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Poplar TUSC candidate confirmed for Poplar and Limehouse

35Anti-cuts candidate Hugo Pierre was confirmed as a general election candidate by the Council today.

Hugo was proposed by Dave Wallis, an RMT rep, and seconded by Mohshin Ahmed, a Unite member who has been part of the recent strikes for one rate of pay for bus drivers in London.

Hugo Pierre said:
‘The mainstream parties have declared war on working class areas like ours when they agreed to a £30 billion package of cuts to our public services. The Labour MP won’t even openly support strikes by workers in the borough fighting to keep their head above water for better pay or the  protection of their pensions.
‘It’s clear we need a change: we need an MP who’ll support those workers in their fight; who’ll support private tenants against rip-off landlords; who’ll support Housing Association tenants against unaffordable rent hikes; against profit hungry developers using land to build homes for the rich; to keep our tube ticket offices open; to end the scourge of poverty pay and the introduction of a £10 per hour minimum wage; to scrap the debt to property developers crippling our local hospitals; and give our young people a future with jobs.
‘I’m grateful to the RMT and other trade unionists and campaigners that have backed my campaign for parliament. I promise to bring the concerns and aspirations of working class people and their families out into the open in this election rather than those of big business. If elected I promise to only take the average wage of a skilled worker unlike the large number of MPs who see the job as a way to fill their pockets!’

Dave Wallis, RMT rep, Wapping:
‘I am supporting Hugo Pierre because of his knowledge of working class families in and outside of tower hamlets, his heart is with the working class people. His aim is to make tower hamlets a better place to live, work and access good education inside and outside of school hours. My cousin Bob Crow would be proud to know that Hugo is fighting for working class political representation.

Moe Ahmed, Poplar, Unite bus driver:
‘Hugo has my support, he will mend our housing crisis, make sure that there is no social cleansing, increase work opportunities for younger people and social activities for the young. For the elderly he will ensure that they are not facing any further hardship. He is different to all the candidates because as a trade unionist and socialist he will fight back against all cuts. I believe all the other candidates will allow cuts but Hugo won’t allow cuts to continue and will be on the front line of fighting against all cuts.

Three RMT (rail union) branches who cover the borough have voted to back both Hugo Pierre and Glyn Robbins (who is standing in Bethnal Green and Bow) to stand for TUSC in Tower Hamlets: East Ham RMT, Jubilee South RMT and the Hammersmith and City RMT branches.

Chris Rice, chair of East Ham RMT branch, said:
‘Hugo has been to every single protest we’ve organised against the closure of Whitechapel ticket office.‘

For more info: contact Hugo on 07960052048, or Naomi on 07941571365.

Useful info:
TUSC is standing 136 candidates nationally in the General Election – the sixth highest of any party in Britain, including in both Tower Hamlets constituencies.

Tower Hamlets TUSC stood candidates for the Mayor and Council in 2014, contesting 14 out of 20 wards in the borough. TUSC received 871 first preference votes for Mayor, and 1,892 votes across the 13 wards we stood in. Candidates included members of the RMT, UNITE, UNISON, UCU and TSSA unions, NHS workers, tube workers, Council workers and student campaigners.

TUSC was set-up in 2010 by the late Bob Crow and others to enable trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists to stand candidates against the pro-austerity establishment part

If elected Hugo would follow anti cuts campaigners in Seattle, in the US, Ireland, Greece and Delhi, India in overturning the main pro-cuts parties:
Seattle: Kshama Sawant won a Council seat in November 2013 with almost 100,000 votes on a programme of $15 per hour minimum wage, rent controls and taxing big business to subsidise public transport. She takes a worker’s wage of $40,000 out of her council salary and donates the rest back to local campaigns.
Ireland: Paul Murphy was elected to the Irish parliament in? 2014 for the Anti Austerity Alliance, mainly because of the leading role he was playing in building a mass campaign of non-payment against water charges introduced by the Irish government this Easter. He also takes a worker’s wage out of his salary and donates the rest back to the workers’ movement and local campaigns.
Greece: anti-cuts coalition Syriza, which was one of the smallest parties in elections a few years ago, won the general election and formed the government in January 2015.
Delhi: in February the AAP (Aam Adami Party or Common Man Party) getting an astounding 67 seats out of 70, wiping out the Congress party that ruled the state for 15 years until 2013, and reducing the BJP who are in government in India, to only 3 seats.