ALB
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We were out in Oxford too today, basically testing spots for a regular stall for the rest of the campaign but, as in Folkestone, the weather wasn't on our side. All the same, 4 of us gave away leaflets at two different places, one in Oxford East in the morning, the other in Oxford West in the afternoon as well as investigating the pitch at Cowley Centre where TUSC hold a regular weekly stall. They seem to want to live off Bob Crow's reputation as both of the leaflets they were handing out carried his photo.Passing through the main street in the centre (Cornmarket) from our first pitch to the other we were surprised to come across some members of the EDL handing out leaflets for their planned protest next Saturday against "Muslim grooming gangs in Oxford" proclaiming "Contol immigration from Islamic countries for a start". Nobody was objecting, though there was a discreet police presence not too far away presumably in case they did. Instead of trying to kick their heads in we gave them a socialist leaflet. The only political discussion we had in Oxford West was with someone who said they were going to vote tacticaly LibDem to keep the Tories out. Work that one out if you can.Next stall is planned for Thursday 9 April at 5pm in the city centre.
ALB wrote:After confirming that we are standing 10 candidates, we have been invited to appear on BBC2's Daily Politics Show again:The date has now been fixed as Friday 17 April between 12.00 and 13.00. Our representative is going to be Howard Pilott, our candidate for Brighton Pavilion.
Quote:I can confirm 17th April. The programme goes out live between 12.00-13.00 – Howard's interview is likely to
take place during the second half of the programme (I'll be able to confirm this
closer to the date of the interview). The interview will be live, and will be with
either Jo Coburn or Andrew Neil – both are presenting throughout the election
period.Good turnout of 50 yesterday evening for the "Keep Our NHS Public" campaign meeting in Oxford Town Hall. The platform speakers were all trade unionists and, in their opening speeches, detailed the union struggles against some of the private companies that had won contracts to do work for the NHS. Some such as Balfour Beatty and Carillion were big companies from the construction industry with a long record of anti-trade unionism. The speakers described some succesful union actions to stand up to them and convincingly argued that "privatisation" in the NHS was also a way of reducing pay and conditions in the health service.This was not a hustings meeting but any candidates present were allowed 3 minutes to put their case. First off was James Morbin, the TUSC candidate, (his first appearance). He said "No cuts", "Nationalise the drugs companies". Dr Helen Salisbury, of the National Health Action Party, said "Vote for Me as I'm standing on this single issue". County Councillor David Williamson, speaking on behalf of the Green Party candidate (who was present but didn't say anything), said he'd once been a Labour parliamentary candidate but had left to join the Greens which was now the party of the Left. He reminded the meeting that it was the last Labour government that had introduced PFI into the NHS. Our candidate, Kevin Parkin, said that there could only be a secure free health service in a socialist society and that an isolated one within a production-for-profit economy would always be under the threat of being undermined, as it was being.In summing up, the three speakers took off their trade union hats and put on their Labour Party ones. Which meant that the case for voting Labour got much more time than given to other candidates present all together. One of the speakers was Andy Newman, the ex-Trotskyist who runs the "Socialist Unity" blog and is now the Labour candidate for Chippenham. He claimed that it was the election of a Labour government in 1997 that had saved the NHS, forgetting to add that in the 2005 general election he had stood against Labour as a "Socialist Unity" candidate in Swindon North (and got 208 votes).Next activity in Oxford: a literature stall this Saturday at 12 noon in Manzil Way, off Cowley Road.
After confirming that we are standing 10 candidates, we have been invited to appear on BBC2's Daily Politics Show again:
Quote:As part of the BBC Daily Politics election coverage we'll be featuring a different political party for every day of the election campaign – and we would like to interview the Socialist Party of GB as part of this. The format will be a one-to-one with either Andrew Neil or Jo Coburn (both are jointly presenting all of our election campaign programmes – I'll be able to confirm who it will be closer to the date) and will last approx. 5 minutes.Of course I accept that there's global warming and that it has been mainly caused by the past and present human activity of burning fossil fuels. But it is not proceeding at a rate that will lead to the Earth becoming uninhabitable for humans by the end of this century, as some non-scientists have been suggesting.Besides, the exact relationship between the release of CO2 into the atmsosphere and the rise in average global temperature is not known exactly, so scenarios as to what might happen are based on assumptions that might not turn out to be the case. Also, in the past the Earth has been considerably warmer than it is now and was still able to sustain life, so we can assume that humans, given our present technology and knowledge, should be able to adapt to a warmer world.I'm not saying that there is not a problem but I don't see anything to be gained by exaggerating and trying to scare people into becoming socialists, especially as if you exaggerate you risk ending up with egg on your face.
Understood literally, that's an exaggeration. The planet will survive a long time, a very long time (until the Sun explodes) whether or not human race does. I would think that humans too will survive a long tome too even a nuclear war, but the question is in what conditions. I don't think even capitalist governments would allow a runaway greenhouse effect turning Earth into a second Venus to develop, so that's not a realistic bogey.So, I'd rephrase the essay title to something like "The survival on the human race on the planet in decent conditions depends, etc."
Two coming meetings in Oxford:
Quote:Tuesday 24 March, 7.30. Public meeting on “The Human Cost of Privatisation”, organised by Oxfordshire Keep Our NHS Public and Oxford and District Trade Union Council. Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate's, Oxford OX1 1DPOxford candidates have been told they will be invited to speak from the floor if they turn up (this is not a hustings). Our candidate in Oxford East, Kevin Parker, will be there. Also, no doubt, TUSC candidate who we've not yet met.
Quote:Tuesday 31 March, 7.30. 38 Degrees lobby group’s Oxford East Hustings. Fusion Arts centre in Princes Street OX4 1DD – behind the East Oxford Community Centre on Cowley Road.We've been invited to this. So have Oxfam and Christian Aid.
Yes, I remember her in Rochester. She was telling us that the Tories had become a party of toffs that had betrayed working-class Tories. The false invoice seems to have been a way of getting more expenses as a MEP for UKIP funds. It seems that UKIP has turned into a party of upstart wide boys (and girls) that was never going to do anything for the working class anyway.
The candidate himself has already drafted a reply.
Quote:We don't think of ourselves as idealists, but simply practical.You're right, there never has been a society quite like socialism, but then, up until five hundred years ago, there had never been a society quite like capitalism, these things can change. We simply want to do away with the waste of minority ownership of wealth (and all the machinery that goes into enforcing minority ownership). Complex societies have existed in which market relations were marginal : the smallest unit of currency in Roman Britain would have been useless for daily life and most consumption would have come from the production of a given estate; the Inca empire organised almost entirely without money using a kind of Labour tax; of course, these were class divided societies, but they demonstrate that market relations are not the only way we can do things.Darren redstar wrote:Silhan Ozcelik, is charged under the terror acts and remanded in custody for trying to join the Kurdish resistance to ISISI can't see a jury convicting her, though. The defence would just need to show videos of the Islamists beheading hostages and prisoners of war and throwing gay men off buildings and the jury would reach a "not guilty" verdict in a couple of minutes. More on her case here:http://islingtonnow.co.uk/2015/03/18/holloway-teenagers-terrorism-charge-prompts-fury-from-supporters/Mind you, it could be the price the Turkish government has asked for to co-operate in trying to stop Islamists from the UK joining ISIS. Wheels within wheels.
I think someone complained a few weeks ago asking why we were discussing here subjects like hunter-gatherer societies rather than austerity. Here's a reply received from someone in Islington to our reply to an email circular about the NHS they had sent. Our reply said that a free health service was all very well but, until we had a socialist society in which all services were free, a free health service would be and was being constantly undermined by the economic forces of capitalism.
Quote:Thank you for replying interestingly, if simplistically. I'm a social scientist and There has never been a society anywhere that runs in the way you dream of – even the most egalitarian hunter-gatherers would have trouble with your vision, alas. And if it can't be managed among a band of 20 or 30 it certainly can't in a whole society. But it is good to have your idealism at one end of the spectrum.gnome wrote:Actually, Kevin gets two bites of the cherry. He's also in the first picture with the Loony Party guy speaking.He also gets a half-face in the photo of Mike. I see we get a mention that we're standing in this news item too:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11855716.GP_launches_her_campaign_for_General_Election/?ref=arThey are standing only a few more candidates than us so we should get invitations to the same hustings as her. Actually, she has told us of a couple of hustings we didn't know about.
Report in the Oxford Mail on Monday's hustings there:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11861970.Candidates_clash_on_poverty_and_immigration_at_hustings/We get the face and the case.
