Jeremy Corbyn: the facts are on his side – along with some strong defenders.
After The Observer published an incendiary – and almost fact-free – propaganda piece supporting Keir Starmer’s undemocratic decision to deny voters in Islington North a chance to continue having Jeremy Corbyn as their Labour MP, journalist Rafael Behr of that paper’s stablemate The Guardian appeared on the BBC’s Politics Live and tried to justify it.
He was joined by Labour’s Jenny Chapman, who also pushed the Labour leadership’s claims.
But they were opposed by Jess Barnard, who many may remember as the firebrand leader of Young Labour. She’s now a member of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee and of Corbyn-supporting group Momentum – and she wasn’t taking any prisoners.
I was live-tweeting at the time, and I have taken the liberty of superimposing my own comments at the appropriate moments in the discussion, so you can tell exactly what I was thinking as the debate was taking place.
For an in-depth analysis of everything that was wrong with the Observer article and the position taken by Behr and Chapman see this Vox Political article.
Sadly, considering the atmosphere in the Labour Party at the moment, This Writer fears for Ms Barnard’s future within it, having made such a clear stand against her autocratic party leader.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Packed: the Young Labour rally that Keir Starmer’s Labour conference app falsely stated was cancelled. This is the way to beat liars like Starmer.
The antipathy shown by Keir Starmer, David Evans and their right-wing-dominated NEC toward Young Labour suggests that it is one of the few parts of the party that deserve to grow during their blighted reign.
According to the excellent Skwawkbox, Labour’s official conference app falsely announced that Young Labour’s “Rally for a Socialist Future” yesterday evening was “cancelled”; it wasn’t.
Our rally is very much happening!
Come to the grand hotel, empress room. Get here early to make sure you get in! https://t.co/r8JUyhtkXo
Instead, the event was packed with young socialists who heard speakers including Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Zarah Sultana, Nadia Whittome and representatives of the union Unite and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
And it was a huge success:
Thank you everyone for coming to our rally tonight! After years apart and such a struggle to get here, it was wonderful to share a few hours filled with hope and determination with fellow socialists. See you next time! pic.twitter.com/N84M1JgBGf
It seems to This Writer that Young Labour is one of the few parts of the Labour Party that is actually fulfilling its stated function as an organisation for democratic socialists.
As it represents a starting-point for people who will form the future heart of the Labour Party, CLPs should not only urge young people in their constituencies to join; they should actively find roles for Young Labour members as they mature – ultimately seeking to find Parliamentary candidates among them.
It’s a way of preventing Starmer and/or his successors from parachuting Tories in as candidates instead.
Also popular among the fringe events yesterday evening was a discussion between John McDonnell and former US Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who said left-wing Labour should challenge Starmer over his rejection of socialist policies.
According to the BBC,
Mr Sanders said what “the progressive movement” on the left was calling for was not “radical demands”, but it was time to put those who said no “on the defensive”.
“There is no reason why in the UK or the United States all workers should not be able to earn decent wages and have decent benefits,” he said.
“There is no reason all over the world [why] we cannot provide quality healthcare to all human beings as a right of citizenship.”
The senator added: “Those people who tell you you can’t do it, you ask them why, why can’t you do it? Because you are afraid to stand up to big money interests? That is not an acceptable reason.”
Mr Sanders said the approach would lead to a good outcome.
He concluded: “When you speak truth to people, they often respond in a positive way.”
He makes a good point.
And when you are speaking the truth in the face of an obvious lie – like the Starmer-run Labour app’s claim that the Young Labour rally had been cancelled – you have an immediate advantage.
Starmer’s supporters have voted to make Labour’s internal struggle a long, slow war of attrition, focusing on internal party politics while Boris Johnson and his Tories do whatever they like in the real world (and I use the word “real” advisedly). That has been their choice.
It should be the choice of socialists to call out their lies, put them under the spotlight and explain in the simplest possible terms why policies for everyone – upheld by honest people – are better.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Targeted: Jess Barnard has been the victim of a hate campaign by the Labour Party.
“Well, that’s all right then” – said nobody at all after Labour apologised to Jess Barnard for emailing her with a ridiculous Notice of Investigation at one o’clock in the morning.
The party had been planning disciplinary action against the Young Labour chair on the pretext that she was wrong to challenge transphobia. Think about that.
But party officers took a sharp U-turn – not because they acted in error, as they tried to claim, but because Ms Barnard reported the attack to her lawyers and they threatened court action against the party.
Skwawkbox has claimed that the email was demanded by a senior staff member who is carrying out a vendetta against Ms Barnard to punish her for standing up against the party’s attempts at character assassination against her, for standing in solidarity with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and to prevent her speaking at Labour’s conference later this month. The evidence is here.
Possibly worse than this is the fact that the email was deliberately sent to a young woman who has already suffered considerable mental distress because of interventions by Labour Party officers – at one in the morning on World Suicide Prevention Day. Did whoever was responsible think it was funny to do that?
Chilling.
• What type of person tells someone they’re under investigation at 1am in the morning by email?
The damage to someone’s mental health & wellbeing is potentially catastrophic. On world suicide prevention day as well.
“As a young member already facing hostility from some members of staff, this is very much starting to feel like harassment and intimidation,” wrote Ms Barnard in an emailed letter to NEC members. And rightly so – because that is exactly what it was.
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?
Quite right. And several questions arise. Firstly, why is the party abusing its responsibilities in this way?
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
We need to know who is responsible for this behaviour and what is going to happen to them as a result. Will they face disciplinary proceedings? (I think we all know the answer to that: no.)
And the second question is: how many other Labour Party members have been subjected to abuse of their mental health in the same way?
— leftworks #WeAreCorbyn #IStandWithCraigMurray (@leftworks1) September 11, 2021
You see, Ms Barnard is not the only Labour Party member to have received notice of disciplinary proceedings at such a time.
It is regular Labour Party practice, it seems.
That is what we find from the response to Pamela Fitzpatrick – who is herself taking Labour to court over disciplinary proceedings launched against her, apparently in order to prevent her from attending the party conference and being available as a possible replacement for David Evans if he is removed from his general secretary role by party members angered at his vindictive and unreasonable purges of left-wing members.
She asked whether the party was deliberately timing its letters to cause maximum distress to members and the answer is an unequivocal yes:
I got the email @ 11 pm with 5 accusations of liking items on Facebook, spurious accusations. On the last page of 5 they suggest you turn to CAB, the Samaritans or my GP. For support. I have 64 years active membership. Disgraceful treatment.
I was a sitting councillor (County and Borough) with an unblemished record. NOI came at ten past eight on a Saturday evening, on same day I put in my application to be a candidate in CC elections and days after I had confirmed my intention to stand for the Borough.
Where is the outrage from Keir Starmer and his cult members? Where are the announcements of disciplinary action against the culprits? And when will the procedure be reformed?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Keir Starmer (left) and his right-wing ACTING general secretary David Evans: they’re doormats to any right-wing organisation that wants to attack Labour, but have no problem attacking left-wing young people.
A new event has been added to the programme of The World Transformed – the left-wing political festival running alongside the Labour Party Conference this year.
Youth Rising for Palestine will take place on September 28, between 3-4.30pm, sponsored by Young Labour and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in what can only be a bitter humiliation for Keir Starmer and his unelected general secretary David Evans, who – it seems clear – tried to prevent the event from taking place at all.
The event’s blurb states: “May 2021 saw thousands of Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza strip, in the wake of a wave of protests against violent evictions in Sheikh Jarrar and across occupied Palestine. In response to these attacks, millions mobilised across the world in solidarity with the people of Palestine, including the largest ever UK solidarity demonstration in London attended by overwhelmingly young people. But it is not enough to protest in the streets when thousands of Palestinian lives are lost. As the Israeli state ramps up its regime of apartheid and occupation, while the British political establishment seeks to suppress Palestinian voices and those acting in solidarity with them, how can we build on the explosion of youth-led organising we’ve seen this year to build a long-lasting and cross-generational UK solidarity movement?”
You can see how this would upset Starmer, who has aligned Labour firmly with apartheid Israel through his fawning subservience to the Board of Deputies of British Jews – which has itself just admitted its own strong ties to the Israeli Embassy; apparently it is not a UK organisation but an arm of the Israeli government that is being used to influence UK politics.*
I’m not the only person to see it this way. Consider:
What a genius move!
The event that David Evans and Keir Starmer tried to ban from Labour conference will now be held by The World Transformed!
— Emz The Socialist #OrdinaryLeft ✊❤️ (@EmzTheSocialist) September 1, 2021
How was Young Labour forced to take its event outside the Labour Conference? It’s quite complicated, but I’ll try to take you through it painlessly.
Events had been unfolding for many months but we only found out about them yesterday (August 31) after Young Labour co-chair Jess Barnard finally gave up trying to reason with Starmer (who never responded anyway) and Evans – who, it seems, was more interested in exercising powers he doesn’t actually have:
This is a disappointing and difficult thread to post, so buckle up!
A few months ago, myself and @lara_eleanor met with David Evans once we were told the party would not be holding a young labour conference this year, despite it being a rulebook requirement.
Right – so Young Labour were told they would not be allowed to hold their annual event this year, even though the Labour Party is required by its own rules to host it. Already, Evans was breaking party rules.
If he had provided a reason – even one as flimsy as Covid-19 (it wouldn’t work because then he wouldn’t be holding a full conference) – it wouldn’t have been as bad, but he simply didn’t bother.
Its worth noting here that during all this we have had nothing from Keir Starmer or the leaders office since being elected almost a year ago. No acknowledgement we exist, no reply to emails, nothing.
Okay, so Evans at least promised to provide more resources for a Young Labour presence in the main event. Did he?
No:
So we are now three weeks to conference with the party giving us no information, and just today they have said there is no capacity for due diligence checks until 20th september – these are the necessary checks for every speaker at conference potentially ruling out YL day.
You read that right. YL provided all its required information months ago and was ignored until yesterday – August 31 – when Ms Barnard was given the excuse that the party had “no capacity for due diligence checks” until September 20.
To me, it looks like Evans (and Starmer?) found a reason to want YL’s events cancelled – quietly and without any nasty publicity. Why would they want that? Read on…
Myself and a couple of committee members will now be working around the clock to pull together events with or without the help of the leadership. Young members have bought tickets, paid for travel and accommodation to be here and were promised a YL day by the national party.
Is the picture clearer now? YL wanted to host an event with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Evans (and Starmer?) wanted to put a stop to it. But they didn’t want to be seen to be stopping that particular event, so they created an excuse about “due diligence” checks.*
Ms Barnard, at least, is still willing to work with the Labour leadership…
I felt it was important to set the record straight that we as a committee are doing everything within our power and capacity to deliver for all young members and will make sure any young member who bought tickets will not be let down. In solidarity!
One reason for this feeling is the arrival of a journalist named Oliver Kamm (I had never heard of him either). After Ms Barnard tweeted her thread, he responded with the comment below – claiming that Young Labour is anti-Semitic and wants to see a second Holocaust.
There is, to This Writer’s knowledge, absolutely no evidence to support such a wild claim, so Ms Barnard’s response is entirely understandable.
And take a look at Alex Tiffin’s comment.
Now would be the time you'd expect @Keir_Starmer and @AngelaRayner to come to the aid of their Young Elected Representatives. It is after all their job to support & mentor them
It's not just defamatory for @YoungLabourUK either, but the wider @UKLabour Party in general.
Where are Starmer and Rayner (and, for that matter, Evans)? Nowhere to be seen. Now, why on Earth would they not want to defend their elected Labour Party representative? And isn’t it a dereliction of duty that they have said nothing about this?
Fortunately a few other people have chimed in to have their informed say. Personally, I have no knowledge of this Kamm person so must rely on their information:
First, we had Simon Heffer claiming that Corbyn wanted to 'reopen Auschwitz', and now we have Oliver Kamm saying that Young Labour wants 'a second Holocaust'.
They all know this stuff is unhinged nonsense, but this is what the fake 'antisemitism crisis' has always been: a scam. https://t.co/2DaZ9CZtOG
Oliver Kamm, currently inventing obscene claims with which to brand Young Labour racist, previously wrote that Islamophobia is a "scam," a "fabricated and question-begging linguistic manoeuvre."https://t.co/Wx8FsMW9s1pic.twitter.com/oBeZexnOug
Oliver Kamm used to post in a Chomsky newsgroup in the late 90s/00s. David Graeber was active there at the time and remembered him when I reached out to him a couple of years ago. Kamm had thousands of posts, many originating from his then-employer Commerzbank's IP address. pic.twitter.com/kdhj9oOalu
10 months ago, Keir Starmer removed the whip from Jeremy Corbyn for saying Labour's "antisemitism crisis" had been exaggerated and weaponised, thereby stoking up unjustified fear among British Jews.
In other news, here's Oliver Kamm claiming Young Labour want a second Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/nKBzFtrTjT
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush 🟨🟥🥀🇵🇸 (@WarmongerHodges) September 1, 2021
Not forgetting that Oliver Kamm's idea of freedom of speech is to threaten and bully younger journalists, such as @OwenJones84, and write to their employers in an apparent attempt to intimidate them. https://t.co/3KPJq0JdVv
— leftworks #WeAreCorbyn #IStandWithCraigMurray (@leftworks1) August 31, 2021
Fortunately, given all of the above, it seems certain that the following tweet will prove inaccurate:
Oliver Kamm seriously tweeted that Young Labour supports a second Holocaust and he can just do that and nothing will happen. Absolutely wild.
So that is the reason Young Labour will be co-sponsoring an event at so-called “Trots’ Jamboree” The World Transformed – alongside the PSC. I wonder if Jeremy Corbyn will attend.
This Writer has no doubt that it will be a much more worthwhile use of your time than whatever vapid puff of hot air will be put up by Starmer’s mob at that time. When’s his leader speech?
Meanwhile, I can only agree with the following two tweets…
The more Keir Starmer targets, silences and purges Palestinian rights campaigners to placate the Jewish Labour Movement [sic] and the Board of Deputies, the more obvious it becomes that Labour's "antisemitism crisis" was all about protecting the fascist government of Israel.
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush 🟨🟥🥀🇵🇸 (@WarmongerHodges) August 31, 2021
By effectively banning Young Labour from this year's Labour Party conference, Keir Starmer has told everyone who got interested in politics because of Jeremy Corbyn to f*ck off.
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush 🟨🟥🥀🇵🇸 (@WarmongerHodges) August 31, 2021
… and endorse James Foster’s words of encouragement to Young Labour members who will be attending the conference:
I hope any @YoungLabourUK members, eligible to vote, vote AGAINST the appointment of David Evans at @UKLabour Conference.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. This includes scrolling or continued navigation. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
