Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/622/9465
From The Socialist newspaper, 28 April 2010
Press try to gag socialists in Walthamstow campaign
Clean out the dirty big business politicians - Sarah (left) and Nancy (right), Walthamstow Socialist Party, photo S. Kimmerle
"You've got my vote"! TUSC candidate for Walthamstow, Nancy Taaffe, received a very warm reception at a hustings on Sunday 25 April.
Sarah Sachs-Eldridge
This hustings was unusual, called by a cinema campaign group it dealt with that one issue alone. Had Nancy not participated it would have been a very bland affair with candidates from the establishment parties reminiscing about their first cinema visit and pledging to carry on with the same rotten policies of working with big business and private contractors.
The Blairite New Labour candidate makes the campaign for the cinema and the local dog-track her number one issue on her leaflet, above joblessness and child poverty.
She spoke of her track record as a campaigner but had no alternative to inviting private enterprise to take over what should be public resources.
The Lib Dem, who describes himself on the 'Linkedin' site as an investment banker, concurred, as did the Tory, and all three called for 'politicians to work together'.
But the reality is that the Labour and Lib Dem-run council has time and again chosen to act in the interest of business not the people who elected them.
Coming last alphabetically Nancy was able to answer all of this with a bold call to end the land grab that has seen a long list of public resources sold off to private interests.
She called for the council to pursue a compulsory purchase order and to act in the interests of working class people in Waltham Forest, not continuously kowtowing to business.
500-strong audience
The 500-strong audience made it clear that they supported a break with the rotten policies of the local council.
This and the other hustings in the area showed how a socialist and working class fighter can change the terms of the debate and give people a positive alternative rather than having to work out who is the lesser evil in local areas.
On Sunday night a report of the hustings went up on the website of the local newspaper, which included Nancy's opposition to the pro-privatisation policies of the establishment parties.
During Monday Nancy's participation was removed from the article. Walthamstow Socialist Party will protest this further silencing of a socialist voice in the borough.
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In The Socialist 28 April 2010:
Vote for a socialist alternative
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Heading for a coalition government?
Socialist Party news and analysis
Fund a political alternative to the establishment parties
Socialist Party election campaign
A 'beacon of hope' in Gateshead
Press try to gag socialists in Walthamstow campaign
Debt balloons go up in Brighton Kemptown
Extremes of rich and poor in Swansea
TUSC: 'Hear your candidate' meetings
Socialist Party feature
Socialist Party election analysis
Can the Greens help provide a left alternative?
Socialist Party feature
Housing in crisis: Bankers rob people
Socialist Party workplace news
Nottingham city council: Shocking new cuts!
Glasgow CSG workers fight pay freeze
Three years of wage cuts for council workers
Strike at Northumberland College
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