Labour members’ purge – response from Brighton & Hove
JVL Introduction
The film “Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie” is being shown across the country and is getting fully booked as people are keen to get a different perspective on the mud that was thrown at the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn – and is still being thrown at those in the Party who backed him and, more importantly, the policies he espoused – policies that were broadly popular with the public until the relentlessness of the slurs and attacks and, of course, Brexit, made the Labour Party less popular in 2019 than in 2017. It is quite shocking to see everything pulled together, starting with the huge rallies, the hope that was unleashed and that has now been (temporarily) crushed.
And there are personal stories as well and this piece from the Morning Star, focusing on comrades in Brighton and Hove affected by the purge, illustrates not only the profound impact on some of those who have been expelled, but is a crucial issue for democracy in general as Greg Hadfield notes: there was “nothing like this under [New Labour PM] Tony Blair. This is the systemic undermining of British democracy and the role of what used to be a great political party in fuelling democratic debate.”
This article was originally published by Morning Star on Thu 20 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
Purged left-wingers hit back at Starmer’s ‘moribund, anti-democratic’ party
MATT TRINDER talks to the former Labour activists in Brighton and Hove who rode the wave of euphoria during Labour’s Corbyn years only to be expelled under the current right-wing regime
Loading article text…
Most of the expelled Labour members and councillors will have been politically active for years and will have friends in other areas that have also been expelled. They’ll already have all the email addresses and phone numbers they need to get in touch with each other and plan how they (individually and as groups) can best reclaim their party. Please, please can they reach out to each other and fight back as a collective?
Fight back against what and for what exactly ?
If people hadnt noticed the stable door has slammed shut and the horse has bolted.
A deeply corrupt right wing dominated Labour party machine under General Secretary Iain McNicol ( with Peter Mandelson and Phoney Tony Bliar pulling the strings behind the scenes) effectively sabotaged, hugely damaged,ruthlessly smeared and ultimately did for The Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of The Labour party with the able assistance of The Right dominant section of The Parliamentary Labour party, blocking many thousands from joining the party and expelling many others in the process.
Since Starmer took over as ‘leader’ it has continued apace under General Secretary David Evans, to act brutally and ruthlessly to expel unhindered, thousands of party members, deselect, block, smear many decent Labour party members/councillors without any real due process.
The Purging of Jeremy Corbyn and now Diane Abbott continues apace.
Rather than fight a losing battle against The party machine which is clearly and ruthlessly intent on a merciless clearing out of The Left from the party once and for always, in order to establish a ‘safe pair of hands for Capital, an unashamedly Pro-business neo-liberal Centrist party, in the interests of British imperialism……. while attempting to ‘effectively’ learn the perceived ‘internal’ short comings failings of The Blair Project ie failing to clear out the Left then only for allowing the perceived ‘ error’ of The Corbyn leadership debacle to occur, which should never ever be allowed to happen again…didnt you get the memo ?
Erasure is the name of the game.
Better then to use your anger and frustration, passion and commitment to work together and collectively create, form, build, construct a genuinely POPULAR PEOPLE’S PARTY ..A New Democratic Party of The Left FOR THE MANY NOT THE FEW !
I was smeared, suspended three times and finally expelled as a socialist supporter of Corbyn . I still hope we come come together to form a new socialist party .
In Hastings the first showing of the film was sold out so they put on another one. Then it is going to be shown in a local pub back room (3 pm 7th May). That’s without knowing what the outlying villages are doing. If it’s online too it would be good to show as many people as possible the truth about Starmer. If only there were a new Socialist party to get behind before the next GE.
I am disturbed more than ever by JVL’s lack of leadership. Downplaying racism against white people is equivalent to Holocaust Denial. It is also in conflict with JVL’s own allegations of antisemitism in the Witchhunt. Abbott has herself seen her mistake and retracted. Wake up and smell the coffee!
keep the showings going everyware so that more and more people can see what has happened to Labour party under Starmer and the right wing take over. We need a start to a more caring humane democratic Labour party. It will have to start at grassroots as the MSM will just support whatever status quo is as long as it it’s right of centre. Sad but the Labour Party is now a shell of what it was and I for one will not offer any support to it.
I am 84. Been a Labour Party supporter and member for all my adult life. I am so disillusioned with Starmer as leader I have resigned my membership.
Hi Dee (and others!)
Any chance of getting the film shown in the union-owned premises of sympathetic unions please? Probably the unions already considering shrinking their donations to Starmer’s Labour and quite willing to put the “frighteners” on him and David Evans? And those already on record as wanting a return to the 2017 manifesto?
The unions are big enough not to be picked on. They pay a lot to Labour (secure money too – whereas rich donors can and do change their minds about whether to support a specific political party with little notice). They’re not getting much from Starmer’s Labour in return for their members’ money.
Starmer’s Labour are DEAD LEAD,simply dont deserve people’s vote however bad The Tories are it seems.They dont offer people anything positive or concrete to vote for other than Rachel ‘rigor mortis’ Reeves pledging to be quicker and more efficient in deporting ‘illegal immigrants’ to Rwanda’.
I think that’s called pitching to…. the right of the tory party.
With so called friends like that who needs enemies?
A new Left/ Socialist party is possible !
It can begin with Corbyn standing as a Left Independent and winning in his constituency at the next General election although it is by no means a foregone conclusion that Smear Stamer’s Labour party will somehow win.
Leaden, wooden Starmer is quite capable of shooting himself in the foot and face simultaneously and the tories quite capable of swinging it their way using media, racism, Rwanda,pumping up British patriotic bollocks and War to name but a few dirty tricks.
Unfortunately I can’t come to a showing of The Big Lie as I now live in France and have vowed never to return. Attending a showing would be much better than watching it on youtube or a paying platform as it would bring me into contact with fellow socialists. Solidarity is more than ever necessary as a counter to the divisiveness of British party politics. Starmer has a lot to answer for.