Lancaster tenants face second 50p rent rise

ASK SKERTON tenant, Ray Wren, what he thinks of the Tories' Housing Finance Act and he says things which are almost unprintable.

Last weekend, along with other council tenants in Lancaster, Ray received notice of a 50p rent increase, the second within a year.

The continuous rises are dictated by the Tory Act to bring rents up to a so-called 'fair rent'.

The increase marked the final abandonment by Lancaster's Labour council of opposition to the Act. The initial 50p increase under the Act, last year, was brought in before it was made law by the Tories, who then controlled the city council.

BITTERNESS

Like other Labour Parties around the country, Labour in Lancaster swept into the council on a policy of declared opposition to the Tory Act.

But after their argument that existing rents were 'fair' under the Act, was rejected by the Heath government, Lancaster's Labour group voted along with the Tories to implement.

Only three Labour councillors voted to oppose the Act-Mike Lewthwaite, Bill Corr and Gordon Holding.

At his home on the Ridge estate, Mike Lewthwaite, a married man with two children, pointed to the anti-working class nature of the Act. Tories' production plans in crisis AFTER a year of stagnant sales and declining investment we are told manufacturing is on the verge of an upswing.

But the signs are that the 'expansion' has been jagged and hesitant. The chances are that the industry will be caught in the gales of the trade war before it has left port.

The bad omens come in the form of figures on stocks held by the manufacturing firms. Experts are now puzzling over the failure of stocks to swing rapidly upwards as a first signal of boom.

Hopes of a dramatic revival have been dashed by government figures published two days ago showing that the fall in stocks continued in the final three months of last year-though the drop was not as great as the £145m decrease during the first three months.

The laggardly recovery has been blamed on . two factors.

First since the 'big labour shake-out' between 1968-1971, manufacturing firms are more cost conscious and are not keen to bring the proportion of stocks to output to its pre-recession level.

But secondly the general uncertainty of future currency values, and the value of sterling in particular, has played havoc with the best-laid plans.

Firms in manufacturing buy the bulk of their raw materials and supplies that make up their stocks from abroad. The Toty devaluation of sterling since the Tories' forced 'float' of last July has hit them hard since this has the effect of increasing the price of all imports.

The desire to boost stocks through imports has therefore been curtailed somewhat.

But it is the rest of 1973 that gives Tory planners and industrialists the biggest headache. and thereisre impo up, stocks and theretore imports - will have to be increased enormously. The problem is the balance of payments. Already economists are forecasting Britain's debt on world trade will reach an astronomical £900m by the end of the year. Councillor explains retreat It would, he said, force up to 40 per cent of tenants on to the means test. In addition, a vast number of people on the borderline would have to juggle with their money in order to live.

Mrs Lewthwaite pointed out that many tenants would probably not claim rebates because of the means test.

It would be the higher-paid workers and the lower-middle class--not the wealthy peoplewho would pay for it all.

Mike Lewthwaite is particularly bitter about the way the decision to implement was taken.

'This Act is directly against the people the Labour Party is supposed to stand for , he said. 'If the whips were put on, it should have been the other way.' Before the council meeting, Mike Lewthwaite told me, he had been approached by no less than three councillors to remind him that the whips were on, although they knew his position on the issue.

VICTIMIZED

When he referred to the detrimental effect of the Tory Act on the problem of 'twilight areas' with more tenants being forced to look for cheaper accommodation, the mayor Mrs Henderson, interrupted to tell him he was 'out of order' for raising 'fresh information'. She said she had been 'very patient' with him!

"The Tory group leader sat opposite me, smug and smiling, Two things can happen. Either the pound can be allowed to drift downwards, so raising the price of goods abroad and choking off the demand for imports; or sterling can be supported by government intervention. But this would involve a deflation by the Tory Chancellor to halt the demand in the economy.

Either way manufacturing gets badly caught. If the pound keeps on falling, foreign stocks will too expensive and the boom will never come. If the pound is supported, the resulting deflationary pressures will crush hopes of a business revival.

Meanwhile international competition gets fiercer as countries SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE PUBLIC MEETINGS Liverpool Transform the SLL int e Revolutionary Par TUESDAY, APRIL 8.30 p.m.

Hotel James Street Liverpool 1 The econom world capita lisn Manchester WEDNESDAY, APRIL Angel pub, Chapel Str watching the Labour group do their job for them. Not one Tory needed to get up and speak.' Mike is an AUEW member. He was maintenance workers' convenor at Storeys, until sacked in 1971. A long strike by the maintenance men failed to win his reinstatement.

He is also a delegate PRINCIPLES He is particularly disappointed with a number of fellow trade unionists in the Labour group who had originally said they would oppose the Act, but who stayed silent at the council meeting and then voted for implementation.

'Although I expected some councillors to vote for the Act, I still expected a considerable number to oppose it,' he said.

Explaining his own opposition to the Act, he said he would argue that 'merely because a cabinet government has used parliament to carry out a policy in the interests of a small minority of capitalists is no reason why we should have to obey. If an Act is against the interests of the mass of the people, we should resist it. The only way we had to resist this Act was to refuse to implement it.' He went on: 'If you are faced with the question of whether to implement something fundamentally against the interests of the people you represent, you have like Japan and Germany look for new markets for goods now shut out of America by tariff walls.

Britain's ailing manufacturing industry simply will not be able to withstand such competition.

An answer might be to compensate for extra imports by exporting more. But this takes the hard-pressed industrialist to square one.

To export more he needs to increase output, to increase output he needs more stocks, if he buys more stocks he plunges the economy deeper into the red.

The dilemma is a general one facing the shaky British economy. In the past expansion has always immediately spilled over into SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE MEETING to make a decision. Are you going to back down, just because people on your "own side" want you to back down?

'If your beliefs are really deep, you oppose, right down the line.

'People who say they have socialist beliefs have got to ask themselves, what are they in the business for? For status, or personal gratification ... or to fight for what you believe in?

'If they are prepared to compromise, they could never have really held principles in the first place.' And Mike warned: 'If you agree to implement all reactionary legislation by compromises, then the Tories can have implemented any legislation they want.' So far as he was concerned, the Act was a matter touching basic principles. It represented the sort of profit system in land and property which Labour was supposed to be against.

NO LEAD I had to ask the question, myself, of what my motivations were for being on the council.

'You can't compromise over a basic question of the shelter over a person's head.' Both Mike Lewthwaite and Bill Corr blame the Labour Party leadership for failing to give a lead in the struggle against the rents Act.

Asked why, in his opinion, so many Labour councils backed down over the Act, Mike Lewthwaite replied:

'I would blame the Labour Party. It has never taken the lead.' imports, and a balance-of-payments crisis has been the result. Hence the minor cycle of boom and recession.

But each time the curves connecting 'slump' to 'boom' have become more violent. This time the situation is unprecedented.

Expansion has not even begun and the debts have begun to pile up. But this domestic sickness is insolubly linked to the international economic crisis. The world currency system is in total chaos and the basis of international credit, which supports world trade, irrevocably undermined.

The capitalist nations have launched a trade war - Britain staggers forward like a dying man and the 'boom' in manufacturing may well be the killer blow.

SLL LECTURE

SERIES The revolutionary and the history British working class HOLLOWAY: 8 p.m. Co-or Road. 'Forwe ary Party'.

All Trades Unions Allianc MEETINGS LEWISHAM: Monday April 9, p.m. Deptford Engineers ClI New Cross Road (opp. N Cross Tube). 'Build Councils Action. Force the Tories Resign'.

WANDSWORTH: Monday April 9, 8 p.m. 'Kings Arms', High Street, SW18. 'TUC must call a General Strike'.

WATFORD: Monday April 9, 8 p.m. Trade Union Hall, Watford Road, nr Watford Station. 'The fight against Stalinism'.

CAMDEN: Tuesday April 10, 8 p.m. 'Prince Albert', Wharfedale Road, Kings X. 'The TUC must call a General Strike'.

CLAPHAM: Tuesday April 10, 8 p.m. Small Hall, Clapham Manor bains. Baths. The TUC must call SW4. a General Strike to make the Tories resign'.

ELLESMERE PORT: Tuesday, April 10, 7 p.m. Grosvenor Hotel, Ellesmere Port. 'Build the revolutionary party Defend basic COVENTRY: Tuesday, April 10, 7.30 p.m. Elastic Inn, Cox Street. 'VAT-the new attack on the working class. Fight rising prices. Force the Tories to resign.' HARROW: Tuesday April 10, 8 p.m. Labour Hall, Harrow Wealdstone. The TUC must call a General Strike'.

HACKNEY: Wednesday April 11, 8 p.m. Parlour Room, Central Hall, opp. Town Hall, Mare Street. 'The TUC must call a General Strike to make the Tories resign'.

CROYDON: Thursday April 12, 8 p.m. Ruskin House, Coombe Road, Croydon. 'The fight against Stalinism'.

FULHAM: Thursday April 12, 8 p.m. 'The Swan', Fulham Broadway. 'Forward to the Revolutionary Party'.

BERMONDSEY: Thursday April 12, 8 p.m. 'Havelock Arms'. ,, Balaclava Street, off Southwark Park Road. 'Build Councils of Action. Make the Tories Resign'.

WILLESDEN: Thursday April 12, an order: " Preparation tor 8 p.m. Labour and Trades and Order' Preparation for dictatorship'.

Thursday April 12, Hall, Seven Si sters 'd to the Revoll SLL LECTURE SERIES Socialist Revolu Middleton