What’s on Their Minds?
As the year ends, we thought that we would take a trip into the Facebook pages of the local Labour Party. We’ve done a quick trawl to give readers an idea of what concerns are exercising the social media activists of Newham Labour Party.
The local Labour Facebook pages seem to be split into the ‘Official’, Newham Labour Party, (though they say not) with over 1100 followers and the ‘Provisional’, Newham Labour, smaller, with about 400 ‘likes’.
Several councillors and the GLA members post the same items on both sites; though there are a number of contributors, the sites do seem to be dominated by a small number of individuals.
It does seem that the ‘Provisionals’ are more willing to champion Corbyn’s cause than are the ‘Officials’ and they are more likely to be critical of the Mayor, particularly with regard to poor performance.
Here’s what we found.
Currently, Covid has a high number of posts. Generally repeating uncontroversial council material.
There was polite but limited discussion about who pulled the anti-parking charges motion from the council agenda. Expect this to recur as it is the single issue on both sites that has excited the greatest level of engagement.
The decision to withdraw funding from the Free School Meals scheme comes in for some criticism. Ironically, this was a scheme introduced by the previous mayor and bete noir of the Left. It appears to be Momentum supporters who are most aggrieved by its ending.
One even appears to want to increase council tax to keep the scheme. Sacked Deputy Mayor John Gray has form on this. As reported elsewhere, he and Cllr John Whitworth were the only two members of the previous administration who wanted to increase council tax. Here he appears to want to increase it above the statutory limit. It seems that he is unaware that raising council tax above the maximum permitted will result in claw back of the additional funds in grants from Whitehall.
For those comrades who are desperate to know about who is striking, where, there is a useful link for any anarcho-syndicalists in the Party as to who is striking, and where. It is described by the authors as a “ ‘worker-powered’ attempt to map the industrial action taking place in the UK”. How did we survive without this?
There are occasional swipes from loyal comrades at the Leader….
The tragic asthma/pollution related death of Ella Kissi-Debra receives a few mentions, some hand wringing, but no thought about how the infrastructure of the borough might be reorganised to promote cleaner and healthier modes of transport. It did give some comrades a chance to rant About their favourite local campaign, the Silvertown Tunnel. Pollution in Newham BAD. Pollution in Greenwich OK.
There is what seems to be a one-man-campaign to clean up the borough, with repeated posts of fly tips across Newham. Very critical of the council’s poor performance.
There are occasional posts relating to Bangladesh, India and Kashmir, reflecting the historic ties, current obsessions and points of conflict within Labour’s Asian membership.
Bring Back Jeremy is a frequent call for subscribers.
Obaid Khan, suspended from Labour for violence towards colleagues. Cllr John Gray, dropped from top-job for allowing anti-Semitism on the Facebook site. Cllr Susan Masters dropped as quickly as she was appointed by Fiaz. The wonderful John Whitworth couldn’t even get a job with Fiaz. We’re not at all sure that these are the names we would want supporting us!
Reinstate Jeremy/Stop the Suspensions is a theme which energises more than a few of the local cadres.
Or
Just what sort of dystopian future did they have in mind? Happily, not one favoured by the British public.
Not a new party? If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck….
There is occasional support for other parties. The organ of the CPGB and The Socialist Party have received supportive posts.
Some of you may have thought that this particular piece of journalistic toilet paper had been consigned to the lavatory of history. Alas, not.
Good to see some familiar names who will be attending for an evening of revolutionary politics and festive cheer. Surely an oxymoron.
Please note that the panel includes Venezuelan election observer, Calvin Tucker. Now that would be interesting! Rewriting history in real time.
Just a thought, but which religious festival will these revolutionary atheists be celebrating while they seek to bring down the inevitable collapse of capitalism? That Jesus bloke was a Jew, wasn’t he?
Then there are the campaigns which purport to be one thing, but in reality are Trojan Horses for the ‘progressive left’ to build momentum (no pun intended).
You might think that this posting suggests that the Provisional Wing of Newham Labour Party is opposed to the ‘No-Platforming’ and Cancel Culture that is endemic in British and American academia.
Not so. They are quite happy to cancel and no-platform those with whom they disagree, especially if they are Israeli. The free speech they champion is the free speech to delegitimise the only Jewish state in the world. There are around 20 states that formally term themselves Christian or have an established Christian church. There are roughly the same number that term themselves Muslim or Islamic. Six are termed Buddhist or give special place in the constitution to Buddhism and one to Hinduism, (no, not India). Yet none of these suffer the opprobrium of the progressive left. That special distinction is reserved for Israel.
Again, if it walks like a duck…….
Not convinced? Have a look at this link. LAW, anti-Starmer. CFS anti-Semetic?
Just as the Labour Party adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, Newham Labour members go in the opposite direction.
We’re not sure if this next post is libellous. It certainly reflects the Newham view with regard to the current leadership. We may be wrong, but we suspect that the writers were supporters of the calls for party unity behind Jeremy Corbyn. It seems that demands for unity only go in one direction.
There’s a word for that Hippocratic, hyperstatic, hip-replacement?….hypocritical!
