A Socialist GLC in Capitalist Britain?

Abstract

THE LEFT in England has rarely given a high priority to involvement in local government. There are honourable and even heroic exceptions, the most notable being Poplar in the 20s and Clay Cross in the 70s. In recent years, however, there has been a significant revival of interest and activity around local government issues on the Left. This is more than a localised phenomenon. In most of the major conurbations: London, Manchester, the West Midlands, Sheffield, Leeds, the younger generation of the Left of the Labour Party have made city or county councils their target for control, with varying degrees of success. Where the Left has achieved a majority, however precarious, it often has created new policy units within the town and country halls staffed by committed socialists sympathetic to the Labour group's programme. Employment policy has been in high priority for these Labour groups and in three authorities new, committed officers have been recruited to Economic Policy Units/groups/Depart-ments to elaborate and implement interventionist strategies to save and create jobs.

Both the councillors and officers involved in this work are embarking on an experiment which, though unlikely to make a significant dent on Thatcher's unemployment figures, could generate important ideas and examples for future socialist economic strategies. It is for this reason that the Capital and Class editorial collective believe it is important to monitor and to generate debates on these experiments from an early stage. We hope this will be useful both to the comrades involved and to the socialists engaged on other fronts. In this issue, we have produced an ‘interim report’ on the first five months of the GLC's Economic Policy Group. We hope this will be followed by reports on Sheffield and the West Midlands. At this stage we are presenting the policies and intentions of those in the GLC in their own terms rather than from a critical point of view. We feel this is the best way to start the discussion. The report is based on the Economic Policy Group's reports as agreed by the Industry and Employment Committee of the GLC (these are publically available from County Hall, London SE1) and on discussions with councillors and members of the EPG.