Socialist Appeal, Carol Taylor-Spedding and a complaint from Socialists of Colour

 

The Trotskyist group Socialist Appeal is running a group of three candidates alongside the misnamed Grassroots Alliance of hard-left activists to try and take control of the NEC. They do of course face an uphill struggle though the other hard left candidates do need to have an eye kept on them.

Socialist Appeal of course is one of the entryist organisations that exist inside Labour in breach of party rules and I have previously covered the group in detail (see link at end of page). The former remains of Militant is running one of it's leaders (Roger Silverman) alongside Alec Price and Carol Taylor-Spedding who is currently under investigation by the party after complaints from the organisation "Socialists of Colour".

It should be noted that two other NEC candidates faced complaints. Labour List reported:

The anti-racism group, which organises within Labour and outside of it, sent a series of questions to each party member who has put themselves forward for the internal NEC elections currently taking place.

After the responses were provided to the activists and published in full on their website, Socialists of Colour complained to Labour about the statements of Brian Precious, Carol Taylor-Spedding and James Chespy.

A Socialists of Colour steering committee member told LabourList: “A number of responses to our questions we disagreed with but could be put down to political difference. However, there were some that entered into clear-cut racism and antisemitism, which Socialists of Colour do not in any way endorse.

“Responses that warranted content warnings for their antisemitic and racist content included the defence of Jackie Walker, who was expelled from the party for antisemitism, the denial of institutional antisemitism, perpetuating conspiracy theories and comments around certain communities being more predisposed to commit crime.

“We are also deeply worried about the erasure of antisemitism especially in the face of the EHRC investigation into the party. Some of these issues have been picked up by the party, with Brian Precious’ original candidate statement being taken down due to antisemitism and then replaced.

“It is evident that party vetting processes when it comes to candidates are not thorough enough and do not have conclusions that effectively hold candidates, or people who should not be candidates due to their racism, to account.”

Socialist Appeal who have joined the ranks of the enablers of antisemitism make it clear that:

This group has reported Carol to the party. The complaint is now being investigated, potentially jeopardising her candidacy. We stand with Carol...

It's all a "witch hunt". Trouble is there are plenty of witches or more accurately antisemites and racists on the hard left of the Labour Party and outside and this group and its supporters should be expelled as soon as possible.

Meanwhile Roger Silverman tells us:

My priority is to restore the morale of Labour Party members. Too many are leaving in despair – despair at Labour’s election defeat, and even more so at the rightward shift of the leadership under Keir Starmer.

I'd say the it's quite the opposite. Morale has increased as has membership as Keir Starmer restores Labour to the mainstream. The departure of the hard left who did so much to wreck the party and destroy the broad church that it used to be is no loss at all.

Further Reading

Labour's entryist groups: Socialist Appeal