I didn’t leave Labour. Labour left me.
JVL Introduction
This article reflects what many enthusiastic members who supported Jeremy Corbyn have experienced and are now feeling.
Long standing activist Ed Poole says: “If I believed that the Labour party was run fairly and democratically, I would have accepted votes we lost as I have always done and worked harder to win that argument next time. But I know that it is not. We all now know that it isn’t….”
Whilst respecting Ed’s decision to leave, we ask others not to do so. Take a break if you are tired and disappointed, but stay to help hundreds of thousands of like-minded members build a better Party. Do not abandon Labour to ‘dirty politics and bullying’.
Join the Don’t Leave Organise network. Millions of voters still need us.
And see the article and comments on our repost of What is the Point of a New Left Party?
This article was originally published by Edward Poole blogspot on Fri 3 Jul 2020. Read the original here.
I didn’t leave Labour. Labour left me.
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I sympathize. I haven’t resigned my membership yet — I am waiting to hear what is to be done about the leaked report, but I am not hopeful that those who reviled the left as ‘trots’ and worked to drive us out of the party will be expelled or even reprimanded. The hint from on high seems to be that we are being ‘po-faced’ about the abuse visited upon loyal and principled socialists who have devoted time and energy to working for a Labour government. It’s hard to see how we can simply grin and bear it in the hope of better things to come.
The situation in Israel is threatening to be another testing issue for the Labour Party. Starmer has groveled before the BoD and signed up to every one of the humiliating terms dictated by them; it is hard to see how he can effectively campaign against the latest Israeli land-grab. He declares himself a supporter of Zionism without qualification. In a matter of weeks we have gone from being a principled internationalist party to a lapdog of the Netanyahu administration. What can we do about it? I have no idea.
“ I am leaving on a jet plane “
Sorry I am disillusioned, disappointed and demoralised!
We will never win and always be seen as “the other” in political discourse.
I am disillusioned too.The life has gone without Corbyn it seems.The cunning plan by some in labour worked in the end with the help of many in all areas and the media it seems they helped to prevent Corbyn reaching power in 2017,where is the democracy? Where is the decency? Shall we stay or shall we go? Perhaps it is best to fight as Corbyn did ,he achieved a lot in becoming leader perhaps someone else can do the same and be more wary of those hurdles and people who undermine and go on to defy them all and win!
Kuhnberg “What can we do about it?” One of the things we can do, is proclaim In whatever forums are open to us that Zionism is racism and because of Starmer’s declaration that he supports Zionism without question he is a racist.
I’m in complete sympathy with Ed Poole and respect his decision. I have also considered leaving for the same reasons given by Ed, but I value my membership of JVL and as I am sure The issue of Justice for Palestinians will resume its importance in the Labour Party, particularly with regard to BDS, the influence of JVL on the debate will be of great importance.So for the time being I decline to leave the LP.
I totally understand how Ed feels.
Hopeless deluge of leavers…
” I supported Jeremy Corbyn”… but only when he was winning ??
Has Jeremy torn up his membership card ?
NO he hasn’t.
He has NOT given up to focus entirely on making jam.
So what kind of support is it when you leave when support is most needed ??
There is work to be done… comrades to be defended from false allegations of antisemitism… Maybe soon to include the people who run this website.
Corbyn has been too weak.
And the Labour right too antidemocratic and strong.
Labour appears to me to be a vehicle to frsutrate and alienate the working class from politics. Not empower them.
After the period of disappointment, grief and anger at the stabbers& racists in the leaked report, and the ‘centrist/swerving right’ direction of the new leader, some reading and quiet reflection, I am definitely staying. Going to support fight with Tories and Labour Right, to vote in NEC summer elections, and so on. Corbyn has not left, quite the opposite, he is working as always, online and on the streets. I have been on ‘Arise Festival of Left ideas’ online webinar/discussions for several weks now. Cobyn made several inputs, together with many others, Left MPs and activists from UK and around the world. It was inspiring and clarifying my thoughts. It confirmed my intuitive urge not to leave Labour, with thousands of activudt doing the same, however tempting some new groups outside it are. The Left Labour people are working art rebuilding our roots in communitures. By joining carioud lrotest movements and workers struggles. At present it is the world wide Black Movement, started in USA, that was the point of our discussions on Monday meeting. 5000 activists and Labour members were participating from different countries.
Join join forces and do not feel alone and discouraged.
I have followed Ed on social media for a number of years and i know how passionate he is. For someone like him to leave the party is a huge loss and it says something that he felt the need to, I’m undecided if i should renew my membership or not because Labour is getting more the Tories every day.
My comments may seem insultingly simplistic but it is my Party and I am not leaving (although I will cry if I want to). As a Socialist and a Jew and a woman and a foreigner, I have had moments of hope and solidarity within the left groupings of the Party over 40 years plus membership; but I have never thought we were “okay”. The Party machinery was always mired in hierarchical and unfit for purpose bureaucracy; slates were often developed bypassing democratic process; and too many stale pale male and some female elected representatives thought that they had a job for life and did not deliver for us. But I am staying to fight with my last breath.
Ed, you have written this eloquently and factually. Very similar tactics were used in my ex-clp as in Enfield. Labour left all socialists, and like you I’ve left them as I will not be part of a machine where there is a hierarchy of racism and where Afriphobia is so commonplace as to almost be normalised.
I am waiting for a party that supports all colours of the rainbow & embraces all religions, that’s who get my vote
Be well.
I left the party as soon as I saw the leaked report and saw Starmers reaction to it .I have now joined George Galloways workers party ,I did so after watching a few of their meetings on utube and was impressed by them especially when it comes to antisemitism ,I left labour but did so with a heavy heart but staying in a party that will throw people out for nothing but do nothing to the ones mentioned in the leak was enough for me.
I’m staying, because we have to unite and defeat the Tories. Thank goodness for JVL, as a corrective to the new Labour orthodoxy.
AS a now ex labour member i agree with every word that Ed has said
I knew it was bad Ed, but the goings on behind the scenes is something I cant quite put into words.
Its unbelievable the way theyve behaved.
To think we were naive enough to campaign for them.
I’ve always supported Labour.
But the corruption, starting with grass roots and CLPs.
Is beyond anything I ever imagined.
No one with any decency would want to stay.
It stinks from top to bottom.
I’m still trying to come to terms with it.
Nobody said the struggle for socialism would be easy. Jeremy Corbyn has devoted his life to the cause. His stance on international issues showed enormous courage. This is the main reason why he was vilified by the British establishment.
If you have decided to leave the Labour Party there is no reason to stop supporting this site.
I couldn’t have put it better myself, Ed. I had been waiting for someone like Jeremy for more than 40 years. At my age, I don’t expect I’ll live long enough to see a socialist government in this country. I fear for the world my grandchildren will inherit.
I can’t disagree with any of the comments I have just read through. And I am experiencing the same dilemma and painful choice. Each week it gets more difficult, with the divorce reaching the decree absolute stage, through the gradual evidence accumulating that Starmer is not to be trusted. My nausea level rises as Wes Streeting and/or Liz Kendall suddenly appears on the TV Screen representing the Party I am currently paying my dues to. Lloyd Russell-Moyle has just been forced out, with Rebecca already gone. The tone , the content, the substance, the music , has changed, like that film “the invasion of the body snatchers”, when they looked like human beings , but the empathy and humanity had been drained away. Also, like another contributor, I am too old to wait around for another messiah or second coming, and in terms of the second option I am thinking it will be more like Yeats’s poem . I may stay to vote in the NEC elections, for the Grassroots Alliance, and Jo Bird and Matt White. I will remember the 12th of December last year , in Peterborough, when the rain was pouring down in cascades, and I was the Driver, and in my car there were 4 gorgeous young people. And like the Keystone Kops we drove up and down the mean streets , jumping out at intervals in order to knock on doors and remind people to vote. C’est la vie. There’s always XR…