RIP Mike Howard – A Jewish Socialist Whose Family Fled from the Pogroms in Poland and Lithuania

Being Jewish Mike was a natural target for suspension from Starmer's Labour Party

Mike Howard was one of eight people who took the Labour Party to court over its disciplinary process for investigating complaints of anti-Semitism. Below I reprint, without permission!, the tribute that Jewish Voices for Labour, of which Mike was a member, paid to him.

Mike was a Jewish Socialist all his life and fought racism and anti-Semitism consistently. He was also an active trade unionist and a councillor till recently on Hastings Borough Council. His suspension from the Labour Party for ‘anti-Semitism’ says everything you need to know about the bogus nature of the ‘anti-Semitism’ accusations which are being levelled at Jews today in Labour today.

The fact that if you are Jewish you are 5 times more likely to be suspended from Labour under Starmer than if you are not says everything you need to know about how genuine was Starmer’s pledge to ‘root out’ anti-Semitism.

Unfortunately this did not start with Starmer.  It was under Jeremy Corbyn that the anti-Semitism witchhunt took off when people like myself were expelled or suspended. Unfortunately Corbyn went along with this bogus narrative until it got him too.  The fast track procedures now being used to expel and suspend hundreds of members were patented by Corbyn and Jennie Formby.

 It is shameful that Corbyn says nothing about the legacy he has left. Instead of lapping up cheap applause and playing the martyr, he should come out publicly and criticise what is happening. Corbyn’s inability to make even one word of direct criticism of Starmer demonstrates that even if he had won the election in 2017 and even if the Labour Right had agreed to vote him in as Prime Minister, that he would have wilted at the first sign of opposition.

Undoubtedly for someone like Mike, as with all of us, to be accused of anti-Semitism when you have spent your life opposing it, is hurtful. That is why the Labour Right, which doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss about anti-Semitism or any other form of racism, make the allegations.  These accusations are deliberately made to cause hurt and distress.

We should contrast this with the readmission to the Labour Party in recent weeks of one of the vilest racists on the Labour Right – Luke Stanger, a friend of Hove MP Peter Kyle, who worked in the office of Joan Ryan, former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Apart from multiple complaints of harassment from women in the Labour Party Stanger is on record as saying that Travellers are ‘a nasty blight on society.’

Under Starmer genuine racists are always welcome in the Labour Party whereas anti-racists are expelled.  It is unfortunate that some on the Left such as Jon Lansman, Owen Jones and David Renton, are unable to see through this Zionist campaign of vilification which defames good Jewish socialists like Mike.

We should pay tribute to someone who was a Jewish hero. Those who suspended Mike for 'antisemitism' weren't fit to lick his boots.

Tony Greenstein

Mike Howard – “a true mensch”

Sat 13 Nov 2021

It is with deep regret that we announce that JVL member and long-term fighter for socialism, Mike  Howard died after a short illness, with his close family at his side, in the early hours of Thursday 11th November 2021.

 Many readers of our website will recognise and remember Mike as one of the Labour Activists for Justice (LA4J) who had been treated so abysmally by the Party to which he dedicated more than 45 years of his life. He died a committed socialist and still angry with the Labour Party that had suspended him, a Jewish anti-racist, for antisemitism.

You can get a taste of his anger, his willingness to challenge and a little of his background on this video from a Labour Grassroots show dedicated to those involved in LA4J .

 Mike was born in Hackney in 1952 to socialist parents whose families had fled from the threat of pogroms in Lithuania and Poland.  He always said he learned about internationalism as a child and this informed his philosophy and his activism throughout his life.

He left school fairly early, in part because of antisemitic bullying and was later educated at Newcastle University (where he was active in the National Organisation of Labour Students) and became a librarian.  He was active in the Labour Party Young Socialists in the 1970s – at a time when political education was a major focus – and it was there that he met his wife Dee. In time Mike became (step)father to Dee’s daughter Jenny and they had a son, Robin together.

After graduating he spent some years in the North East then moved to London continuing his work as a librarian.  In Lambeth he was a shop steward and also a Convenor for NALGO (and the Unison) and supported many workers, not least representing the Union in many tribunals.

He was also a committed supporter of Wimbledon Football Club and was involved in turning it into a supporter-owned club remaining in Wimbledon, rather than moving to help the owners to profit.

In Hastings he was well known as an activist, committed to justice for Palestinians and, from 2012-2018 he was an elected councillor in what had mainly been a Tory ward.  He is remembered as an effective councillor, supporting local residents in a number of campaigns as well as doing individual case work and, of course, serving on committees.  He stood down at the 2018 elections to care for his wife.

You can see him talking about his role in Labour Activists for Justice, trying to hold the Labour Party to account and to democratic principles in the video below:

Very many tributes have been received in the first 36 hours after he died which show what sort of a person he was and why he will be so badly missed. Many refer to his appalling treatment by the Labour Party.

Many have commented on how friendly he was and for many younger people and others who joined when Jeremy Corbyn was elected, it was Mike who welcomed them, made sure they were invited to the pub after meetings.  Several have said that they learned so much from him, about the history of the Party and of the wider movement.

Here are some extracts:

Peter Chowney, who was Deputy Leader in Hastings most of the time that Mike was a councillor:

He was a good comrade, and a very good local councillor – the only Labour councillor to successfully defend West St Leonards ward. And a fellow former Hackney Labour Party member! Such a pity he had to spend his last days defending himself against this awful witchhunt. I shall miss him.

Peter Doyle, Jen Pickard and John Pickard – some friends in the North East:

“We are saddened to hear of the sudden and untimely death of Mike Howard, a member of Hastings and Rye Labour Party, in the early hours of November 11. Mike was one of those left-wing members facing suspension by the Party on the spurious grounds of ‘anti-Semitism’, a deeply ironic charge considering his Jewish background. We knew Mike from his time in the Labour Party Young Socialists in Gateshead where we were members and where he was also an active member of the local government union, NALGO.

Mike, who came from a family tradition of socialist ideas, was a Marxist and a supporter of Militant in his days in the North East. He was always a friendly, comradely and cheerful person to know. Mike wrote an excellent article for Left Horizons late last year, on how unfit for purpose Labour’s disciplinary process is, in his own and in other cases… Mike will be a great loss, not only to his family, but to the whole labour movement and those who knew him…”

Simon Hester (local Unite Community Branch member):

I only got to know Mike over the past year but, it’s strange, it feels like I knew him a lot longer. He was such a friendly and welcoming comrade. For socialists of a certain age we have been through so many struggles together it seems to have created an unspoken bond, a shared tradition. I have absolutely no doubt which side Mike was on in the great campaigns against racism, during the miners’ strike, the poll tax campaign, the antiwar movement. Over the past few months I kept bumping into him and Dee at protests over Palestine, NHS pay, refugee rights and the Police Bill. And I won’t forget his outrage and eloquence in challenging the witchhunt of socialists and anti-Zionists in the Labour Party. The movement has lost a principled socialist, an internationalist and anti-racist, and above all, an anti-Zionist Jew. His hope for a socialist future will live on in the growing movements of young people …
solidarity, Simon

Carel Buxton, Chair West Ham CLP (suspended 21 March):

I met him only once and that was at LP conference in 2019 as I recall. Mike made a lasting impression on me because of his warmth, his humour and his clear dedication to socialist ideas. Both of us have roots in the east end and we talked about our great fighting tradition. I still live in West Ham but was born in Hastings, Mike’s life journey was from Hackney to Hastings or rather Mugsborough as we called it. He was a hero of our class and I send you my deepest condolences.

Sarah Gomes-Harris:

Such sad news for the local Labour Party. Such a lovely man, so rooted in the human dignity and decency of socialism and so unfairly targeted and isolated by the party he cherished his whole life…. I wish more people were like Mike Howard… So heartbreaking. Rest with peace, love and power x

Marie Lynam: 

Those who disciplined Mike did a terrible wrong not just to him, but to the justice and bravery contained in his political positions. It is a cruel thing that Mike had to go with this insult done to him, and to everything good he stood for.

Through you, and with my thanks, I send my solidarity to his family and comrades. 

Rica Bird (JVL member; Wirral South CLP):

This is indeed a sad blow, and even more cruel considering his mistreatment at the hands of the Labour Party. Although I didn’t know him, I gather his life has been a gift to all combating oppression and leaves a great legacy for the rest of us to follow.

I keep thinking for those who have been summarily expelled, those suspended, or ‘under investigation’ and those who have simply left, that it is not we who have left the Party, it truly IS the Party has left us!!

In solidarity

Jewish members and others file court claim against Labour for breach of EHRC principles after party tells them: ‘EHRC does not apply to you’

Mike Howard (68) Member of Hastings & Rye CLP. Active Labour Party member for over thirty-five years, holding office in six CLP’s during this time. Twice elected Hastings Borough Councillor. Retired (former office-holding) Unison life member. Unite Community, JVL and PSC. He is a Jewish, lifelong anti-racist whose family escaped the murderous pogroms in pre-war Russia/Poland and fought the fascists in their East London neighbourhood. Mike has suffered real anti-semitism, and finds it completely unacceptable that Labour Party HQ, knowing that he is Jewish, has not responded to his solicitors’ request to drop an anonymous complainant’s accusations of anti-semitism against him which is based on the process the EHRC found was unfair and based on a code the Party will not publish.

Jewish members say Starmer’s pursuit of them ‘makes a mockery’ of claim to be making Labour safe for Jews

We are appalled by the large and growing number of Jewish members of the Labour Party – including ourselves – who have recently been subject to disciplinary proceedings related to alleged antisemitism. This fact alone – over and above the trumped up and politicised nature of the charges – makes a mockery of Keir Starmer’s commitment to ensuring Labour is a safe space for Jews.

It is now abundantly clear that this commitment does not cover discrimination against Jewish socialists. On the contrary, Starmer’s abuse of our Jewish identity and his willingness to exploit antisemitism as a political football is shameful and harmful not only to freedom of expression, but also to the fight against real antisemitism and racism of all forms, both in and outside of the Labour Party.

Graham Bash
Jo Bird
Mike Cushman
Michael Ellman
Michael Howard
Moshe Machover
Diana Neslen
Jonathan Rosenhead
Glyn Secker
Stephen Solley
George Wilmers
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

The Scandal of Jo Bird’s Suspension - Jon Lansman’s Corrupt War on Democracy

Even Tony Blair did not suspend socialist candidates standing for election – Lansman's corrupt racism marks a new low 

Any socialist who stays in Momentum believing that there is anything ‘left-wing’ about the organisation needs their head examining. Lansman, its Chair and Owner, has become the Chief Witchhunter and Jennie Formby his silent accomplice.

If Lansman spoke the truth about Israel today he would be suspended from the Labour Party!

So lacking in confidence is Lansman in the chances of his 2 White candidates (to replace two Black members of the National Executive) that he decided to take out the front runners – Jo Bird and Mohammed Azam.

This is what is normally called gerrymandering. It is electoral corruption. Remember that the Chakrabarti Report recommended that:

The Campaign Against Antisemitism Barked and Lansman Jumped

such an interim suspension being public ought to be the greatest exception rather than the rule, in for example, a case where the person concerned continues (despite warning) with public repetition of their allegedly offending remarks and publicity of their suspension is the only way to protect the reputation of the Party. (my emphasis)

It seems that all the worst aspects of Chakrabarti have been implemented (‘zio’ being anti-Semitic) but not those parts dealing with due process and natural justice.

The suspension of Jo Bird on charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ is entirely bogus. The idea that if you want to fight ‘anti-Semitism’ that you should suspend and expel Jewish anti-racists and anti-Zionists belongs to the world of Doublespeak and 1984.

When Lansman was a socialist he too criticised 'Jewish Apartheid' - now anyone saying this will be suspended

Anti-Zionist Jews, by definition are anti-racists.  People who refuse to accept the argument of ‘kith and kin’, that you should support any iniquity or injustice because it is carried out by Jews.  Lansman subscribes to all the most vile racist tropes. ‘Kith and kin’ used to be the argument of supporters of Apartheid South Africa, that those who were implementing apartheid were ‘our’ stock.  For Lansman it is being Jewish that matters.

John McDonnell backs the Right again

Lansman has become a vile racist and Zionist. There was a time when he criticised the Board of Deputies for weaponising anti-Semitism. He was not reluctant to call Israel an apartheid state. He spoke of the ‘Shame’ of the Board of Deputies ‘for marring Holocaust day with a false accusation of antisemitism’. This was in respect of an allegation that a cartoon of Netanyahu cementing the bricks in a wall with the blood of Palestinians.

But that was in 2012. In 2020 Lansman, the campaign manager for the pathetically weak Rebecca Long-Bailey, endorses the Board of Deputies 10 Pledges which include the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism. Allegations of Apartheid and comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany are now ‘anti-Semitic’. Indeed anything the Board or Israel’s apologists say is anti-Semitic must be accepted as holy writ.

Today suggesting that 'antisemitism' complaints are fake is itself proof of antisemitism - but there was a time when Lansman made the same allegation - it's a great pity that Lansman can't suspend himself now for past iniquities!

Lansman has gone along with all of this. He has learnt nothing from the disaster of December 12^th and how acceptance of the Zionist agenda and the continual apologies for 'antisemitism' coupled with the witchhunt merely emboldened Labour enemies.  Now Jo Bird, who hasn’t a racist bone in her body, is the latest sacrificial lamb on the altar of Lansman’s vanity.

Although he doesn’t seem to use it any longer, you might want to leave a message on Lansman’s mobile (07710 541410) and text a message!  Or send him an email at jonlansman@me.com. I’m sure that he will appreciate your concerns!

Jewish Voice for Labour have issued a statement on their Facebook page.

Labour List has reported that Jo Bird has been suspended. The Party keeps confidential what Jo, the only Jewish candidate standing for the NEC, has been suspended for. Given previous events, we have to assume that it because of allegations of antisemitism.

Jo is the leading left candidate running for the NEC so the timing of this suspension is deeply suspicious and has the hallmarks of a deliberate attempt to undermine members' wishes and Party democracy.

We urge all Labour Party members to argue for Jo’s candidature to be considered at CLP nominating meetings. If this is prevented members should consider the option of calling an emergency AMM/GC as soon as possible after the nominating meeting to discuss and condemn threats to the Party’s democracy from the misuse of our disciplinary processes to secure partisan advantage in internal elections.

If the suspension is for antisemitism we can say we have known Jo for a long period and worked closely with her. We know she is a proud Jew and opposed to antisemitism just as she is has shown over the years to be an active opponent of all racism.

Suspension before investigation is an extreme measure and the Party must show to all members why they have taken such a step in the middle of an election process.

The Lansman of 2012 would have long ago been suspended in today's Labour Party

I have posted a short comment beneath the statement regretting that they describe Jo as ‘proud to be Jewish.’

It is a pity that this statement is marred by the phrase 'We know she is a proud Jew '. Being a Jew is nothing to be proud of (or ashamed of). It is a fact of life, an accident of birth. When people proclaim they are proud of their ethnic, religious origins it is usually a sign that racism is on the agenda. You know proud Hindus in India. Proud Jews in Israel.

I am sorry that this stupid remark has marred an otherwise good statement.

I should add that Hannah Arendt was asked whether she was a proud Jew and was filled with Ahavath Israel, love of the Jewish people. She responded that no, she loves her friends and acquaintances not a whole people and that being born a Jew is nothing to be proud of.

What is crucially important is that the fight against Jo’s suspension and the electoral corruption that is part and parcel of it is not hindered by the requirement that the process of kept confidential. This is an outrageous stipulation designed to prevent people campaigning against injustices. It is the decision of the person accused, and no one else, whether it should be confidential.  Given it has already been publicised I hope Jo doesn’t stick by a stipulation designed to inhibit any campaign in her support.

Even bourgeois justice doesn’t require that the accused remain silent!

There is however one thing that JVL can do.  A component part of JVL is the Jewish Socialist Group. Among its members is one Jon Lansman!  It would be symbolically important for JSG to expel the treacherous Lansman from its ranks.

Tony Greenstein  

What have they got to hide?

Labour Response to Subject Access Request - Blacked Out Emails 

Like the Gestapo & Stasi 

Labour’s Witch-hunters Hide Identity of Informers

Labour's idea of a disclosure of information! 

Times article based on leaked information

The efforts of Labour's Compliance Unit to control and roll back internal democracy, dissent and debate is the opposite of Karl Popper’s Open Society.  In its stilted discourse and reaction to criticism, and its attempts to hide its workings from external and internal scrutiny, its deviousness and dishonesty in how it operates, Labour’s unelected civil service, headed by General Secretary Iain McNicol, exhibit the classic symptoms of those who run a closed society.  It is a society where different rules of logic prevail.  Whereas in an Open Society the right of the accused to defend themselves is taken for granted and seen as a sign of a healthy and democratic society, in the world of McNicol’s minions, defending oneself against accusations of misconduct is seen as proof of one’s guilt.  There is a perceived resentment that someone should have the audacity to question the judgement of Labour’s unelected bureaucracy. 

A helpful warning to the Compliance Unit to beware of the new Brighton LP Secretary who is also a journalist!

A closed society encourages anonymous informants and goes to extraordinary lengths, including breaking the law, in order to protect them.  The idea that people who make allegations against others might be called to account and expected to defend their allegations, is foreign to these people. 

I have been suspended for ‘anti-Semitism’ from the Labour Party since March 18^th.  My original letter of suspension refused to elaborate on the reasons why I had been suspended, other than that they were for remarks I was alleged to have made. The first time I knew of some of the details of my suspension was when the Telegraph and The Times printed details of why I had been suspended on April 2^nd.  See Labour’s Disciplinary Procedures would put the Star Chamber to Shame and The Paper of Record Joins in the 'anti-semitism' Witch-hunt

On May 9^th I put in a Subject Access Request under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.  It was received on May 13^th.  I didn’t get a reply until July 19^th, a mere 67 days later.  The prescribed period for responding to such a request is 40 days.

The DPA s.7(4) prescribes that:

(4)Where a data controller cannot comply with the request without disclosing information relating to another individual who can be identified from that information, he is not obliged to comply with the request unless—

(a)the other individual has consented to the disclosure of the information to the person making the request, or

(b)it is reasonable in all the circumstances to comply with the request without the consent of the other individual.

(5)In subsection (4) the reference to information relating to another individual includes a reference to information identifying that individual as the source of the information sought by the request; and that subsection is not to be construed as excusing a data controller from communicating so much of the information sought by the request as can be communicated without disclosing the identity of the other individual concerned, whether by the omission of names or other identifying particulars or otherwise.

(6)In determining for the purposes of subsection (4)(b) whether it is reasonable in all the circumstances to comply with the request without the consent of the other individual concerned, regard shall be had, in particular, to—

(a)any duty of confidentiality owed to the other individual,

(b)any steps taken by the data controller with a view to seeking the consent of the other individual,

(c)whether the other individual is capable of giving consent, and

(d)any express refusal of consent by the other individual.

(7)An individual making a request under this section may, in such cases as may be prescribed, specify that his request is limited to personal data of any prescribed description.

(8)Subject to subsection (4), a data controller shall comply with a request under this section promptly and in any event before the end of the prescribed period beginning with the relevant day.

(9)If a court is satisfied on the application of any person who has made a request under the foregoing provisions of this section that the data controller in question has failed to comply with the request in contravention of those provisions, the court may order him to comply with the request.

As will be seen from the documents which I have been sent, the Labour Party has signally failed in its duty to disclose the information I requested.  In many cases it has blanked out whole documents.  In all cases, except where the identity of the persons is clearly known, it has blanked out the names of the informants.

Those who make allegations against others should be prepared to have their identities disclosed.  Indeed it should be a condition of receipt of such information that, just like in a court of law, their identities are revealed. 

Anonymous informants are invited to supply information without fear of their identity being blown

The model McNicol and his protégé John Stolliday [JS], head of the Compliance Unit, have adopted is the method of the Gestapo and the Stasi.  Anonymous informants providing information which, by definition, can never be tested. Such methods should be repugnant to any party which considers itself democratic let alone socialist.

I have therefore appealed to the Information Commissioner to impress on McNicol and his minions their statutory responsibility.  If necessary I will seek to enforce disclosure of information under DPA s.7(9).

Solicitor's warning to McNicol that he has a duty to act in good faith

Background to my suspension

Apparently I have been suspended for anti-Semitism – which kind of makes sense.  If you want to show that you are dealing firmly with allegations of anti-Semitism, then what better way to show this than to suspend a Jewish anti-racist!  Especially if you are dealing with the kind of ‘anti-Semitism’ that involves criticism of the ‘Jewish’ State of Israel.

I am reminded of a joke of Hajo Meyer, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz: 

‘formerly an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews but nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews.'

Hajo Meyer was someone who refused to accept the lesson that Zionism drew from the Holocaust, viz. that it entitled Jews to be racists.  Hajo believed that the message of the Holocaust must be that genocide and racism must never again occur to anyone – Jewish or non-Jewish. 

Amongst my many sins was having compared Israel’s marriage laws to those of the Nazis Nuremberg Laws.  Comparisons between Israel and the Nazis is, by definition anti-Semitic according to the Zionists - except when the Zionists do it!  For example when Netanyahu explained how Hitler was talked into the Holocaust by the Palestinian Haj al amin-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem. [see Rewriting the Holocaust].  

There are very many examples of comparisons between Zionism and Nazism in the period before the Holocaust.  There are differences too but Zionism’s belief in the need to create an ethnically pure Jewish state and its obsession with a Jewish demographic majority in Israel, belong to the Nazi era.

The reason why comparisons between Zionism and Nazism are valid was best put by Professor Funkenstein, formerly Head of the Faculty of History at Tel Aviv University.  He compared soldiers in the German army who refused to serve in concentration or extermination camps to Israeli soldiers who refused to serve in the Occupied Territories.  To those who asked how it was possible to compare the actions of Nazi soldiers with Israelis, Funkenstein replied

“As a historian I know that every comparison is limited. On the other hand, without comparisons, no historiography is possible. Understanding a historical event is a kind of translation into the language of our time. If we would leave every phenomenon in its peculiarity, we could not make this translation.  Every translation is an interpretation and every interpretation is also a comparison. “

Chakrabarti

Solicitor's letter warning McNicol that his leaking of information to Press is a serious disciplinary offence

Shami Chakrabarti wrote in her report on racism and anti-Semitism in the Labour Party that the 

‘there is a lack of clarity and confidence in current disciplinary procedures from all sides of the Party’ She went on to say that ‘It is completely unfair, unacceptable and a breach of Data Protection law that anyone should have found out about being the subject to an investigation or their suspension by way of the media and indeed that leaks, briefing or other publicity should so often have accompanied a suspension pending investigation…. Labour Party should seek to uphold the strongest principles of natural justice, however difficult the circumstances, and to resist subjecting members to a trial by media.’   

This is the system that is presided over by Iain McNicol.

Labour General Secretary Iain McNicol professing concern over the leaks to the Press that he and the Compliance Unit authorised

As Jackie Walker observed, the Jewish Chronicle knew the details of her suspension before she knew.  It has been the standard response of Labour’s Compliance Unit and Iain McNicol to deny suspended members details of why they are suspended at the same time as they leak the details to the media. So when McNicol wrote to me stating that 

‘I am disappointed that you have taken the opportunity to make an unwarranted attack on a hardworking and diligent member of the Compliance Unit…’  

and went on to say that 

‘Like you I regret that information was given to the media. However, I entirely refute the allegation that the Compliance Unit leaked any details of your suspension to the Daily Telegraph or to anyone else.’ 

he was doing what comes natural to him.  Lying.  There is no other explanation for the details of my suspension appearing in the national press other than that the Compliance Unit leaked them.  If the Compliance Unit did not do the leaking, then who was responsible?  

McNicol prefered not to respond when I put this question.

Solicitor's letter to McNicol who did his best to keep Corbyn off the ballot paper

Lies to McNicol are like water off a duck’s back.  He even tried to deceive the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell as to the timing of the National Executive Committee meeting.  Below are the documents which the Labour Party have either redacted or blanked out altogether.  I have posted them on Google and you can click on the link to read the document in its redacted entirety!

Documents Disclosed by the Labour Party

Doc 1:             This is from a facetious Zionist   It follows from my revelation that in 1984 Jeremy Corbyn was Chairperson of a Labour Movement Conference on Palestine, which called for the disaffiliation of the racist Poalei Zion (now the Jewish Labour Movement) from the Labour Party.  PZ, the British wing of the Israeli Labour Party, which ethnically cleansed Palestine of nearly 90% of its Palestinians in 1947-8.  It is a party that in elections attacks the opposition Likud for being too soft on Arabs.  See When Jeremy Corbyn Supported a Democratic, Secular State & Breaking Links with Poale Zion (JLM) and The Times & Jewish Chronicle Report our Story on Corbyn Backtracking on Palestine

The email begins ‘There are some very serious accusations in The Times today which are making you out to be some form of antiSemite.  How dare they.’  His mock indignation is belied by his two emails, noteworthy only for their deceptive literary style, which is as transparent as it is dishonest.

Doc 2 is a supportive letter to Shami Chakrabarti which asks why I have been expelled from the Labour Party (in fact suspended).  The name is blanked out.

Doc 3  is one of a number of documents which have been completely and unlawfully blacked out.  All I am entitled to know is the fact of its existence!

Doc 4  is another completely blacked out document.

Doc 5  is from the Jewish Labour Movement and their liar-in-chief, Jeremy Newmark.  The first email appears to be completely blacked out but the second is nonetheless illuminating.  After apologising for having to write once again, Newmark protests that I published a full transcript of my investigation hearing with SE Regional Organiser, Harry Gregson [HG].  The idea of open and transparent justice is alien to Zionists.  Newmark, having been branded a liar in the Fraser v UCU Employment Tribunal case, should know that it is a practice of the courts, even in Israel, to provide transcripts of hearings.  What Newmark was really objecting to was that I had made my interrogator HG and therefore the JLM witch-hunters look stupid.

Tweet objecting to racist JLM being in charge of anti-racist education

Newmark objects to the racist JLM being compared to Nick Griffin of BNP 

Newmark clearly didn’t like my post Labour’s Inquisition – from the banal to the mundane which contains a link to the 16 page transcript.  Newmark says that the transcript consists of ‘further slurs against the JLM and our leadership’.  Jeremy Newmark takes himself very seriously being an important figure.  He doesn’t take kindly to being slighted.  He is unaware that in court proceedings what the accused says, however defamatory, is protected speech. 

According to Newmark, the transcript apparently consists of ‘a whole host of unsavoury comments’ and even worse has been published on at least 1 other website as well as being circulated on social media. 

Newmark informs McNicol or JS (this is blacked out!) that ‘he [me!] is determined to use the process itself to further disseminate offensive, uncomradely and potentially actionable comments.’  The JLM doesn’t take kindly to criticism.  Suffice to say I don’t expect to be sued anytime soon as telling the truth is an absolute defence!  As for being uncomradely, well I don’t consider the JLM comrades and if my comments were offensive so much the better!

Apparently I am ‘fermenting hatred and opposition’ to the JLM.  Well I certainly hope that people hate racism and therefore the JLM, whose sole purpose is to defend Zionist racism.  If they hate a racist affiliate of the Party I won’t complain. 

Newmark asks ‘is it acceptable to publish a full transcript of a post-suspension interview… given that Mr G is already suspended.’  You can see the Israeli police state mentality at work.  Someone is using the trial process as part of a campaign against the trial.  You can just imagine Jeremy Newmark at the time of the Guildford 4 complaining that people were campaigning against the frame up! 

Although much of the letters are blacked out one can gain a good understanding of the mentality of Jeremy Newmark and the JLM.

Doc 6  is a Zionist complaining to Chakrabarti.  Despite his name being blacked out the company logo Searchlight Electric is left!  He complains that his son can’t walk in Manchester City Centre with a skull cap without people conflating Israel and Jews.  I agree that is wrong.  The obvious answer is for the Jewish Board of Deputies to stop claiming that British Jews support Israel and for Israeli leaders to stop claiming that it is a Jewish state that acts on behalf of and represents Jewish people like Mr X’s son.  Illogically the conclusion he draws is that opposition to a Jewish state is anti-Semitic. 

Israel is a settler colonial state where Jews have privileges over non-Jews and the indigenous population.  It is no different to similar states that Europeans established in the colonial past.  It is a state but one based on Jewish racial supremacy.  In so far as it claims to be a Jewish state, Mr X’s criticism should be directed at Zionists not anti-Zionists.  Mr X also complains that Jackie Walker and myself were readmitted to the Labour Party ‘without even so much as apologising’ without saying what we’re supposed to be apologising for.  Jackie Walker is criticised for ‘peddling a lie that Jews were the main financiers of the slave trade.’  Jackie however never said any such thing.  The only lie being peddled is the one Mr X is peddling!

Doc 7-8 is another document from the JLM.  For an organisation that claims not to have been involved in my suspension they were remarkably well informed about when my hearing was due to take place. 

They seem to have taken exception to my perfectly reasonable comparison between asking the JLM to conduct anti-racist education courses and asking Nick Griffin of the BNP to do the same.  Griffin loves Israel because it is racist and anti-Islamic.  It was Griffin who, on BBC Question Time some years ago said that the BNP was ‘the only political party which in the clashes between Israel and Gaza stood full-square behind Israel’s right to deal with Hamas terrorists.”  The Guardian of April 10^th 2008 reported:  Ruth Smeed, spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews as saying that:

‘The BNP website is now one of the most Zionist on the web - it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel’.

Apparently my criticism of the JLM was ‘beyond any boundaries of normative political discourse’.  Translating this, I think, means that you mustn’t stray outside the strict parameters of what passes for political debate in the bourgeois press and TV.  Revolutionary rhetoric is definitely beyond the boundaries.  Further it is ‘an attempt to bring us [the JLM?] into disrepute’.  Presumably if we were to disaffiliate the JLM from the Labour Party we would avoid all these problems?

Doc 9 – this is from the same person as Doc 1 – the Zionist who is ‘concerned’ that Jeremy Corbyn is being called an anti-Semite!

Doc 10            The reaction of the Labour Party press office to the story on my blog about how Jeremy Corbyn sponsored and chaired, in 1984, a Labour movement conference on Palestine which called for the disaffiliation of Poalei Zion.  Instead of facing the issue and saying yes, Jeremy supports the disaffiliation of the racist JLM, they preferred to say nothing.

Doc 11            From an unnamed person to HG – it refers to a tweet about the bombing by Israel of homes, clinics etc. (in other words nothing out of the normal when it comes to the Israeli military) which I sent to idiot Brighton Labour Councillor Emma Daniels, when she announced she was joining the Zionist Labour Movement.   It refers to ‘the latest delightful communications with the delightful Mr Greenstein’  - Now why do I suspect that the person concerned was being sarcastic?  Especially when they sign off !

Naturally I’m not allowed to know the name of my admirer.

Doc 12            These are interesting documents despite heavy redaction.  They involve internal dialogue of Labour Party bureaucrats. The first email is completely blacked out.  The second email on p.41 draws attention to a blog post – which simply remarks that I had finally been told something of the reasons for my suspension.  I also pointed out that peoples’ membership fees had also been wasted paying £30,000 on a new Compliance Administrator A small victory – I have been told the basis of my suspension! - Labour Party is prepared to spend nearly £30K a year on a new Compliance Administrator.  An anonymous Labour Party hack doesn’t seem to understand that when you accuse someone of something that they might have the right to know what they are accused of.  They remark in a heavily redacted email, that ‘no staff member should have to put up with this.  It’s completely unacceptable.’  It is fortunate that this person isn’t in charge of the Justice system.  On p.42 a Caroline remarks, in a heading entitled ‘Greenstein  Suspension’ to HG ‘Depressing to think a year ago we were apparently on course to win an election.  Now we’ve been reduced to this.’  It’s difficult to see the connection with myself.

HG, who has been delegated to investigate me and from who one might expect a modicum of impartiality responds that ‘Obviously his behaviour is unacceptable’ and that ‘this is top of my list of priorities’.  One might have thought that the Regional Organiser for the Labour Party South-East region might have other priorities than my investigation.  HG reassures Caroline that ‘this matter will not be anywhere as protracted as previous disciplinary action against certain Brighton members.’  I assume that this refers to the newly elected Brighton Secretary, Greg Hadfield.  Greg was suspended without just cause for 11 months and told next to nothing about why he was suspended. 

On the same day another anonymous person informs HG that I launched a ‘very unpleasant attack on Cllr Emma Daniel … He also called Ivor Caplin a war criminal.’  Emma Daniel announced on Twitter that she had joined the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement.  I simply pointed out some salient facts about the organisation she had joined and the Israeli human rights abuse that she was now endorsing.  Presumably pointing out that if you join a Zionist Apartheid organisation you should be taken to endorse their politics is an ‘unpleasant attack’.  Perhaps I should have refrained from pointing out that Israel gaols and tortures (Palestinian) children as young as 12.  As for the former MP for Hove, Ivor Caplin.  He was junior defence Minister at the time of the Iraq War and fully merits the title of junior war criminal.

Zionist objects to my calling him a Jewish Nazi

Israeli Zionist generalises about all Palestinians being cowards - but Chair of Brighton LP Russell Lloyd-Moyle objects to the term Jewish Nazi

Racist Zionist says Palestine 'never was (nor will be)

Another email from HG is entirely blacked out as is part of a further email.  I don’t know who has penned it though I have my suspicion that it could be the former Chair of the B&H Labour Party Russell Lloyd-Moyle, who forwards a piece of ‘evidence’ whilst asking when the Compliance Unit will finally hear the case.  The evidence he encloses is a twitter link to an image from @FalafelBig.  Falafel who complains that I call ‘Jewish critics’, in fact Zionists, Nazis rather than Zio scum.  Mr Falafel names himself after an Arab cuisine that Israel has stolen and called its own.  As other tweets show, this person is an entrenched racist and fully merits the description of a Jewish Nazi.  For example his reaction to Google’s decision to erase ‘Palestine’ from its maps and to replace it by Israel was ‘how can you delete something that never was’  In fact the area now occupied by Israel was known as Palestine for 2,000 years. 

Doc 13                        A small interchange between HG and JS in which the latter suggests young Harry ‘might want to take this pleasant Facebook post by Mr Greenstein into account as well.’  I assume that the stolid Stolliday was being sarcastic!

Doc 14                        A minor exchange with an Emillie Oldknow in which HG asks whether he’s got to agree to a change in the date of the investigation hearing so that I can bring a silent witness.  Emillie advises that he does have to agree.

Doc 15                        This is a long email from JVoiceUK, a group which claims to be ‘The Voice of Socialism and Progressive Jewish Values’.  It is also a Zionist organisation and therein lies the problem.  The email is sent to the Chakrabarti Inquiry and attempts to defend Zionist collaboration with the Nazis.  In truth it doesn’t understand it since it suggests that this collaboration was solely based on Ha'avara, the Zionist trade/transfer agreement with the Nazis.  Zionist collaboration went much further than Ha'avara. See here and here.

JVoiceUK claims that Jewish emigration from the Arab countries from 1948 onwards was a result of forced emigration, whereas it was a product of a number of different circumstances including, as in Iraq and elsewhere the activities of Zionist activists who planted explosives and bombs in areas that Jews frequented to simulate anti-Semitism. [See The Zionist Destruction of the Iraqi Jewish Community]  The incoherent email compares Hitler’s support for Zionism with the Tories support for the Minimum Wage!  In the section on myself and Charley Allan, a Jewish reporter on the Morning Star, it equates giving offence to someone who is Jewish to anti-Semitism.  Giving offence is the essence of free speech.  Without the right to offend the powerful and privileged, including Zionist racists, then the right to free speech is meaningless.  It comes out with the absurd phrase that ‘when someone is offended that is the start of potential anti-Semitism’.

JVoiceUK introduce a new phrase ‘Ziophobia’ – presumably a fear of Zionism.  Ziophobia ‘ignores all forms of left wing Zionism and Zionism that is pro-Palestine’.  Perhaps we should have had ‘Apartheidphobia’ and perhaps ‘Naziphobia’ too!

Doc 16                        Concerns an informant.  The first email is completely blacked out, the second email omits the name of the recipient.  The third e-mail is completely blacked out too and the fourth email (pp. 113/4) is heavily redacted but concerns my ‘abuse’ of two councillors, Caroline Penn and Emma Daniels, who joined the JLM and the right-wing Chair of Young Labour.  My ‘abuse’ consisted of pointing out that the JLM was the British wing of the Israeli Labour Party.  The informant – who I suspect is the previous Chair of Brighton Labour Party, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, complains that I was abusive to members who support or had joined the JLM.  I guess telling the truth is also considered abusive!  Moyle goes on to state that ‘This is part of a general rudeness and offensive nature of Tony, please note that this is nothing to do with his views on Zionism.’  I shall leave it to others to judge this.

Moyle appeals for the investigation to be conducted urgently as ‘the local party is being disrupted (despite him being a suspended member) by his presence at public events… and the shadow of  his reappointment hanging over us.’  And just in case the message hadn’t got through about how dangerous I was, Moyle pleaded ‘Can I remind you that Tony can be a manipulative person, it is important that the case against him is watertight.’’  Lloyd seems to fear that if the witch-hunters don’t follow a fair process then I might have grounds for overturning any expulsion.  Clearly he fails to understand that unfairness lies at the heart of the process.

Doc 17                        On page 116 there is another completely blacked out email.

Doc 18                        On p. 143 there is a letter from a supporter of myself and Jackie Walker protesting our suspensions.  Again the name of the person is redacted.

Doc 19                        Another supportive letter.  This time the name of the Rev. Beverley Molineaux is left at the end of the document but her name is redacted at the top!  

It is a powerful letter and speaks of ‘This almost McCarthy like witch hunt that has unfolded’ and speaks of how I have been ‘a campaigner against holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.  So how has someone with these credentials been suspended?’  Beverley also speaks about the suspension of Jackie Walker and she quotes Jackie’s statement that ‘I have been suspended from the Labour Party for alleged anti-Semitic comments.  I have been an active anti-racist trainer and campaigner for years, often in all white communities and in the most vulnerable situations.’ 

Doc 20                        This is another supportive letter.  Again the name of the person and who she copied it to is blacked out but Val Cane’s name is left at the bottom of the letter!  Val is an active trade unionist in Brighton with the National Union of Teachers.

Doc 21                        Another supportive letter.  This time from someone who is Jewish and a former Labour parliamentary candidate who joined the Labour Party 45 years ago.  The identity of the person is blacked out.  As s/he says, there is anti-Semitism in the Party ‘but I have never actually experienced it within the party… It is rare.’  S/he notes that both Jackie Walker and myself are Jewish and correctly notes that what the suspensions are about ‘is an unwillingness to keep quiet about what Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians.’ 

Doc 22                        This is a curious email presumably a press release stating that I have been suspended.  Needless to say all salient points are blacked out.

Doc 23                        This contains a response to a Jews 4 Jeremy press release about my suspension.  All names are blacked out.

Doc 24                        This is another supportive letter from a Jewish member of the Labour Party

Doc 25                        All names are blacked out from an email from an informer.  It reads much like the many communications that used to be sent to the Stasi and Gestapo.  One email is entirely blacked out and the person hopes that Greg Hadfield, the newly elected Secretary of Brighton Labour Party (before he was deposed!) won’t get anything into the press whilst highlighting an article Greg wrote on the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.  It contains various allegations against me, including a false allegation of fraud and the fact that I stood 4 times (actually 3) against the Labour Party.  The informer seems to have problems with facts.

Doc 26                        Another letter from a Jewish member of the Labour Party adding his name to that of the 52 Jewish members who signed a letter supporting me.

Doc 27                        This consists of 3 mails – 2 of which are entirely blacked out.  It would appear that HG went fishing for information and the informant tells him that he has no information on the issues relevant to my suspension but gives some background on me.  I suspect that the informant is either Dave Leppar, the previous MP or his wife, Jean Leppar, however I cannot be certain about this.

Doc 28                        This is another email from an anonymous informant.  Most of the email is blanked out but point 6 complains that he hasn’t replied to me because I put everything online.  He asks when my accusations that JS leaked details of my case to the press has become actionable.  The answer of course is never, since they are true!  Is it, he asks ok to call people ‘scum’, as opposed to ‘Zio scum’!  Again it depends on who I’m calling ‘scum’.  The one witty point is when he asks ‘does he give the Andrew Fisher defence.’  Fisher is an advisor to Jeremy Corbyn whom the Right tried to prevent being employed on the grounds that he had, as a joke, recommended support for Class War in an election. 

Doc 29                        2 emails from anonymous Zionists who attack me and others.  One of them says that the witch-hunts ‘save the party and restore our values!’  Presumably these include the values of Israel which today bulldozed the home of a Palestinian who was inside his home, thus murdering him.

Doc 30                        HG on a query from the Jewish Chronicle which was interested in my suspension.  I can’t imagine why!

Doc 31                        An intriguing letter from someone who is supportive of my case who observes that I am ‘not a man to mince his words mind you and perhaps this has upset you.’  From the language I suspect this person occupies some position in the Labour Party echelons.

Doc 32                        A sarcastic remark from some Labour Party hack asking how many of Brighton Labour Party’s members attended a meeting which voted to oppose my suspension.

Doc 33                        An internal memo to HG relating to the bureaucratic mechanisms of the suspensions.  It would appear that on 17^th May there were 5 suspensions in the SE Region.

Doc 34                        An anonymous ill-wisher who cannot imagine why I was allowed to join the Party.  Apparently neither the Greens or the SWP will have anything to do with me!  Strange that.  It’s not been my experience but who am I to quibble?

Doc 35                        A lying email from crooked Iain McNicol, Labour Party General Secretary in reply to me.  

Letter in response to Mike Creighton who is responsible for responding to  Data Protection Act requests