Photo: By Rwendland - Own work, CC
When Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader I ceased backing or even voting for the party as the trajectory was going to be to the extreme left and his supporters included all sorts of unsavoury extremists that I had spent the last couple of decades fighting in the trade unions. Then there was the antisemitism thinly disguised under the label of anti-Zionism something else I had come across in the unions.
As a trade union rep active in unaffiliated trade unions (CPSA/SCPS/PCS) I had supported the Labour Party (though not been in favour of affiliation due to the need for politically independent civil service unions) and encouraged members to vote for them except when tactical voting (for the Lib Dems until the coalition) as a matter of course.
In the PCS where i spent my last 15 years or so as an active Branch Secretary I opposed the leaderships desire to support a party that was to the left of Labour either through Respect or the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) proposed by General Secretary Mark Serwotka and his then allies in the Socialist Workers Party or his other backers in the Socialist Party or Militant as they are better known.
Many of these people including Serwotka flocked to back Labour with the intent of purging every MP that didn't follow their narrow definitions of so-called "socialism". The rest as we know was period of bullying, intolerance and the rise of antisemitism unchecked by the leadership of Corbyn and his cronies.
Like most of the Jewish community I looked elsewhere to vote, mainly to just keep Corbyn out. His eventual fall which took far too long for many and has left much distrust within not just within my community but amongst others, particularly those who had been bullied and shouted down by the comrades were still weary of what would come next.
Despite Corbyn's fall his supporters were still legion and the election of Keir Starmer whilst welcome left me cold for a long time. How he would far given the large numbers of corbynites still floating around left me concerned. However his actions gradually impressed me.
For the first time the Labour leader took a stand against the new antisemitism and has acted against it's perpetrators firmly though it took time to get the ball rolling I was quietly won over. Starmer has made it quite clear that antisemitism will not be tolerated and the racists are finding themselves out in the cold as the hard-left leaves in droves.
The frantic attacks on Starmer by the hard/far left (whatever you want to call them) expose these charlatans for what they always were. Ideologues who actually don't give a jot about actual people, just ideas in old dusty books written by long dead Germans and Russians.
The battle with the recidivist left may not be over but there is now hope that people will now come before ideology. Labour voters are far more realistic and pragmatic that the blinkered left are prepared to admit even to themselves.
Keir Starmer actually shows leadership and even when decisions taken may not always be popular even in more moderate quarters he has shown the mettle needed to steer the party back on a course whereby Labour will be electable once more.
No comments:
Post a Comment