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There were no reasonable grounds for suspending Jeremy Corbyn. His response to the report was understated and mild – so much so that it had not even produced much criticism from a notoriously hostile press. Certainly, nothing in its content could be deemed antisemitic. The suspension itself was botched, circumventing the party’s own systems which do not flag Jeremy Corbyn as having been suspended.
At the time of writing, David Evans could not even say what party rule Corbyn was alleged to have broken with his statement – as an appointed member of staff, he refused to clarify this point last night to the party’s elected National Executive Committee. When the post-facto rationale is contrived, it will almost certainly use the catch-all of bringing the party into disrepute.
Keir Starmer – who, despite weak protestations to the contrary, was party to the decision to suspend – has been more forthcoming about the reasoning. In his view, Corbyn’s statement cast antisemitism as a factional issue and downplayed its significance. But who could seriously claim that the issue had not been factionalised? The EHRC report itself indicates this. And it expressly allows for discussion over the scale of the problem – this, it says, is not antisemitic and should be protected speech for all Labour members.
Corbyn’s suspension is entirely consistent with Starmer’s approach to leadership since his victory earlier this year. He has sought at every turn to marginalise the Left, and this offered the latest opportunity. Starmer saw a chance to receive a slap on the back from the Murdoch press for his statesmanship, to demonstrate his own power within the party, and to provide a public display of the degree to which Labour was “under new leadership.”
And in order to do this, he only needed to ensure that the party’s civil war would continue in perpetuity, its mass membership would depart in their thousands, its trade union affiliates would feel betrayed and the very promises of unity he was elected upon would be rendered meaningless. That is the trade-off he has made – and everyone inside the Labour Party should know it.
Today, on his rounds to the TV studios, Starmer portrayed this as a sensible decision. He claimed that he did not want to see a civil war – but he has very clearly been waging one: by omitting the Left from senior positions; by expelling Rebecca Long-Bailey from his shadow cabinet; by supporting the appointment of a brazenly factional general secretary; by enforcing a three-line whip on the Overseas Operations and Spy Cops Bills; by threatening MPs who dared to vote with their conscience; by abandoning commitments to the policy positions which were the basis for his mandate from members just months ago. From the beginning, it has been a war on the Left.
Labour is, indeed, in a civil war. But only one side is fighting. The Left has thus far remained largely disorganised and timid. This must change. The reality is that Jeremy Corbyn still enjoys widespread respect and admiration across much of the party. The vast majority of its members – including many thousands who voted for Keir Starmer – were brought into its ranks under his leadership.
They were inspired by Corbyn’s vision of a society where millions of people would not have to suffer the indignations of grinding poverty, a vision which has rarely been evoked by the Starmer leadership even as this enormous crisis and the government’s response to it has pushed so many more towards the edge.
They were convinced, too, that there was another way of doing politics – one which could be more participatory, more democratic and more engaged with social movements outside of Westminster. This is an approach which Starmer and his team have set out dismantle in the Labour Party, reducing it again to a narrow electoral vehicle which sees its own membership as an inconvenience. Soon, they will put the final nail in this coffin by shutting down the Community Organising Unit.
Trade unions, too, supported Jeremy Corbyn – not because of the man as an individual, but because he offered the prospect of a party which would genuinely represent the interests of workers in parliament. No more would Labour be a party which refused to repeal anti-trade union laws in government and condemned striking workers in the national press. Keir Starmer promised that this vision of the party would endure under his leadership. As with so many of his promises, it is clearer by the day that it was a lie.
This alliance – of members and trade unions – must now stand up and insist that the attempt to erase the past five years, expressed most clearly in the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the party, is halted. Between them, they have funded the party machine. They have built it too, from door to door, often in miserable conditions, giving of their own time and effort with little appreciation. They must now throw a spanner in its works.
In the context of a government which is driving millions towards penury, and many towards death, by its handling of the pandemic, and against the backdrop of a political arena which is increasingly shaped by individuals who are unashamed in their aspirations to demolish the meagre remnants of equality and democracy which have survived recent decades, the Labour leadership has decided to wage war against the Left. That cannot be allowed to stand.
If it is, it guarantees that the coming years will see little if any meaningful opposition to the march towards the right socially, culturally and economically. Labour’s members and supporters, instead of being active in fighting for their values, will be told simply to wait for an election that takes place years down the road, in god knows what kind of wasteland the Tory government has left behind.
Be in no doubt: if Jeremy Corbyn is driven out of the Labour Party, it will be socialism that is expelled from British politics for the foreseeable future. We must build the strongest possible alliance to ensure that this suspension is overturned.
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/10/jeremy-corbyns-suspension-is-about-crushing-the-left
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by Јанош Винету Thu Oct 29, 2020 3:25 pm
