O'grady - the Property Arks' Candidate!
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-02-10Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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He's the bloke who and yet those policies he They go around advocating it has been established supported selling off Hay's supported as leader of the the LDDC policies as though hasn't created a single p ›ke Whart, the entire site council were not popular they are disinterested parties manent job anywhere in ti between London Bridge and and he knows it. and yet they never declare constituency. What it l He is clutching desperate- their own personal interest. done recently is give not Since Mellish and to quit to eight industr inaependent Labour candiaate U Grady with nelpers: nis record is "a disgrace to anybody"
LABOUR PARTY MERTHYR TYDAL SERRI SULATOR TO TIE MERTHYE U Peter Tatchell spoke to lan Swindale What about the so-called "Independent Labour' campaign?
The Independents have got no policies at all. Their whole campaign is a negative one, based on personal smears against me, and playing on people's prejudices.
I heard from a journalist today that their campaign headquarters is plastered with clippings from various newspapers, mainly focusing on my personal life. That is the extent of their campaign.
If you ask them what they are actually standing for they're at a loss to. answer. If you ask them which of my policies they oppose, again they are at a loss to answer.
Not only have they not got any policies but the record of O'Grady [the Independent Labour candidate] as leader of Southwark Council is a disgrace to anybody.
He's the bloke who supported selling off Hay's Wharf, the entire site between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, to Arab oil Tower Bridge, to Arab oil barons to build the equiva1mad 1 A : 14 centrepoints 'Nowadaro when local people in the area who he claims to represent as the real Labour candidate, want houses with gardens.
• John O'Grady is the bloke who wanted to waste £30 million of the rate payers' money to build a new Town Hall, when that money was desperately needed to modernise older estates and to provide social services to the elderly and disabled.
He claims to be the real Labour candidate, the bloke who knows what the people șf Bérmondsey really want <Ti. 1Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Islington THAT 1983 will be an election year is hardly news - Thatcher has deliberately tried to create a suitably nationalist and militaristic atmosphere, designed to divert attention from the real issues for the working class.
Our campaign has to be directed at and involving our supporters - a spurious appeal to the middle ground will not win their support, or the election. If people want a laissez-faire government they have got one, if they want an equally repressive social democratic: one, the alternative is there IOT them.
All the. expressions ot working class opinion do not show opposition this kind of smear campaign.
LDDC
Both Bob Mellish and John O'Grady sit on the London Docks Development Corporation. Bob Mellish is vice-chair, and is paid about £16,000 a year. He was appointed personally by Michael Heseltine: ... John O Grady sits on the board and receives about £3,000 a year.
What Roh Mellich and TTHAL John O'Grady never tell the people of Bermondsey is • that they are actually paid employees of the LDDC. Labour's policies. They show that the policies are often not understood and there is little 'faith in the ability of a Labour government to achieve full employment, decent housing and a proper Health Service.
Our job has to be to point out the record of the last Labour government and the pressures it succumbed to from the International Monetary Fund.
An incoming Labour The Labour Right's policies lost us the 1979 election They go around advocating the LDDC policies as though they are disinterested parties and yet they never declate their own personal interest.
Since Mellish and O'Grady have been on the an as ite board of the LDDC, it has vested, that is effectively stolen, 264 acres of land in the SouthwarkBermondsey constituency which it is now selling off to property speculators to build three yacht marinas in Surrey Docks, two million square feet of offices on Hay's Wharf and luxury flats on Corbett's Wharf, costing up to £170,000 each. .
The LDDC was set up with the promise that it would create jobs for Bermondsey. In the three years REPRESENTATIEN government will face tremendous pressures immediate fall in share prices, speculation on the currency, obstruction from the Common Market and all out opposition to unilateralism from the Pentagon.
However, we will not reach an election victory if the party does not turn all its campaigning activities outwards to mobilise the support we can count on.
A major theme of the election has to be the way the Tories have systematically and efficiently paralysed the inner city areas. Islington has been fined £5 per head for cuts in local government alone; add to that the cuts in support for the Inner London Education Authority, the attacks on the local Health Service by cuts and closures, and the massive local unemployment rate of 24%, and the picture of Tory misery is complete.
It is on how to campaign it has been established it hasn't created a single permanent job anywhere in this constituency. What it has done recently is give notice to quit to eight industrial firms employing 500 local people, so the land can be taken over to build these office blocks and luxury flats.
In the course of canvassing 1 have sometimes come across - Labour supporters who are sceptical because while they would like houses with gardens and so on they don't think there - is the money to pay for this and other aspects of Labour's programme: What would you say to those people?
There are a number of O'GRADY practically that the party is weak. Every Labour Party should now be forming alliances with local unemployed groups to demand jobs, with Health Workers and Health Campaigns to defend our National Health Service.
The repressive and sexist legislation of the Tories must be fought by a real alliance with the ethnic minority and women's organisations, to oppose the Nationality Act and Immigration laws and to promote a real charter for women's rights.
We will win the election if we fight with all those fighting Toryism; you cannot do this if on the other hand the party leadership is trying to expel socialists and use every TV appearance to attack The politics of the Labour Right caused us defeat in 1970 and 1979; our job is to go out and fight to win.
Jeremy Corbyn different sources of for our programme.
First of all, the Labour Party is pledged to scrap the Trident nuclear system which the Tories plan to build at a cost of £11,000 million. So Labour will scrap that and put the money into new house building etc.
Wealth tax
Secondly we are pledged to introduce a wealth tax on the very rich and close the loopholes in Corporation Tax to ensure that major companies, many of which are making record profits; pay their taxes, and also through public borrowing.
So you are making it clear in your campaign that your plans for Bermondsey can only be carried out if the Tories are replaced by a Labour government.
Yes. And the next Labour government if it is going to carry out its promises, will have to be a very determined government, prepared to tackle the inequalities of wealth and power in our society and redistribute them in favour of the working class.
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O'GRAD JOHN rn outwards to build support!
SEROCIS JOHN •TU
BRIS IS THE BERMONDSEY WANTS WOR