General Election – Campaign News
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I did warn in an earlier post to watch out for unscrupulous postal workers off-loading the leaflets. I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Should we officially complain?
Ask for financial recompense for the cost of those wasted leaflets…you might just get a bunch of free stamps to hand over to HO
Report of a hustings in Oxford on Wednesday:http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/elections_2015/12908109.NHS_and_concerns_about_care_top_agenda_for_OAPs_at_Age_UK_hustings/?ref=macAt least we were there and it was mentioned that we were.
Just got the Party Election leaflet through the door. The wording was excellent, well done to those involved!Just two quibbles.1/The leaflet was a tad small IMHO. Although saying that, TheNorthEastParty leaflet is half our size!!!2/As a member who first joined in 1981, one would think it would not be beyond the wit of man, to spell my name correctly! I was wrong. Its actually COLBORN, not as shown on the leaflet COLBURN.
Response to someone concerned about the abuse of human rights:
Quote:Thank you for your email which has been forwarded to me as the Brighton Pavilion candidate. We have much sympathy with your position which stems from the concern we share about the extent to which power in our society is used to further the interests of vested interests mainly against members of the working class: I am sure most the victims of human rights abuses are members of the working class.Sadly we hold that unless the nature of the power structures in our society are radically altered, pieces of legislation and conventions are likely to be more honoured in the breach than the observance. The state, as the perpetrator of most of these abuses is there to reflect the interests of the rich and powerful and will find ways to circumvent such constraints if they stand in the way of business opportunities. Look at the USA post 9/11 and the extent to which codes of decent conduct were simply torn up and discarded.A society of haves and have-nots will always create conflict and the haves will enact measures to suppress the have-nots; measures moreover to teach them a lesson and punish them for aspirations beyond their station. Even if every government indiscretion were investigated and some fall-guys identified and punished, it will make little difference: the real culprits will go unmolested, because the law and the legal system is there mainly for them.It will only be when the power balance is redressed that we can be honest and hopeful about these issues; that there can be some possibility of real human rights – where one group of people does not have the power to inflict these vile degradations on others.Only in a socialist world can we permanently preclude the possibility of the power relations which allow such abuses. Whilst there is no possibility of a socialist victory at this election, and it is a long road, the journey must start sooner than later: for the sake of humanity and for the sake of the planet [capitalism is no friend of the environment]. It is incumbent on every conscientious person to vote socialist to begin to turn the page. Howard Pilott The Socialist Party candidate for Brighton Pavilion http://spgb.net/brAnother two reported cases of leaflet 'dumping' via Twitter.Islington area: https://twitter.com/jasminecoleman/status/590948950196281344And Canterbury area: https://twitter.com/OfficialSPGB/status/591561163651047424Max Hess
DJP wrote:You're free to have you're own opinion on this but should election candidates really be stating positions that have not been agreed on by the party as a whole?and this should be applied to party representation on websites and internet accounts ?
Some hustings ammo for our candidates to expose Labour's pro capitalist position http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/24/labour-to-call-on-michael-heseltine-if-it-wins-electionMichael Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister is being lined up by the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, to advise Labour in government. Umunna described Heseltine as a “visionary” A "One Nation" Tory who supports Tory welfare cuts, now has Labour Party blessing.
Response to an email by The Travellers Movement; Thank you for your email. As a member, and Candidate of/for The Socialist Party, I understand the concerns of the communities you identify. The problem is, these problems take place within a system of society, Capitalism, that is unable/unwilling to address these concerns and issues. This world does not belong to the communities you mention, any more than it does to the vast amounts of other members of the working class. There can never be satisfactory outcomes for any of our problems, no matter the platitudes doled out by the bucket full, by the representatives of the Ruling Class.The only solution is to replace the present way society is organised (Minority ownership of the means of life, production for profit, rich and poor ETC), with a Society based on Democratic Control and Ownership, of the means of producing and distributing the things we need to live. Production for direct human use, no classes just people, cooperating together as free and equal individuals, owning in common the world and the resources within it, for the benefit of "All"!!I would urge you to find out about the alternative put forward by The Socialist Party. The Society we have at present, Capitalism, cannot be reformed. It needs replacing and it is that, that The Socialist Party put before voters at the Election.All good things to you and the communities you represent,Steve Colborn,The Socialist PartyEasington constituency Candidate.__________________________________________________________________________________________
Response to an email from the Join MyMp Programme organisation; Hi Jo, I have read your email and the information included within it. One of the points stated was, For more information on the rationale for the programme see Zac Goldsmith’s RSA Lecture: Transforming Politics in the UK .Forgive me if I appear a bit dense but is not Mr Goldsmith, a member of one of the richest families in the country? It hardly supports your organisations claims to be , making a stronger commitment to democracy, by having a link to this lecture! Zac Goldsmith is a perfect example of why the Society we live in is not, Democratic.His life is one of affluence and privilege, an affluence and privilege that has been provided for, on the backs of the vast majority, whose lives are the polar opposite! Lives of stress, insecurity, poverty and want!The representatives of Goldsmith and his class, are the exact same ones who blame the poor for their poverty and see themselves as some sort of Elite, a cut above.If you really are, concerned with Democracy, then your campaign would do a lot worse than campaigning for direct participatory democracy, and a Society in which it would be implemented, not the sham that is espoused as Democracy today, the oxymoronic "representative" democracy.Myself and The Socialist Party (the only truly Democratic, leaderless Political Party in the Country) are contesting this Election on a platform of replacing the undemocratic, elitist Capitalist system, with the Common Ownership and Democratic Control of a system of Society called Socialism, for want of a better word.If you would like to find out more about democracy, please feel free to contact us. Yours Fraternally, Steve Colborn,The Socialist Party Candidate,Easington Constituency.
I think someone mentioned this before but here's the Weekly Worker's full staterment:
Quote:In the forthcoming general election we urge critical support for candidates according to the following priority order:Labour candidates who support the statement coordinated by Michael Meacher and signed by 15 Labour MPs in January 2015. Namely Diane Abbott, Dave Anderson, Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn, Fabian Hamilton, Kelvin Hopkins, Ian Lavery, John McDonnell, Michael Meacher, Ian Mearns, Grahame Morris, Linda Riordan, Steve Rotherham, Jim Sheridan and Chris Williamson.They oppose Labour’s current deficit reduction plans, call for the renationalisation of the railways and a return to collective bargaining and employment rights in the workplace. We want to emphasise that the Labour Party remains a bourgeois workers’ party and therefore a strategic site of struggle.Left Unity candidates. There are many weaknesses in LU’s manifesto, but despite that there is much that is positive. Eg, it stands against demands for British withdrawal from the EU; it supports open borders. We also note that, though LU has no agreed position on the Labour Party, it has declined to stand candidates against Labour lefts.Candidates standing under the banner of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. Those behind Tusc aim to establish a Labour Party mark II. As such this is a hopeless and utterly illusory project. It also bases itself on lowest-common-denominator unity. Nevertheless a half-decent showing by Tusc candidates, including those in Scotland, would undoubtedly be positive, given the suffocating austerity consensus reigning amongst mainstream parties.Other leftwing candidates: eg, the Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain, Socialist Party of Great Britain, etc.Where there is no supportable candidate, the CPGB urges voters to spoil their ballot papers with some suitable message: eg, ‘For socialism’.If I've followed these convolutions correctly they are calling for a vote not for us in the following order: Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn),, Easington (Grahame Morris), Vauxhall (Left Unity), Swansea West, Oxford East, Folkestone & Hythe (TUSC) and a vote for us (without illusions) in: Canterbury, Oxford West & Abingdon, Brighton Kemptown and even Brighton Pavilion (even against Caroline Lucas). Also, like us, in the vast majority of constituencies to write "Socialism" across the ballot paper.
Max, can you email any addresses you have to nlb.spgb@gmail.com — I have a complaint in train. I'll be speaking to otehr candidates this afternoon.
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