ALB
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I would imagine that the Corbynistas will now play student politics to keep control of constituency Labour parties and that that will keep them occupied. Labour at least had one success — they saw off the potential LibDem challenge in the South. The LibDems are not going to be the new centre party they hoped to become and are irrelevant again in national level politics.
Here’s the results where we stood.
Cardiff North: Lab 25605 (61.2%) Con 8426 LD 6298 Brexit 1006 Gwalad 280 Ind 119 Soc 88 (0.2%).
Folkestone and Hythe: Con 35473 (60.1%) Lab 14146 LD 5755 Green 2708 Ind 576 SDP 190 YPP 80 Soc 69 (0.1%).
As can be seen constituencies in Wales are smaller than in England. In 2015 we got 68 votes in Folkestone and Hythe.
Yes, go ahead and draft something and send it to Head Office. Someone can send it from there and even if there’s no reply it can still be used in the Socialist Standard or on the blog.
What C.C.? We have an E. C. or Executive Committee that executes Conference Decisions but not a Central Committee that decides policy as in Leninist organisations !
Replies to the i paper insert have begun to come in. They are mostly from the West Country and South Wales. The explanation presumably is that, because we only inserted in 160,000 of the 190,000, they would have inserted them in the ones that went out first ie the furthest in distance from the distribution centre in Watford.
Some replies from the election leaflets delivered by the post office but hardly any by comparison. Which was our experience in the euroelections too. There may be a lesson to be learnt here. Something to do with getting a better response from targeted distribution as opposed to distributing to everyone. Having said that, the post office regulations mean that the leaflets they distribute can’t be so reply-friendly.
Two views on leaders and their debates. A useless gadget and the real-time reaction of socialists.
The idea of refusing to vote for something you don’t want when you can’t vote for what you do want is spreading and almost becoming mainstream:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7773909/Nigel-Farage-reveals-spoil-ballot-paper.html
This is what those who want socialism should do on Thursday (except in Cardiff Central and Folkestone & Hythe of course).
It’s something we started in 1918. Our answer to tactical voting — principled voting.
It appears from this that the protests in Hong Kong have had some sort of echo on the mainland:
All the 15,000 leaflets printed for distribution outside the two constituencies that we are contesting have now been distributed by members and sympathisers, door to door or in the street, in various parts of the country.
After the LibDems’ claim that:
“The Liberal Democrats will build an economy that works for everyone. not just the rich.”
and Labour’s that:
“Labour will rewrite the rules of the economy, so that it works for everyone.”
Here’s the Tories claiming they too can control the economy (from a leaflet on the NHS that came through my door on Saturday):
“With a majority government, we can continue to grow our economy”.
Oh yes? How? Since when has any government been able “to grow the economy”? The capitalist economy grows itself (accumulates capital out of profits) but in fits and starts, irrespective of what governments do. In fact, governments have to react to the way the capitalist economy moves and the phase of its boom/slump cycle that it happens to be in. They dance to its tune not vice versa.
Today’s news announcement that one of the documents Corbyn has quoted may have come from Russia has an uncanny parallel with the Zinoviev Letter that brought down the first Labour government in 1924:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinoviev_letter
The trouble is that, as then, we won’t know till after the election is over whether it is a dirty trick or not.
Here is the wording of the advert that appeared in the Cardiff edition of the South Wales Echo on 5 December.
General Election Thursday 12th December 2019
Cardiff Central Constituency
Vote for Brain Johnson
What is this election about?
This election is about one way or another of organising the profit system, capitalism, so it doesn’t matter which of the major parties is elected. Nothing will change. Brexit is a small detail in that system, so it doesn’t matter that an arrangement has been made to manipulate that detail in the interests of the tiny minority who hold most of the wealth. What does matter is how many voters understand the case we are putting for a real social upgrade – a world community without states or frontiers based on participatory democracy.
We are talking about a society of material abundance, without buying and selling, where everyone has access to what they need without the rationing system called money.
We are talking about a rational and sustainable society where people are the Earth’s custodians, not its destroyers, where they contribute the knowledge, skills and effort to maintain it.
Capitalism will do all it can to discredit the idea of world socialism. Don’t let it succeed. Take a first step by voting for our candidate, Brian Johnson.
For further details of our policy, an information pack and three months free subscription to our journal ‘Socialist Standard’ write to:
The Socialist Party FREEPOST,
52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN.
Phone: 020 7622 3811
E-mail: spgb@worldsocialism.org
Website: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb
All the candidates in Cardiff Central, including the Socialist (and his cat), have their say:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/cardiff-central-general-election-candidates-16891903
