Hard To Resist: An Interview With Chris Williamson
Chris Williamson was the Member of Parliament for Derby North from 2010 until 2015, and from 2017 to 2019. He was Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government from October 2010 to October 2013 under Ed Miliband, and the Shadow Minister for Fire and Emergency Services from 2017–2018, under Jeremy Corbyn.
Prior to his time as an MP Chris was previously a local councillor in Derby, representing the Normanton ward from 1991 until 2011, serving twice as leader of Derby City Council.
Following his resignation from the Labour Party in 2019, Chris initiated The Resist Movement, with the stated aim of fighting for change and social justice for all.
The Festival of Resistance was held last weekend, in Nottingham, attracting a fantastic range of speakers from Alexei Sayle to Lowkey.
Some of the comments I have seen from attendees include “an inspirational event, due to the solidarity and clarity of the messages that were given” - another described the Festival as “An amazing uplifting inspiration jam packed weekend. There was love & hope combined with the prize of equality & the ambition of a society where everyone is valued.”
So this seemed like an excellent time to follow up my interviews with Alexei, Chris, Lowkey, and Jackie Walker.
The Festival of Resistance:
Chris, you must’ve been delighted by the response to the Festival - one attendee told me they could feel genuine hope in the air.
Can I ask, where did the idea for the Festival come from, and can we expect more of the same in the future?
We were preparing to hold a Festival of Resistance in June last year. We had booked the venue and secured the agreement of numerous inspirational speakers to address the planned gathering, but the Covid lockdown put paid to those plans.
I wanted to bring people together after the disastrous 2019 election result and the heartbreaking demise of the Corbyn project. The idea was to demonstrate that, despite the best endeavours of the neoliberal establishment and the Zionist lobby, we are still here.
I was concerned that the delay in holding this event might have meant that our moment had passed, but the weekend was an unqualified success. We ran 12 workshops, held seven plenary sessions and organised a social event on the Saturday evening where entertainment was provided by Lowkey, Tayo Aluko and Joe Solo.
The feedback from everyone I have spoken to has been incredibly positive. It demonstrated to me that there is still a huge appetite for a socialist alternative to the status quo on offer from Labour and the Tories.
Hope:
On the theme of hope… it is said there is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow. Hope was a key factor in the early days of the Corbyn era, it was the glue that bound the spine of the movement.
We used to have so much hope, but a powerful combination of individuals with their own anti-socialist agenda, the pernicious influence of the Mainstream Media, and tragically, inward capitulation, put the flag of socialism back in the darkest corner of the broom cupboard.
Do you think we can ever get that hope back again, and what part can Resist play in becoming the umbrella for the left to stand underneath while the establishment fronts bring in one shower of diabolical drizzle after another?
It is essential that we hold onto the hope of a better tomorrow. There is a great interaction in the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ between the characters Andy Dufresne and Red Redding where Andy Dufresne declares: “There’s something inside that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. It’s yours”. Red Redding then says: “What are you talking about?” To which Andy replies: “Hope”. Red scoffs saying: “Hope? Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside. You’d better get used to that idea”.
The haters behind the sabotage of the Corbyn project are banking on us losing hope. They want us to think that we are powerless, that the neoliberal status quo can never be broken, that it’s futile to strive for a socialist alternative, even dangerous to do so.
But they are wrong, just as Red Redding was wrong. Andy escapes from the Shawshank prison and leaves a letter for Red in a secret location that he told him about beforehand. When Red Redding eventually gets parole, he goes to find the letter that Andy left for him. Andy’s letter concludes by saying: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”.
The ‘Shawshank Redemption’ is an apposite allegory for everyone who put their faith in the Corbyn project, only to see the opportunity it provided snatched away. Even in our darkest moments, it is essential that we hold on to the hope that we can build a good society where poverty is eliminated, climate catastrophe is averted and where imperialist wars, are consigned to history.
The purpose of Resist is to encourage collaboration on the left outside the Labour Party through political and direct action.
We brought speakers together from both the Socialist Party and the Workers Party. Dave Nellist spoke on behalf of TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) at Saturday’s closing plenary too, alongside Tosh McDonald, Jackie Walker and Lowkey. We also had speakers from Palestine Action, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion precisely because these groups use direct action to make their case.
As Benjamin Franklin once said: "We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately".
Next up, I’ve gone a bit Jeremy, and crowdsourced a couple of questions. The first one is from Bill Ward, and he is a Resist member that attended the Festival of Resistance last weekend. Bill asks…
Educating the masses:
I sensed a recurring theme running through most, if not all of the discussions at Resistfest; the need to inform and educate the masses, the 99%. Without using the term in a derogatory manner, they are by and large ignorant, in the sense of not being informed, not entirely through any fault of their own. We know where the fault lies.
The question is how, as socialists, can we overcome this situation. The knowledge is out there and we have to direct them towards it. How do you consider we can go about this and if Resist goes ahead with forming a political party, what part can it play?
Whether Resist registers as a political party or not is in many ways irrelevant. The key to our success or otherwise isn’t whether we become a political party in our own right; it’s how successful we are at raising political consciousness and building a grassroots movement. That will mean encouraging and facilitating alliances across the left. But the real test will be how successful we are at community organising.
We need to build our own alternative media platform via Resistance TV and promote independent media outlets. But we will also have to get involved in local community campaigns on a range of issues from housing to Covid passports. If we can build the trust of local community leaders and influencers, we can show people that austerity is indeed a political choice; that a currency issuing nation can never run out of money to fund decent public services; that local authorities already have the powers to eliminate the housing crisis and could end the cuts to council services through a redistributive council tax.
If we can do that, we will be well on the way to the socialist transformation we hope for when Jeremy was elected as the Labour leader. Raising political consciousness and increasing political expectations is essential. The establishment want to keep people in the dark, as that allows the current situation to prevail. Henry Ford is reputed to have said: “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning”.
Our job is to help spark that revolution.
And the second question, which is an excellent question, comes from my friend Wren, she is a socialist activist based in the North East, where many former Labour voters will never vote for the Party ever again. Wren asks…
Left Unity:
Leading on from the other question, we have a massive problem with solidarity on the left. It seems that we have become ridged and judgemental in our ways, with a very small minority seemingly mistaking people's ignorance on subjects as all out fascism and attacking those who just don't know any better, causing more damage than good and pushing those on the fringes further away from left leaning groups due to these tactics.
Can the left get back to structured debate where we embrace other people's difference in view and give them reason to change or are we doomed to infighting and seeing who can shout the loudest?
I certainly hope so, and that is the intention behind Resist. If we are to make progress, we have to accept that there is much work to do in raising political consciousness. We need to give people hope that change is possible.
The starting point must be to acknowledge that differences of opinion exist. We need to be making it clear that the choice facing the country isn’t so much a question of left and right, it’s more a question of right and wrong.
The Socialist Campaign Group (SCG):
I know some good socialists remain in the Labour Party, from grassroots members, to those elected by their constituents, some of whom remain in the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) - which has proven to be somewhat ineffective when resistance was needed the most.
While lobbying for change in the Party is something that will always stick with many of us on the left, what can you say to these grassroots members, councillors, and Members of Parliament, who have been morally abandoned by Keir Starmer’s Diet Tory outfit, still clinging on to the socialist dream coming true within the Labour Party? Is it time for a reality check?
What the defeat of the Corbyn project demonstrated, beyond any shadow of doubt, is that the Labour Party’s a bigger barrier to socialism than the Tories are. It also exposed the abject timidity, and utter uselessness of the so-called Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs (SCG).
They offer no meaningful leadership. In fact, it’s even worse than that. The SCG is fulfilling the role of Sir Keir Starmer’s useful idiots. Their very presence gives Starmer’s party a veneer of credibility. They give false hope to the party’s dwindling band of left-wing activists because the SCG gives the impression that Labour’s redemption is still possible, when the evidence points in the opposite direction.
The SCG is doing a disservice to socialism by continuing to steer left-wing activists into the Labour Party, because that is a surefire way to kill any socialist radicalism. Members are neutered inside the Labour Party. Far better to follow the Bakers’ Union lead and agitate for more unions to disaffiliate. When the Bakers’ Union president, Ian Hodson addressed the Festival of Resistance he said history has a habit of repeating itself. He quoted John Jenkins, a former general secretary of the Bakers’ Union, which was one of the Labour Party’s founding trade unions, who in 1902 said the Liberals thought the working class had nowhere else to go.
Ian drew a very clear parallel between the leadership of the Liberal Party 120 years ago, with the leadership of the Labour Party today, and that it was “time for a new phase in our political awakenment. It’s time for people to realise that actually, the progress we make as people, is when we understand it is through our solidarity that makes changes, not through individual politicians or political parties…And it’s time now to reorganise in our workplaces and strengthen our political positions in communities”.
David Amess MP:
The murder of Conservative MP David Amess would appear to be a horrific and brutal act of terrorism. While a very small minority on the extreme fringes of the left shamed themselves by dragging out his voting record within hours of his death, and considerably worse, the vast majority of us - the common sense, common purpose left - acknowledged the good that he did during his lifetime, and demonstrated the compassion we need as we strive to be the best of humanity.
Mr Amess was a strong advocate for animal rights, a cause both of us hold close to our hearts. Did you work closely with him on any campaigns during your times in Parliament, and while some politicians seem keen to use his tragic death as a justification for introducing draconian social media clampdowns, what do you think would be a more fitting legacy to the David Amess that you knew?
Yes, I did work closely with him on animal rights as well as on tackling fuel poverty and fire and rescue issues. He was held in high regard by firefighters and Matt Wrack the FBU’s general secretary paid a heartfelt tribute to him on his death in recognition of the work he did in parliament on fire safety.
I think David suffered from a degree of cognitive dissonance though, because many of the issues about which he cared passionately were opposed by his party. But he was a tribal Tory and remained loyal to them to the end.
I am pretty sure that an authoritarian crackdown on social media would the last thing he would have wanted because he was a libertarian.
In terms of a fitting legacy, the prime minister has said that Southend-on-Sea will be given city status, which was something David had sought for 20 years. I am sure he would have been pleased about that development. But I think if he had anything to do with it, he would have liked to see fuel poverty eradicated and the loopholes in the Hunting Act closed to stop the blood-sports addicts flagrantly disregarding the law.
Personal safety and death threats:
You were a prominent figure during the Corbyn years. A shadow minister, a champion for the poor and working classes, and a formidable campaigner for global human rights - which sadly, but inevitably made you a target for heaps of online abuse, and a hostile media that painted a picture of Chris Williamson that simply wasn’t true.
Did you ever have any concerns for your own safety, particularly when the witch-hunt was constantly aimed at you? And from your own experience, what more needs to be done to ensure another family doesn’t have to suffer the same unimaginable heartache faced by the friends and loved ones of Jo Cox and David Amess?
I was subjected to death threats when I was suspended and my office was vandalised by a Tory councillor who thought he could do so with impunity, because he posted his handiwork on social media.
When I was due to address a meeting on MMT in Brighton in August 2019, three venues were intimidated into cancelling after threats were made online, over the telephone and in person by Zionist thugs. As a consequence, the meeting had to be held outdoors and Sussex Police told me they couldn’t guarantee my safety.
Although I never felt particularly vulnerable, I was acutely aware that it only takes one extremists to launch a potentially life-threatening attack.
I ran an open surgery at my constituency office and constituents had access five days a week. I also ran advice sessions in the café at the local Sainsbury’s supermarket. It’s impossible to eliminate risk, but more could have been done when I was an MP to make my staff and me more secure, but there was an unwillingness to invest the necessary amount needed to do so.
Cake and veganism:
And finally, to finish on a positive note, if Resist does decide to become a proper political party, working with other parts of the left to deliver and support socialist candidates in future election campaigns.. will you consider popping down to Swindon to sample and judge my homemade vegan carrot cake?
I would be delighted to do so. The growth in veganism since I went vegan in 1976 is truly inspiring. I stopped eating meat, dairy products and eggs because of the horrendous cruelty involved, but in more recent years we’ve discovered the environmental impact of the livestock industry is killing the planet too.
The vegans will inherit the Earth comrades, they have to, or we’re all doomed. Anyone interested in what that might look like should watch Simon Amstell’s brilliant film ‘Carnage’, which is both hilarious and very thought provoking, and it’s still available on BBC iPlayer.
Thank you to Chris Williamson for taking the time to speak with me.
Thanks for reading,
Rachael
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, if you want to chip in towards improving my ongoing campaign, and it would cause you *no hardship*, you can do so here:
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