3 February 2022
Diary of a Corbynista
Redactio Ad Absurdum
by Don Urquhart
We are told to wait until the investigation is complete and, until then, just to carry on as normal. The leader appears to have a vested interest in kicking the issue down the road until the electorate tires of it and accepts him as the best thing since sliced bread.
I am talking of course about the Labour Party and Sir Keir Starmer. The investigation is the one he commissioned nearly two years ago from Sir Martin Forde QC. The report is always due to be published in the next few weeks. In January we were told that Sir Martin would be delivering it to the National Executive Committee on the 21st. I forget the feeble excuse, but now it is apparently a sure thing for February.
Most Labour Party members would like to move on from the Corbyn era but many have a nagging feeling that a major reason for the election failure in 2019 was the sabotage undertaken by the Labour bureaucracy and the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and they believe the Forde Report might prove them right. But they fear interminable delay, redactions and whitewash.
Here’s what Sir Keir Starmer says about another report:
The Sue Gray report needs to be published in full and as soon as possible. And I mean in full – not redacted, not edited, not a summary, not parts left out. In full.
Sir Keir does not help his cause by throwing out anyone who looks like a socialist and by changing party rules to curtail democracy notably in the selection of parliamentary candidates who will in future be imposed by the National Executive Committee (NEC).
All over the country people are leaving the party. Here’s a recent example.
In Newham there are separate Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) – East Ham and West Ham. Here, courtesy of Skwawkbox are the slightly abridged resignation letters of the two Chairs:
I, Tahir Mirza, chair of East Ham Constituency Labour Party, am resigning my membership of the Labour Party with immediate effect, along with other current party members to follow.
I am resigning because, on a local scale, democratic rights and principles no longer have any value in either East or West Ham CLPs, both of which have been suspended since March 2021. The motive for this shutdown of party democracy is clearly to suppress free political rights, and to clear the way to allow candidates imposed by unaccountable party bureaucrats to be parachuted into office, rather than selected democratically by party members who have contributed their time, energies and financial donations into the party over many years. Local councillors have betrayed their electors by imposing harsh policies of Tory cuts, privatisations and gentrification, and have even shown Islamophobic behaviour towards party members.
On a national level, the current leadership of the party is offering no meaningful opposition to the most corrupt and reactionary Tory government in living memory, and stands for nothing except a wholesale purge of socialists from the party, using libellous smears of anti-Semitism and covert acts of Islamophobia.
We are especially outraged by the continued exclusion from the Parliamentary Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn, a hugely popular local MP and the most successful party leader in living memory……
This is just a start. Many more members and officers of East Ham and West Ham CLPs will be resigning in the coming days in protest at the bureaucratic antics of the current party leadership. We stand ‘For the many, Not the few’.
Tahir Mirza
My Resignation from the Labour Party – Carel Buxton, Chair of West Ham CLP
Today I am resigning from the Labour Party and as Chair of West Ham CLP. I am doing so because the party under Sir Starmer no longer represents the interests of ordinary working people. It is now a pale version of the Tory party and offers no real opposition while at local level it passes on cuts from central government instead of fighting for more funding.
I first joined Labour in 1973 and rejoined when Ed Miliband became leader. Over several years I have been an active campaigner involved in both local and national elections as well as grassroots campaigning. I have worked hard for the LP in difficult circumstances and, at times, against opposition from within the party. Last year West Ham CLP along with East Ham was suspended on spurious grounds. The national party has taken away our right to have meetings and have silenced the voices of thousands of members. Newham is not alone. Suspensions of CLPs as well as individuals have happened across the country. Hundreds have had their membership ‘terminated’ on the flimsiest of reasons and often with no reason given. These are not the actions of a democratic party. This week we saw the NEC vote against reinstatement of our former leader, while a Tory MP with an obscene voting record can cross the house and become a ‘Labour’ MP. This is not the Labour Party I signed up for and I believe it is now morally as well as politically bankrupt….
I take no pleasure in writing this resignation. My family have been Labour for generations: my father joined the party in 1951 and my grandmother in the 1930s. Labour has sold out its principles under Sir Starmer, who has reneged on every promise he made to win the leadership. Labour can no longer be trusted. We will keep fighting and supporting grassroots campaigns as a Shadow CLP: Newham Socialist Labour. We stand ‘For the many, Not the few’.
Carel Buxton
Since Starmer took over, membership has reduced as has Trade Union funding.
Evolve Politics reports:
The Labour Party is on the verge of bankruptcy
A number of Sir Keir Starmer’s advisors have admitted that the Labour Party is now on the verge of bankruptcy.
Since Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader in April 2020, Labour’s revenue streams have dried up and the party’s finances have been plunged into chaos.
Owing primarily to Starmer’s lurch to the right and his decision to backtrack on a large proportion of his leadership pledges, more than 100,000 members have left the party, and a number of trade unions have cut or withdrawn funding to the party…..
As a humble party member I have all sorts of undesirables after me for a bung. For example:
Don, it’s just been confirmed: the police are investigating Boris Johnson’s Government for 12 parties during Covid lockdown.
While British people made heart-wrenching sacrifices, the Prime Minister acted with utter contempt. Boris Johnson took us for fools.
But I know that you have already made up your mind on this shameful Prime Minister.
It’s now down to his own party to decide. They know better than anyone how unsuitable Boris Johnson is for office.
Labour is clear: Boris Johnson must resign. Agree?
Chip into our Anti-Tory fight fund today:
Yes I’ll chip in £3
Yes I’ll chip in £5
Yes I’ll chip in £10
While the Conservatives are in complete disarray, Labour is determined to fix the big issues facing hard working people.
People are being hit with a cost of living crisis, energy bills through the roof and a Tory tax hike coming in April.
A Labour Government would lower your energy bills and deliver a new Britain, underpinned by security, prosperity and respect.
Pitching in and doing what we can together is how we’ll get there.
Thank you,
Keir Starmer
Leader of the Labour Party
