An Open Letter to the Leader of the Labour Party
Don’t expel Moshé Machover
Open letter to the Leader of the Labour Party
Free Speech on Israel, 13th October 2017
Over 500 Labour Party members have added their names to the online version of this letter. You can add yours
Update: By 13.30 on 23 October the number of people signing this letter had exceeded 1200.
We, the undersigned members of the Labour Party, condemn the expulsion of Moshé Machover from our Party. This decision is a political attack on a life-long socialist activist, and a scholar of international renown.
Professor Machover has been told that his expulsion results from his ‘support’ for Labour Party Marxists and the Communist Party of Great Britain. The evidence offered for this is that he has had articles printed in their publications, and has spoken at their meetings. This is no evidence at all. It is, for example, completely normal for senior figures in our Party (including MPs and indeed our current leader) as well as senior figures in the trade union movement who are Labour Party members, to write for Communist Party publications.
There has never been a suggestion that willingness to engage with these publications constituted support to a rival political organisation. This is Guilt by Association, once notoriously indulged in by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The apparent implication is that membership of our Party is incompatible with publishing in outlets that may not always support the Labour Party. Such a rule would clearly make it ultra vires for Labour Party members to write anything in the pages of the Financial Times, The Times, the Daily Mail, The Express, and so on. It is surely inconceivable that a major political party would seek to prevent its members from expressing their views publicly in the major newspapers of the country, on the grounds that these papers offer support to a rival political party. This proffered reason for the expulsion of Professor Machover is evidently a pretext.
The real reason is surely revealed in the opening remarks of the letter to Professor Machover announcing his expulsion. These refer to allegations made against an “apparently antisemitic article” authored by him, which “appears to meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism”. No source of these allegations is identified in the letter. No argument is provided to justify this absurd allegation against Professor Machover, an Israeli Jew and a lifelong anti-racist activist. Criticisms of Israel, in respect both of its brutal policies against the Palestinians, and of its character as a systematically and constitutionally discriminatory state, are not antisemitic in any reasonable understanding of the term. Not even by reference to the flawed and discredited IHRA definition in the form accepted by the Labour Party can such criticisms be considered antisemitic.
The character and personal history of Professor Machover speak powerfully against this absurd charge of antisemitism. An author of books and many articles on Zionism and its varied iniquities, and for three decades a founder and leader of the Socialist Organisation in Israel (Matzpen), he is a life-long activist against racism of all kinds, both in Israel and elsewhere. The allegation against him is a serious abuse of the accusation of antisemitism.
That there is no rationally sustainable ground for this expulsion raises serious concerns about the operation of the party’s apparatus for dealing with disciplinary matters. The letter of expulsion was signed by the head of disputes, located within the governance and legal unit. The operation of our Party’s Compliance Unit has also given grave cause for concern. All of course are subject to the party’s general secretary Iain McNicol. He has ultimate responsibility for a process which has seen Machover excluded without an inquiry, and without the opportunity to answer the accusations against him. The Chakrabarti report called for all disciplinary procedures of the Party to follow principles of natural justice, and to do so transparently; this has patently not happened in this case.
From its complete failure to observe these principles it will be widely inferred that pressure has been exerted on the relevant Labour Party organisational units from supporters of Israel (not excluding the Israeli Embassy) to act against critics of Israel and of Zionism. That they have exposed themselves to such criticism is an indication of how far the organisation has deviated from due process, and from its responsibilities. The Compliance Unit in particular cannot allow itself, cannot be allowed, to harass members of the Party who support justice for Palestinians. It must not become party to the misuse of the accusation of antisemitism for partial and propagandistic purposes. It cannot allow itself, or be allowed, to become a mechanism for silencing criticism of Israel, and denying its own party members the right to speak out on grave injustices.
We, Jewish and non-Jewish members of the Labour Party, call upon the Leader of the Party, and on the National Executive, to reinstate Professor Machover pending investigation and to apologise to him for the totally unjustified assaults that have been made on his integrity.
We further call for an immediate inquiry to be established, headed by an independent legal expert, to review all the circumstances of this particular expulsion; and also to investigate the operation of the Compliance Unit, including the moral, political and legal implications of the Unit’s procedures and its recent decisions.
signed
Name | Constituency Labour Party |
Brian Eno | Kensington |
Ken Loach | Bath |
Sir Geoffrey Bindman | Hornsey and Wood Green |
Prof. Tim Shallice FRS | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Prof. Avi Shlaim | Oxford and Abingdon |
Gillian Slovo | Hampstead and Kilburn |
Hillary Wainwright | Hackney South and Shoreditch |
Prof. Haim Bresheeth | Hornsey and Wood Green |
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead | Hackney South & Shoreditch |
Cristel Amiss | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Sonya Andermahr | South Northants |
Susan Atkins | Sheffield Central |
Ken Baker | Altrincham and Sale West |
Prof. Mona Baker | Altrincham and Sale West |
Caroline Barker | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Graham Bash | South Thanet |
Labina Basit | Uxbridge and South Ruislip |
Kevin Bean | Wavertree |
Dr. Karen Bett | East Renfrewshire |
Jo Bird | Wirral South |
Dr. Susan Blackwell | South Suffolk |
Caroline Bond | Leads North East |
Claude Boucher | Brentford and Isleworth |
Dr. Robert Boyce | Holborn and St. Pancras |
Ben Bruges | Hastings and Rye |
Emily Burnham | Finchley & Golders Green |
Prof. Raymond Bush | Headingly |
Steve Bush | Tiverton & Honiton |
Flis Callow | Heeley |
Sara Callaway | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Neil Cameron | Sheffield Central |
Laura Casimir | Exeter |
John Chalcraft | Hackney North and Stoke Newington |
Kay Chapman | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Sahail Chohan | Heeley |
Janel Chohan | Heeley |
Sylvia Cohen | Finchley and Golders Green |
Michael Coleman | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Alan Coles | South Northants |
Shanon Coles | Leeds NW |
Wendy Collins | Leeds North East |
Steve Cooke | Stockton North |
Sandra Crawford | Cambridge |
Anya-Nicola Darr | East Devon |
Prof. Miriam David | Hornsey and Wood Green |
Colm Doherty | Finchley and Golders Green |
Jack Dunn | Heeley |
Sian Evans | Brent Central |
Roisin Francis | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Pete Firmin | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Miriam Franklin | Hackney North and Stoke Newington |
Suzanne Gannon | Colne Valley |
Kevin Gill | Sheffield Hallam |
Claire Glasman | Holborn & St Pancras |
Helen Glazier | Sheffield Hallam |
Murray Glickman | Ilford South |
Tricia Griffin | Leeds NE |
Andrew Gunton | Northampton North |
Cathie Hammond | Hampstead and Kilburn |
Ann Hollows | Sheffield Hallam |
Mike Holmes | Sheffield Hallam |
Philipo Hutchinson | Burton and Uttoxeter |
Riva Joffe | Holborn and St Pancras |
Clifford Joines | Sefton |
Martin Jordin | Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough |
Michael Kalmanovitz | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Deborah Knight | Finchley and Golders Green |
Diana Kornbrot | Finchley and Golders Green |
Richard Kuper | Holborn & St Pancras |
Elizabeth Lawrence | Sheffield Hallam |
Leah Levane | Hastings and Rye |
Tom Loeffler | North-West Bristol |
Ian Lowery | SW Bedfordshire |
Judith Mabbott | Sheffield Hallam |
Sandra Mann | Finchley & Golders Green |
Nicola Mann | Finchley & Golders Green |
Nathan Mann | Finchley & Golders Green |
Jenny Manson | Finchley and Golders Green |
Stephen Marks | Oxford District |
Angela Martin | Sheffield Central |
Jo MacNeill | Riverside |
Christina McCabe | South Cambs |
Jane Mckie | York |
Ben Mckie | Sheffield Hallam |
Lara Mellor | Bracknell |
Tony Mercer | Sheffield Hallam |
Eleanor Midgley | Sheffield Hallam |
Simon Mohun | Holborn and St Pancras |
Michael J Morgan | Scunthorpe |
Ross Moore | Colne Valley |
Rebecca Moore | Colne Valley |
John Morton | Holborn and St Pancras |
P Mosteshar-Gharai | Oxford West and Abingdon |
Bob Mountain | SW Herts |
Dermot Murphy | Sheffield Hallam |
Pat Larkin | Harlow |
Keith Nathan | Leeds NW |
Matt Nathan | Islington South & Finsbury |
Prof. Mica Nava | Islington North |
Diana Neslen | Ilford South |
Jeanette Oates | Epping Forest |
Michael Parkinson | Nether Edge and Sharrow |
Wendy Patterson | Newark |
Sue Penny | Tottenham |
Sarah Perigo | Leeds North East |
Julie Pearn | Sheffield Central |
Rachel Peto | NE Leeds |
Peter Pierce | Eltham |
Kathryn Porteus | Leeds North East |
David J. W. Prichard-Jones | Vauxhall |
Caitlin Procter | Sheffield Hallam |
P A Railston | Haringey |
Roland Rance | Walthamstow |
Lee Rock | Sheffield Hallam |
Prof. Andrew Samuels | Islington South |
Adrian Scandrett | South Northants |
Prof. Richard Seaford | Exeter |
Glyn Secker | Dulwich and West Norwood |
Marian Sedley | Calderdale |
Prof. Tom Selwin | Holborn and St Pancras |
Andy Shallice | Sheffield Heeley |
John Simmons | Hornsey & Wood Green |
Carlos Soto | Finchley & Golders Green |
Ben Southern-Thomas | Chingford and Woodford Green |
Alexandra Camille Sutton | South Thanet |
Anna Thorburn | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Julian Townsend | Camberwell and Peckham |
Steve Voros | Portsmouth North |
Alan Wallace | Leeds North East |
Daniel Waterman | International |
Sam Weinstein | Hampstead & Kilburn |
Barbara White | Ilford South |
Naomi Wimborne Idrissi | Chingford and Woodford Green |
Neville Wright | Sheffield Hallam |
Gill Yudkin | North Islington |
Prof. John Yudkin | Islington North |
Matthias Zurowski | Tottenham |
Is this petition online? Can other members sign it, and how?
Ive given this a lot of thought an finally decided that I am unable to sign the open letter to Jeremy Corbyn.
Here are my reasons:
We all know Jeremy Corbyn didn’t expel Moshe Machover.
We also know Jeremy has not influenced the party machinery so that it would take this action.
So what will be the impact of this open letter on the leadership that I and most Labour Party members support? Who will benefit from an open letter? I’m afraid that it will only serve to provide the MSM with yet more material to feed their frenzy forJeremy’s and Labour’s blood and just as their focus is turned on the Tories who are going into meltdown. To think a hostile media will do anything positive for us with this is worse than naive.
The success of Jeremy’s leadership has come through the concerted efforts of grassroots members discussing and building cobfidence and winning votes and officers at local level for the transformation of the Labour party that we are all contributing to. Change IS happening. Passing motions at our CLPs in support of Moshe Machover is the most powerful way to send a message to HQ and the compliance unit that we don’t like what they are doing.
That’s how we have achieved our successes during the past 2 years. By using the party structure and rules to express real socialist and humane values and politics. That’s our most potent resource.
Moshe Machover doesnt need this open letter. He needs us to trust ourselves to succeed through continuing to change the party.
It would be great if an up to date list list of the resolutions which have been passed by local CLP branches in support of Moshe could be kept on this website.
There is a list of the ones we know of at http://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/labour-party-policy/branch-motions-resolutions-expulsion-moshe-machover/ . If you know of more we are missing please send details to [email protected]
How can I email this letter to friends who are not on FB where it available to sign?
Ask them to visit https://is.gd/DefendMachover
Please add my name. I am a Labour Party member, and I seem to remember that both Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, as well as many, many socialists were and are Jewish, including Moshe Machover. In solidarity with them, and against the apartheid of the Zionist state, and the shameful oppression of the people of Palestine I add my voice.
Dr Eric Windgassen,
Consultant Psychiatrist