General Elections

The importance of local elections

By Garth Frankland, Alliance for Green Socialism Over 100 socialists stood in the local elections under different left political banners. In the main they consisted of people who had subscribed in different ways to the early days of the Socialist Alliance. The numbers standing were not very different from that organisation at its height. The biggest concentrations were on Merseyside with 51 candidates, Coventry with 14, Leeds with 14 (12 Alliance for Green Socialism and 2 Socialist Party) and Walsall with 10. There were other candidates across the country. Respect stood very few local...

Protest vote in Sheffield

Following the SWP's wrecking of the Socialist Alliance, a number of comrades stood as 'Democratic Socialist Alliance' candidates in the 10 June local government elections. One of the most successful of these campaigns was run by AWL member Alison Brown, whose campaigned in the Burngreave ward of Sheffield. Alison had stood in the same ward twice before as a Socialist Alliance candidate; in a clear indication that patient, systematic work pays off in a way that SWP-style leaflet-bombing never can, she more than tripled her vote this time, with 13% of those who voted casting a vote for her...

French far-left election blow

Les luttes continuent! By Vicki Morris The French far-left suffered a knock in the recent elections for the European parliament. The joint list of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR)-Lutte Ouvriere (LO) received 432,000 votes, 2.58% of the total. They lost their five MEPs (although because of European enlargement they were always going to struggle to get an MEP this time). The LCR's website reports glumly: "From one constituency to the next, if not from one département to the next, there is no big variation, all the departmental votes were under 3.6%. Let us recall that at the regional...

Debate and discussion: What socialists should say about the PJP

Gerry Bates (Solidarity 3-52 27 May) says "The PJP has called on Muslims not to vote Lib-Dems because the Lib-Dems are in favour of equal rights for gays and lesbians." Gerry knows this is not true. Jim Denham reported in early May on one of the left e-mail lists, that the leaflet had been withdrawn. The sequence of events is as follows: A draft leaflet by two candidates of the PJP in Saltley which had a homophobic comment, was available at a PJP meeting in Saltley on 2 May 2004. I am informed by Raghib Ahsan, a left wing ex-Labour Councillor and candidate for the PJP, that leading members of...

The left in Europe

Two point six per cent in France, 5.8% in Italy, 8.1% in Denmark, 7% in the Netherlands, 5.2% in Scotland, 4.9% in Portugal… I do not know of any significant radical-left electoral efforts in the new EU member states of Eastern Europe, but in some west European states, at least, there were some scores for the radical left in June's Euro-elections better than those which parties to the left of the Communist and Socialist parties got in the 1970s. Then, although far-left groups generally had more, and more active, members than today, and generally thought themselves nearer revolutionary success...

Against the far right: for a united Europe

By Rhodri Evans The threat from the far right in the 10 June Euro-elections may come as much from the UK Independence Party as from the British National Party. The BNP hopes to win a Euro-seat in the north-west. But the UKIP has edged ahead of the Lib-Dems in one opinion poll. It is spending more on the Euro-elections than Labour and the Tories put together. It has the backing of multi-millionaire Paul Sykes, actress Joan Collins, freelance racist Robert Kilroy-Silk, and former Clinton campaign manager Dick Morris. The BNP is worried about the UKIP "splitting the patriotic, anti-European Union...

10 June elections. Sheffield - Socialism on the doorsteps

By Martin Thomas On our way to leaflet a new batch of streets for Alison Brown, the socialist candidate in Sheffield City Council's elections, we passed the Yemeni mosque. A group of men were standing outside, so I gave them leaflets. "I'm supporting Respect", said one of them. "That's the Euro-elections", I replied. "We're supporting the Alliance for Green Socialism there. Will you vote for Alison in the council elections?" Friendly but firm, the man told me: "I'll have to ask someone else about that". Just round the corner, I met another group of young Asian men and handed them leaflets....

Democratic Socialist Alliance results

Alison Brown, standing for the Democratic Socialist Alliance (People before Profit) in Burngreave ward, Sheffield, tripled her vote by comparison with 2003 (which, in turn, was her best result up to then of the three times she had run in the ward). For more Democratic Socialist Alliance results, click here . Some of the improvement in Burngreave must be put down to this being an election in which all the ward's three seats were contested, rather than only one as in previous years; and some, also, to increased turnout with postal voting. Nevertheless, this time Alison beat all the Tory...

June 2004 Elections: Vote socialist or Labour, build LRC!

By Colin Foster Thursday 10 June will be a big election day, but, unfortunately, one with a small socialist presence. Seventy-eight Euro-MPs will be elected, by proportional representation in each of 12 giant regions. The regions vary in size from three Euro-MPs to 10. In London, the mayor and 25 members of the Greater London Assembly (GLA) will be elected. For mayor, voters can cast first- and second-choice votes, and the second-choice transfers will count if no candidate gets an outright majority of first choices. For the Assembly, electors have both a constituency vote (for Assembly members...

June 2004 Elections: Socialist candidates in Sheffield and Manchester

Socialists candidates Alison Brown and Daniel Murphy are standing in the local government elections in Sheffield and Manchester respectively. Alison Brown is standing in Burngreave ward, Sheffield, for the fourth time. On the previous three occasions Alison, an ambulance worker, has increased her vote each time. She won 8.1% in 2003. In past elections she was the Socialist Alliance candidate; this time she will be standing as "Democratic Socialist Alliance - People before Profit". Burngreave is a poor, inner-city ward, containing large Yemeni, Somali, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Iraqi Kurdish...

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