This article is a response to a piece by Anwar Khan which appeared on Left Foot Forward on February 12.
Chris Weavers is chair of Tower Hamlets Labour Party
This article is a response to a piece by Anwar Khan which appeared on Left Foot Forward on February 12.
Tower Hamlets is an amazing place. A place where, over centuries, people have come from all over the UK and all over the world, seeking a better future for themselves and their families.
Today the growing membership of the Labour Party in the East End reflects the community we seek to serve with members originating from dozens of different countries around the world.
From elderly Jewish members who fled persecution in 1930s Central and Eastern Europe to newer arrivals from Bangladesh, Somalia, Nigeria and across the EU, all these members make our party stronger and better.
This diversity is reflected at every level of our local Party including in the candidates we have selected to contest the local elections this May. Of our 45 council candidates 27 are from BME communities.
These candidates were selected on merit and each is an excellent advocate for the Labour Party and for the ward they seek to represent. Collectively they represent the strongest group of candidates the Labour Party can offer the people of Tower Hamlets.
To serve as a Labour councillor or candidate is a great privilege and we have the very highest expectations of both in terms of the way in which they carry out their duties and in working as part of a local Labour team. Where councillors or candidates campaign or act against the Labour Party or the policy we collectively agree, we have taken prompt action, including rescinding Labour Party membership where necessary.
This action is always taken irrespective of ethnicity or any other similar factor and this will not change.
Suggestions such as those made recently on this site that those BME candidates selected are in any way less able because they don’t work in the City of London is not only grossly inaccurate it is deeply insulating to a group of people who are talented, effective and assertive. Each of these candidates has shown substantial commitment to the Labour Party and to our community, in some cases for decades.
We are standing more female BME candidates than ever before and a more diverse team than ever before and more than any other party.
Yet we must not be complacent, more remains to be done to engage those who have for too long been excluded from the local political sphere including women, particularly Muslim women and the Somali, Chinese and Vietnamese communities.
We constantly monitor and review our efforts to build a local party’s that is attractive to all regardless of race, gender, sexuality, age or faith and we welcome any individual or organisation who wants to constructively work with us to help us further improve and to build a better future.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
14 Responses to “Tower Hamlets Labour Party can be proud of its record on diversity”
SackedinLondon
The notion of colonialism can also apply to social organisation.
If you look at a Borough of Tower Hamlets’s composition, you will be able to find enough evidence of injustice and unfairness going on.
A lot of those are being done by people apparently coming from the same or very similar backgrounds.
A lot of the other injustices are occurring due to
people being colonised under other levers, under other influences, powers etc..
What the Labour Party was founded for was to remove those exploitation. Colonialism is only one of several ways of exploitation.
It is as valid an analytical tool as any other valid tools.
Is the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets engaged in such analysis?
Is there a feeling about in the political climate of the Borough that suggests that something really existing is going to happen?
Do you or do people who live in Tower Hamlets get hat feeling?
Most people will say no.
Yet there should be. Yet there should have been. But there isn’t.
You will search hard for evidence and you will come up empty.
That is what most people, of all backgrounds, think of the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets.
As the Party (many of whose genuine supporters feel proud to refer to the East End being one of its key founding places) the Labour Party ought to have been alive especially at a time like this.
Fighting for justice.
Fighting for the people being violated, attacked, denied and deprived. Disenfranchised daily.
But you do not see that.
You do not hear that.
Instead, you hear the stated Chair of the Party complacently confirming how amazing the Place is!
Amazing for some.
Of course!
Not so fun for the ones being given the run around by the powers that be.
Every single day.
Shumon
Thanks white Dave. I’m still waiting for a Bangladeshi to defend the Labour Party and its superficial tokenism.
tory
says the white man
tory
yeah and how did that one turn out? oooh lutfur. there is always the great white saviour in the guise of michael keith; denise jones; josh peck now gibbs and saunders – who feel embarrassed by the bengalis in their midst and feel the need to save the party from ‘infiltration’.