Socialist Outlook

Socialist Viewpoint, International, Socialist Outlook and their supplements, 1984–2002

No to Tory policies! Vote Socialist!

Socialist Outlook no. 45 · 279 words

No to Tory policies!

Vote Socialist!

Millions of people voted Labour at the last General election in 1997, enthusiastic at the prospect of getting rid of the hated Tories.

But instead of listening to the aspirations of the majority of those voters, new Labour has continued with Tory policies and driven them through in areas that even their predecessors did not dare to venture.

Blair's policies have seen a widening gap between rich and poor

New Labour has carried through and planned privatisation in new areas - from housing to air traffic control

Tuition fees have been imposed on students, and grants abolished

Jack Straw has attacked asylum seekers and is threatening to tear up the 1951 Geneva Convention

Despite refusing to make a clear statement, Blair backs Bush's "son of Star Wars" project, which threatens to trigger a new arms race

Blair's New Labour government will be comfortably returned on June 7 - winning votes from traditional Tory Voters, whose own party is in deep crisis. Many working class people on the other hand will vote for new Labour with a heavy heart. keeping the Tories out rightly remains a central preoccupation -even though they are not a short term threat. But building an effective opposition to Tory policies -whether they are put forward by Hague or Blair -be the priority for socialists.

That opposition now has a focus at the ballot box as well as on the streets and in the workplaces. The Scottish Socialist Party and the Socialist Alliance, together mounting the biggest left wing challenge to Labour in living memory, offer a voice to the voiceless at this election.

That is a huge step forward.

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