Happy Mondays star Mark `Bez' Berry has a slogan for his We Are The Reality Party which sounds like the ultimate hype... `The revolution starts in Salford!' It brings a smile to most people's faces, rather than a clenched fist salute and the waving of red flags. But Bez is onto something. There is a revolution stirring. With a very small `r'. It's about discontent with mainstream politics. And a new Do-It-Yourself attitude.
As Salford Labour Party imposed Conservative and LibDem cuts, and remained deafly distant on other controversial issues, a significant section of the community had no-one to turn to, except themselves. They were ordinary Salford people who were angry but peaceful. And what set them apart was that they refused to play by the normal rules...
The first non-compromised campaign came from the unlikely quarter of mental health service users and their families. The title of their group summed up the attitude... U.S.U.C.(United Service User Committee). Val, a lady from Irlam, had never been involved in politics before but cared deeply about cuts to services for her ill husband. She soon found herself as U.S.U.C.'s spokeswoman, joining the group of other disillusioned service users in occupying Salford Council chamber, blowing whistles to stop council meetings and brandishing a huge Mental Health Cuts Will Kill In Salford banner at every opportunity.
U.S.U.C's fight was even documented in a Salford Against The Cuts pamphlet, which was almost a D-I-Y manual of politics, called Cuts Can Be Beaten: How mental health service users took on Salford Council
and won!
Next came campaigns run by parents and carers of disabled children (Save The Grange) and disabled adults (Save Our Transport). Indeed, the latter group even took the fight to the Mayor's house and blocked his path to stop him getting his car to work, to show what it was like to have no transport. The police were called and chatted with the group, one officer telling the Salford Star `Well, these don't look like the normal protesters...'
When the Save Our Transport group wanted to hold a protest Rally On The Lawn last summer outside Salford Civic Centre, they were told they would be trespassing. But despite threats from the Council and intimidation via the press, hundreds of people, including disabled adults, attended the `illegal' Rally with the Council powerless to stop it.
A couple of weeks later, campaigners fighting cuts and closure of the Salford Children's Holiday Camp repeated the trespass feat at the Mayor's Spirit of Salford event outside the Civic Centre. Again they were told that they couldn't set up a protest event and, again the Council was defied... "If they try to remove me I will stand my ground and be arrested" said one campaigner who had never taken part in a demonstration before.
Meanwhile, at Barton Moss, residents found themselves coming right up against the state because they didn't like the idea of fracking happening in their back yard. Six months of daily protests saw local grannies, aunties, mums, dads and kids get brutalised and arrested by the Greater Manchester Police Tactical Aid Unit (riot police) for walking slowly down a country lane to delay lorries entering and exiting the IGas exploratory drilling site.
By the end of the Barton Moss protests, lots of local residents had taken part in lock-ons - padlocking themselves to concrete drums, buses, coffins and more to stop the lorries in their tracks. They had been instantly radicalised, as the environmental issue and police treatment was totally ignored by Salford's mainstream politicians.
"I'm a local resident, a peaceful person, I've never demonstrated before in my life
I'm not a politically aware person, just easy going; believe the government, believe people, but do you know what? I am staggered with what I've seen; it breaks my heart" Carmen, from Irlam, told the Salford Star at the time "I'm appalled at the Salford Mayor and all of them. Why have they not responded? Nothing is being said... It frightens me. It's sinister."
It's against the backdrop of these environmental and anti-cuts protests that alternative parties have sprung up and grown. And many of the candidates for both the local and General Election this year have come from these campaigns.
"I'm just a normal mum but someone has to fight for our kids; there's nobody else who can do it for us" says Noreen Bailey, who was involved in the fight to keep transport for disabled adults and is now standing for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the Salford and Eccles seat.
"I've always supported the Labour Party but I'm fed up and sick and tired of seeing people in Salford put down" she adds "We're not being listened to - the disabled are getting a bad deal, there's nothing there for the elderly, it's just going worse and worse. I think it's time that one of us had the guts to stand up and just say `Right this is what we want and this is what we're going to fight for'."
Meanwhile, the Green Party happily admits that the Barton Moss anti-fracking protests had a big influence in its six-fold increase in membership over the last year, enabling it to be the only alternative party standing in all three Salford constituencies at the General Election.
"It's fair to say that at the first meeting we went to there was us three staring at each other, that's how ineffective it was, and now we've got over 150 members; it's made ridiculous progress" says Chris Bertenshaw who's standing in Worsley and Eccles.
"We are all volunteers who just showed up and said we want to help, rather than seeing it as a career with money to be made" adds Emma van Dyke, who's now the Green Party candidate for Salford and Eccles.
The We Are The Reality Party is another phenomenon which grew out of the energy of the Barton Moss protests, standing for the first time in the Irlam ward near the IGas site at last year's local election. The turnout was shocking
"Six thousand people sat at home thinking they couldn't make a difference" says Bez, who's standing for Salford and Eccles "We need to get the message to people that you can make a difference let's do something about it!"
While other alternative parties' support has come out of campaigns on the streets, the Pirate Party materialised from online protests against mass surveillance of the internet, and bridges the virtual and real Salford
"I'm only 21, I've never voted before, and was looking for a party that went along with what I felt; but I didn't really find any until I came to the Pirate Party" says Sam Clark, who's also standing in Salford and Eccles "I signed up as a member and then became a candidate; it was an organic growth."
The Pirate Party, Green Party, TUSC and We Are The Reality Party all have common ideas in that they are fiercely anti-cuts, anti-fracking, anti-racist, pro-democracy and pro-community. And they are definitely kicking against the political establishment. Yet they are all standing against each other in the General Election, while TUSC and the Green Party are also opposing one another in many of the city's local election wards. Isn't there a danger they could eat each other's votes?
"I think it's great that a lot of people are standing against the establishment" says Emma, while Chris adds "I think it is a risk but it's important that people vote for policies that they actually want, rather than be too concerned about following the party that they've always voted for in the past. That's more important than splitting the vote. The Greens will never make any progress towards becoming a bigger permanent party if we all just thought `Oh we'll have to vote Labour'"
Bez agrees: "I think it's good that there's all these independent parties as we need to get people politically aware, because we can't let the powers that be keep on getting away with what they're doing. The more parties offering political alternatives the better it is for us."
At the end of the day, however, unless there is an enormous shock, none of these parties are expected to get elected in three of the safest Labour Party seats in the country. Even the Greens, which have the highest profile of all the alternatives, accept this. So is it just about sticking an X in a box on Election Day or something more?
"It's about building the party in this area" says David Jones, Green Party candidate for Blackley and Higher Broughton "The Green Party's been going for forty years but it's been very segmented. In Salford there's been nothing until twelve months ago. We're not expecting a breakthrough this time but we hope within twelve or 18 months we're going to be the alternative party. This election will be a major step in taking the party forward."
Meanwhile, the Pirate Party is merely testing the water with its first ever foray into Salford... "We do want to make a difference as well as obviously raising awareness of ourselves so that we can become a bigger party" says Sam "We do a lot of work in the community, probably more than the local MPs, which isn't very difficult. We are doing it part time, unpaid, and that's the sort of thing we want to highlight - that you can make a difference even if you're not in power. You really can make a difference."
The We Are The Reality Party is already planning to create permaculture schemes in the city, elected or not. But, as Bez points out, "they make all the decisions behind closed doors, so that if I did win this seat I couldn't do nothing anyway. It's just a token gesture of the remnants of democracy, and the power I will have will be zero.
We believe in true democracy and are trying to create a new language, getting away from all those old political terms and all that. A true democracy for the people of Salford."
For Steven North, standing as TUSC candidate for Worsley and Eccles South, it's just part of an ongoing battle against cuts and austerity... "I've fought against cuts for a long time, and I've fought for services that people need" he explains "I've lived in the constituency all my life and I don't feel that any of the other parties that have stood there do anything to represent the people who live in that area.
"We've got a Labour MP, and for the last four years with this Tory Government I've not seen any evidence of any sort of fightback, any sort of resistance, any support for any campaigns locally" he adds "It's about time someone stood up and said `We want to do things differently'..."
Will the Do-It-Yourself passion reflected by these Salford people, and their alternative parties, convince voters to turn their back on mainstream politics? Does the revolution, with a very small `r', start in Salford this May? It probably won't be what happens at the ballot box that will make the difference. It's what happens afterwards...
Candidates standing in the General Election
Salford and Eccles
Bailey, Noreen - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Berry, Bez - We Are The Reality Party
Briggs, Charlie - Liberal Democrats
Clark, Sam - The Pirate Party
Downes, Greg - Conservative Party
Doyle, Paul Frank - UK Independence Party
Long Bailey, Rebecca - Labour Party
Van Dyke, Emma - Green Party
Blackley and Broughton
David Jones Green Party
Graham Stringer Labour Party
Richard Gadsden Liberal Democrats
Martin Power UK Independence Party
Michelle Tanfield-Johnson Conservative Party
Worsley and Eccles South
Berg, Geoffrey Hugh Lewis - Independent
Bertenshaw, Chris - Green Party
Clarkson, Kate - Liberal Democrats
Hammond, Owen Martin - UK Independence Party
Keeley, Barbara Mary - Labour Party
Lindley, Iain David - Conservative Party
McNally, Mags - We Are The Reality Party
North, Steven - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
For more detail on the alternative parties' ideas see...
TUSC: www.tusc.org.uk/
Green Party: http://salford.greenparty.org.uk/
We Are The Reality Party: http://www.wearetherealitypartysalford.org
Pirate Party: https://www.pirateparty.org.uk/
Graphic by Steven Speed
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