Islington Junction ward by-election
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North London branch will be contesting this election on 21 March. The Party candidate is Bill Martin. You can follow the campaign here (pending this blog's incorporation into this site).
Junction ward is the area round Archway in north London. Part of it borders on Highgate Cemetry where we all know who is buried.
North London Branch have re-located their meeting place, day of meeting and time.From March they will meet at The Coronet, 338-346 Holloway Road, London N7 6NJ on the second Tuesday of each month at 7.30pmNearest tube: Holloway Road on the Piccadilly linehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/event/north-london-branch-holloway-730pmThey will be discussing the Conference agenda (as well as the local by-election) at their March 12th meeting.
Latest on the Islington Junction ward by-election:-http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
The full list of candidates was published at noon today. There are 6 including the BNP:http://www.islington.gov.uk/publicrecords/library/Democracy/Publicity/Public-notices/2012-2013/%282013-02-25%29-SOPN-Junction.pdfTUSC are not standing but seem to be concentrating on the Gospel Oak by-election on 14 March in nearby Camden where their candidate is an official of the RMT union. The BNP is standing there too and in the other by-election in Islington in St George's ward the same day as in Junction ward.
This week's Islington Gazette mentions that we are standing."New HopefulA new leftwing candidate has entered the fray in the forthcoming Junction ward by-election. Bill Martin, 36, a university librarian, who lives in Hargrave Road, Archway, will stand for the Socialist Party of Great Britain on March 21."http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
Save the WhittingtonThe big issue in the Junction ward by-election is the campaign to save the Whittington Hospital, and their plans for a major sell off of land and reduction in beds, see here.On Wednesday 23 January 2013, the Whittington Health Trust Board agreed an estates strategy that will see more services provided in health centres across Haringey and Islington. The strategy responds to the health trends of our local population. More people are receiving healthcare in their homes, health centres and GP surgeries. Technology will increasingly support more care, especially for people with long term conditions. The frail elderly are often best cared for in community settings. Over time, the dependency on hospital wards will decrease, which will see some staff relocate to health centres.You could expect, if clinical need was the driver of the change, that they would roll out the community service, and then reduce beds and staff accomodation based on proven reduced need. This press release from a local MP suggests this is at least nominally the case:Following a meeting with Lynne Featherstone MP and Cllr David Winskill, the Whittington Hospital has offered assurances that no services will be lost during their reorganization until equal or better replacement services are in place.It is more likely, that the below quote from another of their leaflets is the real driver(PDF):All hospitals are obliged to become Foundation Trusts or risk acquisition by other Foundation Trusts – our investment plans are a major part of our effort to become a Foundation Trust.This is the reality, and why the hospital is threatened (again), and will be (again) even if the campaign succeeds. Hospitals forced to behave like businesses rather than providing a needs based service must start looking at the value of their estate as a priority. The position of the Socialist Party is clear: we will not campaign for election based on supporting any given set of reforms: but we do support the struggle of workers to defend their living standards and services (indeed, Unite The Union is at the forefront of the Whittington Campaign). We will not seek to take over the campaign like so many other organisations do. It’s too easy for a Councillor or an MP to campaign to Save our Hospital/School/Police Station, because they can’t lose. If the campaign succeeds it was because of them, if it fails it was despite their valliant efforts. If elected to council, our delegate will vote, as instructed, in the interests of the workers, but we won’t kid on that we will be the saviors of them. Our election promise is to fight for the common ownership of the wealth of the world so that our health needs can be met directly without commercial consideration. That is the real issue behind the repeated campaigns to “Save the Whittington”, as government funds are squeezed by falling commercial profits (and thus reduced tax take) they seek to cut or commercialise the costs of health care.http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
Controversial new post over on the blog…http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/save-whittington.html
Here's our leaflet for the Islington Junction by-election. The first 400 were distributed today. As the last post said, the big issue seems to be Whittington Hospital as there are a number of "Save Whittington Hospital" posters from the Labour Party in people's windows. This is Labour territory, where Old Labourite Jeremy Corbyn is the MP. A BNP sympathiser claimed that there was a website http://www.benefity.org.uk. which advises Polish workers about benefits available. So what? They are just property-less workers moving from one part of the world to another in search of an income on which to live. As it's a local election, as EU citizens, they can also vote. Perhaps we should do a leaflet in Polish. In the meantime there's the articles on the World Socialist Movement website. http://www.worldsocialism.org/othlang.php#pl
Candidate Bill Martin in full but limited flight during the 2012 GLA elections at a hustings in Putney, South London.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic28EwLsLqU&feature=em-subs_digest
The cuts and what to do about themAlthough this is not an issue in this election as there is no candidate standing on anti-cuts programme promising to oppose all cuts, this passage from an introduction to a reprint a couple of years ago to a pamphlet Unwaged Fightback: A History of the Islington Action Group of the Unwaged, 1980-1986 makes the same point as us against this strategy:In Islington itself, Labour councillors implement savage cuts to services one day and lead the ‘anti-cuts’ marches the next. During the 1980s rate-capping struggles many people invested much support and hope in their elected representatives; disillusion was probably bound to follow, partly because brave lefty leaders get cold feet, or end up sacking workers and making cuts in the end (‘with a heavy heart’), usually on the grounds that it’s better for them to be in charge than someone worse, they have no choice. In reality they do have little choice, because their real room to manoeuvre IS limited, by central government funding, legal obligations, and so on, even more now than in the ’80s.What to do, then? Harry Lynch, the author of the 2011 introduction, says:It would be great to have an independent workers movement, that answered both austerity and attempts to co-opt rebellion by Labour councillors, union full-timers, and professional lefties with the proper politeness: occupy the lot, strike, not for a day but for good, and lets run the world ourselves. Time will tell as to if that develops, and how.Yes, of course. If such a movement existed, then socialism would be just round the corner, not that staging a syndicalist General Strike to try to overthrow capitalism would be the most intelligent way of proceeding. Still, it is true that, given capitalism in an economic crisis, there is not much that workers can do other than protest in the hope of getting a few exemptions or slowing the cuts down. The real lesson is that, since all that capitalism has to offer is austerity and cuts, we should concentrate on organising to bring it to an end by political action aimed at ushering in a society based on the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production so that there can be produce for directly for use and not for profit, and distribution on the principle of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. Socialism.http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
A day’s leaflettingMost of the ward was leafletted yesterday (March 9th) by 5 of us. Only about 400 or 500 of the 3000 leaflets remain and a few streets near suicide bridge to cover.We met a Green canvasser and a Labour one and saw some LibDem leaflets but no sign of the Tories or the BNP.The Green leaflet called for a 20mph speed limit on Holloway Road, but as Holloway Road is the A1, the main road out of London to the North and three lanes both ways in some parts, this seems a bit nimbyish.The Labour man said that he had explained to his fellow Labourites that we were not trotskyists. We thanked him.After the leafletting we went to a local pub for a drink just in time to see the start of the Ireland-France rugby match. It turned out to be an Irish pub and when the Irish national anthem (the Soldiers’ Song) was played a couple of the customers stood up to attention, the ejeets. A reminder that this used to be an Irish area with an Irish MP.
Talking to the press (from our candidate)”I have a horrible habit of just chatting to journalists, forgetting that their lizard brain is constantly on the search for a story angle. I dislike treating them the way that professional politicians do: ignore what they ask, give them your prepared statement, and duck and weave around inconvenient questions. Of course, these formats are a game, and both sides know they’re playing. Anyway, I got a call from someone at a local news outlet call Islington Now. His line he was trying to establish was that the Liberal Democrats and Labour aren’t really campaigning in Junction Ward, because it is expected to be a Labour victory, and there is a tighter contest in St. George’s. I said that local elections don’t normally see much action, and by-elections often less, since, given the participants usually have to actually work, the lack of a decent lead in to take holidays and plan (and the like) means activity will be limited. I did point out that the Whittington Campaign is predominating in the area, and that, unlike other campaigns I’ve seen around London, no party was trying to get their name on the campaign (I was thinking of a campaign to stop a Police station closure in Willesden Green a couple of years ago I’d seen where the Lib-Dems put they’re name over lots of posters). I told him we expected to come last: best be honest with journalists, eh? But that it was quality not quantity that counted. We don’t want people to vote for us, unless they mean it and understand what socialism is. I also said our platform was to promise nothing: if they vote for us, they’re making the promise. Promising to campaign and fight for socialism, and letting their fellow workers know this. We’ll have to see what comes of the chat.”http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
Members of North London Branch will be meeting at Holloway Tube at 11:30 tomorrow (16th) to leaflet a March against the proposed cuts/changes at London’s Whittington hospital. Anyone who wants to come along and help out is welcome. This is what the leaflet says:- Save the Whittington (again)In one of their leaflets the managers of Whittington Hospital disclose the real driver behind their plans: “All hospitals are obliged to become Foundation Trusts or risk acquisition by other Foundation Trusts – our investment plans are a major part of our effort to become a Foundation Trust.” This is the reality, and why the hospital is threatened (again), and will be (again) even if the campaign succeeds. Hospitals, forced to behave like businesses rather than providing a needs-based service, must start looking at the value of their estate as a priority. The position of the Socialist Party is clear: we will not campaign for election based on supporting any given set of reforms; but we do support the struggle of workers to defend their living standards and services (indeed, Unite The Union is at the forefront of the Whittington Campaign). We will not seek to take over the campaign like so many other organisations do. It’s too easy for a Councillor or an MP to campaign to Save our Hospital/School/Fire Station, because they can’t lose. If the campaign succeeds it was because of them, if it fails it was despite their valiant efforts. If elected to the council, our delegate will vote, as instructed, in the interests of the workers, but we won’t kid on that we can save services within the profit-driven market system where profits always come before people. That is the real issue behind the repeated campaigns to “Save the Whittington”. As government funds are squeezed by falling commercial profits (and thus a reduced tax take) they seek to cut or commercialise the costs of health care. Our election platform is to fight for the common ownership of the wealth of the world so that our health and other needs can be met directly without commercial consideration.The Socialist candidate in the Junction ward by-election on 21 March is Bill Martin.http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
gnome wrote:Members of North London Branch will be meeting at Holloway Tube at 11:30 tomorrow (16th) to leaflet a March against the proposed cuts/changes at London's Whittington hospital. Anyone who wants to come along and help out is welcome. This is what the leaflet says:- Save the Whittington (again)In one of their leaflets the managers of Whittington Hospital disclose the real driver behind their plans: "All hospitals are obliged to become Foundation Trusts or risk acquisition by other Foundation Trusts – our investment plans are a major part of our effort to become a Foundation Trust." This is the reality, and why the hospital is threatened (again), and will be (again) even if the campaign succeeds. Hospitals, forced to behave like businesses rather than providing a needs-based service, must start looking at the value of their estate as a priority. The position of the Socialist Party is clear: we will not campaign for election based on supporting any given set of reforms; but we do support the struggle of workers to defend their living standards and services (indeed, Unite The Union is at the forefront of the Whittington Campaign). We will not seek to take over the campaign like so many other organisations do. It's too easy for a Councillor or an MP to campaign to Save our Hospital/School/Fire Station, because they can't lose. If the campaign succeeds it was because of them, if it fails it was despite their valiant efforts. If elected to the council, our delegate will vote, as instructed, in the interests of the workers, but we won't kid on that we can save services within the profit-driven market system where profits always come before people. That is the real issue behind the repeated campaigns to "Save the Whittington". As government funds are squeezed by falling commercial profits (and thus a reduced tax take) they seek to cut or commercialise the costs of health care. Our election platform is to fight for the common ownership of the wealth of the world so that our health and other needs can be met directly without commercial consideration.The Socialist candidate in the Junction ward by-election on 21 March is Bill Martin.http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/It's a pity there is no 'share this' button. I wouldn't mind tweeting this statement.
Turn up again, Dick Whittington”As I write, otherwise placid people are outside, demonstrating. In modern political parlance, demonstration simply means the right to petition. More pertinently, it means demonstrating how strong you are; how many you are; and just who you are. Clearly, the civil society of Islington, Camden and other nearby boroughs have turned out, and a good couple of thousand are marching in the cold and rain; supported extempore banners from nearby residential windows and the beeped horns of cars. I wonder if politicians take their holidays in summer, because that is the time we’d have bigger and better demos — best for them to make the unpopular decisions at cold times of the year.A small group of us turned up at Holloway tube, and handed out our leaflet. The march passed us by in fifteen minutes, and we got shot of a few hundred leaflets. We’d turned up a bit too early, because I’d suggested meeting at the same time as the march’s muster, even though that meant it wouldn’t be passing that station for another 45 minutes. My apologies to those who waited in the cold and rain. Our leaflets were taken pleasantly by the contingents in the march. As predicted, Jeremy Corbin, the Islington North MP, and the leader of Islington Council were at the forefront of the march (actually, behind the jazz band in the bus, only in Islington). The Green Party, Labour Party and even the Liberal Democrats had contingents. There were leafleteers from the SWP, Militant and even the fabled Socialist Equality Party.The campaign has already had some success, the hospital had an advert in the Gazette for a series of public meetings, so that’s going to be the second chance to make the point clear, whether or not the cuts are stopped or changed, a clear point has been made by the local community.”http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
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