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 18th 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
