Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Final Hurdels!

As the campaign enters the final stretch - were all neeed to campaign heavily - I hope to see you all at the SYN meeting on saturday where we'll be working out exactly what we can do to help!

In the meantime check out the latest on John's Blog

John wll be campaigning in Scotland and Wales to help Labour candidates in their campaigns. Campaigning for Elaine Smith in Scotland (20-21 April), and Sue Lent in Wales (30 April). They are both strong candidates with a fantastic record of standing up for working class people. They are both consistent and vocal opponents of the war in Iraq.


We will be sending up a group of people to campaign with John in Wales - please let us know if your interested in going.

See you all Saturday!

11 comments:

voltaires_priest said...

At the risk of being a pedantic bugger, that's "hurdles" not "hurdels" ;)

Have updated the link to this blog from our new site. :)

voltaires_priest said...

PS - if you could do the same that would be appreciated, as we're now at Wordpress not Blogspot. Ta!

marshajane said...

Hi Volty,
Will do you pedantic little shite!
xx

Anonymous said...

You're obviously not from Cardiff.
Sue Lent is a Labour careerist, a bore and bully generally despised on the left in Wales. Save yourself the train fare!

Anonymous said...

Good Evening!

I've been following John Mcdonnell's leadership bid for a few months now and i fully support the fact that he wants to make a big difference, and watching his speeches etc i'd vote for him.... I've even hovered on the 'join Labour' site and nearly actually joined to get invloved.

However, it's the joining Labour part that i have issue with as Labour do not have, historically, a very good record of actually helping the little man and tend to just fall into line with how the wealthy want things to be done.... they're little more than administrators of money that it can pry away in tax.... and we all know that it's the least well off who suffer with tax!

And this is my point: to really make a difference the whole mechanics of Government needs to be fundamentally changed and Labour have had numerous chances to attempt this and they just don't! and i can't see them doing it in the future.

What we need, if you excuse the wording, is a government with 'BALLS' who will change the whole structure and actually do something that will address the serious issues such as inequality and not be a slave to big buisness?

Is this Labour?

I'd love to support this campaign but Labour are very, very shaky and have has their chance, and i'm struggling to justify spending £36 a year on membership instead of just giving it to charity.

JC

Anonymous said...

A hillarious piece by Sue Lent in the student newspaper in Cardiff.

She begins by saying that she is . . . er, probably against fees, because she vaguely feels that people should have to pay for education.

You might then expect her to put the arguments for free education!

Does she turn her fire on the government? No, of course not!

Instead she tries to rubbish those who oppose fees because they are not the government who would have to make cuts and cost things in order to implement it.

Then to rub it in, she says besides people never mention that in the old days some people paid tuition fees anyway.

What a powerful fighter for free education!

With friends like these, does the student movement need enemies?

Answers on a postcard and send it to Sue c/o New Labour Central

Mike said...

JC - £36 spent on Labour membership now could help change the world. £36 given to charity would buy half a donkey. Charitable funds are a drop in the ocean compared to the money squeezed out of the world's poorest by rich governments and corporations. Collective political action is the only way to effect irreversible positive change in the world, and build a future where there's no need for charity.

JC and anonymous - the Labour Party has many faults, even the Labour left has its faults, but what other vehicle do you propose for activists in this country to change things? The fact is there isn't one. Working-class unity is irreplacable. The world's problems are so enormous we need a united mass working-class party, and the only way one can be built is on the basis the existing labour movement.

All attempts to do otherwise have resulted in ignominious failure, or chipping away at the edges of capitalism. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, we will smash its heart out. But building an instrument capable of doing that takes time.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I know what you're saying about charities, i was only using it to make a point - i'm not a big fan of large charities as it goes.

As for giving an alternative solution to solving the world's problems, well i'll freely admit that i don't have all the answers (unfortunately). However, i can see that whenever the Labour Party (or others) step up to government and start to collect large salaries (and expenses!!) they automatically abandon any of their aims to address inequality and other issues that would help the majority, and fall inline with the city big buisnesses - look at Blair, what odds would you get to him earning huge amounts on the speaker circuit in America and ending up taking a role such as a directorship of a bank or other large organization - all after coming into power with socialist aims.

The MP for my area is Hilary Armstrong (Durham North West) and after looking at her voting record i see that on the big issues that the government has influence and seriously matter to an area like this (ex steel mining town with low paid low level factory and retail jobs)that she votes totally in line with government policy which is against what is needed here. She also voted for the iraq war and against an enquiry into it and must be unrepresentative of view here, yet because of tradition (i assume) remains this area's MP.

I understand what you're saying thought, Mike. Most political parties are not serious enough, some have no chance of getting into power as most people are either Labour or Conservative, and i've hovered on the Labour site numerous times nearly clicking the join button.

I would say that a significant chunk of the population of voting age are uninspired, because of Labour saying they will help the people on the lower pecking order but never actually doing it. I think that won't change until they actually do something that makes a significant difference!

So, i take it you are a Labour member?

JC

Frank Partisan said...

Good blog. All the best.

Shamik Das said...

It's "hurdle" not "hurdel" and "Blair" not "Bliar". ;)

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