Cardiff West Socialist Party met to discuss the lessons of Liverpool city Councillor from 1983--87 under the control of Militant. Comrade AP from The Cardiff East branch paid us a welcome visit to lead the discussion on this heroic struggle and his experiences of it as a Cardiff Militant.
It is of course a discussion I Have heard several times before but one that always interests me and inspires me. Various aspects of the struggle were discussed including all of the facilities the council proived to the community the job creation and the implementation of a minimum wage of £6 an hour (£8 an hour today) and how they kept to every manifesto pledge despite attacks fromthe goernment constantly.
We also discussed several negative aspects of the period such as the unfortunate attitude the Socialist Workers Party took and how their approach led them to being chased out of the city when they tried to sell their paper. It was generally agreed that it was a mistake to issue the reduntacy notices.
There was also a very interesting and healthy debate over whether it would have been correct to stand independantly as Militant Labour once we had been barred fro doing so by the politically bankrupt Labour leadership of Kinnock. A very interesting discussion indeed, one which continued informally after the meeting and spilled over into the tactical question of when it was correct to leave the labour party.
All these topics of course vitally in the current situation where various councils are implementing huge cuts, including Cardiff council, in which the lib dems have proposed £21million in cuts. Important again because of the approach we take inside a broad formation which with any luck we will be doing in the near future.
A truly inspiring discussion, one that has inspired me to re-read the book, the only problem is that I have leant it to a comrade who has moved away :( for more information about the struggle i recommend you read the book Liverpool A city that dared to fight
