The Labour Files is Janus Faced – its revelations about Starmer’s Police State of a Party contradict the lie that Labour had an anti-Semitism problem
The Labour Files – Part 1:The Purge
The Labour Files – Part 2: The Crisis
The Labour Files – Part 3: The Hierarchy
The Labour Files – Part 4: The Spying Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-Gpmfajp8y
Introduction to the Labour Files
I decided that rather than write an instant review of Al Jazeera’s Labour Files that I would first watch them again.
Although they don’t explain how they obtained them, Al Jazeera received the largest leak of internal files of a political party in history. They reveal that in the fight to overturn the election of Jeremy Corbyn, there was no tactic that was too dirty, no lie that was too far-fetched, no smear that was too outrageous and no crime that was not worth committing.
It is to be hoped that people other than those featured will be given an opportunity to access these files and see what was the real reason behind their expulsion and the lies and deceptions behind it. I would be interested to know whether I was given every document in my Subject Access Request. Hopefully Al Jazeera will set up an on-line database for all to access. I have raised this with producer, Richard Sanders.
From the day of his election the Labour Right and the British Establishment were determined to remove Corbyn. At first the Establishment’s prostitute press, led by the Guardian, cast around for a suitable weapon – Republicanism, support for Terrorism, spying for Communists, the Economy and Homophobia.
However all of the above had a limited purchase. ‘Anti-Semitism’ provided the right combination of moral righteousness which, when allied to identity politics and masquerading as anti-racism, packed a punch like no other. Anti-Semitism had been raised by the Daily Mail and Guardian even before Corbyn was elected. It became the tried and trusted weapon of the Labour Right before Starmer decided that proscribing organisations retrospectively and expelling anyone associated with them was an easier route to being rid of the Left.
After all who doesn’t condemn anti-Semitism? Even the foulest racists like Tommy Robinson would protest that they aren’t anti-Semitic. Why? Because the myth has been created that Jews and only Jews were victims of the Holocaust. A myth that the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust assiduously promotes.
The extermination of the Gypsies and Disabled, who were murdered in the same proportion as Europe’s Jews, barely gets a mention. That is why notorious anti-Gypsy racist Eric Pickles, former Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, can become the British delegate to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
There are so many allegations of wrongdoing, corruption, rigging of elections, dishonesty, bullying and lawlessness in the Labour Files concerning Starmer’s Labour Party that genuine journalists in a free press would spend weeks investigating them. Instead The Guardian has clearly taken an editorial decision to ignore the Labour Files. Its fake radical journalists, Chakrabarti, Owen Jones and George Monbiot, have never once sought to challenge this censorship. Why?
What is revealed in The Labour Files demonstrates that for four long years Jonathan Freedland, Raphael Behr, Marina Hyde and co. engaged in Black Propaganda worthy of the press in a police state. Freedland and his fellow presstitutes practised disinformation on an industrial scale. Stopping the Labour Party falling into the hands of those determined to challenge the neo-liberal consensus struck fear into the hearts of the liberal Establishment..
There are a number of conclusions that can be drawn from the Al Jazeera programmes but the main one is that Corbyn’s promise of ‘kinder, gentler politics’ was precisely the wrong approach to adopt to a vicious and feral Labour Right who would do anything in order to ensure that Labour remained a safe, alternative party of capitalism.
The second conclusion flows from the first. Instead of pushing back against the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign the Labour Left, with notable exceptions such as Labour Against the Witchhunt and Chris Williamson MP, accepted the allegations as made in good faith and went about demonising good anti-racists and anti-imperialists who were under attack by apologists for apartheid.
Particularly shameful in this respect was Jennie Formby, aptly called Judas Jennie by Chris Williamson. From a position of support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism, to the extent of questioning Baroness Royal’s chairing the inquiry into ‘anti-Semitism’ at Oxford University Labour Club in January 2016 she became the most rabid of witch-hunters.
It was Formby who insisted that Chris cancel a showing of the film ‘Witchhunt’ at the House of Commons in 2019. Why? Because it contradicted the Zionists’ ‘anti-Semitism’ narrative. Instead of resisting the Zionists’ attempts to cancel any opinion bar their own, instead of asking why the Jewish Labour Movement were so keen that the film should not be shown, JJ became a McCarthyist.
Even worse, when Tom Watson called for Williamson to be resuspended after he had been reinstated by an NEC Panel, instead of defending due process JJ hurried to comply. And when it seemed likely that the High Court would overturn this outrageous breach of natural justice JJ then resuspended Chris for having given offence to Margaret Hodge. JJ also declared, that motions condemning Chris’s suspension were ‘not competent’.
When Corbyn was also suspended Starmer and Evans used the same trick, declaring that motions of solidarity were ‘not competent’. Thus Corbyn and JJ laid the ground for what was to follow! Likewise when she and Corbyn proposed fast track expulsions.
But the major failure belonged to Corbyn himself. Corbyn repeatedly stressed his opposition to anti-Semitism without once understanding that when Zionists and the Board of Deputies talk about ‘anti-Semitism’ what they really mean is anti-Zionism and opposition to Israeli Apartheid. Which was why all of Corbyn’s protestations made no impact. They entirely missed the point.
And by promising to ratchet up the number of expulsions Corbyn and JJ gave credence to the idea that there was some truth in what was being alleged about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. From the start they assumed that the allegations were being made in good faith. Corbyn’s emphasised that the fight against anti-Semitism was an ‘absolute priority’ meaning that genuine anti-Black and Islamaphobia was not a priority.
In any case anti-Semitism in Britain is a prejudice not a form of racism, which is allied to state power. Jews don’t suffer from institutional racism, police violence, economic discrimination or fascist attacks unlike Black and other ethnic minorities. Jews are the most privileged section of the White population. There is no offence of Driving Whilst Jewish unlike Driving Whilst Black.
Not once did Corbyn or McDonnell (who played a particularly disgraceful role) appreciate that when the Board of Deputies talked of anti-Semitism that they meant was something entirely different. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to look up Clause 3d of the Board of Deputies Constitution which states that the Board shall:
Take such appropriate action as lies within its power to advance Israel’s security, welfare and standing.
The only MP who got it was Chris Williamson whose omission from The Labour Files, along with Ken Livingstone is all the more surprising.
One person comes out particularly well from the Labour Files for the coherence of her argument and as a spokesperson for the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain. I refer to Huda Amori, one of the leaders of Palestine Action. It is ironic that Ben Jamal and Palestine Solidarity Campaign is nowhere to be seen. That is because they said nothing and did nothing throughout the entire period. ‘Anti-Semitism’ seemed to them to be an irrelevance to supporting the Palestinians even though it was consciously used to undermine support for Palestine solidarity. Because it was the Palestinians who were the real victims of the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign.
Huda made the obvious point that the Palestinians didn’t choose the religion of their occupier. If Jews feel affronted at support for Palestine, as many do, then that is because they have signed up to a racist agenda.
The ‘anti-Semitism’ allegations were designed to exclude Palestinians from the conversation. If you associated Jews with the actions of Israel then you were almost guaranteed to be expelled. This despite the fact that Israel carries out its actions as a Jewish state.
After all one of the 11 illustrations of ‘anti-Semitism’ according to the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism that the Zionists fought to get the Labour Party to adopt was ‘Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.’ Elsewhere in the IHRA, in one of numerous contradictions, Israel is defined as being ‘conceived as a Jewish collectivity’.
It is inevitable that people will talk of Jews and Israel/Zionism in the same breath. Israel defines itself as a Jewish state and it claims to represent not just its own citizens but world Jewry. The Jerusalem Programme of the World Zionist Organisation talks about the
‘centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the (Jewish) nation.’
Likewise when Palestinians blame ‘the Jews’ for their misfortunes this is not anti-Semitism but their experience of the fact that those who come to kill and dispossess them do so as Jews.
Ghada Karmi, a British Palestinian asked the rhetorical question at the core of the Labour ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign – ‘why should I and my family have left our homes?’ Her answer was that
‘we were not allowed to return because we are of the wrong race – if that is not racism I don’t know what is.’
When Ghada Karmi was invited to speak to Hackney North CLP she was almost immediately shut up by the Chair because she had dared to challenge the basis of the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign.
‘I was cut off. It was like a slap in the face. It was like being elbowed out physically.’
Much of the Labour left, especially that around Jon Lansman’s Momentum, was engaged in the censorship of the Palestinian voice. All in the name of a fake anti-racism.
On the left Luke Akehurst and Jon Lansman – on the right Akehurst defends Israel’s use of snipers against unarmed demonstrators
The Board of Deputies claimed to be the representative body of British Jews at the same time as defending Israel’s actions, right or wrong, even when Israeli snipers were executing unarmed demonstrators in Gaza. As Huda observed people ‘had to walk on egg shells to get the terminology exactly right’. Mention the fact that those doing the shooting were Jewish and you would be suspended.
Huda summed up the feelings of many of us when she said [1.07.40] ‘I wish Jeremy Corbyn had stood up for what he believed in at that time.’ For his first two years as leader Corbyn was silent on Palestine. He actively courted the JLM which he didn’t realise had been refounded to get rid of him.
In what was a particularly disgraceful episode Corbyn handed the Del Singh Award to the JLM despite the vehement opposition of his family. The award was named after a Labour activist and aid worker who was murdered by the Taliban. To hand the award to an apartheid supporting organisation was a disgrace yet Corbyn was pathetically eager to appease these racists. Even the Jewish Chronicle sub-headline was
‘Labour Party has disrespected Del Singh’s memory by giving honour to Jewish organisation that supports Israel, says family’.
His appeasement of the Zionists didn’t do Corbyn much good. In 2019 the JLM overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in Corbyn despite him having begged them not to disaffiliate from the Labour Party, which was nothing more than grandstanding.
Corbyn never understood what Zionism was. He was an active patron of Britain’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign which has excised opposition to Zionism from its constitution. Unfortunately rather than education its membership PSC keeps them in ignorance, all the better to control them.
The whole ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign was about getting one’s language right. It was a social media witchhunt which should have been called out from the start.
Did we always get the terminology right on South African Apartheid? Activists referred to Afrikaaners when they meant South African Whites. The Afrikaaners were the first victims of concentration camps yet no-one was accused of racism for misspeaking. As Andrew Feinstein, a former Jewish ANC MP, said in the programme, the oppression of the Palestinians and a liberation struggle by its very nature is going to include huge anger and suffering.
People struggle to explain the West’s backing for Israeli and the support of the United States. They often mistakenly believe that Israel is calling the shots rather than seeing that it is the United States’s racist rottweiller in the Middle East. Sometimes this is often conflated with America’s Jewish population rather than seeing support for Israel stemming from the interests of US imperialism.
Since Israel calls itself a Jewish State it is not surprising that people see Israel’s strength lying in the strength of Jews collectively. This is not racism. Israel openly declares it speaks for all world Jewry. The Israel Lobby speaks in the name of Jews. Yet it was on this basis of this confusion that Labour’s witchhunters began trawling peoples’ social media.
Unfortunately The Labour Files never tried to understand what it was that underlay the ability of the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign to gain traction. Although nominally about hatred of Jews it was in reality about opposition to Israel and Zionism. Criticism of Israel’s behaviour such as the murder of 4 little children on Gaza’s beach by Israeli missiles was nonetheless deemed anti-Semitic. Indeed just about any critical mention of Israel ended up, under Jennie Formby, being deemed anti-Semitic.
The Labour Files veer between saying that on the one hand there was a phenomenon of Labour anti-Semitism and saying it had been manufactured to be rid of Corbyn.
The Labour Files began with Greg Hadfield, the elected and deposed Secretary of Brighton & Hove Labour Party, declaring that Keir Starmer leads a lawless party. The programme provided many examples of this lawlessness and disregard of rules and the law.
Perhaps the main lesson was that Corbyn and his dysfunctional office ignored what Tony Benn had said, namely that the first job of a socialist minister was to get on top of the civil service. It was this failure that doomed the Corbyn Project. McNicol, Stolliday and co. should have been targeted as soon as they started trying to remove supporters of Corbyn from the party during the 2015 election.
There will be people who make apologies for Corbyn citing the pressure he was under. This is true but the fact remains that Corbyn never once fought those seeking to destroy him. One such was ‘crooked’ Iain McNicol, the General Secretary. On being elected McNicol offered Corbyn his resignation. Instead of grabbing at the offer with both hands Corbyn asked him to stay on.
But Corbyn could still have gone on the attack against Labour’s bureaucracy and created the pressure necessary to remove these agents of the ruling class. When Corbyn defeated Owen Smith in 2016, after McNicol had tried to stop him standing, it was the ideal opportunity to call for him to step down. Even after the election result of June 2017, which McNicol, Stolliday and all had done their best to prevent, Corbyn didn’t criticise McNicol openly.
The political incoherence of the Labour Files was demonstrated most graphically when Peter Oborne, displayed a large chart showing how expulsions under Jennie Formby had increased ‘exponentially’ compared to her predecessor Crooked McNicol.
It is true that expulsions under JJ increased but that was a sign of just how weak and desperate Corbyn and her were. If they had stopped to think about what they were doing they would have realised that by expelling so many good Labour activists all they were doing was confirming the false allegations of the Right that there was an anti-Semitism problem in the Labour Party.
And what was the result? Was Corbyn and Formby given credit for their stupidity? Not at all. The EHRC Report didn’t even mention all Corbyn’s endeavours. Instead they said that all these ‘anti-Semites’ had been drawn to the Labour Party by Corbyn himself. It was utterly futile and an act of total stupidity.
Unfortunately the Labour Files are not totally honest and I have written to Richard Sanders to ask that this be corrected. In the second programme (28.59) the voice over says that ‘Our unit has discovered links between [Jonathan] Hoffman and a far-right organisation.’
This is to say the least disingenuous. This blog revealed this a mere 12 years ago! It is hardly a revelation.
In a blog on 3 June 2010 Zionist Federation & fascist EDL Join Hands in Supporting Israel’s Murder at Sea I pointed to a Zionist Federation demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in support of the murder of activists on the Mava Marmari where members of the EDL had been welcome to participate and did participate.
On 14th August 2010 I broke the story Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation and the EDL’s Roberta Moore Hold a Joint Demonstration in the street containing Ahava. It included the now famous picture of Hoffie and Moore with the EDL pictured behind them. I have written numerous blogs since e.g. Focus on Fascism – More News from Tommy Robinson’s Zionist Supporters & Reactions to My Revelations so the suggestion by Labour Files that they have just broken the story is inaccurate and I would expect the programme credits to acknowledge that fact. I have emailed Richard Sanders to this effect.
The programme also stated (30.37) that ‘Hoffman and (Richard) Millett distanced themselves from EDL in 2011 (whereas) others do not.’ This is untrue. Hoffman’s distancing was entirely bogus and only came about after I had exposed him. Hoffman cited emails he had sent to the Police after the joint demonstrations at Ahava with the EDL. He then went on to demonstrate alongside Paul Besser, former Intelligence Officer for Britain First, as well as to work with a host of Zionist supporters of Tommy Robinson.
Below I look at the content of The Labour Files and what it says about the Labour Party today under Starmer and Evans.
Tony Greenstein
The Labour Files
The Suspension of Wallasey and Brighton Labour Parties – the playing of the Gay Card by Angela Eagle and the Right
Angela Eagle and the fake allegations of homophobic abuse
The first programme The Purge details how lies were spread by New Labour clone, Tessa Jowell, that Angela Eagle, the lesbian MP for Wallasey had been subject to homophobic abuse at the 2016 AGM of the party. The only problem was that Eagle hadn’t actually been present at the meeting!
This didn’t stop former councillor Paul Stuart submitting a note about Momentum activists’ undemocratic practices, which was literally copied from a review of Michael Crick’s book on Militant 30 years ago! Tom Watson used Stuart’s note as proof of subversion in a memo to Corbyn. As James Schneider from Corbyn’s office said, we were in the realm of the creation of facts. Peter Oborne, one of the few honest journalists around made the point that this could only happen because of a lack of media questioning.
In one ludicrous scene we see Stuart demanding a police investigation into the distribution by Paul Davies, Vice Chair of Wallasey Labour Party, of flyers. Davies was alleged to have used Labour Party databases in breach of the data protection laws. The only problem was that Davies was in London at the time of the leafletting!
Nonetheless Davies was suspended after challenging Eagle and her fellow liars to take a lie detector test. 3 of the 4 ‘witnesses’ at Wallasey’s AGM who heard the dyke comment about Eagle just happened to have the surnames ‘Stuart’. We also see how Eagle, who was challenging Corbyn for the leadership at that stage, despite not having the support of her own party, worked in tandem with Sam Matthews, Head of the Disputes Team and John Stolliday, the racist head of the Compliance Unit. Stolliday is, to this day, employed alongside Emily Oldknow, another known racist by UNISON.
The Lies of Warren Morgan
On July 9 2016 in Brighton there was an AGM for what was the largest party in Britain, more than 6,000 members. Before the meeting Momentum held a massive rally at the Brighthelm community centre. In all my years in Brighton I’d never seen such a large meeting. About 800 people crammed into their hall, the cafeteria behind it and spilled over into the gardens outside.
After leaving the meeting people went directly to the AGM at the nearby Brighton College of Technology. The meeting was so big that it had to be held in 3 sessions. All the left candidates achieved 65% of the vote. Democracy in action.
The spitting that never was
What was the reaction of the Labour Right in the person of Warren Morgan, the Blairite Leader of Brighton and Hove Council? To make a series of false allegations of spitting and bullying. Morgan knew he would have the backing of Labour officials. In the words of Stolliday:
overturn AGM, deal with individuals. Shows what we’re up against – a bunch of SWP & Trots marching straight from a rally to invade a CLP meeting and stuff handfuls of ballot papers in boxes even when they;re not members of the party
Karen Buckingham, GLU’s [Governance and Legal Unit] Head of Disputes was later appointed as an ‘investigator’ into the allegations. She said:
“I say act now and worry about [rules and legal issues] later, so long as we don’t do something that’ll end up fucknig everything else up”. [Labour Leaked Report [LLR], p.113]
The reaction of Corbyn’s officials was a sign of what was to come. When Hadfield was rung up he was told ‘We’ve got to do something about the spitting’ to which he replied ‘what spitting’. There was no allegation that was too far fetched for Corbyn’s useless office.
In the end even Buckingham could not uphold the allegations of spitting since Greg had got hold of the CCTV covering the entrance to the College. It proved that there was no spitting. Buckingham refused to watch it on data protection grounds!!
I wrote a number of blogs on what was happening at the time and they convey my own impressions of what happened and the lies of Morgan, councillor Emma Daniels and other New Labour supporters on Brighton and Hove Council.
Massive Pro-Corbyn Rally in Brighton & Hove as Left Sweeps to Victory in AGM
Brighton & Hove Labour Party Suspended by National Labour Party
Progress and the Labour Right Declare War on Democracy – It’s the Politics of Pinochet
Suspension of Brighton & Hove Labour Party Shows the Hatred of Progress and Labour Right 4 Democracy
Warren Morgan, Emma Daniels & The Spitting Incident That Never Was
The Lies that led to the Overturning of Elections & the Suspension of Brighton & Hove Labour Party
Time to say Goodbye to Ann Black on Left Slate for National Executive
Black Suspends Brighton & Hove Labour Party & Invalidates Election Results at Whim
Ann Black – suspended Brighton/Hove Labour Party on a Lie
NEC member Ann Black was the Head of Disputes. She sanctioned the immediate suspension of Brighton and Hove Labour Party without even bothering to ask local members whether the allegations were true. Greg Hadfield, the elected Secretary was suspended in order to ensure that a new Executive had a right-wing majority.
Meanwhile in Hove constituency, its MP Peter Kyle, who is now Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, is revealed as sending an email to McNicol calling for the suspension and expulsion of Rebecca Massey, a prominent activist and Chair of the branch of which Ivor Caplin, a former Zionist MP was a member.
THE WAR CRIMINAL WHO CHAIRED THE JEWISH LABOUR MOVEMENT
Caplin is a bona fide war criminal having been a junior defence minister at the time of Blair’s invasion of Iraq. He also became Chair of the right-wing Jewish Labour Movement. Caplin quoted from an article on the website of the Israeli funded Campaign Against Anti-Semitism which spoke of Rebecca’s ‘Black heart’!
Becky was an active member of Brighton and Hove PSC and a fine, articulate activist. The picture painted in the CAA’s scurrilous article, that she was an anti-Semite, was simply a lie. Becky summed up the situation when she said that activists in the party, who believed in fair play and sticking to the rules were simply ‘lambs to the slaughter’ as the Right disregarded any rule that was inconvenient, lied to order and engaged in what can only be called the tactics of destabilisation learnt at the knee of the CIA in Latin America.
Where Al Jazeera slipped up was in saying that the publishing of this article was ‘the day that anti-Semitism was used for the first time in Brighton and Hove’. It wasn’t.
The first use of ‘anti-Semitism’ was when I was suspended in March 2016 by Stolliday quite explicitly because of criticism of Israel. I was targeted by the Zionists from the start and even then there were those in Momentum locally, like Clare Wadey, the Vice Chair of the Labour Representation Committee, who gave credence to the allegations.
But as Hadfield said ‘from that one story there have been 6 yrs of abuse’. The CAA was formed at the time of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza which killed 2,200 Palestinians including 551 children, with the express purpose of labelling criticism of Israel ‘anti-Semitic’.
At no time did Corbyn or McDonnell protest the suspension of either Wallasey or Brighton & Hove Labour parties. They were content for their supporters to be attacked, votes to be annulled and dirty tricks to continue whilst they continued their policy of appeasement. They could have mobilised the membership to oust these bureaucrats but they chose to tolerate and work with them.
The treatment of Ella Rose, Director of the JLM and a former Israeli Embassy employee, contrasted markedly with that of Rebecca Massey and Greg Hadfield.
Rose had been filmed in the Al Jazeera programme The Lobby threatening violence against Jackie Walker, the suspended former Vice-Chair of Momentum.
“I saw Jackie Walker on Saturday and thought, you know what, I could take her, she’s like 5’2 and tiny,”
Rose did what all suspended people do in such a situation. She emailed Sam Matthews telling him that she wouldn’t have said this ‘if I had known the conversation was being recorded’. Which is much like a bank robber asking to be acquitted on the grounds that if he had known the Police were waiting for him then he would never have robbed the bank!
The Abuse that the Guardian & the BBC Never Got Around to Mentioning
For Britain’s media the only victims in the 4 year fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign were Zionist Jews. The only heroes were people Luciana Berger MP who used harassment from a few fascist oddballs, notably Joshua Bonehill Paine to smear the left with ‘anti-Semitism’. Berger had been parachuted into the Wavertree seat in 2010 by Blair, having been the girl friend of his son Euan.
Wavertree CLP hated her, not because she was Jewish but because she was a right-wing implant who hadn’t even known the name of the legendary Liverpool football manager, Bill Shankley. Of course Tom Watson and the Right conflated the political opposition of Wavertree CLP, whose Chair was Jewish, with fascist attacks on her.
Other heroines included Ruth Smeeth, the charlatan who claimed Marc Wadsworth’s criticism of her was because she was Jewish. Smeeth or rather Lady Smeeth after Starmer’s ennoblement, blatantly lied in claiming that she had received 25,000 hostile messages.
Another heroine was Louise Ellman MP for Liverpool Riverside (she too was parachuted into the constituency). Ellman specialised in defending Israel’s torture and treatment of Palestinian children. She was literally the vilest of Zionists. When I called her the MP for South Tel Aviv I was accused of racism by the Jewish Chronicle until I pointed out that John Carlisle, a notorious supporter of South Africa’s apartheid regime had been called the MP for Pretoria!
On 16th January 2016 a Parliamentary debate initiated by Sarah Champion was held on Child Prisoners and Detainees: Occupied Palestinian Territories. Up stood Ellman to defend the practices of the Israeli military in arresting children early in the morning, blindfolding and beating them, holding them without access to lawyers or their parents and trying them in military courts.
does she accept that the context in which these situations occur is an organised campaign conducted by the Palestinian authorities of incitement, to try to provoke young Palestinians to carry out acts of violence towards other civilians, some of which result in death, including the death of young children?
A classic example of victim blaming but when I was expelled one of the main reasons was my ‘shaming’ Ellman by calling her a supporter of Israeli child abuse. My response was that Ellman was shameless.
Also omitted from all mention of Smeeth and Berger was the fact that Smeeth had been employed by Zionist propaganda group, BICOM and Berger had been a Director of Labour Friends of Israel. But when you are running a smear campaign, facts can be awkward things.
Dianne Abbot
The MP who did receive the most abuse was Dianne Abbot, an MP for over 30 years. Not only vile fascist abuse but abuse from within the Labour Party, not least from its staff. But this went unmentioned. Only ‘anti-Semitism’ was considered important.
Jenny Manson
The media followed Orwell’s script to the letter in making Black= White. Jewish Zionists were allowed to invent attacks that never took place (see Izzy Lenga) whereas Jewish anti-Zionists who had been abused were comprehensively ignored.
The second episode of Labour Files, The Crisis began with Jenny Manson, an elderly Jewish woman who is co-Chair of Jewish Voices for Labour [JVL]. Jenny described a number of examples of abuse, in particular one anonymous phone call. A Zionist left a message on Jenny’s ansaphone along with his phone number! The Police were therefore forced to take action but unlike the situation where Zionists have been harassed, they issued a caution.
The real Zionist attitude to the holocaust and Jews who died at Auschwitz is revealed in the message that Jenny received.
“you fucking Nazi bitch, you fucking Nazi scum, You should burn in the gas oven,
You dirty fucking bitch,
Fucking, fucking Nazi cow you are
Stinking, stinking swine
I hope you die in a gas oven
You deserve everything, to burn in hell
To burn in acid
After having been called a ‘Nazi bitch’ the caller then told her that she should die in a gas oven! It is a favourite line of attack by Zionists on Jewish anti-Zionists to tell them that they deserve to die like the millions of Jews in Europe who also rejected Zionism and died in the holocaust as a result. I have experienced the same.
It is a favourite taunt of Zionists to tell Jewish anti-Zionists that ‘Hitler was right’. Where I think Jenny went wrong in the programme was to suggest that
For the first time ever the Labour Party has walked into a disagreement between Jews over Zionism and said one form of Jews are wrong, anti-Semitic.
This is wrong. The ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign was never about Jews or anti-Semitism. What happened was that Jews were used as political stool pigeons in order to give a moral base to the right-wing attack on Corbyn.
Pauline Hammerton – Killed By the Witchhunters
Pauline Hammerton was the 80 year old woman mentioned by Halima Khan (though not by name) in Al Jazeera’s ‘The Labour Files’ who was killed by Labour’s witchhunters. The machinery for her expulsion had been established by Jeremy Corbyn and Judas Jennie Formby not Starmer.
On 14 February 2020 I wrote ‘Expelled for Supporting the Palestinians on the 7th February (‘anti-Semitism’ in Labour Newspeak) Found Dead One Week Later’
The sub-heading was: ‘Pauline was Killed by Lansman, the Jewish Labour Movement and all those who supported the IHRA, a Charter for making false charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ against anti-racists’
In 2017, Pauline had been one of over 500 signatories to a letter to the Guardian protesting at the suspension of Ken Livingstone. You can see the full list of signatories here. On 14 February 2020 I wrote ‘Expelled for Supporting the Palestinians on the 7th February (‘anti-Semitism’ in Labour Newspeak) Found Dead One Week Later’
The sub-heading was: ‘Pauline was Killed by Lansman, the Jewish Labour Movement and all those who supported the IHRA, a Charter for making false charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ against anti-racists’
In 2017, Pauline had been one of over 500 signatories to a letter to the Guardian protesting at the suspension of Ken Livingstone. You can see the full list of signatories here. I wrote:
‘A cursory look at Pauline’s Facebook page shows that she was anything but a racist. She was a decent, kind, concerned person who hated all kinds of oppression. Pauline was Chair of Manchester Socialist Health Association. That was why she supported the Palestinians. Pauline was the kind of person who should be welcomed and respected. Instead she was expelled at the instigation of Mike Katz and his fellow war-criminals in the JLM, the overseas wing of the Israeli Labour Party….
Repeatedly I have been told by good socialists, suspended and expelled by the Labour Party, how depressed they felt at being falsely accused of anti-Semitism by those whose only purpose in life is to defame supporters of the Palestinians, anti-Zionists and anti-racists. It is outrageous that good socialists and anti-racists have been defamed and smeared for opposing the world’s most racist state, Israel. We have had 4 long years of fake and false allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ by hypocrites, liars and defamers such as Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth. Racists whose only mission was to defame anti-racist activists….
When the Labour Party adopted the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism in September 2018 and when at last year’s conference, with the support of the pathetic Corbyn, ‘fast track’ expulsions were agreed, i.e expulsions without even a hearing, it was inevitable that sooner or later, that it might have fatal consequences and cause great shock. Fast-track expulsions, of which there were 25 in just one day this month, were obviously a ticking time bomb. If any one person had the ability to stop the adoption of these proposals and the IHRA in its track it was Jon Lansman
It is and remains an utter disgrace the fact that good socialists like Pauline Hammerton were hounded to their deaths. This was one of the by-products of Corbyn’s cowardice in not standing up to the fake anti-Semitism campaign.
Luke Stanger- the racist thug who specialised in the harassment of women
The only thing that can be said in support of Luke Stanger, a gormless buffoon who was used by Peter Kyle and the Labour Right, is that he clearly suffers from mental health problems. However this is no excuse for his behaviour in harassing Labour Party activists.
Stanger harassed Pamela Fitzpatrick, a local Harrow councillor and eventually their parliamentary candidate, after the local CLP voted to affiliate to JVL. Pamela was accused in a series of vile tweets of being an anti-Semite and holocaust denier.
Pamela was suspended following a completely fabricated complaint of bullying by Cllr. Michael Borio. Local MP Gareth Thomas joined in, writing to McNicol urging her expulsion even whilst he was sending emails to local members supportive of Pamela!
Anne Mitchell, a member of Hove Labour Party Executive and a prominent supporter of the Palestinians was accused by Stanger of being a ‘filthy racist grandma’. The Labour Party eventually suspended Stanger, not because of his harassment of women but because he had tweeted that:
The traveller community are frequently a nasty blight on communities who wreak civil unrest onto areas
If someone had substituted ‘Jew’ for ‘traveller community’ they would have been expelled instantly. However as Al Jazeera showed Stanger’s letter rejecting the accusations which began
I wish to state at the outset that in my eight years of obsessive activism and seven years of party membership, I have never intended to cause the party any harm or offense.
was written by another Luke, Luke Akehurst, who was employed by We Believe in Israel. Akehurst is now a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee. Of course this made sense as this oaf is all but illiterate but it shows the deep complicity of the leading lights in Labour’s Right in the abusive activities of Stanger.
Stanger didn’t however confine his activities to women. A particularly distressing and upsetting series of incidents involved Damian McCarthy, a prominent activist in Hove Labour Party and Chair of a local Unite branch. Stanger stalked Damian and a child he was taking to school.
Damian’s workplace was rung up by Stanger and then Jonathan Hoffman. One particularly vile tweet threatened to behead Damian’s family and ‘skull fuck’ his dead mother. Damian described how the attacks on his mother led to the premature death of his step father.
The only good news that has come out of this is that as a result of the publicity surrounding Stanger’s activities he was sacked by WJ Ltd who employed him at Gatwick Airport! A taste of his own medicine.
.jpg)
Perhaps the strangest thing about the case of Luke Stanger is that although the National Constitutional Committee voted to expel him, this was never implemented. He has been welcomed back into Hove CLP by the Right. There is no rule which allows an expelled member to continue in membership. It demonstrates the contempt for Labour’s rule book when it comes to protecting the Right, even if, as in Stanger’s case he has been found guilty of abusive, racist behaviour.
Starmer’s Police State Democracy in the Labour Party
In his first speech to Labour Party conference Starmer took no chances. Armed police stood in the aisles to try and deter heckling. After Corbyn had been suspended the Black Mayor of Liverpool, Anne Rothery spoke up in his support which resulted in her being removed from the shortlist for the mayoral elections.
The same tricks were used by the Right against Rothery. False allegations were made by local councillor Allan Dean who alleged that she had physically attacked a corrupt local Labour councillor, Nick Small. The pattern is familiar. Get a local councillor to write a letter making a series of false allegations and then the target of the attack is suspended. Once again Corbyn and his office failed to speak out against these tactics.
Peter Oborne, the former Telegraph political correspondent provided a running commentary. Despite being a Tory Oborne is alone among right-wing journalists for his decency and integrity which is why he parted company with the Daily Mail. Oborne’s comments on Starmer’s contempt for democracy in the Labour Party was that
If that is the way the Labour Party is conducting itself in Opposition, under Keir Starmer, former DPP, is Keir Starmer going to behave like that in power’
The BBC has refused to explain why they only interviewed members of the JLM who took part in the programme, why they didn’t identify them or include any other Jewish viewpoint
BBC Panorama’s Is Labour Anti-Semitic?
The Lies of Labour Investigator Ben Westerman
In July 2019 with an election in the offing, the BBC fulfilled its traditional role on behalf of the British Establishment. Of one thing the ruling class was certain of –a Corbyn premiership was to be avoided at all costs. So naturally the Islamphobic anti-Corbyn journalist John Ware presented a hit job on Corbyn’s Labour Party.
In Liverpool Riverside Jewish member Helen Dickson was under investigation. Her investigator was Ben Westerman who alleged that her silent witness, Rica Bird had asked him ‘where are you from? Are you from Israel? which he took as referring to Israel. If Rica had said this it’s difficult to see how that could be anti-Semitic but Rica had said nothing of the sort.
What she had said was ‘‘so I’m just curious about what branch are you in?’ and when Westerman said it wasn’t relevant Rica accepted it. There is a world of difference between asking what Labour Party Branch someone was in and asking if someone Jewish is from Israel.
The interview was recorded so it is clear that Westerman was lying. But this and other instances of bias and failure to properly investigate (for example contacting Rica for her response before broadcasting) were ignored by Ofcom, the regulator of the broadcast media which simply refused to investigate, despite there being a record 2,000+ complaints. Like other wings of the Establishment Ofcom was not prepared to scrutinise the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign.
As the Labour Files (42.00) rightly said, the Jews interviewed in the Panorama programme were drawn entirely from the officers of the anti-Corbyn JLM. Not one Jewish anti- Zionist was allowed to speak. It was (48.30) the ‘BBC’s momentous intervention in British politics.’
The aftermath of the Panorama programme came when Corbyn and his office alleged that the Disputes Team staff were themselves politically motivated. They sued for libel. [1.10.17-1.2.18]
The reaction of Starmer was to settle the libel case and pay the liars £700,000 despite Labour’s own lawyers advising that the Party was likely to successfully defend their claims. As Peter Oborne remarked ‘This is the most unambiguous legal advice I’ve ever seen’
What was the reason Starmer settled? Oborne suggests that he was ‘defining himself against Corbyn’. I think a more simpler explanation is that Starmer wanted the staff to succeed in order that he could say that Corbyn’s Labour was anti-Semitic. Starmer wanted the EHRC Report to be as damning as possible in order that he could use it against the left. This is why he suspended Corbyn and anyone else who questioned the EHRC report. In the process Starmer all but bankrupted the Labour Party.
John Ware’s claim for £150K was aimed at chilling free speech. There were a number of defences including fair comment, qualified privilege and honest opinion that could have been used but the last thing Starmer wanted was for Labour’s defence to succeed.
The Lies of Izzy Lenga
Perhaps the most unbelievable section of Is Labour Anti-Semitic was when the JLM’s International Officer (& a Reserve Officer in Israel’s Occupation Army) Izzy Lenga stated that ‘everyday’ she was told ‘Hitler was right’ and that ‘he didn’t go far enough’ in the Labour Party.
To anyone who has every attended a Labour Party meeting this is simply unbelievable. It was a straightforward lie without the slightest evidence being produced. Had Lenga put forward a complaint to the Labour Party about this abuse? Had she named culprits? Of course not. It was simply a false allegation that John Ware ran with because of its shock effect.
Peter Oborne did a google search of Lenga and ‘Hitler was right’ and lo and behold Ms Lenga had complained about this but at Birmingham University where posters ‘Hitler was right’ had appeared. In other words nothing to do with the Labour Party but for the BBC any lying allegation that discredited the Left in the Labour Party was worth airing, especially when no one was called to rebut it or even question her lies.
Criticising Israel or Zionism was ‘anti-Semitic’ according to the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism
The Labour Party and Corbyn were facing a full-scale attack from the BOD over ‘anti-Semitism’. But instead of fighting back they, and especially the leader of Momentum, Jon Lansman, gave way.
James Schneider of the Leader of the Opposition’s Office said [1.07.03] that ‘We adopted the IHRA because it was politically impossible not to do so’ whereas ‘the counter pressure from Palestinian voices in the media was absent’. Len McLuskey of Unite believed that by adopting the IHRA the false anti-Semitism campaign would come to an end whereas the exact opposite occurred.
Of course if Corbyn and LOTO had pushed back, if they had questioned the JLM as to its links with the Israeli Embassy and its description of the racist Israeli Labor Party as its ‘sister’ party, then it could all have been very different.
Schneider, like the even more useless Seamus Milne, was a product of the public school Oxbridge system. Socialism to these people was an abstraction. The idea of standing up to the ruling class’s ideological offensive never occurred to them. One can only speculate about what they thought would happen if Corbyn had gained power.
We see [1.03.39-2] Margaret Hodge and Luciana Berger demanding that the ‘NEC has to adopt the internationally agreed IHRA code’. ‘No ifs, not buts no caveats’ parrots Berger, the former director of Israeli Embassy front Labour Friends of Israel. Not once did Corbyn or LOTO wake up to the fact that the whole of the IHRA was rotten, designed to redefine anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism. In September 2019 Labour’s NEC adopted the IHRA misdefinition wholesale. People forget that Corbyn voluntarily adopted the 38 word IHRA definition at the end of 2016.
Andrew Feinstein argued [1.04.56] that by approving the right of self-determination for the Jewish people you are removing it from the Palestinian people. Unfortunately this is not correct. It is not a question of two conflicting rights, which is the narrative of the left Zionists. The real problem is that there is no one single Jewish people. Jews are not a nation and therefore self-determination doesn’t arise. The idea of a single Jewish people is itself the basis of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories which the Zionists adopted.
A good example of the hypocrisy of this campaign was seeing Gordon Brown arguing that Labour must adopt the IHRA to combat anti-Semitism. This is the same creature who used the National Front slogan of ‘British Jobs for British Workers’
Ken Livingstone and Nazi Comparisons
When Ken Livingstone, remarked to Vanessa Feltz that Hitler had supported Zionism all hell broke loose. This rapidly turned into Hitler was a Zionist. It resulted in a media ambush involving John Mann calling Livingstone a ‘Hitler apologist’ outside Parliament.
This was the same John Mann who had issued an Anti-Social Behaviour Handbook which described Travellers as an example of anti-social behaviour. He was subsequently interviewed by the Police. Mann had supported the racist Labour MP Phil Woolas who was removed by an Electoral Court from Parliament for lying about his election opponent and who had run an election campaign in 2010 designed to ‘make the White folk angry’ at Muslims.
As Geoffrey Bindman QC explained anti-Semitism has traditionally been understood as a hatred of Jews as Jews. The IHRA transformed that into hatred and criticism of Zionism and Israel. Criticising Israeli settler terrorism had become anti-semitic.
The Elephant in the Room – the Links Between British Zionists, Tommy Robinson & the Far Right
In the second episode of Labour Files we came across the detritus of the Zionist movement in the persons of Daman Lenzner & Jonathan Hoffman. They were both convicted of harassing and abusing Palestinian protestors outside a Puma shop. Prior to their trial they had had a warrant issued for their arrest for failing to answer bail.
The programme (29.13) described how Hoffman ‘is photographed alongside Roberta Moore’ a member of the Jewish Defence League, the EDL’s Zionist wing and that she had expressed admiration for neo-Nazi Andrei Breivik, the Norwegian fascist who killed 77 people, mainly young socialists, in Oslo.
What was new in the Labour Files was the revelation that Dan Fox, Stella Creasey’s foul mouthed boyfriend had been at a meeting of the Zionist far right and that he considered himself close friends to Sharon Klaff, an open Tommy Robinson/Pegida/AfD supporter.
Al Jazeera seemed unsure as to whether or not there was a problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. If there was no anti-Semitism phenomenon then the Zionist allegations were false. But if there was an anti-Semitism problem, even if it was exaggerated, then the campaign itself was justified.
The Labour Files argued that if Corbyn did interfere in the disciplinary process it was only to speed it up. Thus they accepted the thrust of the Zionist attack. Unfortunately Al Jazeera went along with this completely muddled take on what happened. It was the narrative of Lansman, the Alliance for Workers Liberty and some of Corbyn’s supporters, including those who compiled Labour’s Leaked Report. They argued that Corbyn did his best to fight ‘anti-Semitism’ but was undermined by the ‘factionalism’ of his opponent thus not getting that the ‘anti-Semitism’ had but one purpose – getting rid of Corbyn.
The Forde Report [1.18.18] found no evidence of any attempt by the Corbyn leadership to interfere in disciplinary processes. Maybe but the real problem was not that Corbyn interfered but that he didn’t interfere in the disciplinary process. The GLU should have been prevented from pursuing people for false allegations of anti-Semitism. Instead Corbyn was content to let the witchhunters have a clear field.
We learn (37.33-2) that ‘factionalism’ had prevented the investigation of anti-Semitism cases implying that there was a problem but the determination of McNicol and co. to pursue Corbyn supporters had detracted from the fight against anti-Semitism.
This is political illiteracy. The primary fight was against Corbyn and his supporters. ‘Anti-Semitism’ was the means to conduct that fight. Thus Momentum Chair Andrew Scattergood reacted to Corbyn’s suspension by saying that it ‘undermined the fight against anti-Semitism’! We had a 5 minute segment of the second programme whose theme (37.33) was that it was McNicols staff who had stopped Labour from tackling anti-semitism. We were told (38.16) that
‘Corbyn is frustrated and writes to McNicol in February 2018 angry that Disputes Team is so ineffective in tackling anti-Semitism cases.’
It was like a chicken complaining that the fox had indigestion and couldn’t eat it!
When Judas Jennie took over from McNicol as General Sec retary there was no record keeping, according to Halima Khan, the former member of the Disputes Team.
Now it might be true that Stolliday and Matthews were inefficient in keeping track of the ‘evidence’ of ‘anti-Semitism’ in those that they had suspended but so what? Perhaps that was because the ‘evidence’ was so thin.
This (40.07) culminated in Peter Oborne & his graph in which he demonstrated that expulsions under JJ had increased ‘exponentially’ since taking over from McNicol. Oborne states that ‘This graph alone raises questions about dominant media narrative in the Corbyn era’
The only problem is that the graph proves nothing of the kind. Indeed the massive increase in expulsions under JJ ‘proved’ that there was indeed a massive anti-Semitism problem in the Labour Party. In other words the faster Corbyn and JJ expelled people the more they proved that the Zionists had been right after all!
In fact nearly all of those JJ had expelled, including Chris Williamson MP (whom JJ excluded from running as a Labour candidate) were not anti-Semites. The same Labour Files featured Anne Mitchell who had been expelled under JJ’s not McNicol’s watch. It was surprising that (41.32) Andrew Feinstein, who is politically very good, fell into this trap saying that the ‘key failings of the Labour Party took place before April 2018) when McNicol was finally prised out.’
The Labour Files take on the EHRC programme was, as a result of this political muddle, extremely weak. So it says (50.46) that prior to the period when JJ became General Secretary none of the staff were investigated. That is true but irrelevant to the main question which is whether there was an anti-Semitism phenomenon at all.
Yes Corbyn and JJ were trying to speed up the expulsion of people who were not anti-Semitic. Indeed he introduced at the 2019 conference the ‘fast track’ expulsions which we were assured would only be used against ‘egregious’ cases of anti-Semitism.
That was a lie. The fast-track expulsions were used against every case of alleged anti-Semitism. All those who were expelled were denied a hearing. Anonymous bureaucrats made the decision. Ironically Corbyn himself was later suspended under the same procedures.
Towards the end of his leadership Corbyn was running on a treadmill of the Right’s making. Of course the EHRC Report was absurd to suggest (52.06) that by trying to speed up Ken Livingstone’s case Corbyn was discriminating against Jewish members? But what does that say about Corbyn? What The Labour Files didn’t mention was the fact that its author, Alisdair Henderson, was a supporter of the far-Right who defended the fascist philosopher Roger Scruton and who ‘liked’ or retweeted social media posts criticising Black Lives Matters protesters. Henderson described the words misogynist and homophobe as “highly ideological propaganda terms.” Again The Labour Files were extremely weak politically.
Other criticisms of the EHRC, such as their redefinition of harassment as political disagreement weren’t touched upon.
Marc Wadsworth
Marc is a Black anti-racist activist who did more than any single person to bring the Stephen Lawrence affair to the public’s attention by arranging a meeting between his parents and Nelson Mandela. The refusal of Corbyn and his apparatchiks to speak out in his defence was particularly disgusting.
As Marc said (53.15) of the NCC Panel under Magi Cosins, a supporter of the right-wing Labour First, ‘they’d already decided I was guilty whatever evidence put before them.’ Marc was the only person on the programme to make any criticism of Corbyn: (53.34 ) ‘Jeremy Corbyn threw me under a bus.’
Was There a Hierarchy of Racism?
One of the main catch phrases of much of the left about Labour is that there is a hierarchy of racism with anti-Semitism at the top and Islamaphobia and anti-Black racism at the bottom. I disagree.
For there to be a hierarchy of racism Labour Party must have been concerned about actual anti-Semitism whereas all the evidence is that if you were one of the few genuine and bona fide anti-Semites in the Labour Party the chances were that Matthews and his cronies were not be interested in you. Labour’s Disputes Team were only interested in expelling anti-Zionists.
In Episode 3 ‘The Hierarchy’ we hear from Marcia Hutchinson, a Black councillor in Manchester, who said that she had faced more racism in the Labour Party than in the whole of her life. (5.27) Yet this was never tackled by Corbyn who allowed himself to be diverted by the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ allegations, made by the same anti-Black and Islamaphobic racists.
The programme includes audio by a Black worker detailing her experience of racism working at Southside, Labour’s HQ. ‘I brought my experience to the party and I was held to different standards than White men.’ There was an hour long meeting with her line manager about her where she wasn’t given a right of reply. As Marcia remarked: ‘It is utterly sickening that this is happening in a party that claims to be anti-racist.’
We learn of a 17 strong WhatsApp messaging group that included McNicol which was replete with racist attacks on Dianne Abbot who it had just been announced had Type 2 Diabetes. The following exchange speaks for itself:
Sarah Mulholland: Diane Abbot suddenly ill for today’s vote so wasn’t able to make it.
Emilie Oldknow (now UNISON Assistant General Secretary) ‘Hahaha’
Patrick Heneghan ((Executive Director – Elections, Campaigns and Organisation) ‘Dr’s note please’
Sarah Mulholland: ‘She literally makes me sick’
Julie Lawrence: ‘She looked perfectly fine when I saw her slithering down Vic St.’
Marcia Hutcheson had a brief response: ‘Slither is what a snake does.’ (55.47) Labour’s racist staff had utterly dehumanised Diane.
Starmer promised the Black staff at Southside that there would be an inquiry into this racism. What happened? It was Black staff like Halima Khan who were dismissed. ‘Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership is giving succour to racists within the party’ remarked Hutcheson. The racists stayed put as this ‘Zionist without qualification’ proceeded to instigate a racist purge of the Labour Party.
The Forde Report concluded that ‘the Labour Party is not a welcoming place for people of colour’. Halima Khan told how ‘anti-Semitism is the organisation’s priority’ (13.41) and that everything would drop if there was an email from the Jewish Chronicle. Complaints about Islamaphobia were binned or forgotten about.
The racist tropes of Trevor Phillips
Labour member and Sunday Times ‘journalist’ Rod Liddle had declared that Islam is ‘an unpleasant ideology’ (16.29) Oldknow decided to sit on the complaint because Liddle was chummy with Ian Austin and Tom Watson. It took two years before was he suspended. Trevor Philips, who was eventually suspended for a whole series of racist statements such as that Muslims are a ‘nation within a nation’ was quietly reinstated under Starmer. Halima Khan was dismissed on suspicion that she had leaked this decision.
In August 2016 a member of Labour International complained to the Disputes Team about Chris Crookes, who was an open holocaust denier (Labour Leaked Report pp. 277-281).
It was only in February 2018, after Sam Matthews had done nothing, when 289 members of Labour International signed a petition demanding action, that the wheels slowly turned.
On 26 March 2018, Matthews finally initiated a case. Between August 2016 and February 2018 the case of Chris Crookes was raised with Matthews twelve times, Stolliday four times, with other GLU staff four times and McNicol twice. Crookes was finally suspended in March 2018 and expelled in July 2019. Unfortunately Labour Files failed to ask why the difference in approach between anti-Zionists accused of anti-Semitism and a genuine holocaust denier.
Halima Khan told how the word ‘Palestine’ became a search term when seeking evidence of ‘anti-Semitism’. This was the result of adopting the IHRA.
We also learnt that 23% of all complaints involved 1 person and 12% came from the racist Labour Against Anti-Semitism. We also learnt that LAAS’s Director, Euan Philips used the pseudonym David Gordstein, a clearly Jewish name for someone who is not Jewish.
Starmer’s Purge of the Left and Anti-Semitism
Halima Khan stated [1.08.41] that
‘the criteria for anti-Semitism changed quite dramatically within Keir’s leadership. It was clear that anti-Semitism was going to be used under the new leadership to strike out as many left-wing members as possible.’
The ground had been laid by Corbyn for what happened under Starmer. As Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi explained at least 56 Jewish members have been investigated, suspended or expelled for ‘anti-Semitism’. Jewish members are 6.3 times more likely to be investigated by the Labour Party for anti-Semitism than non-Jews. Jenny Manson exclaimed ‘How dare they tell us we are anti-Semitic’
We also saw a classic example of the BOD interfering in something that was none of their business, viz. Labour’s attitude to Tory legislation on BDS. Amanda Bowman, Vice President of the BOD, [1.13.35] advised Steve Reed MP who is on Starmer’s front bench, not to oppose the legislation. Reed committed the Labour Party never to accept attempts to ‘exceptionalise and delegitimize Israel.’
The Labour Files – The Hierarchy
Stalking in Newham
You cannot understand the flagrant disregard of all democratic norms, the flouting of inconvenient rules and the willingness to tolerate and encourage skulduggery and dishonesty, without understand that all this comes from the top. Starmer is a man without an ounce of principle or honesty. Socialism is not a word in his vocabulary.
In Oliver Eagleton’s book The Starmer Project we learn of Starmer’s reaction to Extraordinary Rendition, when Binyamin Mohammed was arrested in 2002 in Karachi and tortured under the supervision of the CIA. Overseeing his treatment was an agent of MI5. When Mohamed was transferred to Morocco he experienced far worse torture with his penis and chest being repeatedly slashed with a razor. All of this under the direction and supervision of an MI5 agent.
Mohamed eventually returned to the UK via Guantanamo and produced evidence of the involvement of MI5. Starmer’s response as DPP was to announce that there was ‘insufficient evidence to prosecute.’ The Head of MI5 Jonathan Evans was ‘delighted’ and described the MI5 agent as ‘a dedicated public servant who has worked with skill and courage over many years to keep the people of this country safe from terrorism.’
Starmer preferred to pursue people who overclaimed welfare benefits with fraud charges carrying 10 years sentences and prosecuting women whose rapists were acquitted for lying. And of course pursuing Julian Assange on behalf of the Americans.
When Gary McKinnon an autistic hacker hacked into US military databases to find information on UFOs Starmer was determined to extradite him to the US criminal ‘justice’ system.
When his mother confronted Starmer face to face he robotically told her that ‘I’m feeling very uncomfortable. Speaking to you is making me feel very uncomfortable.’ He must have felt the same when Audrey White confronted him over his betrayal of Liverpool’s Hillsborough fans. Even Boris Johnson described a decision to deport McKinnon as ‘extraordinary cruel and inhuman.’ But Starmer is above such considerations. He is a process man.
When Theresa May decided to turn down the extradition request Starmer reacted with ‘fury’. He flew immediately to see Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder to plead that this should not jeopardise their relationship.
Corbyn’s failure to do due diligence on Starmer is one among many of his calamitous failures and one which he has paid dearly for since. Starmer should have been sacked not promoted to Brexit Secretary.
Starmer’s Secret State – Labour’s surveillance of its South Asian members in Newham
In Newham where, according to Halima Khan, members of the Labour Party were stalked. Children were followed to their school. Detailed files were built up on activists, where they worked, what they owned and who lived in their properties.
Newham was a 100% Labour borough and the party was controlled by a clique of mainly White politicians who ensured that the Labour Party was a closed shop. When Corbyn was elected leader all this changed and there was an influx of Muslims and Black people.
Carl Morris, the Regional Organiser and Amy Fode, the Regional Director, were not happy with what was happening. Morris (23.03) alerted Southside to a group of predominantly Asian men on the pavement waiting outside for Newham AGM to start. Fode took a picture of them. They spoke of a group of Pakistanis infiltrating the Labour Party. Muslims were good enough to vote for the Labour Party but they were not expected to become members and active around their own issues.
When local Councillor Obaid Khan was suspended from the Labour Party local community groups sent a letter to Newham’s Mayor, Robin Wales alleging racial discrimination. It accused Wales of having ‘contrived and manipulated the Party processes to get him unfairly expelled with trumped up and false accusations.’ Wales sent this to Stolliday who, without bothering to examine the allegations, expressed his sympathy with Wales and accepted that the letter was libellous. Today Stolliday does the same in UNISON.
Carel Buxton described how, when Starmer was elected, Mehmood Mirza and Tahir Mirza were victimised and expelled: ‘it was like warfare’. A 100 page dossier was compiled, mainly on S Asian residents. New Labour members were identified by race (32.08). People were racially profiled into dialects. Much of the information had been obtained from Labour files. The GDPR requires reports on data breaches within 72 hours yet nothing was reported. Mirza was suspended within weeks. Halima Khan described the dossier as ‘potentially criminal’ (39.28) from which she was removed.
Halima Khan asked if supporting Palestine meant her job would be at risk. She was told that by the person she asked that they would have to get back to her on that. (45.42)
At Southside they set up a Black Community Engagement Plan whose purpose was not to tackle racism but to regain the Black vote. All but one of the team writing it was White. The plan focused on appeasing Whites. (52.00) As Peter Oborne observed it was the Battle for the Bigoted White Vote.
In the Labour Files – Part 4: The Spying Game we learn of clearly criminal conduct in Croydon and how the Labour Right deals with dissent among councillors.
Steven Downes, the Editor of Inside Croydon, dedicated to uncovering the many scandals, cronyism and corruption amongst Croydon councillors, found himself locked out of his own email account. He had been hacked.
Downes first learnt about the purpose of the hack when he came across a tweet naming 3 Labour Councillors as sources for Inside Croydon. (3.40)
Ruth Bannister, a local right-winger, was the source of the leak. How did the Labour Party react to this? Did they emulate Tom Watson’s outrage when he pursued the News of the World and the Murdoch press about the hacking of peoples’ phones? Not a bit of it.
Councillor Clive Fraser, the chief whip, sought to speak to Andrew Pelling, one of the 3 councillors about 6 emails he had sent to Croydon Inside. London Region informed Fraser that he could use these criminally obtained emails in Fraser’s determination to pursue the councillors. In other words the Labour Party itself was complicit, if not in the hacking then in using the illegally obtained emails. (7.44)
Bannister herself then levelled a complaint against the 3 councillors, Andrew Pelling, Stephen Mann & Robert Canning, for ‘leaking confidential and damaging info from Council and Labour Group.’ One wonders what was so damaging about the info and why it was that she thought that members of the public weren’t entitled to know what their elected representatives were up to. (7.44)
Steve Reed, the local MP and Shadow Justice Minister, also emailed the leaked dossier. Reed must, as Downes said, know what to do with what are stolen goods yet he said nothing. The Party didn’t even alert Downes to the hack.
David Evans was informed of what was happening in his own backyard but his only concern was with any Labour Party members in contact with Inside Croydon. Fraser made a complaint against David White, a veteran Labour Party member and Corbyn supporter, using some of the hacked emails. White was expelled for ‘anti-Semitism’ as a result of the trade in hacked emails. As someone who has met White on numerous occasions I must confess I never detected any anti-Semitism in him but then again, unlike Evans/Starmer I’m Jewish!
It was only when Jerry Fitzpatrick, a lawyer, was installed as the new chief whip at Croydon, that the alarm was sounded. Fitzpatrick called the emails ‘stolen goods’ whereas the Labour Party’s own lawyer Alex Barros-Curtis raised no objection. Consideration should be given to making a formal complaint about Barros-Curtis to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. He seemed to be quite at home with illegality by Labour Party witchhunters.
But the hacking was not over. Emails from Downes to people were being blind copied to Hamida Ali, Leader of Croydon Council & Clive Fraser. Downes computer settings had been tampered with. Fitzpatrick sent multiple emails to the GLU and Evans asking whether Hamida Ali and Fraser had to inform the police. He got no response. Andrew Pelling was later expelled as a result of the hacking. As Pelling observed, what is a party that associates itself with hacking of the press going to do when it’s in government? Will it condone it with national newspapers or are they exempt? The Labour Party’s response was that it wasn’t a lawless organisation but a rules-based one. To my knowledge there are no Labour Party rules that condone hacking. Not even under Sir Starmer.
