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OPINION: Why I am standing for the Communist Party for Abbey Ward in Cambridge.
‘The policies of the ultra-wealthy are being imposed upon us from the top down’
I am a local engineer who has worked in Abbey for over 10 years and will be contesting the ward on May 2, the first Communist candidate in Cambridge for 35 years.
The last Communist Party candidate to stand in Cambridge was Glenn Richer who stood in the Kings Hedges ward in 1986.
The policies of the ultra-wealthy are being imposed upon us from the top down. These policies seek to enrich the developers whilst riding roughshod over local democracy.
Simon Brignell will be contesting Cambridge’s Abbey ward for the Communist Party which is campaigning with the slogan ‘Shake up the City Council, put a communist in the Guildhall! For Peace & Socialism!’
They are all too often against the interests of residents and workers alike, as evidenced by the proposed congestion charge, or the plans to gentrify parts of Cambridge, such as Ekin Road and East Barnwell.
They do nothing to improve the lives of working-class people.
We’ve seen Cambridge City Council hand £300,000 to JLL, a real-estate firm, just for them to tell the council to demolish all of Ekin Road!
I sat in on a recent housing scrutiny committee meeting with my trade union, Unite, and watched in awe as the council all but refused to listen to the concerns of the Ekin Road residents who were present.
As a communist in Guildhall, I would fight to build a united front of progressive and democratic forces to halt in its tracks the march of gentrification that has been initiated as well as advancing the positive demands of working people”
The Communist Party’s “Eastern Rising” programme for East Anglia argues for publicly run and accountable councils with an end to speculation, outsourcing and privatisation, as well as abolishing Council Tax and replacing it with a local income, wealth, and property tax based on ability to pay.
