Someone asked me to blog about it was like to be on the campaign trail. To get a flavour here's just the last few days.
On Wednesday night I was at a great meeting in Leytonstone talkng with Labour Party members and ex members. There were about 120 people at the meeting enthusiastically debating national and local politics. The local MP, Harry Cohen, and Katy Clarke MP joined me. Harry is not only well known as a really hard working constituency MP but he is also a principled socialist who has consistently campaigned in Parliament on a wide range of progressive causes. Katy was elected at the last election and quite simply is one of the best hopes for the future of the Left in Parliament and the party. She's a superb advocate of our policies.
On Thursday the encouraging news came through that ASLEF executive had taken the decision to support me for leader of the party. As this was the first union to declare its nomination this was seen as a real breakthrough. You would have thought it would merit at least a small column inch in the Guardian so even I was a bit surprised that there was not even a mention in the paper. Nevertheless the news of the nomination spreads throughout the day.
On Friday I attended my local youth parliament to talk about local issues but was pleasantly surprised when a group of young people came up to me at the end to offer their support and help for the leadership campaign. Later that day after speaking to the NUJ national Executive I was on the campaign trail in Norwich.
First I spoke at an early evening meeting of about 80 to 90 students and some trade unionists at the University of East Anglia. They had range of fascinating questions. Later I addressed a meeting for local Labour Party members. There were about 20 to 30 members, with the local MP Ian Gibson. Ian has consistently and barvely spoken out on issues like the Iraq war and Trident and with his academic and scientific background speaks with an authority which surpasses Ministers and their advisers. The discussion with Norwich party members demonstrated yet again that despite the media people want the right to have an election for the leader based upon policies not personalities and many want change.
On Saturday (today) we have had a brief meeting of the co-ordinators of the different elements of our campaign. Everyone is really buoyant and reporting back widespread activity and enthusiasm from the local meetings to the different campaigning groups such as the pensioners4John or the womens group, the Punjabi community campaign or the Socialist Youth Network. We have planned a rally livened up with music, stand up etc for the afternoon of 31 March at the Shaw Theatre in London.
Artists and speakers are being booked as we speak but as always it is a rush job and we are all a bit edgy about whether we can pull it off. But if you don't try you don't succeed. If there is any one out there with music and arts connections let me know. Does anyone know what Soweto Kinch's politics are and how he could be approached? If you have heard him you will know why. He is just superb.
After the meeting I dashed to the demonstration outside Harmondsworth Detention Centre and spoke to the demonstrators. Harmondsworth is in my constituency and I have been visiting the centre for over 20 years. It used to be a few small huts with about 20 detainees. Now it is a massive prison like insitution with 400 inmates and with another 400 in the Colnbrook centre next to it. My constituency office deals with detainees' cases every day.
At the demonstration I met the campaigners I have been working with who are trying to expose the Government's policy of deporting people back to Iraq. On Monday they told me the Government is deporting up to 40 detainees back to Iraq by military airplane from RAF Brise Norton. I raised this issue in Parliament two weeks ago and yet the Government persists in sending people back to a war zone. Where is the humanity in that?
This is just a brief description of a few days on the campaign stomp. For me it combines the exhilaration of meeting good people who want to talk about what socialism means in the twenty first century with the heartrending consequences of the existing administration's policies towards asylum seekers. These experiences both hearten and motivate me.
10 Comments:
I was at the meeting in leytonstone and was highly impressed by the turnout. John gave a rousing speech.
Michael Foot once described the Guardian as populated by 'pious, chicken-hearted, pigeon-livered liberals'. Nothing has changed since. The media blackout is getting ridiculous but there's no point getting down about it.
The mainstream media is a pathetic shambles (which is a shame because even the BBC are bad nowadays), more interested in wall-to-wall coverage of the 10cm of snow we had than any of the real issues of the world. Even the daily mirror, the only newspaper I can stomach reading mentions nothing of the campaign.
However reading things like this gives me cause to feel hopeful that the party can get back to its roots.
also the fac that they are using military instead of commercial planes to Iraq as presumably there aren't many of these at the moment (if any I should imagine) just underlines how underhand the policy of deporting people back to Iraq is. I think it would be illegal under the terms of the 51 UN convention on refugees which Britan is sigened up to which was drawn up after the war and on which our asylum policy is based although New Labour would like to wriggle out of it. Commercial airlines have to take returnees and are paid from the public purse to do so (unless they can get the ticket money back from the passenger but many wouldn't have the money so I don't think they usually pursue it). It may be that commercial airlines to many troubled countries are refusing to take desparate people back if they are causing a fuss and having to be restrained... I'm not saying this is definitely happening but it is very worrying.I was not aware of the use of military planes which begs the question of whether the government is trying to keep this secret. Also when asylum seekers are in general returned to war torn countries such as Sri Lanka generally it falls to NGOs and charities etc to pick up the pieces.
by the way some of my posts also end up doubled or don't appear; it must be technical probs.
I see Barack Obama is already orbiting the earth and he's anti-war too and Al Gore was here this week re: climate change. I think the Blairites are going to have to realise they are ten years out of date as it's natural for us to look across the pond and when we do we don't see Bush anymore do we thank God.
The only good thing I ever heard Bush say was that he took his kids with him and his colleague canvassing in the car when he first started out. Of course it can be difficult having kids with you if they are noisy etc but at least it didn't stop him from doing what he wanted to do as you can always keep your hand in with things even if you are not available full time (expect Bush was flogging oil or whatever he did for most of the time when he wasn't canvassing. We need to get away from the nine-to-five culture in this country so that everyone can espress their talents.
Hi, new poster here,
I have been following Johns campaign and blog for a number of months now, and have found it interesting and empowering, I am involved in the campaign and wish John well. However, I know John is concerned about poverty, inequality and welfare reform, so I am surprised he describes Harry Cohen as a
'principled socialist who has consistently campaigned in Parliament on a wide range of progressive causes'
Harry Cohen is on the Works and Pension select committee: (although only since 2005) this is the parliamentary body that since 1997 has increasingly srutinised and supported some of the most severe and draconian welfare reforms in Europe. From the single parents benefits cuts when NL first came to power to the coming Welfare Reform Bill: this bill which is now in the Lords and will probably be voted on in the Spring is targeting millions targeting millions of disabled people with the threat of losing up to 30 pounds per week if the claimant does not comply with back to work plans, interviews and ever more medical assessments through a more stringent Personal Capability Assessment (PCA) already the toughest in the world. It also replaces housing benefit with a fixed rate allowance, which will of course be much less.
Welfare is also increasingly being used as a tool for social policy, hence the sanctions that are applied if one doesn’t go on New Deal. Only today, the DWP minister the odious Jim Murphy, has announced that benfits will be cut for those who don’t learn English. The Select Committee which is Labour lead has scrutinized and generally supported all these welfare reforms and cuts, I know I’ve watched them on the parliament channel!
Harry Cohen on those terms is no socialist, (although one can change.) Having said that, the left's (in all its permutations) response to these reforms since 1997 has been one of studied ignorance and failure as well. One can speculate why this lack of interest these days, maybe it is in part that most leftists are now quite comfortable and their horizons are usually raised higher than the domestic poor, etc.
I hope John at least continues to raise these crucial issues for millions.
regards
John
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