Chris Newby, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party
Every week the Socialist is full of articles describing the struggles of workers around Britain and internationally, putting forward a socialist alternative, written by workers themselves.
Many of these strikes and campaigns are not reported anywhere else. So it’s vital that we try to get the Socialist paper into the hands of as many people as possible.
Political and social developments have a big impact on people wanting to find out more about socialist ideas. We discussed what we could do in Tower Hamlets Socialist Party to increase the reach of the Socialist.
We made sure that as many Socialist Party members had copies of the Socialist with them. Because you never know when you might meet someone who wants to talk about socialism!
This led to more Socialist Party members selling the Socialist, on top of our regular campaign stalls. We regularly hold at least three campaign activities a week, including outside the local ‘Royal London’ hospital, which employs several thousand people.
As with many parts of Britain, there are many local campaigns and strikes that we take part in and support. In the last week, there were two school strikes and a housing workers’ strike – each lasting 2-3 days.
Regularly one or two striking workers will buy a Socialist paper from us on each of these. When we visit these strikes and campaigns, we try to make sure a short report always goes into the Socialist. Then we go back to these workers with that issue of the Socialist.
We have a Socialist Students group at our local university, Queen Mary’s, where Socialist Party members play a leading role. The Socialist paper is on every campaign stall, which take place weekly during term time.
During the local election, Socialist Party members stood under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) banner as council and mayoral candidates. We organised campaign stalls in different parts of the borough to reach as many people as possible.
We campaign on issues that are important to working-class people, including the need for a new mass workers’ party. A particularly important issue locally that we are taking up is on the severe housing crisis, particularly affecting young people.
As a result of all of this, Socialist sales are increasing in Tower Hamlets, and we are determined to increase this even further.
