Report – Labour Against the Witchhunt All Members Meeting 28 August 2021

LAW votes narrowly not to support setting up a socialist movement but votes to uphold No Platform for Fascists

Update

It would seem that the Spectator had a mole at the meeting! Its account is published here. It would seek that some sad nerd spends his time doing little else than attending the meetings of groups. This is the nerd in his own words and this is an interview with him in The Critic.

The most revealing comment is in his article Infiltrating the Left where he says:

'I was never a hateful person myself before I started doing this — but now, I despise these people and everything they do. I suppose hate rubs off

 Of course what mole doesn’t reveal is who is paying him and his relationship to the secret state.  My assumption throughout is that mole is a man.  

TG 

Introduction

LAW held its All Members Meeting last Saturday night with over 100 members attending. The agenda and a record of the decisions are here. This is a brief report on what took place.

The context of the meeting is a witchhunt unprecedented in its scope and ferocity in which Keir Starmer and his glove puppet David Evans have torn up all democratic rules and procedures. Regardless of the electoral cost, Starmer is determined to drive the left out of the Labour Party. Acting on behalf of the ruling class Starmer is determined that never again will a socialist and anti-imperialist gain control of the Labour Party.

Can you imagine what the press would make of the Labour Party if Corbyn had proscribed Progress, Labour First and the other scab organisations of the Labour Right. They would have cried ‘dictator’ from the rooftops. However attacks on the left meet with their approval – from the Mail to the Guardian.

When Starmer came to power he announced his intention to ‘root out the scourge of anti-Semitism’ despite the fact that what passed for ‘anti-Semitism’ was not hatred of Jews but hatred of apartheid Israel and the Zionist movement.

Starmer immediately declared that he was a Zionist, ie a racist ‘without qualification’. The subsequent issuing of reports by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group and Human Rights Watch declaring that Israel was an Apartheid State have had no effect on Labour’s racist leader.  On the contrary, whilst fighting ‘anti-Semitism’ he has quietly readmitted to Labour the Trevor Philips for whom Muslims are a ‘nation within a nation’ and who has described the adoption of Christian children by Muslims as ‘akin to child abuse’. There are some forms of racism that Starmer is perfectly happy with.

This is what 'Zionist Without Qualification' Starmer Supports

The mere mention of ‘anti-Semitism’ however was enough to send Momentum’s children running to nurse for fear of something worse. ‘Anti-Semitism’ was the evil by which all manner of deeds were done. So when Starmer wanted to be rid of Rebecca Long-Bailey, to whom he had felt obliged to offer the position of Shadow Education  Secretary, ‘anti-Semitism’ was the excuse to remove the last vestiges of the Corbyn left from the front bench.

The excuse was retweeting Maxine Peak condemning Israel’s Police for having taught the American Police the neckhold that killed George Floyd. Now whether this was strictly true was irrelevant. What is true is that the Zionist Anti-Defamation League boasted of having ‘trained 150,000 (US) law enforcement personnel—at no cost to taxpayers’ with the Israeli police.  The ADL has since taken this down but I quoted it here. Apparently this was an ‘anti-Semitic conspiracy’. What Israel’s police were not teaching was respect for human rights!

Likewise when Jeremy Corbyn was suspended Andrew Scatterbrain, head of Momentum, complained that this ‘undermined the fight against anti-Semitism’. Scatterbrain didn’t get it that the ‘anti-Semitism’ allegations had been perfected to get rid of Corbyn even before he was elected as Labour leader.

The stupidity of much of the Labour left coupled with its cowardice has led to the present situation of automatic expulsions, where due process and natural justice have been abolished. LAW and its sister organisation Labour-in-Exile-Network were proscribed on July 20 for having called out the fake and spurious nature of the anti-Semitism allegations levelled by the Jewish Labour Movement, which is affiliated to the main proponent of Israeli apartheid, the World Zionist Organisation which contains a Land Theft Division.

Although over 100 people attended the meeting and there were some good debates, it cannot be said that the meeting responded adequately to the needs of the hour. Partly this was because of the disarray of LAW’s Steering Committee whose 6 members are grossly unrepresentative of the organisation. LAW has had hundreds of new members since Starmer outlawed us yet 50% of the Steering Committee are members or supporters of the tiny Communist Party of Great Britain.

Now I have no objection to the group per se.  After all I have written for their newspaper the Weekly Worker for over 15 years, but they have a line on the Labour Party, that it was founded as a ‘united front of a special kind’ which is bonkers. The Fabians were amongst those that formed the Labour Party and they are and were an organisation of the liberal bourgeoisie, the Webbs and the Shaws.

The CPGB suggest that any attempts to build anything outside of Labour is doomed to failure. They follow what amounts to a rigid dogma, almost a theology.  I termed them the Catholic Church of the Left at the meeting! Regardless of changing circumstances they stick to the same line. Some 120,000 members of the Labour Party have already left in disgust at the behaviour of Starmer and they have nothing to say to them apart from stay in and fight!

The meeting was chaired by Jackie Walker, the Black-Jewish woman who was witchhunted in  disgraceful wave of racism and betrayed by Jon Lansman when Jackie was removed as Vice-Chair of Momentum  in the autumn of 2016.

Resist at the Rialto & Labour Left for Socialism

Two years ago, because of Zionist pressure on venues not to hire out venues to anti-Zionists we hired for 2 days the Rialto, a Brighton theatre whose owner has experience of supporting the Kent Miners and is unafraid of a few racist trolls.  Last time we put on a book launch for Bad News for Labour that Waterstones, under pressure from the Zionists had abandoned at the last minute.

This time we hiring the venue for 4 days and have a whole series of alternative events planned. from Sunday of the Conference to Wednesday. You can register for the events here. They provide an alternative to the controlled dissent of Momentum’s World Transformed. An outline of what is planned at Labour Party Conference is here.

A public meeting called by Defend the Left on 18^th September is planned with Ken Loach, Howard Beckett, Graham Bash, Esther Giles and other speakers. 

LAW has also participated, not without problems, in an organisation Labour Left for Socialism.  LLS has published a statement signed by 15 organisations, some of which, such as CLPD have effectively been complicit in the witchhunt.  Now of course people and organisations can learn the error of their ways, but the question unfortunately they haven’t.

After prolonged discussion LAW’s Steering Committee agreed to send two delegates to this organisation and to agree to the statement yet strangely enough LAW’s name has been left off the statement. What is even worse is that the statement contains the following weasel words. LLS ‘stand(s) in solidarity with every grouping that is proscribed solely for holding socialist views.’ What this meant is that of the 3 proscribed Labour Party organisations LLS only supports one of those organisation, Socialist Appeal.

Because LAW and LIEN have been proscribed for their opposition to the fake anti-Semitism witchhunt and this statement effectively refuses to support them. Stan Keable, the CPGB secretary of LAW sent an email to (LLS) expressing his ‘disappointment’ with them.

When I saw this anaemic email I immediately sent a somewhat stronger email saying that:

‘it really is disgraceful that Labour Against the Witchhunt, one of the proscribed groups, has been deliberately left off the joint statement by Don't Leave Organise, that purports to oppose the proscriptions but instead introduces the following weasel words:

'We stand firmly against proscriptions, and stand in solidarity with every grouping that is proscribed solely for holding socialist views.'

Unfortunately the co-Chair of LAW, CPGB supporter Tina Werkman took exception to my blunt words and at an emergency Steering Committee moved that I be removed as a delegate to LFS. My replacement has since decided not to take up his place as delegate, yet Ms Werkman, instead of proposing that I be restored as delegate has proposed that LAW just send one delegate, the CPGB’s Stan Keable. None of this was reported to the AMM meeting.

DISCUSSION OF MOTIONS

The first motion moved by the CPGB’s Kevin Bean welcomed the invitation to LAW and LIEN to participate in LLS without any criticism of it bar the fact that you can’t quote anyone who speaks in its meeting under the so-called Chatham House Rules. To me this seemed the least of its problems. No mention was made that Socialist Action, an ‘underground’ group which is part of the CLPD representation, had effectively tried to ensure that the group did not support those who did not go along with the ‘anti-Semitism’ witchhunt.

Tina Werkman moved an amendment putting this right and it was passed by 60-11 with the CPGB opposing.

The main vote however took place on the assertion in paragraph 2 that ‘LAW stands for unrestricted freedom of speech.’ I moved an amendment deleting ‘unrestricted’. I do not support free speech for overt racists, fascists, war criminals or organised scabs and I gave 2 examples. A meeting which socialists and miners from Kent NUM broke up in Brighton at the 1984 Tory Party conference. Apparently the CPGB would have supported the right of the scabs to freedom of speech despite using it as part of a campaign to starve the miners back to work.

The Board of Deputies has always opposed physical opposition to fascist anti-Semitism whilst at the same time condemning all opposition to Zionism and Israeli Apartheid

The Board of Deputies 

The other example I gave was of the 43 Group of Jewish ex-servicemen who, after they came back from the war in 1945, set about destroying the attempt of Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists to regroup by holding street meetings.  By 1950 the Union Movement was finished.  Interestingly for the benefit of Socialist Action, Red Labour, CLPD and others who are complicit in the witchhunt, the Board of Deputies, which today is so concerned about ‘anti-Semitism’ – vehemently opposed the 43 Group. I suggest that they and LAW’s Steering Committee read this excellent article. The British Jews who fought postwar fascism on London's streets

Despite the majority of the SC opposing my amendment it passed by 35-32 votes.

What I thought was a non-contentious motion calling for no confidence in Keir Starmer, was passed by 75 votes to 8. The only opposition coming from the CPGB! Quite why the CPGB should have opposed the motion is unclear. As far as I am aware they don’t yet support Starmer though perhaps this is a sign of what lies ahead!

The main debate was on strategy. The motion from the CPGB which called for god, mother and apple pie, received 40 votes.  It called on people to do what they are already doing.

What it didn’t do was offer any strategy to take on board the fact that over a hundred thousand members have already resigned from the Labour Party, that thousands of socialists are in the process of being expelled and thousands more show every sign of deserting the good ship Labour. To these people this motion offered nothing except rhetoric about ‘continuing to campaign at a grass roots level against bans and proscriptions, and countering the ‘anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism’ smear campaign against the left.’

The CPGB motion was supported by 5 out of 6, ie. 84% of the Steering Committee. I moved a motion, seconded by Brighton members Dave Hill and Paddy O’Keefe and a background strategy paper written by myself and Esther Giles. Although I didn’t oppose much of the CPGB motion the problem was that it could have been written anytime in the past 5 years.

What set the cat among the pigeons was points 8 and 9 of my motion:

8.           We believe that it is essential to create a socialist movement, that encompasses people inside and outside the Labour Party, which will keep activists in the Corbyn Project together, with a view to forming a distinct socialist party in the near future.

9.           We believe that the time has come when socialists in trade unions should argue for disaffiliation from a party that is now part of the neo-liberal consensus.

In other words I called for the formation of a socialist movement which encompassed both those in and those who have left the Labour Party. It did not call for the formation of a new party today but said that that should be on the agenda in the near future. 

Of course this was anathema to the CPGB for whom devotion to the Labour Party is an article of faith. Contemplating a break from the Labour Party is akin to commiting idolatory in the temple. It is heresy in any language.

Despite my fear of being cast into perdition, the CPGB motion obtained 40 votes to 31 for my motion.  In other words 44% of those voting agreed with me that it was not enough to call people to fight in a Labour Party where democracy has been abolished.

I think I can make one prediction and that is this debate will not go away. What is also obvious is that membership of LAW’s Steering Committee needs to be doubled. Whilst I have no objection to the CPGB having representatives on the Steering Committee, it is undemocratic for them to have effectively 50% of members when they are a small and tiny group. In other words they will have to win votes by argument not force of numbers.

Tony Greenstein

Campaign for Free Speech holds Packed Zoom Meeting - 'Say No to Labour McCarthyism

400 people listen to Norman Finkelstein, Tariq Ali, David Miller, Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth, Tony Greenstein and Chris Williamson

For the past 5 years the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and other Zionist groups have intimidated venues and the owners of meeting halls into cancelling meetings on Zionism and Palestine. Only a brave few, like the Rialto Theatre in Brighton, have withstood the threats and abuse that those standing up to these racist freaks bombard them with.

Notoriously last September Waterstones bookshop cancelled the book launch of Bad News for Labour (whose co-author Prof. David Miller was a speaker tonight) because of the threats and abuse they received – all in the name of fighting ‘anti-Semitism’. The CEO of Waterstones, James Daunt later admitted that Waterstone’s decision had been wrong and that customers had reacted strongly against the decision.

Anthony Silkoff - the Board of Deputies Censorship Officer

The Board of Deputies even had a full time worker, Anthony Silkoff, doing little else but attempt to close down free speech on Israel and Palestine. It was called ‘interfaith’ work.

Last year in Brighton the MP for Hove, Peter Kyle and a host of Zionist trolls abused and threatened 3 venues – the Brighthelm Centre, the Holiday Inn and the Quaker Friends Centre – into cancelling a meeting with Chris Williamson. In the end we were forced to hold an open air meeting with Chris in Brighton’s Regency Square where over 200 people turned up.

The Board of Deputies Tweet Attacking the Rialto - everything they attack is 'hate' - yet these opponents of 'hate' tweeted in support of Israeli snipers killing unarmed demonstrators in Gaza - nothing hateful there!

So the Zionists must be gnashing their teeth in fury as meetings double and triple the size of our normal meetings on Palestine and Zionism are being held with almost monotonous regularity featuring international speakers like Norman Finkelstein. 

All of the Zionist efforts to close down free speech were in aid of the fight against ‘anti-Semitism’ of course.  Naturally their targets were on the Left not the Far Right.  So eat your heart our Zios! 

The COVID-19 crisis has at least had one good side-effect.  People have turned to Zoom in the absence of physical venues and meetings and far more people have tuned into listen to our ideas.

I won’t even attempt to summarise last night’s meeting, but everyone who went said that it was excellent.  It was ably Chaired by Tina Werkmann of the Labour Left Alliance/ Labour Against the Witchhunt and it featured 7 speakers in all.  Ken Livingstone was forced to pull out for medical reasons but we hope to feature him in a future meeting.

Tina has slightly edited the video but we hope that if you didn’t attend last night that you will take the time to watch it. Norman Finkelstein was his normal controversial self and there was a vigorous debate between the panellists. Unlike Zionist meetings we do debate and aren’t afraid of the free exchange of ideas.

We were also not opposed to Zionists attending and maybe learning something but when Luke Stanger, a troll who is currently suspended from the Labour Party for harassment of women and calling Gypsies and Travellers ‘a nasty blight on society’ began abusing everyone as ‘anti-Semites’ he was removed.

Petition

We are also sponsoring a petition for Labour Party members to sign saying that they will not abide by the Board of Deputies’s 10 Commandments, the 5^th of which is that

‘Thou shalt not speak on the same platform as anyone who has been expelled or suspended as part of the ‘anti-Semitism’ witchhunt.  Those disobeying the Zionist gods will be suspended forthwith from the Labour Party.’

All those who believe in freedom of speech on Israel and Palestine and who reject the idea that we should not criticise Israeli Apartheid should sign. Starmer’s support for censorship on the question of Palestine, all in the name of combating ‘anti-Semitism’ stands in stark contrast to his refusal to discipline and remove from the Shadow Cabinet Rachel Reeves, a Labour MP who tweeted praising Nancy Astor, an MP who openly supported Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, whom she called ‘killers of christ’.  It seems that the only form of anti-Semitism that Keir Starmer has nothing to say about is the kind that consists of hostility to or hatred of Jews.  Strange that!

Tony Greenstein

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=GzqTWpPI5Qw&feature=emb_logo

Defend Free Speech – Free Julian Assange

Join Julian’s Father John Shipton's Fight For Justice at Brighton Labour Left Alliance Meeting

Brighton & Hove Labour Left Alliance is proud to support the fight of Julian Assange for Justice. The British State’s persecution of Julian began in 2013 when Sir Keir Starmer, who is standing to become Leader of the Labour Party, was Director of Public Prosecutions. Starmer was instrumental in the judicial persecution of Assange for the ‘crime’ of being a journalist.

We are pleased that Julian’s father John Shipton will be joining us. Find out more about his son's plight - and what socialists can do to help: Doors open at 7pm on Thursday, February 6, at the Rialto Theatre, 11 Dyke Road, Brighton BN1 3FE.

STOP PRESS: We are delighted to announce that the meeting will also hear from Joseph Farrell (@SwaziJAF), Wikileaks ambassador and board member of The Centre for Investigative Journalism.

If you haven't already reserved your seat, please register here. Limited spaces available!

Julian Assange is languishing in solitary confinement in HM Prison Belmarsh, a Category A prison known as the British version of Guantanamo Bay. In 2001 and 2002 it was used to detain a number of people indefinitely without charge or trial under antiterrorism legislation.

Julian was due to be released in September last year, after completing his sentence for breach of bail conditions. But a vindictive judge ordered his status in jail should change - “from a serving prisoner to a person facing extradition.”

Amnesty International UK has warned there are "real risks of serious human rights violations" if he is extradited.

The charges brought against him in the US include “computer misuse” and the “unauthorised disclosure of national defence information”. That is the job of any journalist worth his salt. Without Julian Assange and Wikileaks we would not know that American pilots played games shooting people from the air in Iraq.

Julian’s gravest offence was to expose the truth about American war crimes and the appalling abuses of state and corporate power. He should be celebrated, not incarcerated.

Instead, Julian faces a sentence of up to 175 years in captivity.

Jeremy Corbyn has said any attempt to extradite Julian should be opposed by the British government. However if Keir Starmer takes over then Labour is likely to fall into line with the security state.

Meanwhile, veteran journalist John Pilger has described the conditions in which Julian is held in Belmarsh as “barbaric”.

Join us to find out more about his son's plight - and what socialists can do to help: ALSO

Join the Brighton and Hove Labour Left Alliance to oppose those who would join with the Tories in constructing a security state. Details on the night.

Doors open at 7pm on Thursday, February 6, at the Rialto Theatre, 11 Dyke Road, Brighton BN1 3FE.

The main reason that Labour lost the Election is because, for the past 4 years, the Labour Right Waged War on Corbyn

We Should NOT Support Rebecca Long Bailey – she is a female Neil Kinnock – Critical Support Should Be Given to Clive Lewis and Richard Burgon

Graham Bash (left), Chair Rebecca Massey and John Rees (right)

Update
After having been contacted by members of Norwich South CLP, which is where Clive Lewis is based, I have withdrawn my previous critical support for him.  I should have known (but didn't) that he is a supporter of Trident but also has a record of attacking the left locally.  My apologies.  That means that there is no one that I can recommend which is probably a good reflection on the present situation.

The question is who is worse?  Someone like RLB moving rightwards and taking the left with her or Jess Phillips, who everyone with more than 1 brain cell knows, is a fake feminist friend of the Mogg.

Tony Greenstein

Last Monday Brighton and Hove Labour Left Alliance, which over the past 6 months has replaced the now defunct Brighton and Hove branch of Lansman’s Private Company (Momentum Ltd.) held a packed meeting at The Rialto on Where Do We Go Now?

The speakers were John Rees, from Counterfire (formerly of the SWP) and Graham Bash of the LRC and Editor of Labour Briefing, as well as Political Officer of Jewish Voice for Labour.

Pathetic racist Fiona Sharpe, founder of Sussex Friends of Israel, engaging in a last bit of vitriol against Waterstones and the Rialto, for the 'crime' of  supporting free speech. 

The Rialto was where we held a number of events last autumn, during Labour Party conference, after the Zionists had done their best to close down free speech in Brighton. We held the book launch for Bad News for Labour, which the Zionists had successfully forced Waterstones to cancel, as well as Jackie Walker’s film The Witchhunt (which had been due to premiere at the Liverpool Labour Party last year but which was prevented by a bomb threat which the Police didn’t investigate).

Part of the audience at the Rialto

Graham pinpointed the essential contradiction behind the rise of Corbyn which was the decline in working class struggle and strikes at the very same time that Labour elected its most left-wing leader ever. It is this that helps explain the political demoralisation in the northern ‘Red Wall’ constituencies that led to many working class people voting Tory.

As Graham made clear, there is no obvious successor to Jeremy Corbyn. Rebecca Long Bailey, who is apparently the Socialist Campaign Group candidate, appears to be running on a joint slate with the even more right-wing Angela Rayner.

When Angela Rayner was chosen to address the Board of Deputies she chose to first distance herself from her previous description of Norman Finkelstein’s book, Holocaust Industry, as ‘seminal.  She then launched into an attack on me! According to the Jewish Chronicle Rayner said that she was ‘glad activists such as Tony Greenstein had been expelled and said "those who distort history by likening Hitler to Zionism are no longer welcome".

John Rees mentioned that when he visits the Stop the War Coalition offices, in the same building as Corbyn’s constituency office, he is there hard at work on behalf of his constituents. We are unlikely to see someone who has devoted himself to the poor and oppressed again at the top of the Labour Party.

An excellent discussion ensued after Graham and John had spoken. B&H LLA hope to organise another meeting next month on the scandal surrounding Julian Assange’s incarceration.

Why Rebecca Long-Bailey Should NOT Be Supported

There are many on the Left who are saying that RLB is  the least worst candidate.  I disagree. RLB stabbed Chris Williamson in the back when according to the Jewish Chronicle she told the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement’s Vice Chair Stephane Savary that Williamson ‘should not be a member of the Labour Party and that she did not know how he had not already been expelled.’

Possibly one reason Chris should not have been expelled was that he was fitted up by racists who lied and distorted what he actually said. But when you are comforting Zionists truth flies out the window.

Angela Rayner - the lightweight partner of RLB is standing for Deputy Leader as part of a nightmare ticket

Let us remind ourselves what it was that Chris Williamson actually said because it is a microcosm of the lies and distortions and the contempt for truth by those for whom ambition is all.

The Yorkshire Post, the BBC and many others reported that Chris said that the Labour Party was "too apologetic" over anti-Semitism. What he actually said was:

The party that has done more to stand up to racism is now being demonised as a racist, bigoted party.

“I have got to say I think our party's response has been partly responsible for that because in my opinion… we have backed off too much, we have given too much ground, we have been too apologetic.”

Tom Watson 'lost sleep' over the sacking of racist Labour MP Phil Woolas - Rebecca Long Bailey was happy to sign Watson's petition calling for the suspension of Chris Williamson

If RLB is prepared to support the expulsion of a Socialist MP and sign a petition by the racist Tom Watson on the basis of deliberate misreporting by the Tory press then no one should be under any illusions as to what direction she will take the party.

The news is that Black MP Clive Lewis, who supported Marc Wadsworth, is standing for the leadership. It is true that Clive is no anti-imperialist but neither is RLB. Clive has shown more independence than RLB and did at least stick his neck out on occasion. Given that he is Black that in itself is a reason for supporting, everything else considered.

I urge socialists in the Labour Party to critically support Clive Lewis.

RLB explained to the racist rag that is the Jewish Chronicle, a paper that in the election campaign unceasingly for anyone but Corbyn and which openly called him an anti-Semite, that but for her membership of the Shadow Cabinet she would have signed Tom Watson’s petition calling for resuspension of Chris Williamson (ruled unlawful by the High Court).

Phil Woolas's racist leaflet caricaturing all Muslims as violent Jihadists - Rebecca Long Bailey was happy to sign Woolas supporter Tom Watson's petition

This alone should prevent the Left from supporting Long-Bailey.

The fact that John McDonnell, who has made his peace with Blair and Campbell, wants RLB to succeed Corbyn, should be another reason for not supporting RLB. Let us remind ourselves that when the High Court removed racist Labour MP Phil Woolas from the House of Commons for running an election campaign which, in the words of his own agent, was designed to ‘make the white  folk angry’ Watson wrote on Labour Uncut that he had ‘lost sleep thinking about poor Phil.’ If RLB was prepared to sign a  petition by this racist she is no socialist.

RLB also told members of the JLM, which didn’t even support Labour in the General Election, that ‘she is aware Jeremy Corbyn has lost the trust of the (Jewish) community’. This was of course the same allegation made about Labour’s only Jewish leader, Ed Miliband. In fact the Labour Party has long since lost the confidence of British Jews, most of whom have voted Tory since the 1960’s.

People should face facts.  The Jewish ‘community’ today, in particular the synagogue going adherents of the United Synagogue which the Board of Deputies represents (about 30% of British Jews) are a reactionary community whose identity is shaped by the Israeli state’s oppression of the Palestinians.

Just imagine that at the time of Apartheid there had been a large community of exiled South Africans. According to RLB’s racist logic we should have supported Apartheid for fear of upsetting the identity of white racists.  This is exactly the same situation today. Jews who support Israeli Apartheid are either ignorant or racist or both.

RLB has been engaged in a love-in with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who more than any other body, were responsible for the fake anti-Semitism campaign.  A body that supported the mowing down of unarmed demonstrators in Gaza and which has supported every war against the Palestinians and every aspect of Israel’s Apartheid policies.

This political lightweight, who has all the charisma of a dictaphone, produced a slick video claiming that that had been “born to the sound of the roar of the Stretford end”  Since she was born on 22^nd September 1979, when Man United were playing away to Wolverhampton, this is quite a remarkable feat!

Where the Blame Lies for Labour’s Defeat

As this blog has repeatedly said, Jeremy Corbyn made, over the past 4 years, grievous mistakes, not least in abandoning old comrades like Ken Livingstone and Chris Williamson. But ultimately Corbyn is not responsible for the disaster last Thursday. Neither is Seamus Milne, his disastrous adviser or John McDonnell, despite his rapprochement with Alistair Campbell and his perpetual backsliding and overtures to the Right of the Labour Party.

The blame for what happened lies with the Parliamentary Labour Party who waged an unending war against Corbyn. People like Margaret Hodge, Wes Streeting, Louise Ellman, John Mann, Ian Austin and the two fake ‘victims’ of anti-Semitism – Ruth Smeeth and Juliana Berger.

If only Corbyn and Len McLuskey had supported Open Selection at the 2018 Labour Party Conference. Fortunately every cloud has a silver lining and the last five are no longer in parliament having either not stood, left the Labour Party for the Lib Dems or deserted to the Tories. 

It is noteworth that Austin, Mann and Ivan Lewis, who was suspended for sexual harassment, all backed the Tories. The victory of the Tories was , despite public protestations of horror, welcomed by the Peter Kyles and Jess Phillips of the PLP.  Indeed in an unguarded moment Phillips, a ‘feminist’ friend of anti-abortion Rees-Mogg, was caught expressing her delight at Labour’s defeat.

WHERE TO WE GO FROM HERE?

As John Rees made clear there is no Labour MP of the calibre of Corbyn.  None with his record. Whoever replaces him, for all their faults, will be politically worse. That is the reality we must face.

Those tempted to support RLB should remember when the Left backed Neil Kinnock against Roy Hattersley after the 1983 election.  Kinnock came from the Left and despite his betrayal of Tony Benn in the Deputy Leadership Election in 1981 was supported by the Left against the right-wing Hattersley. 

In fact Kinnock used his antecedents in the Left in order to betray the Left.  Whereas Kinnock paved the way for Blair and supported him throughout his premiership Hattersley became a trenchant critic.

My suggestion is that we don’t repeat the same mistake twice with RLB. If she is prepared to sacrifice the Palestinians to her own political ambitions, cuddling up to the reactionary and racist Zionists then she isn’t worth the candle.

It is essential that the Labour Left regroups and draws the necessary conclusions from the General Election. It is untrue that it was Brexit that defeated Labour. Brexit is symptomatic of a demoralisation and despair amongst a working class that has seen industry in the North of England laid to waste and devastated by monetarism and austerity. Brexit is the product of political defeat.

The antagonism to Corbyn was not hostility to his programme  It is unfortunate that Corbyn appeared weak and indecisive because he refused to stand up to the Right.  In appeasing the Right and apologising to Zionists he weakened himself in the eyes of the working class electorate. Instead of a Manifesto which promised lots of goodies there should have been a narrative about how Labour would reverse the 30+ year transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Reforming capitalism is simply not enough.  Socialism is about replacing capitalism not reforming it.

In the short term the Labour Left Alliance needs to regroup and the LRC, a group which has achieved little or nothing in its sad history and which has McDonnell as its President, is going to have to decide whether to follow the sectarian stance of its current Executive or try and build a strong left inside the Labour Party.

The Labour Left needs to understand that there is a need for left unity that straddles those in and those out of the Labour Party, especially given so many of us have been expelled.  The existing left groups outside the Labour Party are constitutionally sectarian and all too often divorced from reality. The question is whether the Labour Left is up to it given that large sections of the previously Corbyn left has been taken in  by identity politics, which is what their concern over ‘anti-Semitism’ is. 

There is a battle ahead and RLB will be on the wrong side of it. The battle also needs to extend to the trade union movement, without which the Labour Party would never have adopted the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism.

We should also be campaigning for the readmission of Chris Williamson and an acknowledgement of the injustice done to him.  An injustice which led to the loss of Derby North to the Tories.

Tony Greenstein