The London Socialist Alliance meeting was attended by 36 people, representing most of the Alliances across the city. Nick Wrack opened the meeting with a presentation about the importance of both the European elections and the elections for the Greater London Assembly Elections taking place in June next year.
London will be a key target for the Alliance in the European elections as it one of the areas in which we have the greatest resources.
supporter Greg Tucker, who argued that it was important that this time round the Alliance stood a candidate for the Mayor, opened the discussion on the London elections.
He pointed out that it had been difficult to get media coverage in the last elections and to get on some platforms because the focus kadivery müch been on the Mayoral contest rather than that for the Assembly.
Others pointed out in the discussion that the Greens had managed to stand for Mayor last time without either appearing hostile to Livingstone or undercutting their achievements in the Assembly elections.
Other comrades felt that given that many of the London trade unions were coming out already in support of Ken that this was something we should be cautious about. There was also discussion about the balance that should be struck between concentrating on list or constituency seats.
Dave Landau from Islington SA also made the point that while there were no local elections in London itself, there would be in areas that border on the outer London Boroughs.
These outlying areas are seats that the fascists may well target and we should take this into account in our planning.
All these issues clearly need substahtial discussion in local Socialist Alliances over the next couple of months to make sure the next meeting can make authoritative decisions
At the same time, local alliances need to gear themselves up organisationally and politically for the challenges of June 2004. This means increasing our campaigning profile on the streets to ensure that we can hit the ground running in the elections themselves.
This upbeat and positive meeting agreed that a London structure needs to be reestablished that will meet on a periodic basis to review these and other matters.
London Executive members have responsibility for convening the meetings but all local Alliances in London need to make sure that not only are they present at the next meeting but that those attending are able to feedback on detailed preparatidnis being made in their areas for this challenge. Anti-Capitalism: new struggles, new leaderships Saturday 25 October - Central London The anti-capitalist and anti-war movements are truly international. The first Socialist Resistance conference will bring together speak ers from across Europe and Brazil to debate how we take the move ments forward. These will include young activists in student movements. the Brazilian Workers' Party and from the fast-growing French and Portuguese movements. Tickets are £6 waged/£2.50 unwaged send a cheque payable to Socialist Resistance, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU. e-mail us at [email protected] London Socialist Resistance comrades will make accommodation available as far as we can for people travelling from outside London. Contact Paul on 020 8800 7460.
page 18 of the scan
ice September 2003