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Sunday, December 13, 2020

Peace and Justice (in the world, if not - quite yet - in the Labour Party)

 

Today I was pleased to speak at the Labour Grassroots Zoom meeting, which focused on the problems being created by the correspondence from the General Secretary of the Labour Party purporting to issue “guidance” which steers Party members away from discussing supposedly controversial topics. The marvellous Crispin Flintoff deserves credit for arranging these regular discussions - and this morning’s was attended by more than 350 Labour Party activists from the length and breadth of the country.


Obviously the unjustified - and procedurally improper - suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party (now revoked) and the subsequent - and equally unjustified - decision to remove the Labour whip in Parliament has provoked a lot of concern (and will continue to do so) but I was equally pleased this afternoon to learn that Jeremy Corbyn had launched the new Peace and Justice Project.


As much as we do need to fight for democratic rights, including the right to free speech, within the Labour Party, we also need to raise our eyes beyond our own immediate problems and think globally while acting locally to challenge exploitation and oppression. Corbyn explains the ideas behind the Project in this interview with Jacobin magazine


With luck the Peace and Justice Project will provide a forum to bring together existing campaigning organisations and continue the momentum (with a small “m”) of the movement which supported Corbyn as Labour Leader, without either getting completely bogged down in (necessary and unavoidable) debate about democracy within the Labour Party on the one hand, or pointless construction of “bound to fail” far left political alternatives (such as the lamentable TUSC) on the other.

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