Anne Marie Waters resigns from the Labour Party

The main news being debated across the blogging community tonight is the apparent decision of Tommy Robinson and one of his pals to quit the EDL. Since that will be more than adequately discussed elsewhere I decided to have a look at an equally important but far less profile resignation, that of Anne Marie Waters from the Labour Party.

Ms Waters departure came as a bit of a surprise given her recent attempt to be selected as PPC for Brighton Labour Party. Her candidature attracted attention from those on the darker side of politics in the form of Andy Newman from the misnamed Socialist Unity website where he conducted a witch
hunt which was opposed both here and over at Harry's Place. 

Anne Marie Waters is one of the countries leading secularists and is a spokesperson for the National Secular Society and the One Law for All campaign and does some excellent work campaigning for free speech and women's rights. Her decision to leave Labour is therefore a blow to fighting back against the parasitical pro-Islamist elements like Socialist Unity and Socialist Action.

In an Open Letter published on the Dispatch International website she explains her decision:

I joined the Labour Party because I believed that all people should have equal rights, and should never be disadvantaged as a result of characteristics that they cannot change. I believed that people should have the same rights and protections irrespective of their gender or skin colour. I believed in fairness and in justice. I believed in civil liberties and a government run by the people for the people.

I still believe in those things, which is why I cannot, in any good conscience, remain a member of the Labour Party.

The problem as she sees it lies in the commitment to multiculturalism:

....multiculturalism. As a direct result of this policy, thousands of young girls have their genitals butchered every year – their clitoris removed and vagina sewn up. The purpose of this is to destroy a girl’s sexuality, ensuring her virginity so that she can be offered up to a (usually) much older man to live a life as his domestic and sexual slave. Despite this abhorrent crime carrying a theoretical 14-year prison sentence in Britain, not a single prosecution has ever been brought.....

Another of the fruits of multiculturalism is the proliferation of sharia. In Britain, we have at least 85 sharia tribunals operating a parallel system of family law. For your information, sharia law allows men to beat their wives, allows no unilateral divorce rights for women, and gives custody of children to fathers from a preset age, regardless of the circumstances. The most prominent of these sharia tribunals is the Islamic Sharia Council in east London. This is led by a man named Suhaib Hasan. He was secretly filmed by the BBC this year telling an undercover reporter that she should “correct” herself in order to avoid being beaten by her husband. Despite its claim to be a party that champions women’s rights, Labour said nothing about this. How can you truly be a force for gender equality if you remain silent on this deeply disturbing mistreatment of women?

Whilst I have more than considerable sympathy with her views, I do not think that resigning from the Labour Party is the way forward.

Ms Waters rightly identifies some of the more sinister elements within Labour:

Livingstone, while Labour Mayor of London, invited to the city (at tax-payers’ expense) a man by the name of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi is a supporter of FGM, believes Hitler didn’t quite do enough to punish the Jews, and thinks homosexuals should be punished as any other “sexual pervert”.

When renowned human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell criticised Livingstone for this, he was labelled Islamophobic by the Mayor.

As well as promising to turn London in to a “beacon of Islam” and campaigning against his own party in Tower Hamlets with Lutfur Rahman (a man linked to the Islamic Forum of Europe, which aims to create an “Islamic social, economic and political order” in Britain), Ken has also worked for Press TV, the media arm of the Iranian regime, which stones women to death for adultery. Can you tell me how you think the selection of Livingstone by party members, for the Mayoral candidacy in 2010, squares with Labour’s claims to be a party of gay rights and equality

These people need to be fought and the Labour Party reclaimed for the rights, not just of ordinary free thinking people but also to prop up the struggle against the false progressives of the left.

The Livingstone's, Newman's and John Ross's of this world need to be challenged and fought within the mainstream Labour and trade union movement. They represent the worst kind of politics the left has to offer.

I urge Anne Marie Waters to rethink her position. Her resignation will only strengthen the very reactionary elements that free thinkers rail against.