Brighton Labour Briefing no. 24

miners have

As we go to press, the been out for 22 weeks. We can now say that the support shown by the

rank and file of the Labour Movement has not°been reflected in the Union leaderships. There is no sign of the miners cracking no sign of a drift-back to work and certainly no sign of betrayal by their leaders. And yet the Government’s position has weakened considerably.

NATIONAL DOCK STRIKE

Ground was made and a ma jor breakthrough could have come in the second week in July when, in one day, the NUM flouted the high court, Liverpool City Council appeared to force a Government back-down, the dockers began a national strike and Thatcher’s ‘home-buying Tory supporter’ was faced with the biggest mortgage rise in post-war history. If the TGWU Executive had had the courage to link the dock strike with the miners and extended the strike to other sections, then the miners would have won by now.

WIDESPREAD ACTIVITY

We say that the miners can win — but how can we ensure victory for the Labour Movement? Yet again there is the will to fight. Within this issue of BRIEFING are reports of Brighton Labour Party’s widespread activity in the collection of money and food for Kent NUM. This activity has been present in thousands of Labour Party and Trade Union branches throughout the country. Only one section of the

Labour Movement has been saving the Tories Kinnock and the TUC leaders.

HONEST BROKER

To date the TUC has done nothing to support the miners. At best it has

Leadership — Needed

attempted to act as honest’ broker rather than support our class against

the ruling class. It believes that all problems can be solved within capitalism rather than by changing the system that produces for profit instead of need; a system that forces people to fight for the right to work.

Fringe Meeting

FOR A FIGHTING LABOUR MOVEMENT?!

SPEAKERS :

Alan Thornett

Joan Maynard, MP. Claire Short, MP.

WAC Sneaker.

National NUM Speaker.

Wednesday, 5th Sept 7.-300m.

ROYAL ALBION HOTEL.

LABOUR— TAKE THE POWER!

LEADERS’ DISMAL RECORD

Murray, Chapple and Duffy have done their best to undermine support for the NUM. The total national donation from the AUEW, the 2nd largest union, is £3,000 - less than that collected in Brighton. Murray attempted,

without success, to prevent regional TUC strikes and demonstrations support of the miners. Our strength

today is that the Labour Movement has learnt the lessons of the 1926 General Strike. Then, (and remember it was the ‘Left’ of the TUC who sold out), the politics of class collaboration allowed the miners to be starved back to work.

THE FIRST MONETARISTS

A similar record was and is held by the Labour Party Leadership. What was the experience of the 1974-79 Labour Government? Having got into office on our backs, it then turned on its own supporters, Healey became the first monetarist, and the way was paved for the most reactionary Tory regime for 50 years. This cycle must not be repeated.

FIGHT OR MAKE WAY!

We say to our ‘leaders’: "Fight for those you are supposed to represent — or make way for those who will!" Full

support for all strikes and demonstrations against the Tory Government and its Courts is a minimum. The fight to change the Labour Party, and to ensure that a future Labour Government defends its class, is the role for the left.

The miners are turning the tide. We

must make sure this is turned into a great victory for the entire Labour Movement.

WARPLAN BRIGHTON

Brighton CND has just produced an excellent pamphlet on civil defence which should be essential reading - particularly as it links the ‘civil defence’ question to local issues and illustrates the role of local government in preparing for nuclear war. Here ANDY PORTER, active in CND and Hanover Labour Party, reviews the pamphlet.

East Sussex County Council drew up its War Plan in 1982 - long before the government leglislation to make such planning obligatory. In 1984-85 £144,700 has been allocated for civil defense spending in the county (between £36,000 and £48,000 in Brighton and Hove). Hove is to receive a full-time Civil Defence Officer at £14,000 pa. to promote Civil Defence in the Borough.

CND describe the War Plan as a ‘bureaucrats dream’ which ‘sets out hierarchies to show who would be in

control of every aspect of life after a nuclear attack.’

SOCIAL CONTROL

Although described as ‘civil defence’, national and local plans place their emphasis on maintaining social control particularly in response to internal threats should a

Mlle Silddllit dllie, Tt beightoa

avoided a direct hit then the authorities would emerge from their bunkers after a 7 to 21 day period to ‘impose a regime of martial law on what was left of the country...the army would be in command assisted by armed police.’

WARTIME CONTROLLER

Democratic institutions would disappear = in East Sussex the ‘wartime controller’ would be the County Chief Executive Mr Re Beechey, who is an official and not an elected officer. Under him would be the Borough Chief Executives — Mr R. Morgan in Brighton and Mr R. Hinton in Hove. All of these

gentlemen can be reached by letter or telephone should anyone feel moved to

do so. A few weeks ago the Brighton Non-violent Direct Action (NVDA) network occupied Mr Hinton’s office. Other such actions ‘are likely to

Dear Comrades,

Your front page call in your July issue for Councillors to make a public declaration of support for the NUM and to move a motion of support in Council came a little late in the day.

I reported to the GC on 25th June that Labour Councillors had such a motion on the Council Agenda for 28th June. Built into the Motion is a call for liaison between the Council and the Trades Council NUM Support Group and for the use of Council Offices as collecting points for food and cash etc.

—— ee The truth about local civil defence — ' INADEQUATE RESOURCES

In the event of a direct hit by a one

megaton nuclear bomb on Brighton and

Hove, it is estimated that

approximately {64,000 could be killed

and 165,000 injured (ie. almost

everyone - these statistics from the

Joint Committee on Medical Effects of

Nuclear Weapons). The local

ae a government plans purport to provide

may ; if " i - : Ae ieee survivors _but in reality

\; 4 pr—t i oe y wou be grossly inadequate even We

. if many more resources were made SN , d available. For example, there are Z not enough specialised burns units in the whole of the UK to deal with the casualties from even one nuclear bomb

dropped on one city (BMA report).

CAMPAIGNING

CND’s new pamphlet draws on the opinions of local Trade Unionists and Councillors as well as its own local campaigners and experts to provide a campaigning tool that we should all

make use of.

Andy Porter.

The CND pamphlet concludes : ‘The plans are at best a delusion, at worst a cruel hoax. They are not designed to save lives but rather to make use of nuclear weapons more acceptable.’ It is this point above all that we need to emphasise. Nuclear weapons have been with us for a long time - why this sudden government enthusiasm for Civil Defence? It can only be seen as the British aspect of the USA’s new hawkish approach to nuclear war : first strike weapons, the idea that a nuclear war can be won, and ‘home’ defence are all part of the same horrifically deceiptful package.

‘Warplan Brighton’ is available from your local CND group or from the Peace Shop.

In the event, because the Tories and the Alliance voted against Labour’s proposal to complete all business on the June Agenda, the Motion was not reached at that meeting, but will now be on the Agenda for August 9th.

Yours fraternally, Dave Lepper.

Brighton Labour Briefing Page 3

MINERS SUPPORT GROUP

The view of Brighton Labour Briefing is that solidarity work with the miners is the number one priority for socialists. The Labour Party Miners Support Group has been successful in initiating collections in the wards and outside supermarkets. Below the coordinator, BRYN GRIFFITHS, reports on the work done to date, and suggests ways in which you can help.

Since Labour’s National Executive badge wearing, ward voting, the and Trade Union activists, bet @ Committee (NEC) called for members to occasional donation and in depth number of anti-nuclear campeignersmake a 50p donation per week, a great analysis in the pub is not enough. CND activists ina number of areas deal of activity has been organised Comrades, there is no "resolutionary" have been most promines® iz in Brighton and elsewhere. In road to socialism. This strike must organising food and money contrast to our great "leader’s" be won by mobilising our friends, collections. Other groers vascillations, the response of communities, workplaces and political represented have included the Labour's: Wank dd Ce) has. best SHE organisations in full support of the University Students Union, Youth CSB, of support. However, all is not rosy miners, Women for Peace, a Housing Coop

in the garden. Over 20 weeks into Communist Party and the Socialist the strike, te response of some wards BROADENING SUPPORT Workers Party.

has not been good.

In an attempt to broaden Brighton’s

*RESOLUTIONARY ROAD’ support for the miners, the General

Committee (the governing body)

The hardship endured by the miners initiated the Miners Support Group. and their families is immense. It Working alongside the Trades Council, needs to be stated quite clearly that the group includes not only Labour

WHAT YOU CAN DO

* Miners Support Group, every Wednesday, 6.00-7.30 at 179 Lewes Road.

* Join collections in your area. Get in touch with your local ward

officers or ring 607944,

* Make sure NUM speakers are invited to meetings. Speakers and the

NUM video can be booked by ringing 602592.

The group has had a degree of success in broadening support for the miners. To all reading this article, the question needs to be asked: Are you doing enough to ensure a victory for the miners? Below is an outline of the kind of things you can do.

COLLECTING IN ST. PETERS

One of the wards well under way with collections is St. Peters. After the ward elected a coordinator for miners support work, the ward seemed to quickly forget about the issue.

John Sturrock/Network

Poor Charlie Jordan received volunteers he could count * Accomodation is needed for NUM pickets. Ring 602592 with offers of fingers of one hand (exeludine beds. thumb!). This has changed since a

meeting of the Miners S$ t * Benefits - Come and see DANCE FACTOR 7 with Disco and Late Bar - targetted St. Peters for ‘a pies

Richmond Pub, Tuesday 28 Aug, 8.00pm. canvass. £40 was collected in one

evening, and the followin k * Visit the picket line during the day at SHoreham Power Station. collectors gathered fi05. veesrece

will continue with an effort * Lobby the TUC with the Broad Left Organising Committee on Monday 3rd to all Party members and ees ee

September, Brighton Centre. sympathetic Labour voters in the

coming weeks.

To contact the Miners Support Group, ring 607944 if cannot attend meetings.

Anyone who wants to get involved in St. Peters should ring Charlie Jordan on Brighton 609076.

Martin Huseyin.

* Miners Support Group, every Wednesday, 6.00-7.30 at 179 Lewes Road.

opposition to 1985-6 budget.

At the Council meeting the Labour Group moved that the County Council’s budget strategy should be based on a policy of

No reductions of services or

staffing.

Restoration of some of the previous years’ service cutbacks.

Meeting new commitments of £2.8m.

Mounting a public campaign to demand higher national and local Rate Support Grant from Central Government to defend education, social and other local services and standards.

Such a campaign to include delegations to Westminster, demostrations, giving County

Council staff time off work to take part, co-operation with other councils in these activities. Such a campagn should also publicise the case for local government against present government policy of robbing County Councils, District Councils and the Welfare State in general in order to pay for tax cuts bonanzas for the wealthy and an ever-increasing spiral of increased defence expenditure.

Under the Thatcher Government and its

supporters who rule East Sussex, unemployment has more than doubled in East Sussex; the number of supplementary benefit claims has virtually doubled and education and social services are reeling under repeated cutbacks.

These cuts total a further

Brighton Labour Briefing vage 4

LABOUR AGAINST THE CUTS

Labour’s notice of motion at the East Sussex County Council meeting of 17 July 1984 was in the Conservative proposal to make another series of 1% budget cuts for the o2= The following report has been Briefing by DAVE HILL, leader of the Labour Group on East Sussex County Council.

4.6m.

The Tory version of ‘one nation’

or ‘one people’ in East Sussex means that a typical Brighton semi-skiled worker, even if still employed, is

worse off than in 1979, while those on

£50,000 a year (£1000 per week) gained #150 a week. Tory tax policy has benefitted only those earning above

£20,000 a year. BOOKS NOT BOMBS!

In 1978/79 12% of public spending went on education and 11% on defence. Now the figure (1984/85) is 10% and 14% respectively. The only aspect of education the Tories are spending more on is the Assisted Places scheme,

in private schools. There are about 50 such schools in Sussex. Remember only one out of 53 Tory Councillors

currently has a child at a state school. Pupils who cannot afford school

to bring sandwiches. Some pupils lose the only balanced meal of the day when the County Council debars hundreds from free school meals. Fifty lost their free meals at one Middle School in Brighton alone. At the same time the canteen and cleaning staff are old to take a cut in wages.

meals are told

Hundreds of young, able people

for further

are now refused grants

education courses because at 19 or 22, they ae considered too old. Hundreds more young, able people are denied entry to higher education, and are told that higher education is no

longer a right but a privilege.

« East Sussex.

sent to

PROTEST The time is coming when Labour Councillors at County and District

Parents’ groups community protest

level, Trade Unions, and pressure and

associations must and will even more forcibly than the 3,000 strong lobby organised by the Labour Group at this year’s budget meeting in February. Which services will be under threat of shutdown or abandonment in this headlong flight from a civilised society? Meetings and discussions are being.planned with the groups mentioned above to formalise possible plans, actions, stoppages and lobbies. Enough is enough. The cuts must be stopped.

NURSERIES

Working women who protest about the

lack of nursery education and classes are told or advised that a woman’s place is at home. Little comfort to the 50 or so young children and

parents who cannot get a place they have applied for at Carden First School Nursery Class for example, or for the many hundreds in a similar position in Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne, Peacehaven and throughout

EDUCATION

Parents who complain about the shortage of essential school books are told to buy the books themselves. Currently, hundreds of Brighton Secondary School children are being advised to buy GCE or CSE text books

ELECTORAL PROSPECTS

Next May the Tories will probably lose their County Council majority. In the 1981 County Elections, Labour returned 14 councillors, Liberals 15. Next

May, Labour gains are expected in Regency, Marine and Kingscliffe (from|

the Tories), Hanover (from the SDP)

and possibly Seven Dials (the only Liberal victory in 1983). Labour should retain Stanmer, Moulsecoomb, Tenantry, Queens Park, St. Peters and Holingbury.

But for Labour to have any prospect of control at County Hall, Labour needs seats from towns

throughout Sussex - Hastings, Hove and Portslade, Bexhill, Lewes, Newhaven, Eastbourne and Peacehaven. Building} on Labour’s increased vigour, membership, and socialist policies in’ towns such as Brighton and Hastings, we are fighting to become the largest of the 3 parties, to reverse the cuts of the last 5 years and to implement socialist policies in East Sussex.

Dave Hill.

importance attached to

was only on largest there;

The counter-demo (if it can be called that) was organised by the Youth Officer of Maidstone Labour Party and the local Labour Party Young, Socialists. In addition to the poor mobilisation, they were badly informed: they seemed to have only a vague idea where and when the Front were marching. Rumours circulated that the local Labour Group knew but refused to release details.

It must be noted that the counter-demo was organised by Militant supporters. The Tendency has a history of organising token counter-demonstrations, for example on the other side of the town in Brighton - few years ago.

OF COURSE, | DON'T] AGREE WITH WHAT \ THEY SAY..,

DISTURBING

More surprising and disturbing was the attitude of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). They largely agreed with Militant, when in the past they have been some of the more resolute

anti-facsists. Both groups were content with a march hours before the Fascist demo, followed by quiet

dispersal - exactly what the police planned. There was a ood of great frustration amongst a number of anti-fascists as we marched around the

suburbs of Maidstone.

FRUSTRATION

The mood of frustration came to a head at the end of the demo, outside the town away from the Fascists, when the stewards ‘decided’ that we should all quietly go home. Militant and the SWP sold out the anti-facsists in classic style - somewhat ironic in view of their emphasis on leadership sellouts. To give them credit, members of Brighton SWP wanted to confront the NF directly, but they were actually threatened with expulsion by leading cadres if they joined in. Central Committee had decreed that the miners’ strike and dockers’ strike should take paper-selling priority; anti-fascism was downgraded.

Jn Saturday July 14th the National Front held this by many people less than 200 anti-fascists present, when 400 coachload of miners instead of two. and from furthest away! fortunately the NF could only turn out less than 100 for a national demonstration.

Brighton Labour Briefing Page 5

MAIDSTONE NF MARCH

The anti-fascist

PHYSICAL COUNTER’ PRESENCE

Most of the Brighton contingent wanted

to go back into the town and confront the NF. We thought it important to

BUT I'LL DEFEND THEIR RIGHT TO

have at least some kind of physical counter presence. Eventually about 50 anti-fascists went back into the town where the NF demo was due to start at 2pm.

In view of the response of

Militant and the SWP, the objectives of the most determined anti-fascists need to be made clear. Our intention was to mobilise enough people to confront the Fascists and if possible prevent them from marching. We believe that their violent and brutal racist policies and practice must be smashed on the streets.

LOCAL YOUTH

After our ‘revolutionary’ comrades had gone home , we prepared for the second-best tactic of harrying the Nazis. Up to 200 local working class youth, hostile to the Fascists, joined

F 3 s 3

us. The word had been passed around local Youth clubs that the Nazis were marching in Maidstone and this was their reaction.

a march in Maidstone, on the Left was very depressing. had been promised by the The Brighton contingent was one of the mobilisation was

lack of There were There

Kent. The

organiser.

feeble, but

THE COUNTER DEMO

The police remained by far the best organised group as we went for a second tour round the suburbs of Maidstone heckling the NF. It was quite frightening at times with fascists mingling with anti-fascists and police snatch-squads in operation directed by plainclothes Special Branch Officers. But it was also

amusing: Ian Brady, a former Brighton fascist, was heard to squeal "You can’t arrest me - I’m white!", as he

was carried off to a police van. At certain strategic points on the march

the police split off anti-fascists from the Nazi marchers, often violently, and a number of anti-fascists were arrested whilst

resisting these police tactics. At

one point anti-fascists tried to block the route of the march but a _ police van was driven at the people trying to assemble in the road.

In the end, the National Front were able to hold their rally under police escort, but there was at least a distinct anti-fascist presence.

The author of this article has asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. Any correspondence can _ be made through Briefing. (Ed)

Brighton Labour Briefing

Class war was officially declared on Thursday 19th July, 1984, when Mrs Thatcher’ Committee led an orchestrated campaign against the NUM 7

MILLER investigate the language now being used by the Government in the NUM dis to lack of space the article will be continued next month pues

to the 1922

On that same evening, Leon Brittan, Nigel Lawson, Peter Walker and John Gummer also threw off the pretence of olympian detachment to take up the torch of liberty against the enemy in our midst.

REFLEX ACTION?

Some sections of the liberal press chose to see nothing significant in this "deluded bunker stuff"; puttin git down to high spirits at the end of term. It was an understandable "reflex action", recalling Falklands triumphs in the face of present difficulties. But reflex actions don’t happen in five places at once, then all over the Tory press 12 hours later: this was the carefully staged-managed launch of a government propaganda campaign. Far from being a careless slip, Thatcher’s ‘speech, and those of her cabinet colleagues and supporters, marks a distinct shift. The drift back to work has not materialised and an ideological wedge is to be driven between what the Tories see as the "militants" and the "moderates" in the NUM and between striking miners and a potentially sympathetic public.

CALCULATED

In this light, Thatcher’s remarks constitute a calculated mobilisation of popular memory for ideological purposes. The miners become "the enemy within", with the immediate reference to that other great struggle for democracy, against the “enemy without" in the Falklands War. But the resonances stretch back to the Fifth Column hysteria of 1940, to what Churchill descibed as "this malignancy in our midst." It also resonates with a more recent slur, when the Sun attempted to depict Scargill as Hitler, only weeks

before. OFFENSIVE

The fact that no such Fifth Column existed is of no more relevance than, say, the fact that CNDis not funded from Moscow. Significantly, the government’s last propaganda campaign - Heseltine’s offensive against CND - also used the history of World War Two, describing nuclear disarmers as "appeasers." Critics of the Falklands War were similarly identified with’ the "guilty men" of Munich.

current offensive, a three-fold historical leap is accomplished; from the miners’ struggle to the Second World War, via the Falklands. The nation is assiailed by Hitler, Galtieri, Scargill; a Churchillian Thatcher confronts an eneny curiously unchanged by historical circumstances.

In the

COINCIDENCE?

Peter Walker writing, by coincidence of course, in the Times the morning

‘a

Ga

following his colleagues’ speeches, headlines his piece, "Scargill’s CHallenge to Us All" and calls for the resurgence of "a national spirit, cutting across party boundaries, to see that parliamentary democracy prevails. This- is not a mining dispute. It is a challenge to British democracy and hence to the British people." If Times readers are "the British people", then who on earth are the miners, their friends and families, communities | and supporters? It’s hard to tell, since they are variously Argentinians, German spies, prohibition mafiosi (at one point they are described as "organised mobsters"); probably they’re all Russians (the "Red Guards").

"MOB RULE"

An extremist image, a totalitarian rag - almost any one will do - is attached to any opposition. All extra-parliamentary activity is "mob rule". This is not merely to throw as much dirt as_ possible and hope that some of it will stick; all opposition is thereby defined as

53 UPPE BRIGHTON (27845)

speech JON DODDS and TONY

Due

extremist and all extremists are deliberately presented as indistinguishable and equivalent, They are what must be isolated and

exluded to establish a mythical Britishness.

“UN-BRITISH

This technige is an old _ one, admirably documented by Geoffrey Pearson in ‘Hooligan; A History of Respectable Fears’. Under threat is the "British Way of Life". In the construction of an England (rarely Britain, in fact) of cricket matches and village greens, the violence and disorder of towns, pits and factories can be disowned as "un-British". To think thatthis is England", bemoaned the Sun in the riots of 1981. "Are we changing into something else?" wailed the Daily Express. And back in that troubled Tory year of 1974, Keith Joseph remin¢ed us that "Rome itself fell, destroyed from the inside. Are we to be destroyed from the inside too, a country which successfully repelled Phillip of Spain, Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler?" We might add General Galtieri.

STER

HOUSING COMMITTEE VICTORIES

Labour Cllrs have persuaded Brighton Council to adopt a ‘Tenants Charter' for private tenants and look at ways of imoroving services for Home Owners and people wanting to buy homes. The Tenants Charter was an important element in Labour's local manifesto camoaign to improve the list of Brighton's private tenants who occuvy some of the town's worst housing. Over 70% (twice the national average) of Brighton's households live in generally substandard private rented accomodation.

Improvements to services for Home Owners are also long overdue, particularly for those who try and make use of the home improvements and repairs grants system. With Tory attacks anuservices to home owners through VAT, reduced grants and increased mortgage rates, it is vital that Labour’ campaigns for housing investment for all tenures.

DEMO RIGHTS UPHELD !

The right to picket Embassy buildings was upheld by Bow Street Magistrates in a key test case comoleted on August lst. The case involved South African House anti-apartheid demonstrator Richard Roques, who was arrested with 150 protesters over a period of nearly 2 months. Labour MP's

Bron taen

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Brighton Labour Briefing Page 7

«NEWS IN BRIEF-..

Stuart Holland, Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Banks with Camden Labour Cllrs featured among those arrested.

The court victory followed a camoaign sparked off by the Metropolitan Police’ refusal to allow pickets on the pavement outside the embassy. Police insisted that to do so would violate the articles of the 196i Vienna Convention and impair the dignity of the Embessy, despite the 20 years of demonstrations outside the South African embassy.

Charges of obstruction against all 150 demonstrators have now been dropped by the oolice who could now face claims for damages in a string of Civil Action for compensation following the false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution of anti-apartheid demonstrators.

Steve Bassam, who monitored the picket line policing by Met. police officers commented:

"It was clear from the start that police were wrong and that if the courts upheld the arrest other embassy pickets would be jeapardised. Even our classridden judiciary could see the implications of this further erosion of our civil liberties. My fear is that the Home Office will attemot to change the rules of srotest when the Public Order White Paper is »ublished

standing order-

in the Autumn. My »>rediction is that this will be nasty, brutish and re»ressive".

WOMEN'S COMMITTEE

Brighton Labour Group is to

call for a Women's Committee following a recent General

Committee resolution passed 1 making it a political priority. Suoport for the move was

almost unanimous (with Militant abstaining) .

The Women'&S Committee would seek to prioritise women's issues on the Council, promote equal opportunities for women in council employment and end institutionalised discrimination against women in council services. It might also take up the important question of womens safety following the concern, expressed by many women, of street attacks and poor police responses to assaults, rape and harassment.

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Council under fire

Patrick Jenkin, the incompetent incumbent Secretary of State

Council received

of the Brighton Labour Movement to fight them.

Council officials and Councillors were given just 13 days to come up with voluntary capital expenditure proposals. The government called this a consultation exercise. At the July 25th Policy and Resources Cttee, the Borough Treasurer presented a report outlining the option and stressing the likely effect of obeying the Tories requests.

TREASURER’S REPORT

The Borough Treasurer said the Government ’s request would :-

"...create anomolies and makes

nonsense of any attempt = at sensible planning. There are a number of schemes which are not yet committed and

if they are stopped."

He said that to comply with the moratorium could affect capital projects. He said it would jeapardise the major development of new council offices, car park and hotel on the prime Kings Road site. He also listed the Housing,

Environmental Health, Highways, Parks, Recreation and Tourist

projects at risk!

HOUSING CLOBBERED - AS USUAL!

Of these projects, Housing is most affected with £3.75m of work stopped. The Council would lose the Heron’s Court, London Road site for Sheltered Accomodation for the elderly ( 0.3m). Construction work at Whitehawk, North Moulsecoomb, Pankhurst Avenue (bungalow for the disabled), Homeless and Disturbance Payments and Sheltered .Housing at the Crestway, Hollingbury would stop. Repairs work in Elm Grove, Queens Park, plus essential safety repairs to wiring, roofing and windows in badly defective and ageing properties would all go. Total £2.2m.

Homeless single people would lose out

which will ® create severe operational problems j

6m of new @

examines the

WHAT’S BEHIND

too, with the stops put on the YMCA Housing Association joint venture in Tichborne Street. Total cut £0.5m.

Home Owners, particularly first time buyers and those on low incomes will lose nearly £0.5m worth of Home Purchase and Improvement loans if the moratorium is imposed.

New public toilets, a replacement car park, new information technology, seafront and park playgrounds, street improvements and _ pedestianisation would stop. Total cut £2.3m.

Patr at the Environment (DoE), has blunderéd@ into another local government mess.

officials have decreed that more local government expenditure must be cut

@ forward

Department of the Thatcherite Treasury Thus Brighton

rec da request fora “voluntary moratorium’ on Capital Expenditure - the day after a ministerial announcement saying it was no such thing.

Group,

STEVE BASSAM, Deputy Leader

proposed cuts and options for the Labour

LABOUR’S RESPONSE

The Borough Treasurer outlined options for the Council :

a) Compliance

b) Continued éxpenditure and defiance,

c) A ‘weeding’ operation (delaying items )

‘Labour members led by Dave Lepper

isaid that a policy of non-compliance was essential and argued that all

vital capital expenditure projects should be speeded up and _ brought to frustrate the moratorium. This was rejected by the Tories, but the Policy Cttee voted to continue spending and set up a panel to a examine uncommitted capital schemes. Labour members Brian Fitch and Dave will go onto this with a $, mandate to oppose the moratorium, and all job and service cuts.

POLITICAL OFFENSIVE VITAL

Labour must confront the government and local Tories with a policy of non-compliance. If capital expenditure cuts are forced in

# Brighton and East Sussex their effects will bring about massive job losses and cuts in services.

Labour must make its position clear "and expose and oppose the implications of this latest attack on local democracy. Opposition must be built into our County Council manifesto and our alternative budget strategies. Ward newsletters and our campaigns must feature the importance of fighting off this latest assault on pulic service provision. In this we must mobilise not only the Labour Party, but the Trade Unions, womens’ organisations, voluntary organisations and community groups. We all have a vested interest in defending and advancing the cause of local government and democratically

accountable services.

Unity of purpose is essential and Labour must lead the way.

Steve Bassam.

Published by Brighton Labour Briefing, c/o 35 Quebec ote, Brighton.

Printed by Dot Press (TU), Oxford.