‘Put that in bigger letters next time!’

Alistair Tice, Sheffield Socialist Party

“You should put that in bigger letters next time!” says a Woodhouse resident to us. He’s referring to our leaflet where it says: “Labour isn’t Labour anymore.” That’s the most common remark we’ve heard whilst campaigning for our socialist candidate in the by-election for the Woodhouse ward of Sheffield Council.

There is enormous anger, sometimes visceral hatred, towards the new Labour government, especially about its cutting of Winter Fuel Payments to most pensioners, whilst at the same time ministers are taking ‘freebies’ and won’t touch the super-rich.

Woodhouse is an ex-mining village in the south east of Sheffield. Orgreave, where 40 years ago the police attacked striking miners picketing the coke works, is on the edge of the ward. It’s always been Labour. But opposition to them is going all over the place. The Lib-Dems, who got less than 200 votes here in the May elections, are giving it their usual by-election ‘two-horse race’ campaign, even though they’re in an unofficial coalition with Labour and the Greens on the council. A lot of people are turning to Reform UK, who didn’t stand any candidates in Sheffield in this year’s local or general elections.

Reform are an added reason why the Socialist Party decided it was important to stand in this by-election, as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). Our leaflet says: “Reform UK – more Tory than the Tories. Don’t be fooled by Farage the fake. Farage is no friend of working-class people. He is a multi-millionaire and former stockbroker. He wants a US-style private health insurance system. Reform MPs voted to let bad bosses continue to fire and rehire and exploit zero-hour contracts, and opposed workers having any more rights. Farage is no ‘man of the people’. He’s more Tory than the Tories!” Immigrants are not to blame, it’s the super-rich and their rotten capitalist system.

In our campaign for local TUSC candidate Josh Crapper, who’s dad was at the Battle of Orgreave, we’ve delivered nearly 10,000 leaflets, had hundreds of signatures on our petition to the city council to restore Winter Fuel Payments, and lots of conversations about why we need a new mass workers’ party.

From many campaign stalls, we have sold nearly 60 copies of the Socialist, and raised over £160 in donations to the fighting fund. And we’re the only party to be holding a public meeting before polling day on 28 November.

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

TUSC, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, is the electoral coalition under which the Socialist Party stands in elections. It was set up in 2010, co-founded by the late Bob Crow – then general secretary of the RMT transport workers’ union – with the primary goal of enabling trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists to stand candidates against pro-austerity establishment politicians.