Alexei Sayle Kicks off Successful Defend Marc Wadsworth Meeting in London

Packed Labour Against the Witchhunt Meeting Sends Clear Message to the Witchhunters

Alexei Sayle -  Jewish standup comedian spoke in support of Marc

Last night at the Indian YMCA centre in Fitzroy Square a room packed to the rafters heard from a range of speakers who helped kick off Marc Wadsworth’s nationwide tour.

Moshe Machover, the veteran Israeli anti-Zionist founder of Matzpen, the President of LAW and who himself was first expelled then reinstated, was the first speaker. Then Alexei Sayle made a brilliant contribution followed by Marc himself.  Other speakers included Mike Cushman from Jewish Voice for Labour, Nana Asante, Jackie Walker and Glenroy Watson from RMT’s London Regional Council.  The meeting was chaired by Debbie Hobson of Grassroots Black Labour.

Mike Cushman of Jewish Voice for Labour

27 people joined LAW and it is clear that this meeting, over 120 attended, is indicative of how LAW has taken off in the past 6 months as the witchhunt has taken on an added vigour.  Those of us who had hoped that Jennie Formy, the new Labour Party General Secretary would usher in a new era have been sadly disappointed.  She is following in the footsteps of the hated Iain McNicol as the Zionists renewed smear campaign took its toll.  If Corbyn had had the courage of his convictions and stood out against this wholly bogus exercise and had exercised an independent judgement then the Zionist apologists for murder in Gaza this week could have been sent packing with a flea in their ears.

Glenroy Watson of the RMT

Instead the relaunch of the false anti-Semitism campaign before the local elections panicked Corbyn to issuing instructions to step up the witchhunt.  We saw what this really meant in practice this week when those who called for the expulsion of anti-Zionists and socialists justified Israel’s mass murder of unarmed civilians in Gaza.  It is not Marc, Jackie or myself who should be expelled – it is Luke Akehurst’s open justification of murder and Joan Ryan of Labour Friends of Israel.

If Corbyn had a backbone and for once stood up to the right-wing traitors and scabs like Wes Streeting and Louise Ellman then he wouldn’t have had half the problems he has had.  By appeasing these false proponents of ‘anti-Semitism’ he has made a rod for his own back.

Marc sets off for a host of meetings taking in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Chester, Sheffield and Swansea. We have to ensure that the expulsion of Black and Jewish socialists is not allowed to go unhindered.  Time was when Jeremy Corbyn was the Convenor of Labour Against the Witchhunt today he is an appeaser.  He is literally digging his own political graveyard.

Tony Greenstein 

Tony Greenstein - Expelled for Opposing Zionism and the Israeli State – The Fight Goes On

Racists Celebrate as the Labour Right and the Zionists Gets Their First Victim

The day began brightly enough with a lively picket of the Metropole Hotel in Brighton as Labour’s National Constitutional Committee met to decide whether to expel me for my support of the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism.  It is of course appropriate that as someone who is Jewish that I should be one of the major casualties of the false anti-Semitism witchhunt.  The allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party have nothing to do with anti-Semitism and everything to do with opposition to the racist creed of Zionism and support for the Palestinians.

My thanks to Debbie Hobson from Grassroots Black Left for being my silent witness.  Thanks also to Marc Wadsworth, another of those victimised and suspended by the Labour Party for opposing racism and to all those in Brighton and Hove Momentum and comrades for turning out.  Even Simon Cobbs of Sussex Friends of Israel, in a unique and comradely gesture, turned out to give his support, however fleetingly, to me.  

I was suspended nearly 2 years ago for comments I was alleged to make.  The Skeleton argument argument of the NEC’s barrister, one Mr Ogg, admitted that all the charges related to events that took place after I had been suspended.  In other words I was originally suspended without just cause yet despite this the NCC saw no problem in continuing.  Why?  Because as part of its Guidelines, Appendix 6D to the Rules of the Labour Party (which are actually not part of the rules!) stipulates that the NCC must ignore everything that happens prior to the issuing of charges.  This is the ‘turning a blind eye’ clause.  It states that:

The NCC is entitled to (and will) act on the basis that the charges are properly brought before them and cannot become embroiled in dealing with complaints about the administration of any investigation leading to the charges. Any such complaint will therefore not be entertained by the NCC or panel thereof unless it is material or relevant to the consideration of the evidence to be used by the presenter in support of the charges.

This enables the NCC to ignore any injustice, breach of the rules, leaking to the press etc. that occurs.  Of course the NCC is also bound to act fairly under Chapter 1, Clause IX (4) of the Rules, which are part of the Labour Party constitution and also to modify the Guidelines as it sees fit but the NCC chooses to interpret its remit narrowly and against the interests of natural justice.  That was why I was forced to obtain an injunction against the Labour Party on December 7^th preventing them from holding a rushed hearing.

The charges which were brought, as the barrister for the Labour Party was at pains to point out, were not that I was anti-Semitic although of course the Zionists will pretend otherwise. My ‘crime’ in essence was the abuse of racists and Zionists (or Zios) in the Labour Party including that detestable supporter of Palestinian child abuse, Louise Ellman.

Ivor Caplin - war criminal and former Junior Defence Minister

A Mr Ogg, the Labour Party barrister gave a long 2 hour + speech which was the equivalent of watching paint dry.  My own speech was much shorter and to the point.  I made it clear that I regretted nothing.  I was accused of insinuating, when accusing the execrable MP for Liverpool Riverside, Louise Ellman of supporting the abuse of Palestinian children, that she therefore supported sexual abuse of those children.  Although this wasn’t directly true I made it clear in my submission that the abuse of Palestinian children was often sexual in nature and that Ellman had never spoken out against this treatment.  On the contrary she supported everything Israel did in the name of ‘security’.

The NCC under Maggie Cosins who chaired the hearing has repeatedly ignored the question of fairness, in my case trying to rush a hearing after a 20 month suspension.  The other 2 wing members of the NCC included a Gordon (?) Fairbrother of the Community Union.  As I pointed out this right-wing union was the only one to affiliate to Trades Union Friends of Israel.  So the verdict was no surprise.  Unfortunately Emina Ibrahim, who was elected as part of the Left, also supported the Right on the NCC and seems incapable of standing up to the Right by herself.

As I told the Committee when beginning my response, an old time friend, Graham Bash rang me this morning and said that he reckoned I had a 1% of chance of not being expelled to which I responded that the odds probably weren’t that high!  Ogg argued that I was not being expelled for my views but for abusing racists and right-wingers online.  However the bundle of papers prepared for the hearing demonstrated that this was a lie.  Statements such as ‘Israel is a settler colonial state’ were highlighted in an article dealing with the eviction of a Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran in Israel’s Negev.  Although dressed up in procedural terms, my expulsion was for my anti-Zionist politics. 

That is why the Southern organiser for the Jewish Labour Movement, junior war criminal and former Defence Minister Ivor Caplin welcomed my expulsion.  My expulsion and the proposed expulsion of Marc Wadsworth and Jackie Walker are nothing less than an attempt by the Right and the Zionists in the Party to purge the party of socialists and anti-imperialists.  The fight will go on for my reinstatement and the acquittal of both Mark and Jackie.  It is not we but the Jewish Labour Movement, the apologists for the deportation of African refugees from Israel for the ‘crime of being Black and not Jewish, who deserve to be expelled.

It is ironic that at the same time as I am expelled for anti-Zionism and anti-racism, Labour’s Crooked General Secretary McNicol has declared that the charges against the JLM’s former Chair Jeremy Newmark of having defrauded a Jewish charity of thousands of pounds are a ‘private’ matter. 

The right-wing Huff Post, the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and no doubt others will be celebrating as Labour’s witch-hunt continues even whilst they keep quiet about the Jeremy Newmark scandal.  The Daily Mirror has managed to outdo even Marcus Dysch of the Jewish Chronicle in the number of mistakes it has made. 

Tony Greenstein 

Successful Launch of Grassroots Black Left Tonight at House of Commons

Putting Anti-racism back on the agenda of the Labour Party

Chris Williamson, Naz Shah and Clive Lewish hold the banner up!

If there was one theme tonight at the packed House of Commons meeting, held in the Committee room named after Harold Wilson, it was that anti-racism, not the Right’s version of incorporation and multiculturalism has to be put back on the agenda of the Labour Party.

Jackie Walker speaking - the victim of a political lynching by the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement

Marc Wadsworth and others made the point that Black is a political issue not merely a matter of skin colour.  The term BAME is a choice of the Blairites and race relations industry which seeks to coopt Black people’s struggles.  The demand is for Black and Asian sections not BAME.  We heard in one constituency that White members of the Jewish Labour Movement had been put forward as BAME delegates even though Jewish people in this country are White and not oppressed.

We heard a moving speech from a representative from the Grenfell Tower Campaign about how nearly 100 families are still not housed and living in hotels.  Promises have been broken and there is an Inquiry judge Moore-Bick who has excluded the survivors from the panel and who is determined to carry out an establishment cover up by avoiding looking at successive government’s housing policies in respect of privatisation.

Naz Shah speaking alongside Clive Lewis and Chris Williamson - Deborah Hudson and Jackie Walker on the right

A number of MPs spoke - Chris Williamson, Naz Shah, Clive Lewis and one other whose name I didn’t catch.  Jackie Walker, who is the Chair of Labour Against the Witch hunt also spoke about her own experiences as the victim of racism before dashing off as she had to get a flight to Berlin early in the morning. The Lynching has gone international! Glynn Secker from Jewish Voices for Labour also spoke.   A number of people spoke from the floor at the end including myself.

Marc Wadsworth and a young supporter