The Socialist Inbox

The Socialist inbox: letters to the editors, photo Suzanne Beishon (Click to enlarge)

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Send your news, views and criticism in not more than 150 words to Socialist Postbox, PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD, phone 020 8988 8771 or email [email protected]

We reserve the right to shorten and edit letters. Don't forget to give your name, address and phone number. Confidentiality will be respected if requested.

Views of letter writers do not necessarily match those of the Socialist Party.

Labour re-admittance

The Socialist issue 1010 carried correspondence between Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe and Labour Party general secretary Jennie Formby (see 'The struggle to transform Labour').

Here, we carry an extract from a letter written by a local Labour Party activist in support of the Socialist Party's request for re-admittance to the party.

Dear Jennie,

As a Labour Party member I am writing to you as your exchange of correspondence was published in the Socialist newspaper.

With regard to your letter of 29 August 2018, I have the following comment: my friend Elaine Evans from Bolsover has stood as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate, but did so with a heavy heart.

Elaine wrote to the Labour councillor asking him to agree to not implement Tory cuts, and explained that if he agreed then she would not stand.

No such assurance was received and therefore she stood against the type of people you are defending, who are in reality class traitors.

Recently, Tory minister Esther McVey told her party conference that Derek Hatton had re-joined the Labour Party and that this was a measure as to how far left the party had moved.

Given that purge was so long ago, and that I have friends in the Socialist party and regard them as jolly fine human beings, I would ask that you put it to the national executive committee and that we have a change of policy towards people who are socialists.

My branch in Chesterfield will debate this letter in November, and if your reply is received in time, that also.

Yours,

Adrian B Rimington, Chesterfield

Tories out!, photo Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)

Crime and Cuts

The pages of the Liverpool Echo seem to resemble the turmoil of Chicago during Prohibition: almost daily shootings and mayhem. Our city's mayor attacks the government for its crazed cuts policies.

But what is his solution? Urging MPs to try and get an 'urgent debate in Parliament about the policing situation in Liverpool' (Liverpool Echo 19 October 2018).

In the same pages Liam Thorpe reports the scandalous closure of St. John's Community Nursery because of cuts. The nursery has served the area of Dingle for decades.

The mayor has presided over six years of cuts and decried any suggestion of mobilising opposition to the government. His 'solution' is to bombard the government with letters and have a chat with his friend Lord Heseltine. The Tories' response? To pat his head and commend him for his compliance. We are witnessing the consequences.

Raise the issue of crime and cuts in parliament by all means, but it will be a dialogue with the deaf.

The slide into chaos and want will continue as long as this government, dedicated to enriching the already fabulously rich, remains in office.

It's time for councils to set needs budgets, and to mount a serious campaign, including industrial action, to force a general election and get Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street.

Tony Mulhearn, Liverpool

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.