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Birmingham Respect election campaign launched with 300-strong meeting
Birmingham Respect’s local election campaign has got
off to a flying start. Around 300 people attended a
launch rally with guest speaker George Galloway MP.
Many people commented this was Respect’s best ever
meeting in the city.
The candidates were particularly
impressive. Salma Iqbal, a local women’s advise
worker, spoke insightfully about the reality of
poverty in Springfield ward, highlighting the gap in
educational attainment and the lack of affordable
housing.
Nahim Ullah Khan, the Sparkbrook candidate,
emphasised unemployment, drugs, guns and gangs. Nahim
is a youth worker with rich experience.
He has worked
for the United Nations in continental Europe,
Pakistan, Bosnia and Palestine on projects with
communities and youth on issues such as health,
identity, peace, xenophobia, Islamophobia.
Kings Heath
and Moseley candidate Ray Gaston was very warmly
received. Ray is a Christian priest who for 8 years
served at All Hallows Church, a radical Christian
community involved in interfaith dialogue, grassroots community
action, asylum seeker support in Leeds and resistance to the 'war on
terror'.
He is now a
full time postgraduate student at the University of Birmingham studying Christian-Muslim
relations. Ray
emphasised the need for a politics of solidarity.
Cllr Mohammed
Ishtiaq outlined the difference Respect had made
locally in Sparkbrook and local resident and
neighbourhood forum activist Mary Mockbill, spoke how
she had campaigned against Respect in the last local
elections but was so impressed by the work of our
councilors that she was going to campaign for us this
May.
Mushtaq Hussain, who is becoming legendary in
Respect for his campaigning skills and who came second
last years election in Nechells ward, spoke in Urdu
about his pride of being in a party with Salma Yaqoob
and George Galloway.
Both of these were the final
speakers and spoke with customary passion and
eloquence, leaving the audience inspired for the
electoral challenges ahead. Over £1,000 was raised in donations.
The local and London elections have been bad for the left and for progressive voters everywhere. The backlash against the Brown government, which many now feel has betrayed them on the economic and social fundamentals, has pushed Labour's share of the vote below the Liberal Democrats nationally.
In London, Johnson is now mayor, although the final margin after second preferences was lower than many predicted. Much worse, the BNP got a first seat on the Assembly. The Liberal Democrats also had a bad day in London, with their vote down substantially and it was a pretty mixed picture…
Congratulations to the winners
of our April competition : Ian Jones, Heather Cunningham, Jonathan Bate, Jacqueline Simpson and George Thompson. Each won a Philosophy Football Rock against Racism 08 T-shirt, available from Philosophy Football.
In a fantastic result Respect took a third seat in Birmingham Sparkbrook with a majority of 432 and just under 43% of the vote.
Respect 3032 42.64%
The Labour Party 2600 36.57%
Elsewhere there were other good results with 25% of the vote in Springfield and third place and 15% of the vote in Manchester Cheetham Hill and also third place. There was also a third place in Aston where Respect took 20% of the vote.
A full results service and analysis will come later when we get the London results. Congratulations though…
Palestine Lives 2008 is a celebration of Palestinian art, culture, history and experience. It brings together, artists, poets and musicians from Palestine and England to celebrate the fact that Palestine and its culture still exists despite the 60 years of the Nakba.
Film director, Ken Loach along with Respect's candidate for Manchester's Cheetham Ward, Dr Kay Phillips, joined staff from the housing charity Shelter on their second day of national strike action.
George Galloway today expressed his frustration, on behalf of the
First Solution creditors, that the government was failing to cooperate
fully with the liquidators appointed by the creditors just before
Christmas.
Three Bengali community channels face the possibility of closure. Why?
Because the Liberal Democrats used their authority to encourage these
TV stations to break the law.
Just two days to go until the election, and we're making one last push in our campaign. Do you have any spare time between now and 10pm on Thursday?
Wednesday: The battle bus will leave Club Row (near Liverpool Street) at 10.45am and go to Plaistow. The bus will return at at 12 pm and will pick up again and then head off to Ealing, tour west London and then back to East London finishing around 7.30pm
Election day: The bus will leave at 11am, loop round part of east London, return…
Somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 people turned out for the Love Music, Hate Racism Carnival on Sunday, a magnificent attendance. Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, Derek Simpson and Matt Wrack were amongst the speakers.
Somalia is experiencing the worst crisis in 15 years, 3586 civilian deaths including infants, children, women and the elderly, and the toll rising by the day. Rape, fear, displacement, misery and suffering on an enormous scale while the Western governments stand by and watch.
About half of the schools in Greater Manchester and 45 schools in Bolton were either fully or partially closed by the teachers’ strike on Thursday. It was very apparent on Thursday that a new layer of young radical teachers is emerging through this campaign.
Ken Livingstone, visitng George Galloway's Bethnal Green and Bow
constituency in East London today, gave surpise backing for a broad
coalition of Labour, the Greens and George Galloway and Respect in the
London Assembly to be elected next Thursday.
