ACT NOW: Ban Chen Quangou from the UK!

 

Mass detention. Systematic surveillance. Widespread torture. Millions in forced labour camps. And the attempt to erase a people’s history and culture.

These abuses are the product of one man, Chen Quanguo.

Today, we have launched a campaign to demand the UK Government hold Chen responsible for these widespread abuses.

Let the government, and the world, know that we will not stay silent. Now is the time for action!

Sign the Petition

The USA has already imposed sanctions on Chen, and it is time for the UK to follow suit. This will set a precedent that other countries can and must follow. Whether you are in the UK or elsewhere in the world, we urge you to sign this petition today.

Please take action and sign our petition to the Foreign Secretary, demanding that Chen is banned from travelling to the UK.

More info: freetibet.org

Porridge Radio - Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers (Re-release)

Given that Porridge Radio were nominated for the Mercury Prize with their excellent Every Bad album it's hardly surprising to see some of their earlier material re-released. This particular album Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers was apparently recorded in a garden shed! It's certainly got that kind of "indie edge" to it as a result and proves an excellent album for this still small time Brighton band.

The band started by Dana Margolin was the result of singing and song writing in her bedroom and she went on to form a band with keyboardist Georgie Stott, bass guitarist Maddie Ryall and drummer Sam Yardley.

This track Enugh is a good example of their early work.

Available from: porridgeradio.bandcamp.com

Porridge Radio: Facebook

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More music with the new Iron Maiden live album over at Howie's Corner 2

Labour Against Antisemitism: Statement on the Withholding of the Whip from Jeremy Corbyn

 

LAAS Statement on the Continuing Withholding of the Whip from Jeremy Corbyn

“The decision to continue to withhold the whip from Jeremy Corbyn is a welcome gesture. However, it must not be used to obscure the disgraceful events of the last 24 hours or the calamity of institutional antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Having announced that his leadership signalled new management of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer’s authority has been completely undermined by the lifting of Mr Corbyn’s suspension yesterday. Less than three weeks on from the publication of the damning EHRC report into anti-Jewish racism in the Labour Party, the Jewish community has again been ignored and failed.

Until an independent complaints process is introduced, and all historical cases of antisemitism from 2015 onwards are reviewed in full, the Labour Party will not be a safe space for British Jews."

LAAS website: labouragainstas.org.

___________________________________

Please note: Further posts and statements can be found on my other blog Howie's Corner 2

Board of Deputies calls on Labour Party to reject Corbyn’s ‘pathetic non-apology’

 

Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has condemned Jeremy Corbyn’s statement made today and called on the Labour Party to reject it.

Marie said: 

 “The Jewish community does not accept this pathetic non-apology from Jeremy Corbyn. Keir Starmer rightly called the day of the release of the EHRC report a “day of shame”. Jeremy Corbyn’s response, by contrast, was shameless. Keir Starmer said, “Those who deny there is a problem are part of the problem. 

Those who pretend it is exaggerated or factional are part of the problem”. Yet Jeremy Corbyn questioned the findings of the report which showed that, under his watch, the Party had acted unlawfully in respect of its treatment of Jews. 

If the Party wants to show it is serious about tackling anti-Jewish racism, it will consign this statement, just like the culture which led to the EHRC’s damning findings, to the dustbin of history. To do otherwise would be a failure of leadership which would risk the Party slipping backwards.”

Website: www.bod.org.uk

Labour Against Antisemitism statement on Labour NEC election results

 

Labour's ... "NEC election results, which delivered a moderate majority after years of hard left dominance, is a positive step for the Labour Party. Keir Starmer should find it considerably easier to implement the vital reforms required to address the institutional anti-Jewish racism described in the recent Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report. 

During the coming weeks and months we hope Sir Keir will engage widely to ensure that not just the letter but also the spirit of the EHRC’s recommendations are followed. This is an important opportunity for the Labour Party leadership to move on constructively from the shame of the last four years, and we hope it will not be wasted.”

More from LAAS: labouragainstas.org.uk

NEC results – moderates tighten grip

The NEC election results saw supporters of Keir Starmer’s leadership increase our grip on the National Executive Committee and secure a working majority for the first time.

The balance of the committee has gone from 18 solid supporters of the leadership out of 37 before the election to 21 out of 39 (with the 2 GMB reps as swing votes and just 16 from the Hard Left) now.

In the CLP Section Labour to Win got three candidates elected (Luke Akehurst, Johanna Baxter and Gurinder Singh Josan) plus Ann Black who we had recommended transferring to. Momentum took the remaining five, down four from their 2018 clean 9-0 clean sweep.

Carwyn Jones, supported by Labour to Win, gained the Welsh Labour Rep seat from the left.

Both the incumbents supported by Labour to Win, Alice Perry and Nick Forbes, were comfortably re-elected as Councillors’ Reps.

Unfortunately, we failed to gain the Youth Rep and the new Disabled Members’ Rep, where we missed out by just 0.3%.

Commiserations to defeated candidates Terry Paul, Michael Payne, Shama Tatler, Kira Lewis and George Lindars-Hammond who all ran great campaigns and showed they have a huge amount to offer the Labour Party in the future.

In the CLP section the nine winning candidates were elected by Single Transferable Vote in the following order:

Order Elected in	Name	Slate	First Preference Votes
1	Luke Akehurst	Labour to Win	21,355
2	Laura Pidcock	Momentum/Grassroots Voice	15,668
3	Johanna Baxter	Labour to Win	9,803
4	Gemma Bolton	Momentum/Grassroots Voice	9,596
5	Gurinder Singh Josan	Labour to Win	4,624
6	Ann Black	Open Labour	7,813
7	Yasmin Dar	Momentum/Grassroots Voice	6,322
8	Nadia Jama	Momentum/Grassroots Voice	5,707
9	Mish Rahman	Momentum/Grassroots Voice	5,879

The vote share by slate with change since last full NEC elections in 2018 was as follows:

Momentum/GRV 37% (down 19%)

Labour to Win 31% (up 1%)

Open Labour 9% (up 5%)

Labour Left Alliance 5% (up 5%)

Tribune 4% (up 4%)

Independents: 14% (up 5%)

There was therefore a swing of 10% from Momentum to Labour to Win since 2018.

Further detailed results are on the party website.

Thank you to everyone who voted, volunteered and campaigned for us.

This is another significant step forward in returning Labour to being a decent, mainstream, election-winning party and ridding the party of extremism and the moral stain of antisemitism. The membership of the party is starting to change.

But it shows we remain up against formidable Hard Left opponents who have deep reserves of cash, data and support that they can deploy in OMOV elections. Their control of many CLPs is disturbing and needs to be tackled. 

Luke Akehurst
Secretary, Labour First

More information: www.labourtowin.org 

Act Now! Belarus: Release 42 trade unionists!

 

A few days ago I wrote about the good news that four union leaders who had been jailed in Belarus were now free. 

We know that our campaign helped. They told us so in a video. [*]

But this afternoon we received some terrible news: some of those very same union leaders, together with around 40 other union members, were arrested by the police and are now being held in a local police station.

They are likely to be held until Monday and possibly much longer.

The independent trade unions of Belarus and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have called for a global campaign of protest.

Please join us in sending an urgent message to the local and national police demanding their release. 

Click here to learn more and send your message today.

Free the 42 jailed trade unionists now!

Eric Lee

*The video with the 4 trade union leaders who were released -- and now. re-arrested -- is here.

Kylie Minogue - Say Something (Official Video)

Kylie Minogue has just released her fifteenth studio album and it's not just a complete departure from her previous country music inspired effort but a revival of the pop princess that we have all come to love and enjoy. 

Being a Kylie fan has always been a rather open "guilty secret" of this ageing Rock fan but when pop music is done well and there's a beautiful woman involved then this old man is happy. 

There's not just some good music on this 12 track album but it's also "happy"and uplifting stuff to potter around the flat durring this boring but necessary lock-down. 

I've chosen my favourite track to feature and encourage you all to grab a piece of Kylie while you can.

Website: www.kylie.com

Labour's "Jewish problem" in Brighton

 

It seems that despite the lock-down and the focus on the US Presidential elections that hard left continues to ply it's tired old mores this time down in Brighton home to many of the worst that Labour has to offer. The meeting includes expelled and former members speaking in defence of Corbyn their martyr apparently crucified in the name of "socialism".

Brighton is a hotbed of far left and in particular ant-Zionist activity. The fixation on the issue by so many of the local party has caused huge frictions, splits, suspensions and expulsions. The Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown is Lloyd Russell-Moyle who as the local paper The Argus reports: 

(The Campaign Against Antisemitism)....complaints against Mr Russell-Moyle include, but are not limited to, allegations he intervened on behalf of a party members facing disciplinary action for anti-Semitic comments –namely Brighton activists Melanie Melvin and Rebecca Massey.

Labour Party member Melanie Melvin was suspended for actions including a tweet which read: “Breaking: Sarin gas was filmed by the BBC at Pinewood on the orders of Mrs May and the Israeli lobby.”

It was alleged that Mr Russell-Moyle wrote to Labour Party general secretary Iain McNicol to say her tweet seemed “unhinged at best” but had, he believed, been made as a parody of online conspiracy theorists.

In July, The Sunday Times reported that Lloyd Russell-Moyle wrote letter in support of Rebecca Massey, an activist who said Israel had Labour and the Tories “under control”, to party headquarters.

These charming individuals are not alone. Brighton and Hove News reported back in July this year:

A Brighton Labour councillor has quit the party after becoming the third member to be investigated for alleged anti-semitism.

Councillor Kate Knight announced that she had quit today (Monday 20 July) after being reported for a slew of recently unearthed posts on Facebook. Brighton and Hove News understands that she had been facing suspension......

Council leader Nancy Platts today said that it brought shame on the whole Labour Party to see these posts. She said: “On behalf of the Labour group, I am truly sorry to the Jewish community for the hurt these posts have caused.

Then there was Amanda Bishop who wanted to march on a Synagogue to defend someone suspended for err..antisemitism.

A Labour member in Brighton suggested that the local party “march to" a local Synagogue to protest against the suspension of a fellow Labour party member over alleged antisemitism, with an MP calling on the police to investigate her for "incitement".

Amanda Bishop was writing in the Brighton and Hove Labour party forum Facebook group in response to news that local council candidate Alex Braithwaite had been suspended from the party.

Miss Braithwaite was suspended two weeks ago over her posts to social media.

One such post claimed that Israel was “giving African migrants 90 days to leave the country so they don’t effect [sic] Israeli bloodline. They must leave or they will be jailed or murdered.”

How anyone can claim there is "no evidence" of antisemitism or "it's only a small number of people" need look no further than the Brighton CLPs for evidence to the contrary.

Tonights' meeting sees Tony Greenstein, Jewish but no friend of his own people on any level given his lifetime obsession with anti-Zionism who was expelled from the Labour Party for his appalling behaviour. Also present is Nichole Brennan:

Brighton & Hove city councillor Nichole Brennan resigned from her council cabinet posts after photos of her holding up a sign calling Israel a “racist, apartheid state” were given to The Argus.

The pictures were taken two years ago at a Hove Town Hall rally against the city council’s adoption of the International Holocaust Recognition Association’s definition of anti-Semitism.

The association defines claims the state of Israel is racist.

Jewish Labour Movement vice-chairman Stephane Sarvery said Cllr Brennan’s sign was “disturbing”.

“What these photos seems to suggest is that for Cllr Brennan the adoption of the IHRA definition by Brightoncouncil was somehow linked to Israel,” he said.

“The fact she associated both is disturbing to say the least.

“It raises the question as to why Cllr Brennan thought it was appropriate to link the fight against anti-Semitism in the UK with the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

If antisemitism is going to be rooted out of the Labour Party Brighton would seem a good place to start.

Statement following third meeting between Jewish community leaders and Labour Leader Keir Starmer

 

The publication of the EHRC Report was welcomed by the Jewish community as it vindicated their concerns. The Jewish Labour Movement (an affiliate of the Labour Party) has already stated:

Members have been subjected to persistent levels of abuse that passed criminal thresholds, whilst Jewish women Members of Parliament such as Luciana Berger and Dame Louise Ellman were left little choice but to resign under extreme duress. Jewish Labour members, our friends and allies have far too often faced the perverse insinuation that we have ‘weaponised’ antisemitism by the very same individuals who have perpetrated it against us, with little if inadequate intervention by those who could have stopped it.

Now the British Board of Deputies the main organisation representation has issued the following Statement following meetings held with Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party: 

Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Goldstein, Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, Mark Gardner, Chief Executive of the Community Security Trust and Mike Katz, Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement said: “We thanked Keir Starmer and the Labour Party for their firm and constructive response to the damning verdict delivered by the Equality and Human Rights Commission last week.

“We expressed our disgust that his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn had, by contrast, responded by diminishing and dismissing the legal findings of the report, thereby challenging the Labour Party’s new commitment to rooting out the problem and giving the Party no choice but to suspend him.

“While we discussed a constructive means of Labour delivering the technical recommendations of the EHRC report, a crucial element of the way forward is about culture.

“Those who are responsible for obstructing the new, positive direction set for the Party around antisemitism and undermining the confidence of the Jewish community and Jewish Labour Party members are part of the problem and the Labour leadership will need to find a way to put a stop to it.

“Calls for leniency on the basis of party unity are misplaced when the issue at hand is antisemitism. If the Party is to show zero tolerance to antisemitism, there can be no unity with antisemites or their enablers. Indeed, the EHRC rightly dismissed such political considerations as being inappropriate for an issue in which Labour has moral and legal responsibilities.

“Recognising the progress made, but that there is still a long way to go, we expressed our ongoing willingness to work with Keir Starmer and Labour to return the Party to being proudly and unequivocally anti-racist once more.”

British Board of Deputies website: www.bod.org.uk

Colombia: Condemn death threats against leaders of the education union

 

In the three decades until 2016, Colombian trade unions report that 990 of their members were murdered. Another 3,000 were threatened with assassination.

And despite the peace process in the country, such threats against trade unionists continue.

On 26 October, death threats were sent to all 15 members of the Executive Committee of FECODE, the Colombian Federation of Education Workers, as well as to the President of the Trade Union Confederation CUT.

The threats took the form of a funeral wreath with the words 'rest in peace'.

Sixteen candles and 16 obituary notices with the name of each targeted union leader were also delivered to the home of Carlos Rivas, FECODE's Secretary for legal affairs.

The threats come in the aftermath of national actions led by trade unions over the social, health, education and economic crisis in the country.

FECODE is also leading an initiative to promote schools as 'zones of peace' through community dialogues.

Enough is enough.

FECODE and the Education International have launched a major new online campaign on LabourStart demanding that the Colombian authorities act to ensure immediate protection measures for the entire FECODE leadership, and for all union and social leaders and activists.

Those trade unionists must be allow to exercise their right to express opinions, to demonstrate and to organise to defend the public education system.

Please take a moment to show your support for this campaign - click here.

Thank you!

Eric Lee

The strange world of Corbyn's supporters

 

As the infighting continues it's interesting to look at the reactions of those individuals who support Jeremy Corbyn. Their views range from sheer blind devotees to completely deranged if not sinister.

One Corbyn supporter, Jamie Harwood from Hexham (whose local Constituency Labour Party is a hotbed of extremism of all sorts) strangely muses:

Starmer's suspending of Corbyn, a man of principal and integrity is weak, cowardly and shows how dangerous media manipulation of truth is right now..

Putting aside the hero worship of Corbyn and obvious hatred of Keir Starmer the remarks Corbyn made were in a televised interview for all to see and Corbyn knew exactly what he was doing. Paying the rebel, making himself the martyr and centre of attention in order to distract from the antisemitism that flourished under his watch.

Maureen Carney writes on Labour Outlook's Facebook Page in response to Richard Burgon heir apparent of the Corbynista movement:

I think it is a truly shocking thing to do to a man who has spent his life fighting for good justice and equality. A shameful act and unforgivable. Sinister forces are at play here. I am increasingly finding Starmer revolting !!!

In this case I did ask her the obvious question:

Which sinister forces are you referring to out of interest? 

I got no reply though one could make an intelligent guess especially as further down she is followed by

Ian Finlay who may give us a clue as to what "sinister" forces are at play in their view:

Richard it is not antisemitism we have to worry about it is the fascism and Keir et al are the worst. Taking money from Israel to ensure a socialist government will never happen. Jeremy Corbyn grew the membership of labour far more than any other leader. At the last election Jeremy still got 3m votes more than Blair’s last election. The right of the Labour Party will never win . He wouldn’t be bought by anyone which is why he has been persecuted. Love you JC keep safe and keep battling . Xxx g and I xx

Those pesky Jews Zionists are at it. again  No antisemitism here. Nothing to see. Move along....

Meanwhile that old accusation about opponents raises it's silly head again as Ricky tells us:

You cannot and will not defeat the Tories until you have cleaned the Labour Party of Tories and those infected with thier idiology. (sic)

I seem to remember these people telling everyone to go join the Tories over the years old Compo was in charge and they wonder why so many Labour voters did, "Red Wall" and all that. The worst defeat Labour has had in decades.

Perhaps Burgon and friends should take Jackie's advice when she requests:

Can you break away and create a new party? I would happily join any Socialist Party.

She is one of many Corbyn supporters who want to break away and more than a few have buggered off already.  If there is one thing that is abundantly clear these so-called "socialists" or whatever they are do not belong in the Labour Party and should be encouraged to leave.

George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain has vacancies I am led to understand!