Unison’s Shameful Betrayal of its members – it supports the right to dismiss a worker for attending a demonstration

Why I face disciplinary action for criticising London Regional Organiser Steve Terry who scabbed on Stan Keable

Two weeks ago I was called to an investigation hearing. A complaint had been made against me regarding criticism I had made in various articles of UNISON’s London Region Organiser, Steve Terry, a right-wing Labour Councillor in Walthamstow.  The articles are below:

Stan Keable - Suspended for Expressing his Opinion on Zionism - Welcome to Stephen Cowan's Thought Police in Hammersmith & Fulham Council

What is UNISON for if it doesn't defend its own members? Stan Keable - abandoned by Steve Terry, the union’s London Regional Officer

No criticism permitted

Stan Keable, an employee of Hammersmith and Fulham Council and also Secretary of Labour Against the Witch-hunt, attended a demonstration in London on March 26^th called by Jewish Voice for Labour.  It was called in opposition to the Zionists’ ‘Enough is Enough’ demonstration outside Parliament. It was part of the fake anti-Semitism campaign before the local elections, whose target was Jeremy Corbyn.

Unison sells itself more as an insurance company than a trade union

The Zionist demonstration was billed as an ‘anti-racist’ demonstration (the first one the Board of Deputies has called in its history) but an anti-racist demonstration at which Norman Tebbit and the Democratic Unionist Party are participants, to say nothing of Uncle Tom Chuku Ummuna and Sajid David is unlikely to be about fighting racism.

BBC 'journalist' David Grossman, with the ethics of a rattle snake

Stan got into a discussion with a Zionist in the course of which he expressed the view that the Zionist movement had collaborated with the Nazis.  The discussion was recorded by BBC Newsnight editor and all round bigot, David Grossman.  Placed on social media it caused the racist local Tory MP, Greg Hands to demand that Stan be sacked. Thus we see how the false anti-Semitism campaign is a threat to free speech and democratic rights, aided by yellow journalists such as the BBC’s Grossman.

H&F Council leader Steve Cowan promptly ensured that Stan was suspended and last month I represented Stan at his disciplinary hearing the result of which was that he was sacked.  I should not, of course, have had to represent Stan as I am from Brighton and Hove UNISON not Hammersmith but when Stan approached the London Regional Organiser, Steve Terry for support he received none.

Terry’s advice was that Stan should plead guilty and plead for forgiveness.  In a letter of May 8^th Terry advised Stan that:

‘the course that you should take is to indicate that you regret any offence caused by your remarks and plead mitigating circumstances.’

A supporter of Progress, Terry was completely unfit to make a decision in this case. His own prejudices rendered him incapable of seeing that the main issue was not whether or not Stan was correct in his views but an elementary one of the right to free speech and free assembly, rights guaranteed under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The ECHR was drawn up and approved by the European countries precisely because of the lack of rights of civilians under Nazi occupation during the war. Terry however is a pen pushing bureaucrat, incapable of comprehending such issues.  For him, defence of Zionism was the only issue. 

Tony Jones - one of my two investigators

The two main charges against Stan were:

1. That, in attending a counter demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament on the 26th March 2018, you knowingly increased the possibility of being challenged about your views and subsequently proceeded to express views that were in breach of the Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and the Council’s Code of Conduct (‘Working with integrity’ and ‘Working with the media’).

2. That you made inappropriate comments which were subsequently circulated on social media which are deemed to be insensitive and likely to be offensive and potentially in breach of the Equality Act 2010 and/or the Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

In other words Stan should not have attended the demonstration in question because he rendered himself susceptible to being challenged about his view!  Could you have a more pathetic attack on the basic rights of any citizen?

Gail Adams, the second of my investigators, receiving a CBE from Prince William

To anyone with a modicum of understanding of human rights issues, let alone employment rights, these charges were a threat to all workers. Terry however was too dim to understand that.

The idea that by ‘causing offence’ Stan was guilty of a disciplinary offence is outrageous. Where lies freedom of speech? As Jodie Ginsberg wrote in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings and the murder of a Danish filmmaker by jihadists,

the right to free speech means nothing without the right to offend.  If all you have the right to do is to utter platitudes then free speech is meaningless.

Of course Terry was unconcerned by issues such as free speech. This overpaid and useless official considers that the members are accountable to him. It was therefore not surprising that Terry, who is not used to criticism from members, made a complaint via his superior, the London Regional Secretary against me.

The racist Zionist demonstration whose counterdemonstration Stan joined

On June 4^th I was called to an investigation hearing conducted by 2 more officials, Gail Adams and Tony Jones from the southern region. Ms Adams is Head of Unison’s Professional Services Unit and Tony Jones is Regional Manager for the South-East and as Tony revealed during the course of the interview is himself a Labour councillor in Reading!  Most of the interview was conducted by Tony Jones, who was jovial and pleasant.  Gail Adams was mostly silent but her hostility was evidenced by her body language and general demeanour.  Clearly the idea of criticising a fellow official didn’t go down well.

You can read the whole interview here or you can listen to the tape of the interview here. Amongst the ‘highlights of the interview was my statement, in a letter to the Head of UNISON’s Executive Office, Beth Bickerstaffe, that the Inquiry could only be a ‘stitch-up.’ Tony Jones was offended by this description so I had to point out that this was not intended personally. Rather it was the fact that I was the person who was subject to a complaint rather than Terry, for his refusal to defend a member under attack and his incompetence in failing to have any grasp of basic employment or human rights, to  say nothing of his refusal to get a legal opinion.  On any objective basis Terry should be suspended on charges of gross misconduct as a prelude to his dismissal. But of course to Ms Bickerstaffe, daughter-in-law of former UNISON General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe, it is me who is guilty of the ‘crime’ of criticising a full-time official.

What my case demonstrates is the democratic deficit in UNISON.  Despite supporting Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership elections in 2015 and 2016 (despite rumours that Dave Prentis would withdraw his support) UNISON is not a left-wing union. In the past 8 years, at a time of massive cuts in local government, it has abysmally failed to take any action against those attacks on members’ jobs and conditions or pay. When there was action a few years ago and strikes over pensions the union leadership did their best to get the action called off by pretending that they had secured concessions. Prentis is well-known for his lack of backbone.

Despite the fact that UNISON has good policy on Palestine and supports BDS (albeit doing very little to implement it) it has also supported the false ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign against supporters of Palestine.  I spoke on the motion in 2007 and again 2008 at national conference when policy on BDS was first proposed.  The arguments of the Zionists were basically that those supporting BDS were supporters of Hamas and anti-Semitic! Rodney Bickerstaffe, when he spoke at a PSC AGM attacked the use of false accusations of anti-Semitism against supporters of Palestine.  People are well aware of how Zionists weaponise ‘anti-Semitism’ but today they remain silent.

That is what the actions of Terry are about.  He is a fulsome supporter of the idea that support for the Palestinians is ‘anti-Semitic’ and in particular criticism of Zionism, the ideology of the movement that dispossessed the Palestinians. That is why Stan has been abandoned and that is why I am subject to a bogus ‘investigation’ that can only conclude that I am guilty as charged, even though charges have yet to be laid.

Tony Greenstein

The Guardian’s Pathetic Editor @kathviner censors Steve Bell Cartoon on the murder of Razan al-Najjar

In the eyes of the Guardian’s racist editor Katherine Viner, a fireplace becomes an oven becomes the Holocaust 

It’s not often that words fail me, but the decision of the Guardian’s  editor, @kathviner literally leaves me speechless.

A 21 year old girl, Razan al-Najjar, was murdered in cold blood by an Israeli sniper in Gaza.  She had her hands up whilst running to help the wounded.  What is the reaction of the Guardian’s gutless corporate editor, Kath Viner?  To censor the cartoon of the Guardian’s brilliant socialist cartoonist, Steve Bell, which features Netanyahu and Theresa May at Downing Street with Razan in the fireplace.

In the twisted, racist mind of @KathViner, the fireplace has become an oven.  And as we all know ovens are only used for burning Jews.  No one in Britain has an oven unless it is for cremating dead Jews who have been gassed.  

Such is the absurdity of the fake and false anti-semitism campaign that has hit the Labour Party.  And in what passes for Viner's malevolent mind a fireplace = Holocaust.  Steve Bell’s cartoon becomes an anti-Semitic trope.

Viner once helped produce a play on the murdered International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, bulldozed to death by the Israeli military.  Viner has since become the Guardian’s editor and whatever principles this apology for a human being had have long been discarded.

Yet another reason why any socialist or supporter of human rights should boycott the alt-Right Guardian, whose ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party has shown it up in its true colours.

BOYCOTT THE RACIST GUARDIAN

As I never tire of saying, I was brought upon a Guardian which had fearless Middle East correspondents like Michael Adams and David Hirst.  Now it has as its chief censor Jonathan Freedland and the paper is simply another part of the corporate media, using ‘anti-Semitism’ to counteract any criticism of Zionism and Israel.

Meanwhile the Israeli army ‘investigation’ into the murder of Razan has taken its normal course.  It is an attempt to justify their cold blooded murder of Razan.  Its agenda from the start has been to blacken the name of Razan and justify what happened.  After all, given that the army employed 100 snipers to mow down unarmed protestors what else can we expect?

I know the Zionists won't like it but asking the Israeli army to investigate itself is like asking the Nazis to conduct an investigation into the murder of Jews.  It didn't happen and it ain't gonna happen.

That is why Netanyahu has opposed any idea of an independent inquiry.  The last time the UN held an independent inquiry under Judge Goldstone it found Israel had committed human rights crimes and Goldstein, despite being Jewish was accused of, well you know, ‘anti-Semitism’.

Apparently Razan wanted to shield the wounded and, horror of horror, she apparently threw a smoke bomb.  Well that justifies her murder if anything does.  Of course she was murdered with her hands held up but who cares, Hamas put her up to it and they bear the responsibility. The poor innocent sniper couldn’t possibly have murdered her.  It must have been a ricochet or possibly he or she missed and killed her instead of someone else.

Israeli ‘investigations’ start from the premise that Israel is innocent. They are an exercise in allocating guilt to the Palestinians. And if they can’t find an excuse, as they couldn’t during Operation Protective Edge when 4 Palestinian children were murdered by an Israeli plane machine gunning them, then it is all a ‘tragic accident’.  Of course when Palestinians kill Israelis, then it is never an accident although it is always tragic.

Such is the narrative of the racist and colonist.  But what is worse is when racist journalists like the Guardian’s @kathviner act to protect Israel’s murderers with the bogus excuse of ‘anti-Semitism’.

Please tweet  @kathviner to let her know what you feel about the Guardian’s racism and email the Guardian letters page 

guardian.letters@theguardian.com to let these racists know what you feel.  Because western papers covering for Israel’s foul murder of innocent civilians and even medics with the bogus ‘anti-Semitism’ smokescreen are every bit as despicable as those who commit these foul murders.

Israeli murderers couldn’t get away with their foul deeds unless journalists in this country covered for them.  In many ways it is the Kath Viners of the British press who bear as much culpability as the person who pulled the trigger on Razan.

Tony Greenstein

A top IDF general and spokesperson on Thursday said the Palestinian medic shot dead during clashes along the Gaza border last week was “no angel of mercy,” as the army released a video purportedly showing the woman lobbing a smoke grenade toward Israeli forces.

“Razan al-Najjar is not the angel of mercy Hamas propaganda is making her out to be,” IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee tweeted.

The video was released two days after the army said an internal review had determined Najjar was not intentionally targeted by snipers, following international outcry over her death.

Adraee accompanied his tweet with a short video compilation allegedly showing Najjar on several occasions during the recent Gaza border clashes.

The video, and Adraee’s comment that she was “no angel of mercy,” seemed designed to raise doubts about the volunteer medic’s innocence during the clashes, though the army did not indicate that it considered Najjar to be a legitimate target, raising questions among some commentators about its overall intentions with the campaign.

In one part of the clip, Najjar is seen giving an interview to an Arabic news outlet, saying that she wanted to serve as “a human shield” for protesters.

“I’m here on the line being a protective human shield saving the injured,” Najjar, 21, said in the interview.

The IDF clip cut her statement after “human shield.”

Another part of the clip shows a Palestinian woman, whom the military claimed was Najjar, hurling a smoking canister. The army said the smoke grenade was thrown toward Israeli forces.

“By her own admission, she was a human shield for the rioters and saboteurs, demonstrating how Hamas exploits all of Gazan society for its own purposes as well as Iran’s,” said the IDF general.

“Do medics in other countries throw bombs and participate in riots and refer to themselves as human shields?”

Palestinians and human rights groups have accused the Israeli military of using excessive force against protesters during the weeks of Hamas-led protests along the Israeli border. Najjar’s death sharpened the criticism, with UN officials saying that witness reports indicated she wore clothing that clearly identified her as a health worker.

In two months of mass protests at the Gaza border, some 110 Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded by Israeli military fire. Dozens of the fatalities were members of terror groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad acknowledged.

Earlier this week, the IDF said an initial investigation into Najjar’s death revealed that while troops did fire at protesters near the fence east of Khan Younis where she was working, the volunteer medic was not intentionally targeted.

This appeared to indicate that Najjar was hit either by a mis-aimed shot or a ricochet as she tended to an injured man, while wearing a white coat clearly marking her as a medical professional.

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society and eyewitnesses at the scene said Najjar was less than 100 meters from the border fence, treating a man who been struck by a tear gas canister, when she was shot.

IDF Spokesman in Arabic, Avichay Adraee at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem on September 6, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After the incident, the UN’s envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a tweet that “Medical workers are #NotATarget!” and that “Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas need to prevent incidents at the fence.”

On Tuesday, the army said the official investigation into Najjar’s death, which is led by the Southern Command, was ongoing. The IDF said that the General Staff also launched its own probe into the incident, the findings of which will be presented to the Military Advocate General to determine if criminal proceedings are necessary.

Israel faces weekly attacks by violent protesters at the border. Israel says its forces have opened fire to stop attempts to harm soldiers, damage the fence, infiltrate Israel, and attempt to carry out attacks. Israel accuses the Hamas terrorist group, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.