Four inches of snow had fallen
during the night and temperatures were well below freezing, but with breath
turning white in the icy air the socialists from Peterborough Labour Party were
out campaigning for Socialist Appeal supporter, Ron Graves, who is the
prospective candidate for Stanground Central in the May local government
elections.
Four inches of snow had fallen
during the night and temperatures were well below freezing, but with breath
turning white in the icy air the socialists from Peterborough Labour Party were
out campaigning for Socialist Appeal supporter, Ron Graves, who is the
prospective candidate for Stanground Central in the May local government
elections.
Peterborough has a
Tory-controlled council, which has for years been stealthily introducing cuts
to services while hatching plans for self-aggrandising vanity projects (like a
water-taxi scheme and spending £93,000 when the Olympic Torch passes through
the city) that will do nothing to improve lives of most people living here. At
the same time, the local NHS is deep in debt (partly thanks to several PFI
schemes that are costing as much as six times the predicted expense and into
which the NHS is locked for the next thirty-five years), and appointments at
the City Hospital, including operations, have recently been cancelled at the
last minute due to a shortage of staff.
Social Services, too, are in big
trouble, with children’s services and adult safeguarding having been shown to
be failing in major areas. In fact, the failures in children’s services,
resulting in actual harm coming to some children in Peterborough, are a public scandal.
The Tories’ brilliant solution to this was to bring in a private consultant who
they are paying £1000 per day to sort out the problems created by their own
incompetence.
There are three real socialists
standing in potentially winnable seats in Peterborough and the aim of the
campaign is to put them in the Town Hall, where they can fight for socialist
policies, but just as importantly to explain the socialist alternative to cuts
and job losses and recruit new people to socialist ideas.
We had been discussing these
issues and selling Socialist Appeal on various doorsteps when we knocked on the
door of Ben’s flat. Ben is in his twenties and said he’d done some work for a
supermarket during the busy Christmas period, but once that passed he had been
laid off. A week before we called Ben was late for signing on to collect his
unemployment benefit, due to the late arrival of his bus, and was told he could
only have one week’s payment instead of the two he was due.
“So I’ve gone four days without electric
and I’ve had to get into bed to keep warm,” said Ben.
Ben told us that the day before we
called a neighbour had seen light flickering at his window and, thinking there
may be a fire, she had hammered on his door. What she found was Ben wrapped in
bedclothes and lighting his flat with candles. Although herself a low paid
worker, she put £15 into Ben’s electricity meter, most of which was taken by
the power company to pay for electricity Ben had used before the meter locked
him out, but at least her generosity meant that Ben was able to heat and light
the flat for a couple of days.
Ben said that growing up had been
hard. “I didn’t get much education,” he said, “and I spent most of my time in a
special needs place. I want a job, but I’ve had no training. I’ve asked about
it over and over at the benefits place, but they just send me away. It’s like
nobody cares”.
We were able to put Ben in touch
with a new charitable scheme aimed at getting untrained people into work and
hopefully that will help him – but it won’t solve the problem of capitalism
failing to meet the needs of people like Ben. As long as we have an economic
system based on pursuing profit, rather than providing what people need,
thousands like Ben will be justified in feeling that no one cares. A week after
we met Ben, the night time temperature in Peterborough plunged to minus
fifteen. How many other people – young and old – spent that weekend without
light and heating?
There is no way out under capitalism and we have a responsibility to
both explain the alternative and build a movement that can bring about the socialist
change we need.
