Proposer: Terry McCormick Seconded by: Peter May, Philip Bimpson
Even though our stance on identity politics would apparently be clear to us members, much of the general public who have an awareness of our Party appear to have formed a different perception.
An example of this would be our own leader being unjustly accused over the summer of being ‘homophobic’, when if anybody had dug deep enough into our Party website they would have noted that we are absolutely NOT homophobic at all and believe in freedom of choice.
The desperate need of the establishment to categorise and compartmentalise people, in order to retain control over them, has undoubtedly permeated the consciousness of the proletariat to the point where being outwardly ‘Pro-Palestinian’ or supportive of minorities results in an unfortunate and uneducated dismissive judgement from some people who have created a false impression about our party’s religious allegiance. Whilst in some areas of Britain this may have played to our political advantage, the reality is that in most areas of Britain (Merseyside being a prime example) this has unfortunately resulted in being on the backfoot when out canvassing.
Shockingly, this became apparent even in Rochdale, where a marked shift in atmosphere occurred between February 2024 and July 2024, resulting in many of our members out canvassing being met with racist abuse and accusations of being representatives of ‘the Muslim Party’.
We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we don’t understand why people might say this to us. We must get ahead of our political enemies, and pre-empt such false attacks.
We must be clear that our stances on issues such as Palestine is NOT because of any religious allegiance, but rather it is because it is a HUMANITARIAN issue.
Our overriding concern is that of THE WORKING CLASS, and we need a short, simple, effective pre-emptive response ready to those who seek to undermine us or those who don’t understand us – whether that be for our hard working volunteers out knocking on doors, or whether it be for our candidates being backed into a corner on TV.
This motion requests that the Workers Party recognises that although religion may be able to play a positive role in society, and we respect the freedom of people to practice whatever religion they wish, the role of the Workers Party is to engage in progressive and radical socialist politics that seeks to identify and resolve the sources of alienation, oppression, and exploitation of the workers. As such, our non-sectarian, secular, anti-identity politics stance and support of free speech should be made absolutely clear to casual visitors to the Workers Party website and on our marketing material. The incoming NMC should come to an agreement how this is best achieved.
An excellent motion. You may have religion in your head, as George does as a Catholic but we do stand for any religion and we do not consult as a party with any invisible sky wizard. George has said many times ‘you can not have two masters’. We are here for socialism. Leave your religion at the door and then enter.
Excellent motion. Our political principles as a party must supersede those influenced by religious views.
Strongly support. The party has already a plethora of a “Muslim party” or even was accused of being “Islamist party”. To remove the aura of being a “Muslim party” is extremely important if the party wants to have any electoral success.