Labour Activists 4 Justice – 27 Feb update

Latest: Feb. 27, 2021

Dear Supporter

In an important development in our case to bring fairness and justice to the Labour Party’s disciplinary process, the six members of Labour Activists For Justice (LA4J) along with two other claimants appeared on Wednesday before Master Sullivan of the Queen’s Bench to ask whether the cases could be heard together and to challenge the Labour Party’s demand for a preliminary hearing which would have put off – possibly for ever – a full hearing.

Master Sullivan found in our favour on both counts.

In making her decisions to allow the new members to join the case and to refuse the preliminary trial, Master Sullivan had regard to both the legal issues and to the huge increases in costs and time that a separate case for the new members and a preliminary hearing would incur.

Diana Neslen, an 81 year-old member of an orthodox synagogue who the Labour Party has accused of antisemitism, and who is one of the original members of LA4J said :

‘I think it’s a pity and a shame that the Party should waste members’ money defending the indefensible.  I think their main reason for refusing to allow the new members to join and asking for a preliminary hearing was to drive our costs to a point where we could no longer continue. I’m delighted with the Master’s ruling’.

‘Perhaps now the Party will go away and reconsider their actions, and do the simple and honourable thing of changing the disciplinary process to make it fair and just, in line with the promises they made to the EHRC.’

Uniting their cases with LA4J are Alma Yaniv and Palestinian journalist Sameh Habeeb, who are both currently suspended from the Party. There were originally five applicants to join the case, but less than a week before the hearing the Party suddenly dropped their charges against three of them without explanation – charges which had remained on the Party’s books, anonymous and unspecified, for over a year. Yaniv and Habeeb are supported by the Left Legal Fighting Fund.

Speaking about his victory at the High Court, journalist Sameh Habeeb said:

“I joined the Labour Party after I came to the UK as a refugee from Gaza. I thought it shared my values, but the Party has let me down. I’ve been suspended for over two years and have been gagged from responding to constant attacks on my character.

“I never wanted to take my own Party to court, but there was no other way to get justice. This legal action has the potential to change how Labour treats its members, which would prevent others in my position from being subjected to this gross unfairness.”

Alma Yaniv added:

“The Labour Party suspended me nearly two years ago. Since then, I’ve been left in limbo, unable to properly respond to the allegations that have been levelled against me.

“Rather than resolving our cases as quickly as possible, it seems to me that the Party is simply trying to cause more unnecessary delays. Labour has treated pro-Palestine members with contempt. At last, with this court process, we have a chance of achieving justice.”

The full hearing has been scheduled in the Court session beginning on the 8th June.

Master Sullivan awarded LA4J £25 000 of its costs to be paid by the Labour Party, leaving  the Labour Party with a total bill of over £75k. 

However, we have incurred – and will continue to incur – further costs, so we are still seeking contributions to our legal funds.

Please share and give generously if you can – this case sets out to benefit all LP members with fair and just processes, and we will continue this fight.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justice-4-labour-party-members/ 

Please watch (and share) our videos on javelinmedia.org, individual links can be found in our previous updates.

Comments (6)

  • Margaret West says:

    Absolutely brilliant result in the courts! Long may it continue.

    I really cannot understand the LP leadership .. do they think
    party members will just put up with the injustice?

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  • Alan Stanton says:

    Quoting from two of the comments reported above by JVL:
    “Labour has treated pro-Palestine members with contempt. At last, with this court process, we have a chance of achieving justice.” — Alma Yaniv
    “This legal action has the potential to change how Labour treats its members, which would prevent others in my position from being subjected to this gross unfairness.” — Sameh Habeeb

    From the little I know personally I do not think the issue is only being pro-Palestinian or critical of some aspect of the Israeli government. Sometimes Israel/Palestine is entirely irrelevant.

    As many people have said, the Party’s complaints process appears to be unfair and broken. This applies to aspects such as delays; and a lack of timely responses. Leaving people in limbo – as mentioned above – seems not uncommon. Nor is it apparently unusual to hear about gross insensitivity to the impact on loyal and hardworking members who may also be under enormous personal and family strain during the pandemic.

    On this blog Party members have told us they are instructed to keep silent. But often they are silent because they don’t actually know the details of the complaints, nor the supposed evidence and nor the names of accusers.

    Complainants may be in a similar position : not interviewed; nor given any information about the responses to allegations.

    It also appears that some complaints and the gagging instructed by the Party may be exploited to remove some member or members from contested local Party elections.

    To be clear, I have the barest acquaintance with perhaps three or four of the JVL members who have commented on the complaints process. I have not met and know nothing about Alma Yaniv and Sameh Habeeb. But from what I know from other members their comments appear accurate.

    Can I please also add that friends of mine who have spoken to a few professional party staff have found them both helpful and unhappy that such cases have not been properly and fairly dealt with and resolved.

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  • sean clarke says:

    excellent news and thank you for update,i have followed this case and was hoping to see update/outcome, hopefully in major press reports,notably the Guardian which has reported on alleged antisemitisim, zealously…however I saw nothing unless it was buried or reported on its website for only a few hours which I have noticed they have done in the past,presumably to cover themselves as having “published”a report. keep up the good fight.

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  • patrick lonergan says:

    As a Labour Party member following your campaign I am really pleased to see this result.
    Like many others in the party I feel silenced by the party bureaucracy. As a branch officer in Woking CLP I am aware that the party is very reliant on branch officers to
    do do important ‘administration ‘ work as well as promote party policies.
    With local elections preparations starting
    many experienced officers are still suspended across the country. This will make it very difficult for some to campaign effectively for Labour.

    Yours in solidarity
    Patrick

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  • Jan Brooker says:

    I know both Alma and Johnny Beggs [a.k.a. ….]. I’m pleased they are part of this challenge, but it came too late for me. Suspended for a year; just prior to annual subs being collected, I resigned; partly because my proud Black African partner had just been charged with 4 AS and racism accusations [and decided to resign] for *daring* to make a line-and-a-half comment on a Jacqui Walker post alluding to the Maafa [African Holocaust]; and her family survivors of the Biafran War/Genocide, related also to Olive Morris. I wonder what the %s are of Black and Jewish members being accused by LP apparatchiks [of racism and AS] many of whom have been shown by The Report to be [closet] racists? Seems Black members are supposed to *know their place*.

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  • Doug says:

    As a member of the party can we raise a petition where if we get say 10,000 signatures then it has to be put on the agenda for the next meeting
    Diana Neslan has summed it up perfectly
    ‘Why are we wasting members money defending the indefensible ‘
    Can we ask for legal advice to be seen and debated by NEC

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