London local election campaign
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As well as the Euroelections, we will be contesting 4 wards in the London borough elections, 3 in Lambeth and 1 in Islington. So we are activating our London elections blog here:
Collecting the signatures to stand The electoral register which will be used for the elections (European and local) on 22 May became available yesterday. We picked up copies for the three wards we will be contesting in Lambeth and began collecting the signatures of local electors to be able to stand (ten per ward). We got them for one ward (Larkhall), started on another (Ferndale) and will get them for Clapham Town on Friday. The nominations papers can’t be handed in till after 14 April but it’s as well to get this chore over as soon as possible.One street seemed to have a high level of political understanding. On being told that we were socialists the person understood straightaway that we were not the Labour Party. So did the next person who replied “no thanks, I’m a Labourist”. It is true that this particular street is one of those we have leafletted regularly since the last local elections in 2010. Another person referred to Farage as “Forage”, not that UKIP is not going to find many votes in this area. We don’t know whether they will be contesting this ward (Larkhall) but they will be contesting Ferndale where their candidate will be Elizabeth Jones who we debated against last Wednesday at our premises in 52 Clapham High Street and who lives in the ward.
Trotskyist interventionWe now know some of the others who will be standing in the wards we are contesting. The crypto-trotskyists of TUSC have announced that they will standing candidates in Lambeth in the Bishops, Ferndale, Herne Hill, Larkhall, Oval, Princes and Vassall wards.Their candidate in Ferndale will be James Ivens and in Larkhall Alexander Betteridge. They will be urging a vote for No2EU in the European Parliament elections that will be held the same day. In stark contrast our leaflet will be advocating a write-in vote for World Socialism.
Nominations for Lambeth accepted The nominations for our 3 candidates standing in Lambeth were handed in at Lambeth Town Hall yesterday and have been accepted. They were for:Oliver Bond (Clapham Town ward) Adam Buick (Larkhall ward) Danny Lambert (Ferndale ward) We won’t know for definite who the other candidates are until nominations close at 4pm on Thursday 24 April, but it is already fairly certain that Labour, the LibDems, Tories, Greens, UKIP and (except in Clapham Town) TUSC will be standing. It remains to be seen if there will be any other parties (the English Democrats have stood in Lambeth before) or Independents.
Good luck to all comrades, in local and Euro elections. We need, as a party that espouses Socialism through the ballot box, to keep a continued presence at election time. As well as contesting, we need to use local newspaper letters pages, to get our case across, something that we have been doing in Seaham for 25 years.I wish I was more physically able to offer personal support but that time has sadly, passed. My best wishes to you all regardless. Your comrade, Steve Colborn.
Statement of persons nominated These for Lambeth can be found here. We’re standing in Clapham Town, Ferndale and Larkhall wards. As you’ll see, it’s us and the usual suspects (Labour, Tory, Liberal, Greens and newcomers UKIP) plus, in Ferndale and Larkhall, TUSC. Those for Junction ward in Islington can be found here. Same usual suspects except without UKIP (perhaps because they consider it too Irish, but then they’ve no chance in Lambeth either). No BNP either as there was in the by-election last year.
The leaflet we will be distributing door-to-door and at literature stalls (outside Head Office every Saturday from 3 May at 12 noon till voting day on 22 May) can be seen here:http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/our-election-leaflet.html
The leaflet can be found in a more readable form via this forum here:https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1.0-9/10269596_10201919685939150_2797982510006414704_n.jpg
The lively local online paper, the Brixtonblog, is organising a hustings next Tuesday 13 May of all the parties putting up candidates for Lambeth council. Details can be found here:http://www.brixtonblog.com/vote-brixton-your-chance-to-quiz-council-candidates/22274 They have also offered parties standing in the 5 Brixton wards (Brixton Hill, Tulse Hill, Herne Hill, Coldharbour Lane, and Ferndale) space on their blog for a 300 word statement. We have already sent ours off.Meanwhile leafletting of the three wards we are contesting is continuing. So far we must have distributed some 3000 of the 9500 allocated for this (the other 2500 of the 12,000 printed has been allocated for Islington Junction ward).
Brixton hustings Vote Brixton: Your chance to quiz council candidatesCandidates from all political parties will be grilled by the public at a Brixton Blog hustings event next week.Ahead of this month’s local elections, councillors and would-be councillors from across the political spectrum will sit on a Brixton Blog panel to face questions about what they would do if they were elected.The event is free to attend and you’ll be able to meet the people vying for your vote.The event will be held upstairs at the POW (Prince of Wales) on the corner of Coldharbour Lane and Brixton Road, at 7pm on Tuesday 13th May. (tomorrow) A stone’s throw from Brixton tube on the Victoria line and diagonally opposite the Town Hall.Our candidate Danny Lambert will be there.
Letter printed The letter belwo has been printed in this week’s Islington Tribune and the Islington Gazette Dear Friend, In the Islington local elections, we have a choice between the Labour Party (who will cry as they cut), the Tory Party (who will laugh as they cut) or the Liberal Democrats (who will just wet themselves while choosing whether to laugh or cry). Or you can vote for the Green Party, who promise not to cut, but will end up having to anyway because austerity is beyond their control. Any party in government, whether local or national is constrained by the power and interests of them as own the world. The power of private property. So long as the world is owned by a tiny minority, it will be run in their interests, rather than that of the majority. We cannot have functional democracy until we have common ownership of the whole world’s wealth. The Socialist Party is contesting Junction Ward making no promises. We will do nothing for you. It is the people who vote for us who would be making the promise: to campaign and build for common ownership. Voting for the Socialist Party is saying we refuse to be governed or dragged into implementing the policy of the wealthy. Politics as normal is over. A vote for the Socialist Party is a revolt. We campaign for nothing short of the abolition of the wages system and the common and democratic ownership of the wealth of the world. Your for World Socialism, Bill Martin (Socialist Party Candidate, Junction Ward).
What happened at the Brixton hustings60 Lambeth residents or political activists attended the Brixton Blog hustings in a room upstairs of the pub ‘Prince of Wales’ in Brixton on Tuesday evening. The most surprising thing of the evening was the appearance as the Labour Party representative, of Lib Peck, the Leader of Lambeth Council. The Lib Dem rep was also a councillor from Streatham.The increasingly ‘notorious’ Elizabeth Jones was there representing UKIP. Her appearance there and her statements drew lots of boos, hisses, haranguing and cries of racism from the assorted Trotskyites (SWP, SPEW) and Leftists (Left Unity were there but not standing candidates in the elections) in the room. She mentioned Alan Bennett but there were no protests… but when she mentioned ‘Saint’ Bob Crow and the ‘No2EU’ campaign that was too much for TUSC/RMT/SPEW activists!The venom in the room was directed mainly at Lib Peck and Lambeth Labour Council with UKIP coming in second. The questions were about cuts to libraries, the poor performance of Lambeth Council’s ‘arms length’ housing organisation ‘Lambeth Living’, pavements, car pollution in Brixton, social exclusion, immigration, Lambeth College lecturers strike. It was dealing with the symptoms and not the cause which is capitalism. The hustings saw the debut of the Pirate Party who advocated libertarianism and also transparency of council meetings.All the speakers apart from Danny Lambert, our party representative, were clearly mesmerised with capitalism and could not see beyond its existence and all believed if they were in power they could tweak it and it would be a positive and good thing for people. Steve Nally for TUSC, sponsored by Trots SPEW and SWP and RMT trade union, would oppose all cuts and declare ‘illegal’ budgets, the usual activist reformist nonsense with no mention that the working class have the power to emancipate themselves, abolish capitalism and transform society to a socialist society of production to meet human needs and democratic control.Danny put forward the Socialist case, he was on good form, and got a good reception from the assorted Leftists in the room although they would probably still vote TUSC or Green. Afterwards a man came up to Danny to say how much he enjoyed what Danny had to say but it turned out he was a Green Party candidate from another part of London…Steve C
Well done Danny. If we keep reiterating the Socialist message, we will eventual crack the thick resinous skull of "pro-Capitalist" sentiment.I was talking to a guy I've known for a while, in Deneside WMC tonight and he informed me that, for all the years of the existence of The SPGB, we hadn't got very near reaching our goal. I informed him, first of all, that this goal, was not "for" the SPGB but in the best interests of "all" workers! We would blissfully talk our way into non-existence, to help bring about a society, based on production for use, not profit. I also told him, that, with every different variant the "Pro-Capitalist" parties had tried to make Capitalism work, they were even farther away than the SPGB in achieving their aims. Moreover, we did not have the benefit of the hundreds of billions spent on "pro-Capitalist" education, that inculcates kids in the ethos of this system! Nor did we control Newspapers, TV and Radio stations, whose role is to back up the "Ideological Hegemony" of the Capitalist Class! Don't worry, I explained what Ideological Hegemony is and meant. Steve Colborn.
The Brixtonblog have now published their own report of the hustings last Tuesday. It's a good report that accurately records what our representative said when he gave the socialist position on the various issues raised (housing, lecturers' strike, democracy, immigration and cuts).
Too many leaflets? We finished leafleting Clapham Town ward on Friday. Larkhall has been done too and Ferndale is nearly finished but at the moment it looks as if we could have over a thousand left. We had 12000 printed, with 2500 for Junction ward in Islington and 9500 for the 3 Lambeth wards, i.e 3100 or so each. This was based on our experience of the by-elections we contested last year. We may still be able to get the figure down by revisiting blocs we left out because we couldn’t gain access or streets which were difficult. We’ve also got a literature stall outside 52 Clapham High St later today (from noon). And we could leaflet the 4 tube stations in the area (Clapham North, Clapham Common, Stockwell and Brixton). We’ll see. Labour seem to be putting a lot of effort into holding Clapham Town with two glossy leaflets and more posters than usual. In fact they seem to be up to the old Labour Council trick of putting up some of their posters in empty council-owned houses. The only other posters are those for the Green Party in nearly every house in Rectory Gardens. Not surprising since the residents of this car-free street with insecure tenancies are threatened with eviction by the Labour council so that the area can be handed over to property developers to build upmarket flats (with a few “affordable” ones facing the dustbin area thrown in).
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