Letter to the Editor

I attended the London Peace conference on 20^th June and in some respects it was quite impressive. Central Hall Westminster was full to the brim, both in the main hall and the smaller hall. Standing room only. Large delegations from both France and Spain with smaller delegations from most European countries. 

Conference speakers came from a wider geographical spread. Two or 3 speakers from the US, several from the middle east and a couple from South America.

The conference was called in response to the massive shift in spending right across the west into the military/defence and the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. 

There were some good speeches, particularly from those rallying the faithful to the cause of the Palestinians. And a couple of Americans reminding us that there is more to US politics that Trump.

But where the whole thing fell flat, at least for me, were the speeches concerning the increased military spending in Europe, this brings me to Diane Abbott.

There were five MP’s making headline speeches at the conference, Richard Burgon, John Trickett, Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.

All except one railed against military expenditure and how appalled they were that this would inevitably lead to a massive reduction on welfare spending.  All highlighting how these policies being enacted across Europe would increase and entrench ever greater levels of social and economic inequality. 

But these speeches also either directly or indirectly highlighted the central fault line within the left, our freedoms. Time and again along side the condemnation of increased defence spending was the refrain that our freedoms must be defended, Europe is under attack, we can’t just sit back and see our freedoms trashed.

Only one of the MP’s placed all this in its right context, Diane Abbott. She made it as plain as can be that all of this is a result of the eastward expansion of NATO. She made it very clear that that was the primary cause of the conflict and the reaction of the Russians to the provocation. And I have to say she got a good reception at the end of her speech. Whether that was because she is Diane Abbott or the content of her speech I don’t know.

But it seemed to me that this is the central contradiction, or at least a significant one, that undermines much of the left.

Pete Whitelegg