01.05.1997

Newport challenge New Labour

Socialist Labour’s campaign has taken Newport East by storm. On one rainy Sunday afternoon 40 people were out canvassing for the socialist alternative to New Labour.

The response has been brilliant and all those involved in the campaign have been inspired by the enthusiasm for the need to challenge the stale politics of the bourgeois parties. Even if the left does not make any great gains in this election there is certainly a feeling that the working class needs to seize the initiative.

The enthusiasm for Arthur Scargill has been helped by the fact that this is actually not a mining but a steel down. Many mining areas are still split in their support for Scargill as campaigners discovered in the Hemsworth by-election.

Such is the hatred for New Labour’s ex-Tory candidate Alan Howarth that the local Labour Party has been riven with splits, even if many have not yet made the leap to come out boldly and campaign for the SLP. The voters of Newport East are not so shy. A public meeting last week attracted over 200 people. As canvassers trawl the streets, New Labour Howarth posters disappear, with ‘Vote Scargill, Vote Socialist Labour’ taking their place.