Dave – the editor

We’re anarchists and as such, have no real stake in the forthcoming general election, apart from the the outcome setting the context in which we’ll be operating. What does concern us is the impact this toxic shitshow of an election could have on some of the supposedly non party political campaign alliances we’ve worked with. As anarchists, it pains us to watch from the margins as party politics looks like it could get dragged into some of these alliances with the consequent damage in terms of people quitting / not coming to events + actions because they may end up as party political broadcasts.

Having said this, we’d like to give a shout out to Save Our Libraries Essex who in our view, have played a blinder so far in keeping party politics out of it while putting all of the candidates under pressure on the issue of library closures. This is what we wrote about them a few posts back: Save Our Libraries Essex (SOLE) and the general election. https://thehecklersewca.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/save-our-libraries-essex-sole-and-the-general-election/

Suffice to say, we’re not alone in thinking like this. I remember a conversation in the garden of The Railway Hotel (Clifftown Road, Southend) a couple of months ago with a trusted and experienced comrade. We both agreed that we hated elections, local and national, because of the damage they can cause to what can sometimes be the fragile broad based progressive alliance we have here in south east Essex.

We’re not singling out any particular party for this because to be honest, all of them need to take a step back and think of the long term situation before saying anything that will cause more division amongst progressive minded people in the south of Essex. Hopefully, come January next year, all of this can be put behind us and the broad, progressive front we would love to see can re-emerge.

P.S. If any of you who were in a political party and / or campaign but have quit because of the aggro this poxy election is causing, you’re more than welcome to join us in the anarchist fold:)