"It was a vote for a change in the way we do politics in the Labour Party and the country. Kinder, more inclusive. Bottom up, not top down. Real debate, not message discipline." Jeremy Corbyn
A few weeks ago a lot of people got very excited about Jeremy Corbyn winning the vote to be leader of the Labour Party, standing on an anti-austerity agenda. Thousands of people joined the Party nationally and hundreds joined in Salford. But what does this mean in reality?
Nationally, the Labour Party leadership is giving out all the right anti-austerity messages, and much more besides... "Let's be clear, austerity is not an economic necessity it is a political choice" John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor, said in his speech to the national conference yesterday, while, today, Jeremy Corbyn added: "The huge mandate I have been given by the 59% of our electorate who supported me is a mandate for change."
The problem is that while the Labour Party in opposition can say this on a national level, in cities like Salford and Manchester, and many places in the north, the Labour Party is staunchly in power. And has been imposing an austerity and corporate management agenda on its communities.
The Labour controlled Manchester City Council has been hounding homeless people through the courts, to the point where, tomorrow, a hearing starts that could end with people jailed for supporting homeless camps in one of the richest cities in England.
In Salford, all council housing has been privatised, with senior figures in the Labour Cabinet supporting a Vote Yes campaign last year to transfer remaining stock to Salix Homes. Salford Community Leisure has taken over all cultural and sporting assets and services. Adult Services has been almost completely `outsourced', while a growing number of schools have become academies at the Council's behest under its partnership Salford Academy Trust. Property, planning and highways was semi-privatised years ago via Urban Vision, Salford Council's joint venture enterprise with Capita and Galliford Try.
Meanwhile, Tory and ConDem Government forced cuts have been imposed - under the direction of Price Waterhouse Cooper - to the tune of over £100million with more to be announced in November. People from the community and trade unions who have opposed them – particularly parents of disabled children and adults – have been dismissed as `rent a crowd' and `extremists' by Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart (see here), with families forced to go through the courts to try and regain their services.
As this has been going on, property developers have swept into the profitable parts of Salford – near Manchester City Centre and Salford Quays – with planning applications for thousands of unaffordable properties and hand-wringing sob stories about how their schemes won't be `viable' if they had to pay for affordable housing and section 106.
The city lost over £19million and 830 affordable houses in the last twelve months alone in this process, with Labour councillors stating there's nothing they can do – despite the Minister of State for Planning and Housing saying that local authorities have "the freedom to set their own approach to assessing viability of new developments". `Social cleansing' has become almost a Salford community buzz word for the last ten years.
Industrial heritage has been trashed and historic buildings sold, while £millions have been poured into `prestige projects' like fountains, bridges, office blocks, Salford Reds rugby team (as they were known) and a stadium, amongst other things. Meanwhile the prospects for health, wellbeing and work are dire. Statistics show that in virtually every category in these areas Salford came out either worst or second worst in Greater Manchester (see here). Rich city, Labour-controlled Manchester was top in almost every poverty category where Salford finished second.
Most Labour Party politicians, pomped up by years in power and generous allowances, remain ridiculously distant from the community, with transparency almost non-existent. Witness the Greater Manchester devolution process that totally excluded the community and resulted in Labour politicians signing deals behind closed doors with George Osborne.
Salford Council's Freedom of Information practice was so bad it was actually one of only four organisations put on special monitoring by the Information Commissioner earlier this year; while its so-called `politically neutral' press office hasn't responded to any requests for information or quotes from the Salford Star for over two years. The democratic deficit in Labour controlled Salford is massive.
It's against this awful background, in contrast with what the Labour Party leadership is saying nationally, that the Salford Star tried to find out if anything was going to change under Corbyn's tutelage.
At the Labour Party conference today, Jeremy Corbyn said that his overwhelming mandate from those who elected him "was a vote for a change in the way we do politics in the Labour Party and the country. Kinder, more inclusive. Bottom up, not top down. Real debate, not message discipline."
Will this translate to Salford? A few weeks ago, the Salford Star sent out a survey to every single Labour councillor in the city. Incredibly, only one councillor answered – we understand that Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart, `advised' them not to respond. For the record, the one response was from Councillor Roger Jones...
Did you back Jeremy Corbyn? "No. I backed Andy Burnham who I know and who lives in the north of England"... Do you think Corbyn is taking the Labour Party in the right direction? "Yes. The Labour Party has always been a broad church but it has become too 'social democrat'. It is time for a more socialist programme."...Do you support him now as Leader of the Labour Party? "Yes. I am a Labour Party loyalist so I will try to support the new leader most of the time"...Under Corbyn's leadership do you think that the Salford Labour Party, and hence Salford Council, will change any of its current programmes? "I am not sure because it is too early to say. However the election of Jeremy will make a difference I am sure..."
Councillor Jones added "The Labour Party was set up in 1900 with an alliance of social democrats, socialists and trade unions (who at the time had strong links with the Liberal Party). I do not think the Labour Party belongs to one viewpoint - in other words it does not belong to Tony Blair or Jeremy Corbyn..."
The Star believes that only around ten Labour councillors in Salford, out of 52, actually backed Jeremy Corbyn (only four went public), together with Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey. Since he has been elected there has not been a word about it on Salford Labour's official Facebook page, nor any great wave of euphoria amongst its officials.
However, while the Labour Party doesn't give out local membership figures, we understand that there have been hundreds of new members signed up in Salford on the Corbyn expectancy ticket. Fervent anti-Bedroom Tax campaigner and Manchester People's Assembly founder, Maria Brabiner, who joined the Labour Party around two years ago, is one person who has been invigorated by the new leadership...
"We've got a leader who will stand up for the working class in this country" she says "I'm a Bedroom Tax campaigner, I'm anti cuts, people out there are so excited by this. It's fantastic. On the run up to that leadership election I noticed a sea of change and there's been an influx of new members our branch, 52 new members in Broughton, and I'd say it was because of Corbyn."
And will they have an effect on the Salford Labour Party's way of doing things?
"It has to, because of all the new members" she explains "The Labour Party is a movement, and the movement has put Jeremy Corbyn there...The Labour Party locally has got to start listening to the members. The real villains are George Osborne, David Cameron and Ian Duncan Smith, who are totally disgusting, but Labour has to start listening and looking out for working class people in Salford, to think before they act.
"They need to take another direction and listen" she adds "When Manchester sold its council housing a few years ago I thought it would never happen in Salford, that it would be the last bastion of council housing; I was shocked at that and spoke out against it. And where's the jobs? Look around Lower Broughton, there aren't any – you walk around Salford and it's totally alien."
Maria has shared a platform with Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, and to repeat his mantra of yesterday "austerity is not an economic necessity it is a political choice"...Will Salford Council change its choice? "I'd like to think so" she says "I'd love Salford Council to take a stand but..."
It's a huge `But'...
We asked the Labour Party nationally what effect Jeremy Corbyn's leadership will have on places like Salford, where the Party is in power. A spokesperson said "Councils are facing huge cuts to their budgets from the Tory Government. The responsibility for the impact of these cuts lies with the Government. Labour councils are working hard in difficult circumstances to protect the services that local people rely on. By working together councils will be able to demand more of central government."
It echoes Corbyn's sentiments when he spoke in Sheffield in the run-up to the leadership election... "I'm suggesting that local authorities have got to band together and be much more demanding of central government because local government is paying the price for this whole programme of austerity and it's going to affect everybody."
How are Labour councils going to `band together' and `demand more'? Are they ever going to stop imposing Tory austerity? Those in Salford's trade union and anti-cuts movements have certainly welcomed Corbyn's anointment...
"It's bringing the Labour Party and trade union movement back to where it should be rather than the often fractious place where it's been" says Steven North Salford City UNISON branch secretary "Within Salford I don't know... there's a lot of things to happen; we know for example there are likely to be further cuts voted through next year and I've not seen anything to suggest that isn't going to happen, although I have heard some words from Jeremy Corbyn talking about how councils should work together to oppose cuts. What that's going to mean practically we'll have to wait and see.
"Clearly as a trade union, if there are further cuts made, if there are further attacks on jobs, we will have to stand by our members first and foremost and defend them, and that may impact the extent to which we can work with Labour Party colleagues within the city" he adds "But we want to work closely together with them than we have done before and, hopefully, Jeremy Corbyn's victory will give the impetus for that to happen."
Salford Against The Cuts chair, Paul Gerrard, also welcomes Corbyn's election, calling it "a breath of fresh air"...
"He has opened up a debate - on austerity, on public ownership, on migration, on nuclear deterrence - such as we have not had for decades" he explains "That left wing policies are popular can be seen from the huge audiences he has attracted, unprecedented in recent years.
"He faces enormous challenges - a right wing party machine, leading figures in the party sulking at his victory and certainly briefing and probably conspiring against him" Gerrard adds "He will need to persuade the tens of thousands who have registered as supporters to become full members and play a full part, holding councillors and MP's who support cuts to account. Those local councillors and activists who voted for him on the basis of his anti austerity programme will need to think hard about the budget they set next February.
"A conference of all his supporters open to all - whether they are in the Labour Party or not - would be a huge step forward" he says "I'm in the Socialist Party. I don't think the Labour Party is a vehicle for socialist change but I genuinely wish Jeremy and his comrades well. There is a new mood and a desire for change that benefits the 99% not the 1%. A new anti austerity party is in the making. Whether it bears the name Labour Party remains to be seen."
And whether Corbyn has an effect on the way Salford Labour Party, and hence Salford Council, goes about its business also remains to be seen. Whatever the Labour Party says in opposition nationally, it's what it does locally that's going to matter to communities. At the moment, cities like Salford - where the Labour Party is already in power with huge majorities - are the elephants in Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity boudoir...
* For more in-depth details on all Salford issues mentioned see the latest print edition of the Salford Star - click here
For a full list of protests, parties, rallies and events during the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, including Jeremy Corbyn's meeting - click here
* see also Salford Star interview with MP Rebecca Long-Bailey before the last General Election - click here
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