Building Coventry Socialist Party after the election

Following one of Coventry’s fiercest election battles ever, 39 people, including 16 new or prospective Socialist Party members, attended the party’s public meeting in the city on Saturday 15 May.

Lenny Shail, Coventry West Socialist Party

Hannah Sell, deputy general secretary of the Socialist Party, introduced the discussion on what the election results mean and how socialists can organise the fightback against the inevitable attacks on working class people from the Tory-Lib Dem coalition.

With two postmen attending straight from their shift as well as whole families among the audience, Hannah warned that we are only at the beginning of a Europe-wide battle to defend workers from a ruling class onslaught and that a mass movement with similarities to the anti-poll tax battle will be needed to defeat it.

In the discussion it was emphasised that Rob Windsor’s council seat in St Michaels, lost to Labour as voters turned out for the general election to stop the Tories, was merely ‘on rent’.

The second part of the meeting saw Dave Griffiths, West Midlands Socialist Party secretary, give new and prospective members of the party the chance to hear about how the party works, how we organise and the role that each member can play.

Five people filled in ‘join’ cards, adding to others who joined during recent weeks, all of them inspired and ready to join the struggle for socialism.