THIS new film by Maxwell and Hashim, for Merseyside Pensioners Association TV, tells the chilling story of what’s happening in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. It focuses on the situation in Liverpool, but is vitally important and essential viewing for the whole labour movement.

In the words of Dr Kevin Bean, one of numerous socialists hounded out of the party since April 2020, the Anatomy of a Witch Hunt is about stifling opposition to capitalism.  

The film opens with a warning: “Flash photography and footage of politicians lying.” Despite the seriousness of the subject, Maxwell and Hashim, long-time party members who have both also been expelled, handle it with a light touch. There is an element of the absurd seeing Starmer and other careerists shamelessly abandoning the policies and people that got them elected.

The attack on the left has been particularly nauseating in Wavertree where Bean was expelled for allegedly being “a communist.” This, of course, is why the film refers directly to McCarthyism. In some moving scenes, the actor Tayo Aluko re-enacts the testimony of Paul Robeson when he defiantly addressed the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Several former members speak about the impact of seeing the Labour Party betray the Merseyside working class.

Councillor Sarah Morton recalls that staying in the party “was making me sick” and Councillor Jo Bird explains her expulsion was a consequence of speaking out about cuts and the plight of Palestine.

Bird is one of many Jewish people hounded out of the party by false, perverse accusations of anti-semitism. Another victim of that smear, Ken Loach, also appears in the film, relating the witch hunt to the desire of the Labour Party leadership to protect the interests of the establishment, at a time when the cost of living crisis is demanding an alternative to the failed capitalist system.

The person who offered that alternative stalks every moment of the film. Merseyside, like many other places, rose to the hope represented by Jeremy Corbyn. The movement he led terrified the boss class and its lackeys like Starmer. As this film makes very clear, the Labour Party witch hunt is designed to make sure it never happens again.

The aftermath of Corbynism still reverberates, but a critical message of the film is that the struggle for a more just society must – and will – continue, now more than ever.