Excellent comment by Dave Roberts
I would not normally do so much copying but the comment from Dave Roberts in regards to Respect and not just in Tower Hamlets is too good. You can read the original on the excellent Tower Hamlets politics blog by Ted Jeory. Everyone in Tower Hamlets needs to read it.
Dave Roberts.
It’s no coincidence I think that these investigations always seem to be in communities from the Indian sub continent and to a certain extent amongst the orthodox Jews in Stamford Hill in North London.
Oldford1, curiously silent of late, has pointed out but in the wrong context that the methods used by Tower Hamlets First were skills honed by pretty much the same people when in the Labour Party. This is true because it is a South Asian way of doing politics and not a particularly Labour one.
There is nothing wrong in getting political power and then giving jobs and contracts to friends and family. That is simply the way things are done, always have been and probably always will. Similar systems pertain in Southall, the former mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire where there are large Asian populations and in other places as well
Loyalty is to a number of things in equal proportion, religion, country and area of origin, village, family and where applicable, cast. The other group of political activists that greatly underestimated these forces was the far or loony left which has pretty much fallen apart. This disintegration has been over a number of issues, not least the SWP rape crisis but the cracks appeared in Respect in Tower Hamlets.
I remember watching the elation of the far left when they got their twelve councillors elected in 2006 and to judge from the discussions on the web sites you would have thought that the revolution was just around the corner and that the revolutionary masses were about to march on Westminster from The Whitechapel Road.
In vain did commentators who knew the Bangladeshi community try to explain to the assorted swivel eyed Trots who were hailing this new vanguard of the revolution, they had long since given up on the white working class, that it was about a section of a community that was excluded from power within the existing order with a sprinkling of business men looking for opportunities who were engaging in a bit of local power play.
I can’t remember just how long the thing lasted, a couple of years maybe, and when it fell apart the far left just couldn’t and still can’t understand what happened. Galloway and co blamed the control freakery of the SWP, they claimed Galloway had moved to the right and abandoned the principles (sic) on which Respect was founded.
What had actually happened was that seeing that Respect was going nowhere locally never mind nationally Respect councillors and power brokers began talks with Labour, deals were done and the defections started. One Respect councillor went from the party and SWP membership direct to the Tories! He didn’t even stop off at the Lib Dems or Labour on the way.
We then saw the same thing happen in Bradford with Pakistanis of Kashmiri origin who were excluded from the Biridari system of patronage. It wasn’t a ” Bradford Spring” as the T Shirts on sale from Philosophy Football proclaimed, must a been a few of those remaindered, it was a reordering of the political system and nothing else.
Respect in Bradford collapsed quicker than in Tower Hamlets and I would expect that negotiations have been going on for some time to rejoin the Labour Party with council seats, jobs and grants already allocated.
It’s a tough time to be a Trot. Just imagine, you have spent all your life waiting for the revolution as predicted by the mass murdering guru Leon Trotsky and just when you should be enjoying your retirement in the workers paradise ordinary people come along and bugger it all up. Honestly, some people have no consideration!
Just been given this. Go to You Tube and put in The Bangladeshi East End. It’s actually the sixth in The Secret History of Our Streets series form BBC2 in 2011 this one being about the East End and Arnold Circus in particular. The Bangladeshi part is about half way through but the whole programme is a gem and well worth watching. It should be required watching for all those who claim the white working class benefited from slavery and colonialism, not much evidence here.
Dave Roberts.
It’s no coincidence I think that these investigations always seem to be in communities from the Indian sub continent and to a certain extent amongst the orthodox Jews in Stamford Hill in North London.
Oldford1, curiously silent of late, has pointed out but in the wrong context that the methods used by Tower Hamlets First were skills honed by pretty much the same people when in the Labour Party. This is true because it is a South Asian way of doing politics and not a particularly Labour one.
There is nothing wrong in getting political power and then giving jobs and contracts to friends and family. That is simply the way things are done, always have been and probably always will. Similar systems pertain in Southall, the former mill towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire where there are large Asian populations and in other places as well
Loyalty is to a number of things in equal proportion, religion, country and area of origin, village, family and where applicable, cast. The other group of political activists that greatly underestimated these forces was the far or loony left which has pretty much fallen apart. This disintegration has been over a number of issues, not least the SWP rape crisis but the cracks appeared in Respect in Tower Hamlets.
I remember watching the elation of the far left when they got their twelve councillors elected in 2006 and to judge from the discussions on the web sites you would have thought that the revolution was just around the corner and that the revolutionary masses were about to march on Westminster from The Whitechapel Road.
In vain did commentators who knew the Bangladeshi community try to explain to the assorted swivel eyed Trots who were hailing this new vanguard of the revolution, they had long since given up on the white working class, that it was about a section of a community that was excluded from power within the existing order with a sprinkling of business men looking for opportunities who were engaging in a bit of local power play.
I can’t remember just how long the thing lasted, a couple of years maybe, and when it fell apart the far left just couldn’t and still can’t understand what happened. Galloway and co blamed the control freakery of the SWP, they claimed Galloway had moved to the right and abandoned the principles (sic) on which Respect was founded.
What had actually happened was that seeing that Respect was going nowhere locally never mind nationally Respect councillors and power brokers began talks with Labour, deals were done and the defections started. One Respect councillor went from the party and SWP membership direct to the Tories! He didn’t even stop off at the Lib Dems or Labour on the way.
We then saw the same thing happen in Bradford with Pakistanis of Kashmiri origin who were excluded from the Biridari system of patronage. It wasn’t a ” Bradford Spring” as the T Shirts on sale from Philosophy Football proclaimed, must a been a few of those remaindered, it was a reordering of the political system and nothing else.
Respect in Bradford collapsed quicker than in Tower Hamlets and I would expect that negotiations have been going on for some time to rejoin the Labour Party with council seats, jobs and grants already allocated.
It’s a tough time to be a Trot. Just imagine, you have spent all your life waiting for the revolution as predicted by the mass murdering guru Leon Trotsky and just when you should be enjoying your retirement in the workers paradise ordinary people come along and bugger it all up. Honestly, some people have no consideration!
Just been given this. Go to You Tube and put in The Bangladeshi East End. It’s actually the sixth in The Secret History of Our Streets series form BBC2 in 2011 this one being about the East End and Arnold Circus in particular. The Bangladeshi part is about half way through but the whole programme is a gem and well worth watching. It should be required watching for all those who claim the white working class benefited from slavery and colonialism, not much evidence here.
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