Britain: Racism in our political system

Diane Abbot MP Source

This first appeared on the UK website, LeftHorizons.

Personal note. I saw Diane Abbott in the House of Commons reading out a list of the racist and violently sexist messages and threats she has received. It was shocking to say the least and I have nothing but admiration for someone who can maintain their humanity and decency under such pressure.  I'd welcome the opportunity to shake her hand. Richard Mellor

By Joe Langabeer

June 6, 2020

As we see the horrific crimes being committed by police and politicians across the USA, its reflection has been seen here in the UK. Many people have started to wake up and realise that racism is systemic within the very foundations of our society. The countless number of black people beaten and murdered by the those who were supposed to protect us is horrifying, and it should be commended that humanity is finally starting to take notice. 

However, the institutions that have been elected and remain in power are still systemically racist. The list of the Tories’ atrocities on BAME communities is a very long and disturbed history. Windrush, Grenfell, Tory MPs and their revolting rhetoric. These have all led to the building blocks of modern racism and to the perception of it as ‘acceptable’, but nothing recently has been as damaging or vile as the consistent attacks on Labour MP Diane Abbott. 

Diane Abbott has made many fights for the BAME community, yet her legacy has been tarnished by right-wing politicians, the media and to some extent, the right wing in her own party. 

Working class Jamaican family

Perhaps it is time to register some of the contributions she has made to British politics. She was born into a working-class Jamaican family and started her career in politics in 1982. Before politics, she studied history at Cambridge. In an interview in The House Magazine entitled ‘Diane Abbott: “Jamaicans have a lot of self-belief, you know”’, she remembered that when she had wanted to take the entry exams at Oxford and Cambridge, her teacher had said, “I don’t think you’re up for it”. Abbott’s reply was “But I do, and that’s what matters.”

She graduated from in History and went into Civil Service work, to became a race relations officer at the National Council for Civil Liberties. She also became a press officer for Ken Livingston when he was working under the GLC, before it was dissolved in 1986 by Thatcher. 

Abbott was elected to Westminster City Council until she stopped serving in 1986. In 1987, she was elected into the house of commons as an MP in Hackney North & Stoke Newington. Diane Abbott was the first black female MP to be elected into parliament. Keith Vaz, Bernie Grant, and Paul Boateng were all elected along with Diane Abbot in 1987, making them the first 4 MPs of colour to be elected in Westminster.

An overview of Black Sections

Diane Abbott was one of the founding members of Labour’s Black Sections. Black Sections was a group set up for black supporters of the Labour Party to get greater representation in their CLPs. The group was formed in 1983 and was disbanded in 1993 to become the Black Socialist Society, to become BAME Labour in 2007, which is the current representation. 

The book The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa: Black British Solidarity and the Anti-apartheid Struggle shows how the struggles of disenfranchised and urban areas led to an increase in black representation in local left labour governments. This created an opportunity for black voices to be heard in the Labour Party’s structures and hierarchies. 

The initiatives of Black Sections were to demand more representation within the Labour Party’s systems and propose that more black people should represent the party that most of them voted for. This has also been documented extensively in the book The Changing Pattern of Black Politics in Britain. The NEC had at first met Black Sections with refusing them being an official grouping, but after a national survey sent out to the party, the NEC favoured the Black Sections and it officially became a grouping within the Labour Party. 

This is also well documented in The legacy of Black Sections and was part of the reason that Diane Abbott, Keith Vaz, Bernie Grant and Paul Boateng were able to be elected in in 1987. Without Black Sections, the Labour Party would not be as representative in ethnic communities as it is today, although there is still has a very long way to go. 

Abbot won over 70% of her constituency vote

This brief overview of Black Sections is an important element in history of our movement. They were not always treated with warmth, and Neil Kinnock disapproved of them and with sections of the PLP attacking them. Much of this was detailed in a 2008 Guardian article, Celebrating Black Sections. Diane Abbott has been an MP now for 32 years. She was always one of the critics in the New Labour project, pushed against the Iraq War and was a champion for civil rights and left-wing policies that only certain Labour politicians could ever dream of. In her own seat, she won 75% of the vote share in 2017 and in even in 2019 took 70%. Diane Abbott has continued to be a popular member of parliament in her constituency for all these years. 

Even with all that to be admired about her character and influence, she has been and still is subjected to the most insidious forms of racism from members of the public and the right-wing press, and it is now clear from the leaked ‘Anti-Semitism’ report, even from sections of the right-wing Labour apparatus. 

In a report published by Amnesty International in 2017, it was revealed that black and Asian women MPs were abused online more than any other group. This report also found that Diane Abbott was subjected to the most amount of abuse and sometimes amounted to up to a third of all the abuse being sent to MPs. Much of it was focused on sexual threats and derogatory comments about her gender and race. 

Worst examples of racist abuse of any MP

When people say, racism doesn’t exist in the UK, they are very much mistaken and are ignorant to what is happening. The disgraceful and continuous abuse of Diane Abbott is one of the worst examples of racist abuse and she has been subjected to it since she entered parliament. I have been personally told by people that she is a “waste of space” and “useless” and I would call them out on their remarks; if they suggest back to me that what was said was “not racist” I would ask why is it that they never use this type of language for any other politician? 

I am not talking about people who are clued-up politically. It is people who have never discussed politics and yet always refer to Abbott in derogatory language. It is important to recognise that singling out a black, woman MP, when not commenting on any other in the same vein, can only be seen as a racist remark. It is subconscious racism and it festered through British society. 

Boris’s remarks on “letterboxes”s and “picaninnies”, Tory MP Desmond Swayne refusing to apologise for ‘black-facing’ and also suggesting that the protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement “have it coming to them”, is the type of rhetoric that proves how racism is in-built. There is, in fact, little disparity between the USA and the United Kingdom. Of course, Britain has its own historical brand of racism: the history of an empire built on slavery and colonialism. This is something that is never taught in schools and it is about time that it should be. 

Leaked ‘anti-Semitism’ report

Diane Abbott has been subjected to the most demonstrable, racist abuse that an MP could ever experience. In an interview with Owen Jones for the Guardian, she said she had received countless numbers of death threats and that has made party staff workers going sick, as a result of the stress and the abuse they receive. 

We must also mention the ‘anti-Semitism’ report that was leaked a month ago and the disgusting treatment of Abbot by right-wing and anti-Corbyn sections of the PLP and party staff. All these incidents and many more have demonstrated racism in one way or another in our movement and it must always be met with resistance from all members of the Party and its affiliated groups. 

It is a good step forward that people are educating themselves on the politics of race; but it is not enough. The best solution is to organise. White and black people must come together and set up political campaigns and organisations affiliated with the Labour Movement to fight racism in all it is ugly forms. On a personal note, Diane Abbott was the most inspirational MP to me and she has fought through so much adversity, but she will always give me the strength and integrity to fight for a socialist; equal future.