Forwarded Message
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Our Campaign in Preston
Background
The election victory in Preston had its roots in the Stop the War Coalition. I
am co-ordinator of Preston Stop the War and the coalition has worked very hard
to ensure active meetings and large turn-outs on the various local, regional
and national demonstrations. Our monthly steering committee meetings, for
example, were open meetings and regularly had between 60 and 120 people at
them. We also tried to make them inclusive - so the time of these meetings
would change to fit in with prayers at the local Mosques, there is no point in
having a regular fixed meeting at 7.30 say, if it means a large number of your
activists can't be there. Because the time changed it meant that before every
meeting we would have to e-mail and phone everyone who had been to any of our
activities - and this kept us in touch with our activist base (though it didn't
do much for my phone bill!).
I have lived in Preston for just over 12 years. The StW Coalition has now
organised the biggest meeting in Preston for years (bigger than any I'd known)
when over 600 people came to listen to John Rees and Yvonne Ridley the week war
started. And it sent more people to every demonstration than I'd previously
known. Prior to the anti-war campaign our biggest turn-out at a national demo
in my time had been the 2 buses we sent to the Welling demo against the nazis
in the early 1990s. But in September there were 4 buses, in February 3 buses
and a train and in March 3 buses.
One of the most important aspects of how we organised was to actively engaged
with people from the Asian community in Preston. In particular at the largest
Mosque in Preston there were a large group of people who came to each
demonstration. From the turn of the year I visited the Mosque at least once a
week. I helped book transport for people coming from the Mosque (some people
came on our buses and trains, but some wanted to travel together, so we also
organised a bus that would leave from the Mosque). The organisation of this was
coordinated through the StW coalition. Further, at the People's Assembly,
Preston sent 16 delegates and 3 were directly elected from the Mosque.
One very important event that took place the week before war started was a
petition for local Labour MP, Mark Hendrick. This originated within Mosque but
they approach the coalition and asked me to their first meeting (with
representatives of 11 of the 12 mosques in Preston). Hendrick's position was
that he would only support war if there was a second UN resolution. The
activists in the Mosques took the lead on the petition. They wanted to get
12,000 signatures (the size of his majority) together in just over a week. They
worked incredibly hard to get this huge total and we presented the petition to
Hendrick on day one of the war. There were 10,256 signatures. This was an
important turning point. The Asian community in Preston has traditionally been
solidly Labour, but now cracks were stating to appear. There was some talk of
an anti-war candidate standing at the local elections. There was debate about
whether we should stand and who it should be. When the decision was made most
people thought I was the best candidate given the political situation at
present. For those in the StW coalition who supprted this move I let it be
known I'd be standing for Socialist Alliance Against the War. Some wanted to
know who we were, some visited the website, some looked at the national
leaflets - but nobody backed out when they saw the campaign we were intending
to run (nationally and locally) - a campaign based around the six campaign
points.
The campaign
We decided to stand in the Town Centre ward - the biggest in Preston, with the
largest Labour majority, and some of the worst poverty indicators in the city.
Last year, when the whole council was up for election, the ward returned three
Labour councillors. The Labour candidate this time, Musa Jiwa, an active and
devout muslim, had been third, but he had picked up 800 votes, while the
leading candidate had over 1,000. Normally the Tories and Liberal Democrats get
200-250 votes, so obviously it is considered a safe Labour ward.
Most of the voters in the ward are in Avenham and Frenchwood, which is one of
the two areas in Preston with the highest Asian population. Town Centre is
about a third Asian. There was some discussion about who should stand - whether
it should be somebody from the muslim community, for example.
During the campaign we worked hard. Every house got three leaflets. One of
those was my biography, which obviously said that I was coordinator of Preston
STWC, but the leaflets were Socialist Alliance leaflets rather than just peace
or anti-war leaflets. The first was the national SA leaflet and all three
carried the six points. The second one started off with the failure of New
Labour and how they had disillusioned their own supporters; how they weren't
spending money on health and education but they could launch a war and attack
asylum-seekers. The final leaflet dealt with the kind of council we would be
electing. I said I was an activist who would use the chamber to be the voice of
the oppressed, the exploited and the excluded from across Preston.
We also canvassed hard. On the four days before the election we went out in
small teams. Oin each group there were Asian and white people - and if we
knocked on the door of Asian elders we had Gujirati speakers available to talk
with them.
But as well as the hard work I think we need to understand the election victory
as being the result of the interaction of 4 elements. First, there were
(overwhelmingly but not exclusively) white socialists. In the first week they
set the agenda and did the work. They gave direction to the campaign and made
it clear that with street meetings and a cavalcade it would be different from a
usual Labour type campaign. Secondly there was the involvement of people from
the anti-war movement. These people were not Alliance members (and our task now
is to try and get them to join us). Many of them were from the Muslim community
and their links - and linguistic ability was vital. Thirdly wass the key role
played by one of the imams at the Clarendon Street Mosque. I had been working
very closely with Maulana Said Ahmed during the anti-war campaign. During the
election he made it cleared he supported me. But then, crucially, at Friday
prayers the week before the election he made a statement which said, two
things. First, people should vote (there were leaflets circulating saying it
was against Islam to vote). Second, that although Michael Lavalette was not a
Muslim, and the Labour candidate was, it was Labour who took us into war,
reinforced racism and attacks on asylum seekers and cut welfare - and Michael
Lavalette who, in his experience, was at the forefront of campaigns against
war, racism and cuts. He reinforced this with an analogy. He said: "if we were
in India and the BJP stood a Muslim candidate, would you vote for him?" This
intervention was vital. It pulled people away from Labour and gave us
credibility. Finally, the fourth element kicked in. When it became clear that
we were in with a chance - that we were a real alternative and not a protest
vote - a number of traditional Labour voters (and even some local Labour
activists) came over and voted for us.
So there was this combination: the socialist activists; anti-war,
anti-imperialist people who had broken from Labour and came over to the SA
during the campaign; and the access to the wider community which was afforded
us by the imam. His increasing disenchantment with Labour and his
anti-imperialism meant that he was willing to back - and openly back - a
Socialist Alliance candidate. This helped give us the 'critical mass' which
made us look credible as a real socialist alternative and created a kind of
rolling bandwagon that people felt able to join.
The Future
The response since our victory has been incredible. I have had messages of
support from individuals, SA groups and trade union branches across the
country. I have even had e-mails from Ireland and Australia. People just seem
so relieved that we can win and that it is possible to take on Labour - not
just in the streets and in the unions - but also at their strongest point - at
the polls.
In Preston we hope to build upon this success next year when there are more
seats up for grabs. But this will depend on what we do, how hard we work both
in the council and in the movements. The lesson of Preston is if we immerse
ourselves in the movements then we can build links that can translate into
electoral gain.
For the Alliance it means becoming an organic part of those movements. We
cannot become a three week electoral machine. We will grow by being around all
the time.
For groups outside Preston, I think you can learn lessons from what we did -
but let me stress one final thing. There are no short-cuts. It would be mad for
people just to run off to the local Mosque and expect the Imam to greet you
with open arms. People are breaking with Labour from different traditions. We
must listen, engage and work with them - not preach. But all over the country
there are communities who are being let down by Labour. We need to work closely
with them and - through our practice, by being the best activists - we can win
them over to our side.
Michael Lavalette
12 May 2003
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Wed 14th May 2003 
