Carole Sasaki, Lancashire Socialist Party and TUSC candidate for Clayton with Whittle
I’m a retail worker and a mother. Someone who never imagined standing for election.
However, I found myself deeply disillusioned with the Labour Party’s response to the situation in Gaza, and personally affected by the housing crisis. Then I attended a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) public meeting ahead of the general election, where I heard the Socialist Party’s ideas.
Capitalism doesn’t work
The idea that we could build a society based on need, rather than profit, seemed strange to me at first. Hadn’t that already been tried in the Soviet Union and failed?
But when I looked at the state of our economy and society – nationally and globally – can we really say that capitalism is working? It produces only failure, gross inequality, and horrendous poverty.
Perhaps socialism hasn’t failed. Perhaps it has never truly been tried.
I’ve been learning more about socialism, and getting involved in my local Socialist Party branch. I’ve realised that staying in my own bubble, hoping for the best, is not a viable strategy.
When others who had stood as TUSC candidates before asked if I would stand, I hesitated. I didn’t feel up to the task.
Standing up to Reform
But I am not doing this alone. There is a team of us standing for TUSC across several wards in Lancashire.
We have to offer an alternative to voters who are sick of Labour and Tories. We have to patiently explain why Reform is not an answer. We have to take advantage of the opportunities that an election brings to have conversations with many people, and explain our ideas to them.
