Campaigns

At the local election hustings in Deptford, south London, there was huge anger at Labour. Lewisham Labour-run council has carried out brutal austerity, including threatening Lewisham Shopping Centre with closure.

On 18 April we took our canvassing work at Lewisham Shopping Centre. We coincided with local Save Lewisham Shopping Centre campaigners on the day and handed out some of their leaflets.

Most of us don’t need figures to be convinced that the cost of housing is a growing problem — but the figures do give a sense of the scale of the housing emergency.

Living and working in London, the cost-of-living crisis is felt most keenly through housing. Working people in the capital typically spend more than half of our income on rent.

I went to the first meeting of a bus users group in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire recently. It was set up by a local Tory councillor — just ahead of elections — to gauge interest and hear firsthand about the issues and complaints about the local bus services.

As it became clear that the Your Party leadership had no intention of standing thousands of candidates in the May council elections, Socialist Party members in Waltham Forest decided we had to step up and encourage others to also stand under the banner of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

On Saturday 16 May the Palestine Coalition has organised a march in London on the anniversary of the Nakba, but the police are supporting Tommy Robinson’s hate counter-march to go ahead, allocating to it,, Whitehall, Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square.

As we take to the streets to march against racism on 28 March, trade unionists and campaigners know that the threat from Reform UK and the far right is growing. But we also know that racism doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Enfield Council has over £75 million in reserves, plus is trumpeting an extra £203 million ‘Fair Funding Review’ money but still Enfield Labour council is planning £12 million of more cuts!

Socialist Students organised a campaign stall opposing Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East at KCL uni in central London. Lots of people queued up to take leaflets, hungry for ideas on how to stop this devastating conflict.