General Election – Campaign News
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Apologies. A bit of an in-joke. You need to know that Workers Fight is the name of the English supporter(s) of the French Trotskyist group Lutte Ouvrière. Their articles are mainly translations from French and read like that. For instance this. Having said that, I'm sure they make the same joke about our material in French.Meanwhile we were on BBC Radio Oxford again, last Friday. Mike gets a pre-recorded minute in edgeways 39 minutes in:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02qf5ksIncidentally this is the first time the disgraced UKIP candidate has appeared with the others. Cherwell, the student newspaper, in its coverage of the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency says:
Quote:It's certainly not clear, however, that Harris is the most extreme candidate in this election. That title might have to go to Mike Foster, of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. His party, he told me, "is in favour of abolishing the entire political system as we know it, and replacing it with a world of common ownership and free access". Anyone who's watched five minutes of Prime Minister's Questions might be inclined to agree with this, but Foster is a little unclear on how this will ultimately be achieved. He's certainly not hoping, he says, to be elected to Parliament, and instead is using the election as a platform to think about socialist ideas.The Internet Committee provided links to our website for election enquiries made. Here's the latest tally of 'clicks' recorded so far for each of the areas plus a few others:Brighton (br) 212Canterbury (ct): 24Easington (sr): 15Folkestone (fh): 17 Islington (nn): 29Oxford (xf): 86Swansea (sw): 51Vauxhall (vx): 25Election video (ve): 75Election video (ve2) 79Election video (ve2015) 27Max Hess' poster (mhp) 70
Any chance that any of the AV committee's IT Crowd can isolate Mike's contribution so it can be embedded in our website and blogs? …Sums up our case quite succinctly, he does.
Can we do it all again later this year?…(won't be the first time there has been two elections in one year – 1974)http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/labour-gets-ready-for-second-2015-general-election-1-3761692
Quote:SENIOR Labour figures are privately discussing a strategy for a second general election later this year. Scotland on Sunday has learned that party officials are looking at a second vote, which one MP described as a “very likely scenario”, in the wake of Ed Miliband’s confirmation last week that he would not form a Labour government if it required a deal with SNP MPs.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.
Hi ALB, This is the whole point of standing in these elections, getting our message out to members of the public. I am pleased to see that Steve's oration has borne fruit. I hope our hostility clause does not prevent some sort of liaison between our groups. At the very least I can see a debate in the offing.
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.
Window overlooking Folkestone Harbour
The Prince's Ward by-election Hustings took place on Thursday 30 April 2015 in St Anselm's Church, Kennington Cross. Prince's Ward is in the north of Lambeth borough, comprising mainly Vauxhall and Kennington. The most interesting thing about council by-elections and their hustings is seeing capitalism in a microcosm and its effects on people at the local level in Lambeth with regards to housing, libraries and schools. There was a small demo outside the hustings before it began – local community activists carrying a 'Hands Off Durning Library' banner.Around 50 people turned out for the hustings and all 6 candidates were there: Danny Lambert, the Socialist Party candidate, Kingsley Abrams (Left Unity-TUSC), Labour, Lib-Dems, Green and Tory. Danny stood (all the other candidates sat down for their speeches/answers as they had nothing to be excited about to stand up) and gave his 2 minutes opening which was a concise exposition of the Socialist case.The Green Party had some support at the hustings but their candidate was weak. The point of the Greens seems to be what Caroline Lucas said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, as a group that puts political pressure on Labour from the left. There was no support for the Lib-Dems and I can't recall a single thing he said. The Tory candidate was personable and probably right when he said 'I'm the only candidate here who can beat Labour' but he had no support there.The Labour candidate is a shoe-in to win Prince's Ward, she had lots of support there. But what a candidate! Mealy-mouthed, charmless, professional Blairite career politician in the making, a product of the Vauxhall Labour Party Machine. I thought of Danny's observation 'anyone who wants to be a politician is the last person you'd want'. The Vauxhall Labour MP Kate Hoey was in the audience.Local Lambeth issues dominated the hustings – 'estate regeneration' or really the housing crisis in particular Knights Walk, threatened closure of Durning Library, the need for expansion of the Archbishop Sumner School. Lambeth Labour Council got it in the neck from 4 of the candidates, the Labour could not stick the boot in too much! Even Danny had to agree that Lambeth Council data is not to be trusted. Another local issue that has recently developed is the future of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern which has been bought by a property developer. The LGBT community and continuing existence of the RVT supported by all candidates, although Danny pointed out the inevitability of things like this happening when we live in an economic system where profit comes before people's needs.If I was one of the community activists at the hustings then my vote would go to Kingsley Abrams of Left Unity-TUSC. He had some support at the hustings, and was a very capable speaker. He should be, as he is a professional local politician, many years experience as a Merton Labour councillor and Lambeth Labour councillor. His refrain was 'I will never vote for cuts' but he sometimes spoke of himself in the third person using his forename! 'Kingsley will never vote for cuts!' He never once mentioned the word 'socialism' although even Steve Nally, Trotskyite TUSC candidate at other hustings doesn't either. Abrams is also LU– TUSC parliamentary candidate in Southwark against Lib Dem Simon Hughes. Abrams is unusual in that he is not a Trotskyite and is standing for TUSC. He is Labour left. He praised the so-called 'independence' of Vauxhall Labour MP Kate Hoey who was in attendance for part of the hustings. I spoke with Simon Hardy (Vauxhall Left Unity candidate) in Brixton last Saturday, and he said LU were there to push Labour to the 'left'. So that is the point of Left Unity.Abrams 'pledges' were music to the ears of the local activists involved in the Knights Walk, Durning Library, Archbishop Sumner School campaigns. He got passionate (although he did not stand up!) talking about 'regeneration' means 'social cleansing', it is a a disgrace, he proposed rent caps, scrapping the right to buy, scrapping the bedroom tax (the only time it was mentioned – probably because of its unpopularity even a Labour government will scrap it if elected on 7 May)Our socialist Iranian comrade pointed out to the hustings there were 1 million empty homes, and that 'housing should be held in common'. On a question of working with local faith communities, Danny had the best answer when he spoke about the 'human community', although I feared he was going to do Marx on religion but really that was me wanting to do a socialist exposition on 'religion' along the lines of Feuerbach and Marx !The hustings switched then to a quasi-Anglican caring capitalism feel when the Vicar's curate made a statement on the plight of Carers in the borough who are paid below minimum wage, are on zero hours contracts, and not paid travel expenses for travelling between clients. Abrams again gave his support as a trade unionist for UNITE, and representing TUSC and Left Unity, proposing £10 minimum wage, and the scrapping of zero hours contracts. I gasped inwardly when the Labour candidate said the minimum wage of £9.15 was a 'reasonable wage' ! although nobody at the hustings felt that the Labour candidate had just revealed her contempt for working people.Danny pointed out that the Curate had nicely put into words an indictment of capitalism. 5 of the candidates want a more 'caring', 'compassionate capitalism', believe capitalism can be reformed to be better although Danny pointed out several times that capitalism cannot be made to work in the interests of working people. To round off a peculiar hustings the Tory candidate had the best line right at the end of the hustings when he said 'Finally, what is the use of words. Let us be seen together in Action' which clinched the finale, and was taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses.SPC
May Day street stall in Canterbury. Successful stalls held on the last two Saturdays in Canterbury, sold several items of literature and handed out more than 500 leaflets each afternoon.
Two pictures of May Day in Oxford. One of the party stall; the other of placards displayed by members of the Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.
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/
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.
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