Down here in Bristol we not only have elections for the city council looming, but also for the elected mayor and police and crime commissioner. Because of health issues, not just my own but also other members of my family, we’ve arranged to have postal votes. The ballot papers arrived the other day, and enclosed with them were booklets produced by the local authority explaining the voting procedure, answering various FAQs and giving policy statements and promises from the candidates. Not only does Bristol have a Labour candidate, the present elected mayor Marvin Rees, but there’s also one from the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, Tom Baldwin. Here’s their election promises from the booklet for the mayoral election.
Mayor Marvin’s runs
“Delivering for Bristol
Building a City of Hope
It is an honour to serve as Mayor of Bristol, the city I am proud to be from and where I am bringing up my family.
Together we have led Bristol in the face of the pandemic, economic downturn, social change and instability, and climate change, with the added uncertainty of Brexit. Many of us have experienced real loss this year, as people have come together like never before to support each other.
Working with partners all over Bristol, we are building a city where nobody is left behind underpinning our ambition with compassion and our commitment to sustainability. We are focused on protecting and creating jobs, and delivering for residents, we are creating jobs by bringing employers like Channel 4 to our city, bringing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment into Bristol, and delivering our mass transit system.
Together, against the odds, we are making a difference.
On 6 May, we are proudly standing on our record of delivery – including all our 2016 pledges and more. With your support, we can all keep building a more sustainable, inclusive, and ambitious Bristol: our City of Hope.”
There then follows a list of what Labour has already achieved.
“9,000 new homes, tripling affordable house-building, rough sleeping down 80%
12,000 work experiences and £9m for south Bristol construction skills centre.
99 new biogas buses, RPZ fees frozen, 75 miles of segregated cycleways
Kept all our libraries and children’s centres open
Building new schools, creating mental health training and free breakfast clubs
Best core city for recycling, deep-cleaned 700 streets, planted 60,000 trees
Won Channel 4 relocation, invested in sport and leisure centres – giving control to communities”
This is followed by his promises for the future
“Building our underground, with free travel for apprentices and students
Protecting jobs and building a living wage city
Investing £1 billion in clean energy and doubling our trees
Investing in more schools and quality work experience
Building 2,000 new homes a year – 1,000 affordable
Investing in social care, helping older people stay in their homes.”
The pages for Tom Baldwin of the TUSC state has the statement ‘TUSC Against Cuts’, and then proceeds as follows:
“Tom says: “The pandemic has exposed the huge injustices and the divide between workers and big business. We’ve had to fight for our safety as the bosses and government put profits first. Now we have to fight to protect jobs and services as they try to make us pay for the crisis.
Bristol needs a mayor who will stand up for ordinary people. I stand for a socialist society run for people not profit.”
‘The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition organises to give a voice to working-class people who have been abandoned by the main parties. It includes the RMT union and the Socialist Party, of which Tom is a member.
Tom is 37 and lives in Aston. He is an active trade unionist and campaigner.
Bristol needs a fightback
Defend jobs and services – Vote Tom Baldwin
A Socialist mayor for the millions, not the millionaires
If elected Tom will…
- Build a mass united struggle of workers and young people to win back the council funding taken by the government.
- Reverse all cuts to council jobs and services, move budgets based on Bristol’s needs.
- Oppose and reverse outsourcing and privatisation.
- Never increase council tax, rents and charges faster than wages rise
- Push for a publicly owned, top quality and affordable public transport network, run for need not profit
- Address the housing crisis by building thousands of council homes and capping private rents
- Defend the right to peaceful protest
- Fight for decent jobs. Support all campaigns to protect safety, jobs, pay and conditions, including strike action by workers
- Stand for jobs and homes for all. Oppose racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and all other forms of oppression and division.
- Only take the average wage of a worker in the city, not the inflated £79,000 mayoral salary.’
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As you know, I despise Keir Starmer and his continuing destruction of the Labour party, including the purge of left-wingers and socialists, in order to turn it into a Blairite neoliberal party. I’ve also got criticisms of the way Marvin Rees has run the city, but in general I think he’s done a good job and has been a far better mayor than his predecessor, ‘Red Trousers’ Ferguson.
I’ve been told by some of the great peeps on this blog that the TUSC were formed by the people in the Labour party, who were thrown out for opposing Blair’s cuts and policy changes, though I’ve also heard that the Socialist Party is the former Militant Tendency, a group that infiltrated and tried to take over the Labour party in the 1980s. But their policies are what the Labour party should be standing for. The mayoral elections are run according to proportional representation. I would therefore urge people to consider giving the TUSC their second vote.
If more people vote for them, to the point where it’s a significant number, perhaps the leaders of the Labour party will take note, and move the party further to the left. Or it will encourage the present Labour left to continue the struggle against the Blairites by showing them that real, socialist policies are popular and can win.
Tags: Aston, Brexit, Bristol, Buses, Channel 4, Children's Centres, Council Houses, Council Tax, Cuts, Elected Mayors, Elections, Funding, Gays, Housing, Labour Party, Libaries, Local Councils, Marvin Rees, Militant Tendency, Outsourcing, Police and Crime Commissioners, Privatisation, Protests, racism, Schools, Sexism, Socialist Party, Sports Centres, Tom Baldwin, tony blair, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, Transgendered People, Transport, Workers' Rights
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
April 23, 2021 at 3:25 pm |
Reblogged this on Tory Britain! .
April 23, 2021 at 3:54 pm |
perhaps the leaders of the Labour party will take note you be waiting till hell froze over if you think stammer would take the party back before blair days
April 23, 2021 at 4:05 pm |
Yes, you’re right – Starmer definitely won’t take Labour back to its original, traditional policies. Which is why it will have to be done by others.
April 23, 2021 at 4:08 pm |
My impression is that Starmer is far less interested in winning elections than in entrenching the authority of the Labour right. A left-wing manifesto in 2017 brought Labour close to victory and, but for the wrecking tactics of the fifth column at party HQ, Corbyn might have won sufficient seats to be able to form a viable coalition. I don’t think a swing to the left at Bristol would cut much ice with Starmer.
April 23, 2021 at 7:14 pm |
No, I’m sure you’re right. In fact I think Starmer’s probably very glad that the wrecking took place and cost Labour the lection. But an election victory in Bristol might encourage others to defy him.