To Old Labour


To old Labour members, in solidarity.

What do we do now?

Who would have believed it, Labour taken over by the Tories in sheep's clothing?

We know, in politics, to listen less to the words people say but to watch the works they perform.

How can we tolerate a situation where Britain, under a Labour government would attack a poor--and defenceless-- country, hand in glove with an unsurpassed militaristic Whitehouse.

I have fought against this war for three years. The War on Terror is smashing international law - and it's not over yet; this is being pitched to go on for years. Even Hitler and Japan both claimed to be liberating people. How many of us have also been conned into thinking we have liberated these peoples?

This government also somehow justifies its involvement in sanctions on Iraq which killed 600,000 from 1997-2003 - half of them children-- and perhaps 2 million in total. Not that these are counted, or even referred to, but those deaths are real enough. And so are the 100,000 civilians killed by Bush and Blair's war machine since March 2003.

We watch the scandal of PPP and PFI as it robs the public purse and enriches businesses. We watch cleanliness become an issue in hospitals, pensioners losing their pensions' value, vending machines selling junk food in schools - a McDonald's across the road from Endeavour!

A casino planned for KC Stadium! 24-hour drinking in the wings! ID cards, house arrest, detention without trial, the prospect of torture by proxy, and the preparedness of Britain to use nuclear weapons FIRST, as pointedly not ruled out by Geoff Hoon in 2003 - and this against Iraq, disarmed and riven to the core by sanctions.

And so I want the Old Labour vote. The vote for people seriously interested in the welfare of others, the poor in Britain, the poor in states across the world. The vote against imperialism of whatever sort, the vote against global exploitation. The vote that wants to move from admission that climate change and the decline of oil are on the cards, to serious action NOW to mitigate the worst effects.

The word socialism does not appear once in the Green Party "Manifesto for a Sustainable Society". This is true and, I believe, unfortunate. But it's also true that the word capitalism DOES appear - only once - and in order to slag it off !

The Green Party is seriously interested in social justice - not in poverty growing in Britain! It is a radical and alternative party, building on the importance of community and human relationships, for now and for the future. Not in the rich getting richer - under a so-called Labour government.

I want the vote that WON'T go to war because America says, or because Blair persuades us (as he persuaded many MPs); nor when we're lied to, or presented with debased intelligence, or a student dossier of non-existent armaments.

The vote that will not rest for as long as Britain is the second largest arms dealer to the world. The Green Party stands for unilateral nuclear disarmament (where have we heard of that before?); for an immediate halt to the arms trade, and a reorientation of manufacturing for peaceful production.

Two poverty-stricken countries have we bombed and wrecked in recent years. (Three including Kosovo!) The first, Afghanistan, with its tragic modern history, planned years ago for a US-driven pipeline, with US troops well in position before 9-11, this being used as a pretext, Osama bin Laden mysteriously "escaping", while Afghanistan lost its government, however imperfect or  illegitimate, and fell into chaos again. The second, Iraq, crucified by 12 years of medieval sanctions which claimed 5% of the population, and maybe as many as two million people, many now, still, without water, power or medicines.

The union that founded the Labour Party 105 years ago, the RMT, is now working with the Green Party and others for real change. Of its 70,000 members only 500 now remain in the Labour Party.

The change is happening. Change, and change now.

I will represent Hull - represent it well and powerfully.

If you want casinos, I'm not your candidate. If you want 24-hour drinking, I'm not your candidate. If you want Peter Mandelson as EU commissioner for external trade, or Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank, then don't leave it to me.

But if you want these things attacked - for British policy to recover principles of peace and social justice - for preparedness for the major challenges of the future - with every attempt to rein in America, and the increasing militarisation, economic globalisation, and ecological destruction of our world - then elect me.

You DO have a choice.

Martin Deane