SOCIALISM is not going to be achieved by Labour controlling local authorities-- at least it is not going to be achieved all the time there is a vicious Tory government determined to make sure progressive Labour authorities achieve nothing.

It is therefore necessary to go back to basics and ask what we can achieve in this hostile environment.

In my view we can use the local authority to promote Labour. The authority has a vast budget (something over £100m) and by diverting only a small amount of this to publicity, it would be possible to have a significant impact in our community.

The manifesto conference has committed us to considering opening a printing works, getting a Left Wing newspaper going locally and aiding video production. As a professional journalist I feel that I could play a vital role in turning a Labour council into a publicity using body.

But on a more fundamental basis I am deeply pessimistic about what I or any other person could achieve as a councillor. It seems to me that the decision by the manifesto conference to agree to increasing rates, has made it more or less impossible for the next Labour council to achieve anything.

We all agree that the Tories by neglect and by spite have allowed services to be whittled away. It will take a massive capital injection to restore services damaged by neglect. Yet the whole Government attack on local authorities has been directed against allowing authorities to increase rates. The Tories may be vicious but they are not stupid.

Thanks to rate capping grants from central government decrease as rates increase. This means that in Waltham Forest rates would have to go up massively to get just a small increase in revenue.

But rates are regressive tax. This means that they hurt the poor most and help the rich most. The rich may earn four or five times as much as the poor but they don't pay four or five times as much rates. This means they get the same services for a lower proportion of their income.

I am totally opposed to regressive taxes and in favour of progressive taxes like income tax. Income tax hurts the rich most and the poor least.

My belief is that instead of permanently cutting services or increasing rates we should pick strategic services and suspend them.

If we, for example, suspended a school in Chingford for a month this would cause no redundancies but it would clearly demonstrate the practical impact of Tory policies.

At the moment the public either believe we are crying wolf about Tory cuts or do not understand the services that local authorities provide-- certainly there is no uprising about Government cuts.

But if you close down a school and explain why you are going it you will confront people with reality. You will s1987 sweeping under the carpet the devastating effects of Tory policies-- for at the moment Labour authorities who work their guts out to reduce the impact of Tory policies are no more and no less than agents for the Tories.

It has been said that this policy would not work because local authority services are labour intensive. If you do not sack people you do not save money, the people who argue this way say. In fact this is not the case.

For a start the local health authority adopted a similar policy at Whipps Cross Hospital-- and no local authority service is more labour intensive than a hospital.

I ask you to give me one chance to fight Forest. I believe that as one of the most experienced local election campaigners and I hope election organiser in 1986, I can fight an energetic and perhaps even successful campaign. If the Tories are still doing badly in 86 (as I believe they will be) and if the Social Democrats rather than the Liberals stand in Forest then we can win. Perhaps not all three places but at least one or two.

It is therefore vitally important that we elect people willing and able to dedicate a vast amount of time to the campaign. I am lucky enough to have a job that will allow me to do that and I certainly am willing to put in the effort.

CV Member of the NUJ 12 years. Secretary NE London branch, FoC Acton Gazette during a strike which closed down King & Hutchings for about three weeks in 1978 closing 21 titles including the International Herald Tribune, Jewish Chronicle for the first time in its 147 year history and to be non sectarian Al Arab-- an Arab daily. Arrested during provincial newspapers strike of 1979. Deputy FoC Thomson Magazines, vice chair Surrey Magazine, one of the biggest branches in the union, treasurer of MABIC. Labour, Secretary Leyton CLP 81-83, Labour Party conference delegate 83, London Regional delegates meeting delegate 84, GMC member for this branch for three years during which I only missed one meeting and then I was abroad, member of Waltham Forest Council Group in 83, secretary Forest branch 84/85, currently LGC member for the branch.