CUTS.
about if from their local MP.
Not Cabin secur later probably wished he hadn't. like i All right, enough of the disI need to know the facts. 1c lacts so that 1 can present them Cabinet.
Ch The racis de l at eoc a have tnere detaling the proposa see mimon cuts in education spending in the Bristol area]. We want to discuss the issues. What is the position of the Labour Government on the cuts? We thought that the manifesto and motions at the Labour Party Conference called for no cuts and the scsion or air Duone services.
Benn: That is correct.
Lobbier: Well, what is the position of the Labour Government? It is saying une cuis must go ahead.
Benn (humming and haaing): Well we have to look at the economic situaJust what does happen when you lobby your MP?• Last week 12,000 teachers, students and trade unionists marched through the centre of London to Parliament to protest against the Government's education For the several hundred who bothered to stay there the most common reception was a sympathetic 'but I'm afraid there's nothing I can do • with Tony Benn, the 'man of the people' left in the Wilson fossilised in stone, some would say. Brushing his way past officials and police he welcomed in a delegation of 14 lobbyists stol and took them to the canteen for a cup of tea. An hour The conversation went something tron. We have to make the railways and the steel industry more efficient, then we could expand the education svstem Lobbier: But the railways are alreauy overpacca - noboay can allord them. And by the way, there's thirty Shotton steelworkers the other side of this canteen lobbying for their jobs.
A process of beating around the bush begins. After some time, Benn finally agrees that it is the Cabinet that is carrying out the cuts.
Benn: Yes, I agree that all public services must be saved and extended.
There must be no cuts. We have to develop a climate within the working class so that the working class will resst any curs in the social wage.
Lobbier: Well, as a start, will you support the picket and rally of Avon County Council on 6 November against the £2.5 million education cuts. Your presence would enable us to get wider SUPPULL Benn: I can't do that because of the collective responsibility of the Cabponsible to? The Labour Party opposes the cuts, and the Cabinet is carrying out the cuts. Who are you responsible to the working class or the Cabinet?
Benn: But I have to stav in the Cabinet to fight other battles. We must win al a ruture stage Another long rambling discussion on the cuts.
fight within the mass organisations of the working class. I hope you all realise that the TUC is a very influential body - its very important to work in the TUC We need to get the working class as a whole to defend education and all the social services Lobbier: We agree absolutely. Will you support the picket? That would allow us in Bristol to build precisely that response.
1am more useful among the 24 members of the Cabinet or on the picket USCrULE since the referendum..
Lobbier: Yes, but who are you resbefore the referendum.
the referendum?
Benn: We need to launch a politcal Wilson leadership? cide whether the relerendum..
red weekly 30 october 1975