The Brexit win has not just caused a vacancy in the Conservative leadership. Some Labour MPs have called for leader Jeremy Corbyn to stand down, with a dozen of them leaving his shadow cabinet to force the issue.
On Monday Labour party members and supporters, including Africans For JC Values and Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC) , gathered outside Parliament to show support for Cobyn, who faces a motion of no confidence.
Last Saturday a group including Labour members either suspended or expelled, most of them ostensibly for anti-Semitism met in central London to respond to what they see as a witch-hunt to silence viewpoints from the left of the party and to sideline Corbyn supporters.
Some at the meeting, had earlier handed in an Africans For JC Values letter at the Labour party’s national office in London. It questioned the charge of anti-Semitism against activists, and asked for factual discussions not to be stifled by allegations of anti-Semitism and suspensions.
The letter pointed out that the inquiry into former London mayor Ken Livingstone’s alleged anti-Semitism had not been immediate, and he had missed the opportunity to be on the ballot for election to the NEC (National Executive Committee). It also pointed out the selective use of suspensions of activists, such as MBC secretary Marlene Ellis, and asked why John Mann MP’s behaviour, insulting and shouting at Livingstone, captured on live TV, had not been censured for bringing the party into disrepute.
Additionally, in light of the imminent publication of the Laboutr Party’s Chakrabarti Inquiry into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, a coalition of African activists are calling for anti-African racism to be specifically referred to as Afriphobia, just as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia respectively refer to anti-Jewish and anti-Islamic racism.
