Dear comrade,
In my last update to you of the 14th Sept, I left you with the comment “If our petition is ignored, I think we can then feel safe in proclaiming from every rooftop that "Israel is a racist endeavour"”.
On Sunday night I was reported to Brian Roy, General Secretary of Scottish Labour, for this petition. He has, in turn, sought guidance from the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit and asked for further guidance; they may decide to do me for “bringing the Party into disrepute” – a handy catch-all for expelling unruly members. As a spoiler, I formally notified the same Dept of the petition on Monday morning and asked that it be circulated to the NEC in advance of the Tuesday meeting, where I knew the Code of Conduct would be discussed. (see the end of this update to hear what they agreed).
However if, on the other hand, Jennie Formby, General Secretary of the Labour Party, seeks to discipline all of us for "anti-Semitism" there will be a drama to play out. We don’t really want to be expelled, of course.
The JLM and "Labour Against Anti-Semitism" (which exists only as a Facebook group) boasted prior to the 4th Sept that the new code will net them hundreds, if not thousands of expulsions. My petition aims to draw that sting. I hope the publicity that any challenge may bring should help publicise the petition; perhaps we can swell our numbers to 500 or more.
Individually, any one of the 200 who have signed to date can be picked on and disciplined. Together as a block of 200, we can work a kind of “class action lawsuit”. I’ve prepared a model defence; you can view it here. If we refuse to be dealt with individually and only en masse, they’ll be on a sticky wicket. After all, we’ve all done the same thing and justice needs to be applied equally or not at all.
I’ll stay in touch and notify you of any coverage we may get in the press. Presumably you will be OK about my releasing your names to those who would like to report us to Ms Formby. Please let me know if you disagree – I’m at postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com
The general hunger for a witch-hunt extends to even those who have avoided focussing on Israel. Eleanor Penny, a young London-based Jewish woman, is interested in the roots and rumours around real anti-Semitism. For her pains, she has been reported to Ms Formby for anti-Semitism for her excellent and passionate video blog on the subject. She is, understandably, upset and confused at the slur.
On 17th Sept, Skwawkbox published an orthodox activist’s statement to Jewish Chronicle, in which he attacks the ‘zionist agenda’ behind the ‘smear and witch-hunt’ against Jeremy Corbyn. The Chronicle has not published his letter, but Skwawkbox has; here it is. This activist, Shraga Stern, is a prominent Charedi (Orthodox) Stamford Hill Jew and was one of the organisers of a letter from 29 leading Orthodox rabbis in support of Corbyn. The Jewish Chronicle and other outlets immediately claimed the letter was a fake. The letter was authentic.
One final request – if anybody is free from 9-11am on Sunday 23rd Sept, to help to give these flyers on the petition to 1,200 delegates as they enter the Labour Conference venue in Liverpool, please email me.
The good news is that when the NEC met on Tuesday, they agreed that the discussion and vote regarding the full Code of Conduct/free speech statement of protection should be rescheduled for the October NEC meeting. So I guess we may be safe for another month
Best wishes
Pete Gregson (in Edinburgh)
PS BDS have been nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Add your support for them to win it here