Today on International Workers' Day I voted in the local elections, I wonderhow many other students will be doing the same. I hope many do and while in Hull Left we fully recognise that electoral politics is only a small part of consistent activism, we still cast our votes in the ballot and see definite merit of candidates standing on a platform advocating working class politics.
Unfortunately the choice we have is not great at the moment both in Hull and nationally. Nationally we have a Labour government attempting more and more to destroy the link they party shares with the working class and the Labour movement. The 10p tax scrap and the ensuing outrage is a long line in defeats for the working class within the party which as last Thursday showed the unions when organised are willing to challenge.
In Hull are Lib Dem council is not doing anything better. Scrapping free school meals, closing down care homes, giving crap wage increases to bin men, and maybe even selling out the fire fighters. The Lib Dems market themselves to the right as the fresh alternative to conservatism; they might only privatise ¾ of everything or only fuck the majority of the poorest people over. To the left they get out their “socially liberal” credentials and talk about Iraq, ID cards, 42 day detention. They are not the choice for the disaffected or apathetic worker or student; they have no interest in us, just looking for the next step on the career ladder.
Today I voted Labour in Newland as the only alternative to a right wing, anti working class agenda peddled by the other two main parties. My vote for Labour was a very critical one, the Labour council here before the lib dems have little to stand up for and the people of Hull are right to have little respect for them. They are though the only party with the trade union movement at its core. The Unions represent millions of people and through assertiveness those of us as members, (in Hull Left we see membership of a trade union as a step in protecting your rights at work and fighting for better deals for young workers) can have more influence under Labour then anyone else. The strikes of last Thursday sent out a message that public sector workers will not settle for a pay cut, and they will strike and we in Hull Left support all workers who take industrial action for a fairer deal.
So students that do vote today should critically back the Labour candidates and if we do see them in power or as our councillors we must hold them to account without fail, and get our voice and our movement heard!
11 comments:
and your point is???
Your voice is always heard, you never shut up!
1. My point is about working class representation.
2. Assuming hula hula councillor that you are a councillor or someone who attends council then I am glad that you think I speak up, we cannot scrutinise with silence.
are you familiar with the expression all talk and no action???
as for working class representation, how many members of hull-left, are demographically working class???? it sounds to me like you are preaching to the working classes what they should be doing.... in which case how are you different from the right???
Nothing for 10 days? Where is our source of trot amusement?
Hull Left looks dead! Oh what a shame!
Dead...dead shit! Purely reactionary response to the CommonSenseAlliance... as usual!
its sure is peaceful in here at the moment!!! if only we had some student activists from hull to get involved!!!
but what about the workers??? how will they cope without you e-defending them from your armchairs!!!!
If you're going to spell your name backwards, at least get the letters in the right order, Halen Gibson!
You are all working class my friends.
There are only 2 class's. The capitalist class and the working class.
The middle class's are an invention of the capitalist class. The people that belong to the middle class earn more and are generally educated (in their narrow field of study)to a higher standard than working class people. They are still tied by the same bonds as toilet cleaners are.
The middle class will vote for the capitalist system because they believe that they are capitalist and look down their noses at the working class's somehow believing they have worked harder or earned the right to a higher wage. It is a reality that the Middle class's are puppets of the capitalist class.
Why do the middle class's believe they are better than the working class's? Because they can afford the big T.v'S and BMW X5's? This merely shows they have been indoctrinated with the consumerist agenda of the Capitalist and the middle class's are working harder and harder to line the capitalist pockets.
Many of your parents that have sent you to Uni will no doubt think you will all become good little middle class boys and girls because you are intelligent. You are there in the main not because you are intelligent but because Mother and Father can afford for you to go. You will try to get and in some cases will get (unless your doing media studies) well paid jobs in a few years. All this ideological stuff you are spouting will fall by the wayside as you decide that you will do the bidding of the capitalist class after all.
The above paragraph should be the starting point of any of your thoughts regarding class struggle.
It's very easy to talk.
www.myspace.com/robdolman
It doesn't matter how much money your parents earn, anyone can get into university as the government pays your fees ufront and gives you money to live on. This amount is in increased if you come from a poorer background. There are many people who you would define as 'working class' who are at university.
What exactly are these 'bonds' that restrict us? Presuming I have therequired aptitude and ability, what job is there that I can't do? What's to stop me starting my own business and becoming a member of the capitalist class myself?
Class doesn't exist. There are just people who earn different amounts of money and have different lifestyles. You can define these as class if you want, but it really is irrelevant as people are able to move between them.
I don't look down on those who are poorer than me, even though you look down on those richer and more successful than you. For someone who believes that consumerism is wrong, you seem to give an awful lot of importance to the amount of money someone earns. It doesn't matter how much money you earn or what 'class' you are as long as you're happy.
If you're not happy with your life, then identify what you're not happy about and begin to work to remedy it. If you are happy and just want to help others, then encourage them to help themseves in a similar way, not by encouraging them to let their lives stagnate while they biterly blame society for their woes.
You can rage against society as much as you want and carry on 'fighting' for your revolution, but it won't improve the lives of you or anyone else.
Rather than 'helping' the world by dragging the more furtunate down, why don't you try making a real difference by helping the less fortuante up? What makes this even easier is that you're already in a system that alllows you to do so. No revolution is needed.
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