Fri 17 Apr 2020, 02:46 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER by June Simmons, Brentwood and Ongar CLP member
By now we will all have heard and read about the disturbing revelations involving an unelected clique at the top of the party, deliberately undermining the efforts of Jeremy Corbyn, ever since he stood for the leadership of the party. Despite winning the leadership by a huge majority, members were asked to vote again and his majority in the repeat election was even greater.
Only now do we get the revelations involving unelected staff working to their own agenda at the top of the party, involving prominent Labour figures, including a [now] ‘Labour’ peer. Between them, they deliberately contrived to feed the elected Leader false information, to make him appear incompetent. They cared little about winning and indeed wished and worked to ensure the party would not get into power. At the same time, they were traducing a thoroughly decent person, to whom hundreds of thousands had flocked, especially the young.
The depths of malice recently exposed came as a huge shock to the membership, many of whom would not have believed that such behaviour could exist undetected for years within the party we’d embraced and trusted.
Many members reacted by wishing to distance themselves from the party and so were going to leave. Activists who had campaigned for Labour in their own and in other constituencies received the news that their willing hard work over a number of years had been deliberately sabotaged. But Labour could and should be at the centre of broad and democratic movements and indeed my local CLP had already prepared initial plans on how to develop a campaign locally, involving community groups, trade unionists, Labour members and affiliates. The Women’s Officer, was at the point of booking a venue for Labour’s ‘Women In The Round’, aimed at both new and existing members, but it was prevented when the lockdown was implemented.
My response to those whose first reaction was to terminate their membership is don’t leave! Stay and fight for what you believe! This is what I shall do.
