Let's sort out the class struggle in our own party first

There is most definitely a class war being waged. Sadly, that war is also being fought out within the Labour Party where the right is still controlling the mechanisms of power, and holding on tenaciously.

So, when people flippantly dismiss the struggle between right and left within the party as a distraction, I advise caution. Of course, the two wings of the party should be united against our real class enemy, the Conservatives. But sadly, this isn’t the case. No instead of a party unified, bound in common cause, pressing all its resources into action against Tory austerity, we are divided.

The Blairite right, including Progress, has for the past two years undermined the Corbyn leadership. It is only since Corbyn took over as leader of the party that disabled people are at last being listened to. The Labour Manifesto from the election this year is a million miles removed from that of 2015 when Rachel Reeves and Kate Green were the leading figures in the shadow DWP and disability arena.

Let's not forget, in March 2015, weeks before the general election, Rachel Reeves famously stated in the Guardian that the Labour Party was not the party of benefit claimants. 

At an earlier meeting I had with Rachel and Kate where I was pushing for Labour to come out in support of the ILF, Kate wondered why a scheme that helped only 19,000 people with complex care and support needs was being supported so many. When I said, “It’s called Solidarity, Kate. You know, the basic building blocks of Socialism?” She looked at me as though I was Satan himself.

We need to wrest the levers of power from those few who are stubbornly holding onto the controls of the Labour Party. Let’s remember who introduced the Work Capability Assessment, and during whose term of office the first attacks on disability benefits and services began. Then we might talk about dismissing left and right politics from our struggle. For I say that we need to win the class struggle in our own party before we can properly face the Conservatives.