Election campaign 2003
Socialist vote in Braunstone
Candidate condemns Leicester privatisations
Our election manifesto
5% of Braunstone vote for Socialist Alternative
We got 125 votes for "Socialist Alternative" (the Socialist party election name)
in the Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields ward on May 1st.
5% of the people who voted, voted for us.
We recruited new members during the
campaign, increased our links with local people and there are others who may join us.
The turnout was 23%. More than a third of that was postal votes. It seems that
the main parties concentrated on mail outs to the postal voters. However in the
poorest areas of the ward, where we have the best support, the turnout was
extremely low.
We concentrated on knocking on doors, though had limited resources. We also had
a lot of people who leafleted for us, including several non members. We
leafleted the whole ward (6,000 houses) once, and about half the ward with a
second one. We had 20 at our public meeting including a group of teaching
assistants who were concerned about the possible closure of 2 primary schools on
the estate.
The following day we were petitioning parents and contacting the press. There
may be an on-going campaign if the council don't give a categorical no to our
question about closures.
The national vote against Labour resulted locally in Labour losses to the
Liberals, who are now the largest group on the council for the first time. This
included Spinney Hill ward, previously with a huge Labour majority, where the
Muslim protest vote against the war went to the Liberals. Interestingly the
Green Party missed out on winning a seat in Castle ward only on the drawing of
lots after a tied vote with Labour!
We hadn't been able to do any work before the election campaign started because
the amount of anti-war campaigning we were involved in. Despite our worries, the
results of the campaign justified us standing.
Thanks to everyone who helped in the campaign!
Labour “obsessed with privatisation”
says candidate
The City Academy school planned in Leicester has been
condemned by a local election candidate as “Yet another sell-off of public
services” and hospital reorganisation described as resulting in “profits for fat
cats.”
Steve Score, Socialist Alternative candidate for the
Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields ward said:
“The City Academy planned by Leicester City Council is yet
another example of a ‘sell-off’ of public services. It will be run by the Church
of England along with private businesses and will take control of schools away
from local people. It can control its own curriculum, scrap national pay and
conditions for staff and could chose to become selective. It could, in the long
run, threaten the resources of other schools in Leicester. We do need more local
schools. I opposed the council’s closure of schools a few years ago including
Wycliffe on Braunstone and Mary Linwood on Saffron Lane. But we need publicly
run schools.
“We have a double whammy in Leicester because the local
hospitals are also in line for privatisation. The Private Finance initiative (PFI)
plan will result in profits for fat cats but a worse service for Leicester
people. Hospital buildings will be owned by private companies and the NHS will
have to rent them in order to use them.
“A study of PFI plans in Edinburgh shows that the cost of PFI
– not least because money is diverted from care to profits – results in fewer
beds and patients going untreated. The same will happen here.
“Labour is obsessed with privatisation. We need to take a
stand now in defence of our public services before they are all sold off”
Information on the Edinburgh PFI report can be found at
BBC news online
Socialist
Party election manifesto:
Braunstone Park and
Rowley Fields ward May 1st 2003
Vote Steve Score
Steve Score has been a socialist candidate on Braunstone a number of
times before. He was involved in the Wycliffe Action Group campaign
against school closures and has long campaigned on issues such as free
education, and against council cuts. He was the leader of the anti poll
tax campaign in Leicester.
Defend public services
New Labour is continuing the old Tory policy of selling off all our
public services, including plans to privatise the Post Office. In
Leicester, hospitals buildings and many health workers jobs are also
being privatised.
“Private Finance Initiative” means that Leicester’s hospital buildings
will be owned by private companies and the NHS will have to pay money to
use them for years to come. Because these companies are in it for profit
it will mean more cost for less service.
Yet the crisis in our hospitals continues, with people left for hours on
trolleys in corridors before being treated.
New
Labour are now extending these sell-offs to schools. In Leicester the
city council are proposing a new school – the new “City Academy”, which
will be privately owned, but funded by taxpayers’ money.
It will not be democratic, can be selective about its pupils, can break
national conditions of service for its staff and the owning company can
decide its own curriculum! – We say lets have properly funded, publicly
run and democratically controlled comprehensive education!
We have already seen
fire-fighters struggling, not only to get the pay they deserve, but also
to oppose cuts in the service. Support the fire-fighters! Defend public
services from government attacks.
Housing
– spend money on repairs
Many new homes are being
built in Leicester for the well off. But not enough low cost housing for
working class people. Thousands are on the waiting list.
The
latest Labour government proposal is to raise council rents over the
next few years. The level of housing association and council rent will
be equalised, in Leicester housing association rents are 25% higher.
This would leave many people in a “poverty trap”. If you try to get off
benefits and into work you are faced with huge rent bills.
No sell off
of council housing – we oppose the government policy of privatising
council housing. Instead they should put in the money needed to do
repairs speedily and refurbish all council housing.
Boost
Education
Only a few years ago, despite massive opposition from local people the
Labour council shut Wycliffe Community College. This destroyed a centre
of the community and forced many school students to travel miles to
school. The socialist party is proud of the role we played in the
campaign to keep Wycliffe open. Unfortunately the council refused to
listen to local people. Now, having spent £400,000 on just demolishing
the building they now accept the arguments we raised for the need for
local schools! But they only want a school on that site if students
transfer to New College at GCSE age. If a school was to be built there
it should be a school up to 16 years at least.
It appears that now
there may be moves to close Bendbow Rise and Crescent schools. This
should NOT be done against the wishes of local people!
Education needs proper funding with well trained and paid teachers!
-
NO to University Tuition Fees. Yes to a living grant
for all in education from 16 years upwards.
Education should be free
for all. Government proposals for £3,000 a year top up fees are a return
to the days when only the wealthiest could go to university.
Expand
public transport
Leicester is reportedly
has the most traffic congestion any where in the country except London.
Pollution resulting from this undoubtedly worsens people’s health and
affects things like asthma. What we need is a vastly better public
transport system. Yes a tram system, which has been raised as a
possibility would be great. But we also need
more bus services at much reduced prices. Publicly owned and well
subsidised public transport would be a huge step forward.
Money
for services not war!
So
far, government spending on this war for oil is £3 billion and it could
go higher. Yet they constantly claim to have no money when it comes to
paying for the services, benefits and wages we need.
Blair and Bush have lied about the real reasons for the war. After all
it was US and British governments along with others in the west, who
supported Saddam in the past with money AND weapons. All around the
world they continue to support dictatorships equally vicious as
Saddam’s.
The
US want a colonial occupation of Iraq. The Iraqi people will not be
allowed to decide their own future. Whilst it is understandable if some
Iraqis celebrate the downfall of a repressive dictator, the US does not
have their real interests in mind.
It
is oil and economic and military domination over the world that Bush is
really interested in. Which country will they attack next?
End
low pay and poverty
Job losses, replacement
of secure jobs by casual working and agencies, low pay and low benefits
affect people in Leicester. Yet the fat cats make more money than ever.
We
campaign for the minimum wage being set at the level of the European
decency threshold of £8 an hour. We also campaign for decent benefits
you can live on.
Future
for young people
Young people in particular are affected by low pay, agency working, not
enough youth facilities.
No wonder there is a
danger that some can turn to hard drugs and crime. That’s why attention
has to be made to providing those facilities. That’s why the minimum
wage should be available at 16, and why the discrimination against young
people should be dropped, and why every young person should have a real
choice of a job on decent pay, real training or to stay on in education
on a living grant.
New
Deal for communities?
After years of cuts in the local area, the government initiated the “New
Deal for Communities” scheme. Any cash from improvements is obviously
welcome and much needed. But this money should have come in anyway.
The
Braunstone Community Association has been plagued by mis-management,
huge management costs and difficulties.
It
appears at the moment that because the “accountable body” (Leicester
Housing Association) which controls the spending is pulling out, it
could lead to the collapse of the whole project and Braunstone losing
the money.
Replace
council tax with a progressive local income tax –
which instead of taxing poorer households more heavily than the rich, as
council tax does – would tax the rich more heavily. Anyone earning under
£10,000 a year would not pay any local income tax.
Labour / Liberal/
Tories: They ARE all the same – A socialist alternative needed
Labour does not
represent working class people. Their record shows they behave just like
the Tories and are a Big Business party. Lord Sainsbury’s latest £2.5m
donation (£8.5m since 1999) to New Labour proves this.
The Liberals may come
out of this local election holding or sharing power. They have long
“talked a good fight” But what is their record when they get power? In
Sheffield, Liverpool and other cities where they won control of councils
they acted the same as all the others and proceeded with cuts to local
services.
-
A new mass party that represents working class people is
needed!
People
not profit!
The rich are getting
richer, and the rest poorer. The gap between rich and poor has never
been greater. The top big businesses and financial institutions have the
real power in this society – money talks!
We believe the wealth
could be utilised for the interests of people not profit if these
companies were taken out of the hands of the rich and publicly owned and
democratically controlled.
A socialist society
would allow democratic decisions on how society’s wealth was used.
Yes we are asking you to
vote for us. But on its own it isn’t enough to really change things. We
need people like you to get involved in a movement to change society.
Join us!!
For more info or to join, ring us on 0116 223 0534
45 Hopyard Close, Leicester LE2 9GY
stephen.score@ntlworld.com
http://members.tripod.com/~sp_leicester/ |
