Some 5,000 angry tenants marched from Lincolns Inn Field to County Hall on November 19th to show their disgust with the rent rebate scheme and their opposition to rent increases imposed upon them by the Tory-controlled Greater London Council.
With the slogans "Not a Penny on the Rents" and "Down with Money Lenders" still ringing in their ears, delegations from numerous tenants associations petitioned Horace Cutler, chairman of the GLC Housing Committee, to demand a freeze on rent increases, which had been set in motion while Labour still had control of the council.
Like everything else, except wages, rents have skyrocketed over the last 12 months or so. If the GLC (the biggest municipal landlord in the world) has its way tenants will be paying much more than they do now for a roof over their heads.
The demonstration coincided with the current rent strike. The exact number who are withholding the increases is not known but spokesmen for the GLC put the figure at 10,000. Obviously there are many more than this involved. More than half the demonstrators were women - from young housewives to old age pensioners. For close to three hours they voiced their hostility to Cutler and the whole Tory policy towards housing. Many slogans were chanted, the main one being "Not a Penny on the Rents".
Earlier in the afternoon a smaller march and demonstration was conducted under the auspices of Region One of the Transport and General Workers Union. Busmen, dockers, marketmen and engineers were present. Only 200 or so unionists turned out as it was a delegated action and was called during working hours.
The tenants' movement reflects the growing radicalisation throughout the country and a general disillusionment.
Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the EVENING NEWS of November 19th reported in a full-page spread that "...estate committee meetings once held in someone's front parlour are now being held in town halls and hotel ballrooms to accomodate the thousands of bitter protesting tenants. The call they rally to is mutiny -- "We will not pay --- we will not surrender".
Anxious to discredit the movement, the article raised the old "red scare" when it claimed that "communist conspirators have tried to marshall the rent rebels into making their rent protests a direct challenge to the Government and British way of life"
Mrs. len Lowe, secretary of the GLC Tenants Action Committee is quoted to have replied "I am sure that there are a lot of small groups who would like to see it develop into trouble, but they are the ones who are likely to get clobbered."
There is a feeling in the committee that "we should leave politics alone". The fact that politics will not leave us alone tends to cut across this conservative point of view.
While council housing for those lucky enough to get such accommodation is hopelessly inadequate and expensive, a far bigger percentage of London's population is forced to live in privately-owned ghettoes - often without a bathroom or indoor toilet. On top of this rents are far in excess of most council house ones.
The tenants associations, with increased members to give them more power, with a firm anti-capitalist policy (and therefore very political) and geared to militant action can set an important example to non-GLC tenants who are no doubt frustrated and bitter about their own "living" conditions, but do not see the possibility as yet to organise and fight back.
It will mean a big struggle if the tenants are to win their demands. It involves not only taking on the Tories and their reactionary friends in the labour movement but eventually the state machine. If the rent strike continues then eviction notices and court proceedings are sure to follow, despite Cutler's "promise" of no evictions.
The sections and leaders of the labour movement that are in agreement with the aims of the tenants committees must not only JOIN the struggle but must be in the FOREFRONT of it. To be effective, the "Not a Penny on the Rent" movement must be linked with the fight against the wage freeze and the austerity programme carried on by the Wilson leadership on behalf of British big business.