Socialist Party member Jane Nellist is standing as a candidate for Coventry council in the Upper Stoke by-election on 19 March. Below we print extracts from her leaflet.
photo Paul Mattsson

photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Jane has been a local teacher, trade union leader and fighter for ordinary people across Coventry for 30 years. She would be a voice and fighter for local people against austerity, landlordism and closures in Coventry. Unlike Tory-lite Labour councillors, she would resist Tory austerity instead of passing on savage cuts.

Coventry Council can’t go on like this anymore. Over 2,000 council jobs have been lost since 2010.

There’s homelessness, high rents and dodgy landlords. While Sure Start centres, libraries and youth clubs have all closed.

Boris Johnson says austerity is over, but in the next three years £86 million is set to be cut from Coventry. What will suffer next? Social care? Parks? Schools? Roads?

Jane is someone who will fight Tory cuts, not continue to pass them onto Coventry people.

Jane says:

  • Enough of austerity – stop the cuts
  • We need thousands of new homes and jobs to meet Coventry’s needs
  • For a £12 an hour minimum wage now
  • Scrap zero-hour contracts
  • Kick privatisation and ‘PFI’ out of the NHS
  • For socialist change in society

Socialists are dedicated to fighting for every possible improvement for working people. The free market is failing to provide decent jobs or homes for everybody. It is undermining our NHS and looting our services.

Instead of paying off the debts of the bankers, we want to change the system so we can use the huge resources that exist in society for the benefit of all, not the fat cats.

We call for the major companies and banks that dominate the economy to be brought into democratic public ownership, under the control of the working class.

Production and services could then be planned to meet the needs of all while properly protecting the environment. That’s why we fight for socialist change across society – so the wealth can benefit all, not the just the super-rich.