Vote socialists into city hall
London is falling apart at the seams. 32% of us are living in mouldy homes. Almost ¼ of us are living in poverty. We commute on a crumbling tube network and every month many of us struggle to get by in one of the most unequal cities in the world.
There are currently 320,000 people on council house waiting lists across London. So it sounds like a joke when the current mayor, Sadiq Khan, says we are in a “golden era of council house building”. Under his leadership across London building has started on just 32,000 council homes in the last 8 years.
The mayor has a huge say over London, he controls a large budget and has powers over areas of planning, such as over large building projects. He could use these powers to challenge the property giants but instead the situation continues to get worse. In Waltham Forest, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) supporters have been part of the campaign which asked Khan to stop the building of a dangerous “monster block” in the centre of their high street. Instead of listening to their concerns, Khan had the campaigners thrown out of City Hall.
While Khan has posed as an opposition figure, nothing could be further from the truth. His free school meals pledge is underfunded. Transport fares are frozen this year, but TfL is facing a huge funding crisis, because of the dodgy deal that Khan reached with the Tories during covid.
Above all though, Khan continues to cosy up to Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is likely to be the next PM. Starmer’s Labour has refused to support free school meals across the country, taken action against Labour supporters who called for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza, has signed up to the Tories spending plans and ruled out rent controls. That’s why we need to elect anti-austerity London Assembly members into City Hall. TUSC supporters are standing in 4 seats covering 10 boroughs.
Build a working-class political alternative
The anti-war movement has shown that protesting can work — it forced out the hated Tory Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. The recent RMT Union victory on underground workers’ pay shows that strikes and organising can win too. But these struggles also show that we can’t trust Labour or the Tories and we need our own political voice.
TUSC London assembly members would use their voice to take on Khan and the property developers by demanding that only council housing is built on public land. We would fight to cap private rents and stand up to rip-off landlords. We would reverse the cuts to libraries, nurseries, and other important services.
All of this would also mean taking on a future Labour government and their austerity agenda. That’s why TUSC is preparing to put forward candidates in the general election too. We would support Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott standing independently and want to stand alongside everyone in the elections who is against war and austerity.
Capitalism is a broken system, the rich get richer while millions of ordinary Londoners struggle. This is because everything is orientated towards growing the profit of the few. If you want to be part of that fight against crisis-riddled capitalism, start by voting TUSC on 2nd May. But also join the Socialists to build a socialist alternative, here and around the world.
We say:
- Council homes and rent controls now
- Defend public services – stop the cuts
- Fight the cost-of-living crisis – for above inflation pay rises
Promoted by London Socialist Party, PO Box 1398 Enfield, EN1 9GT