By Bryn Griffiths

Our latest guest on Labour Hub’s Labour Left Podcast  is Mish Rahman and you can watch it here. Mish is a Momentum supporter,  a working-class socialist of Bangladeshi heritage and he was elected to Labour’s National Executive back in 2020. Unfortunately, he lost his seat to the right wing of the Labour Party at this year’s Conference but now he has a big story to tell.

We’ve heard from Liz Davies, the dissenter within Blair’s National Executive, and Andrew Fisher from the heart of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership group. Now it’s time to hear Mish Rahman’s fascinating story from the inside of Labour’s top governance team.  Mish doesn’t pull any punches as he describes how he was well and truly stitched up by the Labour right when he stood to be selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate in Wolverhampton West.

Feedback has suggested that some of you find the long form of  the Labour Left Podcast  a little hard to digest all in one go.  So, the  latest podcast is a meal of two parts.  In the first half, we discuss Mish’s political formation and his fight within the Labour Party.  After the break (28 minutes in) the podcast well and truly warms up, as it comes right up to date, and we discuss Labour’s torrid record on racism.  

The most important passage of the interview is where Mish talks about Labour and Palestine. He tells us all about how our motions on behalf of the Gazan people are often disregarded by the National Executive Committee.  But his view, as an insider, is that the way to move our Labour Government’s stance is to campaign hard as we are already seeing a slow shift in Starmer and Lammy’s position.  The Palestinian solidarity movement must step up the pressure in all countries within the NATO alliance. 

Photo: @BrynHGriffiths

So, take a deep breath and prepare yourself to hear all about the Forde Report, Islamophobia and Labour’s terrible record on Gaza which will shame our Party for generations to come!  Finally, Mish comes up with a truly inspirational anti racist figure to join our class hero hall of fame.

If you enjoy Mish Rahman’s look Inside Labour’s National Executive Committee  please have a look at our back catalogue.  Previous episodes have included Andrew Fisher The Man Behind the For The Many Not the Few – Labour’s 2017 Manifesto; historian Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Rachel Godfrey Wood of Momentum’s General Election Special; DrMike Phipps’s exhortation that we Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow;  Jeremy Gilbert, Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, talking about Thatcherism; Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for Labour democracy; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing a local Labour left magazine in the early 1980s.

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As well as watching on You Tube you can listen to the podcast on Apple podcasts,   Audible  and listen to it on Spotify. If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast as it’s on every podcast site we know about. 

Bryn Griffiths is the host of the Labour Hub  spin-off Labour Left Podcast   He is an activist in the labour movement, Momentum and The World Transformed in North Essex. He also sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s National Committee. You can find all the episodes of the Labour left Podcast here  or if you prefer audio platforms (for example, Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple, etc.,) just search for Labour Left Podcast.Between shows you can follow Bryn’s Labour Left Podcast Twitter feed at @brynhgriffiths.