Preston & Lancs Respect

On Friday 9th May Preston Respect members and activists gathered for a post election meal  In an upbeat message to his supporters Mukhtar Master thanked all those who had leafleted and canvassed the Town Centre ward on his behalf. Mukhtar said he’d ‘learnt a lot’ from the latest campaign and that he was ‘keen to stand again,’ having gained  nearly 800 votes and lost by only a few dozen.

 
Michael Lavalette echoed Mukhtar’s remarks and said ‘the struggle goes on.’ Then he turned to the issue of the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel. This land grab of Palestinian land was a monumental injustice, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more into refugee camps around the region.
 
On Thursday 15th May, the Palestinians will be letting loose more than 21,000 black balloons over Jerusalem - one for each day of the 60 years of the state of Israel. Likewise, Preston Respect is calling on Prestonians to assemble on the flag market at 6pm on Thursday the 15th to show solidarity with the victims of the Nakba and to join in the release of 60 black balloons - to commemorate the dead and to show solidariy with the dispossessed.
 
Please do your best to attend this important demonstration in support of the long struggling Palestinian people.
SteveW

Click here to read Cllr Michael Lavalette’s tribute to the late Ron Yates.

In an tight contest in Preston, Town Centre, Muktar Master took 37% of the vote and was narrowly forced into second place. 

2008 election report
Mukhtar Master came close to pulling off a remarkable victory in Preston’s Town Centre ward. Assisted by Preston Respect Councillor Michael Lavalette and former Labour Leader Valerie Wise in the Preston Respect office, a team of helpers came from around the region to leaflet and canvass the streets.

Mukhtar ran an excellent campaign but was pipped at the post by 851 votes to 777 by New Labour. Gracious in defeat, Mukhtar smiled and took comfort in the hundreds of voters who’d turned out to vote for him. You can’t let these people down. They depend on us. We’ve built a base. We’ll analyse everything. Next time we’ll win.

Michael Lavalette said: We have 777 reasons to be cheerful. We keep faith with our supporters. The campaign goes on.

Preston Respect meets every second Tuesday of the month at 7pm in the citys Town Hall. Please get involved. We need more respect.

report: S Wilcock

Yet again Gordon Brown has shown his utter contempt for Labour’s traditional supporters. His scrapping of the 10p starting rate of tax will mean that the lowest paid workers will pay hundreds of pounds a year more in tax.

And at the same time he has delighted his big business friends by cutting corporation tax from 30% to 28%. Even under the dreadful Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government corporation tax was 52%.

If we can get a second Respect councillor elected to join Michael Lavalette on Preston Council on 1^st May, not only will it make a tremendous difference to local politics, it will also be a great step forward in the battle to create an alternative to New Labour’s Tory policies at the national level.

That’s why we need your help over the remaining days to the local elections. Please come out and help us with canvassing and leafleting. We are meeting up at St. Augustine’s Community Centre on Saturdays and Sundays at 11.00am and 2.00pm, and on weekdays at 6.00pm. (If you need directions, ring Michael on 077397 29214.)

Postal votes are out today (19^th April), so if you live in Preston and have a postal vote, we urge you to vote as follows:

Town Centre Ward: Mukhtar Master.

Fishwick Ward: Pete Agland.

St. Matthew’s Ward: Danielle Field.

Riversway Ward: Elaine Abbott.

 Click here to watch Preston Respect Councillor Michael Lavalette speak about why you should  vote for our candidates in Preston on May 1st . Our election page with full information about Mukhtar Master, Elaine Abbot, Danielle Field and Pete Agland will appear shortly.

Members of Preston Respect were out leafleting over the week-end in the run up to the May local council elections. Respect will be standing 4 candidates in the elections: Elaine Abbot in Riversway, Danielle Field in St Matthews, Pete Agland in Fishwick and Mukhtar Master in the Town Centre ward. Respect have high hopes of making a good showing in each ward but are especially hopeful that Mukhtar can win the Town Centre seat and join Michael Lavalette in the council chamber.

There was discussion about standing in two other wards in the elections: Tulketh and St Georges. Barry Hill stood in the recent Tulketh by-election, but if we stood we would threaten the seat of Labour left-winger and PCS trade union activist Matthew Brown. We decided not to stand against Matthew for the benefit of the broader left on council. We urge those that voted for Barry in January to vote for Matthew on this occassion.

In previous elections Preston Respect has also stood in the St George’s ward. There are two councillors in that ward: New Labour right-winger Taalib Shamshuddin (who was one of only four councillors in council to vote for academies) and James Hull. Labour councillor James Hull is up for election this year. James has spoken at a number of anti-war and pro-Palestinian events over the last two years as well as supporting motions on academies and NHS privatisation proposed by Respect in council. For these reasons Preston Respect decided not to contest this seat on this occassion and call on our supporters in the ward to vote for James Hull.

We are asking all supporters to join us each evening at 6pm at the St Augustine’s Centre in Avenham. From there we will go out leafleting and canvassing in our wards.

On 15 March members of Preston and Lancashire Respect joined the thousands in the World Against War demonstration in London. Photos are in the gallery here; the Preston Respect youtube channel includes videos of speeches by John Rees, Lindsey German and Tony Benn and George Galloway and Bruce Kent.

Tens of thousands of people will converge on Parliament on Saturday calling for an end to Bush’s wars. Another massive demonstration will take place simultaneously in Glasgow. Five years on almost everything the anti-war movement predicted about the invasion of Iraq has come true, yet the government continues to ignore the view of the overwhelming majority in this country, who have consistently opposed the war.
Demonstrations will be taking place in more than 50 cities around the world on the anniversary of the invasion (see  www.theworldagainstwar.org). The London demonstration will assemble at Trafalgar Square at 12am. It will surround parliament and end in Parliament Square. We are asking every one of our supporters to march with us. Please bring flowers, wreaths, shoes or other symbols to 
leave in Parliament Square to commemorate the victims of these devastating wars. We are also asking everyone to spread the word as widely as possible in the hours remaining before the demonstration. Please send e-mails, phone your friends, tell your colleagues, leaflet your street or estate or station to ensure the maximum possible turnout for this vital march. The demonstrations come in a week in which: 

* The so-called “progress” in Iraq following the troops  “surge” was exposed as a sham, with dozens of Iraqi civilian  fatalities and — in one 48 hour period — 12 American soldiers killed. 
* Admiral William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, was sacked for his opposition to an attack on  iran, proving that an escalation of war is very much on George Bush’s agenda.   
* Gordon Brown was confirmed yet again as standing “shoulder  to shoulder” with Bush, following the revelation that Britain’s cost for the Iraq war will double this year and Brown’s promise of troop reductions in the Spring is unlikely to be met.

WORLD AGAINST WAR DEMONSTRATION 
SATURDAY 15 MARCH 2008   
Called by Stop the War Coalition, CND and BMI   
Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. No Attack on Iran   
End the Siege of Gaza

ASSEMBLE 12 NOON TRAFALGAR SQUARE FOR RALLY 
Speakers include Tony Benn, ex-SAS trooper Ben Griffin,  Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas, Lindsey German from Stop the War, John Mcdonnell MP, George Galloway MP, film director  Nick Broomfield and representatives from  Palestine

As part of a national tour of Britain, three Palestinian women will be visiting Preston, Blackburn and Pendle on Thursday 13^th and Friday 14^th March. They have been invited by the “Pendle for Palestine” twinning group which seeks to promote the Palestinian cause and to establish links between the people of Pendle and Palestine.

Two of the visitors, who are arriving in Britain in time for International Women’s Day, are from Beit Leed, a small town in the West Bank, which was visited by members of the Pendle group last Easter. The third is from Jenin, which has been subject to Israeli mass attacks.

Ayeshah Jones of Pendle, who has visited Palestine, said: “We were made very welcome in Beit Leed, and having stayed in Wasfia’s house I’m glad to have the chance to return the favour. We want as many Pendle and Lancashire people as possible to meet them and understand the ways the Palestinians are suffering under the Israeli occupation.”

Richard MacSween, another of the organisers of the visit, said: “Last weekend’s attack on Gaza by the Israeli army, killing over a hundred Palestinians, reminds us of the complete imbalance in forces. It is shameful that the UK and US governments continue to give support to the much stronger side, the Israeli state. We believe, however, that many ordinary people in Britain want an end to that support.”

The focus of the visit will be a public meeting in Brierfield Community Centre on Thursday 13 March at 7.30pm when the public will be able to ask questions about life in Palestine.

As well as the Brierfield meeting, the Palestinian visitors will be attending other events in Pendle, Blackburn and Preston on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th March. For further details contact 07791430606.

Supporters are urged to get their tickets for transport to the London demonstration to mark 5 years of war in Iraq. The demonstration is part of an international day of protest against the continuing destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The buses will leave Preston at 6.45 am. Tickets cost £10 (school students and unemployed), £12 Students, £16 waged £20 solidarity price. get your tickets from Michael on 07739729214.