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 communities. Its three councillors are all Labour. One of them, Steve Jones, is deputy leader of Sheffield City Council, and a hard-faced advocate of the council's policies of privatisation of housing, refuse, parks, recreation, and youth services.
Alison told Solidarity: "The main themes of my campaign will be the need for working-class representation in the council chamber - for a councillor who will speak up for working-class concerns - and support for public provision and public services, against privatisation.
"The City Council is planning to end council housing in the city, bringing in Arms Length Management or stock transfer as a halfway house to full privatisation. They will soon be balloting tenants in Burngreave on this issue.
"We hope to follow the example set by tenants' organisations and trade unionists in Camden, who in January voted down their Labour council's ALMO plan by a 77% majority.
"Sheffield City Council originally wanted to go for a full direct transfer of its council housing stock to the private sector, but backed down after campaigning, and is now attempting transfer area by area.
"There is a big 'regeneration' project under way in Burngreave. I will be saying that it cannot solve the basic issues of poverty caused by the loss of decent jobs through cuts and contracting-out of public services, the low level of the minimum wage and the loopholes in it, and the anti-union laws which hinder unions from winning better pay and conditions.
"We want to see the cuts in council education and welfare services reversed, and any 'regeneration' schemes to be on top of that, rather than 'regeneration' being used as a substitute for the old council services.
"We'll be calling on voters to oppose the BNP in the Euro-elections, and to support working-class and socialist policies as the answer to the social decay on which the BNP feeds.
"We'll also be opposing the Government's restrictions on asylum rights. A large number of asylum seekers live in the ward, and in our campaigns over the years we have always had a good response to our stand in favour of asylum rights.
"Support for my campaign is coming from local Socialist Alliance members who don't want to sink into the Respect coalition, and from the local Yemeni community.
"The election is being done by postal votes, with ballot papers going out on 25 May, so we need to concentrate a lot of campaigning in the week between 22 May and the Bank Holiday weekend of 29-31 May, and then continue canvassing right up to 10 June.
"It's important that we get onto the doorsteps to talk to people, rather than just leafletting. The experience from the previous years when I've stood is that when we do the canvassing properly the election work is much more productive in contacts valuable for ongoing campaigns after polling day.
"We hope that activists from outside Sheffield will come to help us, particularly on the weekends of 22-23 May and 29-31 May, and in the half-term week at the start of June".
- Contact: 07792 685108
Daniel Murphy, a voluntary sector worker, is standing as "Democratic Socialist Alliance - People before Profit" in Chorlton ward, Manchester. Labour holds the ward with a big majority, but, as Daniel notes, it has been contested regularly by socialist candidates under one ticket or another for several years now. In 2003 the Socialist Alliance candidate won 8%.
"It's an inner city ward", Daniel says, "but not one of the poorest ones. Lots of public service workers, teachers, people like that, live here, and more left activists of one sort or another than in other parts of the city.
"I am standing as a socialist candidate, on the old manifesto of the Socialist Alliance, against the war, for asylum rights, for a democratic workers' Europe, for public services.
"The initiative for me to stand came from the non-SWP activists in the local Socialist Alliance. We sent out a newsletter to local activists, explaining why I'm standing, and we got some interesting responses. A lot of them agreed that there needs to be a socialist candidate, speaking up unequivocally for working-class representation.
"We have almost finished covering the ward with an initial leaflet, and we will soon start distributing a second one. We will cover the ward with that second leaflet over the next couple of weeks, and then I hope we will be able to organise canvassing in ward. We've identified some priority areas for canvassing. We're also running street stalls.
"On the day I submitted my nomination papers, we discovered that Respect is running a candidate against me. As an excuse for this spoiling tactic they claim that Didsbury mosque and the RMT have asked them to stand.
"My campaign will concentrate on our positive message, without getting diverted into attacks on Respect, but if asked we will explain that the feeble politics of Respect, tainted as they are by association with George Galloway, are no substitute for a clear, trustworthy, socialist, working-class voice in the council chamber.
"We'll be using my election campaign to build up the local campaign to save community facilities. The Labour City Council has shut down a local school, and now plans to sell off the school site and playing fields to private developers for high-priced housing. We want to save the playing fields and have the school site used for community purposes and for social housing.
"Another local campaign we've been involved in was one against SATs, involving local teachers and parents.
"The election is by postal vote, so we need help with the campaign especially in the last two weeks of May".
- Contact: 07816 992218.
