Yesterday's LRC conference was an overwhelming success. About 250 delegates from Labour parties, trade unions and various campaigns came together in an open, lively democratic discussion about the role of the LRC in the coming period. There was a serious and honest analysis of the situation of the Left within the Labour Party, trade unions and outside of the party.
After a no punches pulled debate about the future role of the LRC, agreement was reached on the need for the LRC to work both within the Labour Party and outside the party to form a broad united front, campaigning issue by issue with all those who have a shared concern on these issues. This includes working in solidarity not just with organisations within the Labour and Trade Union movement but also linking with the social movements campaigning within the wider society.
The LRC's strategy statement, available on the LRC website, sets out this analysis of the current circumstances facing the Left and describes the principles of this broad front strategy.
An early test of this strategy will come this week. The media is full this weekend of the latest UN report on the rapid deterioration of the global environment under the impact of climate change. As usual the Brown administration has tried to spin its way out of real action by briefing the media that he may raise the UK target for reducing emissions by 2050. This would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.
In the week we receive the hard evidence that the plight of the world's environment is reaching desperation point Brown will launch on Thursday the consultation paper which commences the process of expanding Heathrow airport. This would in one simple action undermine all efforts and plans to reduce emissions in the UK by 2050.
What is worse is that we now learn that the British Airports Authority has been able to influence the evidence upon which the consultation paper has been drafted to try and convince us that a third runway and 6th terminal at Heathrow can go ahead without harming the environment.
The decision on Heathrow expansion is the issue which will determine whether any government or political party is serious about climate change. It will be the most significant and I predict the largest environmental battle over the next generation across all of Europe.
If the LRC is to be taken seriously on climate change and environmental issues more generally it will need to link up with all those within the Labour movement who are opposed to this expansion policy and as importantly with all those environment campaigning groups within our wider community. If a broad united front can be established on this critical issue I believe we can win in transforming the whole approach to environmental policy making in this country. Instead of allowing our environment to be polluted for profit, we could start the process of planning the preservation of our planet.
14 Comments:
I was on the eco-schools committee at my child'school whihc has now become the sustainable schools committe and encompasses healthy eating and travel issues etc as well though we have got till 2020 to reach the relevant targets in these areas- our school is well on the way having received environmental awards, built an eco-hut and a wild world garden etc etc but other schools have only just started! But by 2020 these children wil be grown up and will be asking why we didn't get amoveon with saving the planet sooner things go on as they are with Brown in charge! The real left is of course "green" and we need to publicise the fact tha tall our policies are drafted with sustainability and green issues in mind. Also we can highlight the immense environmental damage that war does as well as the terrible human cost of course. I always say to my son I hope we wil have abolished it by the time he grows up - after all we have outlawed bear baiting and the like so it can be done despite the "ther is no alternative" views of Bush and the like -they need to think globally not locally with their foriegn policy nad relaise theat imperialsim is outdated!
How can you support expansion of coal mining, bearing in mind carbon capture tehcnology is unlikely to ever be fully developed, and yet say you feel strongly on environmental issues?
John McDonnell is there anything you can do to stop this.
"November 20, 2007"
"Britain Institutes Death Penalty"
"For the first time, Britain will tomorrow deport a failed asylum seeker back to Uzbekistan. Jahongir Sidikov, a member of the banned main opposition party Erk, is currently held in Harmondswoth Detention Centre. His ticket has already been purchased for deportation tomorrow."
"Previously, as a matter of policy, this country did not deport political activists to Uzbekistan because they will face severe torture and probable death. The totalitarian Uzbek government has since become even more repressive, with widespread imprisonment, torture and extra-judicial killing of dissidents. The immigration officers who escort Jahongir onto that plane are in effect implementing capital punishment. This is a deeply, deeply shameful action by New Labour."...
http://tinyurl.com/36o2dl
Some people have no hearts and no humanity ...
http://tinyurl.com/2fsnfz
Dear John
You may or may not be aware of comment in the blogoshere about last weekend's LRC conference.
As you know from our previous discussion, there is interest in broad fronts and alliances inside the Labour Party. But there are also questions about how this should be developed.
For a considered account of the LRC Conference, you might want to go to:
http://martinwicks.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/labour-representation-committee-conference/
My question is:
Where does the LRC stand over support for candidates standing against official Labour Party candidates either in principle or practice?
Peter, as others have already pointed out, this question was answered by the LRC's rejection of the AWL motion which could have led to candidates standing against Labour. As you were there all day, I really don't know why you are asking it.My blog on the conference specifically referred to this issue.
"November 22, 2007"
"A Low Point"
"Jahongir Sidikov is still in detention at Heathrow, having offered passive resistance to the attempt to deport him today. Next time they will use staff authorised and equipped to use force."
"I am deeply depressed. All yesterday I was working on trying to save him from being returned to the horrors of the Karimov regime's treatment of dissidents, and it was like living inside a nightmare. Together with an Uzbek friend, we got in an emergency application to the European Court of Human Rights for an Article 39 stay on deportation as Jahongir's life was in danger. This involved my friend filling and faxing numerous forms. I spoke with the legal officers filing the report to the Court, and with the National Council for Assisting Deportees who told me that a temporary stay was "always...automatically" granted so the case could be investigated. By the early evening Jahongir had already been taken to the airport to be deported, and still no result. Finally, the news came from Strasbourg - the appeal for a delay had been rejected by the assistant registrar of the Court. I have no idea why."
"I am still in a genuine state of shock and disbelief that we should start shipping asylum seekers back to Uzbekistan, of all places. It is as though the government have gone into official denial of what kind of place Uzbekistan is. I am also astonished that I have been met with complete indifference from everybody - officials, MPs and journalists. I can't get anybody to take an interest."
"I telephoned the British Embassy in Tashkent and the Ambassador, Iain Kelly, refused to speak to me. So both a yes man and a coward, then. In 2003 Iain Kelly was deputy to Matthew Kydd, Head of "Whitehall Liasion Department", the link between the FCO and MI6. Kelly's boss Kydd told me that it had been decided between Richard Dearlove and Jack Straw as a matter of policy that we should use intelligence from torture in the context of the War on Terror, specifically from Uzbekistan, and that this intelligence was "operationally useful". (Murder in Samarkand pp 160-2)"
"Iain Kelly is therefore not just passively but actively implicated in the policy of cooperation with the torture of Uzbek dissidents by the Uzbek intelligence services. He will also have been directly implicated in the use of intelligence obtained by torture through extraordinary rendition, in Uzbekistan and elsewhere."
"It is therefore essential that the Uzbek human rights community are aware of this and do not trust the British Embassy with any information or cooperation in future."
"The choice of Kelly as the new British Ambassador. together with the decision to end EU sanctions against the regime and to start handing over dissidents like Sidikov to the Uzbek regime, seems to indicate a return to a closer relationship with Karimov."
"After Kelly refused to speak with me, I received an email from a junior official in the FCO asking me to route my enquiry through her. She confirmed that the FCO was aware of the deportation of Jahongir Sidikov and had liased with the Home Office on it. I asked if there were any arrangements in place to track what happened to him once he arrived back in Tashkent. Evidently there were not, but she promised to speak to the Embassy about it. I followed up with this email:"
"Sarah, We spoke. I should be most grateful if you could ensure that, should Mr Sidikov be deported as planned today, the Embassy monitors what happens to him and maintains an interest in his welfare. As I am sure you are aware, there is a strong argument that any deportation of Mr Sidikov is in contravention of Artilce 3 of the UN Convention Against Torture, to which the UK is a state party. Have Legal Advisers been consulted? I should also be grateful if you could inform me whether diplomatic assurances have been sought from the government of Uzbekistan over treatment of those refouled, and if so with what result, and what weight you place upon any assurances from the government of Uzbekistan? This is the first time, to my knowledge, that we have deported an asylum seeker to Uzbekistan. Is that correct? I shall remain regularly in touch for updates on Mr Sidikov's situation. If this man is tortured or killed because the UK government sent him back to the custody of what is widely acknowledged to be one of the worst regimes on Earth, it will not be able to be kept secret."
"Best Wishes, Craig"
"Again, I restate my disbelief that we are doing this. How on Earth can we consider deporting dissidents back to Uzbekistan. Do Ministers not know what happens in that country, or do they just not care? And why can't I get any politician, journalist or official even vaguely interested? Even on the internet, no prominent bloggers have shown any interest. I don't know that I have ever felt so frustrated and alone - but my problems are nothing compared to how Jahongir must be feeling. To sit in a condemned cell awaiting a relatively quick death must be awful. But to await the kind of things the Uzbek security services will do to you - and to be awaiting them in England - is unthinkable."...
http://tinyurl.com/mevze
Vote Waring! His name has already been erased with no explanation, no comment from socialist campaign group news. hopefully the LRC will not take such a weaselly attitude and at least debate the issue at some level. serwotka said it all at the conference- loyalty should be to class not a party card
November 29, 2007
"A Chance to Fight"
"Am here in Accra and have picked up the vital news from Bob Marshall-Andrew's office, that Jahongir Sidikov's deportation has been postponed so his case can be reviewed. This is great news, but it gives us no more than a chance to fight. It makes further representations now still more urgent and important. This is particularly so in view of the Home Office's initial reply to Bob Marshall-Andrews:"
"The problem I have is that the correspondence you enclose from a Ms Catherine Brown appears to have no connection with Mr Sidikov. I know you will understand that Home Office records on individuals have to be treated as confidential and cannot be disclosed to third parties. As you are not Mr Sidikov's MP and as Ms Brown has no connection with his case, you will appreciate that I am therefore prevented from discussing the details of this case with you. Please be assured, however, that the information you have submitted will be placed on file and will be fully considered by the Border and Immigration Agency before a final decision is made on Mr Sidikov's case. In more general terms, I confirm that it is Home Office policy to remove political dissidents to Uzbekistan, if the independent judiciary has deemed an asylum claim to have no basis."
I think this must rank with the most astonishing phrases ever uttered by a British government:"
"I confirm that it is Home Office policy to remove political dissidents to Uzbekistan"
"The temporary suspension of Sidikov's deportation does not affect that policy. It is a policy which is vicious in the extreme as we know perfectly well what happens to political dissidents in Uzbekistan. I think the sentence above is in itself indicative of the hole in the soul of New Labour, and sufficient reason never to even consider voting for them again."
"That policy needs to be challenged. So does the "fast track" system by which Sidikov went from hearing to appeal to deportation in just a fortnight. We were told the "fast track" was for prima facie spurious cases from "safe" countries like Belgium. How on earth could a dissident from the worst country in the world to send a dissident get fast-tracked?"
"It was the fast track procedure that directly caused the failure of Sidikov's appeal. His solicitor had under a week's notice of the date, and witnesses - including myself, who was in Africa - could not make it for the hearing at that notice. The judge then refused to accept written evidence from several witnesses living abroad, on the grounds she could not be certain of the authenticity of the statements. She did not give time to establish their authenticity, just refused to accept them. She suggested they were forged because they had similar grammatical errors such as incorrect use of the definite and indefinite article. That was because they were all written by Uzbeks who do not have the article - my Uzbek partner always makes the same mistake in English. I know for certain that the statements were authentic. The judge's behaviour was a disgrace, and let me be plain I do have contempt of her court, deep contempt. But she was merely indicative of the general mindset of the "Fast-track", a disgraceful device by which the government seeks to curry favour with the tabloids by increasing deportation numbers."
"Boosting New Labour with focus groups infinitely outweighs the torture to death of the odd dissident"...
http://tinyurl.com/2kbaec
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