The Labour Party's problem with Islam | Ali Milani | The Big Picture S3E14

How deep does racism run within the Labour Party?
Since the start of the Gaza war, there's been a growing anger within British Muslim communities at Labour's perceived lack of leadership on the Palestinian issue, ignoring the overwhelming calls from their own constituents to stand for a ceasefire.
Under Sir Keir Starmer, the opposition party has mirrored the government line, publicly supporting Israel's devastating military actions, despite the outcry of many Labour MPs - many who quit in protest.
But some have remained to fight.
This week on The Big Picture, we speak with Labour Party member and former Uxbridge candidate Ali Milani, who says he's ready to publicly challenge the way senior members of the party view Palestinians, and Muslims in general.
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[@Sa-hi5nq]

How ANYONE, let alone a Muslim, can vote Labour with the current leadership is beyond comprehension. Neither Conservatives nor Labour care about the interests of ordinary people.

[@zanethepain8915]

You vote independent if enough of us do it collectively we screw the major parties up and we are no longer an unorganised community who can be overlooked

[@keithmiller1467]

so you never listened This man is so impressive I would vote him any time

[@weyoun6535]

How can you not care about the arms shareholders profits?? Not very patriotic of you. Next you’ll be attacking the private healthcare industry. People are cash machines essential for maintaining and increasing the poverty divide, we’ve reached Victorian standards but there’s still work to do before we reach Georgian.

[@muhammadsuleman9328]

Good information ❤

[@pepalola6756]

Misma citación en España y yo como Canaria no tenemos voz aquí aún soportamos muchos Caciques.😞😞😞

[@happydays4302]

I will not vote for anyone who didn't have the moral integrity to vote for a ceasefire. If you can't vote against killing kids you should not be in a role that is supposed to look after the children of this country. Our kids deserve and need leadership with the integrity and courage to fight for them, and that's a global 'our'. I will never vote Labour whilst Kier is in charge.

[@samanthagarbettcharles4205]

Sir Kiddy killa

[@WalesTheTrueBritons]

British people? That’s a disingenuous title as British isn’t a single People, but a collective of Four! The Welsh, Scots, English and Northern Irish generally all think differently. With the Scots and Welsh more pro Palestinian than the English.

[@Tomara710]

Irish too.

[@samanthagarbettcharles4205]

Im English ,I dont have many freinds agree to support Palestine but I think its because they are selfish and dont educate themselfs to truth but go along with the mass,s being duped by media ,sheepople .😢

[@iseeyou2810]

Irish and maybe some Scottish not so much Welsh.

[@mariaa6918]

This man has great courage to hylight this disgusting carryon. So great to hear some humanity and honesty as this is in such shortage ....please keep speaking out the truth

[@AbuHamzaAlKashmiri]

After listing all the deliberate discrimination faced, it is the height of naivity to think that either the labour party or the UK regime will change it's policy on Palestine or any issues affecting Muslims

[@blitz8702]

That is why they elected rishi the Hindu extremist as a prime minister same ideology to British . 🤔

[@elamcyril]

I guess electing some radical islamic jihadist would have been better.

[@user-cp7gh8zj6b]

Hindutva = Zionism = fascism

[@BarryH90dz]

I’m voting green, the best outcome for me is forcing labour into a left wing coalition.

[@ebflegg]

That would be fine if Greens were socialist. But they aren't. Look at the disaster of the German greens

[@LeftyBanker]

The Tory and Labour parties are a tag team, with the British media as the referee.

[@deedee8568]

Astounding courage. Thank you.

[@zahrahawaleh1515]

I think Milani gives Labour too much credit. Labour leadership has behaved horrendously. I resigned as a member abd Union delegate at the weekend. Best decision I've made since joining in 2016 to support Corbyn.

[@daveaustin1093]

Over 28000 Palestinians dead, 60,000 injured, how does MR STARMER THE HUMAN RIGHT LAWYER SLEEPS AT NIGHT😪 How do they expect me to vote for Starmer and his gang. NO VOTE FOR LABOUR THIS TIME. I WILL VOTE FOR CORBYN AND GALLOWAY.

[@suzannelooms7658]

We need people like this young man in politics.

[@user-qn6yt3zx3w]

Very smart kid, articulate, principled and straightforward, he has no future in politics.

[@christopher-ke9nj]

How can you even think about voting Labour

[@R.IAmEnough]

Starmer's wife carries the passport of the apartheid colony. He probably has a family there. Conflict of interest. There are so many many similar cases.

[@Gone893]

Well said Alli.

[@pinterbeckett]

Wonderful insights.

[@mujibul2010]

Really interesting discussion

[@patrickholt2270]

There's three problems. The first is that you can believe you're fighting for a future condition of the Labour party in which it's a grassroots led, working class mass participation party that fights for the working class and socialism, but in the meanwhile, and history indicates that the meanwhile can be several decades, you're actually lending your weight to a party which is going to take politics and policy to the right, that is ideologically committed to the Thatcherite ratchet effect, that has as it's specific policy intentions everything we hate and became interested in politics so as to fight. Secondly, there is the simple and inexorable logic that centrism by the party which is supposed to be the left of parliamentary politics just moves the whole of politics to the right, and allows the moving of the goal posts of what is assumed to be the "centre" to the right. We've all seen the "results of voting lesser evil" graph. That's factual history that we've lived through for the last 5 decades as Labour kept shifting to the right ever since 1983, in which the official throwing away of internal voting rights within Labour for union members, and the creation of New Labour in 1996 to be exactly "Not Labour" as Bryan Gould pointed out, were consolidations to make that rightward drift, drifting in fact right across the centre line of where voters are and always have been in terms of ideological and policy preferences, irreversible. Thirdly there is the fact that if you keep rewarding people for going the wrong way, there is no incentive for them to change course. As long as the Blairites and Starmerites feel confident that they can take leftist and black and muslim voters for granted, they will ignore you and do nothing for you. And within this third point is the converse way of putting it, which is that standing against Labour, splitting its vote, does in fact powerfully influence it. The SDP founded in 1981 by proto-Blairites to take votes away from Labour and thereby force it to the right at the expense of socialist representation in parliament, succeeded completely in doing so, so that by the mid-1990s they effectively controlled both the Lib-Dems and what they were turning into New Labour, in service of the bourgeoisie and the professional-managerial class and their class interests, not the class interests of the working class. Socialists know that the working class has to have its own party, and that having to share a party with other classes, means not being represented and only having a choice of class enemies to vote for. That's not a means to change society in favour of the poor and working class, and it's not a means to escape from the capitalism and imperialism which is rendering not only British society but the entire planet inhospitable to human life. Marx was right in calling for the working class to form its own political party, and be formed into a political party so as to manifest its power as a class. The only way that the Labour party can be such a party is if the bourgeois and professional-mangerial class can be driven out of its structures and out of the PLP. Which cannot be achieved without a leftist equivalent to the SDP to force it to the left by external pressure and making sure that its betrayals of Labour voters are punished in a way that the right cannot pretend is a preference for them.

[@babymonalisa]

💯🎯

[@user-qn6yt3zx3w]

Hotoveli’s comments should not have surprised anyone: “There shall be no Palestinian sovereignty between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea" Likud Party Charter since 1977

[@suraya536]

It's the truth

[@mohamadliy7786]

Gov or politician they knew what they doin is wrong but they afraid to lose jobs.. Btw their can support by doin boycott secretly

[@hardworkingwoman3780]

Wow! Awesome guest Ali Milani! I pray the establishment will allow you to stand and it may well be this year, given the strength of the Muslim voters in light of Starmers position on Palestine. I had never understood why Jeremy Corbyn, Williamson, Mcdonnell & Abbot to name just 4, expelled from Labour on spurious racist charges, didnt go on to create a party based on their core values, modernised from Labours original core, but still working class, equality driven. But here Ali explains so clearly how he views the Labour party, within the UK political establishment and spectrum, and i think i finally understand - there simply is no other way, change can only happen from within. With respect to Gaza, and the inherent barely acknowledged islamophobia within the UK establishment and class structure, i am reminded of the vast number of lives, the so very young the so very old and every age inbetween, taken from loved ones in the cruelest of ways is heartbreaking and it feels wrong to say "may their loss not be in vain but instead power the change that is needed for that community locally & internationally, for all oppressed peoples" because that suggests what... that their death is of greatest value, and not their life. But from what little I understand of the muslim faith, i think perhaps there is not only a comfort but a truth to that, hard as it will be for those left behind to go on without their loved ones beside them to hold, laugh & cry with I imagine this thought is a small comfort, which will, one day soon i hope, truly blossom into a much better life for the living 🙏🙏🙏🙏 Thank you for such a great podcast / platform. Another great guest, thank you.

[@simonjlkoreshoff3426]

A “sustainable ceasefire” is the same as the EU’s position. That is, to demand the end of Hamas and unilateral release of Israeli prisoners. In other words, a “sustainable ceasefire” demands that Gaza surrender and trust the Israeli to treat them justly. This guy wants to keep his job. He’s an opportunist.

[@Zurka-hd4yy]

Unless George Galloway stands

[@hfwilmot]

My parents,, my grandparents and myself have always voted labour. We could never vote for the conservatives, considering their corruption, incompetence, austerity, which has hit the poor, the privatisation of public assets, which is led to poor service and higher prices and profits for foreign companies and CEOs, like with the railways sewage and water, the under funding of the NHS and social services and local councils. So never tories. However, I can never vote for labour under kier starmer - Broken promises, lack of democracy, failure to stand up to the Conservatives, the witch hunt against Jeremy Corbyn, and the left. So it will be other parties that stand up for justice, Fairplay equality and justice and polices for the many not the few.

[@Zurka-hd4yy]

Yup absolutely

[@felixmora665]

Knowing that Tony Blair was of Labour Party, all is said.

[@beammeup8458]

BRING JEREMY CORBIN BACK @!

[@Zurka-hd4yy]

I will not vote for labour again despite voting for them all my life

[@odinallfarther6038]

The Lino party Labour in name only .

[@SajiSNairNair-tu9dk]

Beginning world problems 🤔

[@user-qf2mz9xt1e]

2:10

[@Repentandsalvationofchrist]

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Prayer to all that is need in time may our lord god be with them in there presence shalom

[@AsadKhan-lm6yr]

Stop calling it Islamophobia….Call it anti Muslim hate. Islamophobia implies that the perpetrator is supplied with a stimulus that triggers an exaggerated response putting the onus on the stimulus rather than the inherent hate of the perpetrator!!!

[@rajavishnuvardhana6830]

Live in your country with honour!

[@georgemacintyre2858]

No one who wishes the abishion of Israel should be allowed in the Labour Party or any British political party and their immigration to Britain should be blocked.

[@morsmagne]

I disagree with this video - the problem is that if you want to represent a local uk population, the emphasis of discussion should be on local issues. Gaza should have nothing to do with local uk politics. Gaza is the sort of thing you talk about at home after work.

[@Zurka-hd4yy]

I will vote for Greens I believe because I will never be able to vote for labour I think

[@user-mb3dw5it6o]

Vote reform

[@user-mb3dw5it6o]

Who started the war ????

[@JacintaPalerm]

Israel

[@FontaineDerby]

There is a blatant lie within the first minute. Ali Milani did not lose against Boris Johnson in the General Election 2019 by "the narrowest of margins" 00:45. He lost by 7,210 votes. Johnson got 25,351 votes (52.6% share, up by 1.8%). Milani got 18,141 (37.6% down by 2.4%). Milani got less votes than the previous Labour candidate.

[@Zurka-hd4yy]

Or Corbyn

[@alanharwood1636]

A ceasefire that leaves Hamas in charge of Gaza is not a ceasefire.

[@user-cp7gh8zj6b]

Then there should be no Likud either

[@karimb972]

Likud, Labor and all the other parties in the knesset are 100 times worse. Why the double standard?

[@brianferguson7840]

And the labour Mayor of the Capital City of England, ? What religion is he ???

[@deliaohara8949]

What has religion got to do with his job?

[@paulforan4550]

Bring back corbyn