Warwick Labour and Anti-Racism society in dispute

There has been a dispute between Warwick Labour and Warwick Anti-Racism society (WARSoc) concerning alleged offensive comments made by Warwick Labour members.

The dispute began when WARSoc recently refused to host a joint event for Black History Month with Warwick Labour. The refusal was made on account of comments made by current and former Warwick Labour members.

WARSoc stated: “WARSoc requested an apology… in order to feel comfortable about working with [Warwick Labour].

“They were incredibly hesitant to [make an apology].

“WARSoc told them the apology had to be satisfactory, otherwise a collaboration would not be possible and that we would release a statement about the incidents.

“Warwick Labour eventually put out a statement on their website that included racism apologism, which was counteracted by [our] statement containing our disappointment that Labour would ‘apologise’ with apologism for racism.

“Warwick Labour then reported Anti-Racism Society to the SU and claimed that we were being libelous. Both societies are now currently under investigation.”

WARSoc posted on May 27 claiming that a Warwick Labour executive member who made offensive comments towards the Muslim community in 2012 received no disciplinary action by the society.

The statement continued to condemn a Warwick Labour panellist at LGBT Question Time for making racially offensive comments earlier this year. It claimed that the panelist used the term ‘coloured people’, was nonchalant about saying ‘I’m not about to say something racist…’ before being stopped before he did so, and left the room laughing when a question of racism came up.

It also stated that one of their executive members faced “personal character attacks and tone policing” from a Warwick Labour executive and that Warwick Labour’s apology for both incidents was “coerced” and unapologetic for “attempting to justify those ‘racist terms’”.

A former executive member of Warwick Labour spoke to the Boar, and claimed that the offensive comments were made by a former Warwick Labour member running to be an executive, and that they were made during a regular group chat meeting at the Terrace Bar.

He also said that he believed no one in the current WARSoc society was actually present at the group chat and therefore would not have witnessed the incident first-hand.

The case was allegedly brought to SU societies officer Matt Rogers and democracy and development officer Chris Luck at the time, and the accused member of Warwick Labour was allegedly removed from the society within 24 hours.

The executive member claimed that Warwick Labour were asking for an apology from WARSoc and that their allegations “have been proven false and defamatory”.

He also said that “a number of people on a national level have got in touch with former exec members and have been vitriolic and aggressive, and the record needs to be corrected.”

On June 4, WARSoc issued an amended statement which stated that their earlier statement was factually wrong with regards to the lack of disciplinary action taken by Warwick Labour in 2012.

It stated: “Due to these differing accounts of action that was taken and Warwick Labour’s failure to clarify what happened… we were led to believe that no action was taken.”

WARSoc claimed that “quite a few” of their members gave accounts of the 2012 incident and that they were told of it by a member of Warwick Labour who was present at the time.

In WARSoc’s amended statement however, they continued to state that Warwick Labour did not taken any action at the Question Time event this year: “There was no action taken at the time, no one stepped in, no one condemned the sentiments there and then.”

A meeting between Warwick Labour and WARSoc was held in the first week of June.

The dispute remains ongoing as the societies struggled to find a solution.

The Students’ Union commented: “We are working with all parties to resolve this issue satisfactorily, and last week we facilitated a confidential discussion between the societies chaired by an impartial third-party.

“Following this, we will be working closely with both societies over the coming weeks to try and reach a solution. It would, therefore, be unfair for us to comment further at this time.”

Warwick Labour similarly commented: “As this investigation is ongoing, we feel it is not appropriate to comment in any more detail at this time. We look forward to seeing the outcomes.”