Why I’m standing for TUSC

I initially wasn’t going to stand this year for elections in the county council but I am glad I have thrown my hat into the ring now. It hasn’t been easy for a blind person to stand in elections there is so many inaccessible forms to fill in and getting nominations is a challenge too I eventually managed this though with the help of my comrades who I thank hugely. I will be standing in the Tory rural strong hold of Ware north in East Hertfordshire. The initial policies I will be standing on are • Oppose all cuts to council jobs, services, pay and conditions - we reject the claim that 'some cuts' are necessary to our services. • Reject increases in council tax, rent and service charges to compensate for government cuts. • Vote against the privatisation of council jobs and services, or the transfer of council services to 'social enterprises' or 'arms-length' management organisations, which are first steps to privatisation. • Use all the legal powers available to councils, including powers to refer local NHS decisions, initiate referenda and organise public commissions and consultations, to oppose both the cuts and government polices which centrally impose the transfer of public services to private bodies. • When faced with government cuts to council funding, councils should refuse to implement the cuts. We will support councils which in the first instance use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid passing them on - while arguing that the best way to mobilise the mass campaign that is necessary to defeat the cuts is to set a budget that meets the needs of the local community and demands that the government makes up the shortfall. This is the basic TUSC programme it’s designed as a basic outline as candidates can add bits to it for their local campaigns and local issues which affect them in their area. As I’m standing in Ware North I stand also against local cuts handed down by the Tory lead Herts County Council which include cuts to street lighting at night which I’ve previously blogged about, the cuts to lollipop crossing workers putting children’s lives at risk when walking to and from school and cuts to budgets on the roads meaning we have some of the worst kept roads in the county with many pot holes on our counties roads. Its clear labour are no alternative and in Hertfordshire this is no different their record in local councils like Stevenage Borough Council highlights this where they have implemented the cuts passed on to them from the con-dem government. The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition do not accept any cuts are necessary and in fact even more investment is needed in our public services. There is poverty in Ware despite many thinking we are in a relatively well off area no doubt some are doing quite well but how long this will last as the financial crisis deepens by the month. In ware we have a food bank which serves around 200 people a week so anyone pretending Ware is well off is lying as many who use a food bank are actually in low paid work often unsocial hours that are not paid enough to live on. Hertfordshire County Council should look to pay all its employees a liveable wage not just a living wage which his a code for a increased minimum wage but a wage that workers can live on properly without the need for benefits or food banks. I do not expect to gain hugely from standing this may but by me standing it offers the people of Ware and beyond an alternative from the main cuts parties. TUSC will be contesting 125 seats this may up and down the country with a candidate for the Mayor of Doncaster too. If you wish to find out more check out www.tusc.org.uk

Some initial observations on TUSC in the local elections

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stood 174 candidates in the local elections in England on 5 May 2011.

It’s always important to have a sense of proportion. When dealing with election results, it’s vital. It’s easy to exaggerate election results; to put a favourable gloss on them in order to bolster the morale of your supporters. Elections are brutal. You can’t argue with the results. But how we interpret them must include looking at them in context.

Overall the results are a good initial foray into the local elections. Given the difficulties that the socialist left has had working together to present candidates in elections over the last decade, it was a success to be able to put forward 174 candidates, representing the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers’ Party and independent socialists and trade unionists, with the significant backing of RMT general secretary Bob Crow and other senior figures in that union. In addition the Walsall Democratic Labour Party stood under its own name but endorsed the TUSC programme.

TUSC was standing on an explicit ‘No Cuts’ platform. Whilst there is massive opposition to the cuts, as shown by the massive TUC demonstration on 26 March, there is still a large section of the population that believes that some cuts are necessary. That argument still has to be defeated.

Labour has undoubtedly benefited from the anti-Con-Dem coalition mood. The Lib-Dems were trounced because of the way they betrayed those who voted for them in last year’s general election. Those opposed to the cuts will have voted overwhelmingly for Labour, even though Labour is implementing the cuts at a local level. In most places, it has to be remembered, there were no ‘No Cuts’ candidates to vote for, even for the minority of people who, at this stage, would be prepared to cast their votes for a new, unknown party putting forward that position. In the face of the Con-Dem attacks on public services and the welfare state Labour is seen as a line of defence; as being better than the Tories.

At the moment, most voters think Labour is opposed to the cuts. Many do not realise that Labour in government would implement similar cuts, albeit more slowly. My own experience campaigning in Peckham was that most traditional Labour voters did not know that the Labour-run Southwark council had implemented £33 million cuts with a further £18 million cuts to follow next year. Others thought that there was no alternative to the cuts and that Labour would protect services better than the Tories. There was a section who weren’t going to vote for any party as ‘they’re all the same’. There was another group who were interested in what we had to say and we persuaded some of those to vote for us.

Over the next year, as the cuts begin to bite, the harsh reality of Labour cuts at local level will lead many Labour voters to question their loyalties. Whether they stop voting Labour and whether they cast their votes for socialists depends to a large degree upon what socialists do. The process of Labour voters breaking with Labour will be a slow and uneven process and socialists can only win the votes of those who do decide to break with Labour if they present an alternative for them to support.

In the limited number of wards where TUSC did present an alternative to the cuts programme supported by Labour, Lib Dems and Tories, the results were encouraging.

13 candidates polled over 10%, with three receiving over 30% and a fourth getting 28%. A further 31 candidates polled between 5% – 10%; 56 polled between 2.5% – 5%; 44 polled less than 2% but of those, only 5 got less than 1%.

We are commenting here on generally small votes and low percentages. That is to be expected for a party that has no real national or local profile. In most, if not all, areas where TUSC stood, the voters will not have heard of TUSC until the last few weeks before polling day. And most voters will have received only one or two leaflets. We do not have the forces, at this stage to do much more than this. In this context, some of the votes are quite good.

Clearly we need to address the issues of profile and publicity and find ways of raising our profile and inserting ourselves into the public eye.

Where TUSC candidates stood against a background of previous work, where there was a knowledge and recognition of what the candidate represented, some very good results were obtained.

It was extremely disappointing to lose sitting councillors Michael Lavallette in Preston, Ray Holmes in Bolsover and Pete Smith of the Walsall DLP but their votes were very good, winning 39.8%, 28.2% and 34% respectively. Rob Windsor, a former Socialist Party councillor in Coventry, polled 30.3% in his attempt to win back the seat he lost last year. Former councillors George Tapp in Salford and Jackie Grunsell in Kirklees won 16.1% and 14.8% respectively.

Elsewhere, Maxine Bowler polled 14% in Sheffield and Tom Woodcock polled 12% in Cambridge. Both have stood for election before and have built support in the local electorate. Other notable TUSC results include winning 7% of the vote in four wards in Carlisle and in two in Gateshead.

In Rugby TUSC stood in seven wards and polled an average of 7%, with high points of 16.2% and 12.1%. Candidates included the regional chair of the FBU and the secretary of Warwickshire Unite. They raised £2,000 in donations, including a personal donation of £500 from FBU general secretary Matt Wrack. There is now a local TUSC branch with links to local trade unions.

Where there has been consistent work, the results are better. The lesson is obvious. If socialists want to get better election results we need to stand regularly and campaign consistently in between elections. But even the lower votes polled by TUSC candidates confirm that there is a constituency for a working-class party putting forward socialist policies.

One point is obvious but is worth making. You can only get votes for your programme and party if you stand candidates. Otherwise, the people who might have voted for you will either vote for another party or won’t vote at all. A large number of people do not vote – 35% at the last general election. Many don’t think there’s anyone worth voting for.

If TUSC had been in a position to stand candidates in every ward in England its vote may have been small in percentage terms at this stage but the aggregate vote would have been significant. I do not have figures for the number of voters in these recent local elections but in last year’s general election just over 25 million people voted in English constituencies (65.5% turnout). An average vote of two percent would mean half a million votes. That’s not a bad place for a small socialist party to aim for. But it means developing the profile, resources and supporters to be able to stand candidates on a much wider basis than we were able to do on this occasion.

This will take a lot of patient hard work and determination but it is an achievable target. How quickly we get there depends on many factors, not least what happens in terms of class struggle over the next few years and how TUSC responds.

When we stand in elections, we prefer to win. Having elected representatives like Michael Lavallette and Dave Nellist is a great advantage to the socialist cause. Nobody like losing. But standing without winning is an inevitable but necessary part of the process of building support for socialist ideas. The more regularly we stand and the more widely we stand the greater the accumulated support will be. We have to stand to get votes.

In the context of the number of local elections contested on 5 May, 174 candidates is a very small number. But it is a start. The TUSC initiative has the

big gains for the left in Irish general election

The election results are coming in thick and fast now from the Irish Republic after their huge EU bail out and the greens pulling out of a battered government forced a general election. Below i've found some election results and some analysis from the source i found this from. I feel personally this is excellent news and the working class of Ireland have voted back against the big parties by presenting 5 radical left MP's this is excellent news as it will give working people a real say in waht happens now.

Voters have given the main Irish bosses' party a drubbing in the country’s general election. And the radical left has made a breakthrough, getting at least three TDs elected, with more results to come.

The biggest shift is the slump in support for the Fianna Fáil. Its share of the vote fell to less than 15 percent nationally – compared to 42 percent in the 2007 election.

This is the worst ever defeat for the party that has dominated Irish politics since independence from Britain in 1921 and that has been in power since 1997.

Fianna Fáil’s support in Dublin stood at less than 8 percent. They went from 13 to 1 TD in the capital. This is from a party that historically had 100,000 members when the country’s population was 3.5 million. It previously would have expected to get 40 percent of working class votes. Political dynasties that have controlled constituencies for decades are gone and places that have returned Fianna Fáil TDs (MPs) since the 1920s are now looking elsewhere.

The Irish Green Party, which had slavishly propped up the Fianna Fáil government in coalition, was decimated at the polls and now has no member in parliament.

The Irish Labour Party vote rose massively. But its determined lack of radicalism means that it will not look to use that vote to campaign against austerity. Instead, it is likely to go into coalition with the bosses’ second preference party Fine Gael. Sinn Fein gained and looked set to be the biggest opposition party after getting around 18 percent of the vote.

The radical left made a significant breakthrough with the candidates who are part of the United Left Alliance.

Newly elected TDs in the Alliance include Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party, Clare Daly of the Socialist Party, and Seamus Healy of the Tipperary Unemployed and Works Action Group.

Richard Boyd Barrett for the People before Profit Alliance and Joan Collins of the People before Profit Alliance could both be elected, as the counting continues. Other members of the United Left Alliance polled strongly but are unlikely to win a seat.

The vote was so close in Richard Boyd Barrett’s Dún Laoghaire constituency that a recount has been called for tomorrow.

The last government launched a brutal assault on working class living standards after becoming mired in corruption scandals involving bankers and property developers.

A £73 billion bank bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund meant hammering the poor and the vulnerable.

The ability of the union leadership to keep a lid on struggle against austerity has meant the crisis has been predominantly a crisis of parliamentary politics. Fine Gael are not associated with the corrupt pro-banker and pro-developer excesses of Fianna Fáil and have gained at the ballot box.

But both Labour and Fine Gael backed the IMF bailout of the banks. The next few months will see them implement the same austerity that led to the collapse of Fianna Fáil.

Only 10 more days to campaign to keep the DLA benifit

As the days draw ever closer to febuary the 14th, Whilst most people look forward to this day for Valentines day many of disabled people across the country including myself will be on tender hooks worried to death that the government will vote to scrap the disability living allowance. We only have 10 days left to lobby our Mp's whilst i myself dont hold out much hope of this being voted down i do want to get the message out there that it is important to a lot of people and does need saving.

take a look at this thread on this page here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/messageboards/NF2322273?thread=8034533
It explains a lot and highlights a excellent campaign from the broken of britain to protect the disability living allowance. The governments replacement will b ea personal independance payment which will be more strict and therefore making it harder for borderline disabled people to claim for this.

For the government who promised that the weakest and the most vunrable in our society would be protected it is a absolute outrage that they are being allowed to get away with these attacks on our disabled population. So where is our beloved opposition when it matters and we need them to defend the voice-less ? ? no where to be seen. As the reality is the labour government of the last 13 years was the ones who started the raids and attacks on the disabled. They were starting to cut disability benifits even whilst still in government. I'm not one of these people who see's what they did through rose tinted spectecles i have to live through it and are being affected by these cuts and so called reforms.

So i hope as many of yo who do read this blog and those who dont can lobby your MP to urge them to vote to keep the DLA. I dont hold out much hope myself as DLA in the large part is not a very well known benifit to the majority of people and due to that fact the ignorance of most people they will cut it with no thought spared.

Take a well known policy change the trebling of student university tuitian fees a month or so ago that was hugely popular movement and protests were formed and even that got voted through, all be it narrowly. So what chance does a little benifit that only the disabled benifit from have of surviving these vicious government cuts ?

Despite this i do hope it can be saved or at least protected and Labour and the lib dems who stand for fairness and for the vunrable in society can find their backbone on this vote in the commons on 14th of feb.

To many the DLA is a lifeline. It enables them to get to the local shops by taxi and get out of their house rather than being house bound. It is a benifit which enables people to gain some of their independance back. It may not be perfect and i'm sure many do claim it wrongly that could be looked at. But a major reform of it is not nessesary in my view.

So once again it is the poorest and the most vunrable in society are left picking up the bill for the rich bankers mistakes. Where the government has over spent on illegal wars and other such needless matters. When their money runs out in the capitailist system they dont turn to each other at the top for a bail out they turn on the poor and working class who have little say in anything anyway.

If Mp's vote to scrap this including my own MP they can rule themselves out of me ever voting and supporting them again. But then again i'm sure they wont care as they dont have to face the difficulties disabled people have to face on a daily basis.

As a excellent placard spelled out at a recent disability protest i attended in LOndon said, If you want my benifits you can have my disability. Too right, if money is taht important to them they'd happily take it off those who need it most, It clearly shows how broke the capitailist system is. Lets expose them for who they really are.

Another shameful attack on the young with Gov axing EMA

So tonight MP's in the houses of commons voted by a majority of 59 votes for the scrapping of the Educational maintanance allowance.
A report here from the bbc outlines details
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12228466

I'm saddend to hear of this latest cut. This will affect many young students who wouldh ave stayed on to study at college or at sixth form at their schools. The grant which was brought in by the last labour government encouraged students from less well off backgrounds to stay on in education beyond the age of 16. The grant which was open to any of those students who's families earned less than 30 thousand pounds a year was widely regarded as a success with lots more students staying on to further their education.

Now with the governemnt breaking yet another of its pre electin pledges it remains to see what will happen to millions of students and young people in this country who will be forced to leave school now to find employment as staying on is simply not fainancially viable.

I tonight sit and think of those poor students from working class backgrounds who's hopes now will have been dashed. With last months decision to treble university tuitian fees it is becoming increasingly clearer to me that this government do not want young working class people to make anything with their lives. Unless you can afford to stay on in education and can afford your university fees it is either the doll or low paid work for you.

Where is the aspiration in this country anymore to help and support our youngsters of tommorrow. The future of our country. With rocketing unemployment up today up to 2.5 million i can only see that tipping 3 million by the end of 2011. With the addition of thousands of youth with no futures with little job prospects to look forward to.

Another bad decision from this awful right wing government of ours. Really depressing times.

A sad day for young people

So this evening we heard the government had won the vote in the house of commons by 323 votes in favour and 302 against the rise in tuitian fees to 9000 pounds per year. They also won the second vote to raise the minimum fee to 6000 pounds. The vote came in closer than thought . It turns out a majority of 21 is a very slim number and if the Lib dems had stayed with their pledges this bill would have not got through.

So a very sad day indeed. Coupled with disapointing scenes of police heavy handed tactics on innocent peaceful protesters it seems a very dark day to me. It appears as though Nick clegg has fully signed up with the tories now. All but name and has condemned students to a lot of debt which will take alot longer to pay off.

It will be interesting to see in future days, weeks and months how big of a impact this will have on the lib dems and their futures. Will they get wiped out at local level next year in the loacl council elections. I'd say itw ould be a grim day for any lib dem member today. As the party who relied heavily on the student vote it looks as though they have sold a lot of their voters down the river now.

If only labour could come up with a proper fair alternative to this they would trounce the government on this issue of higher education funding. With cuts of 80% universities have to find the money from somewhere its just sad it is at the e xpense of the poor old student every time.

Whilst i blog all this i am fully awarea nd have been reminded all of today that it was Labour who introduced tuitian fees and top up fees in the first place. SO i dont really think labour can take a high ground on this as it was partly responsible for all this now. But one thing i can say we never priced students out of a good education. With studant loans and grants it was still reachable now it looks impossible for many working class people to get to university and fullfill their potential. This will also have devastating impacts on this country too. Where we will have a skill's shortage.