The question of opposing the cuts, and actually standing ground on the platform of No Cuts, No Rent or Rate Rises, was also now being posed in Stoke itself. The new Chair of the Stoke Housing Committee was another member of the Burslem Central soft left, Mick Williams, a Fabian who always talked in language that suggested he knew things you were not privy to, and which he was only sharing with you, in code, at his discretion. The issue arose over proposals to increase council house rents by £0.50 per week. In 1983, that was the equivalent of probably around £2 a week now. All the usual arguments were brought out by Williams and others as to why this could be supported, because those that could not afford it would have it paid by Housing Benefit and so on. Williams was supported by his long-time ally Jean Edwards, who was a sort of Matriarch of the Branch, and who, if I recall correctly, was also Vice-Chair of the Housing Committee. Williams himself, whilst a member of Burslem Central, was not a Councillor for the ward, but for Hartshill, in the Stoke Central Constituency. As a member, he got a vote on the Branch's position, but was not bound by it, being a Councillor for a different ward.
I argued the case for the Branch opposing the increase, and for its Councillors voting against it in the Council. The position was seconded by Jason, and we pointed to the fact that we had both said that was the position we would hold when it came to a vote. The other revolutionaries in the branch could hardly capitulate on this position, and for the soft left, it was now not a matter of me buckling, but of whether they would again do so. In the end, the vote was not even that close, though not overwhelming, to adopt the position that I had proposed. The only modification was that, rather than voting against, we would walk out of the Full Council Meeting ahead of the vote, and that the Branch would immediately issue an agreed Press Release, setting out why we could not vote for the rent increase. Walking out rather than voting against was no great issue of principle, because we knew that we would be the only opposition.
Come the Full Council Meeting, myself and Jason walked out as agreed, but Jean Edwards refused to abide by the Branch position. Once again, the soft left had buckled, and betrayed an agreed position. She gave some garbled excuse for not having followed the Branch position, saying that the information we had presented at the branch meeting was not accurate (untrue), but no one believed it. The division between the soft left and the revolutionary left was now clear for all to see. In fact, it had become clear earlier. In June, the General Election took place. In contrast to the huge win that myself and Jason had achieved, a month earlier, in the local elections, by arguing consistently for left-wing politics, Labour, nationally, went down to its worst defeat in post-war history. Michael Foot stood down, and a leadership battle got underway. The Left backed Eric Heffer, whilst the soft Left backed Neil Kinnock.
When the vote took place in Burslem Central, this clear split emerged. The soft left talked a good fight, and professed how much they admired Heffer, but it was clear that they were going to back the fake left Kinnock, who, in reality, represented the same kind of centre-right politics that Starmer represents today. And, in the same way, he was simply a stooge for the hard Right, preparing the ground for them to take control, once the job of undermining and eliminating the real left had been done. The soft left, by now, were openly proclaiming the need not to rock the boat, to stand back from progressive policies in search of electoral support, and so on. In other words all of the crap that they repeat today, in support of lining up behind Starmer. The following year, when the Miners' Strike began, Labour Councillors were told not to appear on picket lines, or to mention the strike in their literature, for fear of losing the votes of scabs. This was a time when mining was one of the three major industries in North Staffordshire, along with steel making and ceramics. Support for the strike was subordinated to the need to win votes. Only after the elections did those who had shown such concern not to potentially lose the votes of scabs, opportunistically begin to profess their support for the strike.
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