Labour’s suspends Councillors who vote for peace
JVL Introduction
Labour is still busy suspending councillors because they have supported calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. We cannot imagine what heinous misdemeanour Labour considers this to be. They have not suspended those MPs who voted for a ceasefire so really what is this about? Do some in Labour believe that calls for a ceasefire are antisemitic? Did those ceasefire motions criticise Israel? Is it because they failed to go along with the unbalanced narrative, contained, for example, in Labour’s Ceasefire amendment in Parliament, that while Hamas killed Israelis, what followed was a “heartbreaking loss of life” in Gaza but with no agent named as responsible?
JVL’s Mike Cushman who lives in the same constituency as suspended Jewish Councillor Martin Abrams is quoted in the article: “It is sad that Lambeth Labour insisted on doing this even after the national party has moved much closer to calling for a ceasefire and on the same evening as Worthing Council voted unanimously, including all its Labour councillors, to support a call for an immediate ceasefire.”
This article was originally published by Morning Star on Tue 27 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
Labour suspends councillors for backing calls for Gaza ceasefire
Labour councillors in two London boroughs have been suspended and face disciplinary action for backing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Lambeth Council’s Labour administration suspended four of its councillors today, including Jewish councillor Martin Abrams and a Hindu representative, for supporting a motion calling for a ceasefire.
Mr Abrams is an outspoken Jewish pro-Palestinian activist and spokesman for the left-wing Momentum campaign group.
He said: “My vote for the ceasefire motion was a matter of conscience for me.
“My great grandparents were persecuted and driven from Eastern Europe over 100 years ago in the pogroms of Kiev and came to this country as refugees with nothing, leaving and losing many close family in the process.
“It is exactly this history of persecution of my close ancestors in Europe over the ages that meant I was brought up to always stand with the oppressed and against oppression and when I say never again, I mean never again: for everybody.”
A Momentum spokesperson said:“This is an outrageous attack on a Jewish Labour councillor for having the temerity to stand up for the people of Gaza.
“Martin is a principled socialist and internationalist — and it is shocking that he has been forced out for standing up for a position endorsed by the majority of voters. This anti-democratic decision should be immediately reversed.”
It comes after three Victoria ward councillors in Hackney were suspended last Tuesday after backing the Green Party’s motion to discuss a ceasefire. The motion has not yet been heard.
Councillors Penny Wrought, Claudia Turbet-Delof and Clare Joseph have been described as “some of the most dedicated, hard-working” members of the council by former Hackney South & Shoreditch CLP chairwoman Dr Coral Jones.
Hackney North MP Diane Abbott had the whip suspended by Labour last year amid an apparent purge of MPs who do not comply with the leadership’s views.
More than 100 councillors have resigned since the start of the Gaza crisis and the scandal caused by party leader Sir Keir Starmer’s overt support for Israeli war crimes.
Last week, Labour proposed an amendment to the SNP call for an immediate ceasefire, indicating a relaxing of its stance against the position.
But campaigners have expressed outrage at the suspensions.
Jewish Voice for Labour’s Mike Cushman said that the group is “shocked and disappointed but not surprised” at the decision to suspend the councillors.
He told the Star: “It is sad that Lambeth Labour insisted on doing this even after the national party has moved much closer to calling for a ceasefire and on the same evening as Worthing Council voted unanimously, including all its Labour councillors, to support a call for an immediate ceasefire.
“This shows a narrow-mindedness among parts of the Labour Party that cannot endure any dissent and wants total obedience to a party line — even after the party line seems to have changed.
“It is clear that in today’s Labour Party even being a Jew does not allow you to have a considered opinion about Israel’s actions and the appalling level of killing and destruction in Gaza.”
Dr Jones, who resigned from the Labour Party in November over its stance on Gaza as well as the policy of further use of the private sector in the NHS, said that as a resident of the Hackney ward, she was “really shocked that such active, caring” councillors were suspended.
She told the Star: “Residents in Victoria ward will be disadvantaged by their suspension as they will not be able to continue their roles on council committees [nor] in [the] Labour group to influence council policies.
“Labour members are very distressed by the factional control which London Labour and the Hackney Labour group impose on councillors, irrespective of the benefit such councillors bring to the ward and the borough.”
Local councillors who have quit Labour over its stance on Gaza are meeting in London this weekend to co-ordinate their work and develop their positioning as an alternative to their former party.
A statement from organisers said: “Disciplinary sanctions on Labour councillors wanting to speak out against the Gaza genocide will only drive more local representatives out of the party.
“Starmer’s opposition to a ceasefire, only recently modified, is destroying the party.”
Speakers will include Andrew Feinstein, reportedly considering standing against Sir Keir in his Camden constituency, and former Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob.
There will be a follow-up conference in Blackburn in April.
The Labour Party did not respond to a request for comment on the Lambeth suspensions.
I am increasingly having to ask this question when people talk about “antisemitism”. Sad times.
What definition of antisemitism are you referring to? The one that persecutes Jews or the one that persecutes socialist Jews?
There seems no point. LP’s actions are shameful, and the Party does not seem close to shamed reconsideration. LP bears heavy responsibility for the consequences.
Starmer will hesitate to take action against MPs to maintain the apparent illusion of unity. It’s another matter with councillors because that’s just a hidden cost. Labour has dived into the abyss.
Ken Loach said over two years ago that the “moment” was ripe for a new political party, headed by the Trades Unions, MP’s like those from the Campaign Group and local activists at grassroots level. It appears that “moment” is long past, but the new political landscape has been made clear by the ideological chasm created by the Zionists Genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. The huge groundswell of activism in support of the Palestinians against Genocide and the treachery of Starmer and Sunak, means the establishment and its apparatchiks, including right-wing Union Leaders and politicians is the new “enemy”. It’s the enemy of social change, of the right to protest, and of what the allegedly “socialist” Labour Party once stood for (?).
We need to stand up and keep protesting, no matter the cost, thinking of the 30,000 already dead, the 70,000 injured and those still buried under the rubble in the concentration camp known as “The Gaza Strip”.
Its absolutely intolerable to have a barrister voting for genocide but that is what Starmer is – a fascist in the making. I admire all those who have stood with their conscience and no right from wrong. Complain to the Law Society and the legal ombudsman. He should be disbarred as do any other lawyer voting for crimes against humanity. This country and the Labour Party is being run by Israeli’s and peter Meddling Mandelson I have a feeling. I will never vote Labour again.