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London

The political landscape after the local elections

FOLLOWING THE recent London local elections, PAULA MITCHELL examines the new political make-up of the capital and the prospects for working class political action over the burning issues of health, housing, transport and racism.

NEW LABOUR have been hammered in the council elections in London. The Tories have taken control of seven councils, while six have fallen to no overall control. The Tories now control 14 councils, Labour seven and the LibDems three. There are now eleven BNP councillors in Barking and Dagenham, and 15 Respect councillors, 12 in Tower Hamlets and three in Newham.

The Tory vote in London to a large extent is a 'return-to-the-fold' of voters who turned to Blair's New Labour temporarily. Most of the boroughs which have gone to the Tories this time have been Conservative more often than not for decades.

One exception to this is Hammersmith and Fulham, which has not been under Tory control since 1968 (when the majority of councils were Tory). It would appear that middle-class people and a small layer of workers may also have voted Tory because London, especially in terms of housing, transport and collapse of public services, is at the sharp end of New Labour's big business policies.

The Labour vote did not drop uniformly however. There is a big element of the vote which was simply against whoever was in power - in other words against big business policies. For example, in Islington, New Labour gained 12 councillors from the LibDems and the council went to no overall control; they took ten from the LibDems in Lambeth to take over the council.

In Richmond the Tories, despite making gains elsewhere, lost 16 councillors and control of the council to the LibDems. The Greens did very well in some parts of London, partly as an easy protest vote.

But significantly, the Socialist Party scored excellent results, getting Lewisham socialist councillors Ian Page and Chris Flood re-elected and a tremendous vote for Jess Leech, our third candidate in that ward.

We also achieved good results in our small campaigns in Walthamstow and Southwark, showing a definite increase in the number of people consciously wanting to vote socialist.

Big business policies

The election result which has generated most national comment has been the BNP winning eleven councillors in Barking and Dagenham. Sections of the press have even suggested that if the BNP had stood in every seat they would have taken control of the council. However, in one ward they only polled 106 votes, indicating that they probably picked their wards carefully.

But this result is no surprise. The BNP have achieved a similar level of votes for the last few years.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, scapegoated by the government, was right when she said that white workers feel that Labour isn't listening to them. But of course she and others of her type do nothing to fight New Labour's big business policies.

Barking and Dagenham is an area that has been blighted by big business policies. The workforce at Fords at Dagenham has been decimated, losing thousands of local jobs over the last few years. There is a housing crisis due to privatisation and no new build.

The NHS cuts in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Trust are the worst in London at over 600 job losses. Of course, it is not just white workers affected by this, but working-class people from all backgrounds. But fears and resentment about asylum seekers and immigrants has been whipped up by the New Labour politicians and their friends in the media.

Divisive BNP

However predictable, the BNP's election is a dangerous development. They masquerade as a party for white workers, but in fact they offer no alternative to the cuts and privatisation of our services, or to job losses and low pay. Where they have had councillors in other towns, they have failed to even vote against cuts and council tax rises, never mind organise campaigns against them.

In fact, it is impossible for the BNP to mobilise effective campaigns on such issues because to do so requires the unity of working people against the privateers and profit-seekers, whereas the BNP is based on dividing working people against each other.

What is also dangerous is that the BNP whip up racism and their election could encourage a minority to carry out racist attacks and abuse. On a more optimistic note, their election will probably lead to increasing numbers of people, particularly young people, wanting to combat the BNP in that area and elsewhere. Campaigning against racism amongst young people will be an essential part of the Socialist Party's work.

It is also possible that a layer of trade unionists and community activists in that area will now start to look for a more effective method to combat the BNP. 12 years ago the BNP won their first councillor in London, who was then defeated by a community and trade union campaign, in which the Socialist Party's predecessor the Militant and Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE) played a major part.

Then the BNP won a councillor in Dagenham two years ago. They were defeated again, but their vote did not go down. The main campaigns, conducted by a broad grouping called 'Barking and Dagenham Together' and by Unite Against Fascism, campaigned for a maximum Labour and "anti-racist" vote. The Liberals stood down on that occasion in favour of Labour.

We do not doubt the genuine anti-fascist and anti-racist views of those who participate in these campaigns and recognise that some of them have worked very hard. But we warned at the time that this approach would not be sufficient in future to keep the BNP from winning further seats in some parts of London.

It is vital that an alternative is built that fights in the interests of working-class people and which brings together workers from different communities, with campaigners, trade unionists, socialists and radical environmentalists.

Socialist Party members will be stepping up our campaigning in Barking and Dagenham for a new mass workers' party.

Socialist alternative

The defeat of New Labour councillors in Tower Hamlets by Respect is to be welcomed. But the perception of Respect as a party for Muslims, and the danger of divisions developing between different communities, will not be lessened by the fact that all their elected councillors are from a Muslim background and in Muslim areas.

Respect councillors, as the largest opposition group in Tower Hamlets, will now be severely tested.

The Socialist Party has a proud record of councillors posing a socialist alternative, in Lewisham and Coventry.

We have the experience of Liverpool city council in the 1980s, which, led by supporters of the Socialist Party's predecessor, Militant, built thousands of council houses, provided jobs on decent pay, built new schools, parks and leisure centres, and led a mass community and trade union campaign to force extra money from the Thatcher government.

In Tower Hamlets, our Socialist Party members are writing to the Respect councillors to propose discussions on how to pose a working-class, anti-cuts, anti-privatisation alternative in Tower Hamlets.

Some Respect councillors have a good record of campaigning and we hope to be able to work with them. These elections have given us a snapshot of developments in London. The reality is that large numbers of working-class and middle-class people in are increasingly disillusioned in all the main parties, and it is no surprise.

With 7.5 million people (12-14 million in the London metropolitan area) London is the most populous city in the European Union. In the Westminster parliament there are 74 London MPs. It also has a a city-wide elected Assembly and a directly elected Mayor, Labour's Ken Livingstone. A local tier of government comprises of 32 boroughs plus the City of London.

The Tories control 14 authorities, Labour seven (+ Lewisham council which doesn't have a majority of Labour councillors but has a directly elected Labour Mayor), the LibDems three and seven are under no overall control.

A city of extremes - wealth alongside poverty

LONDON IS a city in which the extremes of rich and poor sit side by side. 23 billionaires live in London; the top five have a combined wealth of over $16 billion. Over Xmas, just 3,000 city executives were awarded £6 billion in bonuses between them. Yet on the day that Forbes released its billionaires' list, it was revealed that 3.4 million children in Britain officially live in poverty.

The highest rate of child poverty in the UK is in London - 43% overall and 53% in inner London. 73% of London children in Pakistani and Bangladeshi families live in poverty.

This means that one in five households with children cannot afford to save for holidays, birthdays etc. And its not just children. Low pay is endemic. 30% of working adults in live in poverty!

Even workers in public sector jobs have to claim the very benefits they administer. When the minimum wage was introduced, it was discovered that Inland Revenue workers in London were being paid less!

The only growth in full-time work has been in either occupations requiring a degree or professional qualifications, or in part-time service jobs. These jobs have seen no real rise in wages in recent years. Consequently, as many of these jobs are done by women, the gender gap in pay is higher in London than elsewhere (77% of male earnings).

A campaign is developing, organised mainly by the T&GWU and church groups such as Telco, to fight for decent pay for cleaners, most of whom earn the minimum wage or just above, get no sick pay, no pension, and the minimum possible holiday entitlements.

Unemployment in London is higher than the national average (5%) - in inner London in 2002 it was 9.5%. Only 59% of Black and Asian workers were in employment. This is in a city ranked as one of the most expensive to live in in the world.

The gap between rich and poor means, starkly, that in Kensington and Chelsea people live six years longer than in boroughs such as Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham. But life expectancy varies enormously even within boroughs - within Kensington and Chelsea itself there are five wards with worse life expectancy levels than the London average.

The housing crisis in London is a time-bomb. We have seen the soaring cost of buying a house - the average house price in is over £300,000. To buy what is called 'affordable' home requires an income of £50,000. Private rents are double those of outside London.

One in five of all London households are overcrowded. According to Shelter, there are 22,000 homeless children in London, 100,000 children live in homes officially unfit for habitation, and there are 400,000 children whose health, education and life chances are adversely affected by housing conditions.

Yet these huge problems are met with the selling off of big swathes of public housing, even by housing associations such as Peabody, against which Socialist Party members are leading the campaign. Tenants have voted against privatisation in high profile campaigns, such as Tower Hamlets and Camden, but councils persist.

Lewisham council, where privatisation was defeated by campaigns led by our supporters, is now attempting to force through both direct privatisation and ALMOs.

Transport

Transport is another massive issue. London's transport system, especially the ancient tube system, is creaking under the strain of millions of passengers every day, and yet the latest price hikes make London the most expensive place to travel in the world.

Safety and staffing levels were thrown into the spotlight with the murder of a young lawyer when he left an unstaffed station. The Evening Standard has launched a safety campaign at the same time as running a vicious campaign against the RMT rail union for threatening to strike on the same issue.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Transport for London propose to cut 600 jobs, which the tube unions know is only the start. Yet mainline train companies coming into London made £130 million last year. New Transport for London boss Peter Hendy made his fortune from the privatisation of buses; former boss Bob Kiley is now being paid £2.4 million as a consultant.

In addition, as with the rest of the country, Londoners face massive job cuts and closures in hospitals across the city, an onslaught on our children's education through academies and trust schools, and continued cuts and privatisation of our basic services. Local campaigns have been mounted against all of these in recent months.

The mass NHS campaigns taking off in different parts of the country, and starting up in London, are a sign of the preparedness to fight of larger numbers of people. And it's not only community campaigns.

In addition to the Department for Work and Pensions strikes over job cuts, national pensions battle and RMT strike, there has been a myriad of local workplace battles.

Library workers in Hackney have been on strike, and in Walthamstow they have walked out because of asbestos.

In Tower Hamlets UNISON members have struck over sick pay; in different schools there have been battles and strikes over new pay arrangements.

Heathrow Terminal 5 construction workers' strike action led to an increase in hourly bonus payments. In a number of battles, cleaners have fought against low pay (and won a pay rise at Parliament).

July bombings

Last year London was rocked by the horror of the 7/7 and 21/7 bombs.

Thousands of people packed into Trafalgar Square and took to the streets for the 'official' silent vigil. Many people, while appalled by the terrorist attacks, made the link with the war on Iraq, and were opposed to attempts to divide communities.

But unfortunately there was not a unifying political alternative advanced by the trade union leadership and the leadership of the Stop the War coalition.

There was a rise in racist attacks, a national phenomenon, and also an increase in police harassment. The use of stop and search has increased threefold since 2001, but of blacks and Asians it has increased twelvefold.

Some communities in London were under virtual siege, such as around Stockwell where some of the bomb 'suspects' lived. The protests and spontaneous demo after the police murder of Jean Charles de Menezes, led by the Brazilian and Portuguese communities, again showed the potential for mass action.

London's population is both growing and changing. From 7.3 million in 2003, it is expected that London's official population will rise to 8 million by 2016. 40% of London's population is non-white.

Despite the existence now of a London Assembly and Mayor, lack of planning means that the city's ability to absorb and make the most of these changes is chaotic.

London benefits enormously from the influx of different people into a rich cultural mix. Unlike some parts of Britain, there is not the same degree of separation and the working class has traditionally been quite unified. But since 9/11 and with the rise in racist attacks, stop and search and Islamophobia, it is the case that young Muslims, in particular, feel more alienated.

Without proper planning and investment in transport, affordable housing, schools, etc, the changes could lead to a risk of division, scape-goating, racism etc, particularly in an economic downturn when there may be a battle for jobs.

In particular there is a need to unionise and fight for decent pay for migrant labour to combat the attempts to undermine wages and conditions of all London's workers.

London's economy was adversely affected by the bombs last summer, with a 30% drop in the vital areas of tourism, retail and transport. London's economy had already been growing more slowly than the UK as a whole, at around 1%.

A downturn in the British economy could have dramatic effects in the London service industries, potentially hitting tourism, catering, retail, communications etc, and even the finance industry itself.

The insecure, poverty-stricken existence of millions of Londoners, and especially the working poor, would be seriously threatened by a recession. However, London's economy will probably also be boosted for a time by the 2012 Olympic Games.

But even prior to a recession, we can expect further neo-liberal attacks - cuts, privatisation, assaults on pensions, driving down of wages and conditions. But as more threats loom on the horizon, there is a rumbling under the surface.

The support for socialists in the elections gives a tiny glimpse of what's possible. More people are asking questions, seeking out alternatives and entering into action. Our trade unions and communities need to fight for proper jobs, wages, homes and services for all, and to link this to standing community and trade union candidates against New Labour and campaigning for a new workers' party.

Barking

BNP's 'protest' fizzles out

AT BARKING and Dagenham council's first meeting since the local elections the newly elected councillors of the far-right British National Party (BNP) wanted to stamp their presence on proceedings.

At the press conference before the meeting group leader Richard Barnbrook and national leader Nick Griffin said that the BNP would move an amendment to the council's constitution "to outlaw discrimination against the indigenous majority."

However, when Barnbrook moved the amendment he was the only councillor to raise his hand in support. Afterwards he explained that the other BNP councillors didn't know that voting was done by show of hands and were looking for buzzers to press.

The BNP's performance was greeted with ribald laughter from the public gallery which was packed with anti-racists and trade unionists organised by the GMB.

The trade union intervention is a welcome development, but campaigning against the BNP's racist policies will not in itself halt the far right's growth in the area. A struggle needs to be launched against the economic and social policies of the Labour Party, which still runs the council.

It's these measures of cuts and privatisation that paved the way for the BNP with their potential for spreading racist division and attacks. The Socialist Party and International Socialist Resistance will be launching a campaign in defence of the NHS in the area over the next few weeks.

On 17 May an Afghan man who had fled the Taliban regime was stabbed and seriously injured outside Barking tube station by four white men shouting racist abuse. Recent history shows that where the BNP make gains, racist attacks often follow. A campaign offering a socialist alternative to the BNP's divisive and racist demagoguery is now an urgent need.

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