(en) Britain, AFed Scotland, Good beginning for Edinburgh Bedroom Tax federation

Earlier today I was at an Edinburgh and Lothian meeting against the Bedroom Tax which 
aimed to launch a coalition of all the local groups and campaigns currently existing and 
to encourage groups in new areas. ---- Like a lot of these sort of meetings there was a 
good bit of repetition and I was really gasping for a cup of tea by the end of it. 
Overall, though, I thought it had a really positive outcome. ---- The meeting agreed that 
decision-making power should be in the hands of local groups and that the co-ordination 
between them should be done through recallable delegates. ---- Instead of handing over 
power to some committee or media personality, by stressing this organising principle we 
should have a genuinely grassroots federation and campaign, controlled by ordinary folk ? 
and I hope those directly affected by the tax will become particularly involved.

This was argued for by a number of anarchists and other activists, but it seemed that most 
people present were in favour anyway. I like to think this shows that we have a 
reasonably good culture in the Edinburgh left, and that bottom-up ideas are becoming more 
widespread. At the same time, grassroots organising also allows competing factions to 
co-operate in the first place.

The meeting, as I understand it, was meant to be for group delegates and observers but 
this could have been clearer and hopefully there won?t be any confusion at the next real 
federation meeting.

There were differences in perspective between those who put more emphasis on engaging in a 
dialogue with politicians and those more emphatically in favour of no compromise and 
direct action, like anarchists. In the end it seemed like the meeting agreed that 
different tactics could be pursued by different groups or individuals. Also, to be fair, 
no-one was arguing against a direct action approach.

Another outcome was that local groups alone will send delegates to the first Scottish 
Anti-Bedroom Tax Conference on the 27th April, instead of another proposal that the 
meeting today will also send four delegates. This was the right decision. Today?s 
meeting was only meant to co-ordinate local groups and potential groups, and they hadn?t 
had a chance to discuss the national conference themselves.

The question, though, is what will the national conference amount to? This was called by 
the West of Scotland Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation, which I?ve been critical of in the past 
for putting Tommy Sheridan onto it?s ?interim committee? which he subsequently resigned 
from. How are they organised now and how many local groups do they have? Will there be a 
clash between the directly democratic structure of the Edinburgh groups and that of the 
Glasgow federation(s)?

A delegate from the West of Scotland federation was present at today?s meeting and talked 
far too much about politicians? backing and fighting the Tories. We need an independent 
campaign that?s critical of all politicians and doesn?t just slide into an easy 
anti-Toryism. At Westminster, Labour is in favour of the tax, and in Holyrood, the SNP 
could do a lot more to ensure that people won?t be evicted. In short, just like we don?t 
want to give up control to committees neither should we give it to any politician or union 
bureaucrat.

The meeting in Edinburgh was only a first step towards a wider federation organised from 
below. There?s a lot of work to be done to set up new groups and to create a campaign 
that has effective tactics and gets results. We also need to build on this, and argue for 
recallable delegates and autonomous local groups across Scotland.

If you?re in the Edinburgh and Lothians area, get involved in your local anti-cuts group. 
You can find details on the Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Alliance site.

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* Anarchist Federation (AFed) Scotland is the Scottish groups and members affiliated to 
the Anarchist Federation of Britain.

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