London Labour Briefing no. 114

It is never a good idea to believe the Evening Standard, especially when it

reports industrial disputes. :

The Standara’s claim that.London Underground Limited (LUL) had offered its drivers £30 a week and two weeks extra holiday, was wrong.

LUL has conceded nothing. The unofficial action by drivers has simply forced them to lay their cards on the table earlier than planned.

By PM Grains London Tube Driver

In response to the drivers’ claim for £6.43 per hour with no strings, LUL has revealed its productivity package for train staff. This includes:

*10% reduction in jobs;

-loss of shift differential payments;

eno extra payment for weekends and bank holidays;

sup to 30 minutes ‘unpaid overtime when running late (which happens about twice a day where signalling has been modernised);

ecompulsory paid overtime of 1 hour 21 minutes;

cand the 7-1 YES vote In the last NUR ballot

scompulsory re-qualification at least once

every three years;

emonthly payment (thus losing many clerical jobs);

«flexible rostering;

eloss of travelling time when picking up a train somewhere other than your own depot;

sloss of time to prepare and inspect trains for service;

spart-time train staff;

erestrictions on transfers to other locations;

eloss of seniority as a criterion for promotion;

ea new grievance procedure which attempts to bypass the unions. :

There is no additional two weeks holiday. They have simply re-classified as “holiday” two weeks “banked rest days”.

LUL is not making a special case of the train staff. This plan fits into their overall cost-cutting and “efficiency” drive, which.

has little to do with actually running an effi-”

cient service. oS ; All grades and sectors are underattack,

proves that the members understand this. The unofficial action by drivers and guards —

\will continue into next month, when a re-as- “sessment of tactics will take place at mass

LABOUR- TAKE THE P

“meeti

ings. Train staff recognise that things will move quickly. :

Management may well try to impose its package and demand new individual contracts of employment. As almost no one would sign, this would result in a virtual lockout.

Alternatively, LUL may attempt to buy off the drivers in order to divide staff and undermine NURaction. _ —

The best way to ensure victory for all is coordinated action by all, whatever their grades, official or otherwise. At the moment ASLEF seem to be reluctant to ballot their members (about half the train staff are ASLEF members).

It would be suicide for drivers to allow themselves to be split off and isolated from the rest of the workforce. If drivers fight a separate battle and conclude a separate peace while everyone else falls, they will be losers in the long run and LUL management knows it.

UPDATE: After having an overwhelmingly victorious ballot overturned by one Mr. Justice Simon Brown on May 5th, the NUR

‘returned to court on May 10th with additional

evidence, only to be faced with... Mr. Justice

~ Simon Brown. Needless to say, the NUR

didn’t get-very far. Nor did they make any progress with LUL

_when they returned for further talks. The Ex- ‘ecutive Committee then decided to re-ballot

the membership. The result should be announced roughly the same time as that of the BR ballot. Another resounding YES is ex-

pected.

OWER!

oe TT

” London Labour Briefing No. 114 May 24th-June 6th Page 2 |

The worm

turns?

In a dramatic and largely unpredicted vote at the Camden Labour Group AGM on 8th May, the hard right were virtually wiped out in the contests for leadership positions and Committee Chairs.

LCC councillors and their allies were thrown out as Chairs of Housing, Grants, and staff. The right’s challenge to the leadership and

other positions collapsed, and by the end of the meeting, the LCC and their supporters weren’t even bothering to put themselves forward. Councillors Hulme, Smyth and Wakeham were the most notable casualties, although the right did hang onto the Group Chair.

What makes the result startling is the fact that less than a month ago the Labour Group were taking disciplinary action against the left-wing Manifesto Councillors because they had refused to endorse either rent in-

cillors are now Committee

Following a year of threats, suspensions, and finally abandoning the policy of allowing Party members to attend Labour Group meetings, the Lewisham Labour Group has out-stripped its usual hypocrisy by scrapping the “electoral college” for the annual election of the Council leadership and Chairs of Committees.

This electoral system gave the local Labour Party — in the form of the Borough Local Government Committee, representing all three Lewisham consistuencies — an equal say to the councillors in the crucial Group elections.

This was a hard-won democratic demand,

who have subsequently been elected as councillors. When challenged on this about-face we are told by councillors that they haven't changed their views, and of course, they want the Party to have a vote, but they've’ been told by the NEC that this rule is unconstitutional. How convenient that it just happens to suit their own political priorities to dis-| enfranchise the Party when| time and tine again — in Town Hall industrial dis-

Chairs and hold key positions within the Group and the Council.

The shift in allegiance by members of the Council leadership probably owes as much to ‘exasperation at the antics of the right-wing as any change of political direction on their own part.

By Steven Taylor Hampstead & Highgate CLP (personal capacity)

The right have adopted an

openly confrontational attitude’

towards industrial relations and have seemed to relish implementing the cuts. In addition, their attitude towards the leadership has tended towards

The price of their arrogance has been a refusal of other cuts councillors to continue to back them. The results of the AGM

No democracy left for Labour Group

By Lesley Lee Lewisham East CLP

putes, ovet the Town Hall extension, and on implementation of the 1986 manifesto — they have been shown to be at odds with the majority of local Party members.

In fact, the electoral college has always been against Party rules, a fact made clear by none other than Martyn (now Councillor) Day writing in Lewisham Labour Briefing in 1984.

As he said at the time, it was known that the meeting

East London Dockers Support Group PUBLIC MEETING

Support the Dockers

Weds. 7th June, 8.00pm

Davenant Centre, Whitechapel Road E1 Whitechapel Tube (turn right, then 2 mins-walk)

Speakers from Tilbury Docks plus other struggies

ments or initiatives that indicate that the more “moderate” cuts councillors are about to change their strategy of compliance with central govemment.

The marked shift towards the left probably owes as much to the right’s incompetence as to the left’s ability to mobilise support for a policy of resistance to central government. The fact remains however, that the surviving members of the Council leadership are now dependent on the left not only for their legitimacy — the left failed, mistakenly I believe, to Tun anti-cuts candidates for either leaderor deputy, and only six councillors abstained — but also for their ability to manage the Council in the twelve months leading up to Poll Tax, the impact of the Housing Act, privatisation, and the run-up to the local goverment elections in 1990.

It will be a measure of the

An open meeting on the _ the left on this question. lowed events in Iran. left’s political strength to see | Rushdie affair, or- The meeting was ably He described how some i ised by Harin chaired by Narendra Makan- Muslims in Britain, in the abhow much progress it can mae | a eet Belefing vat jiwho inhis openingremarks sence of an effective means in getting other members of the | Labour Briefing, at- oltimenasmaapreentea Gener cxpradelig thelr gtlevanrn ae separ el the British government” and _ ces (due not least to failure of Avis members of t reminded the audience that the labour movement) had ae the struggle for a secular fallen prey to the manoeuvEntitled “Defend Salman state owed little to Western res of the fundamentalists, Rushdie: Socialism, Free liberalism and a great deal to who can only offer reactionSpeech,...and. -Antl-. anti-imperialist movements ary alternatives to Western Racism”, the meeting was.. for whom twas an essential Values. to marked ‘by serious and part of building unity against hy Peter present tre Cerone By MARK és A spokesperson from the agreed that the meeting had Campaign Against Repres. _-SEATON helped untangle the con- sion in Iran said that the For example, they object to the commercialisation of sex and the exploitation of

fusions which have Rushdie Affair was nothing bedevilled (and paralysed) new to those who had fol-

would be contrary to Party rules, “but the Group has

however agreed to a recommendation that the meeting should go ahead regardless of the NEC's decision and then it will be up to the Group to ratify the decisions made.”

Ofcourse, this same situation of a joint BLGC/Group vote being followed by a “legitimate” Group-only meeting to ratify the elections could have continued this year.

Finally, Council selections this autumn will give Party members the chance to choose new councillors who see themselves as partofthe Labour Party and not above it in any way.

“Jatendra Verria at the Haringey meeting

women's bodies in the West

do socialists) but want to

place it with a return to authoritarian repression.

Genuine anti-imperialism, he CARI speaker pointed aut, should not be confused vith the “anti-Westernism” of he Khomeini government. Je noted that the current onfinement of Rushdie was t big victory for the funlamentalists and warned, give them an inch and they'll ake a mile.”

Gita Sahgal of Southall slack Sisters (SBS) insisted hat women would not allow heir lives and loyalties to be

‘at the Haringey meeting

Haringey meeting

defined by self-appointed community leaders. SBS was founded ten years agoin the struggle against racism, and to prosecute that struggle women needed to be united, not divided, according to religion.

She spoke of the battles that had been waged against representatives of all religions to set up. women’s refuges and described how black women are fighting off both fundamentalist kidnapping raids and local authority attempts to send victims back into the ‘families they have fled.

The «drive towards separate religious schools and indeed the granting of privileges to any and all religions whould only help to posh were. beck Jo tbe

Jatendra Verma of Tara Arts said he had been appalled by the insidiousness of the racist coverage of the Rushdie Affair in the media and. the _uselessness of the Labour Party's response. He said that the complacent liberalism of Hugo Young and Fay Weldon was the mirror-image of Shabir’s fundamentalism and that both racists and fundamentalists falsely presented the black community as a monolith. Remarks from the platform were followed by an engrossing and disciplined discussion from the floor, which several local fundamentalists (all men) par-

PHOTOS: Leesa Herbert ticipated.

They attempted to exploit the hypocrisy of Western racism but were answered by vigorous interventions from-black women rebutting

' their claims to

whole community.

The depth of concern displayed at this meeting shows that a socialist intervention in

© London Labour Briefing No. 114 May 24thJune 6th Page 3

Nazis gather in central

London

Anti-Fascist Action has issued the following call:

On Saturday 27th May a large gig has been arranged by the neo-Nazi group; “Blood & Honour“, with six English bands and one French. It is ticket only and 1200 Nazis are

expected to attend.

The location of the venue has been kept secret but fascists travelling to the gig have been told to assemble between 5-6pm at Speakers Corner to be given directions.

We intend to take over their assembly point and disrupt this arrangement, and at the very least prevent some of them getting to the gig. We invite all political groups and individuals who claim to be anti-fascists to support this action.

This is much more than a gig; it is a major international event with Nazis coming from all over Europe and America. It represents the biggest neo-Nazi gathering in this country

for many years.

Recent fascist gains in elections in Germany, France, and Austria (“Blood & Honour” actually supply some factions with fascist propaganda which is banned in their own countries) and an estimated 70,000 race attacks in Britain last year prove that the complacancy of the “ignore them and they’ll go away” brigade is completely and utterly wrong.

Assemble at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park (Marble Arch tube) on Saturday May 27th at 4.00pm.

If you have any useful information we would like to hear

from you. Telephone 01-552 7412.

Tubewatch

| you'd think London Underground | would respond instantly to hazardous situations. Not so is seems in the case of leaking gas. Tubewatch reports that a fractured sewer pipe at Hyde Park Corner station was not attended to for at least two weeks. The sewerpipe, which ran underneath the station foreman’s office, immediately attracted attention through the emission of sewer (methane) gas. Works order for the repair of the faulty pipe were submitted on the 1st and 3rd February but the repair work had still not been carried out a full 14 days later, when the matter was raised at a Finsbury Park NUR

of the parti pants in the Haringey meeting, is a major step forward.

Briefing groups in other areas should consider organising public discussions on the themes raised by the Rushdie Affair.

If you need help in arranging speakers, get in touch with Voices for Salman Rushdie via the Briefing office.

branch meeting.

It’s a gas

With all the controversy over safety,

the tube, jement

In other words, no remedial action was taken to deal with this potentially dangerous situation until it was raised formally at a local trade union meeting!

Breaking through the lies

On Tuesday, May 9th, a packed meeting of over 60 people at West End Sidings Community Centre in Kilburn heard relatives of the Birmingham 6 and Guildford 4 describe the sufferings endured by the prisoners since their arrest in 1974,

The meeting was called by the Camden Year of Actionon Ireland and was supported by Camden IBRG, Camden Time To Go Campaign, and ‘Camden Troops Out Movemeat.

Opening the meeting, Kil- ‘bum Labour Councillor Angie Bistill stated that the groups who had united to organise the meeting shared a common belief that Britain had no right to be in Ireland and that the enforced partition and continuing occupation of the Six Counties had brought nothing but

tragedy. “The purpose of meetings

such as tonight's is to expose the injustices that have occured

directly as a result of Britain’s occupation of the North-east counties of Ireland and to break through the censorship and lies that are continually spewn out to people living in Britain.”

Lily Hill then gave the meeting a moving account of the circumstances in which her son Paul, one of the Guildford 4, was arrested and tried by “British Justice”.

She described in detail the hateful trial by media of both the Birmingham 6 and the Guildford 4, and the brutal treatment meted out to them during their 15 years of imprisonment. Only the courage of her son kept her going.

“Every minute of every day my thoughts are with my son,” she said “and it is only hope which keeps us going.”

A lively discussion followed and it was agreed that as many people as possible should attend the Court of Appeal hearing on

the Guildford 4 scheduled for October 9th this year.

It was also resolved that Camden Year of Action should add their support to those who

were demanding that the Birmingham 6 pe Guildford 4

campaigns be represented at the London Irish Festival this year,

South London Year of

Action

on Ireland

DAYSCHOOL treland: 20 Years After the Civil Rights Marches 820 Years After British invasion Saturday Juné'10th

Lambeth Town Hall, Acre.Lane, Brixton

10.00am - 5.00pm Speakers: Mary Mason (TOM)

struggle Geoff Bell on Jarn Today Workshops led by Pat Finne: and Emigration), NALGO activi

(Colonialism Solidarity work in

the unions), Diarmuid Brentnach (Politics of irish culture) Pius: Two short plays and evening Social with Irish music. Details from SLYAI, c/o Lewisham Labour Ciub, Lime Grove, SE13:

London Labour Briefing No. 114 May 24th-June 6th Page 4

POLL TAX ROUND-UP

A recent conference of twelve local anti-Poll Tax campaigns in South London launched the South London Anti-Poll Tax Federation (SLAPT).

This decision was taken after may of the groups found themselves excluded from London Against the Poll Tax (LAPT). SLAPT is open to anyone campaigning against the tax.

But the only way the Poll Tax can be stopped is through a mass campaign by trade unions, tenants and community groups, in which trade unionists refuse to collect the tax and residents refuse to pay. This means breaking the law, and risking fines, sequestration of union funds, and even i st nt.

ForLabour Councils, the Poll Tax represents an impossible dilemma: maintain services by setting a high Tax and collecting it ruthlessly, or cut vital local services to lower the Tax.

Although council officers have legal responsibility for implementing the Poll Tax, coun-

make implementation possible.

‘The new left leadership in Lambeth is committed to breaking the law by refusing to grant any further funding than has already been agreed. This should be a demand on all Labour Councils.

Incontrast, Southwark Coun-

The Poll Tax is set to be a major test for the new leftcentre Council administration in Lambeth as registration approaches and a vast Poll Tax bureaucracy is assembled.

So far the new leadership has jumped the first hurdles, pulping the leaflet prepared by the previous LCCdominated administration, and saving about £10,000 earmarked for an advertising campaign advising people to register. ©

More significantly, it has refused to bow to officer pressure to call meetings to allocate £300,000 worth of “hitech” furniture (incinding hat stands) to the Council’s Poll Tax Officer.

By John Tuite Lambeth Against the Poll Tax

When the officers used their special Poll Tax powers

Se = new Leader, Joan

to call the meeting anyway.28 they got was an indefinite

cil, in their enthusiasm for the Tax, sent registration forms out early in April, nearly two months before it had to. Like many other Councils, they have spent over #1 million on special accomodation for the Poll Tax officers.

By Gary Ostrolenk Southwark Community Resistance Against the Poll Tax

The cuts that will follow introduction of the Poll Tax give council unions no choice but to

fight. Refuse to participate in or

to service implementation!

Refuse to divulge information | Community Charge. on residents for the Register! To build the campaign we are . Any discipline of workers 2*guing for people to delay and who follow this policy must be obstruct registration, and to oranswered by industrial action. _ anise through their tenants asDifficult discussions with — S0ciations or to form local anticollect the Tax must be under- fe are organising marches taken. and rallies, collections or bumCouncils now have the un- _ ings of registration forms, and precedented to seize the _Tegularstalls across South Lonappa keke don giving advice and talking to benefits. All unions should People about the Poll Tax. boycott any such confiscation, ‘Councils can take no action and commit themselves to in- @gainst you until they can prove dustrial action if employers you have received the form (by deduct the Tax or discipline sending it registered post or by workers for the boycott. delivering it in person and you ‘You may now be feeling the acknowledging receipt). pinch from inflation, rent rises, When you get your form, bin and interest rates. Wait till you # or burn it. Don’t sign for

get your Poll Tax bill! Many

Lambeth

the South London Press witha declaration that the Council wouldn’t pursue people who cannot or will not pay the Tax.

Lambeth Against the Poll Tax launches its non-payment Charter on Tuesday May 23rd, the same day Registration Forms go out.

So far, so good. But let’s hope left Councillors, whose powers over Poll Tax im-

How we can beat the Poll Tax

families will have to pay more than four times their current rates.

How can we avoid it?

You can dodge registration and “go underground”. But Councils can use lists of tenants, benefit claimants, and ratepayers, the Social Services register, and the electoral register to locate you. And if you slip through the net, you can’t vote, claim benefits, get health care or education for your children or even live in secure housing.

‘The only option is to link up with other people refusing to pay. If enough of us don’t pay the Tax, and join with the trade unions and Labour councils like Lambeth’s in amass campaign, the govemment will have no choice but to withdraw the

suspicious letters. If a Council

Left block spending

plementation are legally :

limited, don’t fall into a convenient passivity.

Lambeth Against the Poll Tax called on the old LCC Leadership not to co-operate with the Poll Tax. There is every reason now to double, rather than reduce those calls. And every reason for people to join our local demonstration.

Lambeth Against

the Poll Tax

Public Meeting Tuesday May 30th 7.30pm at Lambeth Town Hall “Everything you ever wanted to know

about the Poll Tax but the government’s

officer knocks at your door, use your imagination! Suggestions have ranged from pretending you're the au pair to saying you're just the burglar, and “they're out”.)

We can’t beat the Poll Tax simply through delaying and obstructing registration. But we can build our campaigns, get invaluable publicity, and begin to organise people for the battle next year over payment. With the current upsurge in trade union militancy, we have a real chance of winning.

The NUS London Con-, ference, held on May 6/7th, marked a sea change in the recent history of London student politics.

The lft won the debates on loans, environment, the Silcott affair, transport, sexual abuse, and romped home in the elections. Louise Holloway was elected convenor by 45 to 16, and all the other officers’ posts fell to us by similar margins.

We won three of the five executive officers, with the SWP and “Democratic Left”

By Alistair Chisholm NUS London General Secretary elect

The Broad Left has rescued NUS London. If we had not mobilised during the year the anti-loans campaign would have been left to isolated activists in individual colleges. We have promoted the process begun to build a in the student movement.

The Conference was small. NUS London is traditionally underdeveloped with only two sabbaticals servicing 130 institutions from the large universities to the smallest FE colleges.

It was bizarre for the very people who have led NUS London during its five years

London Against the Poll Tax, March 1988

ecutive members did nothing or resigned!

For the last few months it has been impossible for them even to reach a

The Conference heard guest speakers from the AUT and the Campaign Against Repression in Iran, both of whom were well received.

Conference decided to defend the LSE decision on Winston Silcott, provoking much gnashing of teeth. The tightwere clearly prepared to let the Tories get away with using racism to push through attacks on student union autonomy.

Some delegates from Goldsmith's College and City Poly walked out, but the

of debate was not affected. In the end, Conference was quite clear: to give an inch would only vindate the lies of the gutter

‘The Broad Left is now Preparing to put its policies into action. We are going to consolidate and develop our base in the colleges and prepare for mass action next term.

We will be ready for Baker's White Paper on loans, to fight tuition fee increases and the Poll Tax, to make sure student interests are not ignored with the break-up of ILEA, tolauncha campaigning London National Union of Overseas Students, and to push the

Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign: Telephone: 01-885 3752 LSE SU:

O School of Economics, Students Union,

“London WC2

dc

NUS London Conference

Walk-over for “Unparalled

L-Extremism”!

development and involvement of FE student unions.

Pass this motion in your union, Labour Party, student union, Labour Club, etc.

1. That Winston Silcott, Engin Raghip and Mark Braithwaite were convicted on the basis of no forensic or photographic evidence.

2. That Lord Gifford has called the verdict on the Tottenham 3 “The worst miscarriage of justice for ten years”.

3. That the Tottenham 3 were scape-goated to cover up for the racist policing on Broadwater Farm and the Killing of Cynthia Jarret which led to the uprising in October 1985.

4. That after the uprising:

a) many “suspects” were held incommunicado for at least 36 hours without access to a solicitor or any third party,

b) that bullying, beatings and extreme methods of mental torture were used against those detained,

c) that one of the confessions, volunteered under duress, implicated 27 other people — eventually the individual who put forward the information was proven to have spent the day at Windsor.

This.......... resolves:

1::To congratulate LSE Students Union for taking a public stand for justice for the Tottenham 3.

2. To send a message of support to the LSE Students Union.

3. To affiliate to the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign. .....°

4:Ta ‘press-release the é decisions of this motion.