THE LEFT LIST
VOTE LINDSEY GERMAN
How can we afford to survive in
London?
That’s the question many Londoners are asking
themselves. House prices are astronomical. Too many jobs have pay
that’s too low and hours that are too long. The transport system is
expensive and overcrowded. The costs of everyday basics from food
to bills are higher than ever.
Wealth
It shouldn’t be this way. London is a wealthy
city. It can afford decent jobs, houses, transport and public
services. But we’ll never get those if the property developers,
private finance companies and the rich are allowed to use the
capital as their playground.
Taxpayers gave £2 billion to the bankrupt
Metronet corporation that was supposed to be modernising the tube.
Everything from hospital services to London buses is being handed
over to private firms. Big corporations are making money in the
property bonanza.
There is no “trickle down” effect as the Tories
and New Labour say. Instead the wealth is gushing up to the
wealthiest in London.
Hope
Young Londoners are being deprived of hope and
forced to start out their lives in debt while New Labour’s main
education policy is to hand over schools to business sponsorship.
No wonder so many young people are left hanging around the streets,
prey to crime and drugs.
Too many Londoners are without a voice that will
challenge the way London is being run. I want to change that. I
want a new movement of Londoners prepared to take a stand against
the privateers and the politicians.
I stood against the Iraq War from the beginning,
and have been central to resistance to the New Labour wars.
Now I am representing The Left List, and want to
take the battle for the future of London’s working majority against
the wealthy minority into City Hall. I want to stop the
transformation of our city into London PLC.
And, of course, I will continue to demand New
Labour stop spending billions on the failed wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and start reinvesting it in our public services for the
benefit of all of Britain’s working people.
“London contains some of the richest people in
the world, but most Londoners see little of the wealth. London is
rightly hailed as one of the most multicultural cities in the
world, but there is little acknowledgement that many ethnic
minorities suffer disproportionately from poverty. Londoners also
pay the most expensive fares for one of the worst transport systems
in the world.”
10 steps to a better
London:
1. Housing – An emergency council house
building programme.
2. Transport – Decent public transport to
encourage less car use. Cut fares and increase provision with new
tube and rail lines.
3. War – Bring the troops home from Iraq and
Afghanistan, no attacks on civil liberties. Spend the money used
for war on welfare.
4. Education – Good local schools for every
child in every borough. No academies, no tuition fees for
students.
5. Health – No to health rationing, stop
hospital closures, no privatisation of doctors’ surgeries.
6. Poverty – Tax the wealthy to close the gap
between rich and poor. Pensions to be linked with earnings.
7. Environment – Stop big business putting
profits before the planet. No to the third runway at Heathrow.
8. Olympics – Londoners should not have to
subsidise the games. No cuts in arts or local sport provision to
pay for the Olympics.
9. Work – The London living wage of £7.20 an
hour must be enforced everywhere, full trade union rights and a 35
hour working week.
10. Equality – Oppose all forms of
discrimination and racism.
Lindsey German is one of the leading figures in
the anti-war movement. She has been central to the mass
demonstrations against the Iraq war.
She is a socialist and has a lifelong commitment
to women’s liberation and anti-racism. She believes London would be
better with stronger trade unions.
She was a founder of Respect and in 2004 stood
as Respect’s mayoral candidate, beating the Greens and the BNP and
coming within 0.43% of a seat on the London Assembly.
A left voice
She believes there is a strong need for a left
voice in London who will stand up for the unions, speak out against
racism and inequality, for proper council housing and for cheap and
decent public transport.
www.lindsey4london.org