Happy Black History Month!
London Feminista is celebrating with a portrait of the remarkable Diane Abbott - the woman who continues to make history. And this year's theme Reclaiming Narratives is particularly befitting time to tell her_story!
A lot has been said and written about Diane Abbott. Much of it hasn’t been particularly nice and mostly uttered by people who have never met her or don't even know her. I've had the pleasure to meet her professionally several times and it's left me with a warm feeling, that she is a person, a politician who stands by her principles, regardless how popular or unpopular … and there aren’t many like her.
The first time our paths crossed was in 2008, when she supported an amendment to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. The pro-choice Labour majority, in the House of Commons at the time, did nothing except the bare minimum to maintain the status quo, against virulent anti-abortion attacks ... when in fact, so much more could have been done to change our archaic reproductive legislation. When no other Labour MP stepped forward to table the amendment, Diane Abbott did. It was defeated – but at least she gave it her best shot. As a result of government inaction, people in Northern Ireland would have to wait another 12 years before they could access abortion in their part of the country.
Our next encounter was also abortion related – because, you see, very few high-profile politicians would be associated with abortion, let alone support small feminist organisations. We invited her to speak at the Abortion Support Network's second anniversary event and she came. She addressed the small gathering with her trademark passion, adding much pizzazz to the event, which was held upstairs in a pub, because there was no way we could afford to hire a swanky venue.
These aren’t stories that make the headlines, but they are those behind the scenes stories where change happens.
Of course she is not perfect, no-one is. But she has endured more negative press than most, because as she puts it herself: ‘Black women are not allowed to make mistakes.’ They are under constant scrutiny. Everyone remembers the time she got her sums or the tone of a letter wrong, or when she was spotted drinking a can of mojito on the tube. Every time it landed her in hot water. But, let’s be honest, all these incidents pale in comparison with the scandalous, reckless behaviour of one über-privileged Boris Johnson who was throwing parties at number 10, while people were dying of COVID and Tories ministers were syphoning hundreds of millions of pounds of tax payers money in PPE contracts to their mates; or Liz Truss tanking the British economy during her two minutes in power.
Trailblazer
Diane Abbott is a woman of firsts. She was the first, and only, Black girl in her school, Harrow County grammar School for Girls. She was one of only two Black students at Cambridge and the only black person from a state school to study there in the 1970’s. She started her career as a civil servant at the Home Office, but was determined to make policy rather than implement it – especially during the Thatcher years!
In 1982 she was elected to Westminster City Council and finally won her seat as MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington at the 1987 general election, becoming the first Black woman MP. Fast forward to 2024, she has just won her 10th election, with a resounding 60% share of the vote – in spite of having been rejected by the Labour party . She is now the first Black ‘Mother of the House’, a tile she’s earnt for being the longest continuously serving female MP.
Diane Abbott’s story begins in post-war Britain. Her Jamaican parents were part of the Windrush generation, they came here to rebuild the country, full of hope for a better future. Like most migrants, they faced an uphill struggle to succeed. But that didn’t stop them from dreaming big for their only daughter, and she didn’t disappoint. Everything she achieved, she did through sheer hard work - against a backdrop of racism, misogyny, and classism.
"And even some of our own party were slightly wary.
And there was a feeling in Parliament when we arrived that we would be like the 19th-Century Fenians and disrupt and cause problems and keep them up at night."
Attacks against her started even before she was elected and continued as soon as she took her seat in Westminster. From the outset, she was framed as a dangerous leftie by the press - and the abuse never stopped. If anything, it got worse, culminating recently when tory donor, Frank Hester, commented that Diane Abbott made him "want to hate all black women" and that she "should be shot".
Take a moment to let that repulsive statement sink in.
That is just one example among tens of thousands of the kind of abject violence an elected Member of the British Parliament has to put up with in the 21st century because she is a Black woman - and it's frankly despicable. Not least in a context where over the last eight years, two MPs have actually been killed, Jo Cox MP (2016) and Sir David Amess MP (2022).
To add insult to injury, she received no support whatsoever from her party’s leadership. On the contrary. When the Observer published a poorly penne response – said to be a draft sent in error - to an article about racism, for which she apologised, she had her whip suspended – FOR EIGHT MONTHS!
But that didn’t stop her. Instead, she persisted, was reinstated, albeit at the eleventh hour and won her seat. Her constituents stood by her, because more than anyone, they know what she stands for. They know that throughout her career she has championed human rights and justice, that she is a tireless anti-racist campaigner who has never stopped fighting for a range of important issues at local, national and global level - from reforming the police and the justice system, to supporting immigration and reproductive justice, ending apartheid in South Africa, opposing the Iraq war, promoting Palestinian liberation and so much more, she has been at the forefront of the struggle.
So let’s take the opportunity to celebrate her and everything she has achieved. And let's show her some love. You can buy a copy of her book – A Woman Like Me: A Memoir and attend what looks like a fabulous event: An evening with Diane Abbott, hosted by Bernardine Evaristo, at the Bernie Grant Arts centre on 15th November.
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