15.05.1997

Good start made

SLP branch reports

Wi1h the bulk of the canvassing being done by about three people, the election result in Wythenshawe and Sale East, where Jim Flannery won 957 votes (2.10%), was a very good beginning for this constituency branch of about 10 members in Manchester.

Members were disappointed not to retain their deposit, but clear that a start has been made in getting the SLP message out.

The campaign focused on canvassing in the Bench Hill ward, which includes part of the biggest council estate in Europe. The Labour Party had totally neglected this area. Key issues were jobs and renationalisation. The campaign emphasised the importance of the right to work and the importance of workers not competing with each other to provide the lowest wages through fear of unemployment.

Paul Goggins, the Labour Party candidate, is in the same Transport and General Workers Union branch as Jim, but nevertheless is a positive proponent of New Labour’s right wing agenda.

The difficulty campaigners for the SLP found in this election was the sheer apathy and depoliticisation of people. Given that there is no difference between Labour and Tory, people have become totally cynical about politics. The SLP now has to work vigorously to ensure there is a strong alternative that people can actually relate to. That must include the left working together. In Manchester on the weekend before polling day there were three separate left wing stalls. Though the Socialist Workers Party did support the campaign, the Communist Party of Britain called for a New Labour vote.

The branch is already starting to consolidate its support in the Bench Hill area, where it plans to stand in the council elections next year.

Geordie impact

The SLP election intervention in Newcastle upon Tyne made a good impact with Blanch Carpenter winning 642 votes (1.54%).

Comrade Carpenter is a well-known trade union activist and campaigner for pensioners - she was a member of Cohse (now part of Unison) until her retirement in 1992 and she still fights against the creeping privatisation of the health service. She had never been a member of any political party before the SLP however.

The biggest single issue that the comrades campaigned on was what Blanch calls “the scourge of unemployment”. Pensions was another key question, with the SLP calling for a substantial increase which, according to Blanch, could be funded through saving £3.5 billion by “coming out of Europe”.

The Tyneside branch of some 20 comrades was swollen by several applications for membership from contacts made during the campaign, which was very well received.