Standing for socialism at Blackheath High

RosemaryI
recently stood for the Socialist Party in the mock elections in my
school, Blackheath High. It was an extremely interesting election, with
lots of propaganda, debates and a few arguments but it all turned out
very well.

Rosemary Wanjie

The election rules were roughly the same as those outside. You had to
be selected by people in your party, in order to vote you had to
register and each party was allowed to put up their own posters to
outline their policies. Each party was also allowed an assembly to speak
to the whole school in person and convince them. Except for the Tories –
no one would volunteer to stand for them. The teacher organising the
elections had to persuade a 6th former to stand for the
Conservatives.

We campaigned for about a month, putting posters up, handing out
leaflets, singing in corridors, stuff like that. We also had an assembly
where I gave a speech about the Socialist Party and Sarah Sachs-Eldridge
came in to give a speech too. We were the only ones where the party
outside the school actually came in and got involved.

The election took place on 5 May and the results came out on 6 May.
The Socialist Party came last in line with 6% of the vote. I think that
the main reason for this was that in high school an election is seen as
a popularity contest and not as a political thing.

Labour, who won, threw out free chocolate bars during their assembly.
It is more like which people you like best rather than which parties you
most agree with. Many people I met did agree with the Socialist Party
but they just didn’t have enough hope that it would actually work in a
capitalist world and they couldn’t see things changing.

Throughout the election, my main aim was to tell people about
socialism and how it could come about. I think I did achieve this and I
convinced those who wanted to be convinced that socialism is the one
power that will work.