Irish socialist Poet Kevin Higgins died in January. Now Labour International’s former disabilities officer is being investigated by the party – for telling members about his death – while ‘evidence’ is being fabricated against the CLP’s membership secretary
Those who keep an eye on the behaviour of the right-wing Labour regime of Keir Starmer will find it hard to be surprised at any depths to which the Starmeroids will stoop – but this might manage it.
Labour International CLP (constituency party) – believed to be the party’s biggest – incorporates all party members living outside the UK – and the right has already waged war on the left in the group, expelling sixteen of its elected officers on spurious grounds. But now the CLP’s former disabilities officer has been put under investigation by the party – for telling members about the death of a socialist poet.
Irish poet Kevin Higgins – well-known and hugely respected, and not only for his political integrity but for his massive contribution to the arts in Ireland – died tragically in January after a long fight against illness. He was only fifty-six years old. Higgins had been expelled from the Labour party, like many others, for standing up against the right-wing regime’s factional purge.
And a message in the CLP’s closed Facebook group, which Skwawkbox has obtained, attacks the latest Orwellian twist in the party machine’s unprincipled and cynical conduct – which extends beyond the inhumane attack on the former disabilities officer, including the use of fabricated ‘evidence’:
The factional axe has not only been ground, it is being wielded with unalloyed gusto. Not only have 16 officers of the LI Executive been subject to formal complaints that resulted in their expulsion, it now appears that the former CLP disabilities officer, #########, has been notified an investigation is pending, despite many years of unstinting faithful service to Labour International.
The appalling nature of the complaint begs the question — What does this say about Labour Party standards? Ordinary members have also been removed by the purge.
And now, even more sadly, if that is possible, most of you will know that #### ##########, the CLP vice chair and membership secretary has been a tireless stalwart who has for many years expended an incredible amount of time and effort helping branches and individual members.
The CLP should be delighted that they have someone like #### as a committed officer who should be commended for his continuous enthusiasm for the betterment of the CLP and his members. I hope you will be as saddened and angry as me that even though he is not a member of any faction, he is now being formally investigated.
That defies belief, given his many years of unparalleled hard work for the members of this CLP. Whoever is responsible for initiating the complaint should be willing to stand up publicly and explain not only why #### deserves to be investigated, but explain why it was necessary to provide fabricated “evidence”. Is this what is being done in the name of the Labour Party?
Sadly for what used to be a democratic party, the tactic by the right – of suspending or expelling popular left-wingers when elections or important selections approach – has been common ever since the mass purge to try to influence the outcome of Jeremy Corbyn’s second leadership election against him, a manoeuvre confirmed by the Forde Inquiry’s investigation.
As a fish rots from the head, so with Starmer’s Labour – and we are all hit by the stench.
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Instead of sitting in a Labour party waiting to be purged, the Left should all leave. But going to current left wing parties is pointless as none have won a general election, or recent MP single job by-elections. None have the necessary Grey Vote pension policies, to gain that top turnout age group vote share.
Seeking people, please, to volunteer admin the oven ready potential new Over 50s & Young Labouring Ages party (not a registered trade mark yet, but something about over 50s in party name is needed) into existence.
Oven ready by updating Corbyn’s manifesto utilising campaigning petitions’ information, and the misery and experience of 1950s now 1960s ladies, thieved our retirement money by Tory, Labour and Lib Dems governments, since late 1970s.
At the moment especially seeking help, please, to persuade Emma Dent Coad to volunteer to bring the new party into existence, instead of running as an Independent MP, as could be the first left wing Lady Prime Minister with our new party.
Please contact through website
http://www.over50sparty.org.uk
How many members do you have?
You could call yourselves – The Boomers Party
When was Kevin Higgins expelled from the Labour party and could we have some more details about this “fabricated evidence”?
Reply to Steve H
Kevin Higgins believed Palestinians are human beings with the same rights as Israelis..These rights also include their right to life. He felt it was wrong that they should be murdered, deprived of the necessities of life such as clean water and medical care and confined to a ghetto, imprisoned behind a 4 meter high wall. People who hold these views are invariably denounced as “antisemites” in Starmers Labour ( you MUST be a Friend of Israel even if only informally if you want to retain your membership) so I assume Kevin like so many other good decent people was expelled for “antisemitism”.
Thanks for the eulogy, you obviously admired Kevin a great deal. As you’ve taken such a keen interest in him can you answer the questions that I asked above?
Reply to Steve H
I know very little about Kevin Higgins except that he was a human rights activist and deplored the human rights abuses Israel inflicted on people in Palestine. Thats enough to get him expelled from Starmers Labour for it seems clear that Starmers Labour does not recognise that Palestinians are people with the same human rights as the rest of us.
How otherwise would Starmer and the rest of them be a “Friend” of the State that seeks to subjugate them by the the most unlawful and uncivilised means (up to and including the murder of their babies and children) and expel longtime anti racists and human rights activists who even mention Israel’s barbarity.
Smartboy – ……and the answers to my questions above are❓
Herr Flick
Quick test for the Fuhrer
As the planet boils, all he has to do is promise to cancel all Tory new licences for North Sea Gas and Oil, if Labour win the GE
Even with 90p in the £ subsidies, he would stop any further exploration and development
If only works if your not a 50 faced lying cheating scumbag
Doug, have no fear the voting public are getting clued up about SirKidHarmer’s Labour Party. Their vote share in last weeks local elections has sunk even further.
Labour are going nowhere, They’re losing 10,000 members a month and are moving further right every week.
baz2001 – On the contrary, Ann Black reported that “Paid-up membership had risen from 378,658 in May to 385,324, plus 13,871 in arrears” in her report on July’s NEC meeting.
As with just about every other regular payment most membership fees are collected via a bank direct debit process.
There are two ways to stop this (at least in the real world);
Either
1. The party receiving the regular payment no longer accepts it. Options for this condition include that party ceasing to exist as a legal entity or that party contacting the bank to refuse further payments from that account.
or
2. The Party making the payment ceasing the payment. Again, available options are limited. The member either dies or makes the physical effort to go through the process of contacting the bank in order to stop that regular payment of the membership fee,
So tell us, “Einstein”, on the balance of probabilities in the real world which is the most likely of the options labelled 1 & 2 above to be the case in the 13,871 “members” in arrears?
Is it even a remote possibility that the LP has actively refused to take the payments of 13,871 members or is it more likely that that number, or close to that number, have made the conscious effort to stop their direct debit membership payments to the Party?
The point being that the process within the LP on the matter of membership arrears in that they retain their membership for status on the party Membership books for six months before being discarded from the membership figures.
Consequently, and take your time with this one steveH – we would not want you to over tax your single remaining brain cell – the next question becomes how likely is it that many, if any at all, of those 13,871 “members” still on the books will actively reinstate that direct debit within the next six months?
Because out in the real world what has occurred ion these figures released by Anne Black is that in a single month (May-June) the LP has recorded a net loss of 7,205 members. Thus:
A rise of 6,666 PAYING members – the difference between 378,658 in May and 385,324 and a loss of 13,871 PAYING members which will be retained on the Membership strength until the end of the year when they will go off the books.
13,871 – 6,666 = 7205.
Should this net loss be extrapolated over a twelve month period the likely real membership figures come the July 2024 NEC meeting report would be 298,864 (12 x 7205 = 86,460 and 385,324 – 86,460 = 298,864) minus however many “members” are kept on the books for the subsequent six months to fiddle the figures and give an erroneous and entirely misleading impression of Membership numbers.
You’re welcome.
I don’t believe Kevin Higgins was ever a member of the Labour party, and, therefore, could not have been expelled from it. It is the secretary of the International CLP whose expulsion by the rWing control freaks that serve Kier Starmer is the story here. The expelled member’s only “crime”, and, it is believed, the cited-reason for his expulsion, was simply informing other party members that Kevin H had unexpectedly died.
qwertboi – “I don’t believe Kevin Higgins was ever a member of the Labour party, and, therefore, could not have been expelled from it”
REALLY❓
The Morning Star and many other publications disagree with you
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/activism-was-his-muse-kevin-higgins-1967-2023
Yes REALLY, I’d never heard of him, but thanks for the link – he was definitely a committed activist. But for Starmer to expel a former member of his party for merely informing others of his death, that is embarrassing.
qwertboi – Higgins was originally suspended from the party in 2016, like many others he was suspended/expelled from the party during Corbyn’s tenure.
Here are Ken Loach’s thoughts on Kevin’s suspension https://youtu.be/sj1VHvjV23w
Thanks again SteveH. Ken Loach and laW inn the link were verifying the rottenness of the party’s Legal and Governance department as set up by Iai McNicol re Higgins and probably most of the other AS expulsion/suspensions.
Thank heavens Corbyn got Chakrabarti to write her report and impose effective standards – or StarmerLabour’s atrocious treatment of members would not be particularly worse than it had been under Baron (Iain) McNicol.
BTW: Higgins’ 2016 expulsion by McNicol is not the point of this Skwawkbox story today – it’s the 2021 expulsion for publishing a poem in a “proscribed” newspaper and other anti-left expulsions including one for simply mentioning that Higgins had died to other party members.
qwertboi – If only Corbyn had got rid of McNicol as soon as he became leader things may have worked out differently.
I have said it before but I’ll say it again – Starmer does not want to win the next election- thats why he is expelling long time members and alienating long time supporters.
His remit is to neuter the party – purge it of all socialists, antiZionists and independent thinkers – and then when he has achieved this he’ll be off to the House of Lords, some other right wing Zionist will take over and then maybe about 2030 Labour will be permitted to win a General Election because by then they will be a Tory party in all but name- they are nearly that already.
So far, we know of about twenty people who have been expelled from Labour International, mainly for daring to stand on a left wing platform for EC elections. Eleven of the newly elected executive this year were issued with notices of investigation within a few days of being elected.
Depressing as hell, isn’t it.
Look at the guardian’s BTL comments and wonder why are so many in denial about what Starmer is and who he represents? It’s reported that Eddie Izzard (centre-left) wants to bercome an MP and Labour’s reponse is that he’s ‘too high-profile’ Since when has name recognition been some sort of hindrance? The likely truth is, they don’t want high-profile people in parliament, kicking up a storm when Starmer/ Reeves reveal their true agenda of massive furtherment of NHS privatisation. And Reeves’ shows cruelty towards the poorest in society, in pursuit of their uncompassionate, cold ‘ economic growth’ targets.
Of those pushing Starmer, what’s in it for them? Will a Starmer govt hypocritically support the illegal ‘war gains’ territorial annexations by Israel of Golan , the West Bank, while denouncing those of Russia? You’d expect such hypocrisy, and it explains the near fanatical support from some for this hideous man who lied his way to the leadership.
You have got it Smartboy…..
How can you say that Der Sturmer ‘lied’ his way to leadership of the Labour Party or accuse him of hypocrisy or continually breaking his promises, he’s just a politician who keeps changing his mind……..isn’t that right StevieH?
Steve Richards
As bad as the current PLP are, even they make balk at implementing such a blatantly RW agenda. Rayner and co may be ignorant and/or pretending its not happening now, but in power they’ll be faced with voting to push through that Tory agenda. Will they resist?
It’s obviously essential that Starmer isn’t given a huge majority to streamroller all PLP opposition with. Ideally there’ll be a hung parliament as the best outcome. Sunak seems to be doing all he can to gift Starmer the election and you’d be hard pressed to find a Tory MP who’s truly anti-Starmer. They clearly believe Starmer will do the dirty work on priivatising the NHS under the guise of ‘reforming’.
The thing is SteveH – they dont need any justification to expel
people because a new Rule was added in 2022 that Natural
Justice was “not necessarily adhere to”.
In the words of “Mr Tulkinghorn” in the BBC dramatisation of Bleak House
“Im doing it because – I wish to – and – I can!”
One of the most unpleasant and unexpected things about Starmer’s obnoxious leadership is the failure to follow due process and abide by the basic principles of natural justice. Principles that those pursuing a career in law have drilled into them first. This guy was DPP for crying out loud!
So factional is he, he seemingly doesn’t believe in fair hearings and right to put up a defence, preferring summary expulsions and no practical means of reversing plainly unfair rulings.
Bad for Democracy…
The culture of fear those around Starmer have created extends to councillors and the PLP. Everyone has to micromanage what they say for fear of drawing the ire of the ‘Eye of Sauron’ – esque leadership. The iron discipline is a total abuse of power by an unpopular, uncharismatic leader who offers the UK F-ALL worth voting for.
In opposition the party should be a happy place, one buzzing with radical ideas, not the miserable prison of silence Starmer and Evans have made it. As bad as Blair became post 2001, he didn’t seek to control what every Labour MP said in opposition or try to limit debate like some corrupt autocrat drunk on power. Starmer will likely be utterly atrocious in power, tyrannical and despised by all.
Andy – The cosy comfort blanket of being the perfect opposition party appears to be the sum total of your political ambitions.
Must admit, I had to look-up Kevin Higgins. In the late 1980’s, apparently, he was active in the “anti-poll tax movement” in London. Nothing else subversive or dangerous mentioned.
He became a published writer in 2005 and again in 2008 when, to quote wiki, ‘His second collection of poems, Time Gentlemen, Please,[4] was published in March 2008 by Salmon. In an interview in March 2008 he sharply criticised the contemporary left. Some of the poems in Time Gentlemen, Please were in turn criticised by the Socialist Workers Party.[citation needed] However, others on the left have praised his work.[3] His fourth book, The Ghost In The Lobby, was published by Salmon in 2014.’
Nothing about Hevin Higgins warrants an admirer of him to be expelled by Labour. Nothing!
Starmer’s showing his insecurities and they make him a bad leader of Labour and – heaven forbid – a very worrying prospective-PM
Well said Andy !
Did you read the account of the Hungarian child who survived the
Holocaust who found the LP a very unfriendly place? The story was featured
both here and on the JVL site.
He was a child during WW2 and he and other Jewish children had
to pretend to be war orphans and they moved from house to house.
On one occasion their host was forced to give a Christmas Party –
with a Wehrmacht General at the head of the table next to a Nazi
flag and as huge Christmas Tree at the other. Their host was terrified
the identity of the children would be discovered ..
The grown up child (also a refugee from Warsaw
Pact Hungary) is now living in Britain and joined the LP – with previous
constituency MP Frank Dobson. He said what a warm friendly CLP it was then. Then
Starmer took over as MP and was friendly at first – until the CLP had a debate
on Anti-Semitism and he stood up and said that he personally had never had
experience of it in te Party. Starmer was apparently furious – and never spoke
to him again. As part of the Memorial Day – the Holocaust survivor was asked t
to speak of his child-hood experiences and one of these was a group proscribed
by the Labour Party. You can guess what happened – he was threatened with all
sorts by the GLU and promptly resigned the LP. So what sort of place does that
it?
Interesting Holby, I wonder if it’d be fair to say that Starmer personally is emphasising accusations of anti-Semitism and giving special importance to it solely to remove democratic socialists from Labour much more than others – even Friends of Israel and economically-right labourites like Rachel Reeves and Cooper? Do some other centrists privately, even the chicken coup leaders, find his aggressive use of AS to weaken the left distasteful and actually destructive to Labour? Of course the couldn’t say so publicly.
My own tuppence-worth is that Starmer certainly is more ideological (as you’d expect from a Trliateral Commission Member) than other centrists in Labour and the intense ant–left/anti-member control-freakery is largely down to Starmer himself. He’s text-book psychopath/ meshuggener, “Mr Rules” is a good cover for his personality-robbing psych problems.
qwertboi – Don’t you already know that Keir Starmer is no longer a member of the TLC,
TLC?
Tender Loving Care?
Surely Starmer never was a member of it!
🥱
yes, the very second a focus group told him that the electorate didn’t like it, he left. The man is distrusted and, increasingly, detested – in or out.
qwertboi – I don’t recall you expressing any concerns when ⅔ of the electorate were consistently expressing their distaste for Jeremy Corbyn.
“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”
Groucho Marx
What is “surprisingly” MIA from steveH on this occasion is what he likes to shove down everyone’s throat – but only when it conveniently suits him. Hence the inverted commas around “surprisingly.”
The context being on this occasion that Starmer now no longer being a member of the TC is an irrelevance to the point.
Firstly, because membership of any organised body is a two way street. No one is going to want to become a member of any organisation if they do not share the aims, objectives and values of that organisation. The statement of Starmer’s membership of the TC is shorthand for recognising this objective reality – ie that Starmer joining the TC is indicative of him sharing its aims, objectives and values.
No one tends to bother making that explicit (a) because its implicit and obvious (except to those dishonest wannabes attempting to overeach their limited intellectual capacity by trying and failing to reach the dizzy intellectual heights of trollhood – as is the sad case of steveH here); and (b) steveH would only deflect by winging like a mardy arsed five year old that unpacking the obvious (except when it does not suit convenience) represents an “assey”
Secondly, because the TC operates a regional (as in global) quota system in its membership. In terms of process practicality this means that to avoid a situation where prospective members in a particular region of the globe have to wait for ‘dead man’s shoes’ membership occurs by either having to expand the quota or an existing member steps down.
The point being that no longer being a member does not necessarily translate implicitly or automatically into the former member no longer sharing the aims, objectives and values of the TC.
A blatant clue that Starmer maintains the aims, objectives and values of the globalist and elitist 1% TC can be found in his stated preference for the globalist WEF/Davos agenda clearly demonstrated in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qI0xQSn8Y0
And that is what counts in this instance rather than formal membership or otherwise.
Happy to provide your deliberately missing context on this issue steveH.
Dave – Thanks for taking the time to write 360 words explaining how irrelevant you think it is 😉
steveH – Thanks, again, for taking the time to fill empty space with even more empty space.
Tell us, how long have you been self-identifying as a vacuum?