WITHIN A MONTH official campaigning will start in the Bermondsey by-election. For over a year the Tory press have waged a TATCHELL, candidate. As he said to Alan Freeman and Redmond O'Neil "This is going to be the most important election in this area since Labour won the seat in 1922. Over 20 candidates will be standing against us. This election is vital because the whole of the Left and the socialist policies we have stood for will be on trial.' The Tory press will be giving their support to the independent Labour SUBSCRIBE! SPECIAL OFFER subscription we are offering a free copy of Alan Freeman's new book THE BENN HERESY. The book normally costs £3.50 book NICARAGUA - THE SANDINIST REVOLUTION (Usual price £2.95).
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candidate John O'Grady. He is the nominee of former right-wing Bermondsey MP Bob Mellish.
Peter explained: 'Some people have swallowed Mellish's line, in the past, about fighting the Left out of loyalty to Labour. Now O'Grady and Mellish are going all out to sabotage Labour's chances against the Tories and SDP/Liberal Alliance. *These two are nothing more than the latest in a series of anti-Labour turncoats. They both made a very good living out of the labour movement for years. They've been sustained by the dreaded local Party acoff and eat the hands that have fed them."
Tatchell's campaign will home in on the devastation of Bermondsey over the past decade: 'Over 15,000 JODS have been lost in private inFor readers who take out a year's inland Alteratively we are offering Henri Weber's ALAN FREEMAN Send to Socialist Challenge, P.O. Box 50, London N1 2XQ dustry over the past ten years', he says. Council rents have doubled since the election of the Tories, and one in four council houses were built before 1919. Yet Mellish and O Grady are up to their eyes in the London Dock Development whose chief building luxury flats and three yacht marinas for the Surrey rich.
The decision to select Tatchell as Bermondsey Labour candidate was based on a fight against this 'jobs for the boys' approach of the corrupt clique that had lived off the local labour movement for years.
As Tatchell put it: socialist and a rebel. If you're working class in this area it's the only way you'll get anything done. The working class has only ever won major reforms by organising and demanding their rights The Bermondsey by-election will be a decisive test for the Labour ParThe witch hunt organised by one organised right-wing as • well as their declara. tions that they want nothing to do with socialist policies like unilateral nuclear disarmament are giving the Tory press a field day in their campaign to prevent a Labour victory.
Nowhere is this more the than Bermondsey: against myself and our party over the months certainly helped. Rather it has undermined us and given credibility enemies' claims that we're a bunch of wild-eyed extremists. As a result blocks severe disadvantage.
The maximum vote for Tatchell will be a blow against both the Tories and the witch-hunters in the Labour Party. It must be campaigned for in that light. Against latchell mous forces are being mobilised. It is up to activists in the unions. Labour Party and CND to do their utmost to tip the scales in Tatchell's favour because that is the most effective way that we can demonstrate the kind of socialist campaign Labour victory necessary in 1983. Corporation to be 'Yes I'm didates can tory in the general election.
case "The witch-hunt hasn't can be defeated.
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Photo: CITY LIMITS WE particularly need a massive Labour victory in Bermondsey to show that canwin fighting for. strong socialist policies. We want this campaign to demolish the myth that the turncoats and defectors like Mellish and the SDP have any hope of preventing a Labour vicWe expect that in the course of the campaign Fleet Street will work overtime to undermine our support. So we are asking for an all out effort by labour movement activists to help with our campaign and prove that the Fleet Street lie machine There are 22 candidates, and over two hundred canvassers have been bussed in by the Liberal Party. We have to reverse the damage of the last fourteen months; we urge everybody to turn up for our mass canvass on Sunday 30 January, and subsequently each Tuesday evening and Sunday mornMake sure your branch of the Labour Party and of your trade union pledges help; and above all don't wait for the election - start now! For further information contact Dave Fryer on