As regular Solidarity readers will know, Workers’ Liberty will be standing our comrade Jill Mountford as a candidate in the next general election, in the south east London constituency of Camberwell and Peckham.
We chose Camberwell and Peckham for two main reasons.
First, because it is a mainly working-class area whose inhabitants face problems like unemployment, low pay and cuts in services.
Second, because its current MP is Harriet Harman, Labour Party deputy leader and loyal New Labour hack. Jill is standing on a socialist program of fighting for jobs, homes and services for all; for a workers’ voice in politics; and for a workers’ government, based on the labour movement and serving the working class in the same way New Labour serves the bosses and the rich.
Despite widespread cynicism about “official” politics, elections are still a chance to talk to hundreds and thousands of workers and others about how society is run and what is wrong with it. For revolutionary socialists, this is not an alternative to struggles in the workplace and in communities, but one way to help give those struggles political expression. Anything else means giving the bosses’ parties, and the bourgeois clique who run the Labour Party, a monopoly on using elections as a political platform.
Since the campaign began, we have organised regular stalls, leafleting, selling papers and talking to hundreds of people. We have organised a debate with speakers from the local Labour Party and Green Party. We have begun to contact trade union branches to speak to their organisers and activists about the campaign.
As the campaign progresses, and as the election gets nearer, we will be stepping up this kind of work. The more people who take part, the stronger our socialist voice will be — so please get in touch and get involved!
07904 944 771
Facebook group: “Support our socialist candidate in Camberwell and Peckham”