Post by Martin Hickman
The Shock victory of George Galloway in the Bradford West by-election should send a massive message to the Labour leadership. This should have been a walk in the park due to the huge unpopularity of the Coalition government, in a traditional Labour heartland. However, Labour was driven into second place behind George Galloway, who scored a massive 36.59% swing from Labour to Respect.
This result shows ordinary people are far to the Left of the Labour Party and is a sign there is a clear hankering for a real alternative. Labour said at the last general election they would listen, clearly they are not they are still pushing the discredited Blairite agenda.
Miliband said Labour had to learn the lessons of the defeat, but is presently trying to befriend big business. “It was an incredibly disappointing result for Labour in Bradford West and I am determined that we learn lessons of what happened. I'm going to lead that. I'm going to be going back to the constituency in the coming weeks to talk to people there about why this result happened. Clearly there were local factors, but I also say only four out of 10 people voted for the three mainstream political parties.”
Time and time again they say lessons learned and time and time again we see the same failure to engage in our class preferring instead to listen to the same right-wing lobbyist that are pushing for the destruction of the welfare state. They display an almost paranoid fear of the press . In fact along with the right wing press they have consistently condemned workers taking action to defend there jobs and communities.
This lack of any real fight also includes two big public sector unions tied to New Labours that have sold there own members down the river by caving in after only one days strike in the pensions dispute and at the same time stabbed all the other unions still willing to fight in the back,
Clearly for many despite the media campaign against George Galloway he represents a breath of fresh air for many desperate to see a real alternative. PCS runs a make your vote count campaign and puts questions around defending public services to councillors and MP,s at election time below is what George and the other parties answer to our questions. You will note no response from all three main political parties.
No response has been received from any of the other parties.
I can confirm that I support all four of your pledges. Opposition to public service cuts forms a central part of my campaign.
I fully and enthusiastically support the four PCS pledges.
I believe the Condem government's policy of cutting vital public services is not only grossly unfair and unjust but utterly counter-productive. The cuts are clearly sending the economy back into recession with a consequent growth in the deficit the cuts were supposed to reduce. Were I to be elected in Bradford West, it would be one of my highest priorities to condemn this economic madness.
I am also strongly in favour of decent pay for all workers. Although I had my criticisms of Tower Hamlets council, I strongly supported the adoption of the living wage policy which I'm pleased to see they are still maintaining despite savage cuts.
I am also completely opposed to any further privatisation whether it's in the NHS or anywhere else in public services. Again, I'm proud of the role I and others played in ending the privatisation of the council housing stock in Tower Hamlets when I was an MP there. I believe in the concept of public service and believe replacing that with the pursuit of profit is an utterly retrograde step.
As for pensions, the treatment of many people of pension age in this country is nothing less than shameful. Not only was it a scandal for the state pension to be decoupled from the rise in earnings under Thatcher, the pillaging of many private pension schemes has been just as scandalous. And the assault on public sector pensions for no other reason than to help the government cut a deficit caused by the recklessness and greed of their banker friends is yet another outrage perpetrated on older people.
I hope that addresses questions you may have had, but please don't hesitate to get back in touch if you've got further questions or there's anything I can help you with.
Often with our question we put to all the political parties a common response is no response from the three main parties. This in itself is an indication of there complete lack of any willingness to engage in any real democratic debate on the issue around the cuts or in fact any issue.
The real lesson for Labour is if it wants to win back those millions of votes it lost it needs to change direction and quick it must embark on a no prisoner policy of fighting all cuts and work with unions the more progressive fighting unions that is, and also the anti cuts groups and local communities to build a true working class fightback. It can be done Labour just need to grow a pair.
Although this by-election victory will not be repeated in the next general election, it should you would logically think serve a warning to Labour not to take its traditional supporters for granted. The present leadership is wedded to capitalism.It is and should be a priority to replace the class traitors of New Labour with a class concious leadership that engages and fight with us not against us.
PCS Make your vote Count Campaign
The Shock victory of George Galloway in the Bradford West by-election should send a massive message to the Labour leadership. This should have been a walk in the park due to the huge unpopularity of the Coalition government, in a traditional Labour heartland. However, Labour was driven into second place behind George Galloway, who scored a massive 36.59% swing from Labour to Respect.
This result shows ordinary people are far to the Left of the Labour Party and is a sign there is a clear hankering for a real alternative. Labour said at the last general election they would listen, clearly they are not they are still pushing the discredited Blairite agenda.
Miliband said Labour had to learn the lessons of the defeat, but is presently trying to befriend big business. “It was an incredibly disappointing result for Labour in Bradford West and I am determined that we learn lessons of what happened. I'm going to lead that. I'm going to be going back to the constituency in the coming weeks to talk to people there about why this result happened. Clearly there were local factors, but I also say only four out of 10 people voted for the three mainstream political parties.”
Time and time again they say lessons learned and time and time again we see the same failure to engage in our class preferring instead to listen to the same right-wing lobbyist that are pushing for the destruction of the welfare state. They display an almost paranoid fear of the press . In fact along with the right wing press they have consistently condemned workers taking action to defend there jobs and communities.
This lack of any real fight also includes two big public sector unions tied to New Labours that have sold there own members down the river by caving in after only one days strike in the pensions dispute and at the same time stabbed all the other unions still willing to fight in the back,
Clearly for many despite the media campaign against George Galloway he represents a breath of fresh air for many desperate to see a real alternative. PCS runs a make your vote count campaign and puts questions around defending public services to councillors and MP,s at election time below is what George and the other parties answer to our questions. You will note no response from all three main political parties.
Bradford West by-election
View party responses to our public service pledges.No response has been received from any of the other parties.
Green
Response from Dawud Islam, Green Party Candidate:I can confirm that I support all four of your pledges. Opposition to public service cuts forms a central part of my campaign.
Respect
Response from George Galloway, Respect Party Candidate:I fully and enthusiastically support the four PCS pledges.
I believe the Condem government's policy of cutting vital public services is not only grossly unfair and unjust but utterly counter-productive. The cuts are clearly sending the economy back into recession with a consequent growth in the deficit the cuts were supposed to reduce. Were I to be elected in Bradford West, it would be one of my highest priorities to condemn this economic madness.
I am also strongly in favour of decent pay for all workers. Although I had my criticisms of Tower Hamlets council, I strongly supported the adoption of the living wage policy which I'm pleased to see they are still maintaining despite savage cuts.
I am also completely opposed to any further privatisation whether it's in the NHS or anywhere else in public services. Again, I'm proud of the role I and others played in ending the privatisation of the council housing stock in Tower Hamlets when I was an MP there. I believe in the concept of public service and believe replacing that with the pursuit of profit is an utterly retrograde step.
As for pensions, the treatment of many people of pension age in this country is nothing less than shameful. Not only was it a scandal for the state pension to be decoupled from the rise in earnings under Thatcher, the pillaging of many private pension schemes has been just as scandalous. And the assault on public sector pensions for no other reason than to help the government cut a deficit caused by the recklessness and greed of their banker friends is yet another outrage perpetrated on older people.
I hope that addresses questions you may have had, but please don't hesitate to get back in touch if you've got further questions or there's anything I can help you with.
Often with our question we put to all the political parties a common response is no response from the three main parties. This in itself is an indication of there complete lack of any willingness to engage in any real democratic debate on the issue around the cuts or in fact any issue.
The real lesson for Labour is if it wants to win back those millions of votes it lost it needs to change direction and quick it must embark on a no prisoner policy of fighting all cuts and work with unions the more progressive fighting unions that is, and also the anti cuts groups and local communities to build a true working class fightback. It can be done Labour just need to grow a pair.
Although this by-election victory will not be repeated in the next general election, it should you would logically think serve a warning to Labour not to take its traditional supporters for granted. The present leadership is wedded to capitalism.It is and should be a priority to replace the class traitors of New Labour with a class concious leadership that engages and fight with us not against us.
PCS Make your vote Count Campaign
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