Protest! Protest against Rebecca's Sacking
This is an initial response to the dramatic and awful news that Rebecca Long-Bailey, the principal challenger to Keir Starmer in the recent leadership contest, has been sacked from the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Education Secretary. This is an outrage.
Whatever the excuse, it shows Starmer’s authoritarian instincts, his intolerance of criticism and his anxiety to close down democratic debate within the Labour Party. It is ironic to say the very least that Starmer’s leadership campaign focussed on unifying the Party, when this sacking of the socialist contender in that election is the latest in a series of blows to the left and to democratic structures within the Party.
This is Rebecca’s statement:
“Today I retweeted an interview that my constituent and stalwart Labour Party supporter Maxine Peake gave to the Independent.
Its main thrust was anger with the Conservative Government’s handling of the current emergency and a call for Labour Party unity. These are sentiments are shared by everyone in our movement and millions of people in our country. I learned that many people were concerned by references to international sharing of training and restraint techniques between police and security forces.
In no way was my retweet an intention to endorse every part of that article. I wished to acknowledge these concerns and duly issued a clarification of my retweet, with the wording agreed in advance by the Labour Party Leader’s Office, but after posting I was subsequently instructed to take both this agreed clarification and my original retweet of Maxine Peake’s interview down.
I could not do this in good conscience without the issuing of a press statement of clarification. I had asked to discuss these matters with Keir before agreeing what further action to take, but sadly he had already made his decision.
I am proud of the policies we have developed within the party from our Green Industrial Revolution to a National Education Service and I will never stop working for the change our communities need to see.
I am clear that I shall continue to support the Labour Party in Parliament under Keir Starmer’s leadership, to represent the people of Salford and Eccles and work towards a more equal, peaceful and sustainable world.”
Labour supporters are bound to ask – what the hell is this all about?
In an interview with the Independent Maxine Peake asserted, “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.” If this is true, it is shocking and needs to be investigated urgently. It beggars belief how Starmer can describe this as a “conspiracy theory”.
Rebecca shared this interview with that accusation.
Labour List has investigated how the original article in the Independent has been changed. Labour List deserves much credit for this. It reports:
It used to read: “Though a spokesperson for the Israeli police has denied this, a 2016 Amnesty International report said that hundreds of law enforcement officials had travelled to Israel for training.”
A 2016 Amnesty USA article states that law enforcement officials in Baltimore, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York and other places “have all traveled to Israel for training”.
The revelation has been described by critics as antisemitic. This is absurd. How can an accusation pointed at a handful of secret service personnel in Israel be described as a critique of the millions of Jewish people living in Israel and all over the world? Even the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism (which the LRC rejects) states that: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.”
Those who allege antisemitism against Rebecca may well be covering up criminal behaviour in the process. Is the State of Israel to be given a free pass for every crime it commits on the grounds that criticism is necessarily antisemitic in the view of the IHRA? If someone with red hair or freckles is accused of a crime that is not an accusation against all people with red hair or freckles.
It is hard to believe that this is the real reason for Rebecca’s sacking. Retweeting an article is trivial. Skwawkbox reports a more likely reason:
Rebecca Long-Bailey has been sacked after a massive internal row over the Labour leadership's support for Boris Johnson's back-to-school push - after a doubling of school infections followed even Johnson's abortive plan to push children and teachers back into the classroom.
Howard Beckett, whose union Unite had warned both the Tories and Labour that it was too soon, supported Rebecca in her judgement. Other trade unions are aghast that Rebecca has been dismissed and are rallying to her support.
Send letters of protest right away to Labour Party HQ. Bombard them from every trade union and local branch you are in touch with. We elected a democratic leader of the Labour Party, not a dictator. If Starmer gets away with this it could have profound repercussions on the future of our Party.
