31.07.2002

Foot challenge to New Labour

Hackney Socialist Alliance has selected Paul Foot to stand as its candidate in the mayoral election to be held on October 17. Comrade Foot was the only nomination before the members' meeting of July 24, when the decision was taken. According to Mike Arrowsmith, our election agent, it had been almost impossible to find anybody willing to stand. Although Paul Foot himself could not be present, he was proposed by fellow Socialist Workers Party member Diana Swingler and there was no opposition to his candidature. Indeed, as comrade Foot gained over 20% of the vote in the local elections in May, he seems a very good choice. He is an outstanding campaigning journalist and has consistently championed all manner of democratic causes: he will be able to present an effective challenge to Jules Pipe, leader of the Hackney Labour Party and virulent Blairite. Pipe has been selected as the Labour candidate after a split in the left vote in Hackney Labour Party. He is unpopular, both within the left wing of the local party and among many working class voters who have been victim of his policies. With Labour now a majority on the council, the election will serve as a referendum on the party's record since the May elections, as well as providing an important arena in which to take on the government. His selection was followed by a discussion on the campaign we should be running. For the CPGB I said that we needed to take the opportunity to put down roots both in the trade union movement and within working class areas. We needed to make good our commitment to be 'different from the rest' and follow up on the trade union conference that agreed to set up SA caucuses in the unions. Other contributors argued that we needed to make Palestine and the forthcoming war on Iraq central questions. In general it was agreed that we needed to use the opportunity to make an impact nationally as well as locally. The call by SA national secretary Rob Hoveman for Socialist Alliances across the country to offer maximum support to the campaign is therefore welcome. Given the abysmal results we have recently received in east London and Luton, it is important that real work is put in on the ground. The votes in Hackney in the local elections were good, but working class support cannot be taken for granted. It needs to be built on and made real. Although, like other branches, Hackney has been largely inactive since May, it now has an opportunity to take a lead in reinvigorating the SA. Hackney could provide a platform from which to pull together the many strands of opposition to Blairism and give a real voice to those opposed to the oncoming war. Socialist Workers Party members talked up the prospects for the SA to make a breakthrough in this election. What a pity, then, that we are lacking an essential tool in helping us to achieve our potential - a Socialist Alliance paper. Anne Mc Shane