The Labour Party NEC meets tomorrow (on Tues) and Labour Against the Witch-hunt (LAW) will be staging a lobby at Labour HQ offices at 105 Victoria St, London SW1E 6QT. The lobby will be from 11am to 1pm and they will be protesting about the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. If any of you want to join them, please email me at postmaster@roseburburn32.plus.com asap and I can get you flyers for our petition to give out (I have a pile in London). It will help spread the word.
LAW Motion
LAW's support is key to getting the petition media coverage. I shall be attending the LAW members' meeting on London on Sat Dec 1st to pitch this motion- read it at tinyurl.com/lawihramotion and I'm grateful to Jon in Thailand, who is a member of LAW, like me, for agreeing to second this. If the motion is passed, it will open doors to the media.
Model Union Motion
My union, the GMB, has suspended me as shop steward. My disciplinary hearing will be soon (see here) and thus far two agencies have promised letters of support as witness statements: Free Speech on Israel and Labour Against the Witch-hunt. In addition, Donny Gluckstein, EIS rep and organiser of antiracist demos in Edinburgh has agreed to be present as a witness. Also Tony Greenstein of LAW and author of this popular pro-Palestine blog has written an excellent statement and letter for me; he may attend as witness. The support of these folk is heartwarming.
I also seek union support in challenging the whole IHRA - many unions have adopted it. Most notably, Unison, Unite and the GMB. If you are a member of one of these unions, please table this motion to your branch. You can download it at tinyurl.com/unionihra - just copy and paste it into Word and amend it as needed. The Unions are key to getting Labour to abandon the IHRA; they adopted it without reference to their members; it's essential that the rank and file tell them that what they have done is to take trade unionists feedom of speech on Israel away from them.
Event at TUC on Sun 2nd Dec
I am planning an event at the TUC Headquarters at Fitzrovia, in London on Sunday to get some media attention anround the IHRA and the model motion. If you are free to join me, that would be great. Please email me if you are coming. I think you might like the stunt I have planned. I am thinking of calling it "Shit Sunday". More soon.
Cheers,
Pete Gregson