The continuing shame of Labour racism

As a Labour movement activist in Lambeth in the late 80s, I remember the controversy around the party's shameful refusal to permit a Black candidate to contest the Vauxhall by-election in 1989. This condemned the electorate of a safe Labour seat in the centre of London to three decades of representation by a Member of Parliament noted for her support for foxhunting, Ulster Unionism and Brexit.

Given our “first past the post” electoral system and the two-party system which exists in symbiosis with it, the selection of Labour’s candidate in some inner-city constituencies, many of which have large Black and ethnic minority populations, is - in effect - the selection of the next member of Parliament for that constituency.

The exclusion of Maurice Mcleod from the long list for selection as Labour’s candidate for Camberwell and Peckham at the next general election echoes the racist arrogance shown by the Party in Vauxhall in 1989. In spite of the alarming findings of the Forde report concerning racism in the Labour Party, the party has made no real acknowledgement of or apology for this disgraceful situation. This is not a state of affairs which should be acceptable to any socialist, trade unionist or anti-racist.

Labour Party members must not permit our burning desire to see an end to the Tory government to gag us from criticising unacceptable, undemocratic and racist conduct within our Party. There will be those, disgusted at the conduct of the Party leadership and officialdom who will leave Labour, but they will be less well placed to resist those who have angered them when they do. Those of us who are angry at what is happening in today's Labour Party need to recognise that we are part of a long struggle and that we are not presently in a strong position.

With the Tory government imploding, it is clear that the Party leadership, justifiably increasingly confident of victory at the next General Election, feel no need to appease or compromise with left-wing members in the rank-and-file of the organisation (or, for that matter, elsewhere).  Knowing that voters who want to see the back of the Tories will, in the great majority of cases, have no choice but to vote Labour, Starmer and his supporters feel no need to take into account the views and aspirations of voters in safe Labour seats.

There may be no immediate prospect of there being any viable national electoral alternative to Labour for progressive voters (for all that those with little understanding of Labour history may, time and again, pursue this chimera). However, in the longer term, the experience of the so-called "red wall" seats in 2019 shows that if our party takes its core supporters for granted for too long it will find that they are no longer its core supporters. 

There were certainly exceptional factors at play in the North Evington by-election in Leicester this week, but the result clearly demonstrates that there is nothing inevitable about Black and ethnic minority voters in the inner-city supporting Labour. Disgraceful recent attacks upon party democracy in Newham (as exposed by Al Jazeera) and Haringey could easily see those boroughs follow Tower Hamlets away from Labour control.

Socialists in the Labour Party need to continue to work for a Labour Party which is worthy of the support it receives, including from Black and ethnic minority voters, and which will therefore continue to command such support. In such a party ordinary members would have the option to vote to support representatives such as Maurice Mcleod.