Nat Sims refers herself to Jennie Formby for “antisemitism”

In order to assist others who may wish to mirror Nat Sims’ own courageous action, I have written a preface to her letter including a template that anyone is most welcome to use for their own purposes:

A CALL TO ACTION: AN ACT OF SELF-DENUNCIATION!

Dear friends,

It is time for us to take our gloves off! Although we deeply admire Jeremy Corbyn and acknowledge that he was perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the pernicious reality on the ground for so many of us who believe in the deep moral ingrained values of our humanity, many of us are critical of the fact that he did not stand up to the malicious bullying of the Israel Lobby, whose smearing tactics were clear from the outset. Furthermore, JC’s attempts to placate them, apologise repeatedly for acts and intentions that he did not do or have, and ultimately allow the IHRA definition of antisemitism, lock, stock and barrel, to steer the present agenda of the Compliance Unit, have now lead to the most dismaying situation of all. A veritable snowball purge has been unleashed and huge numbers of ardent defenders of humanitarian values and, more specifically, defenders of Palestinian rights and critics of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and apartheid reality, are now being removed from the party under the guise of this new, McCarthyian IHRA definition.

Not least, many anti-zionist Jews, Jews critical of Israel’s apartheid reality and Israel’s ethno-supremacism and ongoing oppression of the Palestinians, Jews who support the brave efforts of the JVL (Jewish Voice for Labour), are themselves being suspended and expelled from the party under charges of “antisemitism”. It goes without saying that this “persecution” of Jews for not subscribing to the establishment policy of defending Israel’s actions and policies is itself a clear form of antisemitism in its own right! As if this “wrong-kind-of Jew” is no longer welcome within the Labour Party. Jo Bird is only the latest of a long list of such “eliminations”.

More to the point, regardless of their religion or creed, all should have the right within society, and certainly within a party which is meant to represent core, humanitarian values, to criticise a country that is undisguisedly racist in its ideology and practice and is continually subjugating a people and their culture to the most abysmal forms of violence and oppression and denial of their most basic human rights!

We cannot allow the Labour Party to abandon the values that we hold so dear and to cajole its critics into submission or to act via veritable show trials to eliminate them completely from its midst! We can no longer remain silent and can no longer allow this to continue without a concerted and unified reaction from our side. For without this, the sad post-Corbyn reality (where the Labour Party candidates have already signed into accepting the Board of Deputies 10 ‘pledges’ – pledges coming from a historically deeply conservative [NOT Labour] body with a highly contentious defence of Israel policies) will effectively cement itself, cutting away at the deeply compassionate humanitarian values of the party for which so many joined.

I think the way forward is clear. It requires both courage and resolution. Ms. Natalie Strecker (FB name ‘Nat Sims’) has shown us the way with her formidable letter below. I personally don’t believe her words or actions at this stage can be improved upon, which is why I am suggesting that we incorporate them fully and mirror them. We need to show the integrity, the passion and the forthrightness that Ms. Strecker has shown. For just imagine the effect if the snowball now came from our side rather than theirs. Imagine that the Compliance Unit was literally flooded with thousands upon thousands of such letters of complaint! It would be impossible for such an act to pass without significant effect. Such an action would almost certainly go public, the media would take it up, a real and necessary dialogue would come into the fore and it could help to break apart this destructive grip that these partisan, powerful and influential bodies have now decidedly formed upon Labour Party policy.

Hence, I have written a preface/template to accompany Natalie Strecker’s letter and my suggestion is that everyone who is in agreement with such an action copy-pastes and sends the text below (Completed Preface + Ms. Strecker’s Letter in full) to the Labour Compliance Unit denouncing themselves as “antisemitic”. Naturally, if there are those who wish to adjust the preface for their own particular circumstances feel free to do so, but my feeling is that we keep Ms. Strecker’s letter as the referent here, as not only was it her original action that started this but her words themselves are so very very potent and should resonate!

Note that in order to denounce yourself through the proper channels, it appears there is a specific online complaints procedure that must be adhered to and there you can fill out the necessary boxes and copy paste the [completed preface + Ms. Strecker’s letter] in the appropriate box as well. The link to the complaints procedure is: https://labour.org.uk/members/my-welfare/making-a-complaint/

I would also suggest simultaneously sending the “complaint” to Miss Formby’s email: jennie_formby@labour.org.uk as well as a hard copy to the address stipulated in the preface below: 105 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QT

I urge you, all those who believe in human rights, who defend the Palestinian cause and who do wish for an end to the present McCarthyist witch hunts purging the party of so many good, moral souls, please consider the importance of such an action and also please share widely on as many groups and platforms as possible!

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
 

To the Labour Party Compliance Unit Date: XX/XX/XXXX
National Complaints Team
The Labour Party
Southside
105 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QT

Dear Ms. Formby,

As a committed Labour Party member, a passionate anti-racist and an ardent supporter in the defence of Palestinian rights, I wish it to be known that I have read Ms. Natalie Strecker’s formidable letter to the Compliance Unit below and that I subscribe to every word that she has written regarding the behaviour of the Labour Party and, more to the point, regarding her critique of Zionist ideology which, as she rightly points out, “… whatever its original aims, it in practice means perpetual ethnic cleansing, incremental genocide and the attempted erasure of the culture, history and identity of the Palestinian people.”

Like Ms. Strecker I am appalled at the Machiavellian antics of the Labour Party elite, their lack of integrity and their betrayal of all those compassionate and human values to which I hold dear. And like her too, I would have no qualms in supporting those expelled members, people who have fought passionately against racism their whole lives, whom she mentions (an act expressly “forbidden” by one of the ‘pledges’ prescribed by the Board of Deputies).

I don’t believe that it would be possible for me to write a more comprehensive, sincere and cogent letter to yourself or the Compliance Unit than Ms. Strecker has done – indicating how let down I feel by the Labour Party today as it gives in to external partisan pressures and follows the shameful path of nations and parties in abandoning the Palestinian plight and in forbidding (with the real threat of full elimination from the party) all necessary critique of an ethno-supremacist apartheid state and its pernicious, racist ideology through the charges of antisemitism. As Ms. Strecker forcefully states, “[w]hen you allow left-wing, non-Zionist Jews to be targeted, threatened and smeared and then suspended and expelled for stating proven truths, then it is YOU that is antisemitic. When you expel veteran antiracists of colour for exposing racism and capitulate to far-right supporting, apologists for racist settler colonialism, then it is YOU that is racist.”

I therefore want to make it abundantly clear that I wish to adopt as my own all of Ms. Strecker’s passionate words and sentiments critiquing the current policies of the Labour Party and representing the humanism and human rights I hold dear and for which I joined the party at the first place.

And thus, as a result of the comments herein to which I lend my name (see Ms. Strecker’s letter below), I should also like to refer myself to your Compliance Unit for the charge of ‘antisemitism’.

Yours Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXXXX

P.S. Included below is the letter from Ms. Strecker to which I fully subscribe:
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
 
A copy of the letter from Natalie Strecker:

9th February 2020

Dear Ms Formby

Membership Number: XXXXXXXXXXX
Submission to Compliance Unit

I should like to refer myself to your Compliance Unit, for ‘antisemitism’ for the reasons I detail below. Firstly, however, I should like to share with you a little bit of background about myself.

I gave up on politics a long time ago; because I believed all politicians to be corrupt and self-serving and those who were not, would never have a chance within the structures that exist to effect any really change. Then Jeremy Corbyn, a man with a 40yr record of standing up for the most vulnerable in our society, both nationally and internationally came along. When he was elected as leader, this gave me a reason to hope, a spark was lit that made me begin to imagine that there was an awakening and that perhaps the movement that was being built could start paving the road to a fairer and kinder society. This hope led me to join, for the first time in my life, a political party, Labour. I campaigned hard, spoke for the first time to people about the need for them to vote, told them that for the first time in our generation we had the chance to vote for real change, a real alternative to neoliberalism that is decimating our communities and planet.

Then the antisemitism accusations started. Now as an antiracist, with one of the first books I remember choosing to read as a child being ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’, I was appalled and frustrated that there would be people holding such views within the party I belonged to, views that we know from history led to centuries of persecution and ultimately to an attempt to annihilate a people. After calming down I reflected upon it, as a pragmatist, I realised that any party would have members that unfortunately held the similar broad range of views that society does and this includes at times racist and bigoted views. I was relieved, however, when the investigation was undertaken and the figure was proven to be 0.08%, it needed to be dealt with, but made me feel confident that, as I would expect from a ‘socialist’ party, this was a minority view and a very small minority at that. I was disappointed; however, that there appeared to have been no investigations into other forms of racism.

The situation didn’t end there, however, the accusations continued, we were apparently now suffering a ‘crisis’ and then we started seeing more and more people being suspended, but now it was different, members were being suspended for ill-informed and clumsy posts, indeed I have had to go on my own journey of understanding of antisemitic tropes, given I knew very little about Jewish history outside of the basics of the Holocaust and what my first boyfriend, who is Jewish, told me. Others though, were being suspended for reasons that do not hold out under any reasonable scrutiny and the meaning of antisemitism began to change so it no longer appeared to be about protecting Jews, but rather protecting those, and only those, who adhere to a political ideology. A political ideology that in practice is used to dispossess, oppress and subject the Palestinian people to an apartheid system. These people being suspended included proven veteran antiracists, people of colour, lifetime socialists. Meanwhile, others, high profile individuals within the party who threatened members, who smeared our twice democratically elected leader got a free pass to undermine our party, to weaken the movement and helped the re-election of what is clearly a far-right government that threatens to take our country into neofascism.

So now, I will set out the reasons as to why I should be referred to the compliance unit for antisemitism, according to your policies, according to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, a definition that even its creator, Kenneth Stern, said was not to be used in this way and is being abused by right wing Jews. Also, because I am and promise to continue to, violate the ‘pledges’ that the far-right supporting, Conservative voting, Board of Deputies has demanded that all potential leadership candidates sign up to. Pledges, which of course they have promised to uphold, because when it comes down to it, politicians who are truly ambitious, as I had always expected, even if they were originally motivated by the desire to help, and perhaps have convinced themselves they still do, lack integrity, they are self-serving and will water down their values for expediency, even if it means selling out their comrades, especially those with a limited platform.

So firstly, I would just like to highlight that I served as a Human Rights Monitor for 3 months in Hebron, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and that experience and everything I witnessed there taught me something. Although, I can acknowledge the centuries of persecution of the Jewish people and why this would lead some to feel that the only way they could ever feel safe was to have a Jewish state and thus the political ideology of Zionism was conceived; I also have to acknowledge that whatever its original aims, it in practice means perpetual ethnic cleansing, incremental genocide and the attempted erasure of the culture, history and identity of the Palestinian people. Zionism is an ideology adopted by the far-right, by the Trump supporting, Christian Evangelical movement, by individuals such as Richard Spencer, Tommy Robinson, Katie Hopkins and others. Zionism is a political ideology rooted in ethnic supremacy, despite what groups have tried to state, it is not inherent to Jewish identity and you would know that if you were actually listening and interested in keeping Jews safe and making them feel welcome. A significant number of Jews have categorically stated that it is not a necessary part of their identity, more than that, there are others who have explicitly declared that it is an affront to Judaism and yet you ignore them, more than that, you silence and enable the smears against them.

So let me state this, unequivocally, so that you are not confused about the viewpoint I hold: Israel is a racist, apartheid endeavour and was from its very inception, we know this because it was built on the destroyed villages and broken bodies of Palestinians. International law is on my side and so I do not fear, nor quake as I write these words.

I will continue to support and would share platforms, if ever I have the privilege to do so, with Jackie Walker, a black Jew, with Chris Williamson, who answered a question put to him by the audience that had many Jews who supported him in it, with Marc Wadsworth, with any and every Jew in the Jewish group, Jewish Voice for Labour and with Asa Winstanley; and I am and would be proud to do so!

So there you have it and know this, I will not take part in a witch trial, which would even offend the accusers in The Crucible, you should cease with the charade of a ‘trial’ and rather just invite the accused to a body of water.

These are my final thoughts:

When you allow left-wing, non-Zionist or anti-Zionist Jews to be targeted, threatened and smeared and then suspended and expelled for stating proven truths, then it is YOU that is antisemitic.

When you expel veteran antiracists of colour for exposing racism and capitulate to far-right supporting, apologists for racist settler colonialism, then it is YOU that is racist.

When you allow the disgraceful undermining of our party, its members and its hope of winning an election, by neoliberals and/or apartheid apologists who label our leader, a man of honour, as a “f*cking anti-Semite” & target our BAME representatives to continue and these individuals to remain in OUR party, it is YOU who bring our party into disrepute.

When you allow the destruction of a desperately needed progressive, true democratic socialist movement, as we face neofascism; when you make an oath to adopt pledges that are rooted in racist, anti-Palestinian ideology, including pledges that are arguably illegal then YOU are neither progressive, nor socialist, more then that, when you suspend at this time, during elections for the NEC, popular, upstanding, inspiring and proven socialists, such as Jo Bird, not coincidentally I am sure, a non-Zionist Jew, then you are not only undemocratic, but rather exhibiting fascist like tendencies yourselves.

So by all means label me, label us, just as other shameful instigators and enablers of other historical purges have done similar before you. Your labels have no meaning because they do not come from a place of honour, nor truth. Our stances are rooted in international humanitarian law and if we, as the human race get through this dark period and the commencing catastrophe of climate destruction, then it will be WE that are vindicated and history will record YOUR shame, each and every one of you that sold not just the Palestinians out, but left-wing Jews, antiracists, true socialists and people of conscience.

I will continue to stand proud as I call out racist Israeli apartheid and the political ideology that enables it, Zionism and recognise that I chose to keep my integrity, the question is will you?

I will conclude my letter to be submitted as evidence of my ‘antisemitism’ to the Compliance Unit with the words of Martin Luther King Jr. that I have etched in my memory:

‘In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’.

Yours sincerely

Natalie Strecker

An excellent analysis. A very fair summary of the hypocisy and destruction.

“I’m Nat Sims!”

I read this post and I feel so sad. Nat is right, I fear; the silence of our ‘friends’ is deafening. I am on the cusp of leaving the Labour Party just so I can speak out on this issue without fear of vilification from leading LP members; who I have never met, who have no concern as to who I am, what I do or have done over 70 years or what I have to offer.

Way to burn your bridges, Nat! I’ve only just joined but and thinking of cutting up my card already. The choices for leader are abysmal (even RLB, a charisma-free zone) and we can all see where the party is heading. I’ll stay long enough to vote, though, then decide…

In the final analysis, that which has been working against us is fascism in all but name. I mean could anyone, in their wildest dreams (or nightmares) have imagined, when Jeremy first entered the leadership contest, what would happen in the years ahead. Reality turned on its head, and Jeremy and Ken and Jackie and Chris and many other decent, caring human beings ‘transformed’ into anti-semites and monsters in the minds of millions, and the wing of a major political party, hundreds of thousands of people who aspire to a different world, a different reality, ‘transformed’ into anti-semites and bullies and thugs. And I have no doubt whatsoever that the whole black op A/S Smear Campaign was orchestrated from the outset.

It’s difficult to know which is worse: 1. Decent caring people who have been smeared as anti-semites and had their lives turned upsidedown, and forced out of the party one way or another that they have served for many, many years; 2. Duping and deceiving millions of people with lies and falsehoods and smears; 3. Subverting democracy by doing the above; 4. Using the very thing that led to the Holocaust as a weapon to attack their political opponents with, or enemies, as they would see it; 5. Causing concern and consternation among a large section of the Jewish community in their quest to destroy Jeremy Corbyn, and our hope.

They are all as bad as each-other, but if I HAD to choose one, it would be the last. And what is despicable beyond words is that fellow Jews, many of whom are regarded as leaders in their community, have conspired and been complicit in igniting worry and fear in many tens of thousands in the Jewish community, and THAT tells you how much they care about actual anti-semitism.

In the final analysis the Psychopaths declared war on the Empaths, and it’s all been one way, because THEY own and/or control all the artillery and weapons, the corporate MSM and the semi-corporate BBC, and have total control of the narrative, of creating a False Reality in the minds of millions, and the result of the survey conducted for the authors of Bad News For Labour, in which, on average, respondents thought and believed that 34% of LP members had been reported for anti-semitism, is testament to their power. And in that respect, I can’t help but wonder how much coverage it would get if tens, or even hundreds of thousands of us, challenged the Labour Party to expel us for speaking the truth, as Nat has done, or what sort of coverage it would be.

The sinister forces working against us and, in effect, using blackmail to force compliance by Jeremy and his allies and force their hand at every turn, is leading us into a very dark place, and it’s up to US at the grass-roots level to get the truth out there and expose the lies and falsehoods and push back against their darkness. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, have been awoken to the demonic forces who control our reality because of what they have done to Jeremy. Let’s wake up everyone before it’s too late.

PS I just happened to come across the following earlier from March 2017 when I was on the CAAs website:

https://antisemitism.uk/labour-party-members-and-their-nazi-beliefs/

I’m with Nat Sims and Howard Cohen. Nevertheless, I await suggestions as to what other action we can take.
Just one word of warning. Over the past four years, I have made eight complaints to the Compliance Unit. The first one was made following the Al Jazeera programme, The Lobby. I received a phone call informing me that my complaint was being considered. And nothing more. The following seven haven’t even been acknowledged.
I hope that others will be more successful.

I’m only puzzled by the tentative statement in the introduction :

“Some of the language is highly personal and uses analogies we would avoid”

Such as? Or is it just uncomfortable to see the full nature of the occupation – its political underpinning and history – baldly stated?

Is the reaction just what many faced with the full consequences of inherent racism experience?

Wonderful letter that says everything I would want to say myself about a situation that has led me to abandon the Labour Party.

In her admirable response to the witch-hunt, Nat Sims has chosen a process akin to the Buddhist protest practice of self-immolation, (hopefully involving less pain). Instead of setting fire, she has used the power of words, namely ‘Israel’ and ‘racist’ in conjunction, as prohibited in ‘example 7’ of the ‘International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism’. These ‘examples’ are now being set in stone within the Labour Party, and might profitably be called ‘The Eleven Commandments’.
Before many comrades follow Nat’ s example, I suggest that some survivors will be needed to meet battles ahead, for which a more ‘Kamikazi’ style approach would be suitable. For instance, when the winning leadership candidate sets out to bestow a reward/quid pro quo on the Jewish Labour Movement for succeeding via a thousand cuts where Labour MPs failed with backstabbing in 2016, protest will be needed. In questioning JLM’ s fitness to be given any official role within the party, it would be only fair to say that, in its campaign to discredit the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, its members (some of whom are Jewish) put the interests of the State of Israel before those of the Labour Party and, by extension, the country. “More loyal to Israel” is the basis of the 6th IHRA ‘example’.
If you are expecting to join the antisemitism exodus, choose the ‘commandment’ you wish to break, then go to LAW (Labour against the witch-hunt).

I of course understand why Nat is doing what she is doing – ie what she has done – and greatly admire her for doing so, but I can’t help wondering what it will achieve, EVEN if thousands upon thousands of members were to to follow suit. I have little doubt that Jennie agrees with just about everything Nat says in her letter, and of COURSE she knows what’s going on, and that the accusations made against Jeremy and Ken and Jackie – ie the high profile cases which received lots of media coverage – were phony and contrived, as with the vast majority of the rest. But her hands are tied, and she is forced to go along with it all. That said, I don’t know what part she plays in the complaints process, if any. All I know is that if anyone claims it’s all a smear campaign by the ‘moderates’ and/or the Israeli lobby and the MSM, they are denounced as conspiracy theorists and/or anti-semites.

I mean can you imagine what would happen if Jennie/the NEC announced that they have invited Ken and Jackie and Tony and Asa (and others who have been expelled) to re-join the party because they were falsely accused in the first instance, and all the condemnation and outrage was false and contrived AND that the saboteurs in the party and the media – along with the JLM and the CAA and LAA and BoD – forced their hand by way of very loud unspoken threats etc, the ‘eruption’ – ie the reaction – would be like nothing we have seen before, and Jennie knows it of course, and the saboteurs know that she knows it.

As I’ve said before, it’s up to US at the grass-roots level to expose the lies and falsehoods about Jeremy and Jackie and Ken and Marc etc AND how there is a TOTAL disconnect between the number of alleged cases of A/S (tens of thousands) and the number reported to the Labour Party AND a *MASSIVE* disconnect between the number of allegations and the number reported to the police and/or prosecuted and/or found guilty of A/S racism, there being only one case of the latter as far as I’m aware, and I believe the offence happened before Jeremy became leader (and was quite possibly someone on the right of the party). Putting leaflets together and putting them through peoples doors is the only way to expose the falsehoods and the Smear Campaign and get the truth out there.

The following Daily Mail article was published on Jan 8th with the following headline: ‘Five Labour members could face CRIMINAL charges for anti-Semitism……’, and in the article it says the following:

Euan Philipps, spokesman for Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said: ‘The Met’s referral of these cases to the CPS underlines the degree of criminality that anti-Jewish racism in the Labour Party has reached.

‘Over the past three years we have reported hundreds of similar cases of anti-Jewish racism in the Labour Party, which we believe also constitute hate crimes. They too must now lead to prosecutions.’

It’s more than a little interesting to note that LAA doesn’t specify who they have reported these ‘hundreds of similar cases’ to, but given the substance of the article, they imply of course that they have reported these ‘hundreds of similar cases’ to the police, and have done so during a period of three years AND imply that none of them have been dealt with as of yet, the point being that if that is really the case, then why hasn’t it ALREADY led to any prosecutions?!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7864309/Five-Labour-members-face-court-anti-Semitism-including-branding-Jews-cancer.html

BUT, in a comment on Amazon, Jonathan Hoffman said the following (four months ago as of me writing this):

‘The estimable organisation Labour Against Antisemitism (I am an adviser) said in February 2019 that it had reported 1200 cases since 2016, so almost double Formby’s number.’

So according to Hoffman (I assume most people who subscribe to JVL will be familiar with him), LAA – who he is an advisor to – said in February 2019 that it had reported 1200 cases since 2016, and given what he THEN says, he is OBVIOUSLY saying that the LAA reported the 1200 cases to the Labour Party. And as you will see further on in the Comments, ‘domestic extremist’ asks Hoffman if the LAA reported the 1200 cases to the police AND – receiving no reply from Hoffman – does so AGAIN a few weeks later, and yet again receives no answer, and THAT was now three months ago, and I think we can safely assume that LAA did NOT submit the cases to the police.

And it’s precisely because they DIDN’T that they don’t specify who they reported the ‘hundreds of similar cases’ TO in the DM article, but of course lead the reader to think they are saying that they reported them to the police. And it isn’t the case that Hoffman didn’t see domestic extremist’s posts, as he responds to other comments made afterwards.

Needless to say, if you were REALLY concerned about A/S, you wouldn’t have only reported the cases to the LP, but would of course have reported them to the police as well. But they didn’t, and that tells us ALL we need to know.

NB If you want to check out Hoffman’s comment etc, go to the page re the book Bad News For Labour (on amazon), then scroll down the page, and just directly underneath the last of the listed reviews it says ‘See all reviews from the United Kingdom’, click on that, then scroll to the end of the first review listed (directly under ‘Top positive review’ and ‘Top critical review’) by Deborah H. Maccoby, scroll down to the end of her review (which is excellent!), and next to the ‘Helpful’ button toy will see Comments, highlighted in blue (and 17 at the time of writing), select the ‘Oldest’ option (on the right) and Hoffman’s comment is the sixth one down.

PS And HERE’s confirmation that LAA submitted them to the LP – and ALL at the same time!! – in February of last year, 4,000 examples in fact, which ‘are likely to relate to around 1,000 separate people, thought to be Labour members or people who comment on Labour Facebook groups.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6685017/Labour-activists-4-000-examples-anti-Semitism.html