June 2004 council election 

Socialist Party Election Successes

STANDING 48 candidates in 34 council wards on 10 June,
the Socialist Party (standing as ‘Socialist Alternative’) received
16,787 votes. In addition, 2,825 people voted for Socialist Party Councillor
Ian Page in the London Assembly election constituency of Greenwich and
Lewisham.

Judy Beishon

We celebrated the re-winning of two of our council seats
in the St Michael’s ward of Coventry, with increased votes. 

This was no small feat considering recent boundary
changes and a high resident turnover. Unfortunately our third Coventry
councillor, Rob Windsor very narrowly lost his seat, despite getting a
higher vote than when he won it originally. He was not helped by being in
bottom place on the ballot paper. 

Our three Socialist Party St Michael’s candidates
polled significantly more than New Labour, gaining 4,236 votes compared to
Labour’s 3,536.

Elsewhere, other Socialist Party candidates had very
good results. For example, standing for the first time in Lincoln, Ryan
Hayward achieved an excellent 16% (329 votes). Jess Leech in Deptford
achieved 13% (374 votes), Steve Pugh in Stoke gained 12% (312 votes) and
Alec Thraves in Swansea gained 10% (258 votes). 

Once again, our candidates had the best results on the
left in Merseyside, receiving 23% of the vote in Sefton’s Netherton and
Orrel ward.

Two Coventry councillors re-elected

COVENTRY SOCIALIST Party was left with mixed feelings,
as we didn’t succeed in defending all three of our council seats in St
Michael’s ward, but overall we gained an excellent 8,614 votes across the
city. 

Paul Hunt

All three of our sitting councillors increased their
votes from the last election contested, but unfortunately Rob Windsor missed
out on third place in the poll by just 16 votes.

Despite winning back a councillor, New Labour will be
relatively disappointed, as several factors meant that the election was more
favourable for them than last time. Boundary changes, with a brand new
estate being added to the ward, meant that retaining all three councillors
would be very difficult for us.

However, despite a campaign which included some farcical
leaflets from Labour, including talk of ‘mansioned militants’, and
accusations that we voted with the Tories to oppose a new football ground
(it was our votes that secured this project whilst winning a better deal for
working people in Coventry), we showed once again the firm and deep roots
that we have in the community.

Amusingly, a Labour candidate – who was defeated once
again – lied to one of our supporters, saying that Dave Nellist took far
more than a worker’s wage when in parliament!

We canvassed and leafleted the ward several times and
put out a leaflet aimed at the student population and also an anti-war
leaflet in Urdu and Bengali. 

Since the election, on our Saturday stall we have met
voters who are extremely angry that Labour got one seat back. But as Rob
Windsor said, "don’t be gutted, get organised!" Two of our
supporters agreed to join at the stall and we hope to get many more in the
near future.

Across the city we scored three votes of over 500: in
Henley, Lower Stoke and Whoberley. On our first run out in Sherbourne ward,
we got 446 votes, and good results in all the other wards. 

In Woodlands, a group of anti-fascists and socialists
stood as ‘Socialist Alternative’ and received an excellent 348 votes.
This is a ward where the BNP polled over 1,000 last time, but their vote
fell to 894 this time and they failed to win the seat. This was the only
ward they contested in Coventry, whereas we fought in 12.

With each voter having the option of three votes, our
total score went up compared to a ‘normal’ election, but the 8,614 we
received shows the support we have, without having watered down or diluted
our socialist ideas. We had around 70 Coventry people involved in the
campaign and have begun to spread roots throughout the city.

Labour panic in Deptford

JESS LEECH, the Socialist Party
candidate in the normally solidly Labour-voting Evelyn ward in Deptford,
south London, gained 13% of the votes cast. As we had been getting an
excellent response during our campaign, at first, some Socialist Party
members and supporters were disappointed that we hadn’t run Labour even
closer.

Roger Shrives

We certainly had Labour panicking. Many
of Lewisham borough’s Labour councillors stayed out till the last hour in
this one ward to get every last vote out, despite important elections for
the Greater London Assembly (GLA) and the Euro-elections.

We worried them partly because Jess is
well-known on the large Pepys estate, where she has been an activist on many
issues, especially housing. Also, the Socialist Party had won the last
Lewisham council by-election, when Chris Flood beat Labour to get our second
seat in the borough.

In the 2002 council elections Labour got
60% of the votes with their nearest rivals on about 15%. It had been even
safer for Labour before then. This time, Labour was down below 50%. What
saved them was an increased turnout, with more people voting a solid Labour
ticket for Euro, London Mayor, GLA and local elections, particularly as
opinion polls made people worry that Ken Livingstone could lose the mayoral
vote.

Undoubtedly the New Labour council’s
capitalist policies of cuts and privatisation will present local people with
many new issues to campaign on. This election campaign, together with that
for Ian Page in the Greenwich/Lewisham GLA constituency, has given the
Socialist Party a great basis for these new battles – and for future
elections.

Lincoln Socialists take 16%

LESS THAN a year after the formation of our Lincoln
Socialist Party branch, we decided to stand in the local council elections.

Marc Glasscoe

Ryan Hayward stood in Birchwood ward and beat all
expectations by taking 329 votes out of a total of 2,100. This means that in
less than 12 months a previously unknown party locally has picked up 16% of
the vote!

This success has come about through the hard work of our
Lincoln comrades with help from others in the East Midlands region and
beyond. 

But it is based on the fact that Lincoln people are
seeing through the lies and deceit of the three main capitalist parties.
Many are crying out for an alternative that will represent their interests,
and the Socialist Party is presenting such an alternative.

We are not going to rest on our laurels now. Although we
did not win this election, we intend to fulfil our promises. Failure to do
so will leave us no better than the parties who "only turn up when they
want your vote" as one local resident said. 

We spoke to many people who wish to start campaigns on
local issues and we will help them to take up their causes.