IN THIS May’s local elections, communists in the East of England have been out campaigning for policies that put people before profit and which offer hope to those working for local councils and citizens who count on them to keep their communities afloat, amidst economic turmoil. 

Our party has three candidates standing, in St Albans, where probation officer Mark Ewington is contesting Sopwell ward for the third time; health worker Ben Clarke is standing in Nelson Ward in Norwich and commercial engineer Simon Brignell is contesting Abbey Ward — the poorest in Cambridge — as the first party candidate there since 1986.

Candidate Ben Clarke is already into a reprint of his election brochure, and he explains: “We don’t believe change can be won overnight but through determined and focused class struggle. Change is possible and must be worked for and won — the future is not lost, and the present is the realm of action.” 

Clarke is standing in a ward which his CP branch secretary Sean Meleady describes: “Nelson Ward is deeply divided with million-pound houses just streets away from neglected social housing and cramped private-sector dwellings run by greedy slum landlords. While some see Nelson Ward as a way of making their fortune others are trying to find the nearest foodbank.” 

Candidates began their campaign by writing to the press to “condemn government measures to impose voter ID, which suppress the number of working-class people who vote in local elections.”

Communists have called for the scrapping of recent measures to impose voter ID, which Ewington claims “has led to a drop in attendance at the ballot box and a diminishing of working-class participation in exercising its democratic rights, especially among young people.” 

The Communist Party in the East of England produced “Eastern Rising,” an election manifesto which states that “class is a daily reality for us all.” It demonstrates how health, education, climate change, housing and population migration are all based in class and that communities need “publicly run and accountable councils with an end to speculation, outsourcing and privatisation.”  

Ewington is passionate about abolishing the council tax. He has also called “for the reorganisation of local government to create a regional assembly that has the teeth to mobilise the people and intervene in the economy. We want to shift wealth away from the big rural and urban landowners and monopoly capitalists, in favour of working people and their communities.”

Nowhere is the absence of planning and long-term investment more apparent than on the issue of transport. Says Cambridge candidate Simon Brignell: “Local transport is dysfunctional and must be taken back into public control. The big businesses who have caused the most damage to the environment must be the ones to pay.” Brignell played a role in mobilising against the imposition of a congestion charge in Cambridge, which he dubbed “an extra tax on workers.” 

Says Brignell: “We need a true multi-modal system complete with light rail both in the city and connecting rural areas and villages, as well as safe routes for walking and cycling. Any proposals must include transport that is accessible to all, especially those with disabilities.”

Norwich candidate Ben Clarke is campaigning for local council intervention in support of jobs and against company closures and redundancy. He has called for a “dedicated programme of regeneration for derelict and permanently unoccupied residential and commercial properties, as well as creating new green spaces.” 

Housing and transport are major issues in the Nelson ward. He has called for the council to “grasp the nettles of punitive parking costs and the building of affordable housing for lower-paid sectors of workers and students, for licensing of landlords and HMOs [houses in multiple occupation], with emergency accommodation provided to those in need.” Clarke has been especially vocal in calling for council support to those needing household and council tax support. 

Ewington is well-known in his area, having been an active trade unionist and community campaigner for many years. He says: “The local elections on May 2 represent a real Hobson’s choice for most people and the candidates will all represent more of the same. It is crucial that communists stand in local elections to provide ordinary working-class people with a genuine alternative and to communicate our ideas of building stronger communities.”

The candidates put out a press statement on the dire situation in housing calling for “Homes for the people, not the profiteers.”  The CP claims that Britain’s housing market is broken and calls “for an integrated strategy which meets the needs of the people, gives power to local communities, delivering good-quality, genuinely affordable homes that contribute to solving the climate emergency.”

Our candidates have distributed thousands of flyers calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and the Middle East, and for asserting the just national rights of the Palestinian people. The East of England is very much overshadowed by the siting of nuclear missiles at Lakenheath and Nato is a major employer in the region. 

Reaction abroad breeds reaction at home and the communists have refused to be silenced on the need for peace. The East of England district is supporting peace movements in west Suffolk where the trades council only last week held a large public meeting, and in Cambridgeshire where CND is mobilising and the party has affiliated to the Lakenheath Peace Alliance.

Says Brignell: “We’ve been out leafleting and talking to residents whenever possible, including a meet and greet session. The response from those we’ve spoken to has so far been positive. We’ve even heard from candidates in other wards who have spoken positively about what the Communist Party stands for.

“There is a real opportunity to shake up city councils. Unlike some other parties, we understand communities and issues from the bottom up, not the top down.”

On May 2 in St Albans, Cambridge and Norwich we urge readers with Communist Party candidates in their wards to vote for the Communist Party.

Phil Katz is district secretary of the Communist Party in the East of England.

The party has produced a Charter for Housing which you can view at tinyurl.com/CPHousingCharter.