04.08.2004

Making a start

Oliur Rahman is Respect's first councillor elected under its own name, topping the poll in a by-election in St Dunstans and Stepney Green ward, Tower Hamlets. He spoke to Peter Manson

How do you account for your victory?
A very important factor was the help I got from people coming from all around the country. I really appreciate all the support and hard work from those people and I would like to thank them for it. For a party that is only six months old to have won its first elected councillor was a brilliant result.

As soon as I got elected I started getting texts and emails from everywhere - not only this country, but across the world. Somebody called me from Cairo and I got an email from the Scottish Socialist Party. I gave an interview to an Italian newspaper.

At what stage did you think that you would win?
All along we knew it would be extremely close - we had 1,200 pledges from our canvassing. St Dunstans and Stepney Green was the third safest Labour seat in Tower Hamlets, but we knew that it would be between us and the Liberal Democrats because of what voters had been telling us. On election day itself, it was very nerve-wracking, as you can imagine, but eventually we came through with a 124 majority.

The Lib Dems were saying that a vote for Respect was a vote for Labour - they knew we were a threat. They published the result from Birmingham Hodge Hill in one of their leaflets and said if Respect’s vote had gone to the Lib Dems they would have won. But they didn’t reproduce our vote from Leicester South - if Labour had got our vote there, then Labour would have won.

When I questioned them about the war, they said they were against it. ‘Until it started,’ I said. And what about their mayoral candidate, Simon Hughes, who organised an event to raise money for Ariel Sharon?

Meanwhile, Labour was saying, ‘Respect is only interested in the war - what can they do to change your life?’ We said, yes, we do come from the anti-war movement, but we’re not only interested in that one question. We demanded that Tower Hamlets immediately reopen the community centres they had closed. Housing, education, transport, privatisation - we dealt with all those things.

In any case, why shouldn’t we talk about Iraq? There are people dying as we speak. Labour and the Lib Dems said that the war has nothing to do with local issues, but at the end of the day Blair spent £6 billion on the war, so why can’t he find money for the firefighters, for the hard-working people of this country, for the pensioners, for the community? People are demonstrating for a decent pension. They are striking for decent salaries, and Blair spends the money on supporting George Bush. So the war is linked to local issues.

On the doorstep it was clear people were fed up with the lies local councillors were telling them. We told people, the Lib Dems are not the alternative - they already have 16 councillors in Tower Hamlets. We asked people to give us a chance. Of course I told people I would be the only Respect councillor, and I wouldn’t have much influence over council policy. But I will have the courage to come out and tell the voters what is going on in the town hall. People deserve to know what has been decided on their behalf and what Labour has in store for them.

There is also the ‘new deal for the community’. The government has provided £56 million for regeneration. It was supposed to have transformed the Ocean estate, but it hasn’t happened. So where has that money gone? Why don’t they open the books to the public, so they can judge for themselves?

When I was going round canvassing, I met people whose relatives had been attacked in the streets and they were very concerned about the youth. Some of them are involved with drugs. This is a big problem, but there is no alternative - they have nowhere to go. At 23 I’m young myself, so I understand why those young people hang about on the street, because they’ve got nothing else to do. The council and the government have got the money, so why don’t they invest in youth services, in providing youth facilities with qualified workers? Such workers could go down and talk to the lads and invite them into the youth centres. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but, that way, slowly but surely, we will be able to change the attitude of those young kids, and help them rebuild their lives, and get the education and the jobs they deserve. But without investment we’ll never achieve that.

It might be said that capitalism always produces alienation and that just providing more youth centres is not the answer. Is there some link here with the big global questions?
Yes, we have capitalism, but I don’t think fighting for more youth centres is a losing battle. You and I may disagree on a lot of things, but we have to come to some sort of arrangement so we can work together to make society better for everybody.

What is the ward’s ethnic mix?
The ward is very mixed, probably with the majority having Asian roots - mainly Bangladeshi, but some Indian. Also there are Somalis and of course lots of white people. I was amazed at the variety amongst my support. I was getting everyone from young Asian boys to old English ladies coming up to me and asking, ‘Are you Oli Rahman? I voted for you last time and I’m voting for you again.’

I’m not going to lie and say the war didn’t play a big part - it did. Not only muslims or Bangladeshis, but a lot of white people were against the war. The Stepney Voice published a survey showing that 90% of the people of Stepney were opposed. When we knocked on doors, we didn’t only get pledges from Bengalis or muslims, but from all sorts.

We campaigned along the same lines everywhere. We gave the example of the firefighters - people who put their lives at risk to help us. They go inside burning buildings, knowing they might not come out alive. If these people don’t deserve better pay and conditions, then you tell me who does.
People supported us for raising these issues. They are fed up with Labour - they don’t see New Labour as a working class party any more. They know we are a new party and they know that I can’t change everything as Respect’s only councillor in Tower Hamlets, but they are looking for alternatives and it’s a start.

You mentioned the help you got from people all around the country. But how much did your victory owe to the mosque as well?
The mosques situated in the ward were very supportive, although not as much as for June 10. That was probably because it was a bigger election. Sections of the mosque want to get involved in politics and work in a broader way. Myself I want to work with all communities.

While it is excellent that we are getting support from working class muslims, isn’t there also a problem with this? It seems that it is only in such wards that we can look forward to getting good results at the moment.
There will be another by-election soon in Millwall ward, where a Labour councillor has resigned, accusing her colleagues of sexism. We’ll be standing in Millwall and down there the majority are white working class people. We are going to fight to win, just as we did in St Dunstans and Stepney Green. You never know - by getting one councillor you might encourage people. We’ll raise the issues affecting that area and do our best, just as we did in this campaign.

The present Tower Hamlets councillors are not willing to work with the local community. When I was at the mosque on Friday, handing over a letter thanking everybody for voting for us, somebody said to me, ‘Nobody ever did that before.’ Somebody else said, ‘Oh, I thought you would have disappeared like the rest of the councillors.’ This is the attitude the voters have.

One of my biggest arguments is, why should the local community suffer because of corrupt councillors? This is the problem. Councillors are too selfish, too interested in how high they can climb the ladder and how much money they can earn. The career politicians are not interested in whether community centres get closed. They don’t care if facilities are privatised.

So how can councillors be made accountable?
I will promise to do my best. I won’t promise I’m going to get 100 new youth centres. If you try and fail, you go back to the community and say, ‘This is what I’ve done, this is how I fought, but I failed. Tell me what else I can do.’

But there are thousands of councillors across the country who sincerely intend to change things for the better when they first start out. But, as a trade union officer, you know how management try to buy you off. So how can we ensure that elected representatives are not corrupted?
The council must open the books. Representatives must be accountable to the voters. The voters must decide whether they are doing a good job or not. None of this is happening at the moment. Across the country nobody knows what is being discussed in council chambers and meanwhile the councillors decide, ‘We’re going to privatise this service, we’re going to close down that community centre.’ How come we know nothing about it? Why are they so reluctant to open the town hall doors to the community, so they can judge for themselves?

How do you see your own role?
I’ve got a lot of work to do and there’ll be a lot of challenges I will face that will have to be overcome. I intend to show the voters that myself as a councillor and Respect as a party will fight for them and prove to them that we are capable of representing them, of running the council, and that we deserve their votes.

As soon as I take up office, I will start my work and I will do my best for the whole community. I want to say one thing: I will represent every single person - black, white, Asian, muslims, christians, people of no faith, young or old. If anybody has any problem, I’ll be more than happy to talk to them. I will do my best and at the end of the day that’s all I can do.

If I fail, I will go back to the people who voted for me and try to explain what went wrong. I will say I am sorry and ask them what I should do. That is something voters aren’t used to - and as a result they don’t have confidence in their councillors.

St Dunstans and Stepney Green result