| This leaflet tried to link an action against council cuts to the anti-poll tax movement. This was an uncharacteristically successful leaflet in that a small council workers group formed partly as a result of it. |
This lobby of the council is a demonstration of our anger at the attacks the Labour group carries out on us. It is good for people here to see others who are fighting back. It lets us see that we are not alone.
But we shouldn’t expect any positive responses from "our" councillors. After all, everyone of them knew before they stood for election that they would be making cuts, raising rents, implementing the poll tax etc...
This shows quite well how shallow their claims to represent us are. Four out of five people are against the poll tax, and in Hammersmith & Fulham one in two is not paying. Who in the council chamber or parliament is really fighting the poll tax’s implementation? No one. Our democratic representatives represent themselves, and various vested interests, but not us, the people they claim to.
The Labour councillors naturally try to blame their unpopular policies entirely on the Tories, but we wouldn’t want to insult them by assuming them powerless puppets. They carry out their policies of their own choice. They are as much to blame for the attacks on us as the Tories and the bosses (they themselves are bosses of thousands of workers anyway).
And because they know full well what their policies of cut backs, sackings and money grabbing mean for working class people, we shouldn’t expect them to treat us any better just because we ask them to. We need to put pressure on the council. Not by sending them petitions, begging letters or resolutions, but by actually attacking them. This means not paying the poll tax, strike action against job losses, demonstrations against cut backs and other forms of direct action.
The council will no doubt try to divide this grassroots opposition by, for instance, blaming cuts on people not paying the poll tax. We must counteract this by making the opposition as united as possible, including council tenants, poll tax resisters, users of services, and council workers whether they are union members or not. We should also try to make links with anyone else fighting the current onslaught against us, which means non-council workers who are fighting for more pay, as well as people fighting the same battles as us in other boroughs.
This movement should be organised by the people that are part of it, not by a political party or a union. If working class people can themselves control their own battles and dispense with all supposed representatives, in power or in waiting, we will be able to collectively control our own destiny and organise life the way we want to.
Please write to: BM Makhno, London WC1N 3XX