Wokington. working class Labour voters. candidate well as TATIOTE as a whole. us have a united far-left candidate.
In our opinion, Ladywood -beating the fascists and the Liberals. was more than that of the fascists.
of a shift everyone who voted for who will hopefully vote for Union elections should Arguments of this sort pave the way for currents in the working LABOUR SHOULD NOT DRAW too much satisfaction from the Ladywood by-election result. The very fact that it could be treated as a big victory by some Labour leaders Indicates the depths of despair to which Transport House had been reduced by the defeats in Ashfield and won Ladywood because an overwhelming majority of black voters — who comprise almost 40 per cent of the constituency - remained loyal and preferred to vote Labour against the Tories and the National Front. Peter Marriner notwithstanding. And yet even Ladywood saw a swing of lust under 9 percent to the Tories and massive ebstentions on the part of traditional white The Government would therefore be extremely foolish to conclude from Ladywood that 'Labour is on its way' and consider an early General But in a curious way the issues which dominated the by-election were not Labour's reactionary social and economic poncies, out racism and rascisme Bagwas primarily because of the decision of the National Front to Reed-Herbert (since retired from politics) as This offered a tremendous opportunity for the socialist en to organise a pant poor aney do, butt wag tartau by electoral disunity and reduced the impact of the far-left The Socialist Workers Party comrades should reconsider their strategy, If la a scandal that in an area such as Ladywood the fascists got more votes (888 - 5.7 per cent of poll) than the combined votes of Socialist Unity (534 -3.4 per cent) and the SWP (152 - 1 per cent). To argue, as Socialist Worker does. that we should add to this the votes of a West Indian hustler James Hunte, referred to as a 'black nationalist, is simply spurious. Hunte's votes were personal votes and cannot be counted as political in any sense. If Hunte had not stood those who voted for him would have probably stayed at home. Socialist Worker 15 forced to do this because otherwise it would have to consider the alternative presented by Socialist Unity: let even more than Stechford - shows the necessity for a united far-left electoral pole. None of the arguments advanced by the SWP stand up to close examination. The idea that Raghib Ahsan's politics were 'vaguer or watered down in contrast to Kim Gordon's is just laughable, as any militant in Ladywood will tell them. To make statements like this is both childish and stupid. A united candidate backed by SU and the SWP would have had a bigger impact and stood a real chance of