CAMDEN CUTS -Photo: ANDREW WIARD (Report Coordinating Committee.
whether he thought that the labour be made public?
not blindly accept such plans.' NHS will simply get worse.
the hospital." pital. It was bad enough when they you nad an acclaent you could get also be hit.
commented:
agus to ger treated. they coula nave The National Temperance Hospital in Camden, which is part of the University College Hospital Group, looks as if it will be one of the first to go under the axe of the London Red Weekly asked George Peters, a COHSE shop steward in the UCH group movement should demand that all plans 'Most definitely', he replied. All facts must be made public. The unions must Asked if he agreed with the campaign launched by the recent MCAPP Conference, he replied: "Absolutely. We need any action that can bring to the notice of the general public the real condition of the NHS. The cuts and bad pay conditions in the NHS will mean that patients suffer. If you do not keep pace with inflation with money for the service, the exception.
"The heads of department here have been asked to make economies. This also means cuts in statf and overtime in and future cuts.
SOCIALIST Every day brings new stories of the cuts in education. Last week was no authorities have abandoned either all or part of their nursery school building programme for 1975-76. And the Association of County Councils is calling for an increase in charges for school meals, perhaps by as much as 3p. If this is agreed, it will mean that school meal charges have increased by 50 per cent this year alone.
Local authority after local authority is drawing up plans to implement the cuts in education spending. Whist teachCIs ac orcu uie msc to ace ue oun of these attacks, they cannot hope to defeat these moves on their own. Only a campaign which bases itself on winning broad support in the labour movement can hope to succeed in figh ting existing The conference of Socialist Teachers, meeting on 25- 26 October, took this as a starting point for its discussions on fighting the cuts. It passed an 'action resolution against the cuts' which laid out a clear strategy based on the need for unity of workers both inside and outside the education sector against the implementation of the cuts'. The teachers ar me conrererce peran to nammer out the ways in which such a policy could be implemented, and declared their intention of working to establish representative education action committees based on delegates from workers organisations and other bodies of the labour movement.
CONTRAST The conference contrasted with the Rank & File conference on the cuts held carlier in the month, not only for its lack OI sectamansm aue mEanou2Eon - WilCi dominates the International Socialists' - but because those present faced seriously the task of how to combat the inadequate policies put forward by the trade union bureaucrac, Henry Clother, Secretary of the Concil for Educational Advance (CEA) The Education Secretary, Fred Mulley, reported that 25 local told the conference that his organisation weicomed the participation of the TUC in the fight against the cuts. However, like the NUT leadership, he sees the fight as a non-party issue and argued that if more money is needed for education, then perhaps it should come from in creased rates.
These policies are of course a recipe for disaster. The Tories are not interested in the education of the working class. They want to cut all public spending including education. They are not allies but enemies A proposal for increased rate charges is equaly wrong • Once again. like Hee ley's £6 wage limit, it means the working class would have to foot the bill for the present economic crisis.
DEFEND GAINS The CEA, however, does not always mirror these ideas. In some localities it has drawn together trade unionists and members of the labour movement who are concerned to organise a fight to def end the gains won by the working class in the field of education. At the moment it satisfies itself with parliamen tary Lobbying and rallies. Its effectiveness as a body fighting the cuts will be determined by whether it mobilises the forces which at the moment are only repres cheron te coweu Dy wrade unior OLICIS.
Some advances have already been made. In Birmingham, building workers trom UCAl and members of the ASTMS planning support for a demonstration against the cuts have won support from the traditionally right-wing Birmingham NUT. Such a move could encourage those in education to fight back, and by laying the basis for reposcilla uive caucauon acwon committee: help to take that fight to the rest of the Dunningnam working class The problem, however, is not - as the IS seem to think - just one of work ing class solidarity with teachers fighting the cuts. It is essential that the working class develops its own programme of demands to fight on. At the core of the Brescht nent Dack must De me demand for educational expenditure to be protected against inflation through a sliding scale of public expenditure.
The right-wing knows where to lay the blame for the crisis - on the leftwing teachers lack of 'discipline', and on "progressive education, Whilst no socialists should be uncritical of any aspect oi education, we snould recognis these attacks (on comprehensive education, the William Tyndale staff, Chris Searle, etc.) for what they are - ar attempt to cut off militant teachers from the working class, the only force which can resolve the present crisis facing the schools without returning to a privileged system of education for the few The unanimous decision by the Socialist Teachers conference to direct its efforts to developing action by the whole of ue class agaunst the attacks on educa tion represents a modest but valuable advance from the dead-end politics of Rank & File. The task now facing those who took part in the conference is to turn this resolution into reality The co-ordinating body elected from the conrerence nopes to distribute and pud licise the decisions of the conference Anyone wishing to be involved in the committee or requiring further infor mation should contact: B,Regan, 24 St. Agnes Close, London E.9.