Despite that blog, I was somewhat aghast to receive this email on August 20th -:
Dear Ian,
Thank you for your recent application to become a Member of the Labour Party. A panel of the National Executive Committee (NEC) have considered your application, and have decided to invoke Appendix 2.1.B.x of the Labour Party’s rules, which states:
“At any time before the individual is accepted as a full member of the Party, the General Secretary may rule that the individual application for membership be rejected for any reason which s/he sees fit”
We have reason to believe that you do not support the aims and values of the Labour Party or you are a supporter of an organisation opposed to the Labour Party and therefore we are rejecting your application. Under the rules of the Party you have the right of appeal to the NEC of the Labour Party. This appeal must be lodged with the NEC within 14 days of receipt of this email. Failure to make an appeal would mean that a further application for membership from you could not be considered for twelve months.
If you wish to appeal please write to leadership2015@labour.org.uk. If you do not wish to appeal please let us know so that your membership fee can be returned to you. Should you decide to appeal, the NEC will consider any points you wish to raise with them. You would need to send a statement giving reasons why you should be accepted into membership of the Labour Party.
Yours sincerely,
Iain McNicol
General Secretary
Clearly I wasn't going to take that lying down, so I fired off this response -:
Dear Comrades,
I received an email this
morning informing me that my application to re-join the Labour Party had been
rejected by the NEC, as "We have reason to believe that you do not support
the aims and values of the Labour Party or you are a supporter of an
organisation opposed to the Labour Party.” I presume this is because I stood for
TUSC against the Labour Party in the Dene Ward of Newcastle City Council in the
May 2014 elections; a course of action I bitterly regret, as I will explain.
I feel the validity of my
application would be supported by many elected representatives who know me, such
as Ian Mearns MP, Mary Glindon MP and Chi Onwurah MP, as well as Newcastle upon
Tyne Councillors Nick Kemp, Dipu Ahad and David Stockdale, as well as hundreds
(no exaggeration) of ordinary party members, many of who boast decades of
devoted, unbroken membership.
Please allow me to explain
why I applied to join the Labour Party and why I am appealing against the
decision to turn my request down; one of the first things I did on the morning
of May 8th when
I woke late, hungover and in despair at the prospect of 5 more years of Cameron
and his cronies was to apply to re-join the Labour Party. It would be
inaccurate to say my membership had simply lapsed, as the last year I had paid
my annual subs would have been 1984. Why did I leave? Well, partly it was
absolute disgust with Kinnock’s point blank refusal to back the NUM during the
strike and partly it was because I’d grown up and moved away from the Militant dominated Felling ward in the
Gateshead East constituency that I was unfortunate enough to have been born in,
as I realised that the nonsensical, Leninist belief in vanguardism that
brainwashed, social inadequate Militant zealots endlessly parroted (when they
weren’t trying to bleed people dry for the “fighting fund”) was plain wrong. I
believed in The Labour Party; I did not believe in entrism, which is why I
rejected a Militant dominated constituency. Why didn't I join the Labour Party
where I'd gone to university? Because I was at the University of Ulster in Co
Derry and Labour didn't organise there in 1983.
Once I moved outside the
Labour Party, I remained outside the Labour Party and, being frank, I’ve taken
every single opportunity to cast my vote to the left of Labour over the past 30
years. This means I’ve voted variously for: SPGB, Respect, Communist, Green and
once, to my utter shame and regret, for TUSC; though in defence I was voting
for myself. Not one of these candidates have won has won; they’ve almost
invariably finished bottom of the poll and the lot of the working classes has
not been improved one iota by my actions.
Despite such voting
history, I’ve never wanted anything other than a Labour government and I feel a
great affinity with many of the Labour MPs in my region. In October 2011 I went
to London on union business (I am branch secretary for UCU Tyne Met College) to
meet Mary Glindon in the House of Commons. As it was half term, I took my son
Ben down with me. He’s a Socialist by breeding and instinct, so when Mary took
us out onto the terrace and we met Dennis Skinner, it made Ben’s day. When we
were introduced I said to Dennis he’d always been a hero of mine. He expressed
thanks but also announced “we must avoid the cult of personality. Ideas are
what matters.” The power with which he delivered these words mesmerised Ben,
who says that was the moment his political die was cast. I’m proud to say my
son became part of the Labour Party a few days after the election as well as my
partner Laura Huntley, who has never been in a political party in her life, but
knows that we must all flock to Labour to save this country. To me, this mass
application for new memberships is incontrovertible proof that our movement
must be a synonym for the Labour Party; to be outside of it is a futile gesture
destined to result in the political and social wilderness. Socialists
openly laugh at the antics of the Militant cult; it’s the brainwashed zealots
who’ve wasted their lives in unquestioning devotion that I feel sympathy for.
When I first heard of TUSC,
I was naively enthused by the idea of a supposed "left of Labour
coalition," probably because Bob Crow had just died and I’d found his
speech at the Big Meeting (Durham Miners' Gala) in 2013 utterly inspirational.
Of course if Bob, whose union RMT had a policy of forming a new workers’ party
to replace Labour, were around today, he’d be appalled by the behaviour of
TUSC, as the descendants of Militant are still in the business of being the
Trot equivalent of the Moonies or Jim Jones and the People’s Temple; ruining
people’s lives by destroying their ability to think or act independently.
Before I realised a Militant leopard never changes its spots, I stood as a TUSC
candidate in the Dene ward for Newcastle City Council in 2014 and polled 180
votes, which was 6% of the total vote. Contrast it with the fact TUSC got 170
(0.2%) votes in Newcastle East at the general election. That was not just a
disappointing result; it was pathetic. It was humiliating for those who
continue to pretend, that TUSC are even relevant.
The general election result
made me rethink my whole political approach. Did I support the ideas and
philosophy of the Labour Party as the sole, credible mass vehicle for the
greater good of the entire population of the United Kingdom? Definitely yes.
Could I see myself spending another 30 years outside of the Labour Party,
considering how little had been achieved over the previous decades? Definitely
no. The simple and unavoidable truth is this; the Labour Party is our only
realistic hope. It is our party. It is the party of the working class, the party
of trade unions and trade unionists, the only party ever to have granted us
concessions to make life under capitalism bearable. Universal free healthcare.
A cradle to grave welfare state that protects the weak. A party that seeks to
make society fair. To make citizens healthy, educated, securely housed,
suitably and gainfully employed, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, class,
creed or sexuality. The Labour Party did all these things in the past and
it still exists. It does not essentially matter to me who wins the leadership
election, because I still want to be in the Labour Party whether it is Liz
Kendall or Jeremy Corbyn leading us.
This country needs massive
investment in social housing, education, health care and welfare benefits. It
does not need to reward devious, rapacious banking criminals. The only way we
can possibly hope to turn the country round again is to involve ourselves in
reanimating the Labour Party, and ensuring Labour sis elected in 2020 on a
socially inclusive, socially just and broadly Socialist platform.
I respectfully wish to be
allowed to join the Labour Party to make this dream a reality.
Thankfully, it elicited this response -:
Dear Ian,
Thank you for your email. Please take this email as acknowledgement of receipt of your appeal against the decision of the NEC panel regarding your membership application. As you have sent us this appeal, you will receive a vote in the current leadership election. If you have already cast your vote, this will be counted. As you will appreciate we are dealing with a high volume of correspondence. Please be assured that we will be in touch soon regarding the progress of your appeal.
Best wishes,
Kat Buckingham
Head of Constitutional Unit
Not only did my vote get counted, but I wrote the whole episode up as an on-line article which you can find at the end of this link http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/labour-the-left-and-the-need-unity-whoever-wins-the-leadership-race-2875
So, what lessons do we draw from all this? I think the message is clear....
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