General Election – Campaign News
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The nomination papers for our candidate in Oxford East, Kevin Parkin, were accepted yesterday. They are not accepting nominations for Oxford West & Abingdon till Thursday. Still, the visit to Abingdon, a historic country town that was in Berkshire for most of its history, wasn't entirely wasted. Pleased to see that the local paper, the Abingdon Herald, listed our candidate, Mike Foster, as among those standing. Also, local shops had posters for a couple of the hustings he'll be attending. It's the only place so far that I've seen posters for the election, all three for the LibDem candidate (they are hoping to regain the seat after losing it last time by a few hundred votes).In the evening, Kevin represented us at a hustings organised by local members of 38 Degrees, the internet campaigning group that has been sending candidates all over the country emails asking them to support various, generally leftwing causes. There were 40 or so people present. The theme of this hustings was civil liberties. Six of the (now) ten declared candidates were present. Absent were the Tories (refusal), UKIP (other engagement), the Raving Looney and one of the declared Independents. The other, a local personality and campaigner, Artwell, was and expressed views similar to the Greens. In the absence of the Tories and UKIP, the LibDems became the whipping boy but their representative was able to hold his own by pointing out that his party's record on the issue was better than Labour's (as it was the last Labour government that tried to introduce identity cards and did arm the police with tasers).TUSC and the Greens vied with each other in making wild, unrealistic promises (often the same) as to what they would do if they were the government under capitalism. Kevin explained that the problems in the fields of housing, education and health care were caused by capitalism and could not be solved under capitalism and that was why he was advocating socialism as the solution.There's an EDL demonstration in Oxford on Saturday and also a counter-demonstration. This came up, with only us, Artwell and the LibDems defending the right of the EDL (and anyone else) to express their views, however obnoxious, as well as of those opposed to the EDL to protest.
Here's a reply to a reply we sent to somebody who asked, via 38 Degrees, our candidate in Oxford East to do pledge to do something about tax-dodging by rich corporations and individuals.
We Wrote wrote:To be quite honest, the Socialist Party is not particularly concerned that the super-rich dodge paying their taxes. We are more concerned with
the very existence of a class of super-rich within society.Their income and wealth derives from the exploitation of the rest of us who, by our work, produce all the wealth of society. Socialism will put an
end to this by making the means of wealth production common property under the democratic control of the community. There will be no rich or
super-rich nor poor or super-poor, just a classless society of free and equal men and women cooperating to produce and distribute what they need
in accordance with the socialist principle of "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".We are standing in this election to promote this idea.
He replied:
Quote:I take your point, which is fair enough I guess.But I am 73 years old and I'm tired of waiting for the revolution to happen. I guess
it won't be in my lifetime!!In the meantime, any way we can get the bastards is better than none in my book!!
Good to see that basic class consciousness is alive and kicking.
More news from Oxford:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/01/ukip-candidate-alan-harris-accused-of-racist-and-homophobic-facebook-posts_n_6984154.htmlDon't know if it's true, but what is it about the UKIP candidates standing against us?. First, their candidate in Swansea West brings out an unofficial leaflet that they had to reudiate, then their candidate in Folkestone & Hythe is sacked for trying to fiddle her expenses to "repatriate" money from the EU, and now this.
Right, two things:1) Nomination papers in, accepted, and deposit paid: Islington north is go!2) Hustings last night, 6 candidates and 40 people (who managed to find the venue) on Housing. A pleasant evening, even the Tory (clearly mindful of the seat he is contesting) called for state intervention to build houses, and all the candidates basically agreed the market isn't working (made my job easier). I think I fluffed my opening speech a little, but I got the last word with a short answer: "Abolish landlords" (The question was about evictions).It was followed on twitter, including this tweet.https://twitter.com/IslingtonPRS/status/583337499432493056
Nomination accepted and deposit paid, in Abingdon, for Oxford West & Abingdon. This tile saw a Tory poster too.Today's Oxford Mail has the front page headline: FACEBOOK TIRADE BY UKIP MAN IS PROBED. Page 9 carries a report on the hustings on civil liberties organised by 38 Degrees on Tuesday:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/12867739.Candidates_hit_out_at_rise_in_state_control_under_coalition/The print version has a photo of the other candidates too, but Kevin can be seen in the online photo, at the end on the right.
Nominations accepted and deposits paid for the two Brighton constituencies.The two candidates there have between them received a further 487 emails via the 38 Degrees lobby group; they are in the process of being replied to.We will be holding street stalls in Brighton after Easter; the first one arranged for Saturday, 18 April from 12 noon. The location will be in Bond Street, on a stretch of fairly wide pavement, outside an empty shop unit and very close to the junction with North Street. http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/event/brighton-election-stall-12-noon
Quote:Voters were presented with a wide range of solutions to the malaise, from the cry for the abolition of all landlords by far-left candidate Bill Martin of the Socialist Party of Great Britain to a call for “discouraging people from moving here” by Greg CloughMaybe worth a letter distancing ourselves from the description "far-left" …http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2015/apr/election-2015-despite-differences-parliamentary-hopefuls-agree-capital-grip-%E2%80%98acute-houDid Bill Martin ever ride with the James Gang?…from his pic i could easily imagine he did.
Strange…my morning perusal of the British press shows that it is Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP dominates the headlines…from a clumsy Daily Telegraph smear to plaudits that she is the new "Queen of the Scots" and the "king-maker"The referendum defeat has not made the nationalists go away but to the dismay of many, it has brought them to a new prominence Back in Glasgow, the discredited Sheridan urges workers to support the SNP and fallen out with SPEW http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2015/04/tommy-sheridan-shameless-scottish.htmlHe too is studying to be lawyer , like Sturgeon, and i think it is only a matter of time before he takes the next step and joins her politically, after all Jimmy Reid of the UCS sit-in and Communist Party did. On another topic, i thought this podcast on the SSP website was a nice idea we may consider copyinghttp://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/category/news/
gnome wrote:The two candidates there have between them received a further 487 emails via the 38 Degrees lobby group; they are in the process of being replied to.Here's one of the template replies being used; this time re TTIP:
Quote:Dear Brighton voter,Please forgive the general address but I have several hundred of these to reply to and no staff or fancy PC sub routine to bulk reply…
Somehow we have all come to accept we live in a world where there is no alternative to these international trade deals: that there is no option but to a system based on markets of supply and demand. This means of course we all are beholden to large financial interests and see ourselves as powerless and insignificant. We meekly accept that we are pawns in this arrangement and it could not be otherwise. All the while the captains of those massive corporations and their shareholders are receiving huge bonuses. Somehow they can play by different rules to us, or rather they make them and we follow them. It is of course in their interests that everyone believes there is no other way to run things. TTIP is yet one more example of vested interests using their power: tackling this one issue will not really make much difference…
All the other candidates on offer at this election will offer you some tinkering within the current set up: a bit more/less tax, bit more/less spend, bit more/less rhetoric. Either way they will not tackle the fact that the system is set up to benefit the few at the expense of the many. They all believe that things must be arranged as they are; they all support a market system where a select few have more money, power and privileges.
The Socialist Party exists to argue that there is another way; that people are intelligent enough to arrange things so that society runs to benefit us all and not just the top 2%. We believe trying to reform capitalism is a bit like trying to reform the noro virus: a hiding to nothing. The whole thing has to be restructured so that we [plural] are in control. A vote for us is signalling that you too want the entire system to change: you have had enough of this exploitation and degradation. Things will only move forward when people start to assert their dissatisfaction with what is happening. Vote socialist and start to bring about the change that you know is necessary.
Election Stall in Canterbury 4-4-15
Quote:Despite wind and some rain, we maintained a stall and display in Canterbury high street for about 4 hours today.Our new banner, which carries both the new Party emblem and head office fascia designs got its first airing (Photos: http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/photos/26026579/), and hopefully this will prevent us being confused with SPEW again. One passer by could be heard exclaiming “SPGB” to his fellow worker.The display stand withstood a strong breeze, being tethered to one of the new bollards erected by the city (in our honour?). We are now convinced it is indestructible, and the biggest danger would be if it ripped the bollard out of the pavement and took off with it.Members and a friend from another group distributed about 400 leaflets and had several conversations with local electors.We now have three new election leaflet designs with 2 or 4 ‘sides’ for our stalls, with versions for both Canterbury and Folkestone. This means we will have a different leaflet to hand out every remaining Saturday. All have links to the election video, trackable web addresses and some QR codes.Several items of literature were sold and we were glad to be visited by a few locals who remembered us from earlier encounters, in the street or Hustings.The rain is now less of a problem as we found a shop with a sale on which sells ‘bungee’ fixers which can easily hold down a rain cover, etc, if they are applied before the banner is attached to the stall. Without resorting on this occasion to ‘theft’ (liberation) or armed robbery, we were able to acquire four sets of these (marked £4.99 each) for under £5 (for the whole lot).One of the questions about which our candidates have been asked from hundreds of members of the 38 Degrees campaigning group is to sign Greenpeace's anti-fracking pledge. None have, not necessarily because they or we are in favour of fracking, but because in elections we don't make any pledges or promises on any subject. Greenpeace say that 780 had signed up by 1 April:
Quote:The Frack Free Promise, an online platform launched by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, has already seen 780 candidates pledge to oppose fracking in their constituencies or help block it across Britain if their areas have not been licensed.Click here to see which candidates have made the Frack Free PromiseAt last check, 402 Green Party, 104 Lib Dem, 100 Labour, 23 Plaid Cymru, 7 SNP, and 7 Ukip candidates had taken the pledge. No Tory election hopefuls have signed up so far.At least one of our candidates has replied direct to Greenpeace itself but he is recorded as not having replied. There appears to be no provision on their interactive page for candidates who have replied without signing the pledge. We are taking this up with them.
A member has posted our election video here:https://vimeo.com/123923032So it's here as well as on Youtube.
We were unable to leaflet this event in Oxford as it coincided with our annual conference:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/12869043.5_30PM_UPDATE__VIDEO__Three_arrested_and_one_police_officer_injured_during_EDL_march_in_Oxford/?ref=arA number of our leaflets were, however, distributed in Kidlington, which despite being part of Cherwell (Banbury) council, is included in the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency.
My available time is short, and I want to be able to do tribute when I will be of most use. When would I most useful coming up to Oxford?
Probably for one of our regular street stalls. We're planning these on every Thursday evening from 5pm to 7pm in central Oxford and every Saturday from 12 noon and maybe in the afternoon (or door-to-door leafletting) from now until election date.The first Thursday one is this Thursday (9 April) in Broad Street.The second Saturday one was planned for this Saturday but we may change this to Sunday as we've been invited to a hustings on Sunday 12 April at 6pm:http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/events/221615962/We'll decide at the branch tonight. I'll let you know.In any event, from next week it will be every Thursday at 5pm and every Saturday. On Thursday 30 April we'll be holding an election meeting, with the Oxford Communist Corresponding Society, at 7.30 in central Oxford
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