A commentator called – appropriately enough – Stop the Witchhunt reports:
The sad news arrives that the SWP Central Committee voted by 10 votes to two to remove John Rees from the Central Committee this morning. There will now be much weeping and wailing all over a very small part of Hackney, followed by seven days of official mourning.
Stop the Witchhunt! Start the Purges!
Gene adds: According to a commenter at Socialist Unity:
Technically, [Rees has] not been removed. He’s just not being put up by the central committee for reelection at the conference in the New Year.
David T says:
Here’s an extract from an article from Socialist Unity, that mysteriously disappeared.
Although weaker than it was in some ways, Respect has survived, George Galloway continues as a barnstrorming and principled MP, and we are working for success in the next General Election.
In the comments, Andy Newman explains why he took it down:
I removed it becasue it was inaccurate.
As I said, i had a server problem that was preventing me getting my e-mail.
So I was relying on a couple of phone calls for my info, and had got the wrong end of the stick.
Quite right.
Tendance Coatesy says:
Tendance Coatesy’s Court Poet, Emily Thribbs (aged eight) immediately penned this moving ode in commemoration of one of the great leaders of the International Proletariat.
So Farewell then to John Rees?
“Rees, the most unhappy of men,
Wither the whistling Swoppie tend his line?
Live and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers, that wish for thee: smog, dirt and spit
There’s not a breath of the flatulent wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies,
Thy friends are exhalations, agonies,
And goatee beards”