By Left Horizon reporters
As delegates gathered in Liverpool for the Labour conference, they learned that a certain rumour in circulation turned out to be correct. When the official timetable for the first day was published on line, there was an unprecedented addition to the normal agenda, with a “Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II”, led be Keir Starmer, at 10.45. To the consternation of many on the left, it was also being suggested that this ‘tribute’ might include a rendition of ‘God Save the King’.
According to the official timetable, this was before the “opening formalities”, to begin at 11am, so presumably, the tribute not a part of the conference. It remains to be seen, therefore, how many delegates will treat the tribute as a non-event and avoid embarrassing Keir Starmer too much by simply not turning up before 11am. We will see.
On the afternoon before the first day of conference, there was a packed fringe meeting (pictured above) to discuss the Forde Report and the fact that it had been kicked into the long grass by the Labour leadership and Labour’s bureaucracy. That report identified an appalling degree of factional behaviour from full-time Labour officials, even to the extent that it damaged Labour’s election campaign in 2017.
The keynote speaker in this meeting was Jeremy Corbyn, and as one attendee put it, “He seemed quite emotional when he started off, thanking all those who had shown him solidarity over the last few years”. Amongst the things highlighted in the meeting was the unauthorised diversion of funds from key marginals by senior Labour staff. It is estimated that Labour could have gained at least seven additional seats in that election, which would have stopped the Tories remaining office through deal with DUP.
Officials operated secret slush funds, hidden from the party leadership and the official campaign leadership, to support the campaigns in the constituencies specifically of anti-Corbyn candidates. The Forde Report also identified disgraceful racist and misogynistic comments by some Labour officials – of the sort that would have led to immediate expulsion, had they come from the left of the Party, rather than a hard right-wing faction.
Elected left NEC member under investigation…no surprise there.
It is ironic that while the leadership studiously ignore the findings of the Forde Report, Nathan Yeowell, Chief Executive of the Right Wing Progressive Britain faction (formerly ‘Progress’) wrote in Labour List that Labour “must pull together now”. Rather than bleating about unity now, he ought to direct his remarks to the Forde report and to those who today are still conducting a vicious factional witch-hunt against the left by trawling through past records of tweets, Facebooks likes and other social media.
The most recent victim of this is Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, who was recently elected by members to the NEC. As a long-standing anti-zionist and critic of Israel, it could almost have been predicted that she would not have been allowed to attend the NEC
As a part of Momentum’s The World Transformed programme, a rally was held on Saturday evening in Black-E, a kind of theatre venue, under the title ‘The Working Class Strikes Back’. It was a packed meeting, with trade union and community campaign speakers, one of the best being a spokesperson from War on Want. The main impression the rally gave was that there is still a viable and active left inside the Labour Party.
The same day, Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, Labour’s largest affiliate, called in a BBC interview for leader Keir Starmer to be “bolder”, criticising his advice to Labour MPs to stay away from picket lines as a “mistake”. She called instead for him to “come out for workers in a very strong way“. Referring to the disgraceful budget enriching the already rich, she said “it’s time to give an alternative, it’s time to drive the change.”
Coming out strongly for workers – in action rather than words – and driving change are, to put it mildly, unlikely policies from our leadership, given Starmer’s record in the past two years. But what is also a mistake, is Sharon’s apparent reluctance to participate in the struggle inside the Party for policies that reflect the interests of her union members. It has been suggested that she may not even turn up tomorrow. It is one thing to struggle for decent pay rises and working conditions through shop-floor struggles – and Unite are one of the unions setting the pace in that regard – but in the long run only political action can guarantee workers’ rights and livelihoods. It would be far better if at least some of the energy the union has shown in industrial struggles was deployed in a fight inside the Party for socialist policies.
We will see what the next four days bring and Left Horizons will report on events in and around the conference. Watch this space…
