Why I joined: “I wanted to stand up, protest and change things”

Protesting against Trump, photo Paul Mattsson

Protesting against Trump, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Catherine MacLennan, Leeds Socialist Party

It was Donald Trump who, indirectly, prompted me to join the Socialist Party. I went on an anti-Trump demo in Leeds earlier this year.

It was great to see so many people who were willing to get out and protest against racism and bigotry. All ages, genders, ethnicities and sexual orientations were there that day – strangers chatting to strangers, posing for photographs, united in a common cause. At the demo I bought the Socialist paper.

Buoyed up by this, I went on the NHS demonstration in London on 4 March and listened to speeches and marched with placards (and a balloon!) surrounded by those who worked in the NHS, had reason to be grateful to the NHS or, in a few cases, remembered the birth of the NHS and wanted to save what they’d loved and believed in for so long.

I bought a copy of the Socialist again, read it, thought about it. Then I realised that I wanted to be one of those people who stands up and protests about what is unfair, works to change things for the better and meets those who I can learn from and exchange ideas with.

The best way to do this, I felt, was to join the Socialist Party.