Labour NEC Lobby defends Left-Wing Anti-Semitism

A number of left wing organisations are to picket the Labour Party's National Executive Committee meeting. The usual suspects will be there in the form of Jewish Voice for Labour a tiny and totally unrepresentative group of mainly communist-orientated Jews,Labour Against the witch hunt a front for the Labour Party Marxist, themselves a front for even smaller Communist Party of Great Britain and some Momentum groups.

LAW have printed the following leaflet for tomorrows picket:


Given the alleged size of Momentum the turnout of 110 people at Camden Momentums joined up meeting with 16 other Momentum groups shows something is amiss.  The comrades adopted the following resolution:

On 20 August, over 110 people turned up for an emergency meeting called by Camden Momentum and attended by 16 other Momentum groups from London and the South East. They were responding to the latest attacks on the Labour Party leadership and the movement it has called forth which has made Labour the biggest party in Europe. 

Mounting pressure from the pro-Israel lobby, including right wing Labour MPs, backed by the corporate media and the BBC urges Jeremy Corbyn to agree that the party adopts the IHRA examples equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. 

People were outraged that the implications for Palestinians are hardly considered when it is their lives, their land, their whole society which are in the balance. People also felt strongly that decisions about the future direction of the party and of Momentum were being negotiated over the heads of the members.

The meeting agreed overwhelmingly: 

To call A MASS LOBBY OF THE NEC on 4th September when it is expected to vote on this issue.
And to demand:

“The members elected Jeremy Corbyn. The IHRA definition would return the party to the right which we voted down by a large majority – twice. Therefore, the members, not the NEC, nor the PLP, must decide whether or not to adopt the IHRA examples. WE DEMAND THAT THE DECISION BE PUT TO A VOTE OF ALL LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS.”

One left-wing group the Alliance for Workers Liberty calls on the rest of the left to behave, but their call is likely to fall on deaf ears. They issued a statement of which the following is an excerpt:

The adoption of the IHRA by the Labour Party does not, as its opposers have said, mean the National Executive has to junk the code it has already put together. A code of conduct serves a different purpose to a definition and they are not mutually exclusive.

Hostility to the IHRA is completely disproportionate to the effect the definition will actually have. The constant refrain from its opponents that it can be used to stop legitimate criticism of Israel is completely unfounded.

It is tied closely with the dominant left orientation to criticism of Israel to the exclusion of all else is required above all else. These “leftists” believe the most pressing issue for Corbyn’s Labour must be its ability to champion the Palestinian cause. Of course IHRA critics ignore that Corbyn opposes a blanket boycott of Israel and stands explicitly for two states, two of the most important tenets of a programme for lasting peace.

The purpose of the Camden Momentum lobby can only be to defend a licence to make calls for the “smashing of Israel” and worse, make the kind of antisemitic remarks that have appeared in the comments on the Facebook event, including talk of a powerful “Jewish lobby” and the “use of the Holocaust to guilt trip the world”.

Whatever the best intentions of anyone who supports this action, antisemitism lurks barely beneath the surface.

Momentum and Labour members should oppose the lobby and support the Labour National Executive’s in both adopting the IHRA and refining its existing code of conduct.