A PEOPLE'S BUDGET FOR CROYDON!!

Croydon’s right-wing Labour council will be setting its budget during February and March.

And on 28th January, the “Opportunity Croydon Fairness Commission" will publish its final report on, "what can be done to improve the borough,”

Labour councillors, presumably having no ideas of their own, asked the Bishop to lead the commission’s work.

Setting expectations, an email from the Commission spoke of the council having to, "make difficult decisions about how it can serve the people of the borough with far less resources…”.

Right-wing Labour Councillors will welcome the report. It will set an agenda of cautious and minimalist "reforms" for councillors unwilling to lead a popular fightback against cuts to funding and services.

Labour councillors will likely adopt the “dented shield” approach; favoured by spine-free councillors everywhere.

The money's just not there, they will say. There's nothing we can do. But at least we can prioritise cuts better than the Tories!

Like Tory/Liberal Sutton, they may offer consultation - but only on where the cuts should fall !

Fighting councillors, however, could make their own choices. There ARE things they can do. They can VOTE AGAINST CUTS!

Unite's local government national committee has called on Labour councils to do this; to set ‘no cuts’ budgets.

Furthermore, according to Croydon’s latest balance sheet the Council has nearly £90 million in “usable” reserves. If the “unusable” reserves were included, the total goes up to £362 million!

The total usable reserves held collectively by UK local councils is more than £22 billion!! - most of it in Labour councils!

If Labour councillors were determined to make REAL Corbyn’s claim that Labour are now an "anti-austerity party", then these reserves should be turned into a fighting fund!

The council could also issue Bonds to raise money - on very favourable terms too, in light of almost zero interest rates.

Rather than set a Tory-collaborators budget, councillors could instead set a “People's Budget”! A budget designed to meet the needs of Croydon’s citizens - not those of the pro-spiv Tories.

This could be done entirely legally! The Southampton Labour movement, for example, are already setting about this task. See HERE.

Activists in the Croydon Labour movement, joining with campaign groups and others, could draft a “People’s Budget for Croydon”. Croydon’s Trades Council has already started work in this direction.

A document like this could be distributed and publicised. It would shout out loud that a pro-worker alternative IS possible. It would be a powerful antidote to right-wing Labour’s lamentations and hand-wringing.

It could be used in the lead up to a mass lobby of the council on budget day!

It could be held up as the first volley in a political challenge to the pro-establishment Labour councillors - to signal their time is running out!

WHAT MUST LABOUR DO NOW?

The key question for Labour members and socialists outside the Party is; in the new situation what is the best strategy for ridding us not only of the Tories, but also their acolytes and little helpers in the Labour Party?

The next key battleground will be the local elections in May. If these elections are seized upon as an opportunity to take forward the fightback and consolidate the gains made so far, it will be a victory not only for Labour, but for all working people.

It was a real shame, then, that Corbyn sent a letter to councils on 17th December saying they must NOT set "needs budgets” - that is, budgets designed to meet the need of local citizens, rather than Tory policy.

In the same letter he said that Labour is now an anti-austerity party. But how so - if all that means is a purely verbal opposition? What is the point of a Labour council if all they do is wring their hands and pass on Tory service cuts and closures?

Labour’s 7,000 councillors control 120 councils up and down the country - what a massive potential base that could be for building real resistance - backed, as it would be, by 370,000 Party members; by trade unions, community campaigns and other left organisations such as Momentum!

But surely we must not sow illusions about the fighting determination of careerist Blairites.

It is plain wrong and potentially disastrous to lead anyone to think that Labour is worth voting for, constituted as it currently is, and with the vast majority of its MPs and councillors utterly hostile to everything Corbyn stands for - as made clear daily in the press!

Of course some council candidates and existing MPs will be worth campaigning for. But it is regrettable that these are a small minority at present.

There are two Labour Parties; Corbyn’s and Blairs. And we do a disservice if we conflate them and blur the distinction. We should not present Labour as having been utterly transformed. It hasn’t; although a very serious and hopeful start has been made. (See HERE, for example).

We must tell it as it is. Look for example at what was reported in the Financial Times (5th January) about Liverpool - a right-wing Labour Council with a right-wing Labour mayor.

Mayor Anderson was reported as saying, “It is not my fault that we have people with massive adult care needs. It’s not my fault we have a low council tax base. If we had had the average grant cut for councils, we would be £82m better off.”

As it is, the FT said, "Liverpool has lost £340m of its annual budget since 2010, a reduction of 58 per cent, and has laid off 3,000 staff". This is disgraceful. Sow illusions in these people?

Labour’s right-wing whine constantly that everything is the Tories’ fault. This is largely true of course (leaving aside the damage done by Blair’s Labour when in power...). But to then say there is nothing we can do is totally false.

Are we to plaintively lament to struggling workers looking for a lead that we must wait until the Parliamentary elections in 2020?! The further damage done by then, unless Labour fights back, will be unbearable for millions!

TUSC will not stand by. Wherever this happens, NO MATTER WHO IS IMPLEMENTING CUTS, they will be opposed by us - even if that means standing against existing right-wing Labour councillors.

We will be writing more, soon, about what is happening in Croydon and Sutton - where change is in the air....

GLEN HART & CROYDON MOMENTUM

Excellent solidarity demo for Glen Hart yesterday at Clapham Common Tube! (See photos below).

It's a scandal that Glen is being attacked by London Underground management - but it's a great and lasting credit to his union, the RMT, who are backing him so consistently. Glen is an excellent trade unionist who loves his work.

London Underground would show themselves in much better light if they abandoned their vindictive (and totally unsupportable) action against Glen.

LU’s case against Glen is totally unsupportable and without foundation. However, until they see sense, union and political pressure on them will surely grow.
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Good news comes from an excellent Croydon Momentum meeting on Tuesday evening. Friendly and inclusive, the initial discussions are now underway to support and defend Corbyn’s Labour Party.

An underlying theme of all contributions was the need to positively present Corbyn’s policies and what he is trying to achieve. There will be no truck with the campaign of Labour's right-wing - largely sustained through the press because they have so little support on the ground.

A top issue was, needless to say, the Syrian bombing campaign, shamefully supported by 66 Labour MPs. Steve Reed's astonishing decision to ABSTAIN on the bombing campaign vote was discussed. His non-vote followed, as we understand it, a mysterious questionnaire he emailed to constituents - the results of which have not been revealed.

Also covered was the coming budgeting meetings of Croydon’s right-wing Labour council. The Council's policies will increasingly be challenged and key council meetings will be lobbied - and more so as we approach council elections in 2018.

Work will be done on this in conjunction with Croydon Assembly (an initiative of Croydon Trades Council).

All those in attendance, which included Labour Party members, TUSC supporters and others, will be building the fightback for a Labour Party worthy of the name.

Future meetings will be held on the second Tuesday of each month.

Meanwhile, ex-Labour MPs like Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling further expand their bank balances by finding work respectively with Pimco (a global investment firm) and Morgan Stanley (a global investment bank).

No picket lines for them! Who are the REAL "entryists" into the Labour Party?

WHAT NEXT? THINGS ARE MOVING FAST!

Sixty seven so-called Labour MPs voted to add “our” bombs to the rest of them falling on Syrian people.

Needless to say, the despicable Skully and Brake added their votes towards escalating the Middle East conflicts.

Croydon North's New Labour Steve Reed, principled as ever, abstained! On an issue as important as bombing another country, Reed abstains!

The less said about Croydon's two other social-climbers, the better.

Glen Hart, our candidate for Croydon North last year, has written to Reed following his brave abstention. His angry but measured letter can be found HERE.

And those opposed to escalating the war are depicted as “terrorist sympathisers”!

A cheap jibe from a cheap Prime Minister!

The media (including the craven local "Guardian") frames the debate by implying the bombs will fall only on ISIS !

Our views about terrorism can be found on earlier posts on this site. Unlike cheap politicians, our opposition to terrorism (and to war and to military dictatorships) is consistent and principled.

As for Labour, surely Corbyn must ultimately move against those Labour MPs who voted with the Tories on this. But he has suggested that he’s against deselecting these people. Why?

If due process is followed, why can’t a Labour Party reselect its MP? (However, there is a massive bureaucratic mountain to climb under the New Labour constitution).

As we’ve said in these posts before, Momentum's movement behind Corbyn is an excellent development. But there are now two Labour Parties! Corbyn’s and Tristram Hunt’s!

There is a pro-war Labour Party and a pro-peace Party. A pro-austerity party and an anti-austerity party.

These two parties cannot co-exist for very long. It is already clear that the Right is organising with determination against Corbyn - and what he stands for - with full support from the big business press.

We hope that in the new year TUSC and Momentum, in Croydon and Sutton, can meet up to discuss how we can proceed in harmony towards a Labour Party worthy of the name.

The By-election results have been a great boost for Corbyn and Labour’s left - but Labour Party members must make sure their candidates match up to the heightened expectations.

Momentum should not allow itself (in our humble opinion) to become door knockers and leaflet deliverers for candidates who are not fully behind Corbyn.

Would Momentum seek hard to pull out the vote for Reed, for example?

The year 2018 will be the hundredth anniversary of Labour’s adoption of the famous socialist Clause IV - deleted by Blair. Let’s find a way to bring it back!

WHAT IS SADIQ KHAN DOING?!

He is doing a great disservice to Muslims, and to all workers!

He is lecturing muslim people that they must “wake up to extremism”.

Is he suggesting that they are less aware of the issues than other people? Are they somehow more to blame for what is happening than non-muslims?

Muslims, and non-muslims, are being killed in large numbers by both terrorist bombs AND western governments’ air raids. Around 250,000 people have been killed in Syria alone since the civil war began there. And 6 million people have been made homeless.

He says (according to the press) that muslim people are not tackling “extremist ideas in their midst”. Is he suggesting that their is a wider tolerance of “extremist ideas” amongst muslims and, in ways not spelled out, this is somehow contributing to terrorism?

It suggests he believes that the total devastation of much of the middle east has nothing to do with terrorism!

Unwittingly (to be generous), he is making his own contribution to anti-muslim racist demagogy; echoed and encouraged by the yellow press. But he wants to be elected, so he leans into to the prevailing, poisoned winds.

There is a message that can be read into this, that the failure of muslims to “police their own people" is somehow contributing to the crisis.

Does he not realise that he is lining himself up with the very worst of the “collective punishment” ideologues?

Collective punishment is hardly new. For example, when the French Resistance attacked the Nazi occupiers of their country, in WW2, the Nazis would collectively punish the whole town or village - pour le découragement des autres

Although he says otherwise, the inescapable logic of his line of reasoning is that some of the blame for the latest outrages lies at the door of ordinary muslim people! This is despicable. It is scapegoating of the worst kind!

Momentum and Corbyn supporters must not allow themselves to be transformed into a “left cover” for the likes of Khan. These Tory subalterns must be challenged. They have no part to play in the Labour movement. They should go.

ANGER AND SADNESS!

Our heartfelt solidarity goes out to the families and friends of the people killed in Paris by the ultra-right-wing ISIS terrorists. They are cowardly murderers. The consequences of their acts will be dreadful, not only for those directly affected, but also on a much wider front.

Some effects will be felt right here in Sutton and Croydon!

Our opposition to terrorism, as socialists and trade unionists, has reasons additional to the natural human revulsion at the killing of innocents.

The fearful works of terrorists helps set communities against each other; with the help of the yellow corporate press, attempts will be made to stigmatise all muslim people. The consequences for the people of Syria and elsewhere will be similarly horrifying.

Socialism however stands foursquare for unity and solidarity between ALL working people.
Terrorist acts will boost right-wing arguments for strengthening state repression, state snooping, clamp downs and restrictions on immigrants and ethnic minorities. Muslim working people will feel the worst of the consequences of Paris, but all workers will suffer.

For example Irish people were stigmatised by the press for the activities of the IRA during the “troubles”.

Similarly, “Germans" were held responsible for what the Nazis did during World War 2 - even though millions of German people in Socialist and Communist parties, and trade unions, fought tooth and nail to defeat Hitler during the 1920s and 30s.

The terrorist acts in Paris will be a gift for every spittle-flecked ranting demagog.

Those calling for more bombing and military interventions have had their hand strengthened. But of course, that may be exactly what isis wants! (As we write additional bombers are doing their work. And many more innocents will be blasted to pieces).

The leaders of the Labour movement must respond loudly and with an independent voice. We cannot allow the corporate media, the reactionaries and the war mongers to make the running.

Jeremy Corbyn is taking flack simply because he has suggested that we should expose who is financing ISIS and selling it weapons etc. Shamefully some Labour MPs have joined the establishment it attacking him. But he is surely right to pose these vital issues!

Unless we intervene, the only winners in these escalating conflicts and wars will be arms dealers!
EVERY worker has a vital stake in the unity and solidarity of working people. Only united workers and youth can defeat terrorism and reaction and rid the world of the conditions that create poverty, injustice, violence and war.

No to Terrorism!

No to wars of intervention!

MOMENTUM & LOLLIPOP LADIES IN CROYDON

What has to change if Momentum is to succeed?

Following Corbyn’s campaign, thousands of enthused activists want to know how they can participate effectively in left politics; how they can stop the Tories shifting the economic burden onto working people, whilst Tory grandees and their backers accumulate £ Billions.

Will Labour be part of the answer? TUSC will be very happy if it is. But there’s work to be done.

It's early days yet, admittedly. Nonetheless, at present the Labour Party remains solidly Blairite. The vast majority of MPs are austerity apologists; the Party’s constitution is undemocratic; Labour councils up and down the country are mostly Tory subalterns.

You think that’s not true?

A few months ago parents near Woodside Fire Station, just north of Addiscombe, formally petitioned the council. They called on the council to re-instate a lollipop lady to help ensure the safety of children crossing the road.

This was the Council’s response, (Council Report of 19th Oct. Our emphases - in caps).

"We recognise the commitment of School Crossing Patrol Officers across the borough and how highly they are valued by local parents.

However, TOUGH DECISIONS HAVE TO BE MADE ABOUT HOW BEST TO SPEND LIMITED COUNCIL BUDGETS. ...

… There is no statutory requirement for a Council to have any School Crossing Patrol Officers and it is the responsibility of every parent to ensure that their child travels safely to and from school, accompanied as necessary. ...

IN THE CONTEXT OF SIGNIFICANT CUTS TO THE COUNCIL'S BUDGET WE ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO INCREASE THE SERVICE".

Pathetic!

This example is replicated a thousand times in “Labour” councils up and down the country! No red flag, just a white one!

We agree with Nadine Houghton from Momentum (HERE) who said that, "Momentum may hold the key to unlocking the possibilities that this new era of politics represents”.

It may indeed. But Momentum must be more than an uncritical Labour cheerleader. It cannot ignore who the MPs are; who the Labour councillors are; what Labour’s Tory-lite policies might be - and still formally are!

This must change. Otherwise a Labour victory in 2020 will be a sham.