Blairites are good at two things. They are good at waging the class-war for their fat-cat patrons, and they are good at waging illegal wars that obliterate human life.
The Blairites are still firmly holding onto most significant elected positions within the Labour Party, be they MPs or local councillors. But that is not enough and the Blairites want more power still.
Take the case of well-known Blairite Linda Perks, who until recently was the London Regional Secretary for UNISON. Perks is currently standing in the selection process to become the Labour Party candidate for the Charlton ward in Greenwich.
In this case the incumbent Labour councillor since 1998, Gary Parker, is one of the few principled Labour councillors in the country who publicly defended Jeremy Corbyn against the 2016 leadership coup led by Blairite contender Owen Smith.
Perks’ credentials are however about as far removed from Corbyn’s socialist leadership as they could be. Indeed, just four months before being selected as a Labour candidate she was found guilty of having abused her authority within UNISON. This was because evidence came to light that she had told her staff to campaign during work-time to get-out-the-vote for Dave Prentis during the 2015 General Secretary election.
But Perks, as one might expect, has form on such matters, and in 2007 she was at the centre of the scandal regarding UNISON’s witch-hunt against four members of the Socialist Party. In this instance, after a long battle for justice, the three UNISON Branch Secretaries (including one based in Greenwich) and one Branch Chair were exonerated (as detailed in UNISON Bureaucracy Unmasked.)
At the time, John McDonnell actively opposed the witch-hunt against socialists, making it clear: “I am a UNISON member myself and I therefore want to go on record as pledging my support to those activists now being witch-hunted by a section of the Union.”
One can only wonder what McDonnell now thinks about the ongoing attempt by Perks and her fellow Blairites to oust principled Labour councillors from positions of influence. I say wonder, because so far Labour’s new leadership have done nothing to head-off such problems, as they have singularly failed to encourage the Labour membership to organise against the Blairite enemy within.
NOTE
In terms of a local Leicester connection, in the distant past Linda Perks served as UNISON’s East Midlands Regional Secretary.
Thoughts of a Leicester Socialist 