Jane Kelly, a community activist in Southwark.
Thatcher's infamous statement, *There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families' seems, in a generation, to have been turned on its head by Tory ideologues. Cameron now claims that, 'my great passion is building the big society' in which power is devolved to the people! But is this just a clever way of saying the same thing as Thatcher. Like Marx, who argued that Hegel's idealism should be 'turned on its feet', so too socialists today need to put Cameron's idea of 'society' back onto its feet - firmly placed on the ground, which means active social solidarity and collective, democratic decision making at all levels.
In a situation where the ConDem government is hell bent on slashing public services and dismantling the welfare state few can fail to see the hidden agenda that is driving this concept. Even the Daily Telegraph was forced to claim that the Big Society is not a 'cover for cuts'.
However, it is clear when you look at the ideas Tory councils are coming up with - devolving power over services like verge-trimming and pothole-mending to parishes, for example - that they see it as a way of saving money, as though you can rely on volunteers to run pubs, post offices, transport, etc. Indeed Communities secretary Eric Pickles is open about the intention. He says, 'it is about getting more for less.' Nor will the promise that dormant bank accounts providing about £60 million to set the whole thing up be adequate. However it is dressed up the 'Big Society' will mean a rash of privatisations and putting the burden back onto individuals and the family.
As for the people who are going to give up their time to carry out these tasks, as Jonathon Freedland comments in the Guardian (20 July 2010) quoting Maurice Glasman, of the grassroots London Citizens movement, 'what people need if they are to take on some of the communal tasks envisaged by Cameron is a commitment to the place they live in and the time to get involved. And time means money. 'If you've got to do two jobs to survive, how are you going to have the time to be a school governor?"
Socialists have always understood that for working people to get involved in managing their communities requires time - a shorter working week - and democratic accountability.
In today's conditions, many voluntary organisations are fearful that existing projects will go to the wall as government cuts hit local authorities. They rely on these authorities for grants, alongside charitable foundations, which are the major part of third sector funding.
There are already eleven million volunteers in the UK - doing things without any help from Tory nonsense about a 'big society'. But the projects they volunteer in take up much of their spare time and cost money, both to set up and continue on an ongoing basis. Take Southwark Circle, a much-vaunted social network set up in May 2009 for older people, now copied in Hammersmith and Fulham and in Suffolk. It is a great success, but the cost of launching it was t750,000 over two years, money provided by the Department of Work and Pensions, Southwark Council and Sky Media. After two years it is supposed to run on membership fees - £10 a year plus, if you want help in the household, tokens of f12 for an hour's work. It is obvious that public or charitable money will be needed for it to continue beyond the initial investment period. How can it survive in the face of proposed drastic cuts?
All such projects need paid workers to organise them. Volunteers are essential and many enjoy and get a real sense of satisfaction from doing something useful, but they ARE volunteers. They come and go, commit themselves for six months or a year and so there is an ongoing need to recruit and train them - all of which takes time and money.
9 * Britain
The idea that such voluntary organisations will replace existing welfare and social services within the capitalist system, is a sick joke. It's true that many so-called 'third sector' projects have taken over what were once statutory services and do the same or similar work that government or local authorities used to provide, usually for less money. But many welfare services, such as child protection, cannot be replaced by well-meaning amateurs. The training for such work is crucial for its success and without adequate and experienced staff, can lead, as we have seen, to disastrous results, including the death of children.
However, while the welfare state, the NHS, social services, etc. and nationalised industries such as coal and the railways set up after World War Two, were huge gains for the working class, they were set up in a top down fashion which many working people found alienating. There was little or no real democracy either in the nationalised industries or in the institutions of the welfare state. What little there was, such as in local committees to oversee NHS provision, was increasingly reduced and eventually done away with by New Labour. And of course the state capitalist, nationalised industries - railways, energy services etc. were privatised under Thatcher.
The feeling that ordinary people have no control over these institutions within the national and local state has increased both under Labour as well as the Tories. People do feel alienated because they have no say in what happens. While we say no to any cuts or job losses, socialists have to wrest the grotesque ideas of Cameron on the "big society' and say yes, we do want more say in how things are provided, we want more local democracy and accountability, but properly funded services.
The self-activity of ordinary working people is how trade unions were set up, it is how co-operative societies were founded. So there is a potential contradiction in what Cameron has let loose, for the self- organisation of people is a foundation and prerequisite of socialism. We should organise to defend services in the community, turn his nonsense onto its feet and refuse to replace the jobs of public sector workers on the cheap. We will organise in our communities and workplaces for greater democracy and accountability and fight to create a society of greater equality and justice.
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