John McDonnell seeking nominations for Labour leader

John McDonnell MP is seeking nominations to stand in the election for Labour leader. The other potential challenger, Michael Meacher, has withdrawn and is calling on his supporters to nominate John. Nominations close on Wednesday evening with candidates needing 45 MPs signatures to get their name on the ballot paper.

Predictably, the description of McDonnell in the Sun, is that he is 'IRA-supporting' in reference to a speech McDonnell made at a Bobby Sands memorial in 2003 where he said the bravery of Sands and the IRA had brought about peace in northern Ireland.

However, as well as his commitment to Irish unity, McDonnell has campaigned consistently for the Irish community in Britain, for the service provision and health of Irish communities as well as against miscarriages of justice.

Perhaps most importantly in the current climate of the 'war on terror' and the growing racism in Britain, McDonnell has recognised the increased suspicion the Muslim community is facing, as the whole Irish community once did in Britain, and has supported them steadfastly.

At a joint meeting of Campaign Against Criminalising Communities and the Wolfe Tone Society in 2004, McDonnell described how the Muslim community is now being subjected to the same levels of intimidation as the Irish suffered during the war with the IRA. In the same manner that the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six were imprisoned simply for being Irish, Muslims are being intimidated and arrested for their growing political activity against British military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and it's failure to press the Israeli government to recognise Palestinian sovereignty.

Watch www.labour.org.uk for updates on nominations from MPs - John's own website is www.john4leader.org.uk

The Labour Party Irish Society hustings meeting takes place this Thursday 17th May, 7pm in the Camden Irish Centre. See www.lpis.org.uk for more details.

Opposing British parties organising in the Six Counties

David Trimble has used his announcement that he is to join the Conservative Party in the House of Lords to argue "that the people of Northern Ireland need to have more influence, which really means more involvement in national politics."

Naturally 'national politics' in David Trimble's eyes is the nation of the United Kindom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. His decision to join the Conservatives highlights the historic link between that party (anyone heard the term Conservative and Unionist Party lately?) and the elite of Irish unionists, who relied on sectarianism to cleave working class Protestants to them in 1912 and to force the partition of the country for the economic interests of empire.

Trimble's view is that "This would mean some form of realignment bringing all the national parties to compete for the votes of the people here." He also said that, "as the experience of the Northern Ireland Conservatives has shown, realignment cannot be achieved by one party alone. We need Labour and Liberal Democrats to be equally involved."

This suggestion that British parties should start organising in the Six Counties would be a backward step, following the success of the recent Assembly elections and the spirit of cooperation now evident between the parties. Considering the opposition to direct rule even in unionist communities, the organisation of British parties in the north would be to counter the ability of the people there to decide their own destiny and, as a result, would result in limited success for most.

This is shown by the derisory result achieved by Malachi Curran, the Labour Party (Northern Ireland) candidate in South Down in the recent Assembly election, who trailed in last with 123 out of 46,623 ballots cast. This represented a significant fall from the 498 votes he received in 1998, having been a member of the Northern Ireland Forum.

Curran stood under the title "Labour Party (Northern Ireland)" but would in fact prefer to be an officially sanctioned candidate of the British Labour Party. It has only recently accepted members in the north of Ireland following a legal challenge by GMB member Andy McGivern, a campaign Curran was part of, but the Labour Party has not yet organised its own candidates. Similarly, the Irish Labour Party accepts members in the north but does not contest elections.

As far back as the negotiations for the Articles of Agreement and partitioning of two states in 1922, the Labour Party supported an all-Ireland constituent assembly deciding the country's future. Since then it has supported unity by consent. Any proposal that the Labour Party should organise in the Six Counties elections in future should be opposed by Labour Party members in Britain. It is not our role to intervene into the politics of another country and, as the growing support for Sinn Fein across the 32 counties and the resulting increase in republican rhetoric from other parties shows, the forward march of that particular nation is toward a United Ireland.