The Socialist Party is
contesting sixteen seats across England and Wales.
Analysis of the results of the 2005 election:
Time
for new workers' party
Galloway
election victory shocks Blair
Results:
Socialist ideas adopted by new generation
Stormclouds
gather over Labour's 3rd term
Blair’s
last election
Blair
battered but what's the alternative?
Scotland
- general election 2005
Wales:
Discontent with the 'Blair project'
Northern
Ireland elections: Polarisation widens
Coventry
- the best campaign ever
(Pictured right, Coventry Councillor Dave Nellist)
Building
a base in Lewisham
Big
vote for socialism in Bolsover
Post Election results and analysis
Time
for new workers' party
Galloway
election victory shocks Blair
Results:
Socialist ideas adopted by new
generation
Stormclouds
gather over Labour's 3rd term
Fight
far-right parties
Analysis:
Blair’s
last election
Blair battered but what's the alternative?
Scotland - general election 2005
Wales: Discontent with the 'Blair project'
Northern Ireland elections: Polarisation widens
Coventry - the best campaign ever
Building a base in Lewisham
Big vote for socialism in Bolsover
2005
Vote for a socialist alternative!
The Socialist Party is
contesting upwards of fifteen seats across England and Wales in the
general election of 2005.
They include:
Leicester West, Lewisham
Deptford, Walthamstow, Wythenshawe and Sale East, Bootle, Newcastle East
and Wallsend, Brighton Kemptown, Bristol North West, Swansea West,
Cardiff South and Penarth, Coventry South, Coventry North East,
Stoke-on-Trent Central, Sheffield Heeley and Wakefield.
Details of some of our
election campaigns are listed below.
If you would like to know
more, or would like to get active in our election campaigns why not
contact us?
Birmingham Northfield
"John
Towers and the rest of the Phoenix Four are walking away with millions
while workers are walking away with practically nothing.
This community will have its heart ripped out if Longbridge closes
or becomes a small producer of 'niche' cars, yet New Labour has done
nothing to save our plant. But we say this does not have to be the
end.
Louise Houldey
Longbridge must be nationalised today. All workers must be
reinstated and production restarted. The Phoenix Four's hidden
millions, as well as the government's £150 million retraining safety
net, must be invested in production."
THE SOCIALIST Party is standing a candidate in the general
election to highlight the scandal of Rover's collapse and to call for
the renationalisation of the company.
Louise Houldey, who has stood three times before in council elections
in the Longbridge ward, will stand in the Birmingham Northfield
constituency as a Socialist Alternative candidate.
Successive governments have pumped millions into Rover since
privatisation but there has been a spiral of job losses over 16 years,
with the profits and perks going to the bosses. Towers and Co. invested
more in their own pension scheme than in 6,000 workers' pensions. The
private sector has not kept Rover going, so we say renationalise, don't
subsidise.
Put pressure on Blair
A vote for a Socialist Alternative candidate calling for
nationalisation of the site and assets is one way to put pressure on
Blair but the trade unions must also act now.
Another demonstration like in 2000 should be called. Regular
community-based meetings should be convened to keep workers who are
locked out of the plant up to date with developments.
Dave Nellist, Socialist Party councillor in Coventry and former MP
said: "Longbridge can be saved. It's not too late. But it's no good
relying on the private sector, all they will be interested in would be
the MG badge, not the thousands of Longbridge workers or those at
suppliers.
"Hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent on regional aid,
lost taxes, the payment of benefits, and other social costs associated
with the collapse of the company. Far better for that money to be
spent on keeping the industry alive. But the first step has to be
renationalisation.
"And workers must stop the dismantling of the factory. Just as
in the 1970s shipyard workers did in Scotland, and motorbike workers
did in Meriden, workers at Longbridge should occupy the plant and
demand that the government takes it over and guarantees their
jobs."
-
Reopen Longbridge, reinstate all workers.
-
Nationalise the site and assets.
-
Freeze the Phoenix Four's accounts and open them to scrutiny by
the trade unions.
Interview:
Fighting
the jobs massacre in Birmingham
Brighton
The Socialist Party is standing Phil Clarke in Brighton Kemp Town
constituency in the general election, opposing cuts, closures and
privatisation of any sort.
Phil Clarke
Some campaigning issues
One of Brighton & Hove Socialist Party's main campaigns has been
working with the local Defend Council Housing (DCH) group to defeat the
council's privatisation plans for the 13,500 council homes in Brighton.
We have been campaigning for the 'fourth option' - continued public
ownership and increased direct investment from central government.
The council's privatisation plans are privatisation in two stages.
Millions are wasted on setting up new offices, consultants and huge
salaries for the top managers. The Ashfield ALMO cost £2 million to set
up.
ALMOs undermine democratic control by binding the few tenants 'reps'
on the board to corporate responsibility (putting the interests of the
company over the interests of tenants) and ensuring that they are in a
minority, allowing them to be outvoted at every turn.
After two years, the Westminster ALMO ran out of money and tenants
were told that their estates would need to be sold off entirely to
provide money for repairs. The Hillingdon ALMO sold off 500 empty homes
without a ballot. The government knows that tenants won't accept
outright privatisation so it softens them up with an ALMO.
Tenants won't accept outright privatisation
The Green Party published a statement saying that tenants had shown a
'clear preference for an ALMO'. I asked Green Party councillor Bill
Randall how they'd determined that tenants favoured an ALMO - he told me
it was from 'official council surveys'. According to the local
government UNISON branch the response rate to this survey was so low as
to make it statistically meaningless.
The Socialist Party has been petitioning door-to-door on the estates
against housing privatisation and has attended and helped organise
meetings where the issues are explained to tenants. Practically every
tenant we have spoken to wants to remain with the council.
This shows how easily the Green Party have been sucked into the
system. They couldn't think outside the three options put forward by the
government and they endorsed the dubious methods by which the council
collects information on 'tenants' preference'.
Thanks to the pressure of the campaign and the opposition of council
tenants, the council have (along with the Greens) done a complete
u-turn. They have agreed to send a letter to John Prescott demanding
that the fourth option be made available.
http://www.brightonsocialistparty.co.uk/
Bristol North West
"It's
a scandal that MPs feather their nests while chopping our services.
We need ordinary people in Parliament, living on a workers'
wage.
That's why I'm standing. Please support me."
Graeme Jones
Some campaigning issues:
Local bigwigs have generally praised the news that £500 million is
to be spent "modernising" Bristol’s hospitals by 2012.
They’ve dressed up the announcements of Southmead’s loss of its
24-hour Casualty Unit and Frenchay’s downgrading to community hospital
status by alleging patient care will be compromised otherwise.
Exposing the spin, the facts are:
-
By
officially becoming a daytime-only Minor Injuries Unit, the 15,000
people who are rushed each year to Southmead with serious or
extreme injuries will be shipped elsewhere instead. Lives
will be lost.
-
105
beds will be lost in the reorganisation of Southmead and Frenchay.
Inevitably waiting lists will become longer.
-
The
General Hospital will be closed.
-
Half
of Frenchay’s land will be flogged off to private developers.
Pressures on Southmead and the BRI will massively increase.
Why don’t the "experts" ever explain why an expanding
population in north Bristol suddenly needs fewer casualty services and
less beds than in the past?
Blair’s real health agenda is for large-scale privatisation. We’re
gradually going down the US road, where doctors feel your wallet before
your pulse. Meanwhile the private building sharks leech off of our NHS,
building hospitals under the Private Finance Initiative at inflated
costs and then charging us for years ahead!
Working people who have paid into the NHS all their lives are
going to pay a terrible price if these Tory-style plans go ahead.
We say - the NHS belongs to us!
Keep Southmead and Frenchay fully open!
Coventry North East
"We
are standing to give voters a chance to elect candidates who will
represent the millions not millionaires.
We believe that the New Labour party of Blair and Brown has
deprived the working class of political representation, and we want to
restore a workers’ voice in politics.
We believe MPs should earn the average wage of a skilled worker
and we are standing to give voters a chance to elect representatives
who will not profit personally from election."
Dave Nellist, former Labour MP and now leader of the Socialist
Party group on Coventry city council
Coventry South
"Fed
up?
This election is an opportunity to do something about it.
Join the thousands of others in Coventry who vote
Socialist."
Rob Windsor, Socialist Party councillor 1999-2004
Some campaigning issues
The Socialist Party is growing and has a proud record already. A
record of standing up and fighting for ordinary people.
This has already won us election to the council.
We have fought alongside people in their communities and workplaces.
We’ve fought cuts in schools, in social services, in fire
cover, closures of Post Offices, old people’s homes and local
hospitals.
We have stood by workers in the fire service, local government, civil
service, Jaguar, Peugot and elsewere.
Leicester West
"In
Leicester we have consistently campaigned against the cuts in services
made by all three parties on Leicester City Council as well the
privatisation of our schools and hospitals."
Steve Score
Some campaigning issues:
The Labour government, along with Leicester City Council, is planning
to sell off our schools to private profiteers. All three main parties
have supported these proposals. They are planning: -
These companies will run the school as they
wish, using taxpayers’ money! They will not be democratically
accountable to local communities.
The "Building Schools for the
Future" project in Leicester will rebuild secondary schools yet
our primary schools are crumbling.
Some money will come from "Private
Finance Initiative" (PFI) i.e. privatisation, and some from the
government.
Yet the scheme will cost the council much
more - £350 million over 25 years. Around £4 million a year will
have to come from school budgets, council cuts and council tax rises!
Remember the disasters after the railways were privatised?
Do we really want this in our schools? Profits and public services
don't mix!
These latest schemes will not improve education in Leicester.
Remember how the closure of 6 secondary schools was supposed to
transform our kids' education? Now the council wants to close special
schools as well.
We say put the money into education that is
needed.
For properly funded state education.
No to privatisation!
Lewisham Deptford
"As
one of two Socialist Party councillors on Lewisham council, I have
campaigned for many years to protect our public services, defend
wages, jobs and decent pensions, and expose the big business policies
of New Labour and all the establishment parties.
I will do the same as an MP."
Socialist Party councillor Ian Page
Some campaigning issues:
We face massive housing shortages and crippling rents and
mortgages yet Labour plan a huge council housing sell-off.
Lewisham’s Labour council will only make future funds available for
much needed improvements if council homes are transferred to PFI,
housing association or ‘arms length company’ landlords. This means
higher rents and smaller properties if homes are re-built.
We say: no sell-offs!
Force the government to give us the money for
improvements and for building new homes.
Manchester: Wythenshawe and Sale East
"WOMEN
ARE attacked by politicians for having abortions but they don't
provide what is necessary to bring up children."
Lynn Worthington, Socialist Party general election candidate,
Wythenshawe and Sale East
Lynn says: "In Wythenshawe nurseries and facilities for
disabled children are being closed. In Trafford Park a neonatal
intensive care unit is being shut.
Socialism would mean that the entire responsibility for bringing up
children would not just fall on the shoulders of women and families, the
backup would be there from society as a whole.
Women would be able to work if they wanted and spend time with their
children. They would have a real choice which is impossible with the
pressures and burdens of capitalism."
Merseyside Bootle
"I’m
standing because working class people can’t afford the astronomical
prices for homes and the Council wants to sell off the rest of our
Council houses."
Peter Glover
Some campaigning issues
Sefton Council wants to transfer 12,400 council homes to a
"registered social landlord". This comes on top of school
closures, care home closures, community centre closure... Enough is
enough! Time to stand and fight!
They’re promising tenants all sorts to try and get a majority to
vote yes. Housing needs renovating now – but the transfer won’t
deliver. That’s why we’re saying: Vote no: fight for public funding
now! Don’t let the council make a Railtrack out of our homes!
We can win this fight. Toxic landfill plans for Bootle were defeated
a few years ago by a community campaign, led by the Socialist Party.
Mass action made the council back off – we can do the same again!
For top-class, publicly owned council housing! Fight for full funding to
renovate our homes!
Vote NO to the housing transfer – vote YES
to a Socialist Alternative!
Newcastle East and Wallsend
"The
government and private companies are stealing our pensions, now and
for the future. Everyone should have a decent pension after a life of
work.
t is a scandal that MPs vote themselves a big pension increase
while planning to cut our pensions and wanting us to work until we
drop."
"If elected I will live on the average wage of skilled
worker."
Bill Hopwood
Bill says:
Newcastle East has been a safe Labour seat and taken for granted. The
MP, Nick Brown, made speeches claiming he opposed university top-up fees
and then voted for them!
I have lived in the area for 20 years and have been involved in many
campaigns including:
-
Successfully fighting plans for a new
incinerator in Byker
-
Fighting the planned ALMO and proposals
to demolish people's homes in the name of regeneration
-
Fought to get better pedestrian
provision with road crossings etc
-
Part of the Public Services Alliance
that campaigns to defend and improve public services
-
Organising anti-fascist leafleting of
the area
-
Involved in Stop the War activities
-
Campaigning against top-up fees
I have stood in past council elections in Byker, coming second and
third, with between 270 and 400 votes.
We all need public services - education, street cleaning, health,
post offices, fire service, transport, etc. Yet, the government has run
down and cut these services. They are increasingly handing them over to
the private sector. Look what a mess privatisation made of the railways.
The Socialist Party fully supports good quality public services that
meet people's needs and are democratically controlled.
New Labour is now a party of big business. We need a new party that
represents working class people, trade unionists, environmentalists and
community campaigners. A party that stands up for the millions not for
the millionaires.
The Socialist Party is the most active political group in the area.
As well as all the activity in Byker, we stood in a candidate in a
neighbouring ward gaining nearly 200 votes. We have worked with others
to strengthen the left and locally have reached agreements with the
Green Party (who are on the left of the party) to avoid a conflict of
seats.
Bill Hopwood promises:
"As a socialist MP I would be a strong representative for
local people, working with them and supporting their campaigns. I will
continue to put the needs of people before profit."
Scotland
Members
of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) in Scotland are
standing as SSP candidates in six seats - which is 10% of the total
number the SSP are contesting.
These include two in Dundee, one in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh.
Harvey Duke, Candidate in Dundee along with Jim McFarlane
In Dundee the SSP, within which the CWI has a major influence, has
run an energetic campaign of canvassing, leafleting and street stalls.
Given the attacks by New Labour on pensions, public-sector workplaces in
particular have been targeted.
Dundee Nursery nurses who were on strike for nine weeks last year
took part in the public launch of the campaign pledging support for Jim
McFarlane and Harvey Duke, the two CWI candidates.
We have also taken the campaign to multinationals like the Royal Bank
of Scotland who are Scotland's biggest company making £7 billion last
year. A campaign of press releases and public actions has meant that
there has been regular press coverage for the campaign in the local
media.
Standing
for socialism in Scotland
Sheffield Heeley
"I’VE
LIVED in Sheffield for ten years, teaching in special needs and
science, and I am head of year. I got involved a year ago when I came
across the Socialist Party campaigning in the city centre.
Mark Donell
If you believe in something you can either stand by and watch or
you can get involved and I decided that I would do something."
Mark Donell says: Campaigning has been very exciting – at
the moment there’s so much going on in terms of attacks on the working
class, the attacks on pensions, the occupation of Iraq.
I felt that the people in the area I live in should have a candidate
they could vote for who is going to represent their interests. The
fascist BNP are also standing and I think that it’s important that the
Socialist Party challenges them and puts forward a socialist
alternative.
One of the largest employers in Sheffield is the civil service – I
have many friends who are civil servants and are becoming politicised by
the government attacks. Hopefully through the work of the Socialist
Party we can put forward a strategy to defend their jobs, working
conditions and pensions.
As a teacher, one thing that has made the job worthwhile, apart from
the job itself, has been the fact that you could retire at 60 on a
decent pension. I couldn’t see myself still teaching at 63, it is such
a tiring job and the amount of work is massive. I start work at 7.30am,
contacting parents; we have meetings after we finish teaching and I have
to spend two hours every night marking and planning. As head of year, I
have to deal with a lot of paperwork but I don’t have any clerical
support.
Politicians are always slagging teachers off. Labour trumpeted
"education, education, education" in 1997 but I know at my
school that it is becoming almost impossible to recruit people in
certain sectors. We advertised in a national newspaper for a maths
teacher last year and we only had one applicant. We should be looking at
ways not only to attract people into teaching but also to retain them.
But what does Labour do? Attack teachers’ pensions!
We also have the situation in my school where three senior colleagues
have been off for over six months with long-term stress leave. That is
due to workload, lack of support and demoralisation from the constant
attacks of the government.
Traditionally, working-class people have looked to the Labour Party
for a political lead. Some of my friends have said, ‘well I’m not
100% happy with what Tony Blair is doing but give him a chance’. But I
say he’s had his chance and the time is right for a truly
working-class movement to take the place of the Labour Party."
Stoke Central
"For
twenty years I have been proud to fight alongside the people of
Stoke-on-Trent in the communities and workplaces.
As a real Socialist MP I can be even more effective."
Jim Cessford
Some campaigning issues:
Stoke-on-Trent has one of the lowest life expectancy levels in
Britain, so is it any wonder that working families are angry about New
Labour's plans to increase and possibly even abolish the retirement age?
As Jim Cessford says, "For thousands here it really will mean
working till you drop. A vote for the Socialist Party is a vote for a
living state pension linked to earnings and a reduction in the
retirement age."
Swansea West
"We've
been the main party campaigning against the health crisis in Wales.
Rob Williams
Swansea has the biggest waiting list in Wales and Wales has got
the longest waiting lists in Britain.
So it's important for us to campaign for decent health
facilities and against the privatisation and cuts which are
undermining the health service.
We've campaigned over the past two years about the maternity
unit in Neath and Port Talbot hospital and the downgrading of casualty
at Singleton in Swansea."
Wakefield
"We
have collected over 35,000 signatures calling for a publicly funded
health scheme.
Private finance is the mortgaging off of future generation’s
health services for decades to come."
Mick Griffiths
Some campaigning issues
In Britain there is little difference between the three main
parties. All of them do the bidding of big business at the expense of
the hard working majority…
The BNP claims to offer a solution but it has no alternative.
Where BNP councillors have been elected they have voted for cuts and
privatisation – just like the main three parties.
And they showed their true colours during the miners strike and
the fire fighters’ dispute, by organising strike-breakers and calling
for public sector strikes to be made illegal.
Walthamstow
"You
have a chance to vote for real change in this election.
But don’t just vote – get involved and campaign with
us."
Nancy Taaffe
Some campaigning issues
In 2004 Nancy organised a march along the High Street to link up
community groups and trade unions against the exorbitant level of
council tax.
She marched with local people against the disgraceful closure of our
local cinema.
In 2002 Nancy helped build for strike action against council cuts in
our library services.
She publicised the fact that whilst the council was cutting staff, it
paid a string of consultants inflated salaries to come in and leech off
the public purse.
For more on this
campaign see also Fight for a better
future
Nancy
'woos' voters with socialism
AS THE general election campaign gets under way, the established
parties are pushing forward policies aimed at winning women's votes.
Jane James explains why these policies offer no solution and
outlines the Socialist Party's alternative for women.
More ...
NANCY
TAAFFE is a part-time library assistant and member of UNISON.
She campaigned in favour of strike action against New Labour's
attacks on pensions.
More...
LAST WEEKEND the Socialist Green Unity Coalition officially
launched its general election campaign.
The coalition is an electoral agreement between different
socialist organisations to make sure we maximise the potential
socialist vote in the coming election.
More ...
Click
here for details of some of our election campaigns
If you would like to help our campaigns in any of these seats,
'phone Hannah on 020 8988 8767
Manifesto for socialism
for the millions, not the millionaires
no cuts! no
privatisations!
£1.50 including postage
Buy online
Available from Socialist Books, PO Box 24697, London, E11 1YD
Press release: 23 February, 2004
Contact: Hannah Sell: 020 8988 8777
Socialist / Green general election challenge
launched
On Saturday 26 February, at 1.45 pm at the University of London
Union, a coalition of socialist organisations and trade unionists
will be coming together to launch a joint campaign against Blair in
the looming general election.
More ...
Elections
2004: A Shadow Over Blair
European
elections: 'Kicked In The Ballot Box'
CWI
election campaign 2004
Council
elections 2004
Our
manifesto: What Is Socialism website
Victory!
Lewisham By-election 4 December 2003
News
and analysis of the May 2003 Council Election results 2003
Election Results 2002
Election Results 2001
