Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

Preston Respect has high hopes

by Fisher Gate  |  Socialist Resistance no34  |  page 7

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

Preston Respect has launched its third election campaign in as many years.

Building on the success of Michael Lavalette's election three years ago to Preston City Council as "Socialist Alliance Against the War" in the Town Centre ward, the local Respect branch continues to build support for its radical challenge to Labour.

Five seats will be contested in the central urban area of the city and hopes are high of capturing further seats on the council. The same five wards were contested in 2004, when Respect won a remarkable average of 30 per cent of the vote, coming close to winning in several wards.

The vote was built further during the general and county council elections in 2005. In the key Town Centre and Riversway wards, Respect candidates are well known and well respected.

Mukhtar Master, who is contesting Town Centre ward again, is a Stop the War activist and Unison steward who was on strike in the battle over pensions.

Former Labour cabinet member Elaine Abbott will again contest the Riversway seat she once held for Labour, sitting candidate. Prominent local Stop the War leader, Sumera Rizwan will contest St Georges ward while Danielle Field and Valli Umarji will contest St Matthews and Fishwick wards.

Preston Respect were very active in building the recent opposition to Condoleezza Rice's visit to nearby Blackburn. Respect and Stop the War supporters within the muslim community were able to win formal opposition to the visit from the Lancashire Council of Mosques, and an impressive series of demonstrations was built that made wront-dage news throughout the visit.

Lavalette has been joined on Preston Council by ex-Labour member Stephen Brooks, and the two have developed a formidable profile for Respect in the city.

Their activities being extensively covered by the local press, shaming the near invisible Blairite local Labour MP.

A particular centrepiece of their activity on the Council has been campaigning around the environment, and they have argued and won motions in the council chamber on issues like local transport and climate change.

Lavalette was recently highlighted in the local Lancashire Evening Post, warning on the dangers of bird flu.

It is therefore deeply regretviously non-existent locally, have decided to challenge Respect in some of its target seats, while leaving Labour unchallenged in vast parts of the City,

Nevertheless hopes are still high that come May 5, Respect will put in an impressive performance and hopefully capture one or more seats. Here Clir Oli Rahman speaks on a Keep Our NHS Public platform With the cuts at the Barts & London PFI Hospital (see page 6) and other issues in the Borough, Tower Hamlets Respect has been actively involved in campaigning around defence of the NHS.