Collateral damage: how Labour destroys its own members

“The closest thing to it was a bereavement” former Labour MP Chris Williamson told The Socialist Hour this week talking about the period during which he was suspended from the Labour Party.

What is often forgotten by those piling on people on social media and spreading lies about them in the press is that they are humans with human emotions.

Labour purge

The Labour Party is now in full purge mode, suspending ordinary members for the heinous crime of continuing to support the former leader of the Party Jeremy Corbyn. Chris Williamson, like Jackie Walker whose interview will be in the next edition of The Socialist Hour are high profile cases, but there are plenty of others (upwards of 400 allegedly) that have been caught up in the maelstrom.

Politically, it is very clear what is happening. As Chris tells The Socialist Hour “the anti-Semitism allegations were a pure concoction”. Jackie, herself of Jewish origin, tells us “I had never seen a case of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party”. Chris continued “People like me were collateral damage, the target was Jeremy Corbyn and the socialist project.” 

The allegations, based on the flimsiest of evidence, and with evidence of AS among around 0.3% of a party of over half a million which were seized upon by the right wing of the Labour Party and amplified by the Tory-supporting press, had a clear aim: to mislead the British public that the Labour Party was over-run by anti-semites to make them appear unfit to govern. That undoubtedly worked and delivered the Muslim-hating, racist, sexist Tories to what most of the Parliamentary Labour Party clearly thought was their rightful position in Number 10.

EHRC stitch up

Having won that battle and derailed the socialist project the attention of the establishment turned to ensuring that the Palestine supporting left should never get anywhere near power again. The Tory dominated Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) rode in stage right to deliver the damning verdict that the leaders office of the Labour Party had intervened in disciplinary cases to speed them up. Think about this: Labour’s right-wing seized upon that report, describing it as “Labour’s day of shame” when the only concrete evidence presented was that a beleaguered Jeremy Corbyn was leaning on the Governance Unit to expel those accused of anti-Semitism faster.

Meanwhile the new manager of the Party, sorry leader, and his Deputy turncoat prostrated themselves before the Jewish Labour Movement promising to use the EHRC report to “expel thousands of members”. Jeremy Corbyn, singled out by the EHRC, took to social media to ‘defend’ himself. He made the entirely justifiable statement: “One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

In video footage that now appears to have disappeared Angela Rayner said that although what Jeremy said was true, he shouldn’t have said it because it might upset some Jews. Apparently nothing upsets right wingers more than hearing the truth. The EHRC report gave wind to the anti-democratic notion that if somebody denies anti-Semitism the only reason can be because they, themselves, are anti-Semitic. Since the publication of the report Labour has been plunged into a very one-sided civil war in which support for Jeremy Corbyn has been defined as anti-Semitic and therefore cause for suspension. This, on the basis, that an unknown Jewish member might be uncomfortable if his suspension was lifted. Not an actual person sitting in a particular meeting but David Evans imaginary Jewish friend. Meanwhile, the damage done to the mental health and emotional well-being of real people being hounded out of a party they had often given their lives to was seen as entirely justifiable.

Suspended for mentioning Jeremy Corbyn

The Socialist Hour has also spoken to ordinary members caught up in this. Long-standing activist Lee Rock told us how he was suspended in November for submitting a motion calling for Jeremy to have the whip restored and is still suspended some four months later. We should hear this piece of information alongside our memory that the right-wing of Labour, particularly the witch-finder general Margaret Hodge, continually complained at the lack of speed of expulsions of those she deemed anti-Semitic. And, that fact should also be taken with the EHRC’s finding that the leaders office was trying to speed the process up but was being frustrated in those attempts by full-time officials working to prevent a Labour election victory led by Jeremy Corbyn.

The fact is that the Labour Party has shown zero concern for its members as the right have trampled roughshod over their rights and their reputations. If you listen to Lee carefully you will realise it is still not clear exactly what he has been suspended for. Most of these “crimes” fall under the rubric of what activist Penny Owen was told was “not competent business” based on a memo initially issued by Jennie Formby and adopted enthusiastically by her successor David Evans. 

The only way to make sense of this is that the very mention of Jeremy Corbyn’s name, a man never actually found to have said or done anything anti-Semitic despite a 6 month EHRC investigation,  is so abhorrent to Labour Party members that it’s very utterance causes them distress. The problem is that were this the case the motions that led to the suspensions would not all have passed, often more than once. There are two possible conclusions: Labour is a nest of anti-Semitism; or anti-Semitism is a convenient stick with which SirKeith and his allies are able to beat their political opponents. The EHRC report itself, the justification for these attacks on freedom of speech, it should be noted is painfully short of any concrete evidence of widespread anti-Semitism in the Party. The examples listed are either lists compiled by those hostile to the party or the left of the party or matters of some political interpretation. It all rests of course on the idea that criticism of Israel is itself anti-Semitic, a definition which makes the United Nations anti-Semitic.

Shifting attention

I rather suspect that as the right completes its purge of the left, or the left inside Labour start to self-censor to avoid suspension the issue of anti-Semitism will quietly fade. Even now it is raised in the mainstream media only if Jeremy raises his head above the parapet. Although it has returned to its earlier location: academia. Where philosopher David Miller is currently being singled out.  Meanwhile, the real anti-semites continue to daub Nazi insignia on Jewish cemeteries and fill social media with their hate filled, Holocaust denying bile still being challenged and confronted by the very people the Board of Deputies have vowed to hound out of public life.

It is difficult to imagine what it is like to be at the centre of one of these storms. Jackie Walker tells The Socialist Hour that she received death and rape threats as she was targeted as a prominent black woman as she dared to question the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of AS. The comment which caused the furore was spoken at a private training event supposedly run under Chatham House rules (which means people are free to say things safe in the knowledge it would stay in the meeting). Unbeknown to her one of the Zionists present released video footage of her to the Jewish Chronicle which spent two and a half years accusing her of being both an anti-Semite, and possibly more pertinently, a Corbyn ally. 

The IHRA  definition was foisted on the Labour Party by the Zionist lobby for the precise purpose it was eventually used for: hounding out those who regard a state with an apartheid clause enshrined in law as an apartheid state. Kenneth Stern who drafted the definition had this to say about it: “rightwing Jewish groups took the “working definition”, which had some examples about Israel (such as holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of Israel, and denying Jews the right to self-determination), and decided to weaponize it.” The conclusion is clear debates around the definition are profoundly political in nature and should be treated as such.

No dialogue

States like Israel can only be made to change by international pressure but if the very mention of the name brings death threats then what chance a dialogue? No country should be beyond the rule of law (and that includes America, Russia, Saudi Arabia and China) but if a powerful lobby is preventing the ‘international community’ from even discussing their internal politics then it is a green light for despotism. We see this also in the treatment of Saudi Arabia who are able to wage a war on Yemen virtually unnoticed by the rest of the World despite our selling them the weapons that rain down daily on defenceless women and children.

Both Jackie Walker and Chris Williamson, both hounded out of Labour whilst Jeremy Corbyn was still leader incidentally, describe the affects on their personal health of being subjected to the abuse they had to endure because of their beliefs. Many others have also suffered personal hardships for simply stating an opinion. Although those who think otherwise will not be convinced it is obvious if you spend any time with Jackie or Chris that they are not anti-Semitic. They are both campaigners of long-standing against racism in all its forms which make the allegations even more hurtful.

It is possible for people to genuinely believe that people such as Chris Williamson, or Jackie Walker or David Miller are wrong about the state of Israel. The Jewish Chronicle clearly and unambiguously believes that Israel is a democratic state and a shining beacon of all that is good in the World. There was a time when Communists used to say the same about Russia. The fact is that they are entitled to believe that if they so wish. What they are not entitled to do is to hound ordinary citizens out of public life for disagreeing with them. All the people mentioned in this article live in the United Kingdom and are subject to its laws. None of them have been charged with hate crime, the evidence would simply not stand up in a court of law. Chris Williamson indeed won his court case against the Labour Party for which they spent at least £200,000 of members fees. 

Freedom of speech and thought under attack

One of our most cherished freedoms, currently coming under increasing threat, is that of freedom of speech and freedom of thought. There is a thin line between hate crime and thought crime. Personally I support a robust system to deal with physical attacks motivated by racism. I happen to believe that racism, whether directed at black people, brown people, Jews, yellow people or Roma, is morally repugnant and should have no place in our society. But, I do not want the law to involve itself with what people think. What you think, and to a large extent what you believe may be wrong, immoral or just plain fanciful, that is entirely your affair. The line gets crossed when people who think that a certain group of people should be treated differently because of the way they look, or their religious customs or other arbitrary characteristic, act on those beliefs.

There are plenty of things people do of which I disapprove. But, if they are doing them in the privacy of their homes and nobody is forced to take part or being hurt as a result, frankly I don’t so much tolerate their behaviour as just ignore it. But, when a group of people collude together with the express intention of “destroying a person as a person” (I paraphrase a well known Labour MP) they can’t at the same time claim the moral high ground. Simply shouting insults at each other does not lead to resolution. With the entire AS furore the weight of evidence points to mass, illegal activity being undertaken in the illegally occupied territories of the West Bank. At the same time the weight of evidence, including the EHRC report, points to the fact that Labour was not institutionally anti-Semitic (the EHRC were careful to avoid saying they were). 

What is left is a divergence of opinion over whether Israel should be given a green light to continue its illegal activities. Put like that, there should only be one answer. But that answer cannot possibly be found whilst the debate is framed as one of AS. Far from helping bring peace to the Middle East the Zionists, by their dogmatic refusal to even consider the other side may have a point, appear to be ensuring that many more lives will be lost and many more ruined in what Chris Williamson calls ‘collateral damage’. Surely, we can all do better.

Chris Williamson is interviewed in this week’s The Socialist Hour. 

Jackie Walker’s interview will appear on Friday April 2nd.