Government. Bedford local government workers have demand- own downfall by pursuing policies which are slashing living BLACK SELF DEFENCE PAGES 4&5 BEANS ON TOAST PLUS THE ODD APPLE. That's what Somerset County Council want to feed school kids in order to reduce their spending in line with Government instructions. One lesson in our schools today is that cuts = malnutrition.
Local trade unionists in the public sector are also doing arithmetic. If the £2m cuts demanded of every council are implemented, this will mean sackings. No council dares pretend - as they did six months ago - that there are no cuts. In nearly every locality there are now joint committees of trade unionists pledged to fight on this issue.
The trade union leaders are beginning to see the writing on the wall, but they refuse to call any national action against the cuts. Geoffrey Drain, General Secretary of the National and Local Government Officers Association, has -reassured the Government that while local actions will take place, they should be seen 'not as part of a general strategy'. But Drain is being challenged by his membership, who are sick of this continual yielding to the demands of the Labour ed a special national meeting of the NALGO local government group to discuss action against the cuts.
Rammed down Alan Fisher of the National Union of Public Employees, also refuses to get involved in nationally coordinated action. That, after all, would bring into question the Labour Government's incomes policy crats have just rammed down the throats of the membership.
The Labour Government whips in Parliament are also busy pound after forcing it down.
Lions den? we do?' social services. which Fisher and his fellow bureauAGAINST THE CUTS! on the calculating machines. Callaghan feels confident that he can drag the lefts into the lobby to vote for the £1,000m cuts and thus approve the pound of flesh demanded by the international bankers on their 'no strings' loan to boost the The press called Healey's talk to the Tribune Group 'stepping into the lion's den.' It was more like throwing a bucket of water over mangy tabby cats. He put them on the spot vote for the cuts or the Government goes down the drain.' Their only response was to wail as Brian Sedgemore did at the Institute of Workers Control conference -- 'What shall The answer should come back loud and clear. Vote agrinst. Fight to mobilise the labour movement outside Parliament to block the present cuts. This Government is bringing about its standards and dismantling the gains made over decades in the The continuation of these policies will let in the most right-wing Tory Government since the war. It will continue to feed the racist poison inside the working class. But there is an alternative — the fight to remove the right-wing leadership. The fight for socialist policies. The fight to develop a leadership in the working class independent of the bureaucracy. A class struggle left wing in the labour movement.
The first step in such a path must be: NO COMPROMISE
2 Lonrho/Women LONŘHO Red Weekly 15 July 1976 Rhodesian economy by forcing closure of all British-controlled banks and other companies, as they felt it