Rent Strike, St. Pancras 1960 by Dave Burn (Pluto Press, 15p)
The strength of this pamphlet is that it is the most comprehensive and carefully documented account of the 1960 St. Pancras rent strike avalable, Its account of this long struggle provides inspiring glimpses of the militancy and organising ability of the working class in action: "The UTA (St. Pancras Borough Council United Tenants Association) organisation was thoroughgoing and effective. Committees were set up in every blook and every week some 200 tenants would meet, representing all the associations in the borough. These meetings decided UTA policy, and in this sense the tenants themselves were the real leadership. Masses of people were involved on a day-to-day basis in keeping the struggle going. At one stage the UTA were putting out leaflets three times a week..." When the eviction order expired for two tenants: "...well constructed barricades had gone up. both at Kennistoun House and Silverdale. Don Cook had 12 pianos in his flat barricading various doors, as well as other old furniture and doors put against windows, and barbed wire and an old bedstead on the roof to diseourage bailiffs from entering that way. There were also plans for human barricades; tenants and trade unionists were to be involved in a 24-hour picket of both flats so that in an eviction attempt, defence and warning could be simultaneous. Preparations were made... for a bell to be rung and rockets fired if the bailiffs arrived...workers all over the borough were prepared te down tools and rush to the assistance of the two beleaguered tenants. An intercom system was set up... "Around five o'clock in the morning...bailiffs supported by about 800 police attacked...the pickets put up a two hour defence against the bailiffs and the police; oil was poured over them as they tried to get up the stairs...and one... was seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital; but the great mass of tenants were unable to reach the flats to defend Don Cook due to the large numbers of police and mounted police who had cordoned off the block with lines at least three deep." "Arthur Rowe and his son held out for about an hour, but eventually bailiffs smashed a hole in a four and half inch brick wall to get in". POLITICAL LESSONS Militants who read this pamphlet will want to draw out to the full the political lessons of such a fierce struggle, This the pamphlet does only partially. The role of the Labour Party both at a national and local level in attacking and sabotaging the struggle of the tenants, is clearly shown; what is not dealt with in sufficient detail is the role played by the Communist Party and the way the tenants were defeated. The pamphlet begins to take up these questions by pointing out that the Communist Party (which was in the leadership of this struggle) was hampered by its electoralist strategy: "once the direct action had turned into the anti-eviction struggle, and the police had started to attack demonstrations, the Communist Party began to see direct action as adventurism and their members advised caution in private meetings, while still saying publicly that the struggle must continue.
And after the evictions took place, the Communist Party put forward a different method of *struggle for the tenants. As Don Cook expl ained the new policy: "Our position has altered in the light of previous experience. We cannot see other tenants thrown out on to the streets... We must work to see there is a defeat for the Tories in the coming LCC elections and above all we have got to work for the return of a Labour council next year. We are not withdrawing from the battle. We are going to fight in a different way."
A Labour council was indeed elected, but as the law relating to council rents was interpreted and enforceable by the District Auditor through surcharges on councillors, the council (just like Camden council today) could do nothing to change the hated rent scheme. TURNING POINT Clearly the Communist Party failed to lead the tenants to victory; but how did this happen? Communist Party members, unlike some Labour councillors who paid their rent throughout the struggle, were fully involved in building the struggle at every stage. Don Cook, one of those who physically fought eviction, was in the Communist Party. Such genuine working class militants (with or without parliamentarist illusions) do not after ten months of struggle suddenly make a conscious decision to "sell out" The crucial turning point came when the 800 police and bailiffs had evicted Cook and Rowe. Clearly, when either side in a struggle decides to raise the level of violence as the state did dramatically against the tenants, then what becomes decisive is the ability of the opponent to respond meaningfully to this new level of attack. One possible way forward for the tenants after the evictions would have been for the tenants to reinstate Cook and Rowe in their flats. This would have rallied together the tenants around a meaningful and very practical response to the evictions. It would also have shown the trade union movement, sections of which were beginning to support the tenants, that they were deadly serious about denying the right of the state to impose the new rent scheme. After the evictions this course of action was indeed supported by some of the tenants, but the Communist Party militants involved, including Don Cook, tragically failed to understand this and instead