Reinstate Jeremy Corbyn!

Silence on the witch-hunt should never have been an option!
Appeasement does not work!

Jeremy Corbyn was absolutely right in the comments that got him suspended: "One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents".

It is a real shame that he did not say so when he could have made a real difference to the civil war in the Labour Party. Unfortunately, it was the Corbyn leadership’s silence and complicity in the witch-hunt that made his suspension possible in the first place. Hundreds of socialists and Corbyn supporters have been suspended and expelled for comments that often do not amount to much more than what Corbyn said.

We need to understand that the campaign by the right inside and outside the party was never about fighting antisemitism. It was always a campaign designed to get rid of Corbyn and make sure that the Labour Party becomes once again a safe “second eleven” that could run Britain on behalf of capitalism, and follow the US into any new military adventure.

Sadly, it appears as if Corbyn and his allies still do not understand this basic reality. The six candidates supported by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance in the current NEC elections have made sure not to mention the word ‘witch-hunt’, or propose any actions on how to stop it.

In a tweet following his suspension, Corbyn writes that, “I’ve made absolutely clear those who deny there has been an antisemitism problem in the Labour Party are wrong. I will continue to support a zero tolerance policy towards all forms of racism.”

Corbyn himself has now become a victim of this “zero tolerance” approach he champions. The fight for socialism is intrinsically linked to a culture of free speech and open debate on all issues – including, importantly, the question of Israel/Palestine. 

More info about Labour Against the Witchhunt 

• At Labour Party conference 2018 and 2019, LAW handed out more than 5,000 leaflets and hundreds of Palestine flags and organised successful fringe meetings with hundreds in attendance.
   
• More than 7,650 people have signed our ‘Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn and the left on the Labour Party NEC’
  The letter, initiated by Labour Against the Witchhunt and signed by Noam Chomsky, investigative journalist Asa Winstanley, former vice-chair of Momentum Jackie Walker, Israeli socialist Moshe Machover and many more, calls on the Labour leadership to resist increasingly vicious attempts by the right in and outside the party to conflate justified criticism of the actions of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism and to put an end to the witch-hunt against supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. The letter is available online here.
   
• Almost 5,000 people signed our petition urging Rebecca Long-Bailey to distance herself from the Board of Deputies' so-called '10 Demands'. Her refusal to do so has played a big role in her losing in the Labour leadership election, we believe. The petition is available here.
   
• LAW sponsors include:
  • Alexei Sayle, comedian
  • Noam Chomsky, author and activist
  • Ken Loach, film director
  • Ian Hodson, president of the Bakers Union
  • LAW’s honorary presidents are Professor Moshé Machover and Ken Livingstone
     
• Launched on October 21 2017, LAW celebrated an early success: pressure from members, branches and CLPs led to the reversal of the expulsion of emeritus professor Moshé Machover, one of a long line of socialists and Corbyn supporters expelled or suspended on bogus charges of anti-semitism. Machover is now Honorary President of Labour Against the Witchhunt.
   
• Celebrated film director Ken Loach spoke at our first public rally on January 29 2018 in London. Click here.

More info about Labour Left Alliance

Appeal for a democratic Labour Left Alliance

The degeneration of Momentum has reached a critical point. Jon Lansman’s attack on Jewish Voice for Labour as “not being part of the Jewish community” and his demand that Chris Williamson MP should be expelled from the Labour Party are indefensible. Sadly, Momentum at a national level has become an organisation that has now fully joined the witch-hunt against Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.

It is not good enough to call for people to join this or that existing group. We have to be honest: None of our existing Labour left organisations are, by themselves, the answer. But they can be part of the solution.

We therefore believe there is now an urgent need to build a democratic, transparent and socialist Labour Left Alliance that:

• organises democratically and transparently;
• both supports a left leadership against attacks by the right, and is independent and able to criticise our left wing leaders when necessary;
• opposes racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of discrimination and is consistently internationalist, a stance which by definition includes support for the democratic and national rights of the Palestinians;
• campaigns for the free movement of people;
• opposes attempts to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism and opposes the witch-hunt against the left;
• campaigns to radically transform and democratise the Labour Party and the trade unions;
• campaigns for open selection so that the Parliamentary Labour Party better reflects the views of the vast majority of members;
• campaigns for a disciplinary process in the Labour Party which is wholly based on natural justice and due process;
• supports and encourages struggles against austerity and all forms of oppression.