Unite to end divide and rule
JVL Introduction
Zarah Sultana, writing as an Independent MP, makes a number of salient points about what is behind the race riots we have seen as well as the importance of the community response, largely coordinated through Stand Up to Racism. Ms Sultana rightly criticises the decades of media drip feeding of the rhetoric echoed at the marches as well as the 14 years of Tory austerity and that government’s “Stop the Boats” sloganising. But she is also highly critical of the so called centrists and refers, for example, to her own treatment by Ed Balls, former Shadow Chancellor, on itv’s “Good Morning Britain” and the way the Labour Party felt able to ignore the findings of the Forde Report that it commissioned, especially regarding Islamophobia in the Party. Now we wonder whether she will get the Labour Whip back?
LL
This article was originally published by The GUardian on Fri 9 Aug 2024. Read the original here.
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Excellent from Zarah Sultana. An MP who can articulate the core message we need to take away from events after the Southport murders. Politicians, Labour as well as Tory, must accept responsibility for the social and economic chaos their policies have caused, and racist rhetoric blaming non-white “others”, which make people vulnerable to fascist ideas. Can we hope that she and others in the Socialist Campaign Group will join with Jeremy Corbyn and other independents to hold Keir Starmer’s government to account?
Well said, comrade Zarah. Solidarity for ever!
It is shameful that a mother who raises hard-working and socially responsible girls is then made to fear for their safety. It is sad that so many people seem devoid of human empathy and unable to appreciate the realities of other people’s experiences: how would it feel if was your daughter being intimidated, or worse?
For what it is worth, I think Zarah Sultana underplays the ‘bottom-up’ element in all this. Yes, the established media do play the lead, but it is an interactive process. I think that she also overstates the tradition of ‘working class unity’.
The two basic roles of most mainstream journalists are as pander to prejudices and as stenographer for media proprietors.