By Martin Thomas
On our way to leaflet a new batch of streets for Alison Brown, the socialist candidate in Sheffield City Council's elections, we passed the Yemeni mosque.
A group of men were standing outside, so I gave them leaflets. "I'm supporting Respect", said one of them.
"That's the Euro-elections", I replied. "We're supporting the Alliance for Green Socialism there. Will you vote for Alison in the council elections?"
Friendly but firm, the man told me: "I'll have to ask someone else about that".
Just round the corner, I met another group of young Asian men and handed them leaflets. "Isn't there a Muslim candidate we can vote for?" asked one. "What about that one that has the Pakistani candidates?"
He wasn't unfriendly, but he wasn't interested in finding out where Alison stands on the issues, either. He wanted to vote Respect, not because of any political stances it takes, but because it is "Muslim".
The Yemeni community here, so Alison later told me, is divided politically. The left wing are socialist; the right wing, around the mosque, support Respect.
In the streets I have canvassed, the majority of voters are Asian, and mostly, I suppose, Muslim. None of them, on the doorstep, has had the same response as the men at the mosque. (Nor has any of them, apparently, heard of Respect. The shoestring Alliance for Green Socialism Euro-campaign seems to have made more impact so far).
One middle-aged Asian woman, with a strong Yorkshire accent and an Islamic head-covering, told me very firmly that she would vote for Alison. "Labour's no good any more. I'm not voting for them. I'll vote for you".
Would she take a window poster? No, she said, in a matter-of-fact way. "One of the Labour candidates is Asian" (in fact, Muslim). "It could cause trouble if I put your poster in the window. But my vote is my own".
Other Asian voters have been happy to take socialist window-posters. Many say that they have "always" voted Labour, but are dissatisfied. I start my spiel at one doorstep: "I'm canvassing for Alison Brown, the socialist candidate for the City Council elections. She's standing so that there can be somebody in the City Council who will speak up for working-class people against New Labour "
"Real Labour, you mean", the man interrupts. "Yes, I'll vote for you".
Sheffield City Council has imposed huge increases in council tax - for no improvement of services - while the Labour government continues the Tories' tax cuts for the rich and big business and, overall, inequality in Britain increases. It is moving to privatise its council housing - in some places through the first step of an Arm's Length Management Organisation. It has let the maintenance of its council estates slide, presumably in order to encourage tenants to allow stock transfer or ALMO.
On the doorsteps, however, the main issues are the big ones - privatisation, inequality, the Iraq war. One Asian woman worker wanted to discuss the general idea of socialism. How did we think the economy should be run? The health service, where she works, is bureaucratic, and shaped by private profit on many edges: what will we do about that?
Some voters, of course, don't want to hear. "I always voted Labour before, but now I'm not voting. I don't care what you say. You're all the same". I found that response more common among white or Afro-Caribbean voters than Asians, but maybe that is just because Asians are more polite.
Burngreave ward, where Alison is standing, is a poor area close to the city centre. Coming to it from London, I found it less poor and much less densely-built than I expected. Some of the houses are big, by London standards anyway, and parts of the ward look almost rural.
No doubt it's something to do with the way Sheffield was built up, on hilly terrain.
Ah yes - the hills. No-one warned me about them, or about the fact that you often have to climb steep steps to get to each house's doorstep. Or that in the flatter streets you usually have to go to the backyard to find the house's front door.
The voting papers will come through people's letterboxes on 27 May, and they have until 10 June to return them by post. The next week or so is thus crucial for Alison's campaign. Come and help, and you'll do something for socialism, and also for your physical fitness.
- Ring: 0207 207 3997 for details.
Election Fund Appeal
Alison is one of a number of candidates under the banner of Democratic Socialist Alliance - People Before Profit. They have issued this Election Fund Appeal.
The Democratic Socialist Alliance election campaigns unite the minority of Socialist Alliance comrades who reject the unconstitutional decision of Socialist Allliance (SA) Conference on 13 March 2004 to debar SA election contests this year and who are resolved to continue with the socialist unity project represented by the formation of the Socialist Alliance and with the fight to win the working class to socialist politics. We will be working in association with other socialist election campaigns, mounted by the Alliance for Green Socialism, the Socialist Party, the Liverpool Labour Community Party, the Socialist Labour Party (Liverpool) and several independent socialist candidates.
The need to fight for socialist politics has never been greater... We have to promote the final reckoning with the tyranny of capitalism, a system one hundred years beyond its 'sell by' date, which plunders, pollutes, rapes and despoils the Earth and its population and which distorts our humanity beyond recognition.
The Democratic Socialist Alliance - People Before Profit election campaigns appeal to all socialists for material, financial and political support. This appeal is launched by the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform, which is co-ordinating support for the campaigns.
To offer non-financial support, please contact the SADP Convenor, Pete McLaren. (Email: julie.mclaren@virgin.net, phone: 01788 569766 or 07881 520626). Financial donations should be sent to the SADP Treasurer : John Pearson, PO Box 107, STOCKPORT, SK6 7WT. Cheques payable to: Democracy Platform of the Socialist Alliance.
