A Momentous Day for Democracy as Chief Witch-hunter, Ann Black is sacked

NOW is the Time to Drop All the Suspensions and Reinstate those who were Auto-Excluded

Well no one can say it hasn’t been a good day for democracy.  The witch-hunting of socialists under the bogus pretext of anti-Semitism, i.e. opponents of the world’s only Apartheid state, Israel, is coming to an end in the Labour Party.

Christine Shawcroft is a good socialist and she has stuck up for her principles in the past, notably over her support for Lutfur Rahman, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets was was deposed, the victim of despicable racism from Sir Eric Pickles, the Tory Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel and the Labour Right.  He was also the victim of judicial racism in the form of Judge Richard Mawry.

Of course no-one objects to genuine racists, including anti-Semites, being expelled or disciplined where there is clear evidence unrelated to Israel.  I mean ‘old-fashioned’ anti-Semitism that means hatred or hostility to Jews as Jews.  Hostility to Zionism is not anti-Semitism, it is anti-racism.

If the anti-Semitism witch-hunt had been about racism then why, when Islamaphobia is 4 times worse than anti-Semitism have there been no prominent cases? 

Why when anti-Roma racism in Britain is 6.5 times as bad as anti-Semitism do we have nothing said about it?  We have Labour Councils still driving gypsies from pillar to post and evicting them and making them homseless yet nothing is said.  Why?  Because unlike anti-Semitism, anti-Roma racism doesn’t accord with the foreign policy objectives of the Labour Right.

The rightwing press and media went to town on today’s events. The absurd Tory blogger, Guido Fawkes headed his story Red Terror before going on to call me a ‘nutjob’ for calling for Black’s removal the night before.

Jasmine Beckett, whose own seat was only gained by 1 vote, having conducted a disgraceful smear campaign against her opponent, cites Ben Kentish's quotes from me on Ann Black

The Independent, which has secured the services of a mole inside the Labour Against the Witchhunt Facebook page, eavesdropped on a conversation between Jackie Walker and myself.  I had called for the picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesdayand  to have posters saying ‘Sack Black’.  Jackie, being of a somewhat more conservative political temperament than me, opposed this.  Our conversation was good natured but it was private to members of a closed Facebook page.  Nonetheless it was splashed over the Internet today, Twitter included.   Other media organisations to reprint the LAW Facebook post included the Huffington Post.

The Jewish Chronicle’s Political Director, Marcus Dysch, was particularly busy on Twitter.  Dysch whose trademark is to see how many mistakes he can get into one article seems obsessed with me at the moment. Dysch went apoplectic.  Apparently I am ‘calling the shots’ in the Labour Party at the moment.  In pursuit of his favourite hobby Dysch makes a few more mistakes including saying that my disciplinary hearing is next week.  Sorry Dysch but your informant has obviously not leaked the latest news to you.  No it isn’t!

Despite saying that 'you almost couldn't make it up'  that is exactly what the idiot Dysch has done

Dysch is reassured that Labour will only be seen to take anti-semitism seriously if it expels a Jewish anti-racist!

Dysch had to be reassured by the paid perjurer and taxi fare dodger himself, the Jewish Labour Movement’s Chair Jeremy Newmark that the NCC hearings to try Jackie Walker and me will be unaffected by what has happened today.  Dysch, whose extreme stupidity is quite amazing, even for Jewish Chronicle journalists, suggests that I am ‘orchestrating oversight of the procedures.’  

Let’s break this down – Jon Lansman and others on Labour’s National Executive Committee decide to get rid of that old hatchet-woman Ann Black and put in as Chair of the Disputes Committee the much more sensible socialist Christine Shawcroft.  At the same time I call, in a closed Facebook page for the removal of Black.  This coincidence has now become, in the morbid mind of Dysch me orchestrating what happened. 

Sad to say, when Lansman decided that Ann Black had to go, he didn’t consult me! Of course that is both wrong and foolish and I have told him so to his face.  However I can live with this slight.  Dysch is an excellent example of how mediocre the Jewish Chronicle’s journalists have become when you think of people like Bernard Josephs , or T.R. Fyvel or Chaim Bermant.  If Dysch seriously thinks that my expression of an opinion had had a decisive effect on what happened he needs to see the men in white coats.

The letter of suspension that Ann Black sent to Brighton & Hove Labour Party

Of course what I was doing was expressing a widespread sentiment, not least in Brighton and Hove Labour Parties that Ann Black, being a vicious liar and witch hunter, who suspended a party for the crime of voting for the wrong people, had to go.  She was hostile to democracy and a relic of the Blair days.  It is a wonder how she ever managed to crawl onto the Left slate.

However the witch hunt has not gone away. Much as I hate to admit it, Jeremy Newmark is correct, at least so far.  The decisions of the Disputes Committee today have no effect on cases that have already gone to the Disputes Committee, of which there are a large number.  It is imperative that we now demand a freeze on all such cases until the recommendations of the Chakrabarti Report on natural justice, due process and transparency are introduced.  The previous procedures of the Compliance Unit which has led to the presentation of the cases before it, coupled with the right-wing bias of the NCC, has led to injustice in scores of cases.

That is why we call on people to support Labour Against the Witchhunt’s picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesday and above all Join Labour Against the Witchhunt.

Tony Greenstein 

A Momentous Day for Democracy as Chief Witch-hunter, Ann Black is sacked

NOW is the Time to Drop All the Suspensions and Reinstate those who were Auto-Excluded

Well no one can say it hasn’t been a good day for democracy.  The witch-hunting of socialists under the bogus pretext of anti-Semitism, i.e. opponents of the world’s only Apartheid state, Israel, is coming to an end in the Labour Party.

Christine Shawcroft is a good socialist and she has stuck up for her principles in the past, notably over her support for Lutfur Rahman, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets was was deposed, the victim of despicable racism from Sir Eric Pickles, the Tory Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel and the Labour Right.  He was also the victim of judicial racism in the form of Judge Richard Mawry.

Of course no-one objects to genuine racists, including anti-Semites, being expelled or disciplined where there is clear evidence unrelated to Israel.  I mean ‘old-fashioned’ anti-Semitism that means hatred or hostility to Jews as Jews.  Hostility to Zionism is not anti-Semitism, it is anti-racism.

If the anti-Semitism witch-hunt had been about racism then why, when Islamaphobia is 4 times worse than anti-Semitism have there been no prominent cases? 

Why when anti-Roma racism in Britain is 6.5 times as bad as anti-Semitism do we have nothing said about it?  We have Labour Councils still driving gypsies from pillar to post and evicting them and making them homseless yet nothing is said.  Why?  Because unlike anti-Semitism, anti-Roma racism doesn’t accord with the foreign policy objectives of the Labour Right.

The rightwing press and media went to town on today’s events. The absurd Tory blogger, Guido Fawkes headed his story Red Terror before going on to call me a ‘nutjob’ for calling for Black’s removal the night before.

Jasmine Beckett, whose own seat was only gained by 1 vote, having conducted a disgraceful smear campaign against her opponent, cites Ben Kentish's quotes from me on Ann Black

The Independent, which has secured the services of a mole inside the Labour Against the Witchhunt Facebook page, eavesdropped on a conversation between Jackie Walker and myself.  I had called for the picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesdayand  to have posters saying ‘Sack Black’.  Jackie, being of a somewhat more conservative political temperament than me, opposed this.  Our conversation was good natured but it was private to members of a closed Facebook page.  Nonetheless it was splashed over the Internet today, Twitter included.   Other media organisations to reprint the LAW Facebook post included the Huffington Post.

The Jewish Chronicle’s Political Director, Marcus Dysch, was particularly busy on Twitter.  Dysch whose trademark is to see how many mistakes he can get into one article seems obsessed with me at the moment. Dysch went apoplectic.  Apparently I am ‘calling the shots’ in the Labour Party at the moment.  In pursuit of his favourite hobby Dysch makes a few more mistakes including saying that my disciplinary hearing is next week.  Sorry Dysch but your informant has obviously not leaked the latest news to you.  No it isn’t!

Despite saying that 'you almost couldn't make it up'  that is exactly what the idiot Dysch has done

Dysch is reassured that Labour will only be seen to take anti-semitism seriously if it expels a Jewish anti-racist!

Dysch had to be reassured by the paid perjurer and taxi fare dodger himself, the Jewish Labour Movement’s Chair Jeremy Newmark that the NCC hearings to try Jackie Walker and me will be unaffected by what has happened today.  Dysch, whose extreme stupidity is quite amazing, even for Jewish Chronicle journalists, suggests that I am ‘orchestrating oversight of the procedures.’  

Let’s break this down – Jon Lansman and others on Labour’s National Executive Committee decide to get rid of that old hatchet-woman Ann Black and put in as Chair of the Disputes Committee the much more sensible socialist Christine Shawcroft.  At the same time I call, in a closed Facebook page for the removal of Black.  This coincidence has now become, in the morbid mind of Dysch me orchestrating what happened. 

Sad to say, when Lansman decided that Ann Black had to go, he didn’t consult me! Of course that is both wrong and foolish and I have told him so to his face.  However I can live with this slight.  Dysch is an excellent example of how mediocre the Jewish Chronicle’s journalists have become when you think of people like Bernard Josephs , or T.R. Fyvel or Chaim Bermant.  If Dysch seriously thinks that my expression of an opinion had had a decisive effect on what happened he needs to see the men in white coats.

The letter of suspension that Ann Black sent to Brighton & Hove Labour Party

Of course what I was doing was expressing a widespread sentiment, not least in Brighton and Hove Labour Parties that Ann Black, being a vicious liar and witch hunter, who suspended a party for the crime of voting for the wrong people, had to go.  She was hostile to democracy and a relic of the Blair days.  It is a wonder how she ever managed to crawl onto the Left slate.

However the witch hunt has not gone away. Much as I hate to admit it, Jeremy Newmark is correct, at least so far.  The decisions of the Disputes Committee today have no effect on cases that have already gone to the Disputes Committee, of which there are a large number.  It is imperative that we now demand a freeze on all such cases until the recommendations of the Chakrabarti Report on natural justice, due process and transparency are introduced.  The previous procedures of the Compliance Unit which has led to the presentation of the cases before it, coupled with the right-wing bias of the NCC, has led to injustice in scores of cases.

That is why we call on people to support Labour Against the Witchhunt’s picket of the National Executive Committee next Tuesday and above all Join Labour Against the Witchhunt.

Tony Greenstein 

The Death of Carl Sargeant was a direct consequence of how Labour treats those accused of disciplinary offences

Sam Matthews of Disputes Committee and Iain McNicol should be immediately suspended pending investigation 

I do not know, nor should I know, the details of the allegations made against Carl Sargeant, the former Welsh Cabinet Secretary.  What I do know is that when Carl took his own life, he also didn’t know the details.  According to the family, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones gave more details to the BBC in an interview than he did to Carl Sargeant.

In the past two years Labour’s disciplinary process has been marked by a complete absence of fairness and transparency.  The rights of the accused have been trampled upon.  Jeremy Corbyn has now talked about pastoral care but this is two years too late.  When Iain McNicol, John Stolliday and their apparatchiks were busy trawling through thousands of social media posts in order to disenfranchise supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, the feelings of those suspended were completely and totally disregarded.

Chakrabarti's recommendations have been ignored by Disputes Committee and Compliance Unit

I have communicated with a number of people who were victims of McNicol’s purge who were extremely depressed.  People who had had decades of loyal membership disregarded in the effort by these crooks to find any scintilla of evidence to disqualify them.  We all know of the suspension of a fan of the Foo Fighters and Ronnie Draper of the Bakers Union.  The Compliance Unit has been a law unto itself. 

My own experience was of been suspended for remarks I was alleged to have made and being met with a blank refusal to even acknowledge correspondence when I wrote asking for details of these remarks.  It was only when I picked up The Telegraph and Times two weeks later that I learnt that I had been the target of the Israeli Embassy and its instruments in the Labour Party, the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel.

Jeremy Newmark  and Israeli state asset has fronted the 'anti-Semitism' witch hunt

The Chakrabarti Report of June 2016 recommended under Complaints Procedures that

‘It is also important that the procedures explain that those in respect of whom allegations have been made are clearly informed of the allegation(s) made against them, their factual basis and the identity of the complainant – unless there are good reasons not to do so  

The National Executive Committee of the Labour Party has accepted the Chakrabarti Report yet the Compliance Unit of John Stolliday and the Disputes Committee under Anne Black and Sam Matthews have consistently picked and chosen those bits of Chakrabarti  they liked and disregarded those parts which they disliked.

All the safeguards for the accused have been disregarded.

I am facing a hearing of the National Constitutional Committee and have been given 5 weeks notice after having been suspended for 20 weeks and 17 weeks after my Investigation Hearing. 

I have not been told the identity of any of my complainants even though the paw prints of Labour Friends of Israel and the Jewish Labour Movement are all over them.

Regardless of what the allegations were, Carl Sargeant had a right to know the details of what he was being accused of and those who had made the complaints.  He should have been given a chance to assess what the case was against him.  This is the right of every person who faces a trial in a court of law.  

Why is it that the Labour Party procedures are so grossly unfair compared to bourgeois justice?

It is unacceptable that the Disputes Committee and the Compliance Unit have driven a coach and horses through the Chakrabarti Report's recommendations.  The disregard of the rights of the accused have led directly to Carl Sargeant taking his life.  That, if nothing else, should emphasise their seriousness.

In the circumstances Sam Matthews who was dealing with the case should be immediately suspended as should his boss, Iain McNicol who approved his actions.  NEC member Anne Black, who for some reason is still on the Grassroots Left slate, should also be immediately suspended pending an investigation into her complete disregard of a fair and transparent procedure.

Justice demands nothing else.

And next year Ann Black, who was responsible for the suspension of the Brighton & Hove and Wallasey Labour Parties should seek the approval of Labour First and Progress.  There is no way she is on the Left.

Tony Greenstein