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Herne Hill hustings mentioned in Southwark News:
We have discovered why we didn’t get an invite to that hustings. It was sent to SPEW, the spurious “socialist party” that used to be the old Militant Tendency.
It so happens that on Thursday their South West London branch is holding a meeting in Vauxhall on “Reform or Revolution?” The perfect subject to distinguish us from them.
We are standing in Lambeth and Southwark on a straight programme of socialism, a social revolution from class ownership to common ownership of the means by which society lives. In next door Croydon & Sutton they are standing via their front organisation TUSC on a programme of attractive-sounding reforms to capitalism:
For those who want to see the difference between Revolution and Reform here’s the details:
7.30 at the Bonnington Centre, Vauxhall Grove, SW8 1TD.
We actually left some of our leaflets at the centre the other day.
Here are the details about the hustings in Herne Hill (in Southwark) on Wednesday:
It says all the candidates are being invited. Ours hasn’t arrived yet. It must be in the post. But we will be there anyway, but will have to check up what the talk is at the parish pump.
The Baptists must have had a bob or two in those days (it was built about the time we was founded in 1904), no doubt from practising the Protestant Ethic of not using the profits from their small businesses to live a life of luxury but reinvesting as much as possible in the business.
Somebody, presumably a postal voter, has posted a copy of the Barnet & Camden ballot paper on Facebook.
For those who are curious to know how we appear on the ballot paper, with our party name and emblem, here it is (I hope this works):
http://spgb.blogspot.com/2024/04/barnet-camden-ballot-paper.html
Not enough people, not enough members even, get a chance to see one.
Here’s the ex-prosecutor general Sir Keith Starmer praising National Front flag-waving day.
On behalf of the Labour Party, I wish everyone in England a very happy St George’s Day! pic.twitter.com/aE1MBVccqU
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 23, 2023
See also:
I think he is trying to say that the Tory party is no longer the Tory party but that this is what the Labour party now is.
North London comrades report competition outside Camden Tube station from religious revivalists and street performers but still gave out leaflets and had some conversations with interested passers-by.
Street stalls held this afternoon outside Camden Town tube station in north London and outside our premises in Clapham in south London.
In Clapham we met someone who had already voted for us by post. We saw 6 vans from the Territorial Support Unit, the Met’s paramilitary wing, speeding up Clapham High Street lights flashing. We went to investigate and, as far as we could see, it must have been an event organised on Clapham Common by the anti-vaxx group, StandUpX (www.standupx.info). Anyway, they got leafleted too.
They are inveterate conspiracy-mongers must have some interest in the election as their site advertises a rally in Trafalgar Square next Saturday to “Get Khan Out” for bringing in Ulez.
Actually it costs £10,000 to get into that booklet — £5000 (which you don’t get back unless you get 5% of the vote) plus another £5000 to get your address in the booklet. In addition you need to get 10 signatories from each of the ten districts which make up Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, etc), 100 in all. Doable but a lot of work.
In London it’s £10,000 + £10,000 + 330 signatories. There, we are doing the next best thing (or even the better thing) — contesting the elections to the Greater London Assembly which is elected at the same time as the Mayor. That gets us into the booklet, even if only that we are standing without what we are standing for. There is a deposit of £1000 to stand in a constituency. We are contesting two, so that’s £2000. It costs us nothing extra to get a mention in the booklet.
Here’s the London booklet. We’re on pages 37 and 39:
https://www.londonelects.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-04/Election%20booklet%20final%202024_1.pdf
Apparently there is a political party advocating independence for “Northumbria”:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Independence_Party
They say they stand for “socialism with a northern accent”. So if you say “Newcarsle” rather than “Newcassle” you can’t join but presumably are spared the fate on those in the bible who said “sibboleth” instead of “shibboleth”.
800 distributed today in Herne Hill, some in the Lambeth part but most in Southwark.
We passed the Baptist Church in Half Moon Lane where there is supposed to be a hustings next Wednesday. More details to follow.
We are running two stalls this Saturday.
One outside Camden Town tube station from 12 to 2pm, and
One outside our premises in Clapham High street from 1pm to 3pm.
If you want to help campaign for socialism come and help at one of these.
I knew about whippets, flat caps and woodbines but not about mud huts. But it wasn’t the area but the office that I was querying was “high”. It applies equally to the Mayor of Bristol in the South where everybody owns their own house and two cars and has a Filipino maid.
Is the elected mayor of some region an important person in the UK capitalist state or just an elected civil servant with some power of decision about how money from the central government can be spent?
More on Jamie Driscoll here who has been described as the last Corbynista in high office (if being mayor of north of Tyne can be described as a “high” office).
The left-of-Labour left are rooting for him as an anti-Starmer champion:
Jamie Driscoll should stand. And the left-led unions should back him.
But he’s just a common or garden left reformist.
600 distributed today mainly in the Herne Hill and East Dulwich parts of Southwark. Could have been more but rain (or, more exactly, thunder, lightning and hail) stopped play.
Talking of play, we weren’t that far from Dulwich Hamlet FC ground at Champion Hill. Its supporters have a reputation for being progressive. Maybe we should leaflet their next home game if there are any volunteers. Anybody know when it is?
Electors in Greater London have begun to receive the booklet for the elections which lists the candidates for mayor and their manifestos but also which parties are presenting a list and who are the candidates in each of the 14 constituencies.
Barnet & Camden figures in page 37 and Lambeth & Southwark on page 39. This means that anyone in these constituencies who checks who is standing will be able to see that we are. This won’t tell them what we stand for but at least that we are an active party that contests elections.
Those here who are not in London can see the booklet here:
https://www.londonelects.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-04/Election%20booklet%20final%202024_1.pdf
