We are going to be busy!

It’s been a grim year for socialists and friends of Palestine in the Labour Party.

At party conference in 2021 we celebrated a motion about Palestine, acknowledging the Apartheid analysis from reputable human rights groups and talking about sanctions against trading arms with Israel. It marked a clear step towards greater solidarity with Palestinians.

But it was simply set aside by a party leader who is unequivocally Zionist and opposed to boycott, divestment and sanctions in any form: BDS which the Tories want to ban. Will Labour oppose such a move I wonder? We have a leadership that – according to Labour Friends of Israel – won’t even let the presence of fascists in the Israeli government change “the fundamental nature” of the “strong relationship between Britain and Israel”. A relationship that we’re told “transcends party politics”.

This year many of us supported a rule change proposed by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy to put an end to the a veto the Parliamentary Labour Party and leadership have over who can stand in parliamentary re-selection “trigger” ballots. As long as Jeremy Corbyn is blocked from rejoining the PLP, his constituency won’t be allowed to select him as their parliamentary candidate.

The leadership opposed the rule change and it was lost.

All over the country, members put forward to stand in local elections, including experienced sitting councillors, have been excluded from long lists, never mind shortlists, by diktat of regional officers or HQ. Where there should be an exercise in democracy we’ve seen instead – far too often – outright cheating and institutional racism.   Delegates to conference were suspended or expelled, whole delegations denied credentials, whole branches and even CLPs shut down or taken over by regional officers or HQ.

To mention just a few:

• Black activist Maurice McLeod, local favourite to become Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Camberwell & Peckham, dropped from the selection process;
• Apsana Begum, subjected to a deselection process in traumatic personal circumstances, with no care for this groundbreaking, young Bangladeshi woman MP;
• Blatant elimination of political opponents like Harrow councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick, a former parliamentary candidate, elected to women’s national committee in 2021 and then expelled for having given an interview to Socialist Appeal two years BEFORE the group was proscribed by the party. Pamela is crowdfunding to challenge her retrospective banning. She deserves all the support we can give.

The same cunning tactic has been deployed many times to rid the party of its best socialists without the annoying trouble of having to present evidence of actual misbehaviour: Ken Loach; Bakers’ Union National President Ian Hodson; three of our own – Leah Levane, Graham Bash and Glyn Secker. I too am facing “termination” for committing a “prohibited act” – joining a panel discussion organised by some of the groups on the proscribed list. The event took place a year ago, but the axe fell just before I was about to take up my seat as an elected CLP representative on the NEC. Coincidence? Who can tell?

Don’t bury the Forde Report

I had been looking forward to working as an NEC member to push for implementation of the most important recommendations of the Forde Report. Its two year long delayed release in July was boost for us and a blow for the leadership — the first authoritative recognition of what we all knew or at least suspected – the party machine is riven with contempt for Black and Muslim members, taking their communities for granted; it operates with a factional mindset that distorts disciplinary and other internal processes. The current leadership pretends this is all in the past, but they are failing to tackle the dysfunctional culture Forde identified, showing a miserably poor understanding of racism, failing to develop quality education programmes, AND excluding JVL.

On top of that we have the Al Jazeera documentaries The Labour Files – almost four hours of devastating data and testimony – far from everything that COULD have been revealed, but enough to blast apart the dominant narrative of the past six years. And where are the politicians and pundits who enthusiastically portrayed Jeremy and his supporters as bullying antisemitic infiltrators throughout that time, terrifying Jewish and other voters into turning away from Labour?

Quietly muttering “nothing to see here governor” while all aghast that we now have probably the most dangerous right-wing government ever and no Opposition worth the name.

So where does this leave us? Jewish socialists and friends, marooned within (if not already expelled or resigned from) a Labour Party which can’t wait to spit us out in order to pursue its neo-liberal, pro Trident, pro-war course unhindered by troublesome people like us.

It leaves us thankful for the many groups, named in the JVL Annual Report, who stuck by us through the NEC campaign, respecting us for our courage,  integrity and loyalty, and winning our respect in return.

It leaves us with a duty of care to the thousands of party members who are sticking by the principles that inspired us during the Corbyn period.

BUT also a duty to acknowledge that political life goes on outside an increasingly uniform and robotic Labour Party.

We may be needed to play our part in building a new political formation for the working class. Therefore we must be there – in spirit if not in person – on every picket line, every environmental or anti-austerity protest, every action in solidarity with victims of police brutality and racist immigration measures, against attacks on civil liberties, workers’ rights, public services or living standards, in solidarity with oppressed people everywhere, especially Palestine because it is our particular responsibility.

We are going to be busy!

(Updated on Nov 9 to correct the length of The Labour Files to almost four hours, not five.)

Naomi was on a panel with Mike Cushman who spoke on JVL in ‘unprecedented’ times: exploring the new political terrain