Our 2026 local election campaign in London

[imposs1904]

Wow.

This sort of stuff usually only happens with newly elected Reform councillors. I wonder if the electorate will ‘punish’ them for putting them through the election circus again so soon after the last one?

• This reply was modified 4 days, 12 hours ago by imposs1904.

[Moo]

ALB – “if you want reforms you might as well vote for a party that has a chance of getting elected and so in a position to implement some.”

The state will only implement reforms that benefit the working class (to a certain extent) if it can afford to do so (if the economy is booming, which it isn’t).

Also, I wonder how many people voted for us because they thought we were SPEW.

[james19]

BBC News. Reports that there are going to be by-elections, Lambeth x 2

The BBC article states that by-elections may cost up to £250,000. This is thoroughly distasteful bringing up the cost of running a democracy.
As an aside. The BBC has announced a savings plan of £600m with around 2,000 jobs losses. Perhaps the author of the article should be culled. Karma

Green by-elections may cost up to £250,000 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cze2j7wjw0no

[ALB]

One of the newly-elected Green councillors is Michael Chessum who describes himself as a “socialist writer and activist”. He is the author of a book called This is Only the Beginning. The Making of a New Left, From Anti-Austerity to the Fall of Corbyn.

In this Lambeth Green Party election video on Instagram he says (he’s the last one on):

“We’ll fight to reverse austerity, empowering workers and the community we serve.”

(https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXuCReljFxt/ )

Of course fighting to reverse austerity is not the same as actually reversing it. In fact in his book he describes the fight to reverse austerity in the period 2010-15 and writes of “the defeat of the anti-austerity movement” (p. 104). He attributes this to the movement not having an effective political expression because the Labour Party and the TUC didn’t take up the fight. Presumably he now thinks that the Green Party will. He doesn’t consider the possibility that “austerity” is necessary and even built in under capitalism and that’s why the movement against it failed.

In his statement last June announcing that he was joining the Green Party he wrote:

“In the coming years, there will be mass movements against austerity and the wider policy of the Labour government. The Greens’ strong internal democracy will be a boon, allowing movements to shape and own the Greens from the bottom up. Social and industrial struggle must be viewed as a primary method for doing politics. Without a mobilised local community, left wing councillors will be fighting a losing battle. Without a mass movement engaged in something other than electioneering, electoral projects lack a legacy.” (https://leftfootforward.org/2025/06/michael-chessum-why-im-joining-the-green-party/)

It looks as if we are going to have a ring-side seat, from Head Office in Lambeth, to see an attempt to mobilise “the local community” here “to fight to reverse austerity”.

Mind you, the first thing Councillor Chessum will have to do is to convince his fellow Green councillors who don’t regard themselves as “socialists” to go along with this. Otherwise, on his own admission, he will be fighting a losing battle. Not that he won’t be anyway.

[Author]

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