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What we did where votes counted

3 July 2009

A round-up of our Make Your Vote Count campaign in the regions and nations.

Our Make Your Vote Count co-ordinators ensured that in every region and nation of the UK our campaign issues were debated, candidates were questioned and the far right opposed.

We held 34 candidates’ question time events in all the major cities, organised scores of workplace stalls and meetings, and distributed tens of thousands of leaflets. Here is a brief rundown of what happened where.

Eastern

Our campaign in our region was energetic and generally successful, with lively candidates’ question time events in Southend, Norwich, Huntingdon and Luton.

In the area of combating the BNP, a whole series of ventures in which PCS led the way or made a significant commitment helped to keep the BNP vote down.

We were involved in the Ipswich May Day festival, Great Yarmouth Hope not Hate, Luton Love Music Hate Racism events, and worked with the teachers’ union NASUWT in Grays, Essex, and Cambridge Unite Against Fascism. All these activities contributed to a good campaign.

The one significant failure, a BNP councillor elected in South Oxhey, in Hertfordshire, highlighted that there is still more to do.
Geoff Webb

London and south east

We created a network of members who dedicated much of their own time to campaigning. On election day London was awash with PCS members stressing the need for Londoners to make their votes count.

Across the region members joined with trades councils and other trade unions to quiz candidates at question time events.

On the Isle of Wight, candidates were put on the spot over the proposed closure of the tax office by PCS members who could all lose their jobs if the closure goes ahead.

We sent hundreds of letters to candidates seeking support on issues such as cuts and privatisation in the Land Registry, the closure of jobcentres in Deptford and Bletchley, the under-resourced jobcentre service in rural Kent, and cuts in the Ministry of Justice.

We have also written to newly elected London MEPs requesting support for the London living wage campaign.
Lois Austin

Midlands

We recruited 59 branch co-ordinators from 78 branches and had a named contact in every branch.

We held five candidate question time events, contacted all MEP candidates and sent a total of 1,297 letters to county council candidates, publishing all the responses on the PCS website.

We worked closely with Love Music Hate Racism to help host the national carnival in Stoke attended by more than 24,000 people. At our stall at the event hundreds of people signed our petition supporting a ban on public servants being members of far right organisations.

Mark Serwotka also visited Stoke for a day and discussed the importance of voting in the elections with PCS members, anti-racist campaigners and the local TUC.

We held hundreds of street stalls with Unite Against Fascism and Searchlight in almost every town in the region, and distributed thousands of leaflets, posters and newspapers.
Gill Whittaker

Northern

Although a lot of initial work had been put into the campaign, the week before the elections turned out to be one of the busiest, longest, but one of the most rewarding weeks we have had.

Members in the region were involved in organising the Anne Frank exhibition, putting on a Show Racism The Red Card football tournament, and holding a music event.

This was as well as continuing to contact candidates, taking part in four question time meetings, and participating in anti-fascist leafleting.

There was also a council by-election in Middlesbrough where the BNP were attempting to make inroads for the first time.

The reps and members in the region were absolutely fantastic with the work they put in and remained committed throughout.

Many spent hours of their own time, on weekends, in the evenings and even giving up their bank holiday to ensure that our message got across to as many people as possible.
Gordon Rowntree

North west

A large part of our work focused on anti-BNP campaigning. BNP leader Nick Griffin stood as a European candidate and we had BNP candidates in the Lancashire county council elections.

The campaign started with a high profile victory when we managed to get a planned march by the BNP through Liverpool city centre cancelled.

Branches were involved in workplace activities, Love Music Hate Racism put on gigs and we worked with anti-fascist groups.

In the European elections a low turnout brought in the result we dreaded: Nick Griffin was elected with 8% of the vote.

It is easy to feel disillusioned but we should take heart from the fact the BNP got fewer votes than in previous years.

We can take a lot of credit as our campaigning has helped to reveal the true face of the BNP and stopped them from picking up more votes.
Anne Thornton

Scotland

I would like to say a big thank you to all our MYVC co-ordinators and branch activists across Scotland who encouraged members to vote in the European elections, wrote to candidates, leafleted against the BNP in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Fife, and took part in our candidates’ question time events in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Although the BNP won two English seats, in Scotland it only got 27,000 votes, so we can be proud that there are no fascists holding elected office in Scotland.

We are working with Unite Against Fascism Scotland to keep up the momentum.

We will be running a concentrated campaign at the Glasgow North East by-election later this year following the resignation of Commons speaker Michael Martin, as well as building for a further Scotland-wide campaign at the forthcoming Westminster general election.
Lynn Henderson

South west

After a vigorous and energetic campaign, not a single BNP candidate was elected in the region – and they didn’t even come close.

Our first success came early, in a by-election in April where a BNP candidate was standing. In a very short space of time we ensured the ward was leafleted. The BNP only polled 73 votes, down on previous elections in the ward.

At European level the BNP increased its share of the vote, but only by 0.9% against a national increase of 1.4%.

This was, in no small part, down to our members and activists who worked in their workplaces and branches, but also with other campaigns groups.

Our campaign also focused on improving links with other unions to campaign for improved public services and against office closures, privatisation, job losses, and pensions.

Public service alliances in Gloucestershire and Cornwall have been reinvigorated, a new alliance has been started in Devon and discussions are underway in Somerset.
Martin Menear

Wales

As well as members writing to candidates, groups of reps in Newport, north Wales and south west Wales also produced joint letters, tailored to local circumstances.

We held a candidate question time event at Cardiff city hall attended by PCS members from a number of departments.

The panel answered questions on subjects ranging from the UK government's insistence on cutting jobs and shutting offices in HMRC – despite £25bn of taxes going uncollected annually – to the growing threat represented by the BNP, and were broadly sympathetic to our concerns on these issues.

We worked with Searchlight Cymru and Unite Against Fascism to help combat the far right and the union was represented at leafleting in Cardiff, Bridgend, Swansea and Wrexham, as well as at the laying of wreaths for those who gave their lives fighting fascism in World War Two and the Spanish Civil War.
Darren Williams

Yorkshire and the Humber

We held question time events in Sheffield, Leeds and York, which were extremely well received.

We also recruited more branch co-ordinators than ever before and saw more activity by members in areas that had previously not been involved.

We used the campaign to help build town committees and encourage branches to work together across all campaigns.

We worked closely with Unite against Fascism and Hope not Hate and encouraged branches to get involved in anti-fascism work.

Stations across the region were regularly leafleted and we continued our work in ‘adopting a ward’ to focus our activity.

We helped to reduce the overall vote of the BNP by 6,000 votes, with Bradford and Kirklees particularly showing that our campaigning in those areas had worked.

However there was a rise in votes for the BNP in areas of South Yorkshire which, combined with the low turnout, allowed it to get a seat in this region.
Mark Peyton

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