It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, September 25, 2022
EXCLUSIVE CORBYN PURGE
Al Jazeera News Investigation
What really happened during Labour’s ‘anti-Semitism crisis’
Documents obtained by Al Jazeera IU tell the story behind the ‘anti-Semitism crisis’ in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party.
By Al Jazeera Investigative Unit
Published On 25 Sep 2022
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has obtained documents that look behind the scenes of the “crisis of anti-Semitism” that engulfed the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.
An analysis of internal party documents, social media data and covert recordings reveals how senior Labour officials attempted to undermine support for Corbyn and, on some occasions, to silence debate about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
The files are part of The Labour Files, an investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit based on 500 gigabytes of documents, emails, video and audio files from the Labour Party dating from 1998 to 2021.
The data reveals how the party’s bureaucrats, whose nominal function is to serve the interests of the party, attempted to undermine members supportive of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader from 2015 to 2020.
Damning leaks claim Jeremy Corbyn secretly brought down by party officials
In this file photo taken on November 27, 2019, Jeremy Corbyn takes part in a press conference in London. — AFP/File
UNELECTED officials undermined democracy within the UK’s Labour Party, Al Jazeera has claimed in a new documentary, suggesting that “operatives secretly took control” of the party to thwart Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
The three-part series, titled The Labour Files: The Purge, is based on “the largest leak in British political history” comprising 500 gigabytes of documents, emails, video and audio files from the Labour Party dating from 1998 to 2021, the Qatari-owned outlet said, adding that its investigation unit would be releasing a series of reports on the leaked files over the coming week.
It said the data reveals “how senior officials in one of the two parties of government in the UK ran a coup by stealth against the elected leader of the party”.
“The investigation shows how officials set about silencing, excluding and expelling its own members in a ruthless campaign to destroy the chances of Jeremy Corbyn, the party’s elected leader, becoming Britain’s prime minister,” it said.
The film also showed how “candidates for key political roles were blocked and constituency groups suspended as the party’s central office sought to control the elected leadership”.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader from 2015 to 2020, was a little-known figure in British politics until his election as party leader in September 2015, riding a wave of popular discontent against the political establishment.
The film shows, however, that discontent was brewing inside the Labour Party thanks to internal bureaucracy, leading to battles over which side would control the party — the left-wing “Corbynites” or the pre-2015 centrists.
At the time, that bureaucracy was led by Iain McNicol, who had been the party’s general secretary since 2011. The documentary shows how, before Mr McNicol was replaced by Jennie Formby in 2018, the party was resistant to the political path set by Mr Corbyn.
The files obtained by Al Jazeera show how some supporters of Mr Corbyn were smeared with false accusations of abusive behaviour submitted to the Governance and Legal Unit (GLU), which oversees the party’s disciplinary process. The complaints included homophobia and anti-Semitism and sought to suspend or expel them from the party.
In several instances, local branches of the party, known as Constituency Labour Parties (CLP) were suspended, preventing local members from holding Labour Party meetings. In other cases, individual members were suspended or expelled from the party on contested grounds.
In 2019, Mr Corbyn resigned as leader after the party’s defeat in the December general election and was replaced in April next year by Keir Starmer, Britain’s former director of Public Prosecutions.
Ms Formby also resigned as general secretary soon after and was replaced by David Evans. The leaked files reveal that he “has continued the McNicol-era hostility towards left-wing members of the party”, Al Jazeera said.
Labour Party officials who responded to Al Jazeera said they had always acted in compliance with the law, party rules, their job descriptions and proper standards of proportionality.
Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2022
Corbyn opens up about accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party
"To falsely accuse somebody of any kind of racism is a major, dishonest and dishonourable thing to do. I will die an anti-racist."
Jeremy Corbyn has confronted allegations about anti-Semitism within the Labour Party under his tenure.
The former Labour leader had the whip suspended in 2020 over his response to a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report.
He has sat as an independent MP ever since and will contest his seat in the next election without the backing of the Labour Party if he decides to run again.
Speaking to PoliticsJOE, Corbyn opened up about the accusations, saying he will “die an anti-racist”.
Watch the clip in full below:
New bombshell film exposes Israel lobby role in UK Labour Party
Labour national executive member and Israel lobbyist Luke Akehurst, left, intervened to protect suspended right-wing activist Luke Stanger, also pictured, despite credible claims of abuse and harassment. Al Jazeera
A new cache of leaked Labour documents shows how Israel lobby operatives worked against former leader Jeremy Corbyn from within the UK’s main opposition party.
Israel lobbyist Luke Akehurst intervened to help save suspended right-wing Labour activist Luke Stanger from expulsion – despite a series of complaints of harassment and intimidation.
The leaked files also detail how Palestine solidarity activists and left-wingers were investigated, suspended and expelled from the party, while right-wing pro-Israel members were protected by senior party figures.
The documents were revealed on Thursday in the first episode of The Labour Files, a new three-part series by Al Jazeera’s investigative unit – the same team behind the 2017 series The Lobby and the censored 2018 series The Lobby – USA.
The Qatar-based satellite channel describes the trove of internal Labour Party materials as “the largest leak of documents in British political history.”
During the Corbyn years, the files show, the generally left-voting city of Brighton became a focus of clashes between the party’s left and right wings.A leaked 2016 email shows that Palestine solidarity activist and Labour member Becky Massey was secretly reported to the party’s disciplinary unit by Labour lawmaker Peter Kyle.
“I would like to direct you in the strongest terms to investigate and to remove the member from the party,” Kyle wrote, then naming Massey. In one tweet, Kyle complained, “she calls Israel a ‘sick society.’”
The lawmaker accused her of being “aggressive” to him and his staff. Massey denies this in the episode, saying “I’m not an aggressive person” and recalling that Kyle had been to her house for Labour meetings in the past.
Despite Kyle’s intervention, Massey avoided suspension in 2016. But as The Electronic Intifada revealed in 2020, Massey was expelled from Labour after right-winger Keir Starmer became leader, at the request of Israel lobby group the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
The files show that another Labour right-winger who secretly reported Massey was former lawmaker Ivor Caplin.
Stanger engaged in harassment and abuse of Labour activists both in person and online. His behavior was so extreme that it led to his suspension as a Labour member.
But Stanger was supported by Labour’s right-wing establishment, including lawmakers and other influential figures who wrote to party officials to praise him and call for his reinstatement.
Labour’s highest disciplinary body did in fact vote to expel Stanger but the decision has never been implemented.
The first episode of Al Jazeera’s series reveals that a letter to the party from Stanger objecting to his suspension was actually authored by Luke Akehurst – a prominent Israel lobbyist who now sits on Labour’s ruling national executive. The network determined this from the document’s metadata.
Notorious on the Labour left as an arch foe of Jeremy Corbyn, Akehurst is a former arms industry lobbyist and now runs the group We Believe in Israel.
In his appeal to the party against his suspension Stanger was represented by prestigious London law firm Mishcon de Reya, best known for representing Princess Diana in her divorce from her husband, who is now King Charles III.
In the episode, Al Jazeera interviews former Brighton Labour member Damian McCarthy, who says Stanger sent him intimidating messages online and even turned up outside his child’s school
.
Former Labour activist Damian McCarthy was subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of an anti-Palestinian activist who was protected by senior party figures. Al Jazeera
Soon after this encounter McCarthy began to be bombarded by anonymous online allegations of anti-Semitism.
Stanger also began to bombard McCarthy’s employer with similar complaints.
The office was sent “dossiers” about McCarthy, including an online conversation in which one of his anonymous attackers threatened to behead the activist and his family.
McCarthy and his family were sent statements threatening depraved and obscene acts against McCarthy’s mother, “even if she is dead (which I hope she is).”
McCarthy, visibly emotional in the Al Jazeera film, recalls that his step father “was very upset about reading all of that. I can’t talk about most of it.”
“My dad read those terrible comments and he was upset about that. And he died not long after that,” McCarthy tells Al Jazeera. “So that evil that was put into our lives caused my pa to die, I’m sure that was a central part of what happened … I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.”
Luke Stanger did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Update: The day after the first episode of The Labour Files aired, Stanger posted a long Twitter thread in which he condemns the series as “warped.” But he also admits “organizing” a “letter” which was sent to McCarthy’s workplace. He does not deny calling the office.
He says the letter “bore absolutely no relation to the alleged death threats and rape threats” issued to McCarthy’s parents. He concedes his “paths once crossed with Mr. McCarthy” outside the school but says it was to pick up a relative from school “after unexpectedly finding myself home from university.” Israel lobbyists protected
The Labour Party establishment’s purging of left-wing activists, usually on flimsy or fabricated pretexts, is in marked contrast to how it defends right-wing, pro-Israel activists like Stanger.
Another Zionist protected from the consequences of their own bad actions by the party’s bureaucrats was the Jewish Labour Movement’s then director Ella Rose, the leaked documents show.
Rose had been hired by the JLM as director while she still worked at the Israeli embassy in London. The Electronic Intifada was the first to expose this link, in 2016.
In 2017 Rose was the subject of complaints by Labour members after Al Jazeera revealed in The Lobby that she had made comments implying she would like to physically attack left-wing anti-racist activist Jackie Walker.
“I can take her,” she told Al Jazeera’s undercover journalist, boasting of her prowess in the Israeli combat technique Krav Maga. “She’s five foot two and tiny.” Rose also said her critics should “die in a hole.”
The newly leaked documents reveal that Rose acted swiftly, writing to Labour’s disputes team to ensure she would not be disciplined by the party, despite her implied threat as shown in Al Jazeera’s film.
“I would very much like to volunteer to come and meet with you … next week in order to clear this matter up at the earliest opportunity,” she wrote to Labour Party bureaucrat Sam Matthews.
Matthews wrote back to Rose two days later reassuring her that “the Labour Party will be taking no further action on this matter.”
The leaks also suggest that Rose herself may have played a role in the complaint to broadcasting regulator Ofcom against Al Jazeera for broadcasting The Lobby.
Al Jazeera says the second episode of its new series will tell “the true story behind the party’s anti-Semitism crisis” and how “truth was subverted and reality turned on its head.”
Extended versions of each episode are expected to be available online the day after each TV broadcast.
Anti-Israel motions off the agenda at Labour’s annual conference
Labour NEC member Luke Akehurst confirms 'not a single CLP has submitted a motion' on Israel and the Palestinians for debate at the Liverpool conference in contrast to the fanatical pro-Palestinian mood of the Jeremy Corbyn era
Labour leader Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrive in Liverpool for the start of the party's 2022 annual conference
Not a single constituency Labour Party (CLP) submitted an anti-Israel motion as their chosen topic of debate at this year’s annual conference in Liverpool, Jewish News can reveal.
In a clear signal of the change in direction of the party under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the anti-Israel sentiment, and Palestinian flag waving, that had dominated conferences under previous leader Jeremy Corbyn appears to have been replaced with concern for other issues for debate.
Labour national executive committee (NEC) member Luke Akehurst welcomed the change, saying:”We have gone from period where there was deliberately provocative debates about Israel involving seas of Palestinian flags being waved on the conference floor, to where not a single CLP has submitted a motion about this issue.
“This gives me hope that once day we will be able to return to having balanced and rational debate about Israel and the Palestinians at Labour conference.”
In 2018, at the height of Corbyn’s control of the the party, hundreds of Palestinian flags were held aloft by delegates, who voted to debate the issue over the crisis in the NHS.
Vicious anti-Israel rhetoric also dogged the debate on the conflict.
Even at last year’s conference, a hardline anti-Israel motion, which condemned “the on-going Nakba in Palestine” was backed by delegates attended the annual gathering.
Delegates wave Palestinian flags at the Labour Party’s annual conference in 2018. Photo credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Motions expected to be discussed by delegates on Monday on the main conference floor include issues such as tackling the cost of living crisis, proportional representation and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Every CLP in the country is able to submit a motion for debate at the conference, based around the wishes of local members.
The Labour leadership is hoping to show the country that the party is ready to govern the country at the start of their 2022 annual conference.
In a further sign of his belief in Labour as a patriotic party, Starmer began proceedings on Sunday with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, followed by the singing of the national anthem within the conference arena.
This year’s conference, which runs until Wednesday, clashes with Rosh Hashanah meaning many Jewish members will stay away.
The conference dates are decided by the Home Office in advance, and clashes with religious festivals cannot be prevented.
On Sunday, ahead of the start of Rosh Hashanah the Antisemitism Policy Trust was holding an event featuring Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and London mayor Sadiq Khan discussing the debate around online safety legislation.
Labour Friends of Israel are also staging a reception on Tuesday, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves speaking along with Israeli Knesset member Emilie Moatti.
Meanwhile, sources close to Keir Starmer told Jewish News there would be”no complacency” amongst the Labour leadership over the need to continue the fight against antisemitic members of the party.
Speaking ahead of the start of the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, the well-placed source said the number of disciplinary cases involving claims of anti-Jewish racism being dealt with by Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) remained “unacceptably high.”
“There is no complacency about the scale of the problem still to be tackled,” added the party insider.
“Although significant progress continues to be made.”
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