Pioneering in Plymouth
Duncan Moore, Plymouth Socialist Party
Plymouth Socialist Party members went out to the Devonport area of Plymouth, in addition to our regular city centre stall, to sell the Socialist and spread our ideas on 13 April.
Devonport is traditionally a Labour stronghold, a working-class neighbourhood with many thousands of industrial workers in the dockyard, the largest naval base in western Europe. The area is blighted with poverty and social problems but has a strong sense of community. The nearby pub where we meet put up locals during the recent unexploded WW2 bomb scare, providing evacuated residents with tea and coffee and somewhere to keep warm before it was declared safe to return home.
Support for Labour has plummeted in recent years, shown by the turnout in elections, the lowest in the city in last year’s locals.
Most people we spoke to were not intending to vote; those who are were mistakenly looking to Reform UK and the populist right as an alternative to the hated capitalist establishment parties.
Our programme for a minimum wage of at least £15 an hour; a fight to save council services and jobs; for public housing and nationalised energy, transport and water, met with strong approval, cutting across far-right populist rhetoric.
We met three people interested in joining the Socialist Party. A public meeting on 25 April is the next step towards founding a new branch of the Socialist Party in the area.
- TUSC is standing in all 19 wards in the Plymouth council elections. Duncan Moore is standing in Peverell, and Alex Moore is standing in Devonport
Oxford youth campaigning
We held a campaign stall outside Oxford Brookes University on 12 April. Our main focus was the housing crisis in Oxford, with an emphasis on student housing, building for a student meeting the following Friday. We also attempted to gauge how students felt about the Tory government as a whole, making the case for socialism – the outcome was overall positive!
Oxford Socialist Student
- TUSC is standing 10 candidates across Oxford in the council elections
