ON FRIDAY 29 July 1921 a march of thousands formed up outside Poplar town hal in hast London. In front of the brass band and the union banners was a group of men and women in official robes and chains. Above their heads flew a banner 'Poplar borough council marching to the High Court and possibly to prison tosecure equalisation of rates for poor boroughs' The Labour councillors, led by Daily Herald editor George Lansbury,. were prepared to go to jail to win their case for rich London boroughs to share the cost of social services and • other rate burdens with poorer areas. They won their struggle after a month in jail, and have been an inspiration ever since.
Noreen Branson's Poplarism 1919—1925 (Lawrence & Wishart, £7.50),. provides us with a timely opportunity to examine the relevance of their struggletoday, when socialists look WILD degrees of hope to left Labour councils to give a similar lead in the fight against the Tory cuts. The first contrast with today that strikes immensely readable and moving book the deep overwhelmingly working class councillors of Poplar had in the local commuly.
Mass support deciding on protest which led them to jail the councillors called a delegate meeting of Poplar trade unionists which voted to support men stana. tenants (which in those days meant tenants of private landlords) were organised to start a rent and rate strike should the government empower other bodies to collect the rates council was refusing to levy.
Noreen Branson writes: The mere fact that the Poplar Labour group felt itselt subect to the local partv itsef resulted in an participating electorate; one which put a cross on a ballot paper every three years and then which read book, their battlę over the rates.' treated them poor relief, and council this wages which the factor in their government power, the And local pay) by ruling that the could not allow Poplar in the matter of wages.' After Chamberlain, rather than forgot In about it in between...It was really the mass support of the electorate which had enabled the councillors to win This meant that the government care on two subsequent issues where they defending workers' living standards:
workers' Some of the reasons why Poplar could 'get away with it' for so long no longer apply. On the issue of rate equalisation and poor law, a major victory was inac ine did not then have the wilen It now nas, to suspend alLY councillors and put in a commissioner - as was done at Clay Cross.
On wages for council employees, Lord Justice Atkinson reacted to their minimum rate of f4 cluding equal councillors themselves to be guided 'by some eccentric principles of socialist philanthropy or by a feminist ambition to secure equality of the sexes Neville the Tory LENSICI charge of local government, brought in thepresent law giving governments the right to suspend councils. But as a sweetener, it provided a once-for-all suspension of the penalties on Poplar then government has lost powers, and the mass base of the Labour Party on the ground has diminished. Today local Labour parties are often so weak that small groups of leftists can win control of a council without necessarily having the base behind them that Lansbury and his comrades had.
All this means that in today's fight. against the cuts the role of workplace organisation and trade union strength is much greater. What is surprising in the Poplar story, even after making allowance for the high level unemployment, is that there was no industrial action in support of the council's stand, or any suggestion of But this does not let councillors off the hook. If they want to prove their view that the Labou Party is where socialists should be, let them follow the example of Lansbury. In the words of Noreen Branson:
"The significance of the Poplar councillors during these years was, that as one of the first groups of socialists to achieve majority, they were also among the few who refused to remain confined within the limits of the system in which they found themselves. They believed that it was their responsibility to bring about major changes in the conditions of life of their electors and in so doing to help build a movement which would one day lead the country to socialism.
the Tories These are just two of the cuts cutbacks.
holidays for the when and fewer classes, and school milk. Street magistrates and Chief Constabi telepnones lo This action of libraries, Party council constituency Islington Council has been well in BLAST NALGO, conference, This will mean a further £6 million the desperately Socialist Challenge 9 August 1979 paper and make police uniforms last longer. The Labour opposition asked "reconsider', and suggested an increase in the Instead. The Tories pointed out that it was Callaghan who introduced cash limits on local spending and started the Cleveland county councillors were greeted by a lobby of 70 protesters they Wednesday. Children, housewives, NUPE staff, community workers and local trade nnionists joined the lobby, organised by the Cleveland Cuts Campaign and County Association of Trades It will be up to these bodies to broaden the campaign in the coming months to draw in all groups affected by the cuts and to draw up alternativ policies to those of the Tory counci and its lap-dog Labour opposition. close libraries and swimming pools, cut the housing programmes and axe jobs next year. It has already shown its callous attitude to those in need by stopping the provision of emergency housebound , chronically sick and disabled people Already the cuts have caused a deep division within the local Labour , which holds 50 out of the 52 Thirteen local councillors and two out of the three Labour parties borough have sponsored a conference against the cuts for September (when detailed plans for cutbacks will be under discussion in the council).
which is backing the and the other council unions will be attempting to push the ngn against Ine culs into high gear Os September. They will be demanding that the council stops carrying out the Tories' policies for them and starts fighting the cuts. A programme of action will be drawn up to put some weight behind these demands.
and troops completely..."
Iwill quickly go through a number of these points.
Morning Star of 9 March 1979 to find the following on the Bill of Rights: It would mean. an end to torture, withdrawn We can turn to the argument as to why British troog have to stay in the North of Ireland? is found in the British Road t Socialism's phrase that its aim is t create conditions in which sectaria strife can be ended'. In other words, "sectarian strife' which th
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mand so does Labour Islington