Report: Defend Democracy in Tower Hamlets meeting

Rachel Godfrey Wood reports from the meeting called in defence of left wing mayor Lutfur Rahman and the people who voted for him.

On Wednesday 12 November, 1,200 local residents, community activists, religious and political leaders gathered together at the Water Lily in Tower Hamlets to denounce the decision of the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, to take over the administration of Tower Hamlets council.

The meeting was called to defend the mayor Lutfur Rahman and the rights of the 37,395 people who voted for him against an ongoing smear campaign coordinated by an unseemly alliance of the right-wing media, the Conservative government, and local Labour councilors.

Speakers, who included former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and MP George Galloway, emphasized the fact that a 193-page report, commissioned at a cost of over £1 million, found no evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. The lesser charges against mayor Rahman of a lack of efficiency in the way in which grants had been administered in the borough could obviously be levelled against virtually any public administration in the country, not least the current Tory government which has a sordid record of selling off public assets at knock-down prices.

Most importantly, the speakers highlighted Mayor Rahman’s major achievements in recent years: building more affordable houses than any other borough in the country, implementing a living wage for all municipality workers, replacing the Education Maintenance Allowance even after the government abolished it, banning contracts with firms that blacklist trade unionists and avoiding cuts to vital frontline services. Unsurprisingly given this record, the Tower Hamlets residents at the meeting expressed passionate support for the mayor’s administration, which should make everybody in Britain take note – people are prepared to get involved in politics, provided they have leaders and organisations which genuinely represent them.

Left Unity national secretary Kate Hudson emphasised the party’s solidarity with Tower Hamlets borough, its residents and its mayor, and called on all progressive activists and political figures to get off the fence and defend local democracy against this establishment witch-hunt.

The speakers noted that it is perhaps unsurprising that the Conservative government and right-wing media should attempt to undermine mayor Rahman – a social democrat with liberal leanings – at all costs. However, the fact that significant elements of the Labour Party have actively gone along with this is a bitter indictment of the state of Britain’s political establishment in 2014. Not only that, many of the allegations made against mayor Rahman (including absurd allegations of Islamic extremism and homophobia) in the last four years have had a clear racist and Islamophobic subtext which should be an affront to all people who want to see a fairer and more tolerant society.