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A couple of curiosities.
1. Two of the wards we are contesting border on Wandsworth so it’s possible that some of other leaflets might have been delivered there. In any event, we found a Tory leaflet from there headed “If you want to vote anti-Labour in Wandsworth, frankly you have to vote Conservative”, explaining :
“Voters are trying to ‘send a message’ to the Labour government but also to ‘vote against Reform’ which in many cases is why the Greens are ‘so attractive’ as people can vote anti-Labour but also against Mr Farage. But in … Wandsworth … ‘that’s not true,‘explained Prof Travers.”
Not so long ago people were discussing tactical voting about how best to get the Tories out, now the discussion is how to get Labour out. But it can be doubted that anyone thinking of voting Green will vote Tory just to kick out Labour.
If the Greens win and begin to run capitalism at local level, the old saying “Labour, Tory, Same Old Story” can be replaced “Labour, Green, Same Old Scene”.
2. At a recent renters’ demonstration a group calling itself “Communist Vanguard” distributed a leaflet in which it declares that:
“Our main task is to forge the future Communist Party, the revolutionary vanguard of the working class capable of leading the fight to destroy capitalism. To guide this process, we aim to create communist cadres ….”
This is unusually frank from a Leninist organisation but it expresses the basic position of all Leninist groups like the SWP, SPEW, RCP, etc, etc. No wonder Corbyn kicked them out of His Party.
It’s why socialists are uncompromisingly opposed to all 57 varieties of Leninism. Workers need to be led by the cadres of a vanguard party just as much as they need a hole in the head.
Question: what is ‘absolute overproduction of capital’?
Yes, I wondered what he meant by that too. I think he means a state of affairs where so much surplus value has been produced that not all of it can be profitably reinvested. And that, in the former USSR,this arose because there were not enough workers or because of their low productivity.
Elsewhere, there are indications that he adheres to the Grossman/Mattick (and CWO) theory of crises (that they are caused by the rate of profit falling due to the rising organic composition of capital, ie by proportionally more capital being invested in plant and machinery than in hiring productive workers); where the concept of “overaccumulation” is important.
However, this wasn’t necessarily Marx’s view. His theory of crises seems to have been that they are caused by overproduction in one key industry spreading throughout the economy (as opposed to being linked to some slow, long-term tendency of the rate of profit to fall).
The economic reason for the collapse of USSR remains an open question, maybe linked to the refusal of workers there to work harder.
Another hustings yesterday evening. It was organised by the SE5 Forum which covers the London SE5 postcode. Most of this is in Southwark but a small part is in Lambeth. The meeting was in fact held in Southwark, in a United Reform church.
Quite a contrast from the one in Brixton on Monday. Only about 40 there and speakers only from Labour and the Greens, one from each borough (3 of them outgoing councillors), and us. Not much animation.
Labour and Greens were literally advocating the same things, though the Southwark Labourite did bring up the Greens’ policy of decriminalising drugs as a reason not to vote for them. Our candidate described them as being involved in “sibling rivalry”, as well as pointing out that what they could do was severely limited by having to operate within a context of government cuts and the wider, profit-dominated capitalist economy.
We handed out a few leaflets. A summary of what each candidate said will be sent to SE5 Forum members.
We went to the hustings yesterday evening organised by the Brixton Neighbourhood Forum for parties standing candidates in Brixton. Represented were us, the Greens, Labour, Christian People’s Alliance, TUSC and Shake It Up (two — they pulled a fast one as both are technically “Independents”). The Tories, Reform and the LibDems sent no one (the last perhaps because of some deal with the Greens not to try hard in this part of the borough in return for the Greens not trying in another).
There were about 120 present.
The debate was organised fairly which each candidate being given exactly the same opportunity and time to answer questions. From a conventional party political point of view the main contest here is between Labour (representing by an outgoing councillor seeking reelection in Brixton Acre Ward) and one of the Greens standing in the same ward — Michael Chessum, leftwing journalist and activist, who switched from Corbyn to the Green Party. He claims to be a socialist (and confided to our candidate, who was sitting next to him, that he was a “Marxist”). Here is his arguments as to why “revolutionaries” should join the Green Party:
An amusing sketch writer report of the meeting appeared in the local online news outlet here:
What happened at the Brixton Hustings at St Mathews Community Centre – Mon 27th April
Note the mistaken link to us (since corrected) and our corrections in the Comments section.
So-called “social housing” in blocks of flats run by the council or a housing association. Some date from the days of the old London County council. You can get into some with a “fireman’s key” (which we have).
Good on the ICC for rejecting “revolutionary defeatism” (the absurd doctrine that revolutionaries should call for the other side in a war to win). Also, their position on a third world war seems better than of the CWO (even if it is based on the view that capitalism is collapsing economically through lack of external markets):
“During the debate, significant differences emerged regarding the method of analysis and its implications for the proletariat’s struggle. On the assessment of the dynamics of war, the majority of the groups present asserted that the world was heading “towards a third world war”, whilst the ICC, going against the current, maintained that: “we are heading towards a proliferation and generalisation of conflicts across the world, against a backdrop of growing chaos, ultimately threatening to destroy humanity”.
Busy weekend in Lambeth and not just for us. On Saturday both Zack Polanski, the Green leader, and Andy Burnham, a leading contender to replace Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister, were there. Lambeth is a target council for the Greens, and the Labourites must have thought that the intervention of the Mayor of Manchester would help them retain control.
It was also the day of the our annual conference. Afterwards, delegates present in London helped complete the distribution of leaflets in Clapham Common & Abbeville.
On the Sunday we ran a stall outside Stockwell tube station where we distributed leaflets in Portuguese as well as our main election leaflet (part of Stockwell is known as “Little Portugal”).
As expected, Christian evangelists were there for a short while threatening eternal damnation in hell if you didn’t follow their precepts. One of the outgoing Labour councillors, David Oxley, passed by. His leaflet (as all Labour leaflets) attacks the Greens for voting against building more houses. But the Greens have no chance here and are not even campaigning seriously.
We have now leafletted all accessible letter boxes in the Stockwell West & Larkhall ward. Unfortunately there is quite a proportion of social and private blocks which are not normally accessible.
The campaign by the Roger Hallam’s Shake It Up candidate, on the ballot paper as an Independent, seems to be concentrating on tying posters to lampposts or sticking them on housing estate notice boards.
Secondly, ‘UK Garage’ – is that: the genre of music; a mechanic’s workshop; or a little bungalow for cars?
In this context it’s a genre of music (don’t ask me what kind) but to make it rhyme with Farage you either have to be a Toff or pronounce his name as “Faridge”.
Yes, the election committee and London branch have considered all these suggestions and acted on them. We have had posters done for the campaign though most of them naturally say “Vote Socialist”.
We also have (glossy) A4 and A3 posters about socialism in general. One is our Object. Another says “Revolution not Reform”.
There might be a few left of both these kinds of poster which we could send you (or anyone else) if you contact head office.
Also, the EC authorised a leaflet for use outside of where we are contesting suggesting that those who want socialism should write “SOCIALISM” across their ballot paper. This was advertised on spintcom. Only 2 branches asked for some, unfortunately not your branches. We still have plenty left. If you want some for distributing or posting in your window or on your front door contact head office with how many you want.
Some t-shirts are also available but production at Head Office for specific use in elections had to stop. Which is why the matter is on the agenda of Annual Conference this Saturday.
T-shifts produced elsewhere are advertised on page 18 of the current Socialist Standard. Tote bags are also available.
A passing Daily Mail journalist saw this in our window, took a photo of it and posted it on Twitter:
While he commented on “UK Garage Not UK Farage” he didn’t seem to have noticed that he also posted “Vote SPGB” and our phone number.
You are right. This book does seem worth reviewing by us.
A bit surprising, though, that there are still some people around defending the idea of “labour time money” that circulates. I thought that money-crank theory had been dealt with ages ago. As here from 1984:
“The Grundprinzipien outlined a plan for organising the production and distribution of wealth without money but on the basis of accounting in units of labour-time. They followed Otto Leichter here, but totally rejected the technocratic structure in which he had seen labour-time accounting replacing monetary calculation. In its place they proposed a federation of workers’ councils.
But when this plan is stripped of its socialist terminology, it turns out to be a scheme for a sort of self-regulating exchange economy in which money as we know it today would be replaced as the currency by a “labour-money”; in other words, the money-prices-wages system would continue to exist but would be run by workers’ councils and without exploitation. But to believe that an exchange economy could function in the interests of the workers if labour-money and labour-time accounting were to be used in place of the coins and notes and monetary calculation we know today is to completely misunderstand how capitalism works and to fall into the purest currency-crankism.”
Leafletting yesterday in both Stockwell West & Larkhall and Clapham Common & Abbeville wards. Nearly every accessible letter-box in both wards have been leafletted.
In Clapham Common we actually came across a Conservative Party canvasser. This may well be the only ward where they are trying to mount a serious campaign (it was the last ward in Lambeth to have had a Conservative councillor).
We also covered this demonstration in central London handing out our election leaflet on the housing question.
Why renters are protesting against the housing crisis: ‘People are neglected for profit’
We have been invited to two hustings the week after next. Both arising from us standing in Brixton North ward.
Monday 27 April at 7pm in St. Matthew’s Tenants Hall, St. Mathews Road, SW2 1NH. Organised by Brixton Neighbourhood Forum for parties standing candidates in wards in Brixton.
Wednesday 29 April at 7pm at United Reform Church, Love Walk, SE5 8AE. Organised by SE5 Forum for parties contesting wards which include the SE5 postcode — 6 in Southwark and 3 in Lambeth.
Naturally we have accepted and our candidate will be there.
We get mentioned here under one of the names under which we have been known historically:
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/lambeth-local-election-candidates-2026-33761779
Meanwhile, following the decision last Sunday by the Your Party’s collective leadership to ban dual membership with Leninist groups, the election agent of the YP-endorsed candidate in St. Martins Ward has resigned from the YP as he is an SWPer. However, he remains her election agent.
Leafleting continues this weekend in Brixton and Stockwell. In Stockwell Roger Hallam’s Shake It Up group had been there before. Their candidate’s leaflet states that
“An emerging alliance of progressive independent candidates is planning to take over the council and introduce community-based democracy”.
That was the original plan — to contest all 25 wards — but they are only standing one candidate in 6 wards. So, even these all get elected, they won’t be able to “take over the council”.
They had been expecting an agreement with the Greens but the Greens turned them down and are standing a full slate in all wards except one (where they have a deal with the Your Party).
So it looks like their plan is doomed to failure.
On the ballot paper their candidate will be described as an “Independent” and that’s how she will be seen, not entirely unfairly as her leaflets contain the usual complaint of “independents” (of all political colours) against decisions being made by disciplined parties.
On the Loughborough estate in Brixton we have made sure that our leaflet is received at the same time as theirs, so people there will be able compare what we propose (socialism) and what they propose (radical political democracy within capitalism).
