The Haggerston local election and the future

Posted: May 19, 2006 | Filed under: Broadway Market, Elections, Haggerston, Labour Party |Comments Off on The Haggerston local election and the future

The last six months have been a hectic time for Hackney Independent. Starting at the end of November last year, our involvement with the occupation at 34 Broadway Market brought onto the national and international stage a level of condemnation for Hackney Council which is usually only reserved for dodgy third world regimes.

Not long after the occupation of Tony’s café was over we commenced the Haggerston local election campaign. The result was a victory for the Labour party with their candidates securing an average 986 votes compared to Hackney Independent’s highest vote of 616.

Labour won every seat in Hackney South & Shoreditch. They faced strong challenges from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Queensbridge and Hoxton, where, aside from a strong personal vote for Andrew Boff, the opposition parties achieved results comparable to Hackney Independent’s in Haggerston.

Of course its particular gutting to be beaten by a Blairite careerist with his snout in the PFI trough; a Trotskyite infiltrator and Cllr. Bright, but Hackney Labour party, feeling seriously challenged by Hackney Independent, threw all their available resources into the campaign.

Labour fought a negative campaign: their main trick being to scream of “chaos” if the Town Hall was to return to being a hung-council.

Most annoying was the dirty leaflet distributed on the day before polling day warning Haggerston residents that “a vote for independent is a vote for the Tory’s”. According to Labour we are under the thumb of the Conservative party!

We were a bit miffed about this as no one person involved in Hackney Independent has ever voted Conservative in their life, let alone been a member.

They also drew in criticism that the H.I. candidates weren’t local, and this was in a leaflet hand-delivered by “local” Labour candidate Barry Buitekant who lives in… wait for it… Upper Clapton!

On polling day itself they had bussed in Labour party activists from all over London, with Jules Pipe himself being present on and off throughout the day.

In his main post-election winning address Mayor Pipe singled out Hackney Independent for particular attention:

‘Voters in Haggerston saw through the nonsense being peddled by Hackney Independent, particularly about Broadway market where they had joined up with local Tories. Residents recognised that they had nothing positive to offer local people. They are now a spent force in Hackney.’

That’s fighting talk Jules!

Of course victory is preferable to coming second place again, but we take heart that our challenge prompted such Labour panic.

While Labour won using fear, lies and manipulation, Hackney Independent stood on a platform of community and solidarity.

We will continue to do so in the future.

For Hackney Independent, post-election plans are to build upon our free newsletter by increasing its size and distribution: as Labour have now publicly labelled us a primary threat to their rule in Hackney, it would be a shame to let them off the hook.

We also need to work out ways of securing regular streams of finance and to expand upon our activist base.

Needless to say, our work with Tenants’ Associations and around such campaigns as Broadway Market and Haggerston swimming pool will continue.

The challenge and the need for such an endeavour is still there. As Tony Blair’s neo-liberalism bites even more, the far-right will gain, and Labour will shrink.

We will work towards building a confident working class independent of the existing political structures, so that we can face the immediate challenges and work towards building a credible long-term strategy.

For those who haven’t given up hope yet we ask you to play a part in Hackney Independent.

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