Hi comrade,

Our open letter to the NEC now has over 700 signatures and rises at the rate of 10 per day. I’d like to see it at 1,000 – will you help me? The more who sign, the safer we become. I’m coming to London for the anti-racist demo on the 17th November with 5,000 flyers like this to give out. Can you help? If so, email me at postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com. There are 70 of you signers who live in London – you could help us all with just a couple of hours that day. I assure you, giving out leaflets is fun – folk on protest marches are hungry for political flyers – I shifted hundreds at the Stand Up to Racism demo in Edinburgh recently.

GMB Horrors

The other main news is that I have been suspended from my role as [the only] GMB shop steward in the large public sector body I work for (which employs 24,000 people), whilst I am investigated on charges of anti-Semitism. See the GMB charge sheet here.

The National newspaper covered the story today – “Labour activist faces union action over anti-Semitism row”.

I made two appeals to the GMB Scotland Committee explaining why I thought the attack on me was misplaced. I’ve now been told by the GMB General Secretary for Scotland, Gary Smith, to “cease and desist” from contacting them. You can read my appeals here- Part one and Part two. I referred Smith to the letter from 24 Palestinian trade unions on the 28th of August this year, just before the GMB pushed for the full IHRA at Labour’s NEC meeting on the 4thSept. Headed “Labour must reject biased IHRA definition that stifles advocacy for Palestinian rights”  it was an appeal by Palestinian civil society to the British Labour Party and affiliated trade unions.

I was very saddened at the time that my union had ignored this appeal. These trade unions correctly observe that the IHRA is a “politicised and fraudulent definition of antisemitism”.

By ignoring this appeal I feel the GMB and all the other unions on the NEC (Unison, TSSA, Usdaw, Unite, CWU, ASLEF, BFAWU) have betrayed our Arab brothers and sisters.

I also pointed out to Gary Smith that Norman Finkelstein, whose parents suffered in the Warsaw ghetto under the Nazis, had warned Labour against the IHRA too, in his blogpost of 28th August 2018. WHY THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY SHOULD NOT ADOPT THE IHRA DEFINITION OR ANY OTHER DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM

Another appeal that was ignored. Smith has now written back to me -

a) in one letter he says he is the investigating officer for the GMB against me and that I must respond to his allegations by the 15th Nov ..and..

b) in an accompanying letter he says that he does not wish to receive further communication on my personal views on the IHRA.

So how can our GMB General Secretary, funded by my dues, square these two opposing requests to me on the same day? It shows the calibre of man I am dealing with.

In any event, I have ascertained who is behind the attack on me – a mole at the GMB told me it was Rhea Wolfson. You can read what I’ve learnt about this arch-Zionist here.

My NEC emails

And since it’s important to see how I use the authority your signatures have given me, it’s important that you can read my emails to all the NEC members. Read my most recent my voluminous diatribe here seeking to persuade them to abandon the IHRA. [Many thanks to you, Jenny, for helping me to tone it down]. In it, I take the NEC to task over its Zionist bias. Also its unwillingness to be open about how it works; I am under investigation, yet they refuse to supply me with their Disciplinary Policies and Procedures document. So how do I know what will happen to me? How do I plan my defence? There is a lack of natural justice. This, in the party of social justice, appals me.

Please let me know of any statements I make in my NEC email that you have issue with. Also tell me if you are under investigation too and want to be added to our Rogues Gallery.

Chuck Shumer’s Bill in the US

“American citizens are set to be fined up to $1 million or imprisoned for up to 20 years for criticizing Israel or supporting the BDS boycott, thanks to new legislation sponsored by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Anyone guilty of violating the new prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison under the new law.

According to the ACLU, the Cardin legislation would “bar U.S. persons from supporting boycotts against Israel, including its settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories conducted by international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations and the European Union. It would also… include penalties for simply requesting information about such boycotts. Violations would be subject to a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison….This bill would impose civil and criminal punishment on individuals solely because of their political beliefs about Israel and its policies.”  Your News Wire 3/11/18

Could this happen in the UK? My fear is that if we don’t take a stand, it probably could.

I have gotten my CLP to discuss this motion against the IHRA on the 15th November; the Disputes Panel discuss our petition on the 20th . If you can get your CLP to pass a similar motion, it will help us win this battle.

Meanwhile, for the Palestinians, things get worse. Their children have been showered with Zionist motions. A few days ago, I read that Jewish settlers had dumped sewage on a Palestinian school in Qalqiliya (See here). It's a terible pun and it's not really funny. But any Labourist poiting up the racist nature of such actions faces expulsion. And that's pretty crappy too.

Best wishes

Pete Gregson, Edinburgh