North West Labour Party

For Labour members and supporters in , , Lawrence Weston, , , , Henleaze, Westbury-on- Trym, , Sea Mills, Westbury Park, Horfield, Manor Farm, and parts of Eastville May/June 2018

We can’t wait four years for change

Labour is building on the support we won last year. There were no local council elections in Bristol, but in our region we took control of Plymouth, increased, kept control of Exeter and won seats in Swindon. For everybody else, especially in places like & and Kingswood, where Tory MPs managed to cling on in the General Election last June, there is frustration at not having a chance to get rid of the Tory-DUP Government. They will hang on for as long as they can but the government is weak and getting weaker. If the Tories think they have a chance to win a snap election they will take it, so Labour needs to be ready. Bristol North West Labour Party needs your help and support to get ready for an election. Here’s how you can help:

Keep your membership up to date, join our campaigns to put pressure on the Tories to go, organize a fundraiser, run a street stall, become an activist – it’s our annual general meeting on June 22nd and you can get involved. If you’ve got other ideas we want to know them. We are also planning for the changes we need a Labour Government to make, and some of them are inside this newsletter – free bus travel for under 25s, housing for the many, arms industry conversion. Next meeting of Bristol Westbury by-election North West Labour There will be a Bristol City Council by-election in Westbury Party & Henleaze on Thursday 24th May following the resignation of the sitting Liberal Democrat. Labour’s Annual General candidate is Teresa Stratford, who was narrowly defeated Meeting in Horfield in 2014. Labour has never won Westbury & nd Henleaze, but came a clear second in the 2017 General Friday 22 June 7 pm Election and will mount a strong campaign to take the Upper Horfield seat. Westbury & Henleaze members will already know Community Trust, Eden about the campaign, but members and supporters from Grove, Horfield other branches will be welcome to help with leafletting, canvassing and street stalls. For details of the campaign contact [email protected]

Join the big rally for NHS @ 70

The National Health Service will be 70 on July 5th this year. Labour supporters from Bristol NW will join thousands of others at a rally and celebration in London on June 30th. There will be coaches from Bristol, so look out for details at https://keepournhspublic.com

The Tories voted against the creation of the NHS in 1948, and despite their claims to support it now they have taken every opportunity to undermine it and now to privatise health care. But because the NHS has so much public support they are meeting resistance at every turn.

Campaigns all around the country are mounting political and legal challenges to the destruction of the NHS. The latest legal challenge is a judicial review of NHS ’s “The NHS will last as long as Accountable Care Organisation (ACO) contract brought by there are folk left with faith http://999callfornhs.org.uk/999-judicial-review- to fight for it” Nye Bevan report/4594290156 in Leeds High Court. The contract is designed to “manage demand” - which means restricting and denying health care to patients. This would undermine the core principle that the NHS provides comprehensive healthcare to everyone who has a clinical need for it. While legal challenges are important, we cannot win this fight to defend the NHS in the courts alone. If you only go to one demonstration in 2018, make it this one.

Coach transport from Bristol

Free bus travel for under 25s

The Labour Party has launched a new policy to support young people across the country. The proposal is to fund free bus travel for under 25s which will support up to 13 million people and save us as much as £1,000 a year. In a country where train travel, car insurance, university education and wages are attacking the future prosperity of young people this policy is a creative and passionate declaration that the Labour Party will stand up for us, while the Conservatives consistently parry our concerns away.

There are notoriously bad congestion and pollution levels around central Bristol where many people like myself have worked. This is especially the case for young people as a large amount of retail and zero-hour contract employment is based within our city centre. With already low stagnating wages in these areas of work the prospect of saving up to £1000 a year is a welcome sign. Furthermore, this policy will interconnect Bristol more effectively than ever and create greater opportunities for all young people regardless of their background, while additionally freeing up income for parents whose children use public transport to get to school.

There is no doubt that this isn’t just a policy for young people but a step in the right direction for reducing pollution, traffic levels and supporting parents and their children. Rather the policy, like the Labour Party, is there to benefit everyone.

Alfie Thomas (Bristol NW Youth delegate to 2018 Labour Conference)

Open University under threat

It could be about to get even harder to go to university. For decades, part-time study - at places like the Open University - has been the way that people who’ve missed out on a traditional university education can get a degree. But now it’s at risk of collapse. The government has slashed help for part-time students. Fewer people can now afford to study while holding down a job. So the Open University is planning to cut a third of its courses. Already the government is feeling the pressure of their decision. They’ve come under criticism from MPs and the media, all calling on them to step in and help. But the voices of the public - that’s us - are missing. And the government will only act if they know that thousands of us won’t stand for this. https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/3778

Question marks over who new Lockleaze School is for

In March, plans were announced for a new secondary school in North Bristol. While there is a clear need for a new school, especially since Lockleaze School was run down and closed in 2006, this school will be one of the Tories’ favoured ‘free schools’. It will be named Trinity Academy with Cathedral Schools Trust as the sponsor.

The Bristol Cathedral School in the city centre has an admissions policy which means that places are open to any child from Bristol, BANES, and S. Gloucestershire as well as those with musical aptitude. It is complicated and not in the best interests of local communities. Local children who do not attend Stoke Park Primary School may well be excluded. Horfield and Lockleaze branches raised the matter at the April meeting of Bristol NW Labour. Both branches welcome the creation of a new school, but want to ensure that it will serve the needs of local children without affecting Orchard, Fairfield or other already established and excellent schools.

Labour Party policy is not to waste money on inefficient and unaccountable free schools. Labour policy requires joined up admissions policies across all local schools to enable councils to fulfil their responsibilities on child places, to simplify the admissions process for parents and to ensure that no child slips through the net.

After hearing negative reports from councillors about the in Southmead, Bristol NW Labour Party agreed unanimously with the call from Horfield and Lockleaze branches to ask Bristol City Council to :-

1. ensure that the new school has a clear and binding admissions policy which prioritises children from the local area; 2. ensure that full and meaningful consultation about all aspects of this proposal is carried out with all members of the local community; and also involving all stakeholders including trade unions ; 3. require that a proper equalities impact assessment is carried out as well as assessment of the impact of increased traffic in Lockleaze and full surveys into to all Health and Safety implications; 4. require that all conditions and policies in the new school comply with all conditions that would be expected in a local authority school.

The Cathedral School Trust has to consult local parents and community before the Government releases the £26 million they have promised for the new school, and the Labour Party will be responding before the deadline of June 14th. In order to make sure our voice is heard you can also respond as an individual, drawing on the points made above if you want, and send your comments to the Cathedral School Trust at [email protected]

Labour launches Housing for the Many plans

Last month Jeremy Corbyn and shadow housing secretary John Healey launched Labour’s green paper on social housing. ‘Housing for the Many’, the party’s review of affordable housing, sets out plans to build one million new homes – the majority for social rent – over 10 years.

“Luxury flats proliferate across our big cities, while social housing is starved of investment,” the Labour leader said. “Too many people are living in dangerous accommodation at the mercy of rogue landlords.” Click to see Labour broadcast on housing

In Bristol at least 1 in 4 people can’t afford housing costs, yet the amount of ‘affordable’ housing built has gone down. Wage cuts, the bedroom tax and other restrictions on housing benefit plus other benefit changes eg universal credit have all created thousands of personal financial disasters.

On top of that, the way the Tories define ‘affordable housing’ bears no relation to what people can actually afford. The cheapest affordable housing is provided by local councils, yet councils are still being forced to sell their stock without getting the money they need to replace it. The Tories’ idea of “affordable rent” is up to 80 per cent of local market rent. We all know that is laughable. Labour will change the definition of affordable housing so that it takes people’s incomes into account

The attitude of many budget-squeezed local Labour’s new housing leaflet. Contact authorities: beggars can’t be choosers. Labour CLP officers if you want copies. councils can try to avoid cruel situations, with less punitive allocations schemes and more understanding housing officers, but ultimately the blame lies with government-led austerity. That’s why the policies outlined in Housing for the Many are desperately needed.

Is there such a thing as a lovely private buy-to-rent landlord ?

When Lockleaze branch wrote to its members earlier this year to say it was launching a campaign to identify bad landlords, one of our members wrote back saying

My household of sharers is currently getting evicted, and trying to find somewhere new now. Our current landlord is EXTREMELY dodgy. The company we signed the tenancy with 3 years ago went bust over a year ago, and we've never been told, and are still paying rent into the same account! There are a million small and not-so-small problems we've had- our deposit never being put in a scheme; the house wasn't even hoovered, let alone decorated or repaired when we moved in; we've had a smell of raw sewage in the living room & downstairs bedroom whenever the toilet is flushed for over a year; our only contact got his electrician friend to install a new gas cooker (which I don't think he was happy about doing, but was being pressured), which subsequently exploded!; he's never once replied to anything in writing, even over e-mail; I'm almost certain they don't have a Large HMO License... i could go on for hours, but to be honest, finding a new place is more difficult and un-certain than even this dodgy landlord.

Here another Lockleaze member who is also a private tenant explains why action is needed now to stamp out bad landlords:

We recently launched our campaign to improve security and standards for private tenants in Lockleaze. Teams of members, including both of our local Councillors and MP, have been out and about canvassing in the area to identify the size of the problem. We have had some good responses and conversations, with support for Labour at least as high as it was last year.

In England and Wales private landlords hold all the cards. When interviewed on the doorstep, one or two private tenants say things like ‘Oh, my landlord is lovely’ and so these may be the lucky ones. But other feedback from private tenants living in HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) in Horfield, Lockleaze and Eastville, included issues like::

· Overly intrusive behaviour/turning up without warning · Bullying, abusive or rude behaviour · Not listening to complaints · Unfair rent increases · Rip-off rental rates · Poorly maintained property · Frivolous evictions · Retaliatory evictions

Over the months and years this situation is becoming a nightmare where people are losing sleep and becoming ill with worry. And any local councillor or MP could tell you similar stories. In Bristol, and your local area, asset wealthy, but frequently amateur, buy-to-let landlords are the privileged few that are contributing to the private rental hardships endured by the many thousands of individuals and families who have no other options.

So please do help us and take action by signing the ACORN petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/landlord-licensing-now Sign the Bristol City Council survey (closes 13 May 2018): https://bristol.citizenspace.com/communities/additional-licensing-scheme-for-hmo/

Join the discussion to shape Labour’s next manifesto

Labour's National Policy Forum has opened a period of consultation to seek members' views, and produced eight short consultation documents on key policy areas. These policy areas are

Early Years, Education and Skills Economy, Business and Trade Energy, Environment and Culture Health and Social Care Housing, Local Government and Transport International Justice and Home Affairs Work. Pensions and Equalities

The best and easiest way to send in your ideas and join the discussion is to check the background papers for the new ideas at https://labour.org.uk/issues/2018-policy-consultation/ where you can make online submissions. See below for an example of a proposed submission from a group of members who are promoting new approaches to Labour’s industrial strategy.

If you want to talk to other members about any ideas contact your branch secretary or CLP Secretary James Wilson (see list of contacts for details). The consultation period runs until Sunday 24 June 2018.

An industrial strategy for peace

We are calling for an industrial strategy more in line with a Labour foreign policy ‘guided by values of peace, universal rights and international law’. This would involve change from the current government policy which supports power projection and global influence backed by military supremacy. Unlike the Conservative government which has laid responsibility on the Ministry of Defence and defence industry to promote national prosperity, a Labour government could take a broader view of security and increase investment in industries which address wider environmental and social challenges. For example, greater support for the renewable energy industry would help mitigate climate change and reduce global instability caused by climate-related conflict and displacement. The UK is particularly well-placed to take a lead in offshore wind and marine renewables technology, and investing in industries which help the transition to a zero-carbon future would create more skilled and secure jobs than are currently on offer in the defence sector.

We therefore support the establishment of a shadow Defence Diversification Agency to facilitate the transfer of skills and protect pay levels as advised in Motion 17 Defence, Jobs and Diversification passed by the Trades Union Councils Conference 2017. This would form part of a national industrial strategy to enhance manufacturing capacity in the UK and ensure the regionally equitable distribution of skilled jobs, including those of arms-dependent communities.

Bristol Labour Arms Conversion Group

Profile: Karen Passmore Bristol NW Disability Officer

Karen Passmore will be Bristol NW lead delegate to Labour Conference 2018. Here Karen gives us an idea of her politics and the life of a Labour activist.

I was elected as Disability Officer for our constituency at our last AGM, so I wish to thank all of you who placed your trust in me to do this role by giving me your vote.

Being a wheelchair user, I am restricted in what I can do, door to door knocking on canvassing sessions is not an option, so I have had the develop the role by doing what I can, I believe I have been very proactive in this.

One of my first tasks was to ensure we never had another CLP like last years AGM, so I requested that in future we used a PA system so that everyone could hear and be heard from the floor. When I found myself unable to attend an EC meeting at Greenway, the decision was made to relocate all CLP and EC meetings to Eden Grove, which is fully accessible and has a loop system to enable those with hearing difficulties to use with hearing aids.

We then had the Austerity March in September, to increase the disabled voice, I contacted the founders of DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts https://dpac.uk.net/ ) to request their permission to start a Bristol branch and with consent we now have DPAC Bristol & Southwest to spread our voice both within Bristol and beyond. I was very privileged to be invited to speak as this rally, the only activist group who were invited, and I believe my speech was well Karen, third from right with other Labour received. Although DPAC is officially non political, members campaigning in Bristol NW DPAC Bristol & SW is very firmly under the Labour Party umbrella.

I attended the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, where James Wilson (our beloved Secretary) acted as my wheelchair attendant to let me join in the march. After the march I discovered that there was no provision for disabled people, myself and many others were stuck at the back during the speeches and unable to see when everyone stood up to see Jeremy on stage. With help from TUC Southwest and others I tweeted about the problems and received a response back from the organisers that our needs will be taken into account in future so hope there will be an area front of stage for wheelchair users to occupy.

I was invited by People's Assembly and Momentum to talk at a rally in Haverfordwest for the #Unseat Crabb campaign which I was delighted to attend, and had the opportunity of meeting Owen Jones, Nia Griffiths MP and was interviewed by Mark McGowan (Artist Taxi Driver) on video.

I was then elected as Co Chair of Bristol Disability Equality Forum (set up in 1994 by Bristol City Council) where I have been a Trustee and North Bristol Advisor for some years, and almost immediately it faced a funding crisis when the Council decided to change the way they funded Voice and Influence groups like ours. I challenged Marvin Rees over this crisis at the January CLP meeting, and receiving no response as promised, I have continued to press the Council, Marvin in particular, to resolve this issue. I am now meeting Marvin and Cllr Asher Craig to discuss the issue

and try to find a solution. I have also submitted a motion about this at our last EC which was passed unanimously and will go forward to our next CLP.

I attended the Regional Conference in Plymouth as a Bristol NW Delegate, where I did my best to highlight disability issues, and made some useful contacts, I was also able to discuss with our Regional Secretary about how disabled people are excluded from being active party members.

More recently I was elected Co Disability Officer with Unite Community (Bristol) together with Zoe Goodman and Catherine Powell where we work well together.

We did have a DPAC demonstration planned in March over Universal Credit, where we demand that it is stopped and scrapped, not paused. Sadly this had to be cancelled due to the snow and icy conditions.

In March I was elected as Disability Officer onto the Bristol Labour Campaign Forum in which I hope to play an active part in future, if I am re elected at their AGM in June.

I was also invited to be a panel member by British Association of Social Workers to an event - Impact of Austerity on Social Work which I attended and my speech was well received. and I believe I will be invited to other events within our region, with social workers joining our campaign against austerity.

I am a member of DEAL (Disability Equality Act Labour) where I have helped in a small way to compiling the new Legal Handbook, which has been well received by the Labour leadelship and the NEC and has been adopted by many CLP's around the country including Bristol NW.

I am awaiting confirmation of an appointment to meet Marsha De Cordova MP (Shadow Minister DWP Disabled People) with other Disability Officers from across the UK.

I am aware that I am now "wearing many hats" as Disability Officer, but I believe to maximise our voice and influence it is a good thing to bring all the different voices together to try to speak as a more powerful voice to be heard.

I intend to stand again as Disability officer for Bristol North West CLP at our AGM and ask again for your support to enable me to continue representing disabled members within our own constituency and all those elsewhere. If any disabled members wish to contact me my details are below.

Karen Passmore 0117 9508090 07712 110934 @karenpassmore @DPAC_Bristol

Disabled People Against Cuts https://dpac.uk.net/ Bristol Disability Equality Forum http://bristoldef.org.uk/

BAME Labour submission to the Labour Party democracy review

BAME Labour is affiliated to the Labour Party and is a standalone and self organised structure within the Labour Party. In November 2017 BAME Labour launched a BAME plus national consultation which generated huge responses for a more inclusive and progressive Labour Party. The 23 submissions to the review include:

1. 4 seats on the NEC with gender parity 2. Annual Labour Party conference to have 4 BAME national delegates, 4 BAME regional delegates and 2 BAME delegates per CLP based on gender parity 3. BAME officers to be elected on CLPs and their executive and campaign committees with voting rights 4. The Labour Party to ensure that BAME members are represented on branch and CLP positions 5. Labour party to ensure a minimum number of positions in the all women shortlists are allocated to BAME women 6. Labour Party to allocate some financial resources towards funding BAME meetings, conferences 7. Labour to close the democratic gap in representation by ensuring BAME representation based on composition of local electorate or national census i.e selection of candidates for local elections should be inclusive and representative.

For more information or access to the full document please visit the national site of BAME Labour http://www.bamelabour.org.uk/

At Bristol NW CLP we have made some progress towards this by having the position of BAME officer firmly established with voting rights on the Executive Committee, we are also working towards a fair representation in the upcoming elections next year and we have a leadership structure within the CLP will surely work towards achieving proportional representation. However we must continually seek to engage all sections of the community be it LGBT, women etc to ensure the momentum we have continues and that we achieve the aim of an inclusive party where all voices are heard.

Dammy Layade Bristol NW CLP BAME officer

Black Liberation Discussion Panel: The Fight For Equality Tuesday 15th May 7-8.30pm Tony Benn House (suggested donation £2)

Speakers: Lady Phyll (Director of UK Black Pride), Asher Craig (Deputy Mayor), Dr Madhu Krishnan (Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Writing at University of Bristol), Kingsley Abrams (General Secretary of Momentum Black Caucus)

Jo Sergeant, Labour councillor Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston

Jo was first elected to Bristol City Council in 2016. Here she explains some of her responsibilities I deal with casework on a variety of issues, holding regular surgeries and attending community meetings. Our ward contains four distinct communities, which all hold meetings fairly regularly, as well as the Avonmouth Industrial Area, with which we also need to interact. Maintaining a good relationship with community representatives is extremely important, as they are a valuable resource and can be very supportive once mutual trust has been established, even when political views differ. Jo (bottom left) with others out campaigning City-wide I attend six full Council meetings a year, and also go to scrutiny and regulatory committees, without which the city cannot be run in an open and transparent way. I sit on Development Control A (Planning), Human Resources (looking out for all BCC staff not just the high paid senior staff), I am also a member of the Local Plan Working Group, as well as of three scrutiny ‘Task & Finish’ Groups: Air Quality, Council Assets and Libraries.

Budget and austerity I voted to accept the Labour Budget in February and I accept that spending has had to be reduced but I think we could be doing more with what we have. We need a much more creative approach to running our services. Take the Library Service, for example. The proposal on which people were consulted last year (with a decision still on hold) was to run things pretty much as they are but with far fewer libraries, resulting in no service for many parts of the city. I’m working on a plan to do things differently and happy to work with any members who are interested. As a backbench councillor, it is my responsibility to keep reminding Cabinet and Council officers that there are better ways of doing things. You can contact Jo at [email protected]

Bristol NW says council cuts must not pay for Arena

With Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees poised to make a decision on the proposed Arena, Henbury and Brentry branch raised the matter at the March meeting of Bristol North West Labour Party. The meeting supported Henbury and Brentry’s call for Temple Meads, not Filton, to be the preferred site for the Arena. There was some concern about the cost of the project, especially as the City Council is making cuts to vital services such as family support in children’s centres. Following a good discussion, the meeting agreed to call on the Mayor and Council to scrap the project altogether if it has a negative impact on council services.

When the ‘New Wave’ came to Bristol: Some People, Youth, Class and Culture 1962. Estella Tincknell, Councillor for Lockleaze ward and Lecturer in Film Studies, UWE

In March I was invited to take part in a panel at The Watershed to discuss the screening of a relatively little known British film, Some People (Clive Donner, 1962). I was delighted that the event was sold out for a number of reasons.

First, Some People has been unjustly forgotten and it’s good to see it being rediscovered. Hollywood’s dominance of the industry has always meant that British films are overshadowed or undervalued. Some People was extremely successful on release but then dropped out of sight, and was completely unavailable on DVD until its re-release in 2013. Fortunately it has survived. Second, the film was made at the height of the British ‘New Wave’ and has a social significance beyond its entertainment value.

Triggered by the success of Tony Richardson’s Look Back in Anger in 1959, which brought us the figure of the “angry young man” railing against the British establishment, this cycle of cheaply made, black and white films appeared between the late 1950s and mid- 1960s. Their arrival overturned British cinema and challenged British society and politics. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960), A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson, 1961), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962), and A Kind of Loving (John Schlesinger, 1962), all featured ‘ordinary’ young working-class men and women and a starkly realist depiction of Britain’s northern industrial towns. Like their contemporary, Coronation Street, which first appeared on British television in 1960, the New Wave films placed working-class experience at the centre of popular drama for the first time. This reflected the significant transformations already taking place in Britain in the early 1960s, as struggles for greater social equality took centre stage and attitudes towards class, sex, youth, and established power structures were radicalised. The films are a response to those changes – and a challenge to them. They present a frankness about sex (including abortion, which was still illegal), and about the drudgery of manual labour that remains startlingly powerful. They also feature iconic performances by actors such as Albert Finney and Rita Tushingham as working- class rebels who refuse to conform to society’s expectations. Some People is especially interesting because it was the only New Wave film to be made in Bristol and the city’s fabric is a central element in the film, not simply a Click to see clips from Some People backdrop. Locations such as the docks,

Christmas Steps, the Suspension Bridge, the Wills tobacco factory, the Downs, , and even the old Bristol Bus Station are integral to the plot. Perhaps equally important for Bristol North West members is the fact that the film was partly set in Lockleaze. Houses on Constable Road, Landseer Avenue, and the modernist church that sat on the corner of Gainsborough Square, are all visible. The well planned Lockleaze estate, built in 1947 under the Attlee Labour Government with the purpose of offering decent council homes to ordinary people, is part of an urban landscape very different to that of the industrial towns of many other New Wave films with their back alleys, factory gates and smokestacks. Indeed, Some People even makes a point of featuring the ‘white heat’ of the aerospace industry, building a sequence around a test-flight of the Concorde prototype as if to emphasise Bristol’s modernity.

The main focus of the story is, however, on a group of leather-jacketed teenage ‘tearaways’, Johnnie (Ray Brooks), Bert (David Hemmings), and Bill (David Andrews) who, after having their motorbikes confiscated when caught doing a ‘ton-up’ along the Portway, take to hanging around in Park Street coffee bars looking for trouble. Rescued by an avuncular, cardigan-clad Kenneth More playing a friendly churchwarden, they are persuaded to start a band in the local youth club. Cue several Shadows-style twangy guitar numbers, and the title song, the infuriatingly catchy “Some People”, which was actually recorded by the Bristol group, Valerie Mountain and the Eagles. This use of contemporary pop music (here, unusually, foregrounded through performance) and the film’s opening montage of neon advertisements reflect the period’s emergent youth-oriented consumer culture, a culture that the anti-establishment New Wave depicted as exciting and troubling in equal measure. In Some People the dangers of consumerism are shown in the ‘easy money’ offered by hire purchase schemes to buy expensive (and dangerous) motorbikes, while the pop songs are treated as a novelty rather than serious music.

In contrast to many of the ‘northern’ set films, in Some People the power differentials between the physically demanding and poorly paid jobs undertaken by the younger working-class characters (the docks and the tobacco factory) and the technical, ‘brainy boffin’ jobs at Filton Airfield which the middle-class male characters enjoy are barely problematized. Instead, More is a thoroughly benign male authority figure who helps to turn the boys’ lives around through the purposeful and individualised labour of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. Leisure becomes an opportunity for creativity not rebellion, and the angry resistance of the boys in the early scenes is eventually replaced by Johnnie’s and Bert’s conformism as they ‘settle down’ to a steady job and useful hobbies. Bill, the most aggressively resistant character and the most overtly working-class, is excluded from this aspirational future, locked out by his refusal to comply with bourgeois and consumerist values.

While Some People resembles other New Wave films in its focus on young working-class characters, then, its Bristol setting, aspirational values and use of musical performance may have contributed to its disappearance – it didn’t fit the template. It remains, however, an historically important document of its times, and especially of Bristol at a moment of social and cultural transformation.

How Bristol North West Labour Party works and how you can get involved

If you are a Labour member in Bristol North West, you can meet other members and supporters to discuss local, national and international issues and plan local campaigns, and to secure the election of Labour candidates.

Your local branch meetings

Avonmouth contact Andrew Coats [email protected]

Henbury & Brentry contact Dave Mullaney [email protected]

Southmead contact Kate McEwen for details [email protected]

Stoke Bishop contact Esther Giles [email protected]

Henleaze & Westbury-on-Trym contact Steve Cocks [email protected]

Horfield contact Tom Renhard for details [email protected]

Lockleaze contact Hedley Bashforth [email protected]

Your Constituency Labour Party (CLP)

Bristol North West CLP meets on the 4th Friday of each month at 7.30 in the Upper Horfield Community Trust Building, Eden Grove. At recent meetings we have discussed the NHS, the public sector pay cap and the regular report we get from Darren Jones MP. There are other meetings on specific issues or for particular groups. Bristol North West has elected some of its members to organise our campaigns and political meetings.

Chair Nina Franklin (Lockleaze) [email protected] Secretary James Wilson (Horfield) [email protected] Treasurer Barry Trahar [email protected] Vice Chair Cllr. Brenda Massey (Horfield) [email protected] Membership Hedley Bashforth (Lockleaze) [email protected] Women’s Teresa Hogan [email protected] Campaigns Dave Mullaney (Henbury & Brentry) [email protected] Trade Unions Andrew Hudd (Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston) [email protected] BME Dammy Layale (Lockleaze) [email protected] Disability Karen Passmore (Southmead) [email protected] LGBT John McLellan [email protected] Youth Evie McDonald [email protected] Political education Callum Yeo (Lockleaze) [email protected]

Bristol NW Labour Party notices

Annual General Meeting of Bristol North West Constituency Labour Party

All members are invited to attend the AGM which takes place on Friday 22nd June 7 pm at the Upper Horfield Community Trust, Eden Grove. You will receive a formal notice of the meeting from James Wilson. This is your chance to become more involved in your local Labour Party. All the positions in the CLP are elected, and any member can stand for any of them. See the previous page for a list of those who currently hold positions.

Westbury & Henleaze City Council by-election ay 24th

For details of later sessions see https://m.facebook.com/groups/1861691790763386 or contact Evie [email protected] or [email protected] or call 07393 706582

Do you want to become a Labour councilor ?

Apart from the Westbury & Henleaze by-election there are no Bristol City Council elections this year, but the Labour Party is already preparing for the next full election in 2020. The process of choosing Labour’s candidates for Mayor and 70 councillors (2 per ward) will begin later this year, and if you are interested now is the time to register your interest. If you want to know more about the job just contact any of your local branch officers or Bristol NW Secretary James Wilson at [email protected]

Information and support for women who want to become a Labour councillor

There will be a couple of information sessions for women, on Saturday 19 May, regarding becoming Labour councilors

10am-12.30pm at the Malcolm X Centre https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/so-you-want-to-become-a-labour-party-councillor-womens- session-1-tickets-45639929257

2-4.30pm at Barton Hill Settlement https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thinking-of-becoming-a-labour-party-councillor-womens-session- 2-tickets-45640416715

Bristol NW CLP delegates to Labour Party conference 2018

Bristol NW chose its 6 delegates to the annual Labour Party Conference taking place in Liverpool in September. The delegates are Karen Passmore (lead delegate, Southmead), Sam Turner (Lockleaze), Kate Shadbolt (women’s delegate), Alfie Thomas (youth delegate, Lockleaze), Dave Mullaney (Henbury), James Wilson (Horfield).

Fundraising

Over £200 was raised at a quiz night in the Eastfield Inn last month. The money will help to pay for our delegates to go to Conference. With the Westbury & Henleaze by-election campaign., and a snap General Election possible at any time we need more fundraisers. If you can help by organising any kind of event please contact Helen at [email protected] or you can make a campaign donation at https://donate.labour.org.uk/bristol_north_west/1.

Latest news from our Labour MP Darren Jones

Upcoming events with Darren

Facebook Live - Direct from Westminster Every Wednesday at 19:30

Pub Politics - Henbury Friday 18th May, 19:30 - 21:00

Bristol Labour Campaign Forum

All members can attend LCF meetings at Tony Benn House, Victoria Street from 7 pm on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Contact secretary [email protected] for details.

The LCF organizes the approval and selection of a panel of Labour candidates for election to Bristol City Council. Even though it seems a long way off, LCF is inviting party members to express interest in the 2020 council elections. You need to have been a member for at least one year and to live in Bristol (this requirement can be waived by the LCF).

Next meetings of Bristol LCF

Wednesday 16th May 6.45 pm Tony Benn House Wednesday 20th June 6.45 pm Annual General Meeting. The Station, Silver Street, Bristol

Next Bristol NW Labour Party members newsletter

If you have something to say to other Labour members in Bristol NW, or an event you want to advertise, the deadline for the next issue will be in September. Send items to Bristol NW membership secretary Hedley Bashforth.

Tolpuddle 2018

The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival laid on by South West TUC takes place 20-22 July. The Bristol Co-op Party is organising coach transport for the Sunday. For details contact [email protected] http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival

Give Bristol a slave trade memorial & Abolition Shed on Welsh Back NOT another bar!

Throughout time Bristol has played a key role in events, ideas and literature that have shaped people’s freedom and parliamentary reform. Previously these topics have been neglected because they don’t quite fit the national narrative. The narrative has to change for the 21st Century. By recognising this there’s a great chance Bristol can lead the way. For a fleeting moment there’s a golden opportunity to make it happen; a vital retelling of the role Bristol has played on the world stage.

Currently lying empty, O & M Sheds are awaiting redevelopment and strategically positioned exactly where this 1000 year history happened; Wulfstan and Clarkson investigating the slave trade 700 years apart, the epicentre of the 1831 Reform Riots, the start of radical literature Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and Treasure Island. More info at https://www.change.org/p/bristol-city-council-we-want-a-slave-trade-memorial- and-abolition-shed-on-welsh-back- bristol?recruiter=28438002&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&ut m_campaign=share_email_responsive&utm_term=autopublish