Weekly Worker 519 Thursday March 11 2004

Lewisham and Greenwich

Backing for Page in GLA seat

Meeting on March 4, the inaugural meeting of the Lewisham and Greenwich branch decided not to select a candidate for the GLA constituency. Socialist Party local councillor Ian Page intends to contest the seat and national discussions are taking place aimed at giving comrade Page a clear run in return for SP backing for Respect elsewhere in London and for the PR list.

The well attended meeting of around 60 people witnessed a rare sight - SWP comrades falling over themselves to be nice about the SP. Local SWPer Andy Reid, who chaired the meeting, said he “can’t think of any SP policies I disagree with. We might have our differences, but they are not differences of principle.”

This was quite a contrast to recent SWP behaviour in Lewisham, where the organisation initially looked set to back an education campaigner against SP candidate Chris Flood in the December 2003 Telegraph Hill by-election. In the end the SWP pulled back from such an openly sectarian move and instead sat on the sidelines, while the SP - backed by most non-SWP Socialist Alliance comrades - waged an enthusiastic campaign which ended successfully with the election of a second socialist councillor to sit alongside comrade Page.

The SP was invited to attend the meeting as observers and a small number did so. It seems that George Galloway has prevailed upon the SWP to come to an arrangement, but it is a welcome development for all that.

Peter Manson

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