Dear All
One thing you would like to think when you make a complaint
is that it is treated fairly and not interfered with by others, especially from
higher up in the Labour Party. After all as a member, you accept you have
certain rights, but it seems some others think they get special rights as well.
There has been for sometime an ongoing issue within the Labour Party about anti-Semitism
and how those complaints are handled.
A Sunday Times apparently said it had seen leaked internal
documents which showed the party's system for dealing with complaints had been
beset by delays, inaction and interference from the leader's office.
The question this begs is why anyone from the leader's
office, think they have the right to act in this way, is there a rule which
allows this?
I doubt it.
There should never be a question about the integrity of the
complaints system in the Labour Party.
Such actions have led to the Jewish Labour Movement
saying that it has no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. In order
to win a Premiership, Jeremy Corbyn would need all sections of the community to
back him. The damaging anti-Semitism rows in the party place his aspirations of
walking into Number 10 as PM in doubt. It is pretty damaging that a no-confidence
vote was passed "overwhelmingly" at JLM's annual general meeting
considering that the group, has been affiliated to the party for almost a
century.
At this meeting was a stern critic of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour
MPs Dame Margaret Hodge along with Ruth Smeeth and Dame Louise Ellman. The
no-confidence motion was passed despite a plea from Baroness Chakrabarti, the
Shadow Attorney General. What is interesting about Sami Chakrabarti is how she
has risen so quickly in the party without bother of a track record. She led Labour’s
internal inquiry into anti-Semitism, which wasn’t seen as a great success.
Anyway having been elevated personally by Jeremy Corbyn, she said the JLM
should "personalise" the issue on Jeremy Corbyn.
She said:
"My plea to the JLM is to stay in the Labour movement
and to tackle racism together, not to personalise it and make it about Jeremy
Corbyn, because he is one person and he won't be leader forever."
In other words, keep quiet!
It appears that Jewish members will not heed Ms. Chakrabarti’s
view as a motion noting the "crisis of anti-Semitism" within the
party since Mr Corbyn's election as leader was passed "almost
unanimously" at the meeting. The problem in my opinion stems partly from ‘identity
politics’ where everyone must be put into a category in order to ascertain
their ‘victim status’.
This is one of the major failures of the ‘left’ in the
Labour movement.
Divide, separate and conquer in order to attain and hold
onto power, of course this leads to problems such as membership falls, a
failure to get involved in activism, and other measures to support the party. One
of the other failures of the ‘left’ in the Labour Party is entitlement, where
some people who get selected expect your loyalty and work as an activist when
they have earned it. This is part of the mindset of the university educated
middle class in the Labour Party.
A party spokeswoman on the JLM row:
"The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism
extremely seriously and we are committed to rooting it out of our party. All complaints
about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and
procedures. We can't comment on individual cases."
She went on:
"Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to
misrepresent their overall contents. One of the emails shows the General
Secretary's Office ending the practice started by former staffers of asking the
Leader's Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This
practice lasted for a few weeks while there was no General Secretary and was
ended by Jennie Formby [following her appointment to the role]."
Finally, I voted for Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party,
he represented the best choice for change from what has previously been in
place. That being said, it appears that some of his supporters who post comments
online such as "Heil Hitler" and "Jews are the problem" are
bring him down. There should be one standard to adhere to in the party, and anti-Semitism
shouldn’t be tolerate or people get a pass on their conduct only to get back in
again when the heat dies down. If a complaint is lodged by anyone, the matter
should be taken seriously; there shouldn’t be anything that interferes with it,
not by anyone, no matter how high up in the party.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
1 comment:
Anyone interested in this issue should be aware that the "Jewish Labour Movement" is not, as it claims to be, the representative of Jewish people in the Labour Party.
The organisation "Jewish Voice for Labour" takes a very different line, as does the older and non-party "Jewish Socialist Group" which has much of interest on this and other questions.
It is worth noting that most of those accused of anti-semetism by the JLM are themselves are Jewish.
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