Jeremy Corbyn attended Stop the War’s Christmas party… at the same restaurant where my local Labour constituency had our Christmas party
I have tried as much as possible to ignore the press around Jeremy Corbyn’s attendance of the Stop the War organisation’s Christmas do this week. Frankly, I just didn’t want to get myself wound up so close to the holidays over some (in my opinion, ill-judged) engagement in Corbyn’s social diary.
Labour Party leader endorses “disreputable” organisation that coordinates bullying of MPs and tacitly blames Parisians for being attacked by terrorists? Well, to borrow their oft-used hashtag, #NotInMyName, thanks. Enough said.
But then I saw BBC Newsnight’s piece from the event tonight. In this, Stop the War founding member Tariq Ali declared that:
“A war was begun in England against Jeremy Corbyn, waged by the media, waged by the BBC and waged by the right-wing of the Labour Party.”
This interview took place outside the “Turkish restaurant in south London” where the (reportedly, £50 a head) Stop the War party was taking place. And it was a restaurant that I recognised well – Ev in Isabella Street is just down the road from my flat and, coincidentally, was where my own Constituency Labour Party (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) held our Christmas party less than two weeks ago.
At a different Christmas party
Our event, at £30 a head, was also a fundraiser, helping to raise money for our local Labour Party members to print leaflets and campaign for our London Assembly candidate Florence Eshalomi and Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan.
The long-planned event was scheduled for Tuesday 1 December – which happened to become the night before the day-long House of Commons debate and vote on Syria. At that point, our MP Neil Coyle, had yet to decide how he was voting.
In the days running up to the Christmas party – and following concerted online campaigns run by JeremyCorbyn4PM, Momentum and Stop the War urging protestors to bombard their MPs – here are some of the messages I received via the Bermondsey and Old Southwark Twitter account (which I manage as the CLP’s social media officer, a voluntary position and through which I never circulate anything but official CLP and party tweets). Some others have since been deleted…
Neil Coyle, of course, received many, many more messages via his own Twitter, Facebook and email accounts, and even more after he announced that he would be voting for airstrikes. You may have seen media coverage on some of those messages, which police took very seriously as physical threats as well as threats of deselection. (Neil writes about this himself here.)
However one feels about the Syrian question, is this really the way to “have your voice be heard”? Is this really the way to conduct a political debate, let alone a political debate with people in your own party?
Stop the War’s response to this kind of behaviour (and some of it is much, much worse – just read Stella Creasy’s Twitter timeline for examples of what’s dished out to female MPs who don’t toe the ‘new politics’ party line)?
“Stop the War condemns the whining complaints from those MPs who apparently do not like being lobbied. If an MP is not robust enough to withstand emails and tweets, they should really not be voting for bombing other people – those who wish to be alone with their consciences would do better to consider a life of religious contemplation. Stop the War will continue to hold to democratic account all those MPs who vote for war.”
Wow, I’ve clearly misunderstood the definition of lobbying for many years. I thought it was about seeking to “influence legislators”, rather than bullying and threatening them.
So here’s me, in my own small way, holding Stop the War to account. From what I can see, it is not the “right-wing of the Labour party” waging war against Corbyn or Stop the War – but quite the opposite. And tonight, Corbyn offered himself as the chief draw at an event to raise funds for this organisation that spends a good portion of the money it raises bullying and denigrating elected representatives of his own party. It’s a whirlwind of hypocrisy.
There are equally upsetting comments on the other side of the debate, it’s just that somehow they don’t seem to make it into the press. I don’t partake in Twitter but I have seen some really horrendous comments on Facebook directed at Jeremy Corbyn and those who are anti bombing. Trolls exist on the internet and try to sow hate and dissension wherever they are, a lot of publicity just encourages them, they are best ignored and reported, but then there is maybe another agenda here also?
Hi Coilla – Just to be clear, I’m not writing above about comments that made it into the press, but rather ones that I personally received, via my non-factional CLP Twitter account.
My wider point about this behaviour was that it was a direct result of a concerted campaign run from the leadership office, and involving Stop the War and Momentum, that was directed specifically at Labour’s own MPs over the Syrian vote.
Yes and I wrote to my MP in a polite and non -threatening way, as was explicitely requested by STW, putting my views on the subject for his consideration. In response I received a standard reply saying that the party (Lib Dem) had decided to vote for bombing, though in the end a significant proportion of their small number voted against.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing a view on an important matter to one’s MP, or with that being facilitated by an interest group, it is quite normal practice. Nor is it the fault of that interest group, if despite requesting civil behaviour, a small number are rude or threatening. I am certainly not condoning that behaviour and neither are STW or Momentum as far as I am aware.
As I have already stated a percentage of the population seem to be unable to converse without bad language, insults, threats and worse, this occurs on both sides of this issue and from supporters of all parties. That type of behaviour is not condoned or encouraged by any of the organisation’s or parties involved.
Well I don’t know what happened to the reply I put here last night, disappeared into some internet black hole I expect. I lobbied my MP using the means provided by STW, in a polite and civilised way, as expressly requested by STW. This means of expressing views and facilitating that via interest groups is a normal part of democracy. There are, however, a percentage of people on both sides of the debate and in all parties who seem incapable of expressing themselves without swear words, insults, threats and worse. This is not the fault of any organisation or party, especially if civility has been requested, but more a failing of society as a whole.