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CRISIS i Ville WeLPARE STATE: gE eseen pO SP on ement : ~ etition to he ban id °
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ae eee “This. pamphlet is produced and-written py menbers-of “the Leeds’ Branch-of~the International Marxist Group.
In it, we put forward an arcuement which we hope will lay a basis for continuing discussion as to exactly how the so-called Welfare State can be defended and indeed extended so that we do achieve a society in which ‘poverty would not be a disability and wealth not an advantage! | Our main contention is that it is a fools paradise to think this can be achieved without breaking out of the straight jacket imposed by the continuing rule of capitalism. Nor is it gust sufficient to say simply ‘Every thing will be ‘better when we have socialism! .
Finally, we try to point to some of the things that have to be done now by the working class itself to begin to transform the situation in its own favour.
Whilst there is considerable agreement at a ,eneral level, that is, on the need to oppose these cuts, it is when it comes down to what to do that the disagreement arises. How do we defend the Social Services?
The Thc believes that the labour movement, has to use forms-of industrial action to defend the gains of the Welfare State. We believe that there are enough records of defeat and demoralisation in our history books to learn that relying~on resolutions through the Labour Party and the TUC, and ‘parliamentary pressure' leads ™., us nowhere. Parliament was not created to work in our interests and it never will.
It is only through taking. direct action that the possibility arises of creat= ing a campaign that is genuinely under the control of the workers movement itself. aa For example in 1973 and "Oey it was the action of the Hospitel Ancillary workers” and the nurses which gained them even the paltry wage increases they. got. Tt was the nurses action which rallied sympathy strikes from “Tid Heath Workers the 800 dockers in Manchester, 3000 Automotive Products-|~ Pamphlet: workera in Lemingtons engineenkng workers at C.A.Parsons | Consultants Knife the in Newcastle, and miners in South Wales and Yorkshire. National Health And it was the threat of this solidarity action spread service ing, which inspired ‘urgency’ into Barbara Castle's An analysis of the recent
settlement with the hurses. consultants dispute.
Available from 153,Wodehouse Lane, Leeds.
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Similarly, the action. by heal th ve in blocking pey beds, especias: oa re iwaatas and Swansea, has done more to highlight the threat of the growth of private practise and point the way to deal with it, than flowery sentiments by the Labour government. in fact, instead of (Packing the action of hospital workers to destroy private practise, Barbara Castle tried to play a mediatingrole between them and the consultants... Just one more demonstration of ‘the Labour government! s inability and refugel. to break with the interests of the Establishment. But we Shall return to this point below.
The Government! s tactics are in fact well summed up by Dre Devid Owen, one of Castle! s whizz-kids, who said,"The demands of militant heal th workers may be restrained if abuses are seen to be curbed" (He might have added under his. breath “and the credibility of parliamentary rule preserved" ) No question here of using the strength of the workers movement to push through pro-working class tegislation, Legitinising their action end further strengthening it. Dr.Owen will be chee ieubentee for the soulful way he came to Leeds to sympathise profusely end conf'ixm that the axing of the Let building programme would £0 through. Is ‘this one of the abuses he wants curbed The 8 soabbing nole of the Government is why taking, ¢ direct action to defend bei social services has to Lah enother objective. rt sare to oad the first practical, step along the road towards building a moversHt that can open up the oppor-tund ty for the working ¢ class Stele to organise sections of society in the 6 nowt rational and qust way ~ that is, acooraiing to the needs Setempined by working people. To do this, the working class has to build its own indevendent Jnsti tutions. Actions such as organising the eradication of private practise through poyeotts and black ings} “taking action to establish steffing levels throughout the social services “that: aoe to the a needs of the working class as determinea by aonocratically elected workers committees; the takcing, over of private! property a other off ensive actions ‘lay the basis for the growth of Just such bodies. We shall develop these orguenents further ater one
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THE COLLAPSE AND FALL OF THE WELFARE STATE
Let us Look first at afew facts and figures to get an indication of the depth of the crisis in the social Services and see what lies behind them.
Previously, in the '60's, public spending was rising: at an annual rate of Ho (allowing for inflation) Chancellor Healey in his latest budget has cut this by Yo Education: One step Backwards,Two Steps Backwards
Education was one of the first areas of the Welfare State to come up for
the chop
First there was the pinch: During the 60's,student srants were allowed to deteriorate in value till by 1973 they were worth all of 30% less than in 1962.
Then the knee: They stopped puilding universities and turned to Polytechnics to reduce the unit costs of shurning out midcle management and technicians.
Thatcher's White paper of 72/73 simply put all these cuts down in writing and hod the nerve to call it ‘A Framework for Expansion! She proposed cutting back all future increases in student numbers, especially téacher training, and the effects of this are already being felt. She attempted to play off higher education apainst the schools by throwing in a few crumbs of increased nursery provision.
However, there was the usual back out clause - you know, all this will happen
"as lone as capital costs do not rise too fast" Of course, they have and so the nurseries, which were so limited in scope as to only benefit the middle classes anyway (they would only be open part of the day and for very restricted numbers) . have dried up too. find the boot: £182 million was chopped off the education budget by the Tories in 1973. This adds to the effect of inflation which has eaten into the
whole education system like a cancer - further effects have been felt such as
the lowering of heating levels in schools; not renewing: old equipment and books; keepine down teachers wages;forcing up class room sizes. This latter symptom has caused many kids in places like Glasgow to be on a three day week for several months now. It is now almost impossible to keep teachers in London. (Some boroughs have e turn over rate of 306) In Sheffield, the university has a projected deficit of £1.8 million, and it is probable that there will be restriction of student numbers for this year, and staff posts already vacant, will not be filled.
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Meanwhile, in Leeds, we can remember what the council tried to do last summer.
It passed a resolution halting any further recruitment of teachers. This met “with such massive opposition, including o helf dey stoppage by thousands of tea~ chers that the decision was reversed at toy speed!,,,or rather, the council turned on the students at Further Education Colleges who depend on what are called Local juthority discretionary grants. The Cowicil tried not to pay these out. Again, there was huge opposition, including the occupation of the LEA .,,,,the decision was reversed...and the council picked on the youth clubs...who protested...
But perhaps the most strikin; example of the effects of the cuts in education locally in Leecs is the closing. down of every single mayor secondary school in the srea, whilst they are ‘restructured! This follows the decision of the council to use cement with a high alumina content. This ¢Cecision was taken because this cement sets much faster then norms] and consequently recuces building time...and therefore costs. Unfortunately, there is one slight snag. It decomposes rapidly when it comes into contact with Camp and wet. The results of extensive tests in other parts of the country showing all this had been published before the council took its décision.'’No doubt it was a mistake, but itis what lies behind it that is “significant. That mistake is costin; us extra thousands of pounds to put the
-buil@ings right. And thousands of kids heve had their education disru, ted.
Housing: One Uys One Lun, One Up, One Down.
The ruce shattering of the Welfore State in Britain is even more Cramatically seen in housing, Official State ,ublications describe some 18.24 of British
housing, units as ‘unfit dwellinys' This is a polite way of sayin; that over one million families live in slums; not to mention the 1.5 million people in London alone who have either no inside toilet, no hot water, or no bath. Housing construction (combining private and public investment) reached a total of 425,835 units °_ in 1968. Since then, it has drop ed through 304,118 in 1973, to just over 200,000 in 1974, of which council houses comzrised Just over 100,000. These figures have to be weighed against those for demolition. about 100,000 dwellings are demolished -@ach year for slum clearance and road building. On top of this another 100,000 a year are ,ulled down not as official slums but because they have simply fallen into disrepair or'become too old to be suitable for human habitation. Finally,
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ee am ea ett cme te nek mt ee ete nee Ree REE RE a game oy ree tee tl ee Rant ret RA ee NNR ALR Ye > wee ete | No. of houses built in the public and private sectors 1967-74
| 1967 211, 2h7 20h, 208 4A5, 455 t 1968 199,767 226,068 425,835 1969 192,408 185,947 378, 325 1970 187,925 Tle, 34.2 362, 267 | 1971 168,123 196, 313 36ley 436 1973 107, 000 197,118 304,118 5 }
1974 Figures for the first part of 1974 show that the total for both the private and public sectors will be down by another 100,000 to about 200,000. peat wteeptermane eveqeenes pence eer nt eee ene ee net brags: pe! ee eae EE etn Li ieee rere neni ein MRRLL serarenttettie tts gie gaan eae erate aemretntestne Aap neat AAR oii meget tet netsh Artima remmsinnad
add another 100,000 Cue to people moving out of houses, new families etc: total 300,000 a yeer at least. These figures mean that to-day, despite ever lens: thening waitin; Lists and a crisis of homelessness in the large cities, British capitalism can achieve virtuolly no increase whatsoever in the number of habitable dwellings and the total may even be shrinkin,. In 1973, when the waiting list for council
houses ;rew from 16,060 to 26,000, the Leed@s council planned to build 2,000 dwell~ ings - of which ail of AGT were actually completed And: there are innumerable examples of housing, areas in Leeds just allowed to fall into disregair. We all
know Leeds.
The cuts in education spencin; doveteil with the housing crisis when we consider Leeds Polytechnic. Here, the Council, the Polytechnic Authorities and Central covernment hapsily conspired to provide 3,500 full time places without making provision for any extra accomodation in Leeds. Whilst British ca;italism needs the extra, skilled manpower (or perhaps used to need, since the situetion has taken a turn for the worse since the mid '60's with many graduates and qualified people now swellin, the dole queues) but is quite unprepared to pay the bill because of its profits crisis. Ye shall go into this later. No wonder, thou;h, that second hand housing, that in 1970 sold fcr an averace price of £4,946 would in 1974 sell for £10,043! A fair bit more than is accounted for by inflation.
and The National Health Service?
This country's health workers are amon;, the worst paid in any 'aé@vanced!
capitalist country, Cespite their recent pay increases which don't even keep them up with inflation. 75) of beds are in hospitals built before 1918.In Leeds, the ae
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womens hos ital was transferred from a building erected in 1861 to ellow for its demolition and replacement. It is now stuck in Rounchsy, four miles from the LGE in a house built before 1861 and looks like staying there until the labour SA, programme . movement forces the reversal of the decision to axe the Dear tus:
Only 5 of Gis cperate from purpose built health centres. There is a huge shortage of staff: 75,000 nurses and 10,000 technicians are needed now. In 1973; along with the £182 million chopped off education, the Tories hacked £114 million off the MIS, in a situetion demanding the injection of £1,500m just to meet immediate needs. Horror stories depicting the inevitable effects are already abundant. .lreacy wards are being closed for lack of staff - particularly in
working class communities. In London alone five can be named: Liverpool Road, EGi,Mothers, City cf Tondon and Samaritens, The axing of the LGI plans represents anothey severe blow to the NHS. Apart from the effects of moving the Womens Hos:ital as mentioned above, it also means there will still be no isolation ward for kids with infectious diseases. They will rewain lumzed tofether with all the othcrs. And the LGI will continus to lack proper facilities for training enouch aoctors, thus fuelling the shortage of staff inside the NHS.
So of course, the waiting lists grow. 500,000 people are now waiting to go into hospital. And with the growth of waiting lists comes the growth in private practise, (both inside and outside the NHS)which in turn further feeds the cancer rotiing the NHS itself. And this is what lies behind the consultants work~tocontract. They are fightin; to keep themselves free to grab up the juicy pickings
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as the NHS crumbles. The consultants vested interests are summed up in a passage in IMG Health Workers pamphlet No.3 (available from 153, Wodehouse Lane, Leeds ) 'In evicence (to the Ex ,enditure Committee on NHS facilities for private practise) e medical sccretary of an Eye unit regorted that patients were kept waiting 3 to 4 years when there was no need for them to be kept waiting any longer than 6 months. When she questioned the consultant, the reply was "if we keep them wai ting long enough, they cet fed up with bo ay unable to see and auree to become private patients"?
Once again, if we turn tc Leeds, we can see evidence of the growth of private practise. The council has recently given iss blessing to plans to convert Beech- ' wood House (a mansion in Roundhay) into a private hospital. Most of the consultants in Leeds (yes! the same ones who shed tears over the axing of the LGT) support this £3 million project, and several are on the local directors board.
It is financed by Allied Investments which also owns the country's largest private nursing agency - the BNA.
Now let us return to this profits crisis we mentioned earlier.
The post war boom period of the 50's and 60's was heralded by many an Establishment figure, not to méntion a multitude of labour leaders,as evidence of the end of the'bad old days' of capitalism. With its shining white ‘welfare state' society had embarked on'a new era! of the 'mixed economy’. The social services, social security, the NHS, state education, full employment, and so on, seemed to sum up the 'promise' of 'no return to the 30's'. But beneath the surface all was not well! This we can see today with the international capitalist economy
going through its first ceneralised recession since the war. What has been happ= . ening because of this ruce shattering of the illusions of the 50's and 60's is that while actus amounts of profits have on the whole been increasing, the averare rate of return on investment is falling. In-other words, the amount of profit in relation to the amount of capital invested is falling. Nowhere has this happenéa more markedly than in Britain, and that is why in the current international recession, of all the ‘advanced' capitalist economies, Britain is
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one of the worst hit. r
kate of Profit in Britain 1950-70.
| { : 4950-54 16.5 6.7 4 bi 1955-59 oo 14.7 7.0 1960-64, 13.0 7.0 1965-67 14127 5.3 } 68 11.6 5.2 H t 69 1461 bo t et rae Jee | f seet Glyn & Sutcliffe ~ 'British Capitalism, \/orkers and the Profits 3.ueeze' ' Pensuin Books. 1972. ,a:e 66. . | t
This also explains the im ortance of the huge overseas investments of British capitalism. They have become a major source of profits and are more
and mure relied upon as the domestic situation deteriorates.
an International Capitalist Crisis prpeaatpan een a eenrer ne 1 7 Me tat a
But there is a ,roblem for these ca,italist ;entlemen. The recession is
an international cone, so other economies have got their own ;roblems too.
Every sin: le inagor capitalist econony registered a fall in incustrial_production in the latter enc of 1974: -2.6% in Japan and USa, -1.5/ in Britain, Vest Germany and Ttaly, -1.Q% in France.
Moreover, unem,loyment is soaring the ca,italist world over, with the number standing, at about 14 million for Europe, the USa and Japan at the bes imnin; of the winter. (7h/75) In Britain alone, an enormous spate of redundancies has been unleashed, toyether with over 2 million people put on short time working.
This leads us to the third aspect of the crisis, and that is the enormous undervtilisation of resources (apart from labour-power!) In the USi,for ex~ vam, Le , over 304 of >roductive capacity is unused ,ermanently.(lixcluding, the armanents incustry of course!) In Britein, -we have. the example of British Leylane stockpiling vehicles like mad, anc more cirectly relevant to the crisis “in the ‘elfare State is the builéin;y trace. Whilst the buildin; firns have
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Lo TER RIS BN ayes
enough bricks lyin;, about to build 55,000 houses, building workers estimate there are now 100,000 unem,Lloyed in this incustry alohe. .in@ in October Last -year, 50,000 houses already built for private sale stood empty (apart from vlaces like Beechwood Houses)
So the lon, cataloj ue of Cisasters - the crumblins of the Velfare State ané the sheer human waste fine their explanation in the Gecay of a system which is poverned anc Cictated not by the neces of the workin; class but by the _ rofitability stakes of the capitalists! game. 30 its not the oil sheiks that cause the crisist 3o its not waje increases that cause’ the crisis! It should now be clear for all to see that the working class will never have a real penuine welfare state until it ceascs to de,end on the provisions of capitalism. CibPlt.Li sm IS TNCOMPATT Bul “ITH. GENUINE /LLUPLRE stare.
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pesca entree arereny
30 what's the solution?
The only possible solution which serves the interests of the workin;
class is cne which totally wrenches the or;anisation of ,roriesion and distribution out of the hanes of the capitalists and places it firmly into those
of the labour movement itself.
Now we don't mean just jetting ‘lefts! elected to all the appropriate ,osts. It should be clear that something far more. substantial than thet is neécec. unc it certainly won't come from the Labour Government! For the Lab-~
our government, no such sericus workin; class strate; y would ever sully its pro-caritalist high priests, To the Labour left and the trace Unions it was
sayiny, lost year,'hole back on your waze demands now and we may be able to afford a few reforms later’. Now its chan;e@ to 'hole down your wages ...or else...its unemployment for you'. This is because the Labour ;overnment bases itself, its ideas and its economics 10Q% on the continuation of capitalist ruldst That's why Hecley's third bué:et last November dolea out about £2, 500 millions uncondi tionally to ca, itealists in vorious Ways, inclucin; relaxing. the »rice cote and increasin, direct loans.
That's also why the Lavour ;overnment lends £500 millions to the Buildin, societies. This anicunts. to nothin, less than usin, taxpayers! money to brice these ,arasites of the private buildin; incustry to increase their output.
That's why the Labour ;overnment's election manifesto premise to ‘natiore . : alise develo,ment lanc' has turnec into a scheme for local councils to buy up land that the ,»resent owners want to sell, and at uxisting use value - that is, not what it could fetch if glans for office blocks or houses were allowe¢c for. The councils woulé then sell the land to the cevelo,ers at market value. In other words the local council becomes the capitelist! Rents and house prices will still be besed on market prices.
In fact, every single measure is diatated by capitalism's current over- ( ++ For dee,er analysis ané full explanation, see ‘INTERNATTON.L' Vol.4 No8 ‘The orizins of British reformism! From 153, Wodehouse Lane, Lees)
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ricing necG, which ig to mossively increase its rate of profit (its return on investment.) This can unly be dune at the ex, ense of the working class. in a period of recessiin this can only be cone vy forcing Gown real income.: and slashin; the social services. pit the workin, class in Britein, ane Euro,¢ as 4 whole will not gust ‘lie down on? take it’. It will not ncce the consequent hue unemployment ang a _oneral beturn to the con@itions of the 30's without a big, Pight. Hence, the bstablishment has to play a waiting game. It has to let inflation ri, ane try to convinee everyone that the cause is wace increases, so that it can Civice and confuse the Labour movement to soften it up for the big boot.
This ex; lains why one year after the return of the Labour government, the Toxies' ecucation, health ane other welfare cuts have not been restored and are likely to come u; for another clobbering in the near future. To show how likely this is, we have only to lock »t how the -ublic sector eeficit has srown from 22,525 willion in 1972-3 to €h,497 million in 1973-4, ana will rise to 6, 300 in 1974-5. . | | Only the yrintine, of money to cover these gigantic deficits is mana, ing to sto, both the nye .otential for further recession from materialising, and the immediate crwublin, of the Velfcre State. But the local governments, which cannot int money, heve fallen into a state of very serious crisis resulting in _ rowing, cuts in all the fielcs in which it orerates, as we have shown in some detail above.
1t should be crystal cleer by now to’ even the Labour Party faithfuls, that the crisis is so deey anc the com licity of the Labour ;overnment so thorouyh, that somethin: more than resolution-morn erin” anc, sloyanisiny is necessary in yesponse.
Rut no - it's certainly not clear to our one-time 'léft' lesders like Jack Jones of the T & erat or iichacl Foot, MP. For them, the'way forward’ is in fact the way backwarés. They have becone the most ardent su,orters of the social ..-
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contract. Meanwhile, the TUC has taken vp the CLI's cam-aign for higher j-ro~
fits, so thet alto;ether they ;ave a lovely warm welcome to Healey's £2,500 million “aft to -VYivate enter rise, to which we referred enrlier. They can sce no further then cottin:, cajitalism back on its feet so they can then resume their talk sbout join, forward towards socialism again! But this means hitting wa:es herder, and clobberins, the social services even more, which is exactly what the social contract is all aboutt
3o these policies ere of no velue to the workers movement whatever. But whet of the Labour and Trade Union 'left' that does maintain its opposition to the cuts, at least on paper? They have all sorts of ideas, none of which, however, are of any eractical value in vreyarin, the grounc for ea workers solution to the crisis. There are a number of reasons for this.
Pirestly, it is pecause these veo; le start asking for a solution in ‘the wrony place, namely Parliament and the local council chambers.This is the worst terrain for the workin, class to fi,ht on. It means we sits and twiddles our thumbs waite a bunch of people sit around workin,.out how best to diffuse the issue. Thatis why Jarliamentorians are so fond of. petitions! .(Al though 120,000 names were recently collected protesting at the axing of the LGI building -rosranme - its mejor achievment has been that Lr. David Owen came up to Leeds to tell everyone personally...that there wes nothing he could: do. He could have saved the train fare!)
Meanwhile, the working class's major source of strength, its ability to take ince ,endent, collective action is dissipated. History provides ample proof that the working class is strongest when acting independently of Parliament and the Esteblishment, and through its own organisations. Just compare the way the Lobour Serty fouht the Tories Housins, Finance Act, with the struggle to freeze rents on Clyeeside in 1915. \ith the honourable exception of the Clay Cross councillors, anc just one or two others, the whole snti-Housing, Finance act cam ain was a washout from the moment the threat to use the law was issued.
Comments from Labour councillors like "well, we've put up a cood show, but I've got my 'gob' to think of" were very ,opular. what the Clay Cross councillors understood was the need to be prepared to
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cefy the law sné to crycnise their working class base through regular mass meetings and Ciscussi.n. and yet, even though their two year struggle won
enormous symeitby within the Lahour movement, the ineffectiveness of the Labour Party left could not be more tragically revealed than in their total inability to prevent it f.cm becomin, isolated.
In contrast, in 1915, the working, class tenents of Clydeside foucht back e¢ainst Parlioment and won hands Cown, ‘Why? Pecnuse, like the Clay Gross councillors, they understood the political importance of organising the Fight on the sruund best suitec to the working, class - in cther words, outsice Parliament. It is worth relating. the story, because it is full of rich examples.
What hagyenee was, that in May 1915 a body called the ‘Yomens Housing Association celled for a rent strike avainst rent increases brought about by Clydeside londlords tryinj; to make a ‘killing! cut of a huge shortare of accomodation. By June, the rent strike hac been ‘so successful that they had forced the withdrewal of rent increasss in the Govan area of Glassow. The movement then spread throu; hout the city. Rent collectors found themselves being: res ularly plastered with flour and physically ejected from tenements. altogether, 20,000 tenants took art in the rent strike. a network of committees, and regulor mass mestin’s in the teuements are what kept the strike solid and prevented eviction threats bein, carriva out. in October, «4 mess demons trstion against the rises was held in the city centre. By now, the rent strikes had spread to Northam ton, Birmingham, ane | verts of London. The Clydeside landlords counter-attacked with a lepal offen- ;
sive to ,et rent arrears decucted from wases.s In November, 17 ammunition workers were hauled wu. in court for rent arreals...and were promptly joined by 10,000 fellow workers who walked off the job and demonstrated outside the court house. Under the chairmanship of that great Scottish revolutionary John Maclean, a Mass meeting unanimously resolved that unless the Government froze rents by a s ecified date until the end of the war, there would bea general strike declared. A few days later, a bill to this, effect was rushed through Parliament!
Anca the moral of this story?
The fight to impose a workers'solution to the crisis depencs on the
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ction industry.
er anc necessary issues such as the nationalisation of land, and the constru- Fa PNT CL ER . them. This ty,e of campaign also opens up the potential for raising much broad- Fine ~ they can use their resources to help smpport these policies and extend councillors do genuinely want to act a lainst the housing crisis, then that's a groblem irrespective of what manoeuvres ;o on in the councils. If the Labour tin, of such proverty. In this way, the cirect action serves to bejin solving in need, whilst on the other, we promote and organise the occu,ation and squatannels that the council hands over all habitable but empty buil@ings to those centrate on Ceveloping, the idea of, on the one hand, demanding, throurh all chparts in the local squatting, and housin,, movements. Here in particular, we con- In Bristol, Newcastle and particularly London, we have played important school. by school.
and supplies to schools began within a month, rotation strikes would be,in presented to the local authorities with the ultimatum that unless repairs
needs of all schools in each area. The ccficiencies would be costed and a bill
ion comsittees should organise a classroom by classroom census of the material
we jlayed a leading role, one idea that we arcued for was that the strike act- For example, during the Scottish teachers strurgles last autumn in whieh
what we mean, in practise, by all this.
The IMG has already cone a lot (within its limited resources) to show
factories, the streets and popular assemblies.
propapandise for the workers cause, whilst the real struggle goes on in the
is then reduced to its proser place « a platform used whenever possible to and to initiate its own forms of action and impose its own laws.Parliament
dezends on the labour movement's ability to orjenise itself democratically strusgle outsice Parliament ond outside the councils. Its successful outcome
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NAGION LUTON CP EEE
Many. vurrents on the left, particularly in the Labour Party and the Communist party frenvently raise cemends for the netionalisation of the land, the. construction incuatry, the dru:s industry the banks, and so. on. Onto these @emands are often tagged things like 'unéer workers control' and 'without compensation’. ve also inke these Cemands and we always insist on tage ing on ‘vader workers control' andé ‘without compensation' since nationalisation on its own is no socialist measure. But there is ean important difference. The ING does uot raise these cemands as a substitute for actual campaigns of Girect action in the here and now,and whenever the cuts occur. As we mentdoned earlier, it is when workin; people are united in action that these demands can be mide. most relevant aud be seen to be most practical. In other words, the demands on. their owa, acc inadequate.
Por example: prior to the spate of struggles in the NHS, only a
small uumoer of health workers would have sympathised with the idea of natjionalising the ¢rujs industry, Tt has only really become a relevant question of ppractical. <mporteuce for tens of, thousands of health workers,in the recent cam.cigus to impose their needs and those of ordinary patients over the profit motive of ,rivate practicioners and drurs firms. In other words, you've sot the ¢ reetest potential. for reelisin, nationalisation demands in campaisns which reveal clearly the ;ractical need for sush measures.
“het ony Benn and other left-win, MP's do not realise is that the capit- Je
aligzts will not allow their power to be weakened by sreat extensions of senvine public ownershi;- without a huge fight. und the tra;ic events in Chile have shown just how viciously they can firht. This requires more than the rhetoric of Parliament. It needs the actions of thousands of Workers: It is wor'ti notin, here that in ‘peaceful Britain’ with the Yelfare State in such a crisis, the only bud)et of ,ublic spendin, to increase is that for the ,olice forc &
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LOOK NO_aRMS
Another demand, particularly popular with the Communist Party, is for the halving of the arms bucvet, It is trve this could release £1,800 million for more useful work than building machines to be used against the workers movement all over
the world, including, the non-capitalist countries. However, it is quite wrong to moke this, a priority Cemand in a campaign against welfare cuts.
Firstly, it refocuses all. attention on Parliament, since it is extremely difficult to do anything about it in the localities, outside of situations whore the lsbowe movement is drawn into struggles of enormeys proportions, which is clearly not the case at the moment.
Secondly, prioratising, this demand gives the impression that behind the cutting of the arms budret lies a long-texm solution to the crisis in the welfare state.
But the sclution, as we have explained before, does not lie simply in the arena of
moving, sums of money about. The entire economy and the whole way society is structured has to be totally reorraniscd. It would require tremendous strength politically from the workers movement to channel all the resources released by cutting . the arms budcet,. into grogranmes of useful public works. To achieve a genuine wel~ fare state, it would require the organisations of the labour movement to confront
massive. resistance from the Establishment and the entire capitalist class.
And the way the lebowr movement can beyin to build that kind of strength for itself mow is not by simplyraising, demands for halting; the arms budget, but by
f { oe
#7) , Peitish Section of the Fourth Trternational ‘ te, co ’ Qe ! yor ; on
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organising campaigns that can take up at the level at which sections of the working class ars already preparcd to fight, such struggles. In particular, this means promoting campaicns againat tareats to the NAS through the aplication of bans, embargoes and blackings on private practise, consultants work-to~contract, the cuts in hospital building etos ay pinst the effects of the housing, crisis through occupations, “squats in om; ty property 6tc; against education cuts along the lines of the Scottish teachers,-and so on. ‘So now comes the questicn of what to do in Leeds.
THE LOC CONFERERCE
Tne IMG cammained hard to initiate and build the conference in Leeds. We argued
that it should attempt to Sraw in broad sections of the labour and student movements as 4 step towards developing a real campaign against some of the savagse cuts previously mentioned. The conference will offer the o,portunity to discuss and learn from some of the major strugcles recently waved in defense of the Welfare State. But this elone is not enou,h. We also believe this is the way towards actually implementing soe of the fine sounding resolutions that are already the policy of major trade union bodies.
The TUC, NUE and NuiGO, as well as several other unions,have policy against all private practise, and for the nationalisation of the drugs industry. The AUEW also has policy calling for a completely free transport service, and a vast expansion of school building, programmes. These are all fine sentiments, but really ~ vhere's the action? Where's the ‘campaign through all appropriate channels' part of
the resolutions being applied by the Executive committees?
Let us take for exemple, the private hes;ital scheme in Rounchay. How is this to be stopped?
Well, the line of our labour councillors was to play the 'sreen-belt card’. This is the card 3 you 1 play when you abandon the class struggle for committee games. What happened was that the Tories formed an alliance with the Liberals to back a resolution givin’ planning permis jon to Allied Investments to spend £$ million
[page 20]
in -convertin:, Beechwood House into a ;rivate hospital.
But the Labour councillors weren't ,oin,, to have this. They were join, to put up a fight! Did they tur: to the labour movens..t, thowh, to call for a campaign against this move? Did they tour workplaces explaining how the development of any private hospital was oncther nail in the NH3' coffin? Did they call a meeting in the Town Hall to build up a strom, movement in defence of the NHS? Did they take the opportunity of buile@ing e« campaign to defend other ospects of the NHS like the LGI cuts? Did they hell!
Instead, they arcued that ;ranting planning, permission would set a precedent for greenbelt development! They defended this abomination by saying that the green belt caré was the only one likely to sslit the liberals! It didn't. ‘You swines{ cried the Tories and Liberals. 'You Labourites are politically
ainst it because its a private hospital’. motivated. Really you are a; ‘Nol Noi Not protest our'socielist'friends, 'not true’. We might add, ‘and why not?' Obviously, for the labour movement to rely on this means of struggle is political suicide. | The alternative is to campaign through the labour movement to black any conver~
sion or construction work till the jlens are reversed. The lebour movement should
also susport any moves to take it over and twrn it over to homeless families. Meanwhile, the councillors should be told throuh all channels to break with the establishment and act for the workers movement. In this case, they should campaign for Beechwood House to be taken over by the council and siven, either to the LGI or the housing Cepertment.
The same messaze applies for the campaisn agoinst the LGI cuts and against all
private practise in and outsice the NHS. Experi+«nce has shown that relying on the ‘fairness of Parliament' will not pet the decision to axe the LGI plans reversed.
Nor will it bring private practise to an end.
Instead, some other practical ste-s should include the following? ~ hospital workers should immeciately set up action committees or act throuch existins shop stewards committees, to orpanise a ban on all pay beds (as in Swansea, and some
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hospitals in London) In places where the consultants are working-to-contract, all services to them in administration, domestic help and p,ortering should get the same treatment, since their'action'for the'ripht! to private practise is causing a graduel and steady backlog of patients which many believe will already take months and months to clear.
The growth of private practise outside the NHS is a particularly dangerous threat. Once it crows, it cen begin to strengthen the 'independence'and bargaining power of consultants and doctors at the expense of the NHS. It can also begin to | | serve as a pole of attraction (through offering better conditions of work etc) for nurses end other hospital staff, who are desperately needed within the NHS. Once the rot sets in ~ it feeds itself. Obviously, as the health service deteriorates, it t creates a larger'narket'of people 'rrepared' to pay to private health schemes. | So the rot must. be stopped. Now!
A workers enguiny should be set up to esteblish the actual staffing needs in all spheres of the NHS, in relation to the intake and waiting list figures, ward sizes, existing work Load ete.
Pregsarations should be made to hold a local demonstration which would serve to tie together the themes of ‘defend the LGI - reverse the cuts’ on the one hand, ana 'no to any private practise’ on the other. This should be seen 1s a first step towsrds the extension of industrial action to outside the NHS if the demands are not met. | Meetings shovld he organised at factory gates, canteens, branches and wards
to generate a better and broader understanding throughout the working class, of the
issues at stake.
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We have gone into our ifeas for 2 coherent and srowing campaign against the NHS side of the welfare stete cuts, because we see its collapse as being one of the most serious ana immediate threats to working class living standards. Howcver, a similar approach would apply equally well in the develo;ment of campaigns over
housin:, eGucetion and other public services.
We heve also concentrated on the means necessary to defend the welfare state. But these should also be seen as the way towards extending it in a way that would meke it truly comprehensive. By this, we mean ending discrimination against women. The Welfare State plays an important role in bolstering up and institutionalising discrimination s/ainst women, but it is not possible, in this short space, to go
into o11 the ways in which it does sc. Suffice it to say, that in 1975, women still
dc not have abortion on demand, or full nursery facilities. Women are discriminated
against in social security payments, control over children, and even the issuing
of passports. The catals; ue of ways in which the working closs is gplit down the middle on:sexual -rounds is as Llons as your «mn.
We also mean that the old, the infirm, or the mentally il] would not be abandoned to a standard of care determined by the size of their bank balance.
There are countless other examples of the ways in which the welfare state can
be extended in the gs-heres of transport, education and so on, all of which are
absolutely possible. s11 the resources are there,
Only capitalism stancs in the way.
Leeds IMG March 1975.
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