loto: CHRIS DAVIES (Renort)
for 'bringing the party into disrepute.
ch grouping which controls local Labour Party politics.
Red Weekly.
fight to remove the right wing being carried forward. KEITH VENESS is a council estate caretaker and a leading militant in North Islington Labour Party. Or at least he was, until he was expelled last month The ostensible reason for his expulsion was an interview with a local 'underground' paper, the /slington Gutter Press, in which he took to pieces the local Labour MP, Michael O'Halloran, and the right-wing Catholic Churthing as disreputable to the Labour Party as the MP and his supporters have done in North Islington if I try from now until doomsday', Veness told Veness's expulsion is far from being a parochial issue. With a right-wing counter-attack opening in Newham North East Labour Party, the struggle against the right-wing leaders at both a local and national level is being thrown to the fore again. Mick Gosling asked Veness - who is appealing to the National Executive Committee for re-instatement - how he saw the loran has now been a Labour MP for He didn't vote against internment, he supported tne bi-parusan poncy undel vention of Terrorism Act. O'Halloran i Church in North Islington, he doesn't sriuse troops. am ror une sen-dererm ination of the Irish people.
to it?
'I couldn't do any- on with the job'. I think the whole con ception about the inviolability' of MPs is rcacuonaly conception which has nothing to do with the needs of working people in the 20th century.
someoody. It you want to change por icies you have to change the people who put forward the policies you disagree with. That's why I think one of the ist alternative is really the accountability of the people you select.
unites, who say that although they oppose the policies of Wilson and Healey they won't fight for their removal because that's bringing personalities into politics? Alt's not just the Tribunites. There's a large numer or people wno call themselves Marxists, like the 'Militant' group, who hold these sort of views. The struggle for socialist policies is inseperable from the struggle for a new leadersnow our mausage to bure a cy ership that is going to be committed to mands for nationalisation and workers control and all the other demands of a socialist programme alley, unless there is a struggle at the ame time to replace and change those • Ana as nave people who refuse to carry out these policies It's true that you can argue about the socialist programme, and as you were saying there are a large number or groups wiich nave a my-white pro gramme - with arguments about taking over the banks and insurance companies, disband the Tory Party, wind up the stock exchange - all this is fine, all marAs far as Ireland goes, I'd put my record against O'Halloran's any time. O'Halseven years, but he hasn't made a squeak in the House of Commons about Ireland and the Co-op.
the Tories, he didn't vote against the Pre interested in defending the Irish Catholic give a damn about the struggle in Ireland.
My own position on Ireland is that these attacks? I support the Republican Movement and I'm for the unconditional withdrawal of Y How important do you think it is to make the elected representatives of the labour movement accountable actest bolutely any points ay, get It is an 18th centur ly you have to have the right to 'unselect" It you select somebody then obvious. million.
very first steps in the struggle for a social- being expanded.
What is your attitude to the Tribleadership in the labour movement, a leadtaking power, even the finest policies - de- can't mean anything. They become just gibberish, a blind ply unar groups snould be working class organisations on is Dasis nev snoute be allowed to affiliate to the Labour Party in the same way as the Fabians O Given that it is the Wilson Goy.
ernment which is orchestrating the attack on jobs and the social services, how do you see local Lab- dous our Parties and Labour Councils playing a role in throwing back A made merely gives us the basis for The fact that the cuts are effectively a big struggle against the present set-up.
The Labour Party's role should be to provide the political leadership of this, to co-ordinate and organise the fight, to organise local wade umonists and ten ans m mac uwur back atamst unemooy This is really the biggest criticism you could make or u nanoran and nis gang. They haven't made the slightest peep, yet the Government has decided to cut its allocation to Islington Council for rehabilitation of the property it has acquired - this is the Section 105 money Islington Council asked for £24 million. The Government's cut that to f11 as is a massive cur walen 1s going to result in mousands or nouses lying empty and thousands of people being left on the waiting list, with hundreds of building workers' jobs being put at risk and the direct labour force not In this situation you need an MP who is going to get up and fight and fight like mad, arzuc. our pressure on me Govern ment, orgamise me people or isington and campaign. I suspect that O'Halloran doesn't even know what Section 105 is, he doesn't care, he's not interested.
Is Clay Cross the model to be The problem of Clay Cross was that it was isolated and defeated. For example Clay Cross has 200 council workers, IslingOn 3 February nearly a hundred demonstrators marched on the Civic Centre, Newcastle in support of the Newcastle Nursery Action Group's demand for more pre man of the city's Education Committee, who stated that the NAG's figures were 'misleading", and that no cuts in nurseries were planned. But as Linda Hinton, one of the Group's organisers, pointed out: "They say they are not cutting services. They can hardly cut what doesn't exist' The march was supported by the Working Women's Charter Campaign, local stud ents, and the Tyneside Action Committee Against the Cuts - which is organising a series of activities to highlight the cuts that are taking place in the sohere of educa tion, transport, housing and social services on Tyneside. The cut in nursery provision on Tyneside is especially important as it is part of an overall round of cuts in the social services. Also, along with the restrictions that women face in the field of abortion and limited contraception, it is a further attempt by the authorities to throw the burden of responsibility for child care back on to the mother and the family. And this will Dave une wav tor Turner cuts in the uHs After the demonstration, Labour councillor Jeremy Beecham (leader of the Social Services Committee) said that he "fully sympathised with the demands'. We should in sist that he turns his tine words into action, voting against any cuts in the social ser vices this year and fighting instead for an extension of the budget ton has 3,000. And Islington has 10,000 counch properues. in two vears tune 1 will have 20,000. Tens of thousands rely on the Council for jobs and services.
Now if these people were organised, if their trade unions, tenants groups ete. were organised into a big fighting campaign, the impact would be tremen1 beneve tnal a major stand by the Council against all cuts, a fight against the Government by a major London borough, would have incalculable consequences. It would be the starting point of a real fight against the present policies of the Government.
• cio you thied a hat the loal Coun cil has called a meeting on the housing cuts simply because it is scared of these 'incalculable consequences"? A Labour leaders, more particularly in This is fundamentally true of all the many cases of the left. They are actually frightened of taking on the vested interests.
Many councillors will agree with vou that the cuts are diabolical, bad, we it - but then they turn round to you and say there is no choice, we have to carry them out. And it's true that if you accept the rules of the game at the moment, that is what you have to do you have to argue whether it's going to be social services, housing, or recreatior which will be hammered.
But I've never accepted that these are the rules of the game they are certainly not our rules, we didn't write them, and there is absolutely no reason why we should abide by them, I think that what we ve got to do is not a question of either struggling in the Council and Parnamen or stugallne outside - sa question of doing both. These people are actually clected representatives. Ine should use their positions to rally sup port, to mobilise action against the Government's policies CARRIO The marchers presented a petition of 1,000 signatures to the chair-
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