Stand with Diane!

by Theo Russell

Diane Abbott received a rapturous welcome from around 900 people at a rally outside Hackney Town Hall in east London last week to protest against the vile attack on the MP by multi-millionaire Tory donor Frank Hester. The chant repeated again and again was "We stand with Diane!".
A speaker from the local black women's group, Sistah Space, told the crowd that Diane's parents endured the racism of the Windrush generation. “Diane was the first black woman elected to parliament and is the longest serving black MP. She's a living legend...we are under attack and we have to be vigilant!”
Criticising Labour leader Keir Starmer's suspension of Diane Abbott from the Parliamentary Labour Party, the singer and rapper Lowkey said “the Labour Party has come to power in the past with the support of black voters, and we want our money's worth!” and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose parliamentary seat is in neighbouring Islington, said “I'm proud to be here. We are here to celebrate Diane. We ain't disappearing and we ain't going nowhere!”
Diane Abbott herself said “it is the people of Hackney who selected me, who worked hard to get me elected, and who have stood by me for so many years. We need to stand up for the young generation so that they don't have to go through what our parents experienced. Thank you for your support and help. Now we need to go forward”.
Diane Abbott is immensely popular in Hackney and enjoys massive respect from the local community as their representative, but she also has a magnificent track record of anti-colonialism and opposing imperialist wars from Ireland to Africa and Palestine to Afghanistan.
While some MPs have been given police protection against threats and Rishi Sunak warns that extremists are “threatening our democracy” Tory business minister Kemi Badenoch has dismissed Hester's comment that Diane Abbott should be shot as "trivia" while the black community feel that the Labour leadership has also failed to stand up for Dianne.
While parliament debated the very subject of Hester's outright racism, the Speaker –  a Labour MP –  disgracefully failed to call Diane Abbott to speak even though she stood to be called 49 times.
After Rishi Sunak's shameful failure to return Hester's millions his popularity has sunk to new lows, but Labour also has to realise that the feelings of black British voters can't be trampled on, that they need to feel fully respected, and that includes bringing Diane Abbott back into Labour’s parliamentary party.