Hackney Not United: Hackney Hustings Descends Into Chaos

I spent this evening at the Hackney Unites hustings for the London North East GLA constituency at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston.

Hackney Unites is a local pressure group which has grown out of the Hope Not Hate initiative, formed by the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. Following a split in Searchlight in 2011, Hope Not Hate has continued as a separate body, and now finances Hackney Unites newspaper, which is currently being distributed across the borough.

The hustings came with a very fixed format. Firstly we had speeches from Hackney Unites Chair John Page, then Hackney Unites employee Andrea. After the starters came the main course. The politicians  selected to attend the hustings followed the format that has dominated media coverage in London – Labour, Lib Dem, Conservative and Green. Not invited, despite outpolling the Greens both nationally and in London were the UK Independence Party, nor were the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition selected for the top table. Both deserved a hearing.

Those who made it were the incumbent – Labour’s Jeanette Arnold, the Tory’s Naomi Newstead, the Lib Dems Farooq Quereshi and Green Caroline Allen. Those attending were invited to submit written questions, which were handed to Hackney Unites Jane Holgate, which were then shuffled into an order based around a preliminary discussion of the subjects the audience felt important. Questions were read out, and each politician given one minute to answer.

This format soon brought problems. Hustings means different things to different people, and what we most certainly did not have here was a debate. Politicians give politicians answers, and without the chance for the audience to come back on what was stated, events soon became stilted. For example Conservative Naomi Newstead claimed to be opposed to tuition fees – a somewhat unusual position for a Conservative politician, and certainly not one that appears in her election literature. This was the first time I had seen Labour’s Jeanette Arnold (perhaps best described as a poor man’s Diane Abbott) more impressive on a personal level were Lib Dem Farooq Quereshi and Green Caroline Allen. Interestingly Ms Allen rarely missed an opportunity to speak of Green MP Caroline Lucas, whilst barely mentioning the Green’s fluffy Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones.

As the meeting wore on, frustrations grew at the lack of real debate. One man who wanted to make a verbal contribution was repeatedly told by Chairman John Page to write it down, when it would have been far easier in such a small meeting to let him speak (at its peak I counted 47 present, including the candidates) It is also the case that not everyone is as confident at writing political views as they are at speaking them, and London North East – as with any constituency – will include people who may not be able to read and write as well as others.  Eventually after several calls for order from John Page, and a description of developments as “disgusting” the guy was allowed to ask his question “Why is it we never see you again when you get elected?”

This provoked a rambling answer from Ms Arnold that seemed to centre on how rarely she misses important events in the Greater London Assembly – which was not of course the question posed. Things got difficult when the Conservative candidate justified cuts, leading to anger in the audience, and calls from John Page for the audience to show some respect. Tactically, this was a big mistake – people have very little respect for the three main parties now – respect has to be earned, and the one thing the British political class has not done in recent years is earn our respect.

Sitting in the audience was ‘Hackney heroine’  Pauline Pearce, who came to fame arguing with anti-social elements during the August 2011 riots in Hackney. Pauline is standing for the Lib Dems this month, and clearly had come along expecting a debate, and to be able to cross-examine the candidates. When told to ‘show some respect’ by John Page, she announced she would leave – at which point the meeting boiled over. A dozen walked out – including nearly all the black people in the audience – and those remaining seated were treated to the bizarre spectacle of the tiny Jane Holgate trying to shepherd towards the door a black guy who must have been a good 15 or 16 stones. Pauline Pearce’s closing words were “You’re staunch Labourites”, whilst John Page accused the big guy of attending the meeting to disrupt it. With all that said, the door was closed behind those who had walked out.

The rest of the meeting was a bit of an anti-climax, although even here Hackney Unites inflexibility remained. With formal questions finished at 8.45pm, the meeting could have been thrown open to the floor – assuming the room had been booked until 9pm. Instead, the event closed, more with a whimper than a bang. The bang of course, had happened already.  

So what to make of it all? Well debate needs to happen. This was an example of how an attempt to structure a meeting in a particular way, with only particular candidates, can blow up badly in the faces of those with a particular agenda. It does not have to be like this………..

For the record the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have a public meeting in Hackney on Tuesday 1 May at 7pm at the CLR James Library in Dalston. The campaign website of the UK Independence Party, whose Mayoral candidate  is Lawrence Webb, can be viewed here.

Comments

[Franky]

I don't know who these people think they are. These "community organisers" think they're little Obamas but in reality are wannabe Stalinistas. Know-nothing Stalinistas.

[John Page]

Easy to sit on the sidelines criticising, but every question submitted to the candidates was asked. The meeting was advertised as an opportunity to get answers from the candidates that's what we did.

Several people told us in advance they intended to disrupt the meeting, they failed

The TUSC are not standing in this constituency, oh and before you advocate inviting the UKIP candidate, I suggest you google him and his vitriolic racism. You might be happy to sit down with him, but that says something about the limits of your anti-racism.

[Paul Stott]

John - How do we know every question submitted was asked, when they all had to be passed to a member of Hackney Unites for vetting before being read out? We are expected to take your word on it, and given you managed to lose a quarter of the audience last night, why should people do that?

In your speech you condemned Paul Whiffen, who you said was not to be endorsed and would not be welcome in the meeting. The implication was that he was the BNP candidate, especially as the next Hackney Unites speaker said she was proud the BNP were not invited to the meeting.
The BNP are NOT standing in the constituency, and you seem to have been happy to conflate UKIP with the BNP (Whiffen is the UKIP candidate) A rather snidey trick.

Whiffen was quoted in the past saying something on immigration many in the audience would find disagreeable, but then so has local MP Diane Abbott (remember her views on Finnish nurses or white people dividing and ruling?) Would you refuse to invite her?

On TUSC, is it the fact they are only on the top-up list that kept them off the panel, or their opposition to cuts? Certainly the current issue of Hackney Unites appears to accept cuts as now inevitable.

Finally a little humility would not go ammiss. A meeting set up by a supposedly anti-racist group managed to lose virtually all the black people in the audience due to its rigid format. Perhaps if anyone's anti-racism is limited - it's yours.

[Larry O'Hara]

Interesting how Page utterly evades the criticism that democratic debate and exchange was not permitted. Just like in Hope Not Hate generally.

Hackney Unite's commitment to anti-racism is as hollow as their commitment to genuine participation.

As Paul said above

"A meeting set up by a supposedly anti-racist group managed to lose virtually all the black people in the audience due to its rigid format" classic!!

[blood and property]

Sadly I couldn't make it but thanks for the report. It sounded like an interesting event. Even though I can see you had a problem with the organisers I'm glad they organised it. On the racism front, It would be great if there was more discussion about the basics - like what it is, how to know if you are being racist, and how to deal with it (the balance between communication and excommunication for example). When I discovered I had a problem in that area it wasn't as obvious as I thought it should be!

http://bloodandproperty.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/believe-this-conspiracy-or-be-racist.html

[Nathan Barley]

Page & Holgate think they are the Sidney & Beatrice Webb of Hackney.

[Dave Hughes]

More like Hinge & Bracket

[Jules]

ROFLMAO