Labour’s Kafkaesque Expulsion Unit Refuses Time Extension

DEFEND THE GARSTON THREE AND INVESTIGATE THE LABOUR PARTY OVER EXPULSIONS

Not content with the fact that I am facing accusations from persons unknown, who therefore cannot be questioned or cross examined, Labour’s Kangaroo Court (sorry National Constitutional Committee) and its anonymous Chair (because I’m also not allowed to know the name of the person who is presiding over the NCC or indeed who is the chief kangaroo) have decided that I am not to be allowed an extension to the 5 weeks notice that I have been given (or less than 4 if you count the time need to actually get my case in to them). 

The unreality of the situation is demonstrated by the fact that they took a leisurely 20 months from my suspension or 17+ months from my Investigation Hearing to lay charges,  There is however an unseemly haste by McNicol’s pliant pawns to get the matter over and done with no doubt because they fear that the longer these cases drag out the more difficult it will be to carry out the expulsions.

I have therefore written to Jane Asher, the Secretary to the NCC stating that I shall not be complying with the deadline.

The Garston 3

News has also come in of 3 more ‘auto-exclusions’.

Bob Walker, Tony Lucock and Gerry Tyrell have been expelled without even the luxury of a hearing by that despicable little toady Sam Matthews who is McNicol’s chief monkey. 

They have launched a petition which I urge people to sign.

It calls upon the Party to establish an immediate inquiry to review all the circumstances of their expulsion; and also to investigate the operation of those office holders and units responsible for this and other recent disciplinary actions.

Bob, Tony and Gerry are three disabled pensioners in their seventies who are active and valued members of Garston and Halewood CLP. Bob was democratically elected by CLP members in July to be their Vice Chair for Membership. They are lifelong socialists and trade unionists who have faced politically-motivated accusations that they support another party, simply because they attend a wide variety of public political meetings, including those of TUSC.

Once again Sam Matthews, head of Labour's 'Disputes' (formerly the Compliance Unit) has expelled them without redress, despite photographic evidence that the three campaigned for weeks on end for a Labour candidate in a Tory marginal during the General Election.  Matthews was caught out by a wave of indignation when he tried to autoexclude Moshe Machover.  We got Moshe back because of the massive campaign which has still not abated.

As in my case, their accusers are anonymous.  The witch hunt thrives on anonymity and faceless accusers doing the bidding of the chief Organ Grinder Iain McNicol and his monkeys, chief among them Sam Matthews.

As in my case there is a complete absence of due process.  The CLP Chair and Executive have refused to allow CLP members to debate an emergency motion (which demanded they be afforded due process) which raises doubts about the motivations of all involved.

This is of course the constituency of the other Chicken Maria Eagle who is as detestable as her sister Angela.  Like her sister she needs the intervention of Southside in order to ensure that members don’t reselect her.

As they say on the petition, ‘the spirit and content of the charges against Bob, Tony and Gerry evoke the shameful tradition of American McCarthyism. The tactic of 'guilt by association' will inevitably rebound on the integrity and legitimacy of any who tolerate or employ them.

Let’s make sure that these bastards don’t get away with these silent expulsions.

We should also ensure that the Leftwingers on the National Executive Committee, people such as Peter Willsman and Darren Williams, have the bottle to start raising these matters on the NEC instead of pretending that it is nothing to do with them.

We also need to ensure that the 3 Momentum candidates who are coming up for election, including Jon Lansman, are forced to take a position on the witch hunt.

Tony Greenstein

to contact the campaign email jennifernicolejames@hotmail.co.uk

Also:  if you are interested in fighting the witch hunt join the Labour Against the Witchhunt FB page.  We are in the process of setting up a web site.

On December 2^nd we will be meeting at 12.00 at the Calthorpe Arms, Greys Inn Road, Kings Cross

Ian McNicol Restages Franz Kafka’s The Trial (minus the literary drama)

I am invited to a Labour Party Investigation into Allegations against me, I am not allowed to know the nature of these allegations

Alice in Wonderland in her trial - Labour Party practice is modeled on her trial

I was suspended  from the Labour Party on the 18^th March. Despite repeated requests, the Labour Party’s General Secretary Iain McNicol has refused to release any details of the allegations made against me.  I apparently made certain comments to which persons unknown took objection, but I am not allowed to know either the comments nor the persons who were so aggrieved. 

Little could Franz Kafka have known that the Labour Party would model its witch hunts on his  book

McNicol’s reticence in letting me know the reasons why I was suspended, did not extend to that well known Labour newspaper, The Telegraph.  On April 2nd it led with a story on my suspension Corbyn told to‘exorcise’ anti-Semitism in his party and The Times followed suit the same day Labour welcomes back blogger who compared Israel to Nazis 

I have now been summoned by Harry Gregson, Labour’s acting Regional Organiser, to an investigation hearing.  Gregson has not provided me with any details of the allegations against me, despite my having requested this of him.  Any questions that he might put to me could only be asked as a form of ambush.  Such a method of inquiry, if an employer tried it on, would result in a finding of automatic unfair dismissal.  No court of law would allow cross-examination on the basis of refusing access to evidence.

Alice dismisses her judges as a pack of cards

Of course I would have little difficulty swatting away questions from a minor apparatchik such as Gregson but that would be entirely besides the point.  There is a principle involved.  Anyone who is accused of an offence, however trivial or grievous, is entitled to know the nature and detail of those allegations.  Only in a police state are you not given the details of what you are accused of.  It is a damning indictment of the Labour Party that they are incapable of adhering even to the most basic rules of fairness.

For the Labour Party to tolerate such a situation sheds much light on the nature of the accusations I am facing and the people who have made these allegations.  Because of course in Israel when Palestinians are administratively detained without trial for periods of 6 months at a time, they too have no right to see the evidence against them.  This is the system that Blair brought in for terrorism trials, with its system of special advocates, whereby the accused was not informed of much of the prosecution case.  It would seem that Blair's rules of justice have now seeped into the Labour Party.

Perhaps attacking Apartheid Israel and Zionism is a form of political terrorism?  Most people would think that a state that discriminates in every area of its life against the indigenous population and locks people up without trial is the terrorist.

Exactly my position!

Fortunately the Labour Party isn’t able to detain or torture me and since the Blairites who put McNicol and co. in office are not in power themselves, they can’t extraordinarily render me to a country that will carry out third party torture on their behalf.

I have therefore written to Gregson saying that the dates and times of the proposed meeting are not in any event possible but that I have no intention of meeting up with him until I am provided with the requisite details.  In any event I have put in a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 1998 and if Gregson isn’t forthcoming any investigation meeting will have to wait until the information I have requested is delivered to me.

I can’t imagine what Alice in Wonderland in her trial would have made of it.  She would probably have dismissed Gregson and McNicol as just a pack of cards!  Or as Humpty Dumpty said, 'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.  The question is which is to be master — that's all.'

Tony Greenstein

13^th May 2016

Dear Mr Gregson,

Thank you for your email which I received today.

I am unable to attend for an interview on the day suggested, May 21^st or on any weekend because I have shared responsibility for my autistic son, Daniel.  I am only therefore able to make meetings on a weekday.

Further I do not normally travel outside Brighton both for reasons relating to the care of Daniel and the need to be on hand in case of an emergency.  I also do not usually travel long distances for reasons to do with my own health.  I would therefore expect you, as the acting regional organiser, to attend such a meeting in the Brighton & Hove constituency.

Thank you for the NEC Advice Note.  I was already in possession of it.  As you are aware, since I have both written and spoken to you, I wish to be informed of the details of the allegations which have been made against me and the complainant(s).  This is a basic precondition of any open, fair and transparent investigation.

Having practised in both Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal I can assure you that someone who was subject to an investigation on the basis of unseen and undisclosed allegations would be considered to be automatically unfairly dismissed.  Even the worst employer wouldn’t fail to inform someone of the charges or allegations made against them.  I can see no conceivable reason as to why you are continuing to refuse to disclose the allegations against me and I note that the NEC Advice note states that: 

‘Unless the complaint or allegations being investigated are about intimidation by the respondent, the respondent should be notified of the investigation and the nature of the complaints or allegations at an early stage.

I have this week submitted to the Labour Party General Secretary Iain McNicol a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 1998 for the above information.  I would therefore suggest that instead of waiting the statutory 40 days before handing the said information over to me, that you voluntarily disclose it now.  You also made a promise to the Chair of Brighton and Hove Labour Party, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, so he informed me, to provide me with the relevant information.

In the event that you continue to refuse to send me the requested information, then I shall wait until you are forced by law into disclosing it.  I am not prepared to be interviewed ‘blind’ and subject to questioning about matters I cannot prepare for in advance.  Any fair and unbiased investigation would, as a matter of course, disclose all such information because otherwise it is interview by ambush.  Any such investigation would be bound to be seen as unreasonable.

The NEC advice states that I can suggest names of witnesses who you will interview.  Again it is not possible to suggest names of possible witnesses when I am unaware of the nature of the allegations to which there might be witnesses.

Given that the Compliance Unit has already leaked details of the complaints against me to The Telegraph which, together with The Times, printed a story on 2^nd April 2016, there cannot be any possible reason other than an ingrained unfairness for your failure to comply with my request.  I would therefore ask you once again to supply me with the details of the allegations which have apparently been made against me together with the name(s) of the complainants.

You will also be aware that both The Times and The Telegraph retracted any suggestions that I was anti-Semitic, which I understand to have been the tenor of the allegations which have been made.  They also printed letters from me to that effect.  I have made it clear to Mr McNicol that I will not hesitate to issue claim for defamation should The Labour Party make any finding that I am anti-Semitic.

I look forward to receiving a positive response to my request for information and an agreement as to time and place when an investigatory hearing might take place.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein 

Harry Gregson inviting Tony Greenstein to an 'investigation' meeting