01.02.1996

Hemsworth - talking to the activists

SLP campaigners spoke to Lee-Anne Bates

Paul Hardman, president of Lancashire Area of the NUM:

The response we’ve had has been tremendous, resulting from a quality candidate and the drive and enthusiasm from our class. This has been illustrated by the enthusiasm, dedication and commitment shown by the young people who have campaigned for us, not least yourself. You worked alongside us in a proper socialist tradition of united work.

The test will be after the election and how the SLP is able to organise and conduct campaigns on a class basis, not on the agenda of the capitalist press. Socialism is not dead, nor is it a dirty word. It is what the working class of the world must strive to achieve. The SLP has opened up the possibility of uniting all socialists. I understand why some left parties want to ‘wait and see’ because of their own traditions, but I hope in the future all will be able to join the SLP and fight for socialism.

Tina Stubbs, ‘True Labour’ councillor in Hemsworth:

I came out of the Labour Party after the last election because I no longer believed in Blair’s politics or their local activity. I stood as True Labour, but now I’ve joined the SLP.

We’ve had a good response in working class areas and ex-mining communities. The SLP is about getting back to the grass roots for what Labour used to stand for. We stand for the working class and the unions.

Conditions aren’t getting any better and the SLP stands for getting out of the trap. Wherever poverty exists and is growing, the SLP can grow. I think we can build unity on the left, breaking down the previous divisions.

Brendan Conway, ex-miner, South Kirkby:

I joined the SLP to kick the Labour Party where it hurts. I was never a member of any political organisation, but fought with the NUM in 84-85. The Labour Party betrayed us then and are betraying us now. They have turned me into a revolutionary. It’s clear we need to be organised politically to fight against unemployment and against the Tories and Labour who create it.

Now we’ll put the SLP on action stations. Its formation has been a historic event - finally breaking from the Labour Party to create a revolutionary organisation to really change things.