then ran them themselves under workers control. The parents, students and teachers could set up their own committee to run the school, so that the kids didn't lose out on their Education in the way they would from a strike. That prevents the Tories from driving a wedge between the workers on strike, and the workers whose kids would have been the losers. The same applies to a Library or any other Public Service building being threatened. All of these buildings were built by workers, all the equipment inside them was made by workers, we paid for them by our tax. They are ours, we demand the right to use them, and reject the right of the Capitalist State to set the limits of how and when we can.

6. But, of course, if we as workers are running these services, then we shouldn't be paying the Council for no longer doing so. We should combine such occupations with the demand for a Rent and Council Tax strike. We should say the same to the State Capitalist that we say to a private Capitalist. If you can't run it, give it to us, and we will.

7. But, in that vein let me be very clear. As a Marxist I have absolutely no faith in the Capitalist State. It is our main enemy as workers. Anyone who doubts that should remember the extent to which that State was used in its full force against us during the Miners Strike. Anyone who thinks that there is anything Socialist about things run by the State should ask themselves how much of a socialist they think Ian McGregor was, or any of the other Directors of the NCB.

8. And don't be under any illusion that aspects of the State like Education or Healthcare or Social Services are any different. All of these things are just Capitalist factories for churning out the next generation of workers, suitably indoctrinated, to repair damaged workers so that they can be put back to making profits, and to try to make functional again those workers who have become dysfunctional, or to limit the extent to which they can make other workers dysfunctional. As one Social Worker I know back in the 1970's described her job it was as part of the “Social Police”.

9. Like Karl Marx, I have no desire to see the Capitalist State get bigger. I agree with Frederick Engels when he said,

“It seems that the most advanced workers in Germany are demanding the emancipation of the workers from the capitalists by the transfer of state capital to associations of workers, so that production can be organised, without capitalists, for general account;"

10. So, although I am in favour of opposing the Tories attempts to deny workers these services, or to take a step backward by handing them back to private Capitalists, I'm not happy to just defend the status quo. In fact, the best means of defence is attack, so I say take the Tories at their words. Let's go forward and demand real democratic control over the things provided by the State at the moment, and the only way we CAN get real democratic control is if the ownership of them is handed over to “associations of workers, so that production can be organised, without capitalists, for general account;”

11. In America, the biggest union in the country, the United Steel Workers, has just linked up with the Mondragon Co-ops, in Spain, to establish Workers Co-ops across North America. Mondragon has thousands of co-ops under its umbrella, as well as its own schools, colleges and University. It is successfully putting Socialist ideas into practice in the way that Marx and Engels envisaged.

12. We should turn the Tories words back on them. Let's have real Workers Co-ops to take over the running of these services, so that they can really meet our needs, and so we don't continually have to fight these battles with the State, but, let's also extend that to have similar Workers Ownership and control of the rest of the economy, of all those big drugs companies that rip-off the NHS, for instance, or by extending the Co-op Bank to take over all of the Banks and other Finance Houses, so we can avoid the kind of crisis they caused last year. Let us have control of the £800 billion in our Pension Funds, so that we can use it to buy up all these companies, and properly finance our workers Co-ops.

13. But, let's also take them at their word in relation to other things. They want people to have referendums on Local Government's spending. Good, why not? But, let's have similar referendums on Tory Spending. Let's have a referendum on spending on Trident, on keeping troops in Afghanistan, and many other parts of the world. Let's have a referendum on whether we want to pay tax to finance more bombers or more more kidney machines.

14. In short, we shouldn't let the Tories dictate the agenda. We shouldn't define ourselves by what we are against, but by what we are for. For me, I am for Socialism. I am for workers ownership here and now, not at some distant time after the revolution, because I am confident that workers can run these things better than any Capitalist can, whether its a private Capitalist or a State Capitalist.