I have been getting some criticism for putting email conversations with Tony Greenstein and the recording of my LAW trial online.
This is how the Weekly Worker newspaper covered my LAW expulsion: “The steering committee proposed to expel Peter Gregson over his refusal to remove a link from his personal website to someone who was recommending an article posted on the well-known holocaust-denial site, Codoh.”
FACT ONE – Change.Org is not my personal website (I’m not THAT powerful)
FACT TWO – Ian Fantom was not recommending Kollerstrom’s article, he was just referencing it
FACT THREE - LAW Patron Noam Chomsky actually had an article on Codoh calling for freedom of speech for real Holocaust deniers
There are many more errors in David Shearer’s article. If he’d bothered to ask me, I’d have explained that the local campaign I was “kicked out of” was the Scottish PSC (wholly independent from PSC), which is the personal fiefdom of Mick Napier- who expelled me because I disagreed with him about Christian Zionism. Mick Napier is to SPSC what Greenstein is to LAW: a founder member of a campaign group who feels threatened by newcomers who dare to be more outspoken than they. Napier has expelled so many that the real PSC flourishes north of the border and runs a parallel network; I am presently part of Edinburgh Action for Palestine (EA4P) and they don’t expel anybody. Interestingly LAW’s refusal to allow organising north of the border means there are enough of us here now to set up our own group (a few have offered to set up Scottish branches, only to be ignored). Expulsion from LAW matters not so much outside London, for it is very much a London-focussed club.
But the article? Sadly, Shearer even gets the voting wrong- he claims 24 called for my expulsion, but it was only 20. This represents but 5% of the LAW membership. I’d previously lobbied to allow the 360 LAW members who were unable to make the meeting the right to vote by email, but the Steering Group would have none of it. A few members did write in, expressing their support; their views were ignored. And the truth is, only 10% of LAW got to the meeting and of those only just over half wanted me out. So, the views of those 5% now reflect the reputation of the other 95%, who would, I imagine, also support LAW’s declared aim of “Defending freedom of speech”. Jackie Walker even said at the meeting that LAW was not set up to defend freedom of speech, which was a surprise for me.
Again, Shearer suggests that I have “no problem in associating with Holocaust deniers”. If he had bothered to read the whole exchange of emails, which I put on my website [at www.kidsnotsuits.com/tony-greenstein-and-john-porter-the-spat ] he would see this to be untrue.
It is precisely because of this kind of skewed and slanderous coverage that I have felt it necessary to put things online. There are thus two matters I really need to explain myself on.
The first is of my putting the emails online in the first place. Why publish what was private? Well, from the outset, it was not “private” at all. Tony was copying in loads of Google groups to whom I had no access. So he was, in effect, widely publishing his accusations from the get-go and people were only getting Tony’s side ie the fraudulent attacks that I supported Holocaust denial.
And many of the people in those Google groups were, I knew, activists who were getting Tony’s attacks and not my defence. Being accused of Holocaust denial support is a pretty serious allegation and one which Tony (witch turned witch-finder) really relished throwing at me, knowing how toxic it was. And some of the people in the Google groups were activists whom I knew and wanted to work with. But I did not know who was in these groups and how much they were telling others. Such slander travels fast. In such a situation, the only solution is to make all emails public and then invite everyone to make their own mind up, vis-à-vis guilt.
A further complaint LAW Steering Group has against me is that I published an audio recording of my expulsion hearing, the first part of the LAW meeting. One only has to read articles like Shearer’s to understand why publishing the recording matters. The charges were very serious and the expulsion suggests they were well-founded, when they actually were (like the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism) “fraudulent and politicised”. Bad news travels fast and I do not want anybody to think I had a fair trial. The motion was untrue in its claims, for a start: it claimed that I had “refused to distance myself from the Holocaust denier Kollerstrom”: FACT ONE- I did distance myself; FACT TWO- Kollestrom is not a denier- he accepts Jews were mercilessly slaughtered, but he disputes the efficacy of Zyklon B.
When the allegations are patently wrong, how can the trial be fair? This was a popularity contest, pure and simple, and Greenstein won. And so I proceeded to publish an account of what was really a quasi-judicial hearing - which was my right, complete with false testimony against me: one woman suggested “I wanted to drive all the Jews in Israel into the sea” [untrue] ; Moshe Machover claimed I myself considered myself a loose cannon, which was the kind of comment that had LAW fighting the Mail for Ken Livingston over a similar slander of misquotation; after being challenged by me, he corrected himself. And others were making false claims about me.
Because if I do not allow others to see LAW’s unfair processes, I risk letting gossip and rumour cloud the day. Since the public trust LAW to be experts in matters of freedom of speech, they naturally assume the charges are justified. [I have even just lost a potential girlfriend who assumes LAW must have right on its side!]
In essence, my defence now rests in convincing people that LAW have undermined me in a pointless fashion. The Steering Group and their London associates made clear in December they did not like this petition on Change.org declaring ”Israel is a racist endeavour”. And since until now I have not been identified as a key LAW player, then how can a posting on this petition (that LAW doesn’t like) from me (not a key LAW player) on an update that most LAW members never read – how does that give LAW a bad name- simply by virtue of my being a LAW member? Must all LAW members fear scrutiny of every word they write, for fear that Greenstein will find it wanting; in case they might be put on trial too? [I am not the first to suffer from Greenstein’s appetite for the hunt.]
His accusations and subsequent lobbying for an expulsion has led to the steering group publishing fraudulent charges against me- for a reference that I had declared at the outset in my posting to be toxic. This was a witch-hunt by the witches. This was a lynching with Jackie Walker putting the noose around my neck. Greenstein, Bash and Werkman pulling the rope tight. For committing a crime that did not exist. Tony is even now saying that I “linked with a Holocaust denier”, who could only be Ian Fantom, who wrote the article that Tony despises so much. Ian has written to Greenstein to protest at this slur. Greenstein is now also calling Ian a “madman”.
Here is what Ian wrote to Tony: “I would be grateful if you would kindly explain to me why you are calling me a 'holocaust denier', when there was no reference to the Holocaust as such, but only to a witch-hunt against a Holocaust sceptic, in which I took an identical attitude to that taken by your sponsor Noam Chomsky, as I explain in my write-up of this incident (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=188020).”
Because the truth is that even LAW patron Noam Chomsky does what Greenstein and LAW finds me guilty of.
As Ian writes “One of the sponsors of LAW is Professor Noam Chomsky, and I came across an article of his titled ‘All Denials of Free Speech Undercut A Democratic Society’, in which he defended Professor Robert Faurisson’s rights after he had denied the existence of gas chambers. Chomsky wrote: “He was then brought to trial for ‘falsification of history,’ and condemned – the first time in the West, to my knowledge, that the courts have affirmed the familiar Stalinist-fascist doctrine that the State has the right to determine historical truth and to punish deviation from it”. In response to a query on why he had signed a petition defending Faurisson’s rights, he wrote: “I went on to inform Ms. Dawidowicz that I knew very little about Faurisson’s work so that while it may be ‘horrendous,’ as claimed by his critics, I obviously could not comment. … Furthermore, as I wrote to Ms. Dawidowicz, the nature of his views is, plainly, completely irrelevant to the issue of his right to express them, a truism among civil libertarians that those of a Stalinist-fascist persuasion find quite shocking”.
Since LAW patron Noam Chomsky argued for the rights of Holocaust deniers to be heard, he must surely be next in line. But LAW allow him to get away with far greater support for Holocaust deniers freedom of speech than I. This is rank hypocrisy.
Because “journalists” like Shearer are recounting events to my detriment, it becomes necessary for me to publish the audio account, for else how would anybody know what really happened? On charges as serious as Holocaust denial? I proffer my apologies to anybody who feels they’ve been made vulnerable, but no press have used any of the account , not are likely to, for it is clearly a tedious internal battle. Some say it was a private meeting, but anybody who had paid £10 to join LAW could have attended. So not very private at all.
On the 9th May, 5 days after my expulsion, my Facebook page and Messenger feed was buzzing with comment about the rights and wrongs of this dispute. And then Tony started posting to my friends another lie about me. At this point I had had enough and wrote to LAW in the following terms:
Dear LAW Steering Group,
The hero of Saturday, who thinks he has done something wonderful by having me expelled from LAW on fraudulent charges, is something of a fraudster himself.
Tony is continuing to spread lies about me; just a couple of days ago he was proclaiming to a FB Messenger group I set up that “Peter won't listen to anyone but his own voice because he suffers from extreme narcissism. That is why he has managed to get expelled from every trade union, not on matters of principle but making stupid comments like people 'exaggerate the holocaust'”
..and then- “Peter has the right to be stupid but he doesn't have the right to involve me or other members of LAW in his stupidity.”
Firstly, I have only ever been expelled from one trade union (the GMB, for saying Israel exaggerated the Holocaust for political ends), so Tony lies and then lies again to cause maximum hurt and damage. And I don’t see how I’ve “involved LAW” in anything I’ve done; none of you have ever approved or supported anything I’ve tried to do anyway, which you’ve repeatedly made clear in your LAW statements.
To be accused of being a “Holocaust denier supporter” by Tony, a convicted fraudster, is beyond belief. Since LAW are so keen to purge ne-er-do-wells from its ranks, then why are you so obedient to this man who has ruined the lives of so many? Not content with pursuing bogus anti-Semitism claims against Socialist Fight, he digs about in emails and links to find shit about me; in fact he himself taints you by his very public association with LAW.
Greenstein was convicted for fraud as a young man and was given a community service order. He is currently being investigated for two allegations. That he stole £20,000 from the Unemployed Families Centre in Tannashill in Brighton a few years ago. More recently on charges of embezzling £0.5M from the CASE centre in Brighton, formerly the Unemployed Workers Centre, where he worked. Josephina, the co-ordinator there, can provide details. He took the money when he was fired and refuses to give it back, claiming this theft was not a theft because it was a “political split”. The man is trouble.. The centre just about closed as a result of his actions. The police are working on the case.
Details on that £0.5M attached. [see here]
I know this through another person he screwed up. She lives but 80 miles from Brighton. I have known and worked with this person since 1995. I believe every word. Tony was representing her on an ET which was a nightmare, negotiating with her employer behind her back and claiming victory when she failed to get her job back, him having agreed to but 1 month’s salary for her as compensation.
Anybody who harbours Tony, harbours a spirit far worse than I. I expect you to expel him, for he taints you utterly by your associating with him. He attacks me with his lies from the shelter of LAW and I am sick of it.
Best wishes, etc.
When this email failed to elicit a response from LAW, I decided to go one step further, and circulate it to all my press contacts and to all those folk whom Tony had copied into his initial attack on me. I did not have access to the Google Groups, of course, but there were a few others. I also copied in some of the LAW VIPs whom, I hoped, might help in getting him to stop making untrue allegations about me online. This generated a fair amount of irritation from well-known LAW players. I got this response from LAW Secretary and witch-finder Tina Werkman:
“Peter, after your irresponsible, libelous, slanderous and all round pretty mad email from last night, I do not wish to be contacted by you again. Delete all my email addresses from your records. I also suggest you remove LAW from your address book, as your emails will be deleted unread. “
Which elicited the following response from me:
“Phew! Panicked about those email addresses? What are people worried about? Unrequited marketing emails from the Jewish Chronicle? Somehow, I doubt that will be an issue.
Let's be clear who started this. It was Tony who loves to copy in the universe with his pompous condemnations. Not me. Yes, my intention was to let Tony know his secret was out. And I copied in the media with that intention too. To show that LAW were behaving unfairly in sacking me and keeping Tony. And I hate that he goes around spreading lies about me. Maybe this action of mine will stop these two things. I am hoping that time will judge... I don't think LAZIR has much chance any way as long as Greenstein continues to attack me. I think now he will do his best to stay away from me, which is exactly what I want. And I believe that in 3 months’ time, I will have recruited way outside of you London armchair socialists who have never liked my campaigning style.
Slander starts with Greenstein and is validated and reinforced by your shrill posturing.
You, Jackie, et al do this for your own glory, not for the good of Palestine.
You’ve arguably done nothing to ease the oppressive conditions they suffer from.
Self-satisfied smug middle-class cronyism is your specialty Tina. Someday you will see that by your puritanical approach you have damaged LAW far more than I could ever have.
Keep up those expulsions! I hope you are now going to scrutinise even more closely all that those members say and do, as there may be fifth columnists in LAW who have signed my petition, and then you will have more scalps to tie to your belt.
The hypocritical stance of the LAW steering group in harbouring a fraudster and expelling any who challenge their narrative does the campaign to stamp out Zionism no favours.
Solidarity!
Pete”
The issue throughout all this affair is about defending freedom of speech. The body, LAW, that sought to pick up the reins from Liberty, another agency that is failing to tackle the loss of freedom of speech on Israel in this country, has shown itself to be unequal to the task. It is more concerned with expelling activists (Socialist Fight were expelled on 6th January as anti-Semites when they were nothing of the kind) than fighting for our rights. I pray it finds its course and reflects upon its tarnished reputation. We need organisations like LAW. But we need them to be honest and fair. Something they have patently failed to demonstrate.
OTHER NEWS- LAZIR INAUGURAL MEETING
Please come to LAZIR’s inaugural meeting on 1st June in London. We shall be meeting near Euston at 3pm for food with serious planning beginning at 4pm and concluding at 6.30pm. We shall be setting out the actions we need to promote LAZIR and for new initiatives beyond this petition in rooting Zionism out of the Labour Party and new ways to support Palestine. Find out about LAZIR at www.tinyurl.com/laziwork If you are interested in joining us, please send an email to postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com
Best wishes
Pete Gregson, Edinburgh