TUSC stands against gentrification and cuts in Waltham Forest

Waltham Forest TUSC candidates, photo by Waltham Forest Socialist Party (Click to enlarge)

Waltham Forest Socialist Party

"I am a fan of Corbyn but I am not a fan of our local Labour councillors. It might be the same party but there are big differences in how they represent the people who elected them. After Mini Holland there's no way I'm going to vote for these local labour councillors," wrote one voter in Waltham Forest, east London.

The idea that you can punish the arrogant right-wing Labour council by voting for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is being taken up in Waltham Forest, it seems. And there are a lot of reasons working class and young people are seeking to punish them.

Since 2010 we have lost youth clubs and public services. �100 million has been stolen by the Tories and the cuts passed on by the Labour council.

On the streets and on social media people ask us where we stand on the key battle lines of gentrification schemes and cuts - and we can tell them every time that TUSC stands with them. People know this right-wing Labour council is in bed with the property developers and the bosses who want to privatise public services.

People are telling us that after a lifetime of voting Labour they will give us their vote. Waltham Forest councillors stand so condemned that some people are saying they will consider giving their vote to the Tories or Lib Dems as a way of giving Labour a bloody nose.

These are people who voted Labour enthusiastically last year for Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity manifesto. But they haven't seen any of that implemented in our borough. The opposite - from councillors who backed the coup against Corbyn.

"You've got my vote", is becoming a pleasingly common line, often with a smiley emoji. This is when people are asking for info on candidates in Facebook forums and hear about our consistent opposition to austerity and our pro-working class platform.

We will have to see how the different processes play out on 3 May, but one thing is for sure. That local Labour is not Jeremy's Labour is clearly understood by people at the sharp end of the council's knife. And sadly, we have to report that the local council is undermining people's faith in Corbyn to change their lives as they hoped he would last year.

TUSC has offered them hope by putting fighting austerity on the ballot paper.

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