Our Euroelection campaign
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Here from the BBC’s site is the full list of parties and their candidates standing in the South East Region. Apart from our candidates I don’t suppose anyone here will recognise anyone except Farage and maybe Daniel Hannan, the Tory lead candidate and outgoing MEP and loud-mouthed Brexiteer. Larry Sanders on the Green Party list is Bernie’s elder brother. We met him when we stood in the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency in the 2015 General Election and he was the Green Party candidate. He advocated many of the things we do, as e.g. on education, but thought (as the Greens do) that these could be achieved under capitalism.
Please note that the street stall in Canterbury will now be on Saturday, 18 May from 12noon and not on the 11th as previously stated.
OK, here’s the latest.
Hustings
Monday 13 May 7pm-9pm. Banbury Town Hall, 1 Bridge St, Banbury OX16 5QB. Mike Foster.
Wednesday 15 May 7pm to 9pm. Chesham (Bucks). Andy Thomas or Adam Buick. Further details to follow.
Tuesday 21 May 7pm-8.30pm. Lyndhurst (New Forest, Hants). Brockenhurst Village Hall, Highwood Road, off Sway Rd, SO42 7RY. Stephen Harper.
There will also be a big one in Oxford at a date to be fixed. Mike Foster.
West London Branch will be doing a stall in Reading on Saturday 18 May. Precise location and time to be confirmed.
Kent & Sussex Branch will be doing a stall in Canterbury, also on Saturday 18 May from 12noon.
A request was received yesterday from the Hastings Independent newspaper for information about the Party’s stance on Brexit. Here are extracts from our lengthy response:
The furore surrounding Brexit reveals two things. The British capitalist class is deeply split as regards to their relationship with the EU. The larger employers with greater global connections tend to favour staying in the customs union and the single market, whereas smaller businesses that rely mainly on the UK market and resent EU red tape prefer to leave the EU.
Workers are encouraged to take sides in what is essentially a dispute between employers, as to how they manage their trading relationships. Unfortunately, this has reinforced divisions within the working class – between ‘native’ workers and immigrant workers; between Remain supporting workers who tend to be more affluent and Leave supporters, who, in large part, come from poorer areas.
Brexit is a distraction for British workers. Whether the UK is in or out of the EU, workers will continue to experience the problems of wage or salary employment. They should unite for socialism, a global, classless, moneyless society of common ownership.
Manifesto
185k copies of our manifesto were delivered today for insertion into the South edition of the i newspaper. A further 5k have arrived at Head Office, some of which have already been machine folded for greater ease of distribution.
Disappointing turnout at the OCC meeting last night on the options, for socialists, of how to vote in the Euroelections. The speaker discussed 4 and mentioned a fifth: Brexit Party (for those who saw it as important for political democracy that the result of a referendum should be respected), spoiling the ballot paper (for those who saw the issue as trivial and the election as meaningless), the SPGB (for those who want to affirm that they wanted socialism), or the Labour Party (to set down a marker for a win in the next general election). The fifth would be to vote Green (for those who thought it was better for the working class if the UK stayed in the EU). He himself favoured a vote for the Labour Party on the grounds that, led by people like Corbyn and McDonnell, this would be the most favourable situation ever to show whether (or not) a Labour government could start out on the road to socialism.
The chairman said he would vote for the SPGB. Mike, for us, refuted the view that the Labour Party had anything to with socialism or that a Corbyn Labour government could or would favour progress towards socialism. Others in the audience were sceptical about this too but still intended voting Labour.
The date and details of the big hustings, organised by the European Movement, have been finalised. They are: Friday 17 May from 7pm-9pm, Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford OX1 2DH. The church can hold 200 people and as Oxford is a Remain stronghold so there should be a big turnout. Mike will again represent us.
Before the meeting some 500 leaflets were distributed in Oxford West, chosen because Royal Mail will be distributing 50,000 of our leaflet in Oxford East. As it happened the area we chose (Jericho) seemed to be a LibDem stronghold with their Stop Brexit posters in at least one house in every other street.
A street stall is planned in the centre of Oxford (Carfax) for Wednesday 15 May from 3pm.
Report and photos from Wednesday night’s South East Region hustings on the Isle of Wight.
Missed the MEP Hustings? Read our comprehensive report from the meeting
The report misses a few things Stephen said, notably his early objection to Rohit Dasgupta’s repeated references to Corbyn as a socialist.
It was lively event. There was not quite enough time for opening statements (3 minutes), given that what we stand for is so unfamiliar to many people outside our milieu, but it was a good opportunity to get the basics of our message across. Unfortunately the bar was closed after the event and most people simply left the venue quickly afterwards, so it was hard to get contact details, but some people picked up our Euro elections flyer and I got some appreciative comments on my way out from several folks, including a politics teacher and his students – with promises to make contact.
As noted above by Dave, I’ll be doing another one of these in the New Forest on 21st May at Brockenhurst Village Hall, 7pm to 8.30pm. Most parties represented, although the Tories haven’t responded yet, it seems, and the Brexit Party won’t be there (the event, like Wednesday’s, is organised by a Remain-supporting group and the Brexit Party candidate was poorly received on the Isle of Wight). If you can, please come along and give me some socialist support 🙂
The details for the hustings in Chesham on Wednesday, 15 May have now been finalised.
Those participating will be:
Adam Buick (Socialist Party of GB)
Pierre Kirk (UK EU)
Alex Phillips (Green)
Robert Rowland (Brexit)
Neva Sadikoglu-Novaky (Conservative Party)
Michael Turberville (Independent)
There may also be representatives from Labour and UKIP.
Candidates will meet each other at 1800 and possibly do radio interviews, then there’ll be a public session from 1900 – 2100. The programme will be a mix of prepared short statements by candidates and then themed questions from the floor.
Andy Holmes from BBC 3 Counties Radio will chair the event.
The venue is Chesham Youth Centre Old Drill Hall, Bellingdon Road, Chesham HP5 2HA
This is a ticket only event but you can get them free using the following link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-chesham-town-meeting-for-the-eu-elections-20147820362
Seen this on Facebook. Might be of interest. Debate at Woolf Lecture Theatre, Giles Lane, Canterbury, CT2 7BQ, Thursday, 16 May 2019 from 6:30pm-8:00pm.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2249730255277930/permalink/2251408475110108/
Thanks. Despite what it says, we have not had an invitation, but we are arranging to get one and will be represented.
I’ve now asked for an official invitation to be sent to the HO email address.
The number of representatives appearing at the Chesham hustings on Wednesday, 15 May has now increased to nine with the inclusion of Change UK, LibDems and Labour.
Doors will open at 18.30 with light refreshments provided in the ‘Green Room’.
After an introduction by the chair at 19.00 each of the candidates will make an opening statement. This will be followed by a period of questions based on three themes.
At 20.25 there will an opportunity for members of the audience to put questions which the candidates can address in their closing remarks at 20.45.
The opening and closing remarks by each of the party representatives will be filmed and uploaded unedited to YouTube.
Another of our candidates, Anton Pruden, will be interviewed by a reporter from BBC Radio 5 Live in Brighton next Tuesday, 14 May.
Here’s the details of the street stall in Reading from 2pm on Saturday 18 May: outside the Broad Street entrance to the Oracle Shopping Centre, RG1 2AG.
Meanwhile Reading Quakers have sent all parties standing in the election a questionnaire about the EU and its policies. Here is our reply.
Another hustings has been fixed at the Woolf Lecture Theatre, University of Kent, Giles Lane, Canterbury, CT2 7BQ on Thursday, 16 May 2019 from 6:30pm-8:00pm.
Panellists who have confirmed attendance so far are:
Change UK – Richard Ashworth
Conservative – Anna Firth
Greens – Alexandra Philips
Liberal Democrats – Antony Hook
SPGB – Andy ThomasA couple of encouraging comments on our blog
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