RESISTANCE supporter, Louise van der Hoeven, is standing as the Socialist Alliance candidate in the forthcoming election for a new mayor of North Tyneside on June 12. Louise, who is secretary of Tyneside Socialist Alliance and an activist in the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign, will be focusing on the occupation of Iraq and Palestine and the war against asylum seekers.
Louise van der Hoeven is the only candidate in these elections opposing privatisation and demanding adequate funding from central government for badly needed local services. Fourlocal schools are being built under PFI, and six teaching jobs are under threat in local primary schools in the current cash crisis.
There are also discussions about using a PFI scheme to get a needed extension at the Rake Lane hospital. The Socialist Alliance will be campaigning against the possible sell-off of council housing through ALMOs -though the council have not as yet made any decision to go down this route.
Louise's campaign literature stresses that the Socialist Alliance is the sister organisation of the Scottish Socialist Party which now has six MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. The campaign will allow the Socialist Alliance to get its ideas across to more people and get new activists involved.
This election has come about because the previous incumbent, Tory Chris Morgan, was forced to resign following allegations of indecent assault and use of child pornography. Morgan won the seat by a narrow margin in 2002, probably as a reaction against the fact that Labour had been running the council (badly) for the previous 18 years, since its inception in 1974. Now Labour are favourites to retake the seat, though the recent council elections in which they lost two seats cannot leave room for complacency. Last time round the Socialist Alliance stood local comedian Mike Elliot, who got 2018 votes. There has been controversy about Labour's selection of candidate - Euro MP Dr Gordon Adam. Adam had already announced that he was not intending to stand again in 2004 for the Brussels seat, but seems to think it is fine to have two jobs for the next year, so long as he draws only one salary. Both the Tory and Liberal Democrat candidates are long-standing sitting councillors within the constituency. The other challenge for the Socialist Alliance is that the National Front is standing a candidate. While in many parts of the country, the BP may have been the most visible fascist organisation for a long time; the NF has had a pretty consistent presence in the North East for almost 30 years.
They make no secret of their contempt for the "respectable" turn of the BP, and their continued commitment to street fighting tactics. Their candidate is Robert Batten, about whom no information appears even on their own site - or what specific policies they are putting forward in this election. Fighting this campaign will cost Tyneside Socialist Alliance at least £1500. This is a huge amount of money, especially for an organisation that has just fought 3 council seats and mounted a big campaign against the BNP in Sunderland. Send cheques made payable to Tyneside Socialist Alliance c/o TUC centre against Unemployment, 4 The Cloth Market, Newcastle NE1 1EE Support in canvassing, running stalls and so on would also be much appreciated. Get your local Socialist Alliance to get a team together to go to North Tyneside for the day. Contact Louise on 07733418661 or Kevin Flynn on 0191 2324606 or [email protected] Alliance as a real existing active organisation. Lavalette is a member of the Socialist Workers Party and is now their first elected representative in local government. Building on the election result will be a major test of the SWP's ability to relate to other forces and draw them into the wider struggle - and not just to try and recruit them to membership of the SWP.
Particularly crucial is the need to win over wider layers of former supporters of the left in the Labour Party, who still regard the SWP with suspicion and see it as manipulathe official opposition to Labour on the Council. It is a searing indictment of Labour policies and practice that an openly racist and fascist Party is able to gain support Efforts need to be redoubled to build an alternative to Labour's failing policies.
Compared to the BNP, the success of the Socialist Alliance gave at least one sizable crumb of comfort to many on the left across Lancashire and further afield.
The opportunity opened by the victory in Preston is great and the Alliance must seize it with all its ability