Calderdale's New Labour meltdown

Sajid Mehmood, local community worker and representative within Calderdale for over thirteen years and seven other previous members of the Labour Party have torn up their party cards, to join Calderdale's branch of Respect, the Unity Coalition, as a reaction to what they feel is the Labour Party's uncompromising support of unjust domestic,social and foreign policy.

They will be officially welcomed into the Party by George Galloway MP and Respect National Secretary, John Rees at  a press conference on Monday 13th November.

They decided that their consciences could no longer support a national party whose leaders and policies seem set on continuing war, privatisation and social division. For them, Respect represents a welcome, new, alternative set of values:anti-war,environmentally- aware,and with a range of important social justice issues as core values of the Coalition.

They see it as imperative to build cohesion and mutual support between and across all our local communities.

Whether as a result of terrorism, or war, they believe the taking of innocent life to be indefensible. Far from being 'against terrorism', in the absence of international sanction, the war appears both to be a form of terrorism itself, with the huge losses of innocent life, the secret torture centres, and the use of chemical weapons.

The effort to sustain these 'occupations' threaten all our civil liberties and is having a marked effect upon our local communities,especially in the unpleasant recent unleashing of Islamophobia, so reminiscent of the anti-Semitism of the thirties.This is a smokescreen for guilty Ministers.The current Government threatens all aspects of our civil liberties, from the age-old right to fair trial and freedom of expression, to the right to demonstrate peacefully and wear whatever we want, including hoodies or niqabs.