Labour Briefing – Joan Twelves

I was expelled from the Labour Party without warning at lunchtime on Bank Holiday Monday – and unexpelled at teatime the next day.

“Dear Joan, It has been brought to our attention that you have stood as a candidate for the Socialist Unity Party against Labour….”

What! Who? Where? When?

Unlike most people, I know the answers to these questions, not because I’ve ever stood in an election as anyone other than the Labour Party Candidate, but because it was one of three accusations levelled against me last year when I was blocked from rejoining the Party after years of serious illness. SU stood candidates in the 1979 General Election. That’s right – 1979. 37 years ago. I was not one of them, and I can prove it from public records. Indeed, I proved it last year, just as I proved that I am not a previously expelled Trot entryist.

They’ve been witch-hunting me for 25 years. This is their third attempt to throw me out of the Party.

In 1991 I was Leader of Lambeth Council when we opposed the poll tax and the first Gulf War. Word came down from on high: ‘Thou shalt have no foreign policy other than mine’! 13 of us were banned from the Labour Group and, after months of investigations and hearings, six were expelled and seven suspended. I was NOT one of those expelled – I was suspended from the Labour Group for 12 months.

In 2015 my application to rejoin the Party I had left in 2000 was rejected because I had ‘previously been expelled’. I had to send the Party its own letter spelling out the decisions of its own National Constitutional Committee. It took six months, but I was finally allowed to rejoin.

And now this! No right of appeal – you may apply again in five years’ time…..

To say I was angry is a gross understatement. But because I’ve been there before… and before… I was able to reach out to comrades at the highest levels of the Party and my expulsion was withdrawn within hours. I received an apology for the ‘error’ and my full membership rights were reinstated. Ten days later I received my ballot.

I am told that I should not have been reinvestigated because I won my appeal last year.

Ewan Gibbs in Glasgow got his expulsion retracted for the same reason and because, like me, he was able to contact leading members. But others are less fortunate. Over 3,000 others, including undoubtedly some who won appeals last year and should not have been included.

The Party’s conduct is making people ill and very, very angry. Removing members’ right to vote won’t just affect this Leadership election. Why should anyone who has been treated in this way support the Party in the future? We should be welcoming new members and rejoicing in their enthusiasm, not driving them away.

Of course, a membership organisation like Labour must have the right to check that applicants support its aims and values, and no member should be engaged in any sexist or racist threats or abuse. But such vetting has to be carried out on the basis of openness, clear criteria and due process, not anonymous allegations about retweets and ‘likes’. That is the road to Stasiland.

A Party dedicated to justice, rights and due process has to show that it practises those values in the way it conducts itself and treats its members if it is to have any credibility. There has been little evidence of that this summer. We can and must never let that happen again.

I believe the incoming NEC must launch a thorough investigation into this year’s Purge as well as implementing the Chakrabarti Inquiry’s recommendations in respect of clear and transparent compliance procedures, in advance of an in-depth and long overdue review of the Party’s disciplinary and complaints procedures.

This article has been published in the October 2016 edition of Labour Briefing

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Whose streets? Our streets!

Whose homes? Our homes!

Thousands of angry tenants, housing workers, squatters, travellers, private renters, students and political activists were joined by MPs and councillors as we marched through London on a sunny March Sunday to protest the Tories’ plans to destroy public housing.

Kill the Bill! Kill the Housing Bill!

And a surprise re-entry into the top of the demo playlist, that ’40s anthem,

Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner!

Not surprisingly the national demo organised by the Kill the Housing Bill campaign was a tad London-centric – but then it is homes in London which are most threatened if the Tories get their way in hollowing out the city by forcing the working class out of the centre. One of the challenges for the campaign must be to build outside the capital. This Bill will affect everyone, everywhere.

The Bill is still progressing through the Lords, and crucial votes will take place soon. And there are signs that, as part of their current ‘let’s-not-scare-the-voters-too-much’ EU Remain strategy, the Tories are watering down some of the proposals such as the Pay to Stay limits and Housing Benefit caps which are leading to hostel and sheltered housing closures.

In London the mayoral election on 5 May is crucial with housing such a hot topic. A Labour Mayor with planning and building powers determined to stem the gentrification of our great working class districts can make a massive difference. Will Sadiq? I don’t know. But Labour’s Manifesto opposes the Bill and pledges “that estate regeneration only takes place where there is resident support … and that demolition is only permitted where it does not result in a loss of social housing.” The trouble is these words ring hollow to tenants in London’s Labour boroughs fighting to save their homes from demolition. The Labour leadership needs to step in and heal the rifts which have built up between councillors and residents and their supporters if we are to unite to fight the Bill.

Calls are going out from tenants’ groups that councillors should refuse to implement the Bill. Because the Bill is such a compendium of measures, there is a lot of scope for councils to investigate what they can and can’t do and share information and legal advice. As a start they can pledge not to evict anyone who refuses to Pay to Stay. Many of the measures are ‘voluntary’ for housing association landlords which have become increasingly corporate bodies in recent years and lack any real democratic or accountable ways for tenants’ voices to be heard. In my book, this means we just need to shout louder! Councillors can help us do that by bringing together council and housing association tenants.

It will be up to us to defend our homes. The march was just the beginning. Tenants are getting organised and we will Kill the Housing Bill!