Beacon
Beacon is a platform to further the cause of socialism in Liverpool and the wider City Region.
It’s time for some new politics in Liverpool
Politics is about people. Giving them a voice. Representing their interests. Bringing them together to make a difference in our communities.
Beacon Liverpool originally started as a platform to share ideas and develop a vision for the Liverpool City Region, giving a voice to activists, academics and trade unionists.
As disillusionment with the current state of politics has grown, there has been a growing belief that making an intervention to change this was necessary.
Too often, London-based political parties have treated some of the city’s best community and workplace activists as political footballs, to be kicked whilst trying to gain favour with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and The Sun. Words, no matter how strong, are not enough.
Earlier this month, an application was submitted to the Electoral Commission to register Beacon Liverpool as a political party.
The new party will be a municipalist party, committed to opening up the governance of Liverpool to the city’s people through participatory democracy. The party aims to provide a political voice for a citizens’ platform, organising alongside communities and trade unions to build a new and democratic political economy for the city and city region.
In the meantime, we cannot just sit and wait. Liverpool and its citizens need and deserve better.
Whilst the political party application progresses with the Electoral Commission, Beacon Liverpool is to target the forthcoming Kirkdale by-election.
Peter Furmedge, a Kirkdale resident, will be the first ever Beacon Liverpool candidate, standing as a non-party candidate but on a Beacon Liverpool manifesto.
It is clear to us that changes are needed. There is an opportunity, through municipalism, to rejuvenate local democracy from its grassroots, in communities and in workplaces, and developing the mechanisms and institutions to build an economy and a politics geared to Liverpool’s needs, not those of the City of London or the Westminster political class.
Making a change would help tackle many of the ongoing issues faced by the city and its citizens.
Greater transparency and democracy across the city would build and restore faith in elected members, and municipal ownership and running of assets, such as the Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre, would have enabled the local authority to act to prevent the recent arms fair.
Liverpool faces yet another round of cuts it simply cannot afford. Peter is firmly anti-austerity and he and Beacon Liverpool will be advocating for a ‘no cuts’ budget to protect our city and its people
Now is the time for us to step up and not just give a voice, but to represent our communities and bring them together. All of us can make a real difference.
Help us do that.
Sign up to volunteer in the campaign here
Read more about Beacon Liverpool and Peter Furmedge below
About Beacon Liverpool
Beacon Liverpool is also campaigning for an accelerated City Region Green Deal, including investment in municipal and community owned green energy and green transport infrastructure.
- Taking failed development sites and local land and assets into community ownership through Community Land Trusts
- Using income and community wealth generated from land and assets to fund essential local facilities for the community and young people
- Accelerating a Liverpool City Region “Green Deal” to create real apprenticeships for young people and good jobs for local people
- A social housing programme, through council housing and housing co-ops, to ensure decent, affordable energy efficient homes for everyone
- Making sure the billionaire owned businesses in areas like Kirkdale pay their way in creating local prosperity and a clean environment
- Full involvement of local people in local decision making, participatory democracy not boss politics
- No more austerity in Liverpool, we cannot afford it
Kirkdale by-election candidate, Peter Furmedge, says:
“We have to do much better than to continue wasting time arguing about who controls the tired, old, one-dimensional political parties in Westminster. Beacon Liverpool is about us, ourselves, in our communities and at work, defining a future in which the resources of the region are used for the good of all of us in the region.
We can develop a green future with good jobs, real apprenticeships, decent and affordable housing and, most importantly, hope for young people in neighbourhoods like Kirkdale.”
About Peter Furmedge
Peter is the current Vice Chair of non-league side City of Liverpool FC and was previously a founder member of Spirit of Shankly. This was alongside helping supporters of other teams get a voice at their clubs and helping to form and fund community owned sports clubs in England and Wales with the former Supporters Direct Club Development project. These experiences of building up community owned, member-led organisations to bring about change will be the bedrock of Peter’s and Beacon Liverpool’s campaigning and politics.
Peter Furmedge says:
“I’ve always been interested in and involved in community activism, without ever wanting to be a politician. But there is only so long that any of us can talk about what has gone wrong and watch it happen without stepping up. As a resident, with friends and family across Kirkdale, I believe I can make a difference.
It’s on all of us to play an active role in shaping our community and participating in our local politics and Beacon Liverpool will be a vehicle for that. This is not about another politician promising to do things to an area, this is about someone wanting to move political barriers so that we can all collectively bring about the changes we want and that Kirkdale needs to see.
My experience in the community, and in supporting and enabling community action, together with my commitment to the area, are what I will bring to the table and I’m confident that Beacon Liverpool can change politics for Kirkdale, and the city as a whole, for the better.”
In addition to Peter Furmedge, the Beacon Liverpool campaign in Kirkdale is being led by:
Sheila Coleman (Election Agent); Born and raised in Kirkdale, Sheila was Chair of the Liverpool Irish Centre Cooperative and a well-known activist and campaigner, Sheila is known internationally as the spokesperson for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.
Jo McNeill; A Kirkdale resident and Vice Chair of Governors at St John’s Primary School, Jo is an active Trade Unionist for the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU)
Francis Stanton; Former Chair of the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ union was born and raised in Kirkdale
Read the Beacon Liverpool manifesto here
https://beaconliverpool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Mersey-Municipalism-10-21.pdf
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Beacon is a non-party platform to further the cause of socialism in Liverpool and the wider City Region.
