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One of our candidates has commented on that article (which fails to mention that we are standing as well as Haljam’s group and the Your Party). Here it is in case it gets deleted:
“The Socialist Party does not seek to manage capitalism. We seek to abolish it.
Your Party promises to “fight cuts” and “stand up for the community.” Laudable. But their councillors will still balance Westminster’s books, collect business rates, and administer poverty. That is not socialism. That is reform. These are the same people who implemented cuts under Corbyn’s Labour. Now they call themselves “independent socialists.” They are not independent or socialist. They are a collection of rejected Labourites and Trotskyist entristsWe are standing three candidates in Lambeth not to win office, but to win socialists. We will use every platform to state this truth: socialism cannot be administered. It requires the revolutionary transformation of property relations not better management of the existing system
To those asking why we urge “FOR SOCIALISM” where we have no candidate: we reject false choices. A spoiled ballot is not invisible. It is a conscious refusal to legitimise competing managers of misery. It declares that no solution exists within this system
Your Party’s turmoil, exposed transphobia, resignations, factional warfare illustrates the reformist trap. Seek power within capitalism, and capitalism absorbs you. They learned nothing from their expulsion over antisemitism; now they repeat the pattern. We avoid these contradictions by stating plainly: councils cannot build socialism. Only a conscious, organised working class can
Vote for us if you understand this. Write “FOR SOCIALISM” if you reject the alternatives. But do not vote for better managers and expect revolution.
Anya Krycek candidate for the Socialist Party (GB)
For socialism, not reform!”It’s ok (I think). The comrade who’s agreed to take up his offer has already made direct contact and something is being fixed up. More details later.
Activity continued last week with a stall outside Head Office in Clapham High Street and some leafletting in Stockwell West & Larkhall Ward on Sunday.
Also some fall-out from our presence at the anti-far right event the previous Saturday — an article in the Brixton Buzz on the elections and the Your Party with a photo of their candidate in which you can see our banner in the background.
Those who read her election address at the end of the article will immediately be able to work out that the banner can’t be hers. She is standing as a localist parish pump independent.
Next Friday nominations open for candidates for the 7 May elections. All the papers have been filled in for two of our candidates; a third requires just one more signature. These can be submitted next week for an informal check and will be.
Yesterday a further 500 leaflets were distributed through letter boxes in the Clapham Common & Abbeville ward. This is one the LibDems expect to win and they have also been distributing leaflets there. They reckon they can manage the austerity imposed by the central government better than the Labourites who currently control the council.
Actually, he is making a valid point about the word “socialism”. The word is used in practice to cover such a wide variety of different political and economic regimes that it has become virtually meaningless.
He has always been consistent about this, refusing to call his alternative to “free market” capitalism “socialism”, even though its content — a system based on “no ownership” with “open access” — is what we can recognise as similar to what we mean by “socialism” and “communism”. He doesn’t want to call this “socialism” as he thinks — in fact, knows — people will associate this with other systems that call themselves or are called “socialist” and the failure of some of these will be used discredit the whole idea of an alternative to “private enterprise” caputakusm.
We know this is the case from our own experience and that many of the arguments we have with others often end up being often about terminology rather than substance. Which is why some members have suggested that we too drop the word “socialism” and use some other forms of words such as “world of free access” and “world cooperative commonwealth” to describe what we stand for.
What this brings out is the importance of defining the meaning of the words that are used in any debate. Which is something we have always insisted on and why we always define from the beginning of any discussion what it is we mean by the word “socialism”.
We have found a volunteer to take him on. Max, can you reply from our Twitter account letting him know and asking him how our representative should contact him.
We were out yesterday in Brixton with the battle bike at an event organised to publicise the national anti-far right demonstration in London on 28 March handing out our anti-racism leaflet, and also to put the new leaflet saying we are standing through letter boxes.
Also present in Brixton High Street, apart from the usual evangelical christians, were the “Workers Revolutionary Party” and the “Revolutionary Communist Parry”.
The local media outlet Brixton Buzz confirms the woes of the Lambeth YP branch. It’s a poor show if a proto-branch half full of Trotskyists “entryists” (SWP, SPEW, AWL, ACR, even Workers Power) can only field one candidate.
Incidentally, a part of St.Martins Ward is in the parliamentary constituency of Clapham & Brixton Hill which we contested in the 2024 general election. Which means that electors there will have had our manifesto courtesy of free delivery by Royal Mail. If their candidate claims to be a socialist we might have to intervene to repudiate this.
The Your Party proto-branch (which is split over the definition of a woman) has decided to put up only one candidate in Lambeth, in St. Martin’s Ward, which is in Streatham, the southern part of the borough. It elects two councillors and they are hoping to do a deal with the Green Party, under which each party would put up a single candidate and urge their supporters to vote for both.
It is not clear if the Greens will agree to this. The only advantage to them would be if the YP agreed to campaign for them in the other wards. Which half the YP will be unlikely to do (even if they might vote Green) as they are supporters of Trotskyist groups which have denounced the Green Party as “pro-capitalist” (which is true but so are they as they for state capitalism).
Also not clear is under what name the YP candidate will be on the ballot paper. The proto-branch has applied to the Electoral Commission to register as “Lambeth Independent Socialists”. Normally, the Commission should reject this as they have people wanting to stand as “Independent Labour” or “Independent Conservative”.
Also in doubt is whether their candidate will even be endorsed by the YP Central Executive Committee.
Before the election period starts on 30 March and new rules regarding leaflets come into force, we like others are distributing pre-election leaflets. 2000 of one prepared for Lambeth have already been distributed. Some of the 1000 for Islington remain to be put through letter boxes.
Another 3000, this time on the housing question, have arrived and will all have to be distributed before 30 March, all in Lambeth in fact. 500 were yesterday in the Clapham Common and Abbeville ward.
On Wednesday we were outside Stockwell tube station.
Tomorrow we will be leafletting an event in Windrush Square in Brixton to publicise the national anti-far right march in London on 28 March.
Roger Hallam’s Shake It Up group is certainly getting the publicity:
Coalition of Independents Challenge Labour Grip on Lambeth Council 2026
We were out leafletting this weekend in both Islington and Lambeth.
On Saturday leaflets were put through letter boxes in Junction Ward announcing that we will be standing in Islington. Discarded Labour leaflets indicated that their candidates will be the outgoing councillors Chapman, Gregg and Potts.
On Sunday we leafletted Nine Elms tube station which is just outside the Stockwell West & Larkhall ward in Lambeth which we have also decided to contest, meaning we will be standing on three wards in Lambeth.
SPEW held its conference last week and decided this on elections:
“May elections
Congress discussed the elections on 7 May, which will be the first in many cities under a Labour government since 2010. As there is unlikely to be a national Your Party stand, the Socialist Party will be supporting and promoting the appeal of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which we participate in, to ‘help get socialism on the ballot paper’, and its aim to get a sufficient number of candidates to achieve ‘fair media coverage’. The key task for Socialist Party members is encouraging trade unionists, young people, community and anti-war campaigners, Your Party supporters and all those opposing war and austerity to stand.”I can’t imagine anyone except a SPEW member on instructions wanting to stand under the TUSC label. It’s toxic. And — now that Corbyn has stated that the Greens are allies not opponents — if they stand against Green Party candidates that risks all SPEW members being expelled from the Your Party.
And of course if there are TUSC candidates that won’t be ‘socialism on the ballot paper’ but reformism plus state capitalism.
We now know who are Corbynite opponents in Junction Ward in Islington will be: Faith Obiaka-Hayward, Ruth O’Dowd and Pat Prendergast. They are not standing for the Your Party as such but for a front for it at local level called the “Islington Community Independents” (ICI). They have already started canvassing and will be out again this Sunday:
https://actionnetwork.org/events/ici-canvassing-join-us-in-junction-ward-3/
We will be out ourselves on the Saturday.
More on Shake It Up in this report of a meeting round the corner from our Head Office in Clapham High Street on Wednesday:
Coalition of Independents aim to end Labour’s vice-like grip on Lambeth Council
It remains to be seen if the Green Party will do a deal with them. They wouldn’t seem to have a political interest in this.
