[ALB]

I'm not quite sure what Stuart is trying to say. Vote Labour everywhere or just Vote Labour tactically in certain constituencies. Or whether he wants a Labour government or just not a Tory one. Where I live a Labour vote is as much a gesture (or expression of what you want) as writing "SOCIALISM" across the ballot paper. Anyway, I'm off to Oxford for the count. Be interesting to see what happens in Oxford West & Abingdon, another LibDem/Tory marginal, to see if Voting Labour will let the Tory in.

[ALB]

The Labour representative at the last hustings we went to in Oxford East on Monday took the same indignant view as Stuart when our candidate, Kevin Parkin, said that the choice between Labour and Tory was a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.He claimed that people would be thousands of pounds a year better off under Labour. The Tories claim the same for their policies. But why should we believe either of them when their claims/promises are based on the false assumption that governments can manipulate capitalism to bring about this when experience has shown that they have to govern capitalism on its terms?Actually, I've come to the conclusion that when people vote they don't consider themselves as electing a government but as expressing a personal preference. Why else would people vote for the Greens, UKIP or even the Liberals, let alone for us, in most constituencies?

[ALB]

Thanks, NL, but the vote is not going to be the real measure of the campaign(my guess is that we will average a 100 or so and do best in Easington if anybody wants to start a sweepstake). It's the work to widely and successfully publicise the case for socialism that has been put in over the past three months: leaflets distributed, hustings addressed,  tv and video interviews, email replies sent to enquirers from 38 Degrees (over a 1000) and literature still being sent to enquirers from our leaflets and adverts. Also enthusing members and sympathisers.Just off to cast a write-in vote for socialism using our sticker.

[ALB]

alanjjohnstone wrote:

Mike Foster e-mail interview with The Oxford Student newspaperhttp://oxfordstudent.com/2015/05/04/oxford-west-and-abingdon-mike-foster-the-socialist-party-of-great-britain/

And here's the one with Kevin Parkin. Only it's not a photo of him, but as we say it's the case not the face (so any old photo will do):http://oxfordstudent.com/2015/05/05/oxford-east-kevin-parkin-the-socialist-party-of-great-britain/Both interviews are published in the print issue that came out last Thursday and is distributed free to all the colleges' junior common rooms, etc. The circulation is claimed to be 15,000.

[ALB]

Mike Foster (Oxford West & Abingdon) interviwed by the student newspaper Cherwell here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYNsb0ZNIOk&feature=youtu.beFor the article published in the print edition, see here:http://www.cherwell.org/comment/features/2015/05/01/oxford-west-and-abingdon-a-key-marginal

[ALB]

Actually, NL, all branches contesting the election were informed by email in February that they could spend up to £500 per constituency on local press advertising

[ALB]

ALB wrote:

While in Oxford Kevin was interviewed for an article by one student newspaper and did a video interview

Mike Foster is in Oxford this evening for an interview with the student magazine Isis. I hope he keeps his head.

[ALB]

gnome wrote:

He's a transparent charlatan and unremitting egotist who craves only self-publicity and he'll use anyone who's naïve and gullible enough to assist him in the process.

A bit over the top. This doesn't follow from the fact that, after saying "don't vote" as it changes nothing, he has ended up saying Vote Labour. It just means that he is naive.

[ALB]

Pity that the last hustings in Oxford turned out to be the least well attended. It was organised in Oriel College by a group of students who support the Green Party (and was chaired by a Green Party City councillor for the area) to allow the parties to set out and discuss amongst themselves their various economic policies. Present were the LibDems, Labour, the Greens, TUSC and us.All the same it was revealing. The LibDems and Labour (representesd by another City councillor) droned out the usual boring stuff about what they plan to do to reduce the deficit, balance the budget, etc but they were able to put one over on the Green Party candidate when she tried (and failed) to explain her party's currency crank view that the banks presently create money out of thin air and should not be allowed to.TUSC is pathetic. Their basic position is just "NO CUTS" but they feel compelled to act as the other political parties and present a "fully costed" programme. Apparently the money is there, if you tax the rich and nationalise the banks , to invest in building a million new council houses, restore the cuts, and implement immediately a £10 an hour minumum wage. This, their candidate claimed, would "kickstart" the economy. They're basically Old Labour reformists. In fact he said that up until the 60s and 70s the Labour Party was the party of the workers.Naturally, our candidate Kevin explained that we don't have an economic policy as we don't want to manage the capitalist economy nor think that it can be managed and that the only way out was a socialist society based on common ownership, democratic control, production for use, and free access. The contrast with TUSC's reformism couldn't have been greater.For those who like such anecdotes, at one point the TUSC candidate said "We the Socialist Party will …" and immediately corrected himself.While in Oxford Kevin was interviewed for an article by one student newspaper and did a video interview with another. Meanwhile, the Oxford Communist Corresponding Society and other sympathisers are continuing to leaflet in the centre of Oxford today and tomorrow.

[ALB]

I think he's been got at by Owen Jones who's always interviewing him:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/04/russell-brand-endorsed-labour-tories-should-be-worriedHe's not in fact saying much different from the assorted Leftist groups, eg the SWP and "Elect Labour and Keep Kicking".That the Tories would be worse is based on the assumption that Labour can do what they promise in terms of making things better (or less worse) for people, but we know they can't because governments are not really in charge of how the economy works.A disapppointment and a blow to his credibility. Maybe he'll be able to restore it when in a few years time he admits that he made a mistake…

[ALB]

They look pretty breakable by capitalism to me.

[ALB]

Carving election promises is stone still won't make them realisable if they go against the economic logic of capitalism nor enforceable by the courts. As Gary Slapper reminded us in an article in The Times Law section (30 April)

Quote:

After an election when all is said and done, it is usually clear that much more has been said than will be done. But there is no legal remedy against politicians who fail to keep their promises. In a House of Lords decision in 1983, Lord Diplock declared that elected representatives should not "treat themselves as irrevocably bound to carry out pre-announced policies contained in election manifestos". So someone selling a used car is under tighter control than someone selling the future.

[ALB]

Reasonable and fair report of a hustings last week in Botley (Oxford West) here:http://50for15.com/2015/04/29/in-a-tight-lib-dem-conservative-marginal-who-came-out-top-at-the-hustings/We can't really complain about the coverage we've received in these elections, at least not in Oxford.

[ALB]

TUSC are contesting a couple of local council by-elections in Kingston, Surrey, as well as the parliamentary seat. One of their local candidates states in this week's Surrey Comet that:

Quote:

This society has plenty of money, it is simply in the wrong hands. I want to ask the community what they need and campaign for a budget based on that.

So that's what it's all about: redistributing money within existing society. It's probably an honest expression of his views but is just crass reformism. The Trotskyist strategists behind this, however, will see it as an appeal to the "trade union consciousness" they think workers are incapable of advancing beyond.

[ALB]

northern light wrote:

Toward the end of the event, the Green Party candidate (pointing to Steve) said that he agreed with much of what he (Steve) said.

He has since confirmed this by emailing Head Office in a personal capacity to say that  he calls himself an ecosocialist and doesn't see why we can't work together.

[Author]

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