Owers and Labour for Abbey Ward

Last week, I was selected to be the Labour city council candidate for Abbey Ward in Cambridge. This is a great privilege.

I have been knocking on doors and campaigning in Abbey since 2008, listening to the concerns of local residents on issues such as local drain blockages, local public services, the plight of Cambridge United, and anti-social behaviour.

The political context is that Abbey is a Labour-Green marginal. Currently, it has 2 Labour city councillors, 1 Green city councillor and 1 Green county councillor. Until recently a rock-solid Labour ward, the Greens have been making inroads since 2008, when the Greens beat the incumbent Labour councillor John Durrant.

Now, many on the Left may be a little sceptical, since the Greens have developed an (often undeserved) reputation as being a somewhat left-leaning alternative to the big parties. However, in Cambridge the Greens have positioned themselves in a deeply reactionary position on one of the biggest local issues. This issue is that of Marshall, the local aerospace company. Marshall provides a great deal of local skilled employment, and is crucial to the local economy.

Despite this, the Lib Dem city council and Tory county council in collaboration have developed a plan to force Marshall out of Cambridge and use the site currently occupied by Marshall to build 12, 000 houses in its place. They have done this with the full backing of the local Green Party.

The problems with this plan are numerous. Firstly, it will involve a huge loss of skilled jobs in Cambridge, many of which provide valuable employment to local working class people. Secondly, the development is unsustainable. It will involve placing a huge strain on the local infrastructure with no investment to back it up. Local traffic problems, which are already acute, will be exacerbated even further. For example, traffic on Coldham’s Lane and Newmarket Road, already terrible, will draw to a standstill. The effects on the carbon footprint of Cambridge would be extremely detrimental.

Green Party support for this despicable plan is unfathomable. It is indefensible on the grounds that it is a betrayal of local working people, on the grounds that it will exacerbate climate change, and on the grounds that it will be disastrous for the local economy. In my campaign, I will incessantly point out the Green hypocrisy and cant on this issue.

Furthermore, the point is that the Green vote is a protest vote that cannot be afforded in the context of the next General Election, which will fall on the same day as the city council election. I have my problems with the government and am very much on the Labour Left, but voting for fringe parties like the Greens rather than Labour candidates, especially progressive, dare I say it socialist, Labour candidates, will lead to nothing but the election of a dangerously reactionary Tory government, or in Cambridge a Lib Dem MP who will fall in line with Nick Clegg’s neoliberal, quasi-Tory agenda.

I am a socialist. I believe that the purpose of politics is to tackle the underlying inequalities and injustices faced by people disadvantaged by social circumstances so that their full potential can be realised. However, I am also a pragmatist, and I realise that the only vehicle for actually effecting progressive changes in this country, rather than talking about them, is, both nationally and locally, the Labour Party, and has been since its creation. In this election, it is the practical concerns and real action of ordinary residents that I and my Labour team will focus on. In this election, we will be fighting the corner of the working people of Abbey, whatever their class. We will be fighting to defend their local Sure Start centre, to take up their local housing issues, to defend their jobs, to tackle local anti-social behaviour and to fight for investment in their local football club. We will also be fighting on the behalf of their ethical and environmental concerns. In short, we will show that the true socialist force in Cambridge and British politics is, and can only be, the Labour Party.