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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