Wednesday 17 June 2020

Putting The Squad Back Into Squadism

As KKKeir Starmer is laughed out for having tried to steal Marcus Rashford's credit, be in no doubt that if a Labour Party Conference had been held as planned this September, then the present progress of thinking is such that by then Black Lives Matter and its supporters would have turned out in force to tell that despicable party exactly what they thought of it. Such an event would have recalled the Democratic National Convention of 1968.

The Labour Party is now led by a former Director of Public Prosecutions. Unlike the Conservative Party, it subscribes to the IHRA Definition, which is a denial of BAME, migrant and refugee experience redolent of the Windrush scandal and of the fire at Grenfell Tower. On the basis of that Definition, Labour has expelled Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth and Tony Greenstein, who were members in good standing even under Tony Blair.

Labour no longer supports the Chagossian cause either in itself or in the person of Julian Assange. Labour no longer supports self-determination for Kashmir. It has replaced Diane Abbott with an all-white Home Office team that has been outflanked from the left by Priti Patel. It has promoted Jess Phillips. It refuses to participate in the new commission on inequality.

Labour has a particular problem with black men. Only six black men have ever been Labour MPs. There are only three at the moment, with only two black men currently sitting as Labour Peers. There are fewer than 100 black men as Labour Councillors, and no black man in this century has sat either as a Labour Member of the London Assembly or as a member of the party's National Executive Committee.

The Labour Party's staff has been shown to be rampantly racist; one of those who have been so exposed has been calling me a "mulatto" since 2003, when he was on the staff of the then Government Chief Whip. And Labour has failed to oppose an early relaxation of the lockdown despite the far greater risk of Covid-19 to BAME people.

All in all, there needs to be a major show of strength when the Labour Party Conference would have been held, between 19th and 23rd September. It might be addressed by Marcus Rashford, as well as by Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth, Tony Greenstein, and Professor David Miller. It might feature the pulling down of a statue of KKKeir Starmer, which would have been erected for the purpose. And it might profitably be held outside his constituency office. Or his home.

Following that, at the next General Election, candidates of colour who assented to all of the foregoing need to contest the 20 most marginal Labour seats with the largest BAME populations, and the 20 highest Labour target seats with the largest BAME populations. They might be called The Squad.

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