Blairites Clearly Worried that Strikes May Be Popular

Bravo to the RMT’s Mike Lynch, who’s been humiliating various journos on the right-wing news programmes by ably answering some of their stupid and very leading questions. Momentum put up a three minute video the other day of him being interviewed by Kaye Burleigh on Sky News.
She asked him what he was doing picketing. He casually turned part way round to indicate the picket line behind her, telling her that they were there and would try to persuade workers not to cross it. But what if they tried? asked Burleigh. Then we’d try to persuade them not to, replied Lynch. At which point she got a bit huffy. The miners’ strike was mentioned, with Lynch wondering if she was old enough to remember it. She said huffily that she was, and she knew what picketing was. She was clearly desperate to get him to say something incriminating, like violence might happen, but Lynch would not be baited. And he’s been causing panic with his calm, reasoned answered right across the news programmes. I went to a left-Labour Zoom meeting on Wednesday. It was a conversation between the mighty Richard Burgon and Jess Barnard, the awesome head of Young Labour. During their conversation they said that public support for the train workers – not just the drivers, but also the signalmen and the people who work to maintain it all – had gone up. Several Labour MPs have even defied Starmer to express their support and solidarity with the union and its strike.

This has clearly put the wind not just up Starmer, but up the Blairites as a whole. And as Corporal Jones used to say in Dad’s Army, ‘they do not like it up ’em. They do not!’ For some reason I’ve had a short, 1 1/2 minute video from New Labour appear on my mobile this afternoon of Tony Blair telling anyone who’ll listen why we shouldn’t support public sector strikes.

Rubbish! As Burgon and Barnard said, Labour was founded by the unions to defend union rights. And that also means public sector unions. I see absolutely no reason why anyone, who wishes to remain true to the party and its great traditions, should listen to either Starmer or Blair. When Blair took over the Labour party, he threatened to cut its ties with the unions if he didn’t get his way on reducing their voting powers in the party. This would effectively have torn the heart out of the party as a genuinely working class organisation. The subtitle for this wretched video described Blair as Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. So he was, during which time the number of people voting Labour actually went down along with the party’s membership. The number of people voting for Blair was actually less than those voting for Jez Corbyn. Blair only won because the Tories were even worse.

Why did the Labour vote and membership decline? That’s not a difficult question! It might have something to do with Blair carrying on Thatcher’s programme of privatisation, including that of the NHS, the further destruction of the welfare state and lying about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction which he could launch within forty minutes to take us into an illegal war. A war which wrecked a country and destabilised the entire Middle East, leaving it vulnerable to the horrible predations of ISIS. Hussein was a monster, but by the time he invaded he was not a threat to the other countries and something of a joke in the Arab world. He was certainly no threat to Britain. We sent our brave lads and lasses into Iraq not to defend Blighty, not to give the Iraqis democracy, but simply so that the oil companies and multinationals could steal Iraq’s oil and its state industries.

Blair’s a war criminal who should have been put on trial at the Hague alongside other monsters like Slobodan Milosevic. But somehow New Labour, now looking very shabby and shop-soiled, expect us to hang on his words like an elder statesman, like some latter day Pericles or Solon, but from Islington rather than Athens.

Bilge! Blair should shut up and keep silent. He had his time and it was over 15 years ago. As for Starmer, he’s a disgrace. They’re probably arguing that supporting public sector strikes will make the party unpopular. But I think they’re really scared that the RMT strike is proving all too popular, and that other unions are joining in to demand better wages for their workers.

And hooray for them, and yay for Mike Lynch!

Here’s the video Momentum put up of Lynch very capably rebutting Kaye Burleigh’s questions.

Arise Festival Announce Line-Up and Agenda for Zoom Rally Today

I got an email yesterday from Arise, the festival of Labour left ideas, announcing their agenda and the speakers for their Zoom meeting this afternoon, ‘Making Another World Possible’. The email runs

Making Another World Possible – Agenda announced.

Register here // Share & invite here // Retweet here to spread the word.
Online event. Saturday March 5, 13.00-16.30.

Hello David

We are writing to announce the agenda for the major Making Another World Possible: An Internationalist Agenda for the Left & Labour event taking place this Saturday, which can be found below, with sessions on The Global Struggle for Climate & Vaccine Justice; Build voices for peace : No to war – no to nuclear weapons – refugees welcome here + a Women for peace, global justice & socialist change closing rally.

In the context of the increasingly dangerous times we live in, the whole event on March 5 (full details below) will be a key point to organise for an international agenda for justice and equality. Be there!

Yours in solidarity,
The Arise Festival volunteers.

EVENT AGENDA:

1pm-2.05pm
The Global Struggle for Climate & Vaccine Justice 

Diane Abbott MP
Jon Trickett MP
Gyekye Tanoh, Third World Solidarity Network, Ghana 
Nick Dearden, Global Justice Now
Asad Rehman, War on Want 
Chair: Mish Rahman, NEC & Momentum

2.15pm-3.20pm
Build voices for peace : No to war – no to nuclear weapons – refugees welcome here

Jeremy Corbyn MP
Richard Burgon MP
Jess Barnard, Young Labour Chair
Sophie Bolt, CND
Murad Qureshi, Stop the War Coalition
Sabby Dhalu, Stand Up to Racism
Chair: Matt Willgress, Labour Outlook

3.30-4.15pm
Closing Rally – Women for peace, global justice & socialist change #IWD2022

Jeremy Corbyn MP
Richard Burgon MP
Jess Barnard, Young Labour Chair
Sophie Bolt, CND
Murad Qureshi, Stop the War Coalition
Sabby Dhalu, Stand Up to Racism
Chair: Matt Willgress, Labour Outlook

Arise Festival Adding ‘No To War and Nuclear War’ to Online Event on Saturday

I got this email from the organisers of the Arise Festival of left wing ideas announcing that they are adding a session on peace and protesting against war to their online event, Making Another World Possible, on Saturday. The email says

‘No to war – no to nuclear weapons – build voices for peace ☮️

Register here // Share & invite here // Retweet here to spread the word.

Hello David

We are writing to announce further details for Saturday’s Making Another World Possible event, and in particular there will be a No to war – no to nuclear weapons – build voices for peace session featuring Jeremy Corbyn MP; Sophie Bolt, CND; Murad Qureshi, Stop the War Coalition & Jess Barnard, Young Labour Chair at 2.15pm.

In the context of the increasingly dangerous times we live in, the whole event on March 5 (full details below) will be a key point to organise for an international agenda for justice and equality. Be there!

Yours in solidarity,
The Arise Festival volunteers.‘

As far as I’m concerned, the only people in politics talking sense at the moment are the Labour left and people like Corbyn.

Left Labour Message on How to Join Them and Speak Up for Peace

I got this message early this afternoon from the good peeps at Arise, the left Labour festival of ideas. It details their petitions, internet article and forthcoming protest against a possible war in Ukraine. It’s entitled ‘Speak Up For Peace – What You Can Do’, and it runs

‘Hello David

As much of the world hopes for de-escalation around the Ukrainian crisis, we are joining with the anti-war movement, Young Labour & others to oppose the UK’s Goverment’s sabre-rattling. Here are 3 things you can do:

1. Sign the Stop the War Coalition statement against the war-mongering Tory Government here.
2. Read the latest analysis from Kate Hudson (CND) here, Young Labour here and Andrew Murray (Stop the War) here on our media partner Labour Outlook.
3. Join Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burgon,  Jess Barnard (Young Labour), Sophie Bolt (CND) and Murad Qureshi (Stop the War) to discuss Why Labour Must Speak Up For Peace on March 5 at the Making Another World Possible: an internationalist agenda for the Left & Labour event (1-4.30pm), which will also feature sessions on The Global Struggle for Climate & Vaccine Justice + Women for peace, global justice & socialism.

Labour Party Conference passed policies that show a clear alternative of how we can build a world of international justice, equality & peace. But too often the Party leadership is not offering this alternative to the Tories’ reactionary foreign policy agenda. Please support the anti-war movement and join us on March 5, which will be a key point to organise for an international agenda for justice, equality. Be there!‘

Yours in solidarity,
The Arise Volunteers Team.‘

Stop The War Coalition’s statement against our government’s warmongering over Ukraine reads:

‘Stop the War opposes any war over Ukraine, and believes the crisis should be settled on a basis which recognises the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination and addresses Russia’s security concerns.

Our focus is on the policies of the British government which have poured oil on the fire throughout this episode. In taking this position we do not endorse the nature or conduct of either the Russian or Ukrainian regimes.

The British government has talked up the threat of war continually, to the point where the Ukraine government has asked it to stop.

Unlike the French and German governments, it has advanced no proposals for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, and has contributed only sabre-rattling.

Indeed, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has even accused those seeking a peaceful settlement of preparing “another Munich.”

Instead, the British government has sent arms to Ukraine and deployed further troops to Eastern Europe, moves which serve no purpose other than inflaming tensions and indicating disdain for Russian concerns.

It has also declared that Ukraine has a “sovereign right” to join NATO, when no such right exists to join it or any other military alliance.

Britain needs to change its policy, and start working for peace, not confrontation.

Stop the War believes that Russia and Ukraine should reach a diplomatic settlement of the tensions between them, on the basis of the Minsk-2 agreement already signed by both states.

It believes NATO should call a halt to its eastward expansion and commit to a new security deal for Europe which meets the needs of all states and peoples.

We refute the idea that NATO is a defensive alliance, and believe its record in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Libya over the last generation, not to mention the US-British attack on Iraq, clearly proves otherwise.

We support all efforts to reach new arms control agreements in Europe and to move towards nuclear disarmament across the continent.’

I’ve added my name to the statement because I am extremely worried about the way our government seems to want to take us to war there, and the Coalition are fundamentally correct in everything they say. NATO made an agreement with Gorbachev after the fall of communism that the former Warsaw pact countries would not join NATO and would remain neutral, with their security guaranteed by both parties. And then as soon as it could, NATO expanded in eastern Europe right up to Russia’s borders, thus stoking Russian fears of encirclement.

The invasion of Afghanistan had less to do with overturning a repressive Islamist despotism and creating a free and democratic state for its people, and far more to do with geopolitics and securing a vital oil pipeline. The overthrow of Colonel Gaddafy by rebels aided by western bombing has resulted in a divided country, one half of which is run by Islamists, who’ve dragged it back into the middle ages. Gaddafy was a dictator, but he believed in Africa as a continent and the equality of all its peoples, Black and White. But the Islamists don’t, and have reopened slave markets selling migrants from further south, who have struggled to reach Libya in their efforts to cross to Europe.

As for the Iraq invasion, that has been an object lesson in how right the British scientist, broadcaster and Fabian Socialist Jacob Bronowski was when he said ‘War is theft by other means’. Again, the war wasn’t about overthrowing a tyrant for the benefit of the Iraqi people. It was done so the American and Saudi oil cartels could steall their oil and western multinationals could still their state industries. I caught a bit of a talk about the invasion and its consequences in a recent Zoom meeting organised by the Labour left by an Iraqi gent. It’s heart-breaking and disgusting what has been done to the country. The American occupation government divided the state industries up into three categories – those that were to be privatised, though that were to be mothballed, and those that were to be simply closed down, thus helping to wreck the country’s domestic economy. And the Iraqi health service has been decimated. According to the gentleman, if you have a relative or friend in hospital now, there are no drugs to treat them. You have to run around outside trying to find someone who will sell them to you. But this was a country under Hussein that had a good healthcare system where treatment was free.

I think there are forces in the military and the Tory party that have been hoping for a confrontation with Russia for over half a decade. I think they were looking forward to a war between NATO and Russia in Lithuania in 2017. That year’s come and gone, and the theatre of war has moved south.

And I really do wonder what we are doing supporting the Ukrainian government when it has strong links with real Nazis. Novara Media put up a video this week discussing the story and photograph on the front page of the times. This was about a 78 year old women, who was undergoing training with some kind of paramilitary outfit in order to defend her homeland. Well, this would all be good if the paramilitaries involved were an ordinary patriotic defence group. But they weren’t. They were the Azov Battalion, a bunch of Nazis who have form for dressing up in the uniform of World War II SS auxiliaries and celebrating Nazi collaborators as national heroes. And it hardly needs to be added that they are definitely anti-Semites.

I don’t want to see a war in Ukraine. I don’t want to see it plundered and robbed, or destabilised for the benefit of big business, like Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq. And I am terrified that any confrontation will very swiftly become nuclear.

And so I fully support the demands for peace made by the Coalition, Arise and its multitude of supporters. Including Jeremy Corbyn, the greatest Prime Minister this country has had stolen from it.

Starmer Tries Purging Young Labour Leader for Standing Up to ‘Transphobia’

More evidence of the shameless treachery of Keir Starmer, David Evans and the Blairites in the Labour party. At one O’clock in the morning, Jess Barnard, the chair of Young Labour, got an email telling her that she was being investigated for transphobic tweets. Novara Media put up a video about this last night and Mike’s put up a piece about it this morning. The tweets are anything but offensive. One reads

‘Competition Time

Guess how many T%RT accounts I had to block today?

Closest guess gets to pick a charity supporting transpeople for me to donate some of cllr allowance to. (Voting closes in 24 hours).’

‘Expect better from a Labour representative. These accounts stalk, harass, incited hatred and abuse towards transpeople. Why on earth a Labour cllr would defend them is completely beyond me. There’s no fishing for anything I just won’t be giving transphobes energy.’

As Barnard pointed out in her reply to the Labour complaints team, there’s absolutely no personal abuse in the letter, nor anything really offensive, as far as I can see. TERF stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists. The anti-trans people themselves prefer to describe themselves as ‘gender critical’, and regard TERF as a term of abuse. Novara don’t agree, finding it almost too polite.

Barnard’s own reply to the NEC runs

‘Dear NEC members,

I write to you urgently seeking clarification regarding an email I received this morning giving me notice that I am under investigation for challenging transphobia online.

I dare say you will agree from the evidence and charges, this is absolutely astounding that the party resources are being used on this. There is no discrimination evident in this document, attacking trans people is not a protected characteristic. I haven’t identified any individuals, therefore I cannot see why I have been put under investigation from either evidence given or alleged rules broken.

I am also deeply concerned that this is being sent to me on your behalf at 1am, having a huge detrimental impact on my mental health. As a young member already facing hostility from some members of staff, this is starting to feel very much like harassment and intimidation.

I want to ask if this is being done in the name of the NEC and, if not, that this be overturned and there is an investigation as to why people who challenge discrimination against trans people or block abusive accounts are being put under investigation.’

I strongly disagree with Barnard’s attitude towards the transgender ideology. I don’t want to see anyone persecuted, denied jobs or abused and assaulted simply because they suffer from gender dysphoria. However, there are real issues and problems there. The massive growth of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria among teenage girls and young women seems more like a social panic, a mass psychological disorder than a real disease located in neurology. The treatment is highly difficult and the use of puberty blockers, then cross-gender hormones do have a detrimental affect on transpeoples’ health.

While I have no doubt that many transpeople genuinely suffer from the disorder and need to transition, there is a problem with perverted men claiming to identify as women in order to get into women’s spaces. The Wi spa incident in California was a case in point. Female customers complained about a naked man in an area exclusively for women. It’s been claimed it was a hoax, but others have come forward to corroborate the account. It seemed that the accuse man has previous convictions for indecent exposure and burglary. President Biden has passed legislation allowing biological men who identify as women to be housed in women’s prisons. As a result, there have been incidents of rape and pregnancy from sex offenders identifying as women. This has also happened in Ireland. I don’t doubt that there are men who have feminine characteristics that do deserve to be placed in women’s prisons. Way back in the 1990s there was a case of a person housed in male prison, who believed that they were vulnerable because they were really female. This individual was a hermaphrodite who had breasts and been born without male genitals. This sounds like an intersex genetic disorder in which individuals who are genetically male are born without genitals and later develop breasts. There was a theory at one time that the Pharoah Ankhnaten suffered from this disorder because of his bizarre appearance in the art of his reign. Women’s safety should be paramount, and sex predators should not be allowed into women’s spaces, however, they identify.

Also, if you listen to the anti-trans activists, it appears that all violence and abuse comes from the trans rights activists. Anti-trans activists have been physically assaulted by their pro-trans opponents and have suffered real abuse and death threats online. These have been extensively described on sites like ‘Women Are Human’. Trans activists have posted pictures of guns on twitter with captions saying that this is what they’re going to do to TERFS. At one Pride rally a week or so ago, a man was thrown out because he turned up wearing the T-Shirt of the LGB Alliance, a gay rights group that has dropped the ‘Trans’ because they feel it is a separate issue that detracts from the fight for gay equality. Not only was his insulted and thrown out, he was also physically assaulted off camera.

But clearly, Barnard has not published abuse online. She did not post pictures of guns or tell anyone she was going to murder people. She just blocked them and expressed her surprise at Labour councillors supporting the anti-trans movement. She should not have been suspended for this. I have an anti-trans views myself, but perhaps I’m being oldy-fash here, as my gran used to say, but I want issues settled by rational debate. Not by people being suspended or silenced by authoritarian fiat.

And Starmer is especially out of order because a few weeks ago, he and Angela Rayner announced that they were firmly behind the campaign to remove transphobia. So that’s another promise this deeply untrustworthy leader has broken.

The real reason for the investigation, it seems, is one again Starmer’s determination to purge pro-Palestinian activists. Barnard didn’t back down on pressure placed on her to remove the Palestine Solidarity Campaign from the Young Labour annual conference. He tried to get the conference cancelled, but they are obliged to hold it by the Labour party constitution. No one defies Keef Stalin! Hence the trumped up charge.

It also seems it’s now common practice for Labour to email members and politicos late at night informing them that they’re being investigated. Mike’s put up a series of messages from long term Labour members who’ve received emails at 11 pm and 1 am in the morning.

The NEC has rescinded the investigation and the letter, claiming it was a mistake. But as Raphael Dogg points out, “An ‘error’ is when you press a wrong key. Spending a day sifting through someone’s social media, finding stuff that can be bent to appear rule-breaking, preparing a disciplinary case, sending it off at 1am: I think that’s called something else. Eh, @Keir_Starmer?’

Tom London said “This is what happens when the party machinery is in hands of people who see everything through the prism of factionalism and have no understanding of the rule of law, due process or simple decency and common-sense There are many other cases that should be withdrawn immediately.’

And Pamela Fitzpatrick, who is taking Labour to court over her suspension, wonder if the letters are deliberately timed to cause maximum distress. The answer, Mike states, is an unequivocal ‘Yes’. I agree absolutely.

Starmer is a disgrace. He’s an authoritarian incompetent with no principles and a hatred of the left and the pro-Palestinian movement. He has done next to nothing to present an alternative case to the Tories, because he hasn’t got one.

He needs to go before he destroys the party, and everyone he has purged should be immediately readmitted.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtxqbqL1POE&t=171s

https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2021/09/12/hate-filled-labour-now-habitually-emails-notice-of-disciplinary-action-to-members-late-at-night/

Left Labour Zoom Meeting on Saturday to Restore Whip to Jeremy Corbyn

I also got this email message yesterday from the Labour Party Arise group about another Zoom meeting. This one is in support of Jeremy Corbyn and will demand that the Labour whip be restored to him. Indeed, he should never have been suspended and had the whip removed. It’s just sheer vindictiveness on the part of the Blairites and the self-declared, entirely unrepresentative British Jewish establishment.

EVENT: #RestoretheWhip to Jeremy Corbyn

RSVP, invite & share here // Retweet here to spread the word

Saturday 28 November, 5pm

With: Diane Abbott // Apsana Begum // Richard Burgon // Ian Byrne // Ian Lavery // John McDonnell // Jon Trickett // Matt Wrack (FBU) // Jess Barnard (Young Labour Chair) // Chair: Bell Ribeiro-Addy.

Come and hear why the divisive & anti-democratic decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn must be reversed, what we can do to build the pressure & the next steps in the fight for party democracy & socialist policies. The fightback is on – get involved.

Organised by Arise & Momentum.

RSVP, invite & share here // Retweet here to spread the word

Momentum’s Stand With Corbyn Rally

Yesterday Momentum held an online rally to support Jeremy Corbyn on YouTube. The speakers included Diane Abbott, Jess Barnard, Howard Beckett, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Rivkah Brown, Richard Burgon, Deborah Hermanns, John McDonnell, Roger McKenzie, Barnaby Raine, Chardine Taylor Stone, and Jon Trickett.

They paid tribute to Jeremy Corbyn’s tireless work opposing racism, which some of the speakers had personally experienced. Jon Trickett is Jewish through his mother’s side, and suffered anti-Semitic abuse recently from a real Nazi. They acknowledged that there was a problem with racism and anti-Semitism in the Labour party and society, and felt that it was growing, and needed to be fought. They also attacked the Conservatives for their continued attacks on working people.

Some speakers made it extremely clear that the anti-Semitism smears against Corbyn weren’t actually motivated by any concern about real Jew hatred, but were instead an attempt to stop the emergence of a genuine socialist Labour party. This was shown in a Torygraph article that day calling for Starmer to purge the party completely of Corbynism. They made the point that what frightens the Tories and their supporters is that Labour has a membership of 500,000. The Labour party isn’t the leadership, it isn’t MPs, it’s the members. They also pointed out that Corbyn’s problem was that no socialist could become a Labour MP during Blair and Brown’s tenure of power, and so the parliamentary MPs from this time, who have only been MPs for a few years, are naturally opposed to the Labour leader.

They described how immensely popular Jeremy Corbyn and his policies were. One of the speakers told how the manifesto was clapped and cheered by everyone at one Labour rally or conference. This was astonishing, as it wasn’t a person, but a manifesto. One northern MP also described how, when Corbyn came to speak in a small northern pit town, the rally was packed with a thousand extra people, who had walked there. He believed Corbyn was more popular than Arthur Scargill.

They acknowledged that it was going to be a struggle to recover from this crisis and get back into government. But it was never easy, and the press and media will always be opposed to Labour. It’s not called ‘the struggle’ for nothing. Nevertheless, they urged their audience to remain in the Labour Party and join Momentum to create a united left that can fight and win. And they had other demands for the reform of society and the removal of the Tory policies that are harming and killing the British people. One of the MPs condemned the way the Tories could find billions for their cronies in industry, such as giving money for a test and trace system, that doesn’t work, but couldn’t find the paltry amount for free school meals for starving children.

It was an inspiring rally uniting Blacks, Whites, Asians, Jews and gentiles in support of an inspiring Labour leader. A leader who was brought down by conspirators in his own party, and who still now terrifies the right-wing political establishment. A great politician, who should never have been suspended and deserves to be back in the Labour party.

Here’s the video: