suffer "severe deprivation of The Socialist Alliance in human needs" including lack of food, safe drinking Carlisic, waica wivonc) comrades from the Socialist water, healtn, Sacitci, and education. Over 40% of lone Party, the SWP and the ISG parents with one child get as well as independents, 15 under £163 a weck. facing different conditions The report says, "the UK going into the General has become the special casc Plection campaign from those familiar to most read- of Europe® New Labour tells us that ers of Socialist Outlook. The foot and mouth crisis things are getting better: but profits are being put - there are more conbefore basic human needs. Not a weck goes by when The farming community is we are told that our food is in a sharp decline and the unsafe to cat or our National knock on effects on tourism and the local economy can't be underestimated. Cumbria Health Service is so under funded that waiting lists are getting longer not shorter as has three main industrics - tarming, tourism and we were promised by Tony We have already seen the Education is not just a basic human need it is a effects of 'Thatcher's polices in our now extinct mining necessity. But New Labour have taken away the student industry and steel works. This process is still continu- grant and charged us for our education. It's casy enough ing under a so-called Labour government. Profit for Tony Blair to call our schools "Bog Standard" was put before people in both the mining and steel he and other cabinet minis- ters went to public schools. industry, and now the profit Last year in the Local motive is having a disas- Elections (Carlisle City trous effect on the tarming The dithering of Nick Brown and Tony Blair on the issuc of culling or vaccinations has caused widespread anger at the Labour government, espewas the Socialist Alternative We were helped in the campaign by the SWP Carlisie branch and by individual trade unionists. I had worked closely with the swr in tac coston against the war in the Balkans. which was set up in 1999 by the CND, Socialist Party, SWP and Carlisle & Districe Trades Council. This co-operation with other left activists helped build our clection campaign a year later.
The seat we stood in was one of Carlisle's largest council estates, which in 1999 had been won by the Tories (all three seats). In fact many people told us that they voted Tory to get the Labour Party our (the Liberal Democrats did not stand in 1999).
Anger had erupted in 1998 when the Labour-led council tried to put up the pensoners' bus pass. This was opposed by trade unionists, youth and pensioner activists. Labour lost control of the city in 1999 after 20 years of domination.
We go into the forthcoming general election with no Our task is to put socialist ideas back on the agenda.