Overcoming the politics of hatred that killed MP Jo Cox

Ed Garcia

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The death of Jo Cox is a reminder that the battle being waged against the politics of hate and intolerance has no bounds nor boundaries

“Fight against the hate that killed Jo,” were among the first words that came from the lips of Brendan Cox, the widow that Jo left behind together with their two young children.

He continued, “Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy, and a zest that would exhaust most people.”

A rare political killing in Britain

Jo Cox was the first politician killed in Britain since the murder of Ian Gow by the Irish Republicans some 26 years ago. Political killings are rare in the UK, and only two other members of parliament have been killed in the UK, Airey Neave and Tony Berry, both by the armed Irish group during the period of the “Troubles”. 

Thus, the shock and grief that engulfed members of all political parties and the general public who were preparing to vote in the referendum a few days from today. Among the voices of condemnation was that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, also a victim of gun violence in 2011, in her home state of Arizona in the US. 

A colleague in parliament, Yvette Cooper described Jo as “somebody who saw life and shook it up…she was brilliant, seized on things, was a fierce advocate for the things she believed in, but also for her family…she never stopped doing both and doing both brilliantly. She was a fantastic mum as well as an amazing politician.”

Shot 3 times and stabbed repeatedly, Jo Cox was consulting her constituents to listen to their views and was gunned down in the street outside the library near the town’s market place in Birstall. The assailant named Thomas Mair shouted, “Britain First” – the slogan of the far right party that campaigned to leave the EU in the bitterly-contested referendum scheduled for 23 June. 

Just a day before, Jo and her entire family flew the “Remain” flag as rival flotillas campaigned in the river Thames in central London. While in London, Jo lived in a house-boat by the Thames, and thus was in familiar territory.

BREXIT. Labor party member of parliament Jo Cox speaks during a session in the House of Commons in central London on November 17, 2015. File photo by AFP/PRU

Bringing down a rising star of British politics and a ‘Day-Star’ of the Age

Jo Cox had served just a year in the British Parliament but had already made her mark, battling for causes close to her heart and advancing social justice, human rights and peace issues. She was also among the 99 female parliamentarians from the Labour Party.

Jo represented the constituency of Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire near Leeds, described by her colleagues in parliament as a “rising star” and in the words of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock quoting the poet Shelley, “a day-star” of the age.

Jo was 41 years old, and in a matter of days on June 22 was to turn 42. But she was already a veteran public servant, having worked as policy head at Oxfam – a leading charity working for the more vulnerable in today’s world. She likewise worked at Save the Children and the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery non-governmental organization, and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and chaired Labour’s Women’s Network.

Jo crossed party lines to instigate the formation of the “Friends of Syria All Party Parliamentary Group” to remind members of parliament and policy-makers of the concerns of civilians, particularly, children who had become the prime casualties in the Syrian war.

Life lived with passion and compassion

When asked to describe herself, Jo Cox put it briefly: “Passionate, compassionate and loyal.” On Twitter, she wrote: “mum, proud Yorkshire lass, boat dweller, mountain climber and former aid worker.” As a campaigner for Oxfam she had travelled to faraway places in Africa and Asia.

Jo was a leading voice on the question of immigrants which has recently divided Europe and was the main issue raised by the Brexit’s “Leave” campaign, arguing that it was time for Britain to exit from the European Union since the influx of immigrants caused many ills in British society – “too many people from Europe and other countries were coming into Britain.”

‘Force of nature’

Jo Cox has been described as a “force of nature”, a vivacious and outgoing human rights advocate who went to local schools and was the first in her family to enter college: in Jo’s case to Cambridge University and later the London School of Economics (LSE). Speaking of her experience in Cambridge, she said: “…I was thrown into a Cambridge environment where I just didn’t get it. It shook me.” After that, working in parliament was like “a walk in the park.”

She made friends across the political spectrum and could work with any group as she did in the formation of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Syria that she co-chaired with the Conservative MP  Andrew Mitchell.

Her death caused consternation in Parliament, and both sides in the Remain and Leave camps have suspended their respective campaigns in deference to the murder of Jo Cox. People have now called for more civility and respect in public discourse instead of the increasing vitriol and invectives hurled during the debates in the referendum’s campaign period.

Hatred kills, words and weapons make it possible

In what pundits have called a “post-truth and post-moral” brand of politics, would-be political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, in Europe and the Americas, and elsewhere, have cautioned against an extreme way of doing politics by brandishing words that inflamed passions and hurling threats that further deepened hatreds, at times, watching how invectives have burst out into violence in the streets.  It has been called “a chilling culture” – one that results in a “chilling effect.” 

The killings of some 49 people while wounding 53 in the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the United States, the worst mass killings in the nation’s history, for example, has been described by the President of the United States, Barrack Obama, as a result of the politics of fear, terror and hatred that have been propagated by narrow-minded people and groups who have preyed on the people’s sense of insecurity and bigotry, and intolerance. 

The death of Jo Cox is a reminder that the battle being waged against the politics of hate and intolerance has no bounds nor boundaries. It is a battle to be joined wherever injustice reigns and where the human rights of all are violated. 

The Philippines is no exception! – Rappler.com

 Ed Garcia taught political science at the UP and Ateneo, and was a framer of the 1987 Constitution.  He worked at Amnesty International and International Alert for over two decades, and is currently in London on medical leave from FEU Diliman.

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