


Kim Sanders-Fisher

Andrew Marr tried hard to extract that vital neo-con admission from David Lammy to support the total obliteration of the progressive Left; thankfully he did not succeed as Lammy refused to succumb to pressure. The Left has taken a severe hit both here and in the US, but you cannot continue to convince the exploited that their destitution is so resoundingly great for the wellbeing that they voted for more misery out of choice. It is unrealistic to believe that, despite the Covid 19 crisis, the working poor didn’t really want universal access to healthcare or $15 an hour minimum wage. This is the same hoax pulled on our semi-destitute population when the Media insisted the threat of unemployment, eviction and having children starve was a lower priority than the nebulous nirvana pipe dream of Brexit. If anything the shockingly close call in the US Presidential Election was a strong warning sign that the duped masses were so enraged by seeing the possibility of progressive equality sabotaged yet again that they just did not bother to vote.

By examining this travesty in the US it is possible to see the clear parallels here, In a Gal-Dem Article entitle, “Black American non-voters are heavily criticised, but can you blame them? The failure of American electoral politics hurts black people more than most. During the presidential election of 1980 between Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Ronald Reagan, James Baldwin was asked: ‘Who are you voting for?’ He responded with characteristic intellectual poise: ‘No Black citizen of what is left of Harlem supposes that either Carter or Reagan, or Anderson has any concern for them at all, except for as voters – that is to put it brutally, except as instruments, or dupes, and while one hates to say that the black citizens are right, one certainly cannot say they are wrong.’ They note that, “both presidential candidates represented different types of violence, especially violence towards the black community. He knew that the election did not have a chance of bringing black people the liberation they deserve.”

Gal-Dem assert, “Looking at the 2020 elections in the US, 40 years on, black people are faced with the very same problem. Both of the possible presidential candidates have inflicted significant violence on black communities. There is very little hope to be found in their premiership and plenty of left-wing black people who have made the decision not to vote for either of them at all. Black non-voting has led to harsh criticism in the past, with commentator Brando Simeo Starky calling it ‘sheer selfishness’ back in 2016.” However, they highlight the very issues that made me balk at voting for Biden aside from the fact that this aging super-Hawk will probably drag the UK into another unjustified foreign intervention to benefit the Military Industrial Complex. They point out that, “Joe Biden’s 1994 crime bill was major in manifesting the school-to-prison pipeline for black men. He pushed President Jimmy Carter to bolster the war on drugs and his influence has led to the United States having the highest incarceration rate in the world.”

I can also understand why women of colour might not be thrilled to have Kamala Harris as their flag-bearer of equal opportunity. Despite her multi-cultural background, Biden’s VP has some seriously questionable heavy-handed decisions in her track record that do not demonstrate any empathy for minorities or the disadvantaged. Gal-Dem say that Biden’s now, “Vice President, is a self-characterised ‘reformer’, yet her record in California as prosecutor shows contradictions. Although Kamala implemented programs that helped people find employment as opposed to incarcerating them, she also pushed for people to remain in prison even after they had been proven innocent.” I consider such harsh judgements unforgivable; Harris also prosecuted parents for their child’s truancy causing additional hardship. Gal-Dem are less critical, reporting how, “Kamala paved the way for racial sensitivity training programs within the police to address their racial biases, but she also chose not to investigate certain officer-related shootings.”

Gal-Dem insist, “We have to acknowledge how deeply unfair the choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is for black people.”
They say, “Even with such a stain on Joe Biden’s campaign, a large majority of black people who chose to vote will still have voted for him in yesterday’s election. Donald Trump has devastated basic human rights, emboldened white supremacists who he told to ‘stand by’ and has been unbelievably irresponsible throughout the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic (which is disproportionately affecting the black American community. People want to see him gone. But we have to acknowledge how deeply unfair the choice between the pair is and allow for black people to make legitimate criticisms of the Democratic candidate as much as they critique the Republican one. Online and in-person, people are sometimes shamed with ‘Well, do you want Donald Trump to be elected again?’ The answer is clearly ‘no’.”

Gel-Dem justifiably assert that, “Black Americans shouldn’t be chastised for choosing not to engage in electoral politics at all if they legitimately don’t trust in the alternative; a system that has continuously let them down.” But how is that relevant to our political choices on this side of the pond? Although all of the issues of job insecurity and borderline destitution are felt by a wide swath of the working poor of all ethnicities here, which is equally true in the US, the situation is far worse among minority communities and there are added grievances like the racial profiling of ‘stop and search.’ Gel-Dem highlight that, “In the UK, I feel we face a similar dilemma – having been completely alienated from the Labour party by Keir Starmer by calling the Black Lives Matter movement a ‘moment’ and the 860-page report in which members of the Labour BAME staff network felt there was a hierarchy of racism where antisemitism is taken seriously, but anti-black racism and Islamophobia are not.”

Gel-Dem rightfully accuse, “Our Prime Minister Boris Johnson is well known for holding racist views – referring to black Africans as ‘piccaninnies’ with ‘watermelon smiles’ and saying black people have lower IQs. Last month, the Conservative government actually banned ‘critical race theory’ – labelling it as divisive’.” I must admit I was not sure what ‘critical race theory’ was, but I was curious enough to read a recent Guardian Article entitled, “Why is the UK government suddenly targeting ‘critical race theory’?” They say, “By importing Trump’s culture war, the Conservatives are trying to close down any discussion of structural inequality. Until this month, according to the parliamentary record, Hansard, the term ‘critical race theory’ had never once been uttered in the House of Commons chamber. By the end of the day on 20 October, however, it was of such importance that the government declared itself ‘unequivocally against’ the concept.” In essence it marks the Tory refusal to acknowledge the brutal reality of our racist past.

The Guardian quote the misleadingly named Tory ’Equalities Minister, “’We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt,’ warned the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, at the end of a six-hour debate to mark Black History Month. ‘Any school which teaches these elements of critical race theory, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law’.” I have examined other interventions by Badenoch and come to the disgraceful conclusion that despite her gender and BAME heritage she epitomizes the most extreme determination to completely ignore the harsh realities experienced by minorities in the UK. Badenoch is either wilfully ignorant of her remit or blissfully out of touch, but I imagine she was specifically chosen by Boris Johnson for such deficiencies.

The Guardian say, “Strictly speaking, critical race theory is an academic field that originated in the US around 40 years ago. As the British academic Kojo Koram notes, it began as an attempt by legal scholars to understand why black communities experienced discrimination in the criminal justice system, even though they were formally guaranteed equal rights. Today, the term has become a kind of shorthand in US politics for an approach to race relations that asks white people to consider their structural advantage within a system that has, historically, been profoundly racist.In the wake of this year’s Black Lives Matter protests, however, ‘critical race theory’ has also been the target of an anti-leftist witch-hunt ordered by Donald Trump: in September, the US president ordered federal agencies and contractors to stop funding any training programmes that drew on ‘race-based ideologies’: a range of ideas, crudely put, that suggests racism persists in today’s America.”

They quote, “This is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue,” Trump tweeted. “Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!” The Guardian report that, “In the UK, critical race theory is a relatively marginal intellectual current, and a term most people are unlikely to have encountered until now. Yet the Conservative government, no doubt glancing across the Atlantic, has decided to co-opt this bogeyman into the culture war it enthusiastically pursues on several fronts, whether it’s against ‘lefty lawyers’ who represent migrants in court, or against the ‘north London metropolitan liberal elite’. When the Black Lives Matter protests spread to the UK this summer, they ignited a fraught national conversation about racism. Many responded by offering solidarity to the thousands of young black people who took to the streets to protest at their own experiences of racism, and demand that Britain more fully acknowledge the injustices in its history.” In the US and the UK the entire progressive Left is coming under the cosh!

Guardian claim that, “It also prompted a backlash, one that the government has increasingly thrown its weight behind, seeking to portray the movement as dangerously extreme. The Department for Education told schools in England that they were not to use materials produced by anti-capitalist groups, or teach ‘victim narratives that are harmful to British society’. In his Conservative party conference speech earlier this month, Boris Johnson accused Labour of being on the side of those who ‘want to pull statues down, to rewrite the history of our country… to make it look more politically correct’. Tom Hunt, the MP for Ipswich, accused the leaders of Black Lives Matter of having ‘strayed beyond what should be a powerful yet simple and unifying message in opposition to the racism that still exists in our society, into cultural Marxism, the abolition of the nuclear family, defunding the police and overthrowing capitalism’.”

The Guardian report that, “Since Trump began his assault at the end of the summer, however, a handful of rightwing commentators have been trying to import the moral panic into the UK, mainly via the pages of the Telegraph and Spectator.” They say, “For the right, ‘wokeness’ fills much the same role as ‘political correctness’ might have done in an earlier era: it is a rallying cry against a liberal elite whose values are allegedly being imposed on an unwilling population. Since 2016, this populist tactic has become a central way to shore up support among the new coalition of voters the Tories have assembled. Its ultimate effect, however, is to deflect any conversation about structural inequality – and not just when it comes to race.” The Guardian point out the opportunity to “materially improve the lives of poorer children of all backgrounds in what will be an extraordinarily difficult winter, by extending free school meals into the Christmas holidays, the Conservatives were dead set against it.” Thankfully Rashford scored another U-turn!

Although the abysmal voting choice was distressing for many of the white working poor Gel-Dem say that, “Asking black people in the West to choose between the ‘lesser of two evils’ is offensive at best and completely dangerous at worst, especially after the 2020 Black Lives Matter civil rights movement. Black activists and allies spent months on the streets calling for the police to be defunded and even abolished. For the movement to now lose momentum and these protestors to feel caught between two campaigns, both with heavy support of the carceral system, is a betrayal to those who believed in change.” Calls do defund the police are misleading as they suggest a complete abolition of law enforcement which is not the ultimate goal. However, police in America evolved from the slave catchers to become a force directed towards the subjugation of their descendants. In the UK they are not trusted by BAME communities who feel unfairly targeted; what is required is a whole new ethos of protect and serve.

Gel-Dem report that in the US, “Five months ago it looked like there was a chance to create new systems. Now, black abolitionists are being told by Kerry Washington to ‘Vote because George Floyd should be turning 47 today’. Let’s be honest – a Democratic government would not necessarily have saved George Floyd. Mike Brown, Clinton Allen and Trayvon Martin were all killed under the Obama administration.’ ‘People need to be sympathetic towards their black counterparts and realise they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.’ It’s easy to see why some black people would choose not to vote. For too long black people have been used as political pawns in a game of chess between two old white men. This is illustrated by the fact that it was recently revealed that Trump’s election campaign in 2016 actively sought to disenfranchise black voters, and Biden’s awful remark back in May: ‘If you have a problem figuring out if you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black!’”

Just like Keir Starmer pictured ‘taking the knee,’ Gel-Dem point to, “Biden giving the family of George Floyd and Eric Garner the floor to speak on the first night of his convention as not enough to win every black vote when we continue to see no structural change. People need to be sympathetic towards their black counterparts and realise they are stuck between a rock and a hard place; they should not have their legitimate concerns about elements of the Biden campaign dismissed under a barrage of ‘What’s worse?’ I understand why people want everyone to vote and for the Democratic candidate to be elected, even if it’s only to get Trump out, but it is not lost on me how disappointing it is that the brutal fight for the right to vote fought by our predecessors leaves black Americans with the choice between two candidates they cannot put their full faith in. What is needed for black non-voters is understanding, because regardless of who wins, black Americans still lose.”

In America although there has been a huge excited response to the Biden victory, besides the ‘Popular vote,’ we should worry that not only did he barely scrape over the line in critical States needed to secure enough Electoral College votes, the DNC lost several Congressional seats and has probably failed to seize control of the US Senate. Unless the Democrats win both Georgia Senate seats in a run-off in January, just like a hung Parliament here, it will be very hard for Biden to govern. Despite the intense Media hype this was not a resounding success. But just like America’s forgotten minorities the working poor who have voted Labour in the past will not flock to the poles in droves to vote for Keir Starmer even if we are offered a sham election in another four years. If he thinks his massive lurch to the right has inspired confidence and garnered support he is totally delusional. Corbyn’s historic Labour manifesto was inspirational, but Starmer, obsessed with his own ego, thinks “New Leadership” and nationalism will make him PM!

Starmer lied and made false promises he had no intention of keeping, just to secure the Labour Leadership. Since then he has, against the advice of Labour’s Legal team, squandered membership dues to make an unwarranted legal settlement and launched a vindictive purge of the progressive Left, including the unprecedented removal of the former Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn. It now appears that these toxic moves have initiated an exodus from the Labour Party. But Keir Starmer in his sad lack of wisdom, not to mention his appalling dearth of self-awareness, has gutted his enthusiastic Momentum ground team who faithfully went door to door canvassing. No amount of wealthy donor cash will pay to effectively outsource that enthusiasm and commitment: Keir is toast! The DNC just cheated Bernie Sanders out of the Democratic nomination for a second time and he still got behind the second lying cheat, but Starmer has tried to crucify Corbyn, so don’t expect Jeremy to throw himself behind Party rallies for Tory lite!

The Democrats will face a rude awakening when they finally realize that the repeat cheat scam will no longer get them elected. There are too many angry voters and young people sick of getting cheated out of a reasonable future to enrich the Corporate elite. Online organizing will offer a way forward plus the massive rallies that drew crowds to hear Bernie Sanders speak about equality in the US and Corbyn do the same here; this will return as the virus is tamed. The most vital priority is that we do not allow the drone of neo-con Media to overwhelm the demand for equality. The Covert 2019 Rigged Election has handed the Tories unprecedented power and they are manipulating Covid to their advantage, but their claim to political legitimacy is fake and we need to expose the truth with a full Investigation into the December vote ASAP. If we do not derail the Tory agenda in the next two months not only will their ‘Slaughter of the Sheeple’ take many more lives this winter, but the New Year will usher in decades of Dictatorship. DO NOT MOVE ON!