Labour is alienating Black communities
JVL Introduction
Maurice McLeod is a local councillor who was blocked from standing for Parliament by Starmer’s Labour Party. He writes about Labour’s appalling treatment of Diane Abbott and considers how this will be viewed – for years to come – by Black communities in the UK.
McLeod notes: “Politics, we are constantly reminded, is about power, but true power comes from the coalitions you are able to pull together. Working-class communities of colour must be part of the new Britain Labour hopes to build. Because when Black communities are marginalised, other communities are not far behind.”
We can already add the disregard by Labour that many Muslim people feel (among others) because of the Leadership’s stance on Gaza. To this we can add Labour’s treatment of Fazia Shaheen and its potential impact on Muslim people in the UK. Her shock at being suspended after many years of campaigning was clear to see in this excerpt from the BBC’s Newsnight programme on 29th May 2024.
Diane Abbott has referred to what is happening as a purge on the Left; we can also add Lloyd Russell-Moyle to the list. The double standards, clearly outlined here by McLeod are blatant and appalling.
LL
This article was originally published by Guardian - Comment Is Free on Thu 30 May 2024. Read the original here.
Labour’s shocking treatment of Diane Abbott could alienate Black voters for years to come
If this is how the party deals with its own MP, how will it treat our communities once it’s in power?
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The changed for the worse Labour Party is alienating our Black population and Muslims also with its dishonest and hypocritical attitudes towards them.
For everyone considering the facts for themselves (rather than absorbing the establishment media version) the Labour Party is showing itself unfit to rule.
Is the way Diane has been treated really any great surprise to us all? I think not. Like a D9 Bulldozer, the Starmer project doesn’t really care what it does or how it does it, to access the power and control it craves. Its monumental shift right-wards has more appeal to disenchanted Tories and Islamophobe`s than those from ethnic minority, working class backgrounds. The issue of inclusion of people of colour, all faiths, beliefs, etc, is at the bottom of the hierarchy of racism for the Labour Party. The biggest danger, is that failure of a Starmer-lead party to make substantive change to the lives of ordinary people, is its opening of the door to the extreme right. The warning signs are already there. The “leadership” doesn’t represent the interests of different ethnicities or faiths, and doesn’t care. We have to represent those interests by organising at ground level and link in local Trades Unions, anti-racism campaigns and community organisations. It’s a waste of valuable time begging a leader who is more concerned in providing cover for the Zionist Genocide. The Labour Party has walked all over dedicated Party members, campaigners and Left – MP’s to achieve its factional aims. With the campaign donations of big health “care” business for its increasing NHS privatisation and, considerable [anonymous] funding received for Labour Friends of Israel, its priorities are not in Leicester, Blackburn, Rochdale or Hackney. The lessons we learned in the 70s and 80s fighting racism in Southall, Leicester, Brixton and Brick Lane were that movements start not in Parliament or Rushworth Street, but within local communities. Diane Abbot demands our full support, with or without the shackles of the Labour Party and its rotten leadership.
As has been documented and pointed out so many times on this site, Diane Abbott has only been guilty of being clumsy, not inaccurate.
It seems weird that someone can be a Labour councillor and an anti-racism activist – Labours the party that bombed and invaded not one, but two non European countries (Iraq and Afghanistan), as well as having a government who put down anti-colonial struggles overseas. Surely the best thing to do if anyones serious about anti-racism, is not being in the Labour Party.
Recently, every time I hear of a politician being blocked it is about antisemitism. Diane Abbot may have used some controversial language but she said it as it appeared to her and in my view not remotely antisemitic. It seems clear to me that the hard right Zionist lobby is desperately trying to make sure that no candidate is ever put forward who has ever said anything about supporting Palestine or stopping the genocide. They are forcing the agenda without any political constituency. It can only make people feel powerless and angry which will increase, not decrease antisemitism. If only they could look in the mirror to see how they make others feel.