CAMPAIGNERS gathered over the weekend for the second part of the No Ceasefire, No Vote conference linking former Labour and now independent councillors across the country.

Around 150 delegates from across the north of England came together in Blackburn on Saturday to plan for the independent movement with the local government elections scheduled for May 2 and the looming general election.

Councillor Alan Gibbons, representing independents in Liverpool who left Labour and won their seats in subsequent elections, stressed the need to combine international issues with local issues.

He highlighted that the independent councillors’ first actions after leaving Labour was to picket Eurovision as a mark of solidarity with Palestine.

Preston independent candidate Michael Lavallette warned of the danger of a wider war in the Middle East and said that independent candidates were putting Palestine on the ballot.

Blackburn Council deputy leader Cllr Suleman Khonat said he had no regrets about leaving Labour, saying that the party had “sold us out over Gaza,” and that “our votes are going elsewhere in tune with No Ceasefire, No Vote.”

Independent Socialists on Haringey Council leader Cllr Lotte Collett expressed the conference’s solidarity with delegates attending the Palestinia Kongress in Berlin that the police had just broken up.

She spoke about independent principles and values including promoting social housing, defending the NHS, opposing Prevent and being defenders of workers’ rights.

Salma Yaqoob recalled how prescient the Stop the War Coalition had been during the Iraq war, highlighting that “in pursuit of their overseas wars, the Establishment will curtail our rights at home.”

Veteran ANC MP Andrew Feinstein spoke about the corrosive impact of corruption at the highest levels of government brought about by the arms trade.

Campaigners will reconvene after the local government elections on May 2.