The Labour Party Can’t Abandon Working People – Jeremy Corbyn

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https://labouroutlook.org/2023/03/01/the-labour-party-cant-abandon-working-people-jeremy-corbyn/

Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

At a time when the Tories are accelerating their assault on democracy, the Labour leadership should be fortifying its defense. However, it will not be able to defend democracy if it isn’t prepared to respect it within its own movement. Across the country, left-wing members are being barred from applying to be a candidate, denying local parties the chance to vote for popular, working-class, talented people in a fair and democratic selection process. As Keir Starmer himself promised in 2020, “Local Party members should select their candidates for every election.” Reneging on this pledge sends an alarming signal to those whose trust you now seek to garner.

It also displays a lack of respect for those to whom we owe our very place in Parliament. Labour members are the ones who give up their time to knock on doors in the pouring rain. Labour members are the ones who campaign for local change in their communities. Labour members are the ones who keep the party afloat. The Labour membership is the soul of the Labour Party — you cannot crush one without the other.

Only a democratic party can provide the space that is needed to empower those with the creative ideas and transformative solutions this country desperately needs. Today, the division between rich and poor and the threat of ecological collapse are greater than ever before. Our aim should be to unite disenfranchised communities around a more hopeful alternative.

https://labouroutlook.org/2023/03/01/the-labour-party-cant-abandon-working-people-jeremy-corbyn/

Continue ReadingThe Labour Party Can’t Abandon Working People – Jeremy Corbyn

Two in three Britons want new political party to take on Tories and Labour (and a comment by dizzy)

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-tories-starmer-sunak-poll-b2290995.html

61% want ‘completely new type of political party’, survey finds as pessimism hits record high

Almost two in three voters want a new political party to take on the Conservatives and Labour, a shock new study of trust in politics has found.

Britain is increasingly pessimistic, distrustful of government and disdainful of politicians, according to Edelman’s annual trust barometer poll.

Three-quarters of people (75 per cent) said they thought the UK was heading in the wrong direction – a record figure since the survey started in 2001.

And 61 per cent agreed that the UK “needs a completely new type of political party to compete with the Conservatives and Labour for power”.

Just 23 per cent of people said they felt close to the Tories, down four points since 2022, compared with 29 per cent saying the same about Labour, an increase of six points.

However, the Trust Barometer also found widespread “disdain” for politicians, with trust in government at its lowest level since 2016 at just 27 per cent.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-tories-starmer-sunak-poll-b2290995.html

Comment by dizzy: Please let me explain a few points about contemporary UK politics. The UK population is exhausted with the abhorrent and abysmal behaviour of politicians since and of course including Thatcher really. The UK Conservative Party (the Tories) are hated after their repeated worse than useless prime ministers. It appears that the Labour party are popular only because the Tories are so unpopular. Turnout at the next general election (probably Sept / Oct 2024) is likely to be depressed so that votes achieve more. If you can’t get off your ass to save the planet at least make sure that you’re registered and have photo ID to vote at the next general election.

Continue ReadingTwo in three Britons want new political party to take on Tories and Labour (and a comment by dizzy)

Vilifying Corbyn

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Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

A small part of an impressive article by Jonathan Cook at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-labour-starmer-dark-politics-triumph-paving-way

Corbyn was judged to have interfered in antisemitism cases, with the implication that his office tried to stop antisemites from being expelled. The truth was the opposite, as the EHRC quietly conceded. His team “interfered” only in the sense that they tried to speed up the handling of disciplinary cases his right-wing opponents in the party bureaucracy stalled in a bid to fuel the antisemitism smears.

Starmer is interfering in disciplinary cases too – and doing so openly and proudly, including overturning a decision in late 2020 by his National Executive Committee to reinstate Corbyn as an MP. But this time the EHRC seems unconcerned.

The EHRC has given Starmer its official stamp of anti-racism approval even as his officials drive out Jewish members in unprecedented numbers. These are Jews whose mistreatment no one in public life seemingly cares about – because they back Corbyn.

Last week, hot on the heels of that stamp of approval, and mocking the idea that Starmer’s party is interested in tackling racism, Labour barred its local constituency parties from affiliating with a range of progressive groups.

Those included Jewish Voice for Labour, which represents Jews highly critical of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the main UK organisation representing Palestinian interests, as well as Somalis for Labour, Sikhs for Labour and the All African Women’s Group.

The Equalities watchdog’s “special measures” on Labour are also apparently not needed even though prominent Black party members, such as former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, also a Corbyn ally, complain that Starmer’s Labour has done nothing to address anti-Black racism exposed in the recent Forde Report.

The truth is that Starmer and the establishment media will not be satisfied until they have driven a stake through the heart of Corbynism, and its genuine commitment to anti-racism and a more egalitarian approach to the economy. That is why they have never sounded more desperate to vilify him and his supporters. 

A small part of an impressive article by Jonathan Cook at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-labour-starmer-dark-politics-triumph-paving-way

Continue ReadingVilifying Corbyn

Labour bans CLPs from links with string of human rights/peace/health groups incl PSC, JVL, Corbyn’s PJP

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Original article and image republished from The Swawkbox for non-Commerical use.

Email to CLPs warns them that any existing affiliations with groups campaigning for abortion rights, minority human rights, disarmament and a fully public NHS are cancelled

Image thanks to The Skwawkbox

The Labour party has banned local parties (CLPs) from affiliating with an array of groups supporting the human rights of ethnic minorities or campaigning for a public NHS, in yet another Stalinist move to limit members’ freedom of expression.

And local parties are being notified by email that any affiliations they already have in place are unilaterally cancelled – and that if a right-wing group is affiliated with the party nationally, they have no say over whether that group affiliates with them locally.

One such email reads:

Organisations that are nationally affiliated to the party are eligible to affiliate to any CLP provided they pay the appropriate fee and the CLP cannot debate or decide on their affiliations.

…The following affiliations are therefore no longer valid and the CLP may not renew its affiliation without approval from the NEC. To do so would breach party rules. These are:

Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Labour Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition, Republic, London Irish Abortion Rights Campaign, Jewish Voice for Labour, Somalis for Labour, Sikhs for Labour, All African Women’s Group, Health Campaigns Together, The Campaign against Climate Change Trades Union, Peace & Justice Project.

Yes, you read that right: a group campaigning for peace, human rights, women’s rights, disarmament and to protect the environment are not welcome in Keir Starmer’s Labour party and party member groups risk disciplinary action if they try to associate with them.

The news should come as no surprise in Starmer’s racist, pro-privatisation, pro-apartheid party where his promises to renationalise the NHS and public utilitiesprotect the climate and empower member rights and democracy were binned almost the instant he got his backside into Corbyn’s office and his claim to be on the side of domestic violence victims masks a shameless cover-up of abuse of them.

And of course, given recent appalling comments by the leadership and its agents, Jews who believe in the human rights of Palestinians are particularly unwelcome – and indeed are being disproportionately targeted by the regime in a campaign of blatant (but ignored by the media) antisemitism and discrimination.

Original article and image republished from The Swawkbox for non-Commerical use.

Continue ReadingLabour bans CLPs from links with string of human rights/peace/health groups incl PSC, JVL, Corbyn’s PJP

Keith Starmer speech: Labour left hits out at leader over dropped pledges as he sets out ‘five missions’

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https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-speech-labour-leader-dropped-pledges-five-missions-2167583

Keir Starmer has faced criticism from the left of the Labour party for backtracking on many of the pledges he made during his 2020 leadership campaign.

The intervention came ahead of a speech in Manchester, in which Sir Keir will set out the five missions his party would pursue in government covering the economy, the NHS, crime, the climate crisis and education.

Momentum, a grassroots organisation representing the left wing of the party, said in a statement on Thursday that Sir Keir’s five missions showed that the pledges made when he ran to succeed Jeremy Corbyn were in “tatters”, despite many of them being “more vital and popular now than ever”.

The 10 pledges Sir Keir made during his leadership campaign included backing public ownership of industries such as railways and energy, increasing taxation on the highest earners and advancing a Green New Deal to tackle climate change.

“Given the scale of the crises and inequality facing Britain, these policies are more vital and popular now than ever,” a Momentum spokesperson said.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-speech-labour-leader-dropped-pledges-five-missions-2167583

Continue ReadingKeith Starmer speech: Labour left hits out at leader over dropped pledges as he sets out ‘five missions’