Friday, April 22, 2005

Husting last night

Well, we met (almost) all our opponents last night - at a hustings organised by Churches Together in Clapham, in a Methodist hall.

As we expected, the candidates from the Capitalist Party all praised Freed Trade (except the Green Candidate who banged on about fair trade - something which is impossible in Capitalism. It's not the rules of the game that are rigged, but the game itself. The name of the game is Capitalism, and wealth gravitates to the economies with lots of capital investment - money makes money.)

The Lib-Dem was slick, the Tory clear, the incumbant was cunningly at pains to remind us of incumbancy. The green candidate was a refreshing speaker, and the UKIPper sounded like a Dalek (with similar monomania - he puported to also be a candidate for the Freedom Association nasty right-wing bunch who were instrumental in defeating the Grunwick mass picket in the 1970's).

The so-called English Democrat didn't show up, so he clearly didn't want a democratic debate on his policies.

Our candidate stood up and described the aleination of capitalism, the impossiblity of freedom in a commodity society, and the need for co-operation and common ownership. He receieved the only serious heckling of the night from some Tory yob at the back who's programming couldn't handle the idea of ffreely associating producers building homes for need without needing to be bribed first.

We've been invited to another hustings on Monday: Monday 25 April from 7:30 - 9pm in the St Peter's Heritage Centre, Kennington Lane, SW8 - on sustainable transport. We plan to be there. If you missed last-night, you have another chance.

1 comment:

ajohnstone said...

Here is , i believe , a posthumous endorsement of the Vauxhall Socialist Party candidate.

- Here the proletariat must see to it ...That everywhere workers' candidates are put up alongside the bourgeois -democratic candidates , they consist as far as possible of members of the League , and that their election is promoted by all possible means . Even where there is no prospect whatsoever of their being elected , the workers must put up their own candidates in order to preserve their independence , to count their forces and to bring before the public their revolutionary attitude and party stand-point . - Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League , 1850