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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).
Nomination closed yesterday and the list of candidates has been published. So we now know who our opponents are. The only thing we didn’t know of before is that, in two of the three wards we are contesting, the SPEW Trotsky party front, TUSC, is standing.
Here are the official Statement of Persons Nominated for the three wards:
Brixton Neighbourhood Forum have announced a hustings on Monday 27 April. Naturally, we shall be there as one of the wards we are contesting is Brixton North.
We were out again yesterday leafletting in Brixton and Stockwell. Also leafletted a protest called by Shakeitup against the eviction of small shopkeepers in Brixton Plaza to make way for redevelopment. The lone Your Party independent was there too.
The election leaflets arrived on Wednesday and London branch members were out yesterday, with a stall outside Head Office (while participating in the EC meeting via zoom) and distributing the leaflets through letter boxes, mainly in the Stockwell West & Larkhill ward.
This ward is just round the corner from Head Office and on our way there we met some people outside Stockwell tube station masquerading as the “Socialist Party”. They were of course SPEWers. They revealed that as Lambeth Your Party, which some of them had entered, was split and was putting up only one candidate in one ward, they had decided to stand 3 or 4 of their members under the guise of their front organisation TUSC. This won’t be in the ward where the Your Party is standing (St. Martins) as that would get them expelled. We don’t know where yet but will have to wait until the list of candidates is published on Friday.
It’s look that there is going to be quite a variety of runners in Lambeth. A part from the Labour, Tory, Liberal, Green, and Reform, there’ll be the YP (who are calling themselves “Yorpies”, presumably to distinguish themselves from Yuppies), TUSC, Roger Hallam’s Shakeitup, and us.
Here is the other letter:
Following the events in Clapham High Street on Tuesday a dispersal zone is currently in force covering two wards: Town (where our head office is situated) and Clapham Common & Abbeville (where we are standing). It shouldn’t affect our activity.
The nomination papers for our 3 candidates were handed in today and were accepted. The election addresses are being delivered tomorrow. So the election campaign as such is starting, but won’t know the names of the other candidates till after nominations close on Thursday 9 April. But we know that Roger Hallam’s Shakeitup Independents have announced candidates for Brixton North and Stockwell West & Larkhall.
London branch has decided to meet every Saturday at 12 noon before the election on 7 May at head office in Clapham High Street to carry out election activity of one kind or another. The first will be this Saturday 4 April.
The book review is already ready for publication in the May issue.
The author knows us having visited our street stall in Cardiff and also written a couple of letters to the Socialist Standard.
He sees Russia as never having stopped being capitalist despite, in his view, a “proletarian revolution” having taken place there (but doomed to fail since no world revolution took place).
SPEW has decided to take part in the May local elections using its TUSC name, claiming that this is to help the Your Party:
Over 300 socialists on the ballot in May elections – but still time for more!
Presumably most of these will be SPEW members instructed by their central committee to stand to give the appearance that a band wagon is rolling.
