I am indeed grateful to General Grumble for pointing this out…………totally incredible achievement……….what does it portend…………the SPGB candidate Daniel lambert got 2,900 votes……………the comrades long march to socialism through the ballot box has lift off….hats off to Adam Buick and all the lads and lasses at Clapham high street!!
******the more i think about it the more wonderful this result is……..the SPGB standing on a pure platform of utopian socalism through the ballot box have outpolled TUSC with its reformist anti- cuts position. Even the SPGB cant work it out…….thanks to general grumble again…
From their blog
“What is intriguing is why the vote for TUSC should have been smaller than the vote for us (1047 less in Lambeth & Southwark and 439 less in Merton & Wandsworth). Since TUSC was offering a programme of attractive reforms (“jobs with a living wage for all”, “no cuts”, “cheap, efficient and safe public transport”, “affordable homes for all”, “free education”) while we just advocated socialism, it might have been expected that they would have got more votes than us.
There are various possible explanations ranging from a statistical one (6 and 7 candidates in the constituencies compared with 13 lists) to the political ones that TUSC appealed mainly for the votes of trade unionists in the public sector while our appeal was directed at workers generally or even that some who voted for us deliberately didn’t vote for them because they didn’t believe in their reformist approach or the feasibility of their reforms within capitalism.”
“Just recalculated and we did get more votes in the 4 London boroughs combined than the BNP: 4281 as against their 4086.”
From their blog
“What is intriguing is why the vote for TUSC should have been smaller than the vote for us (1047 less in Lambeth & Southwark and 439 less in Merton & Wandsworth). Since TUSC was offering a programme of attractive reforms (“jobs with a living wage for all”, “no cuts”, “cheap, efficient and safe public transport”, “affordable homes for all”, “free education”) while we just advocated socialism, it might have been expected that they would have got more votes than us.
There are various possible explanations ranging from a statistical one (6 and 7 candidates in the constituencies compared with 13 lists) to the political ones that TUSC appealed mainly for the votes of trade unionists in the public sector while our appeal was directed at workers generally or even that some who voted for us deliberately didn’t vote for them because they didn’t believe in their reformist approach or the feasibility of their reforms within capitalism.”
“Just recalculated and we did get more votes in the 4 London boroughs combined than the BNP: 4281 as against their 4086.”
http://spgb.blogspot.co.uk/
1.9% of the overall vote. fair play to them.
This is a brilliant result for socialists everywhere and I’m sure both deserved and well overdue!! Many of their candidates are great characters but due to the fact that they don’t believe in leaders their personalities tend to get hidden unless you are political and attend hustings.
I “discovered” the SPGB when I was 14 and I think I would have joined if the members hadn’t all been the same age as my grandad. Nevertheless, I have 100% respect for them and have always found the Socialist Standard like a breadth of fresh air compared to many mainstream and leftwing journals. They have always been suspicious of anarchists and I think one of the reasons why the two London (Camden and Bloomsbury?) branches broke away in the early 90’s was because they felt that the Socialist Part of Clapham was moving towards anarchism (and also reformism!).
Looks like their summer school in Brum will be quite topical this year.
almost 3,000 votes is a Good Result
Point taken! But considering they often struggle to get into 3 figures, I think this is an impressive vote. “Left wing” candidates (as opposed to those who espouse socialist principles) such as Nellist, Sheridan and Galloway have done well in the past but this is often based on local support for the candidate who is seen as a champion/folk hero against the establishment.
‘utopian socalism through the ballot box’? An interesting concept or a contradiction? Not sure…Can’t wait to see if Francois Hollande nationalises the banks in France whilst at the same time as ‘deregulating the labour market’ (or rather fucking over the workers some more)- Now that sounds utopian…
Apparently Miliband is terrified of the french socialist victory in case the bond markets rape the french financials or if Hollande rips up the fiscal pact with the germans and the ECB- trashing France, or Europe, or both. It’s not so far from Clapham high street to the Champs Elysee after all…
Perhaps the SPGB is the ‘stalking horse’ of the British working class…
Of course the most interesting of this week’s elections was the Greek with Syriza being the second largest party (think of an old CPGB splinter going red green & getting into bed with all of the remaining CP splinters, Trots, Maoists, the Green Party & some renegade Blairites & getting 1/6 of the vote (well ahead of the Labour Party) in a proportional representative system, with UKIP on 10% & an openly Nazi grouping on 7% & you get the idea. Goodness – Germany are even nervous about Hollande. I assume Syriza will be up their own arses as much as their UK equivalents, but their should still be some positive chaos brewing.
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