Time for the unions to protest vigorously
JVL Introduction
Well-known Unite and Labour left-winger Martin Mayer has been expelled by the Labour party.
He is not just anyone, but a former NEC rep from the biggest union in the country.
It is another case of someone expelled for having spoken at or been associated in any way with an organisation which was subsequently banned and support for it made a crime retrospectively.
His expulsion must be opposed on the grounds that retrospective guilt has no place in any normal legal system or set of rules. It is generally anathema to punish someone for doing what was legitimate at the time.
But it must also be opposed on the grounds that it makes the very calling out of injustice – which should always be legitimate –a punishable offence. There is clearly an ongoing, politically-motivated purge to get rid of leftwing socialists from the party. This has been shown incontrovertibly by the Forde Report and Aljazeera’s Labour Files.
What Martin Mayer did was to call out injustice. He should be feted not sanctioned.
Why do unions – who provide so much funding to the Party – not protest in the strongest possible terms at the way their members are being victimised for expressing their democratic rights to speak out against injustice?
This article was originally published by Skwawkbox on Fri 18 Nov 2022. Read the original here.
Labour retrospectively expels former Unite rep on party national executive
Martin Mayer has been kicked out for speaking at a meeting three years before it was banned, as Labour’s justice-flouting purge of left-wingers continues
Well-known Unite and Labour left-winger Martin Mayer has been expelled by the Labour party as the right’s purge of left-wingers continues for activities that were allowed at the time they were done, against all idea of natural justice.
Mayer has published details of the expulsion, which he says resulted from him speaking – as a union representative on Labour’s national executive – about the right’s sabotage of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn:
Today I have been expelled from the Labour Party. I set out below their letter to me received by email today. After 41 years of continuous Labour Party membership, the right wing clique under Keir Starmer and David Evans have determined that I am no longer acceptable to be a member of the Labour Party simply for addressing a Labour Against the Witchunt meeting in 2018, 3 years before it was proscribed last year. In other words this is a totally retrospective application of the Rule: at the time I attended I was breaking no Labour Party Rule.
As I explained in my written submission in response to the allegation put to me, I went to the meeting to explain what I had witnessed as a UNITE delegate to Labour NEC regarding the role Iain McNicol and the Central Office staff played in undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, targeting Corbyn supporters for expulsion and/or suspension particularly during the leadership elections to deny them a vote, and weaponising the issue of antisemitism. I pointed out that much of what I had spoken about at the meeting was vindicated by the much delayed Forde report which was published just as I received my disciplinary notification in July.
There is no question of this being justice in any sense of the word. This is yet another blatant example of the biggest purge of the Left in Labour’s history under Keir Starmer’s leadership, with many thousands of members similarly expelled over the last 2 years. As a life-long trade unionist, internationalist and socialist with a proud record of active service in the Labour and Trade union Movement, I feel angry and bitter at this decision. I am a far more genuine member of the true Labour Party than the right wing clique who have now taken charge, and who I feel are betraying the very values on which the Labour Party was built by the trade unions 120 years ago.
I’ve been given right to appeal.
Dear Mr Mayer,
Notice of Outcome of NEC Panel Decision: Termination of Membership of the Labour Party
We are writing to inform you that the Labour Party (the Party) has concluded its investigation into the allegation that you had committed a Prohibited Act pursuant to Chapter 2, Clause I.5.B.v of the Labour Party Rule Book (the Rules). 1A panel of the National Executive Committee (the NEC Panel) met on 26 October 2022 and considered all of the evidence that the Party put to you and any evidence submitted by you in response. The NEC Panel then made findings of fact and then applied the Rules to those findings. We have set out the findings of the NEC Panel below.
Summary of the Findings of the NEC Panel
Allegation 1: Support for Labour Against the Witchhunt, 2018
The NEC Panel had regard to the written representations of Mr Mayer submitted on 27 July 2022.
The NEC Panel found, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Mayer has spoken on the platform of a meeting organised by Labour Against the Witchhunt on 24 May 2018.
The NEC Panel concluded that Mr Mayer had, in its opinion, demonstrated the type of support for Labour Against the Witchhunt prohibited by Chapter 2, Clause I.5.B.v of the Rules.
Consequently, the NEC Panel agreed that the membership of Mr Mayer should be terminated immediately
So far, it does not appear that Unite has taken any action against the party.
A mass retrospective and trumped-up purge of left-wingers and mass stitch-ups of candidate selections. Keir Starmer’s cowardly regime gives Stalin a bad name.
The self serving tory, Starmer and his far right, racist cronies have poisoned and poluted the labour party for far too long now…..They must be forced out, otherwise The labour party will no longer be electable.
Just to add weight to the headline – The President of UNISON was expelled today for sharing two articles by Socialist Appeal long before that organisation was proscribed.
https://novaramedia.com/2022/11/18/president-of-unison-expelled-from-labour-party/
What is “the type of support for Labour Against the Witchhunt prohibited by Chapter 2, Clause I.5.B.v of the Rules”?
I was expelled for demonstrating “support for Labour Against the Witchhunt” although I had never attended any of its meetings, distributed any literature, donated any money, ‘liked’ or ‘shared’ any social media post. What I had done was move a motion protesting at LAW’s being labelled anti-Semitic and being out-LAWED.
But to hell with legal logic, moral issues, closely argued cases. As we know from ‘Catch 22’: “It makes no difference. One day he had stumbled while marching to class; the next day he was formally charged with ‘breaking ranks while in formation, felonious assault, indiscriminate behavior, mopery, high treason, provoking, being a smart guy, listening to classical music and so on’. In short, they threw the book at him….Clevinger was guilty, of course, or he would not have been accused, and since the only way to prove it was to find him guilty, it was their patriotic duty to do so…It was all very confusing to Clevinger. There were many strange things taking place, but the strangest of all, to Clevinger, was the hatred, the brutal, uncloaked, inexorable hatred of the members of the Action Board, glazing their unforgiving expressions with a hard, vindictive surface, glowing in their narrowed eyes malignantly like inextinguishable coals….Yossarian had done his best to warn him the night before. ‘You haven’t got a chance, kid,’ he told him glumly. ‘They hate Jews.’
‘But I’m not Jewish,’ answered Clevinger.
‘It will make no difference,’ Yossarian promised, and Yossarian was right. ‘They’re after everybody.'”
Sympathy and Solidarity!
It’s time for the unions – especially Unite, my own union and Unison my former employer – to begin thinking about a future outside the LP. The faint hope that one day all would be well has clearly gone. I feel sad that the party created by us, the Labour movement, to represent the mass of ordinary people (not just “hard-working families”) has chosen to desert us, but we must face reality.
Without support from the Labour movement, there is no chance of a new start for the left. With it, exciting possibilities arise. Starting from scratch won’t be easy, but if we can learn from the issues that have squashed previous attempts, we can end up with a party to be proud of.
Solidarity with Mr Mayer, Unite MUST support him.
Solidarity with Martin, both as a Unite comrade and an expelled member. I hope he has his appeal heard because I have never even had an acknowledgement to mine which was submitted in January, again in February and finally in March when I gave up trying. The Labour Party abuses its’ own rules by not responding to appeals and twists more recent ones to expel good socialists who have spoken at meetings of organisations years before they were proscribed. My “crime” was to like and share on Facebook a fringe meeting Defend the Left at conference last year which Ken Loach was speaking at. The Labour Party under Starmer and Evans is toxic. Unite and Unison should follow in the steps of the Bakers Union and disaffiliate from the LP in my opinion ✊🏼
Shortly after reading this shocking account of yet another committed member being expelled, I came across a report that Keir Starmer wants to “strip politicians of the power to make appointments to the
House of Lords”.
According to The Observer, the Labour leader thinks that public faith in the political system has been undermined by Tory leaders handing peerages to “lackeys and donors”.
Given the numbers of toadies, timer servers and discredited former ministers elevated to the red benches by Labour leaders, Starmer ‘s comments are a bit rich. The name “Ruth Smeeth” bounced into my mind.
Putting the JVL article and The Observer report side by side, I wondered whether there is a deliberate strategy here: the party bureaucracy and the NEC have a free hand to expel anyone they don’t like, while Starmer and the parliamentary leadership try to sell snake oil to a gullible public through the MSM.
While there has been much fun recently over the short shelf-life of some Tory ideas, the record shows that Starmer’s promises wilt equally fast.The commitment to party unity barely survived his leadership election campaign; his pledge of “straight leadership” has proved worthless and his much touted “contract with the British people” can best be described as a con-trick.
However, rather than being too cynical let us welcome Starmer’s plan to restore faith in the parliamentary system. After all, he can easily demonstrate his commitment to such a reform by declaring that – with immediate effect – neither he nor the Labour Party will make any further nominations to the House of Lords appointments commission.
Failing such a declaration, perhaps JVL should start to compile a “Catalogue of Broken Promises”