Lead story

Labour — say no to Trident!

by Daphne Liddle

NEXT week’s annual Labour Party conference in Brighton will have the chance to debate whether Britain should renew its Trident submarine-based nuclear weapons system or spend the money on something else — the first debate of its kind at a Labour conference for over 20 years.

New leader Jeremy Corbyn has won the Labour leadership but that does not give him a mandate to lead the party in campaigning on the issues that he has fought for over the last 40 odd years.

So winning this debate in favour of scrapping Trident will give him a powerful mandate to go ahead and lead on perhaps the most important issue facing the party and the country. And success is not a foregone conclusion.

The leadership election showed he has the support of the majority of members and that has been strengthened by 62,000 new recruits to the party, motivated by Corbyn becoming its leader.

But he still faces obstacles in winning over many members of the Parliamentary Labour Party and some union leaders.

Newly appointed Deputy Leader Tom Watson, Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn and Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle, have indicated they support Trident renewal and so as Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, which represents many Trident workers.

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Labour — say no to Trident!

March against evictions marks Focus E15 second anniversary

by New Worker correspondent

AROUND 1,000 people assembled in Stratford Park, east London, at midday last Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the founding of the Focus E15 group with a march and rally against evictions.

The campaign was started in 2013 by mothers from the Focus E15 hostel in Stratford who faced eviction and were told they would be sent out of London.

They challenged Newham Labour council and the Mayor, Robin Wales, and fought to stay in their community.

In September 2014 Focus E15 campaigners occupied four flats on the Carpenters Estate, which had been emptied by the council and boarded up for years.

This direct action proved that there are decent council homes, ready for people to move into, locally. Robin Wales was forced to issue an apology.

Last Saturday’s march included a very wide mix of people from different backgrounds and generations, many of them colourfully dressed and equipped with banners, placards, drums, whistles and ready to make a noise.

Their demands included an end to evictions — asserting that decent housing is a human right — the building of more council homes, the capping of rents and the repopulation of the carpenters estate.

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March against evictions marks Focus E15 second anniversary

Editorial

A pig in a poke

THE PRIME Minister has, perhaps wisely, decided to ignore the scandalous allegations that have appeared in the media this week. But it hasn’t stopped David Cameron becoming a laughing-stock throughout the world over claims made by Lord Ashcroft in his unauthorised biography of the Prime Minister, Call Me Dave, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail.

Lord Ashcroft is a billionaire who has immense holdings in the former British colony of Belize, which he uses as a tax haven. His wealth made him a major player in Belize and within the Tory Party, which he showered with money when he was Conservative Party Treasurer under William Hague’s leadership. Or as Belizean premier Dean Barrow put it in 2009: “Ashcroft is an extremely powerful man. His net worth may well be equal to Belize’s entire GDP. He is nobody to cross.” That, however, is precisely what Cameron has done.

Lord Ashcroft has done little to hide his anger at Cameron’s refusal to reward him with high office in the Coalition government when Labour was defeated in 2010. His book is his literary revenge for not getting the job Cameron supposedly promised but failed to deliver.

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A pig in a poke