We Can’t be Racist. We’re Left Wing.

We reported on the hissing directed at a Jewish councillor when he got up to speak at council. The hissing came from the public gallery. It is not unknown for members of the public to express their disapproval of their elected councillors by means of gestures, heckling and rude noises.

On this occasion, it appeared that the only councillor subjected to this public disapproval was a Jewish councillor. Moreover, we know that it was not a response to what he said, because the hissing started before he even spoke.

We now know a little more about the (alleged) ‘hissers’. The names of two have been revealed by the Workers International Network; not sure who they are but thank you to them for the info. It seems that one of those (allegedly) ‘hissing’ was the former Chair of West Ham CLP, Carel Buxton.

Carel resigned from her role and the Labour Party at the same time as East Ham Chair, Tahir Mirza resigned. Both were fans of former Labour Leader , and former Labour MP, Jeremy Corbyn. Both had been important figures and held strategic posts in the local parties, and were useful in the campaign to oust Wales and get Fiaz into Dockside.

However, it didn’t take long for relationships to sour. MyLondon reported on the resignations, quoting that Buxton had branded “Newham Council’s Labour leadership a “pale version of the Tory party” in implementing cuts from central government”.

It appears that following the incident, the Buxtons and one other were arrested and questioned and we learn from WIN, that this is “a new period of class war”. Clearly, the new period is one in which the struggling proletariat will be roused from their slumbers by the comfortably retired middle classes of Forest Gate. 

Carel Buxton relates the incident in the final paragraphs of the Facebook post below.

And that is as much as we know at the moment.