Last week, the Right disgracefully got Derek Hatton's Labour Party membership suspended once again. It was clear that the real reason for the suspension was the attack on Hatton's previous supposedly left-wing credentials as a supporter of Militant, and his stand as Liverpool City Council Leader, against Tory austerity measures, in the 1980's, under Thatcher. But, rather than admit that, the party bureaucracy used the current meme around anti-Semitism, to drag up a tweet from 2012, in which Hatton had criticised the Israeli government, for its murderous attacks, once again on Palestinian civilians. The Labour leadership having continually appeased the right of the party, and the Tory media in these attacks on the party and party members, who support Corbyn, thereby simply encouraged them to come back for more.
With a number of Blair-right MP's having defected only days before, and with memories still fresh of the attempts of Blair-right members to launch a coup against Corbyn in 2016 and 2017, Tom Watson saw fit to press home that assault once more. He openly declared that he was setting himself as an alternative Leader to Corbyn in parliament, with the proposal to establish a faction of “social-democrats” - as though Corbyn himself is not a social-democrat! - demanding that more right-wing Labour MP's be included in the Shadow Cabinet, so as to isolate Corbyn even more than he is, and with added calls for Corbyn to show his capitulation, by yet further draconian measures against any party members that the right and the Tory media declare to be beyond the pale. It was only a matter of time before the Labour Right, the Blair-rights, and that Tory media, having smelled blood, came after targets closer to Corbyn himself.
Now they have, with their demands that Chris Williamson be suspended, for having made comments that by no stretch of the imagination could be described as “Anti-Semitic”. Indeed, in calling for his suspension, the right, and Blair-rights have not cited “Anti-Semitism”, but the previously used catch-all term of “bringing the party into disrepute”. Well on that basis, all of those right-wing, Blair-right and soft left MP's that have continually sniped against Corbyn's leadership, tried to undermine party democracy, by their ill-conceived coups and motions of no confidence in him, and their willingness to rush to the Tory media, including the worst sections of that media, such as the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail, should have been suspended long ago!
Williamson, has stood up to the attacks of the Blair-rights, and the Tory media far more than has Corbyn's leadership team. Its no wonder that Corbyn's enemies have now come for him, therefore. If they can get Corbyn to throw him under the bus, they know that the game is nearly up for Corbyn's leadership. At a meeting of Momentum in Sheffield, Williamson, quite rightly, said that the party had been far too apologetic, in the face of attacks by the Tory media, and other enemies of the party over he question of anti-Semitism within the party. There is nothing anti-Semitic in what Williamson said. In fact, he talks in that speech about anti-Semitism being “a scourge”, and welcomes the fact that the Labour Party had done more, under Corbyn, to counter it, not only than any other party, but also than had the Labour Party in the past. He talks about the ridiculous situation, therefore, whereby the Labour Party, which has a proud record of fighting racism, including anti-Semitism, should find itself being branded by its enemies as being racist/anti-Semitic.
He is right. Labour Party members, especially those on the left, such as Corbyn, have a proud record of fighting racism and bigotry of all kinds. That is in sharp distinction to the Tories or the Labour Right. Indeed, those on the left who have physically confronted the fascists and hard core racists, in order to defend ethnic communities, including Jewish communities, have often found themselves being criticised by the Tories and the Labour Right for having done so, in similar terms to the way Trump has criticised anti-fascists in the US. The attitude of the Tories and the Labour Right has usually been to tell socialists to ignore the fascists and racists, and that they would then “go away”. But, of course, they never do.
The Labour Right insisted that including all of the examples attached to the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, would not prevent criticism of the actions of the Israeli government and state, but the suspension of Hatton, for doing precisely that, shows that they lied. And, if we look at the expulsion of other LP members that support Corbyn, including Jewish members, we find that it is precisely on this basis of criticism of Israel that their expulsion has initially been justified, even though, often that justification is dropped, and some other trumped up charge, such as the catch all “bringing the party into disrepute”.
The Jewish members of the Labour Party, like Jackie Walker and Tony Greenstein were expelled on that basis. The party bureaucrats attempted to expel Moshe Machover too, but after a large scale revolt by party members in his support, and with lack of any evidence against him, the party had to rescind its decision. Then we had the deplorable case of Marc Wadsworth, a long time anti-racist campaigner who was heavily involved in the Stephen Lawrence campaign who was expelled for having pointed out that some of those in the audience, criticising Corbyn, at the launch of the Chakrabarti Report, had minutes earlier, been seen in conversation with reporters from the party's enemies at the Daily Telegraph. It was claimed that this statement was "anti-Semitic", because the person involved was Ruth Smeeth MP, a Jewish Labour MP! In fact, Wadsworth, like most of us, did not even know who Smeeth was, let alone that she was Jewish!
If we look at the facts of what Williamson was saying it is this. Firstly, he does not deny that anti-Semitism exists, or that it is a “scourge” that has to be fought. Nor does he deny that anti-Semitism exists in the Labour Party, and has to be dealt with. But, the facts, also are these, a large number of the complaints about anti-Semitism, brought to the attention of the party apparatus, were against people who are not even LP members. In fact, that was the case for about 40% of the complaints that were lodged! In fact, the Labour Right and the Tory media are always keen to talk about incidents of anti-Semitism, and bullying against Jewish MP's, and to also talk about the fact that some of those responsible have been sent to gaol. But, they never point out that in almost every case, if not every case, those convicted, far from being members of the LP, let alone Corbyn supporters, have all been supporters of far right organisations!!!
Of the 600 further charges brought to the attention of the party, more than 200 were found not to have any evidence to substantiate them. That left 400 cases that has led to 96 members being suspended, 146 being given a written warning, and 211 being given notice of investigation into their behaviour. Even assuming that all of these 400 cases were to show that those involved were guilty of some form of anti-Semitism, it means that to quantify the extent of the problem inside the Labour Party, it amounts to 0.0066, of the total party membership!
So, who is it that is actually bringing the party into disrepute? Is it those that rush to the party's enemies in the Tory media to claim that this 0.0066 of the party, found guilty of some form of anti-Semitism, shows that the party is “institutionally racist/anti-Semitic”, or is it those that challenge that hysterical narrative, used by enemies of the party for their own political ends, of attacking Corbyn, and his supporters? I think it is only necessary to ask the question to know the answer. Those that bring the party into disrepute are not those like Williamson, who stand up to the unprincipled and lying attacks of the Tories, Blair-rights and Labour Right, but is precisely all those inside the PLP, and other spheres of its officialdom, that have continually tried to undermine Corbyn for the last three years, and to overturn the democratic decisions of party members.
They are not even trying to argue for Williamson's suspension on the basis that what he said was in some way anti-Semitic. They have exposed their true game, because what they are actually attacking Williamson for, is simply expressing an opinion, on the leadership's failure to stand up to the attacks of the party's enemies. Those enemies are clearly gearing up for another such assault. Watson is their putative PLP Leader, preparing to assume that position, probably following any General Election that might happen in the near future, or else before that, if May delays in calling it.
Williamson was absolutely right, Corbyn and the Labour Leadership have been spineless in standing up for their principles, and opposing the attacks of the Labour Right and Blair-rights over the last three years, and they have thereby encouraged them to press ahead further on each occasions, as they seek to isolate him, and undermine his position, by getting him to continually fail to stand in solidarity with his own supporters inside the party. If they get away with this, and the fact that Williamson has obviously be leaned on by the leadership to make some kind of apology himself does not bode well, then the days of the Corbyn leadership are numbered.
The fact that already there has been a widespread Twitter campaign by party members in support of Williamson, is a good sign under#IStandWithChrisWilliamson. Members should flood the NEC with motions from branches, CLP's, and trades unions in defence of Williamson, against the witch-hunt of Corbyn supporting members, and attacking the Blair-right splitters and fifth columnists in the party that seek to attack the party at every opportunity.
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