HIWCA Statement on Election Result

Date: 9th June '01

Name: Hackney IWCA

IWCA Statement on General election result in Hackney

Middle class minority turns out for Labour

Labour used to take the working class vote for granted - now they take it
for granted that we won't vote, but that Hackneys middle class minority
will turn out enough votes for Labour to get them back in.

Twenty years ago our estates were covered in Labour posters during
elections. Now you don't see any posters on our estates - but in private
streets the bigger the house the more chance there is of a Labour poster.

It is no surprise that the majority did not vote in the elections because
there is nothing for us to vote for. The major parties all pushed a middle
class agenda, while the fringe parties campaigned on issues like save the
planet and drop the Third World debt. These are fine in principle but do
nothing to address the immediate needs of Hackney's working class majority.

There was a time when Labour was criticised for only coming round at
elections. Now they and the other parties don't even do that. They all push
their own priorities - but who asked you what was important to you?

In the IWCAs experience the biggest issue on our estates in anti-social
crime and behaviour. Most of our estates are being terrorised, many of our
old people are frightened to go out. And yet not one of the parties came up
with any solutions other than the usual soundbites like tough on crime
and
more police that they have been making for the last twenty years while
the
problem has got worse. If some of the candidates actually lived on our
estates we might see a difference.

So what has the election left us with? A Labour Council, two Labour MPs
and
no representation for the working class. The IWCA will be standing in the
Council elections next year in Shoreditch. In the rest of the Borough we
urge tenant and community groups to put up their own pro-working class
candidates. We must not let the middle class minority dictate to us any
longer.

Hackney IWCA
8th June 2001
Tel. 07000 752 752

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