Weekend update part 2

If Saturday’s demo was a little disappointing for its turnout, Sunday was the complete antidote. The Ibero-American Alliance and Minka News brought around  700-1,000 people along to hear Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dems), Jenny Jones (Greens), Val Shawcross (Labour) and myself give short speeches on the election.

There was no doubting who received the best reception. With clear statements on migrant workers’ rights, defence of Cuba and Venezuela and bringing killer police to justice, our message went down a storm. If an old fashioned clapometer decided elections, I’d be a shoo-in!

Jenny Jones is of course already on the Greater London Authority and a prominent member of its Metropolitan Police Authority. She took credit for finally getting the police to recognise Ibero-Americans as a distinct ethnic group.

But many remember her white-washing of Sir Ian Blair, then police commissioner, over the gunning down of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes. She wrote at the time:

“The recent court case made it clear that the huge blunder [sic] could not be laid at any one person’s door, and did not criticise the Commissioner.”

It's not enough to record statistics on police racism, we need representatives who will demand the heads of those police officers and chiefs who carry out racist and at times murderous policies against all parts of our community and who will call for the disarming of the police.

Val Shawcross also sits on the GLA. She focused on the London Living Wage, saying:

“We recognise that to live safely in London you need a little bit more than the minimum wage.”

So why hasn’t the Labour government after 13 years raised the minimum wage to the level that safety and well-being can be guaranteed?

The Anticapitalists suggest the European Union’s Decency Threshold of £9 an hour as the starting point. Labour, however, only promises to raise the minimum wage “in line with earnings” – a meaningless pledge when wages are stagnant or falling in real terms.

After the event, we made a number of new contacts, as brothers and sisters of all ages signed up to support our campaign. My thanks to Bruno for translating for me and Isaak and Isabelle for inviting me to speak. I’ve added our Spanish language leaflet under the Manifesto pages to this blog and print my speech to the Alliance below:

Banking Crisis 

This Labour government gave £1 trillion of our money to the banks during the capitalist crisis. All three main parties supported this. But they didn’t take over the banks, they saved them for the greedy bankers.

Cuts

Instead, the main parties are demanding cuts to our pay, our pensions and our services. But only cuts for you, for us, not for themselves. We want to take over the banks and use that £1 trillion to

• Create 3 million jobs
• Build a million new homes
• Raise the minimum wage to £9 – no worker or pensioner should live in poverty.

Fightback

The Anticapitalists support strikes against the cuts. We support black workers, white workers, Latin American workers. We want papers for all migrant workers – all should be equal, no discrimination. We know that the police and courts try to stop working people fighting back.

• Down with the anti-trade union laws
• Close the immigration centres and stop deportations
• Disarm the police and bring those that kill innocent people, like Jean Charles de Menezes, to justice.

International

The UK government exploits people at home and overseas. It supports the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who knows? Maybe it will be Venezuela or Cuba tomorrow. A vote for the Anticapitalists is a vote in solidarity with Latin American countries against imperialism. We are the only party standing in Vauxhall calling for:

• Troops out now
• An end to the blockade, and
• Victory to the resistance fighting imperialism

Party

Many of you here know that capitalism is international. We must fight capitalism internationally. What this country lacks is a militant party. The Anticapitalists are fighting for a new party. A party for the millions, not the millionaires. A vote for us will help bring it into being.