Socialist Alliance election campaign
Gearing up in Bradford
Bradford Socialist Alliance was formed in January and, in February, selected a candidate to stand against New Labour in the general election.
The Alliance has started canvassing support on the street and at local political events. It participated in the National Day of Action on railway privatisation in January.
The development of the Alliance in Bradford comes against a backdrop of sweeping proposals for privatisation in Bradford Council. The Tory-Liberal coalition running the council is carrying through privatisation of great swathes of council services.
In doing this they are continuing a programme opened up by the Labour administration which preceded them. It brought forward its proposals to privatise the education service shortly before the election in 2000.
Three of the Labour MPs in Bradford have shown varying degrees of support for the campaign to oppose this privatisation.
One of them, Gerry Sutcliffe, MP for Bradford South, used his appearance at a lobby of the council to launch a remarkable attack on the Socialist Alliance as undemocratic. Apparently their offence was to give out leaflets at the lobby!
The Bradford Alliance is small but growing. Its prospective candidate will stand in Sutcliffe’s seat. His attack, launched on minimal provocation, suggests a real fear in the Labour bureaucracy that the alliance will find an echo in the working class.
This has helped to encourage members in their activities.
New Labour has an apparatus already. The Alliance must build one from scratch.
Participating organisations have shown a generally constructive attitude, suggesting there is a will to overcome problems.
Sadly Worker’s Tannoy have not shown up at all in the Alliance, justifying Polly Toynbee’s diagnosis in the Guardian of their abject abstentionism.