another video of Why Vote TUSC, Why Vote Dave Hill in Brighton Kemptown

have a look at http://www.winkball.com/app.9

it's a 90 second! video of why vote for Dave Hill, A Workers' MP on a Worker's Wage, in Brighton Kemptown.  Have a shot! Play the video! And Vote Dave Hill, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, in Brighton Kemptown

Brighton Kemptown Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition election video

The Tweedledum Tweedledee Tweedletwit Show: letter to the Press from Dave Hill

So, the tweedledum tweedledee show is over (the prime ministerial debates). All of the three big parties-NuLab, Con, Lib- say `cut public services and jobs’. Inevitable they say.


What? We disagree! The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have got the magic answer- the answer the other parties dare not breathe lest they offend their big business paymasters, and their faithful newspapers

We say- tax the rich! Currently the lowest paid pay a higher percentage of their income than the richest. To return to the top rate of income tax, 60%, as it was even under Thatcher, would raise £19 billion. Currently the rich pay 0% national insurance on earnings over £844 a week. Taxing them the 11% the poor pay would raise another £8.5 billion.

So, the tweedledum tweedledee show is over (the prime ministerial debates). All of the three big parties-NuLab, Con, Lib- say `cut public services and jobs’. Inevitable they say.

What? We disagree! The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have got the magic answer- the answer the other parties dare not breathe lest they offend their big business paymasters, and their faithful newspapers

We say- tax the rich! Currently the lowest paid pay a higher percentage of their income than the richest. To return to the top rate of income tax, 60%, as it was even under Thatcher, would raise £19 billion. Currently the rich pay 0% national insurance on earnings over £844 a week. Taxing them the 11% the poor pay would raise another £8.5 billion. And raise capital gains tax- it’s been cut from 40% to 18%. A giveaway! Stop and recoup the billions of bankers’ bonuses!

The UK’s hundred richest individuals have £250 billion in wealth. The rich owe £120 billion in unpaid/ avoided taxes. Last year, the 1,000 richest people in Britain increased their wealth by £77billions... yes, billions, not millions! (according to the recent Sunday Times `Rich List'. And since 2005 one boss, Bart Bracht,  has `made’ £200 million, about $40 million a year. (The Guardian, 8 April, see NOTE 1). That’s 4,000 times as much as a low paid worker per annum. It would take a minimum wage worker 4,000 years to earn that much. We say- let the rich pay for the crisis, not the workers.

So, what’s in store with all the main parties? For them- lap dancing clubs, casino capitalism, the filthy rich and the bankers- still taking their bonuses- laughing mightily at the rest of us. For us, the workers- cuts in teachers, nurses, police, pay curbs on public sector (and- inevitably- on private sector workers too), vilifying immigrants, and `benefit clampdowns’- on the poor. But no- oh no- not taxing the rich.

We offer an alternative- cancel Trident and ID cards, bring the troops home from Afghanistan, nationalise the banks, and the railways. Stop PFI and privatisation. Abolish the so called competitive market in schooling and health. Abolish VAT and replace with progressive taxation. Increase corporation tax. The money’s there. We are the sixth richest country in the world. And one of the most unequal.

Time for a change. Elect 50 Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition MPs, add to the tally of Respect MPs. Time to screw those who have been screwing us for so long!

Prof Dave Hill

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown

www.brightontusc.blogspot.com

dave.hill35@btopenworld.com

Note 1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/07/reckitt-benckiser-bart-becht-pay

Final Financial Appeal! And reportage on the BBC re the Great Balloon Bankers' Stunt

FINAL FINANCIAL APPEAL FOR THE TRADE UNIONIST AND SOCIALIST COALITION CAMPAIGN IN BRIGHTON KEMPTOWN

... VOTE DAVE HILL... A WORKERS' MP ON A WORKER'S WAGE

£10 is enough for petrol for one day's constituency wide truck tour with a megaphone and leaflets
£100 is enough to pay for leaflets for one ward (the campaign is having a last minute leaflet)
£700 is enough for a large Press Ad

To donate you must be resident in Britain and a taxpayer here (UK law on funding political parties)


How to donate ??? £££££ Donations/ Campaign Contributions£££££££££££££££££££$s:

Cheques payable to:


DAVE HILL TUSC BRIGHTON KEMPTOWN ELECTION CAMPAIGN


Direct Bank Payments to Santander Bank Account Number 47032426 Sort Code 090127

and/ or email Dave Hill at dave.hill35@btopenworld.com


For lots of quotes and pics about the Brighton Kemptown TUSC campaign, and… we’re on Youtube!...

and there’s leaflets and posters to download!

And!!! wer'e on the BBC website with a pic and report of our Great Balloon Stunt

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8641953.stm

• The Brighton TUSC blogspot is at http://brightontusc.blogspot.com/ and the Brighton TUSC Facebook is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=mf&gid=328024422940

More pics from the Balloon/ Bankers `We won't pay for the crisis' event

Three pics from acclaimed photographer, Peter Knight

Peter's video of the Brighton Kemptown TUSC campaign to follow in a few days...

The Great Balloon Stunt- on BBC News

BBC News
Balloon release in Kemptown focuses on UK deficit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8641953.stm


The government deficit, public service cuts and unemployment have been the focus of an election event in the Brighton Kemptown constituency.
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate Dave Hill released 168 balloons, each one representing £1bn.
He said ordinary working class people should not be paying for the deficit.

what a great time... big crowd... security trying to move us on from Churchill Square... 20 SP and 7 SR supporters... 20 minute stunt.... all the main parties are the same, promising to make the workers' pay for the bankers' crisis... Bob Collis dressed up as a fat cat banker, 168 helium filled balloons, each `worth' a billion pounds... Clegg, Cameron and Brown lookalikes.. Dave Hill took the balloons- the 168 billion pound debt, and gave it straight back to the banker and the three big business parties.. The Workers shouldn't pay for the Bankers' Crisis!

Here's the pics

20 SP members were there for the event...

7 SR members, working to elect a TUSC MP in Brighton Kemptown

candidates' family helping out

candidate's family...

then a loudspeak tour of St James' Street, followed by leafletting and a loudspeak tour in Woodingdean, Bexhill Rd. and Cowley Drive areas. Successful day's campaigning

London SR supporters of TUSC down to help... leafletting in Woodingdean

And all this on a day when the Argus ran a front page main story of the TUSC candidate with three more pics (Dave Hill, the TUSC candidate in Brighton Kemptown is not Peter Stringfellow!) and a story on page 3... not intensely political, but... hey, who'se gonna argue with a front page pic and a most of page 3 given over to the TUSC candidate!

Campaigning Sat 23 April: The Great Balloon/ Bankers' Bonuses and Public Service Cuts Con-Trick

SAT 23 APRIL Brighton Kemptown TUSC events

11am meet at corner of Cumberland Rd., Brighton and London Rd....

or, see you at

11.30 Churchill Square (the main shopping complex in Brighton, 10 mins walk down Queens Rd) for THE GREAT BANKERS' RIP-OFF BALLOON STUNT... ballons, leaflets, speech.... event starts at 12..stalls there from earlier

12.30 off on the back of a truck, megaphoning, leafletting the East Woodingdean council estate and other areas

To contact Dave Hill email dave.hill35@btopenworld.com

Who'se there organising the event?... 12 or more SP people, 6 Brighton SR people, 5 or more London SR people... and, perhaps, some SWP .. and the great British public!

Come and join us there!  help us leaflet... help us get a proper Socialist MP for Brighton Kemptown... Dave Hill- A Workers' MP on a Worker's Wage, standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

the balloon leaflet is below... great stuff!

Its the Bosses' Crisis so they should pay for it!

Don't let them make workers pay for their economic crisis...
Economic Balloon stunt- 12 noon, Saturday 24th April, Churchill Square, Brighton.

Campaigning in St. James Street Thursday 22 April

Campaigning in St. James' Street today, and... an Argus publicity shoot! of the campaigning.

What will the Argus make of it????? (and what will we??)... that's if it gets printed, of course! It's possibly coming out on Saturday 24 April

(Newspapers/ TV often turn up, but the story is `knocked off the front page' (or completely off the TV programme/ out of the newspaper).. 

so it may... or, very well, may not appear! But the campaign stall and megaphone attracted lots of interest. The election campaign nationally and locally does indeed seem to have been blown wide open, with the disenchantment with the mainstream parties... people seem, on the doorstep, ands in campaign megaphone/ literature stall/ leafletting events such as this, to be much more genuinely open to debate, to listening (as well as talking!)...

Hope the media - and the voters/ public!- turn up for our main `election stunt'.... be there, Churchill Square, 11.30am for 12... Saturday 24 April... the great balloon stunt... yes folks, £250 worth of helium filled ballonos...  costume role play.... bankers...  billions of pounds... hold the front page!. 

no.... not... repeat, not a salute... but... pointing to the future!... hopefully a socialist, a TUSC, MP for Brighton Kemptown

let's see the Argus tomorrow... or the next day... or the next...

in today's (Thursday's) Argus... good and fair reporting of the TUSC policies by Dave Hill- `Why I am standing in this election'

Dave Hill, TUSC candidate for Brighton Kemptown: Why I am standing

The Argus asked the general election candidates for 250 words on `Why You are Standing for Election', together with other info and a photo.

This is the information sent to The Argus. It should appear on Thurdsay 22 April 2010, two weeks before polling day

NAME Dave Hill


PARTY Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

MARRIED/SINGLE just remarried

WHERE BROUGHT UP Brought up in St. Martins Street, off the Lewes Road, Brighton since teenage years

OCCUPATION: Now a University teacher

INTERESTS: ie hobbies: writing/editing books on equality (17 so far, arguing for more equality, and arguing against racism, sexism, homophobia, and the wholesale discrimination against the working class). Seeing my children and grandchildren. And, I’m a finger-picking guitar player. And photographer. I was a (not particularly good) photo-journalist for a time.

WHY I WANT TO BE MP: (In no more than 250 words) Why do you want to be MP?/Local issues that matter/why should our readers vote for you/what is the policy that could win you the election/what would be your number one priority for change?

I’m standing to fight the jobs massacre and cuts in public services that all the main parties promise. Already in Brighton there are plans to slash police, lecturers, council workers. Every school in Brighton will lose teachers. But these cuts aren’t necessary! Instead- scrap Trident, PFI and ID cards, bring home troops from Afghanistan, and tax the rich!

Since working on building sites with my dad and brothers, I have spent my lifetime as a teacher- and tradeunionist- in `challenging’ primary and secondary schools and in higher education trying to tackle inequalities in schooling.

I am standing as a Workers’ MP on a Workers’ Wage- the only candidate to do so. I was Labour for 44years- standing for Parliament for Labour in Brighton, and leading the Labour Group of Councillors. But I’m against New Labour, dancing to the same big business tune now as the Tories and LibDems.

The groups involved in the Brighton Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) led the Defend Council Housing campaign, successfully keeping Brighton’s council stock in public ownership- was despite all political parties voting (one way or another) against full public ownership.

I, and TUSC, disagree that ordinary working and poor people must pay for the crisis caused by the bankers, big business and their politicians. We say `improve public services, create a much more equal society, increase the minimum wage, raise pensions, reverse anti-trade union laws, and encourage a movement of ordinary people to set up a new left party to replace Labour’.

See the campaign website at www.brightontusc.blogspot.com

national launch of TUSC

national launch of TUSC, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, today

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/scotland/8632252.stm

The national manifesto is at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/scotland/8632525.stm

Here it is. Great stuff! What the other poarties don't want! These are the TUSC policies

Privatisation:


•Stop all privatisation, including the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), and the privatisation of prisons.

•Bring privatised public services and utilities back into public ownership under democratic control.

•Take rail back into public ownership and build an integrated, low-pollution public transport system.

•Stop council estate sell-offs and build eco-friendly, affordable public housing.

•Keep Royal Mail as a publicly-owned service.

•Bring banks and finance institutions into genuine public ownership under democratic control.

Tax, earnings and unions:

•Progressive tax on wealthy corporations and individuals, with a crackdown on tax avoidance.

•Repeal anti-trade union laws.

•A minimum wage set at half average adult male earnings, with no exemptions.

•Solidarity with workers taking action to defend jobs, conditions, pensions, public services and trade unions.

•Reinstate full trade union rights to prison officers.

•Ensure women have genuinely equal rights and pay.

Environment:

•Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

•Invest in publicly-owned and controlled renewable energy.

•Move to sustainable, low-pollution industry and farming - stop the pollution that is destroying our environment.

Defence and foreign policy:

•Bring home all British troops from Afghanistan immediately.

•No more spending on a new generation of nuclear weapons, huge aircraft carriers or irrelevant Eurofighters.

•Convert arms spending into socially useful products and services.

•An independent foreign policy, based on international solidarity.

•No Lisbon Treaty.

campaigning in Kemptown and St.James' Street- loudpeak tour on the back of a lorry

Sat 17 April, the Brighton TUSC battletruck hit St James Street and Kemptown, loudspeaking, then Mouldscoomb. Teams of leafletters accompanying the battletruck. Great reception.. lots of smiles, raised fists in support- only a couple of the fists were waving against us! Good reception for our leaflets. And- very enjoyable!

St. James' House.. tenants/ residents (well- some!) waving from their windows, lots of thumbs up signs

 

Dave Hill letter in The Times Educational Supplement

Dave just had a letter published in the Times Educational Supplement, the schoolteachers' weekly publication. A far longer/ more complete version of this is posted, as a 21 point education manifesto, on this blogspot, under `Resources'. Dave will be having a series of schoolgate meetings outside primary schools in Brighton kemptown over the next 3 weeks, talking with parents and handing out the Brighton TUSC education leaflet, with TUSC education policies.

Letters
Published in The TES on 9 April, 2010
By: Dave Hill

It is ludicrous for soft-left luminaries to argue that "education should be depoliticised". The very choice of what and how education should be taught, organised, funded and a consideration of "who wins and who loses" are all intensely political.

Britain's schools need a socialist manifesto: smaller class sizes; no league tables or Sats; democratic control of academies; a fully comprehensive schools system; the abolition of private and faith schools; and a curriculum that encourages critical thinking.

Many of our schools are brilliant. But with better funding, smaller class sizes, an end to the destructive competition between them and with more professional judgment allowed for teachers, all state schools could match the results of the more lavishly funded private schools.

Dave Hill, Middlesex University; Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown.

TUSC hits Peacehaven... 22 socialists on the campaign trail

It was a windy day in Peacehaven...Blow away `the Big Business Parties'- New Labour, Conservative and LibDems- elect a socialist MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven... Vote Dave Hill, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate for MP!

Pics below of some of the campaigners on the back of a truck. Dave was on the megaphone, Peter was driving, 20 others were pounding the streets. Lots of support, raised clenched fists (socialist style, only a couple of people shaking their fists at us). On the way, driving through St. James' Street and Upper St. James St. areas- lots of support... people stopping us and asking for posters and leaflets.

then food at the Carvery... thanks Amber and the staff... good service, good food...

Videos from the Brighton TUSC Launch meeting

Dave Hill, Bob Crow and Hannah Sell addressing the launch of the Brighton TUSC.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

a couple of the launch pics are here (photos by Mark Findlay)

How justifiable is that?

The election is off and running?

So, what are the main issues? SamCam's pregnancy? the fairly meaningless argument about 1% on National Insurance?

Talk about shifting the deckchairs on the deck of the Titanic...

The NewLab/ LibDem/Tory parties are like Tweedledum and Tweedeledee ... three peas in a  pod.

All promise savage Thatcher-plus attacks on wages, conditions of work and employment, and pensions. All promise public sector job slashes and public/ welfare service cuts. Look aout for your libraries, your/ our schools, our hospitals... the publicly provided and staffed sector that makes life more civilised than in the low-tax, low public expensiture economies and societies. In Brighton hundreds of job cuts are promised (unless the unions can defeat those proposals!) at Sussex University, at Brighton Council, and in the various public sector offices. Not long, before every school loses teachers, every hospital loses doctors and nurses and support workers.

Unless we resist. United, we can defeat these cuts.

And correct the obscenity whereby one person (today's Guardian, Bart Brecht) can `earn' £90 million in one year. That's right, £90 million! This works out that he takes as much in half an hour as members of my family- and millions of workers- earn in a year!

Tax the Rich! Raise Pensions and the Minimum Wage! Protect and Improve Public Services.

Dave Hill
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown

Dave Hill with Bob Crow and Dave Nellist

Report and videos of speeches at the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national launch (Thurs 26 March 2010) now online

A Report of TUSC launch rally in London, with video of speakers including Brian Caton (Gen Sec of the Prison Officers Association, Chris Baugh, Asst Gen Sec of the civil service union PCS), Hannah Sell (Deputy general secretary of the Socialist Party) and Dave Nellist, socialist former MP, now online at  www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/618/9103.

It was a brilliant meeting- excellent speeches, I reckoned around 300 people there from various trade unions as well as from the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers' Party, Socialist Resistance as well as from many other left groups.

The event was covered fully by the BBC radio 4 `Today' programme, and by BBCTV `Newsnight'.

It was, of course, ignored by almost the whole of the national Press, even though TUSC is standing in cities across the country, in between 40 and 50 constituencies!.

Dave Hill speech to Rally for Jobs and Public Services on Youtube

Dave Hill’s speech to the Brighton march and rally for jobs and public services (6 March, 600 people there) is now on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozMQeyMUfxE (part one) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOAI-gRH4lk (part two)