Peace-Off Year
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14f3 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 20p 1985 Peace-Off Year In a graphic demonstration of why they 7 Labour controlled authorities is a councillors call it a centralist attack on won the election but are losing the ''manifesto commitment". In other words democracy. It remains to be seen whether economy the Tories upstaged the last day a popular vote winner with few unfortun the howls of the dispossessed ring louder of the Labour Party Conference with ate strings attached. It is presented as a than the noise of designer lllQnkey-boots their plans to abolish the GLC. means of benefitting ratepayers by on marble corridoors as rats abandon the eliminating bureaucracy and waste. We sinking administrations. But for all the The white paper appropriately proposes shall see what if any these reductions in disunity in the ranks one message will be to abolish the GLC and the six ~etropol rates amount to. But its clearly designed coming over loud and clear - that the itan County Councils on April 1st 1986. to detract attention from Tory failure to interests of the working classes affected Interim administrations will take over a abolish rates - a manifesto pledge in by the job losses, cuts in services, higher year before that when the present councils 1979. fares, rents and probably rates, decline fmish their terms. Most municipal funct in housing stocks and so on, are the same ions will devolve down to district or It sta~ps on a conveniently vulnerable as those of the bureaucrats and politico's borough council level. Those functions sector of the welfare state. From the start who will be forced back into business, requiring regional co-ordination - police, the Tories focussed on local govt. cuts parliament or the media. Perhaps most fire service, transport, education etc - which didn't involve arguments with their lpemicious of all the 'public' debate over will come under new joint boards made own civil servants. Their failure to achieve lhe form of capitalist state management up of nominated representatives from the them through fmancial controls alone ·\rill be used to reinforce the lie of boroughs and districts. These will be under (the philosophy of the 'free market' and 'democracy'. tight central govt. control over fmances 'non-intervention') has compelled them and 'freed' from 'political interference'. to intervene politically. This failure of monetarism is being presented as an Popular yarns The plans were greeted with widespread attack on entrenched bureaucracy. shock and dismay by the political factions Deliberately unstated, but understood in the various authorities to be axed. But clearly, it is also meant as an object lesson of class war even the most vocal protests by Labour in stopping Labour councils from INSIDE: Demand Struggles/Niggli Party placemen are riven with fatal preserving or extending their 'Welfare ng Disputes/EETPU-SOGAT Dilem contradictions. Ken Livingstone accurate Empires' of social S!!rvices, cheap fares, ma/BT /YP /Our Reader Writes/More lycalled the plans a "pigs breakfast", but local investment etc etc. Appalling Subheadings/Jargon/etc e then implausibly claimed that no sensible INSIDE: Demand Struggles/Niggli politician would swallow them. Over the next 18 months Livingstone, ng Disputes/EETPU-SOGAT Dilem Blunkett & co. will call it an attack on ma/BT}YPlOur Reader Writes/More For the Govt. the proposal to abolish the socialism, while the Tory wet and SDP It's ~~·putting the abolition of the contrast, the bulk of council finance 'depoliticise' these functions (ie. bring GLC tnto dontext. Local Government in comes from central govt. and from loans them under tight bureacratic control). its modern form arose in the mid 19th raised on the money markets. As the century. It was imposed by central range of functions to be managed has Over the next 18 months all sides wiJl be government because of the need to force grown, so have the sums of money involv trying to pursuade us of the necessity of corrupt local oligarchies to provide ed. The main concern of central govt. their brand of "efficient democratic" adequate police forces and to administer switched from forcing local co-operation management of our lives. The public a repressive poor law. These measures to restraining local spending. This has debate will try to "involve" us in the were designed to help create and manage been a central govt. priority since the decisions being made according to a dispossessed working class, as available First World War. capitalist priorities. We may not be strong factory fodder. As cities grew up around the factories the need arose for sanitation Alongside this juggling of· management enough to get rid of them but we must and roads. Later still for education, health roles is the steady development of single refuse to be conned by any of it, and welfare services away from local govt. to refuse to accept the extra burden of it. and housing measures to keep hold of the being centralised state institutions in When they ask what form local govt. worl}ing classes packed into urban slums. their own right. This has been a constant should take, tell them : a row of process since 1918 due to the need to unmarked graves. From the start councils were a focus for ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~----~~~--~ a conflict between 'conservative' and 'progressive' interests. These weren't WIFE ADMITS NAKED "SECOND divided on party lines - Birmingham COMING" FRAUD !!! Exclusive!! was a model of municipal enterprise Those Touching Bodyscan Pictures under a Tory administration. But by the That Exposed All ! ! end of the century the rise of socialist THAT T.V FAMILY REVEAL IT ideology . among the managerial classes ALL AGAIN ! ! Blockbuster or focussed this 'progressive' view of the Megayawn ?? A Saucy Student production, education and allocation of Tells How He Got His Important workers on the Labour Party. Part In The 'Windsor Bwore' ! ! Once capitalism had extended its domin ***After THAT vote, can there be a left/right Bridge ? And who holds ation over the whole of society, the role of the 'progressives' in developing local the trumps ? George 'Brown' Hatters came from behind to take the management was achieved. The arguments trick. Will Meacher bid for the rubber? Or is he the Featherlite Skin on since have been over the sort of manage the rice pudding? We EXCLUSIVELY bringyou the INSIDE DIRT on ment and the level of services, within the the man who really fills the deputy leaders position ! constraints imposed by the ability of the capitalist economy to generate enough ***First HERPES. Then AIDS. NOW PARKINSONS DISEASE ! ! profits to pay for it. As the u{lions decide to come out is this divine retribution for unnatural tory /worker relations ? ! In the fifties and sixties, in conditions of relative economic boom, the debate was *** 'Uncle' Jim Callaghan called her the 'Sexiest woman in Britain'. over the nature of management. This Now Elsie Tanner exclusively tells of her 50 years on the Street. period saw the creation of the GLC and the Metropolitan County Councils in ***EXCLUSIVE SERIES ! The Tory Tabloid PORNO PRESS ! Will 1963 (by the Tories), and eventually the reduction of news to mere titillation finally kill our ability to feel?. local government reorganisation, accom TOMORROW : Arthur Scargill speaks out on why we must expose the panied by a corporate management knockers ! The fight for news values not 'nudes' values starts here. revolution in the town halls, in the early seventies. Its ironic to recall today that when both Labour and Conservative govt.'s in the fifties took functions away from the boroughs and gave them to the county councils, there were shrieks of rage from councillors about this 'attack on local democracy'. Today we see the same accusations as powers are shifted back to the boroughs, in accordance with the need to reduce spending faced with ••••••••••••••••••••••••••I Workers Playtime is produced by some Next Playtime deadline is November22nd. a relative economic slump. The moans of 1 me!llbers of the ~ndon Workers Gro~p. UK Annual subscriptions £2. Back issues. the bureaucrats don't change. The work ~t IS not the pubhc fa~ or theoretical and single copies 20p from : Box LWG,. ing classes have no control to lose, only a I JOurnal of the LWG. Articles reflect the Cl Metropolitan Wharf Wapping Wall El place in the cheap seats at the 'democr I thoughts, fantasies and inadequacies of ' • atic' charade. That doesn't change either. their authors (in no particular order). f)le LC?NDON WC?RKE.RS GROUP is an open • • itscusston group mvolvmg autonomists coun- Playtime is intended as a forum for disc- cillists;anarchists and anyone else inter~sted in • After the initial phase of forcing local 1 · h li f I ggl workplace class struggle from a revolutionary ussmg t e rea ty o c ass stru e. If you point of view. It meets every Tuesday at 8.15 interests to adopt responsible management I have something to contribute-news uP.stairs aHhe Metropolitan Pub, 95 Farringdoti • policies and to pay for them, the burden feedback whatever-we would like t~ ~oad, ECl (2 J!l~s farringdon Tube). Anrone I ' • • • • ts welcome to )om m, except party recrutters.• of finance began to shift. Early Govt. hear from you. There IS no editonalline- ~f you want .to know more but can't face meet grants were only for such things as I but that doesn't mean we don't know mg u~, or tf you want a copy of our free • h t d. "th bulletm (a stamp would be nice), write to the magistrates expenses in remanding prison I w a we tsagree WI . A address above. • ers and the wages of workhouse doctors :I and teachers.