Jo Bird's contribution to “Labour Leaks - Lessons for the Left” meeting organised by Don’t Leave, Organise!
Thank you very much. Excellent speakers and thanks very much to Don’t Leave, Organise for organising this event. Its really crucial that we sustain ourselves through the struggles that we’re actively engaged in.
I was a candidate in the NEC election. I came fourth. I also, as part of that campaign, spoke with thousands of members across the country of all different kinds. It really struck me that black and Asian and minority ethnic members were struggling – almost more than anybody else – just to stay in the party.
The racism they were dealing with. The discrepancy between how their complaints were dealt with compared with antisemitism complaints is huge. That’s become very clear in the report also. [#LabourLeaks report states on page 708, “considerably more effort went into progressing antisemitism cases than other types of complaints, with antisemitism cases being prioritised.”]
The Labour Party owes huge apologies to all kinds of people. But particularly people whose complaints were de-prioritised when complaints about antisemitism were over-prioritised.
There are also people in the report, named, people that we know who died within days of receiving their disciplinary letter from the Labour Party. [#Labour Leaks report refers to Carl Sargeant AM on page 320-1. His public coroner’s report found that “Carl Sargeant was a Welsh Government Minister who was removed from office on the 3rd November 2017 amid allegations…The circumstances of his removal from office and the considerable media interest which ensued resulted in a significant deterioration of his mental well-being and he took his own life on the morning of the 7th November 2017.”]
They are also owed an apology. The Labour Party should make the record straight where they can, in those cases.
My question is about what can we do as white people? I’m a white Jewish person. How can I support black self-organisation within our movement?