From the River to the Sea: Ibaitik Itsasora (135)

Rina Lu@rinalu_

Warren B. Mosler@wbmosler

Abu. 22

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More about Jeremy Corbyn

(Gehiago Jeremy Corbyn-i buruz)

abu. 21

In this one on one with Jeremy Corbyn, the independent MP responds to criticism from his colleague Zarah Sultana, who said Labour under his leadership was wrong to have adopted the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism.

…

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1958569435372880142

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Asa Winstanley@AsaWinstanley

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1958578075328786721

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abu. 21

Barrister Franck Magennis accuses Peter Cardwell of ‘running atrocity propaganda for a genocide’, after being asked if he thought the actions of Hamas on 7th October were terrorism.

“It seems to me that you’ve chosen to frame this interview in Zionist terms.”

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1958588114760532392

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Heather Mendick@helensclegel

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Heather Mendick@helensclegel

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Heather Mendick@helensclegel

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@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu

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Who killed Jeremy Corbyn’s social justice project?

(https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/10/25/691574/Who-killed-Jeremy-Corbyn-social-justice-project)

Tuesday, 25 October 2022

Jeremy Corbyn

By David Miller

The hidden truth about The Labour Files, the largest leak in Britain’s political history, is the opposite of the right-wing critics of the Labour Party. 

They say that Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the UK’s Labour Party, interfered to slow down the progress of antisemitism cases.

The truth was that he speeded them up massively. In doing so, he intensified the witch-hunt against ordinary party members, despite the lack of evidence of a specific problem in the Labour Party of so-called “antisemitism”.

In fact, the evidence shows that levels of antisemitism in the Labour Party were lower than in society in general.

The number of notices of investigation, suspensions and expulsions connected to antisemitism all surged exponentially once Jennie Formby took over as General Secretary in the spring of 2018.

In 2019, there were 45 expulsions; in 2017 there had only been one. Was this because there was a real and increasing problem of antisemitism? No. However, the Corbyn-led party took over and extended the witch hunt by internalizing Zionist talking points on what “antisemitism” was.

These sang from the hymn sheet produced by the Zionist regime in blurring together anti-Zionism with “antisemitism”.

Zionist talking points

By acting as if the Zionist talking points were evidence-based, key elements of the office of the Leader of the Opposition (known as LOTO), and those around it, came to believe that they were genuine. 

As a result, they appointed staff who also believed in the false Zionist talking points. At the head of the unit appointed to deal with complaints were three people, each of whom had drunk the “antisemitism” Kool-Aid:

• Harry Hayball, who had previously been in Momentum and “studied the history of antisemitism on the left” by reading That’s Funny You Don’t Look Antisemitic and The Left’s Jewish Problem. The latter was written by an employee of the Community Security Trust which runs point for the Zionist regime in the UK. The former was by Steve Cohen published in 1984 and republished in 2005 by Engage the Zionist lobby group formed to oppose Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. Momentum in 2019 tweeted to recommend the book. As the leader of the Zionist-leaning Trotskyist sect, the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL) Sean Matgamna wrote in an obituary in March 2009 that towards the end of his life Cohen “considered himself a supporter of AWL”. In other words, Hayball learned about the notion of “left antisemitism” from committed Zionist propaganda tracts. Hayball also states that he was lobbied by a “wide range of stakeholders from JLM, Jewish communal organisations and the wider Jewish community”. Prior to working in the antisemitism unit, Hayball had been the head of Digital with Momentum, the allegedly “hard left” support group for Corbyn.  While there he had proactively progressed the witch-hunt claiming of himself that “from August 2018 onwards, Hayball submitted dozens of complaints to Labour about cases of antisemitism he had documented from social media posts by suspected Labour members”.  In the Labour files it was revealed that at a meeting after an elderly woman suffered a stroke and died soon after learning of her expulsion from the party, a senior officer had laughed and said “Look we’re anti-Semite killers now!”.  According to the Al Jazeera whistleblower: “The whole room broke out in laughter.” I can reveal that the official who made the “joke” was Harry Hayball.

• Patrick Smith, a former member of the AWL, who resigned from the party in 2013 complaining about its Islamophobia. He then joined the Communist Party of Great Britain which, like the AWL, bandies about the Islamophobic term “Islamist”. Smith had previously complained about anti-Zionist views being problematic in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and denounced its members as being “essentially mad”.

• Laura Murray is claimed – in the leaked Labour Antisemitism Report, mainly written by Hayball –  to have developed her understanding of antisemitism “through her work” with “the JLM and with Jewish communal organisations” in her role as Stakeholder Manager in the Leader’s Office. Murray also appears to have taken on the role of advocating the views of the Zionist groups to the leadership. She “wrote to GLU about the concerns expressed by the JLM and Jewish communal organisations about the handling of antisemitism cases”. Note that even the use of the phrase “Jewish communal organisations” is a Zionist talking point. The main “Jewish communal” groups are all Zionists. Murray was also said to have, “developed a comprehensive understanding of antisemitism on the left” through her work with “Jewish stakeholders” and “by undertaking further education and training, including” a“course on ancient and pernicious antisemitic tropes” at the Israeli government sponsored Yad Vashem.

 The report goes on to say that the employment of Hayball was an indication of the internal desire of Murray and others to “build a team which understood the processes from the perspective of the complainant, which was self-critical”.

The assumption was, of course, that the complainants were mainly acting in good faith, which was a recipe for a dramatic escalation of antisemitism suspensions, warnings and expulsions, with no basis on any rational or factual assessment of racism against Jews.

Corbyn’s Zionist advisers

In addition, Corbyn had surrounded himself with close advisors who were either soft on Zionism or were actually true believers. Momentum – the so-called hard left support group for Corbyn – was set up by a variety of such people, including obviously Jon Lansman, who in an earlier period had been critical of Zionism.

But during the Corbyn period, he moved to a “soft Zionist” position, supporting the Zionist-produced IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism and repeatedly saying that the party had to “regain the trust” of the Jewish community. In May 2016, he wrote that what had been happening in Labour was a “frenzied witch hunt” in part fuelled by “the fundamentalist wing of pro-Israeli organizations.” But in the same piece, he argued that the left should drop the term Zionism altogether.

His argument is that Zionists in occupied Palestine are more hardline than those in the UK.  Maybe so, but they are unwilling to countenance the end of the “Jewish state”. So far, no Zionist group has accepted the end of the “Jewish State”. We are left, then, with the fact that Zionism inherently means support for a settler colony in occupied Palestine.

By 2019 Lansman had moved to the position  – the Party now had “a major problem” with “antisemitism” and had “a much larger number of people with hardcore antisemitic opinions”.

Lansman also invited into a key role in Momentum, a left Zionist activist from Scotland, Rhea Wolfson. She was a member of the Zionist affiliate to the Labour Party, the Jewish Labour Movement and was one of the editors (until April 2018) of the Clarion, the paper of the Zionist Trotskyist sect the AWL. According to her: “One of the funniest things about Momentum is it’s just so Jewish.”

James Schneider

Among other founders of Momentum was James Schneider. At Oxford University, he met his long-time friend Ben Judah, in whose play Schneider acted. It involved the inevitable “Arab terrorist” who subsequently turns out to be anti-Semitic. The pair were housemates in the period when Schneider founded Momentum in 2015 and they remain friends today.

Judah did his bit for the witch hunt between 2015 and 2019.  Prior to it, though, he had already claimed in May 2015 that he was pinned to the wall, throttled, punched in the head and told to “Get out you f***ing Jew”, by George Galloway supporters in Bradford, a charge emphatically denied by Galloway and his Respect Party.

Judah now works for the NATO lobby group the Atlantic Council, having previously worked at the “regime-change friendly” European Council on Foreign Relations and then the neoconservative US think tank the Hudson Institute, which champions aggressive, Israel-centric US foreign policies.

Schneider went on to become Corbyn’s strategic communications adviser. Press TV’s ‘Palestine Declassified’ understands that he was among the key people pushing the idea that apologies needed to be made, and that the IHRA should be adopted.

He is on record as saying that the ridiculous judgement of the EHRC “should and must” be implemented. He even highlighted what he thought were “really good” passages in a book by Dave Rich of the Zionist extremist Community Security Trust, The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism. These suggestions, it is reported, “include ditching conspiracy theories, not using Holocaust analogies or hysterical language when talking about Israel”. These of course all relate at least in part to discussions of the Zionist entity as opposed to “Jews”.

As the leaked “Labour Antisemitism” report, the Forde report and the Labour Files show, the bullets used to assassinate Corbyn were produced and shaped by the Zionist regime. They were then carried to the scene of the crime by Zionist lobby groups, assets and fronts. 

But the key proximate actors that delivered the coup de grace to Corbyn were his own supporters and those in his own office.

David Miller is a writer, broadcaster and investigative researcher. He is the producer and expert commentator on Palestine Declassified, a weekly PressTV show. He was unjustly sacked by the University of Bristol in 2021 at the behest of the Zionist movement.

(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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EXCLUSIVE: Zarah Sultana’s First Interview Since Resigning From The Labour Party

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDC8lNkFfTQ)

Zarah Sultana speaks to Novara Media exclusively about why she resigned from the Labour Party, what the plan is with her new political party founded with Jeremy Corbyn and how the left can defeat Nigel Farage

Transkripzioa:

0:00

So Zara Zultana uh co-leading the

0:03

interim process of founding this new

0:05

left party with Jeremy Corbyn. It’s been

0:07

an incredibly busy month for you, but I

0:09

want to ask you about the big news

0:11

first.

0:12

Did you watch the Lioness’s win their

0:14

historic Euras victory last night? How

0:16

was the vibe? What was the vibe?

0:17

Oh, so it was in a non-traditional way

0:20

of watching it. I had it on my phone on

0:22

the BBC app and I was watching it

0:23

outside King’s Cross Station because I’d

0:25

watched the entire game on the train

0:27

down from Glasgow cuz a friend got

0:29

married and by the time we had got into

0:31

King’s Cross it was penalties and I just

0:34

set up camp essentially um outside a

0:37

coffee shop and watched it and it was

0:38

incredible. It was so amazing and you

0:41

know I think we have to stop calling it

0:43

women’s football. I think this is

0:45

football and the men’s game is men’s

0:47

football because clearly um we are so

0:49

much better than them.

0:50

So Zara, this is the first interview

0:52

that you’ve given to anyone since you’ve

0:55

resigned at the beginning of July. Um so

0:58

why did you choose Navara Media, but I

1:00

also want to ask you about that

1:02

resignation? Because it happened in a

1:03

very busy and messy week for the Labour

1:05

Party. There were welfare cuts as well

1:07

as the vote to prescribe Palestine

1:10

action. what was the relationship

1:12

between those events and and and your

1:13

resignation?

1:14

So, the reason to do my very first

1:16

interview since resigning and since we

1:19

have announced the process of building a

1:20

new left party with Navara is because

1:23

legacy media does not operate uh in our

1:27

interests and Navara does and for me it

1:30

is about speaking to our base. is about

1:32

speaking to people who align with our

1:34

politics to say that we are going to do

1:37

the best possible job of getting this

1:39

right and we want you all to be part of

1:40

that journey and I don’t think anything

1:42

speaks to that more than me coming to

1:45

you guys first to talk about this and

1:47

and and being really honest and

1:49

transparent about what we’re building

1:50

here and how we genuinely want to do it

1:52

collectively. My suspension um obviously

1:56

uh was a year ago and um the Labour

1:59

Party decided to suspend seven of us for

2:03

wanting to scrap the two child benefit

2:05

cap which keeps hundreds of thousands of

2:07

kids in avoidable poverty. And after

2:10

that vote I was told you’ve got a

2:13

six-month suspension and then we’ll

2:15

review it. During that period I voted

2:17

against the cuts to winter fuel payments

2:19

because that is austerity 2.0.

2:23

Following that, um, I have tried to

2:25

challenge this Labor government on a

2:28

weekly basis about its complicity and

2:30

genocide in Gaza. Um, as well as attacks

2:33

on working-class communities. Um, and it

2:36

became a weekly event. What is the Labor

2:40

government doing? And how is it a harm

2:42

in our communities? And it became um a

2:45

an issue that I didn’t think we would

2:47

have on this scale. I knew that this

2:49

Labor government wasn’t going to bring

2:52

about socialism. Um, but I did not think

2:54

it would be this bad this quickly in

2:57

terms of returning to austerity and then

2:59

also being worse than the Tories in

3:01

terms of enabling a genocide in Gaza.

3:05

So, I had met with the chief whip of the

3:08

Labour Party who said my case was

3:10

slightly different to the other MPs who

3:12

had been suspended. in particular

3:13

referenced to my social media um and how

3:16

I characterized this as a genocide that

3:18

the Labor government was directly

3:20

complicit in and I did not hold back. It

3:23

is a genocide that is what Human Rights

3:26

Watch, Amnesty International, countless

3:28

international law lawyers um lawyers

3:30

specializing in international law are

3:32

calling it as well as the case at the

3:34

ICJ and a response by the ICC. And so

3:37

millions of people are campaigning about

3:39

this, protesting about this and I know

3:41

which side I’m on. I’m on the right side

3:43

of history and this isn’t a fringe

3:45

issue. And I was told it’s not a fringe

3:46

issue within the British public, but it

3:48

is a fringe issue within the Labour

3:50

Party. And you can’t disagree with that

3:52

if if if you’re being honest. And and so

3:55

my suspension continued because of um my

4:01

uh you know opposition to Labour’s

4:04

complicity and genocide. There are there

4:06

are no two ways about that. And people

4:08

are trying to spin these rumors. I was

4:10

going to be expelled. I was not going to

4:12

be expelled. I did this on my terms, in

4:15

my way. Um, and I did it on the week

4:17

that they decided to characterize people

4:20

who are engaging in nonviolent forms of

4:23

direct action against a genocide as

4:25

terrorists as well as um punishing

4:28

disabled people um and cutting their

4:30

benefits. I cannot um show uh any kind

4:35

of support for that kind of politics

4:37

both what we’re hap what is happening in

4:39

Gaza but what is also happening here at

4:41

home those for me are not abstract

4:43

issues that are deeply connected this is

4:45

a government that does not act in the

4:47

interests of people here let alone

4:49

people anywhere else in the world and in

4:50

fact it’s it’s complicit in making

4:52

people’s lives worse you know regardless

4:55

of borders and my resignation touched on

4:59

that those issues that it was both very

5:01

much deeply against austerity and deeply

5:03

against genocide. Um, and I had no

5:05

choice but to do but but to do this

5:08

because um, I didn’t get into politics

5:10

to make people’s lives worse. I didn’t

5:12

get into politics to be complicit in

5:15

genocide. And I’m going to do everything

5:17

I can to stop those things.

5:20

Let me ask you then about the the new

5:22

Lev party. It’s launched, I think last

5:25

Thursday officially. Since then, last I

5:27

checked, you’d had over 500,000

5:29

uh signups on your party.uk,

5:33

what does it mean for you to have that

5:35

level of support right out of the gate?

5:37

And why do you think so many people are

5:38

interested in it?

5:39

I’m going to be honest with you, I did

5:41

not think we would hit half a million

5:43

signups in just 3 days. That is

5:46

incredible. And what that speaks to is

5:48

the sheer appetite and desire for

5:51

something new. Millions of people feel

5:53

politically homeless. I talk to people

5:55

in the street. I knock on doors and

5:57

people don’t feel like they have

5:59

politicians, let alone political parties

6:01

that truly represent them. And people

6:04

voted for the Labour Party at the last

6:06

general election, not because they felt

6:08

inspired by Karma or what the Labour

6:11

Party was promising, but because they

6:13

weren’t the Tories. And the Labour Party

6:16

had a mandate for real change. That’s

6:18

what it kept saying that it was going to

6:20

do. And in the year that it has been in

6:22

power, we have seen a return to

6:24

austerity. We have seen more arm sales

6:27

under a Labor government than the

6:28

Tories. They are worse than the Tories

6:30

when it comes to arming a genocide. And

6:34

um they are directly complicit in that

6:36

genocide and they lie all the time to

6:39

parliamentarians. They have defended

6:42

selling arms to a genocidal aparttheid

6:44

state in court. And I could not knock on

6:48

another door asking people to vote for

6:50

the Labour Party when it is a genocide

6:52

party when it is an austerity party. And

6:56

so I am very excited to be able to be

7:00

part of building something new. Uh it

7:02

has never been done before in British

7:04

politics. And so being able to take half

7:08

a million people and more because the

7:10

numbers as we’re recording this are

7:12

growing on this journey to shape

7:14

something truly transformative is so

7:17

important, exciting, and I recognize it

7:20

as one of the most important

7:23

opportunities of a lifetime. We can’t

7:26

get this wrong because in 2029 as the

7:28

polling currently stands, Farage will be

7:31

prime minister and someone like me,

7:33

someone who looks like me understands

7:35

that threat acutely and so we have to

7:38

not just organize and build a new party.

7:40

We have to win and that’s what this is.

7:42

Okay. I totally agree with you about the

7:44

idea of not being able to get this

7:45

wrong. The stakes are so so high. But I

7:48

guess you might have come in for a bit

7:49

of criticism over the last month about

7:51

there being, you know, maybe a little

7:52

bit of chaos attached to uh the launch

7:55

of the party. Was it launched? Wasn’t it

7:57

the name? Do you think that matters?

7:59

No. And Westminster lobby journalists

8:02

love this idea of drama. They love this

8:04

idea of the left um not really knowing

8:06

what it’s doing, but we do know what

8:08

they’re doing. And half a million people

8:09

also recognize that. And the truth is

8:12

they’re rattled. They’ve never seen

8:13

anything like this. And the fact that

8:16

we’re trying to really have democracy,

8:19

not just this slogan or this, you know,

8:21

you just kind of say it and don’t mean

8:23

it. We’re trying to have it at the heart

8:25

of everything we’re doing. And the idea

8:27

that members choose the name, I think

8:30

people can’t get their heads around. And

8:32

that’s democracy for you. And I think we

8:35

have to recognize the sheer appetite. We

8:37

have to recognize that we are going to

8:40

be uh doing rallies and road shows. is

8:43

we’re going to galvanize uh this

8:45

movement that is ready uh for something

8:47

different. But I think when we look at

8:50

political parties in the UK, they

8:52

represent the billionaires, they

8:54

represent oil and gas and we’re saying

8:56

this is a member-ledd party by members

8:59

for members and they’re going to shape

9:00

everything that we do.

9:01

So let’s talk about that that democratic

9:04

nature of the party. So you’re leading

9:06

up to a founding conference in the

9:08

autumn.

9:08

Yes.

9:09

What is the scope of the de democracy

9:11

that’s going to be involved there? So

9:12

you talked about deciding a name but

9:15

what else is going to be put to the

9:16

members you know what level of kind of

9:18

fine graininess of

9:20

before we get to that conference we need

9:21

to put together a conference

9:23

arrangements committee we need to make

9:24

sure that we have truly

9:28

every member feeling empowered to get

9:30

involved and what I think that looks

9:32

like and obviously these are discussions

9:35

what I think that looks like is one

9:36

member one vote it looks like having an

9:39

accessible way of engaging which is both

9:41

in person and hybrid which is affordable

9:44

for everyone and we need to get those

9:46

details right. Um that conference and

9:49

that membership has to look at

9:51

governance. It has to look at policy. It

9:53

has to look at even tactical alliances

9:56

going forward. I obviously have

9:58

preferences over things and I’m happy to

10:01

share them but ultimately it will come

10:03

down to our members um what the name is,

10:06

how we operate when it comes to you know

10:08

a new popular front like what we’ve seen

10:10

in France. Um we can all have ideas and

10:13

obviously Jeremy has also said please

10:15

share those ideas. We want everyone to

10:16

get involved but we need to get the best

10:18

ideas and we need to then deliver on

10:21

those.

10:21

And what about the lead leadership

10:23

structure? Will that be a matter of

10:24

democracy as well? So it could be a

10:26

single leader, it could be co-leaders,

10:28

it could be a Jeremy Corbyn leadership

10:30

race.

10:30

It’s whatever the members want and

10:33

obviously again I have a preference that

10:35

me and Jeremy should be able to co-lead

10:37

this but the members will get to choose.

10:40

Um, and that’s what’s really quite

10:42

exciting. It is literally transferring

10:46

that power. And I guess for a lot of

10:49

people who have only really seen

10:50

politics done through, uh, traditional

10:53

party structures, uh, that’s going to be

10:56

a culture change. Um, but we’re really,

10:59

um, interested in harnessing that energy

11:01

and and allowing people to choose what

11:03

direction this takes.

11:05

All right, let’s talk about electoral

11:06

stuff now. So, we’ve seen the polling.

11:08

every anyone on the left who’s seen the

11:10

polling recently is like, “Oh this

11:12

could happen.” Like 10 to 15% of vote

11:14

share out the gate.

11:16

That is a floor, not a ceiling, as far

11:18

as I’m concerned.

11:19

All right, but now a lot of that vote is

11:21

coming from Labor and some of it from

11:23

the Greens. What about reform? What’s

11:25

the strategy going to be for for reform

11:28

taking them on?

11:28

Well, you can’t take on reform by

11:31

mimicking them, which is what the Labour

11:32

Party have done with this race to the

11:34

bottom on immigration and essentially

11:35

just following their lead. We have to

11:38

provide a real alternative. We need to

11:40

show that we will defend migrants

11:41

rights. We will address people’s

11:43

material concerns because everyone is

11:46

worried about the end of the month when

11:48

the bills drop. They look at uh the

11:51

profits that these water companies get,

11:53

these energy companies get well when

11:55

their bills are getting even higher. And

11:58

we need to address material concerns.

11:59

That’s what what the Labour Party should

12:01

have done and hasn’t done and refuses to

12:03

do. And that is the only way we can beat

12:05

reform, not by trying to be like them

12:07

because that why why would you vote for

12:09

a copy when you can vote for the

12:11

original, which is what I tried to tell

12:12

the Labour Party when I was in it. And

12:14

so we need to fight on our terms and not

12:17

allow the far right uh to detect those.

12:20

And fighting on your terms, would that

12:22

mean so for example in individual seats,

12:24

would you like run candidates in

12:26

winnable seats only? um or would you

12:30

risk sort of splitting the Labor vote in

12:32

the format?

12:33

The membership will decide this and I

12:35

think we have to be strategic. Um we

12:38

have to identify the places where we can

12:41

win and where others who have the same

12:44

goals and values um around progressive

12:47

politics around defeating reform um

12:50

where we can work together and obviously

12:52

when there is um a time for that that

12:56

will be I imagine a negotiation

12:59

um but we will not be doing politics in

13:02

the old way where it’s just a few men in

13:04

a few you know in a small room and kind

13:06

of hashing it out. Um it will be led by

13:09

members and there will be I believe and

13:11

I and I I would actually argue for that

13:14

um tactical alliance um method but it

13:17

will be on our terms um and it will be

13:20

in the interest of our members but also

13:22

to stop Farage getting into power

13:23

because that has to be the guiding

13:25

principle. Let me ask you about your

13:28

Labor journey because I think it

13:30

reflects for a lot of people who are

13:31

members of the Labour Party who felt

13:33

discounted as members which is something

13:34

that you’re promising this new leftwing

13:36

party won’t do.

13:38

They were sort of asked to leave uh and

13:40

now you’ve provided a home for them.

13:41

What was your journey through Labor

13:43

because a similar sort of story for you.

13:45

You were asked to leave and now you

13:46

have. So tell us tell us your story.

13:48

So I join the Labour Party as a

13:49

17year-old under Ed Milliband. I was

13:51

really angry about the coalition

13:52

government tripling tuition fees. I saw

13:54

that as a direct attack on my generation

13:57

and we see that now where we’ve had

13:59

generations of young people saddle with

14:01

student debt. Um so when I went to

14:03

university I got involved with the free

14:04

education movement. I’d gone to the

14:06

occupied West Bank with my dad on a

14:08

labor friends um a labor to Palestine

14:11

delegation, labor activists, labor

14:13

members um and I saw a parttheide and I

14:17

saw um what land theft and what

14:20

occupation, militarized occupation

14:22

looked like with my own eyes as an

14:23

18-year-old and it shaped everything for

14:26

me, my political journey. Um and then I

14:28

got involved with Students for Justice

14:29

in Palestine. I got involved with the

14:31

National Union of Students and then

14:32

Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader of the

14:34

Labor Party and immigrants weren’t going

14:36

to be thrown under the bus and young

14:38

people weren’t this kind of photo

14:39

opportunity anymore but real um

14:42

stakeholders in in in a in in an

14:44

exciting vision and I remember the

14:46

rallies in Birmingham and I remember

14:47

feeling hope for the very first time and

14:49

a lot of people did and we know what

14:52

happened um the attacks by the political

14:54

and media establishment on what Jeremy’s

14:57

vision was and what all of our

14:58

collective vision was and I had um got

15:02

involved with young labor structures in

15:04

the Labour party. Uh before I got

15:06

elected, I actually worked as a

15:07

community organizer because Jeremy had a

15:09

vision of doing politics differently in

15:11

the Labour party and it that was the

15:12

very first thing that Ktorm actually got

15:13

rid of the community organizing unit.

15:16

And so um I have experienced through the

15:19

various structures of the Labour Party

15:21

as just an ordinary member then as

15:23

someone who’s an organized young person

15:25

sitting on a committee and then as a

15:26

community organizer and then as a member

15:28

of parliament. And the Labour Party

15:31

isn’t what many of us believed it was a

15:35

progressive vehicle of socialists and

15:38

social democrats of people who actually

15:41

want equality investment in our public

15:43

services. foreign policy that isn’t just

15:45

uh you know wararmongering. And the

15:49

Labour Party that we have today has been

15:51

completely captured uh by corporate

15:54

donors um by a prime minister that is

15:57

obsessed with freebies um and actually

16:00

not holding um his his his government to

16:04

account and and holding himself to

16:05

account. Actually, he thinks he’s above

16:06

it all and the rules are for everyone

16:08

else but not for them because the things

16:10

that you were attacking the tries on,

16:11

you’re happy to do yourself. Um, and I

16:13

think people see through that hypocrisy

16:15

and they’re not having it anymore. To

16:17

me, the Labour Party is dead. It’s dead

16:19

morally. It’s dead politically and it’s

16:21

dead electorally as well. So, what are

16:23

we doing? Are we going to allow them to

16:25

tell us on the left that we don’t have

16:27

another choice? We have to vote for them

16:29

or it’s Farrage. We’re saying screw

16:31

your, you know, false choice. We’re

16:32

going to build something and we’re not

16:35

just, you know, coming for votes here

16:37

and there. We’re coming, we are the

16:39

left. we are going to take all the left

16:42

and we’re gonna win. And and that’s what

16:44

the pitch is. Like you said, Kia Star

16:46

said, “Well, if you don’t like it,

16:47

leave.” So, I did and me and Jeremy and

16:50

millions of other people are going to

16:52

build something new and different. Um,

16:54

and they are rattled.

16:56

And they should be rattled. That 500,000

16:58

is is impressive. Um, when you quit the

17:01

the Labour Party, you said 2029 is going

17:04

to be socialism or barbarism. That’s

17:07

going to be the choice. and you talked

17:08

there about uh 2019 and the way that the

17:11

media and the political establishment

17:13

all just you know worked in a concerted

17:15

way to bring down Jeremy Corbyn. Now

17:18

those interests absolutely prefer

17:20

barbarism to socialism. So what are you

17:23

going to do this time around?

17:25

We’re fighting back. We are not going to

17:26

give the media an inch. Um I say I’m

17:29

from Lozo. When when someone tries to

17:31

fight with you, you fight back and

17:33

that’s what we’re going to do. It’s not

17:34

this nicy nicy stuff. If you come for us

17:36

and you come for our communities and you

17:38

come for our class, we’re going to fight

17:39

back. And that’s what’s different.

17:41

And socialism of course needs uh

17:43

solidarity. It needs a mass movement.

17:45

That’s what you’re that’s what you’re

17:47

building at the moment. How are you

17:48

going to keep that momentum going?

17:50

What we’ve always seen is a model which

17:52

is very top down which MPs are kind of

17:56

at the top and everyone else kind of has

17:58

to to follow. And what we’re doing is we

18:01

want to empower those people who have

18:03

now signed up to uh join us. We want to

18:06

convert those into members. We then want

18:08

to convert those into organizers in our

18:10

communities. This is not just an

18:11

electoral project. is really building

18:14

power in our communities so we can um

18:16

increase trade union density so we can

18:19

win within our tenants unions in our

18:21

communities so we can fight on issues to

18:23

do with food poverty and women’s um um

18:26

issues as well when it comes to domestic

18:28

violence and sexual violence and so

18:30

forth. There is so much happening in our

18:32

communities and what we saw uh when

18:34

people left the Labour Party uh post

18:36

2019 was they went and and did work,

18:39

right? They didn’t just disappear. They

18:41

filled up spaces in our communities in

18:43

tenants unions, trade unions, women’s

18:45

refugees and so forth, food banks,

18:47

running food banks. We already have a

18:49

lot of work going on. We want to support

18:51

that. We want to um provide people with

18:53

a way that they can actually show that

18:56

things are not going to continue as they

18:59

are through a political vehicle. Um and

19:02

before they would have felt like they

19:03

don’t really have a choice. They might

19:04

not have voted. But now we’re providing

19:07

them with something that they can shape

19:08

and they can be part of. And should

19:10

people want to pursue things

19:12

electorally, of course, that will be a

19:14

democratic way of doing it, it’s not

19:15

going to be the stitchups of the past,

19:18

this is going to be a very different way

19:20

of doing politics.

19:20

So, so I am like personally very excited

19:23

about this new left part party, partly

19:25

because I feel like I’ve never seen the

19:27

country so divided and so angry in in

19:30

many many ways as it is at the moment.

19:32

Um, and I just wonder how you’re going

19:35

to tackle that as a party. How are you

19:37

going to bring people who really speak,

19:39

you know, violently, badly about each

19:41

other, but may have their interests in

19:42

common? How are you going to bring them

19:43

under this?

19:44

I don’t think the right has a monopoly

19:45

on workingclass anger. I think we need

19:48

to harness that anger and show that

19:50

actually if we take your anger and we

19:53

show you that we can win in our

19:55

communities up and down the country in

19:56

areas that have been neglected in areas

19:58

that have been told, well, you don’t

19:59

really have a choice but to vote for

20:01

Labor. um we can do uh amazing things

20:04

and the last election showed that under

20:06

first pass the post you don’t have to

20:09

win um you know you can win whether as

20:12

as an independent um and I think that’s

20:15

a really important thing to recognize

20:16

and a lot of people do recognize that um

20:19

and I think we have an opportunity to

20:21

bring people who are young people who

20:24

who have been attacked um you know

20:25

whether it’s was women pensioners who

20:27

have had the winter fuel payments taken

20:29

away from them young people who have

20:30

been saddled with debt who basically

20:32

give most of their income to landlords

20:35

um who don’t have opportunities that

20:36

their parents had. That social contract

20:39

between every group in our society has

20:41

been broken. And it’s our job to bring

20:44

everyone together united by a common

20:46

interest that we need an economy and and

20:49

a society that’s run for the majority of

20:52

people and not profit. And so we’re not

20:54

trying to reinvent the wheel. um those

20:56

arguments have been won around

20:58

nationalization, public ownership, of

21:01

utilities, around mass building of

21:03

council homes, around wealth taxes. And

21:06

so we’re not trying to convince people

21:08

of those arguments because the majority

21:10

already support them. But what we’ve

21:11

also seen is a mass movement of millions

21:14

of people who uh look at this Labor

21:17

government and see complicity in

21:19

genocide in Gaza, who see uh the likes

21:22

of Karm and David uh Lammy um as people

21:24

who are complicit in war crimes, who

21:26

should be on trial at the Hague. And so

21:29

there is no turning back from that

21:30

point. And we have to look at how our

21:33

political system is happy to sign off

21:37

arms to all sorts of terrible people.

21:40

Whether it’s the UAE who then send arms

21:43

to the RSF in Sudan, to the Saudis who

21:46

then used it in Yemen, Yemen, and and

21:48

the Israelis who are using it to commit

21:49

genocide in Gaza. We need to look at our

21:52

economy where arms dealers seem to have

21:55

um no, they don’t just seem to have they

21:57

have preferential uh treatment. They

21:59

seem to basically be able to tell the

22:01

government exactly what to do. That has

22:03

to change and we’re providing a vehicle

22:05

for that. So if there are people who

22:07

have petitioned their MPs, who have

22:09

lobbyed their MPs, who have gone on

22:10

demonstrations, who have done personal

22:13

boycott actions and are thinking, what

22:15

else can I do? I feel completely

22:17

hopeless. I’m I’m watching a live stream

22:19

genocide. I’m watching kids starve to

22:22

death. My government is entirely

22:23

complicit in this. How can I change

22:26

things?

22:27

I am basically speaking to those people

22:29

as someone who has spent my entire adult

22:32

life um committed to the Palestinian

22:35

cause to say we are going to do

22:37

something about that.

22:38

So a lot of a lot of people under the

22:41

umbrella that you’ve attract people

22:42

opposed to to the genocide in Gaza as

22:44

everybody should be. Uh people massively

22:47

opposed to our role in it. People

22:48

opposed to preferential treatment not

22:50

only of arms dealers but the wealthy of

22:52

all kinds in this country. So there’s a

22:53

real vehicle there. It’s got to have a

22:55

name. Zara, just tell us what would you

22:58

like it to be called?

22:59

So, this obviously will be chosen by the

23:01

members in the most democratic way

23:03

possible. Everyone’s got an opinion. I

23:05

do too. I think it should be called the

23:07

left or the left party because it says

23:09

what it is on the tin. Um, and I think

23:11

that is something that I will be

23:13

pitching and I’m sure loads of people

23:15

have an opinion. I’m sure you do too. Do

23:17

you have do you have any thoughts?

23:18

No, I think keep it simple, keep it

23:19

clear. That’s that’s the way to win. The

23:20

left sounds good to me.

23:21

Exactly. So, we will obviously put that

23:23

to the members and we’ll see what we

23:25

get. But that is that is my those are my

23:28

thoughts.

23:28

All right. Well, good luck, Zara. Thanks

23:30

very much for coming.

23:31

Thank you so much. Thank you.

oooooo