JLM Notes:
• There has been a crisis of antisemitism within the Labour party since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader.
• The decision to remain affiliated to the Labour Party was not a vote of confidence in either Jeremy Corbyn, the General Secretary or the Labour Party institutions.
• JLM’s existence pre-dates the Labour Party, and does not exist at the behest of it.
• Our existence is predicated on the belief that our pursuit of social justice for all cannot be separated from the pursuit of our national identity as Jews.
• The party’s disciplinary system has been glacially slow and inefficacious. In some cases, the leadership has directly intervened in disciplinary cases to exonerate members responsible for grotesque and overt antisemitism.
• The multiple, documented attempts by the leadership to deny Jews the opportunity to define the very prejudice we face.
• The Labour Party’s disciplinary processes have systematically failed to deal with thousands of cases of antisemitic conduct, instead acting to protect the perpetrators, and there is evidence of widespread interference in said processes by the Leader’s Office
• Antisemitism and the failure to tackle it has already had an electoral impact on Labour, whether in Barnet at the local election or seats at the general election.
• Many of our members - and allies - have left the party due to antisemitism including our parliamentary chair, Luciana Berger, who was driven out of the party.
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s extraordinary intervention that Labour may have “unlawfully discriminated” against its Jewish members.
• CLPD, the LRC and JVL have acted to preserve this state of affairs, and to protect and support those engaging in antisemitism.
• That Momentum has, for the last year, committed itself to tackling antisemitism within the Labour Party and wider society, through educational videos directed at Labour Party members, calling out and reporting antisemitic posts online, and joining JLM and other groups in protest against the likes of David Icke & Gilad Atzmon.
• That the leadership of the Labour Party, including the Leader, Shadow Cabinet as a collective body, the NEC and the General Secretary, have fundamentally failed to address antisemitism within the Labour Party.
• The leadership of the Labour Party, including the Leader, Shadow Cabinet, the NEC and the General Secretary continue to provoke the Jewish Labour Movement, with the latest decision being to attempt to circumvent the JLM’s delivery of anti-Semitism training – a key demand we have made to the Labour Party.
• Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to adequately respond to the legitimate and reasonable demands from the JLM and the community’s representative bodies.
JLM Believes:
• Solidarity is a reciprocal concept. We are not free unless we are all free
• There is a culture of antisemitism from party members, an institutional culture enabling and sustaining it, and a culture of denial that such a problem even exists.
• That the Labour party is institutionally antisemitic. The existence of any form of racism, institutional or otherwise, is an attack on and a betrayal of our values of tolerance, respect, equality and solidarity.
• The Labour Party disciplinary function is corrupted, and calls for a fully independent process.
• CLPD, the LRC and JVL are a malign influence in the Labour Party
• Momentum have begun to show themselves as valuable allies in the fight against antisemitism in the Labour Party, and have shown willingness to engage with Jewish members to help tackle the problem.
• That efforts by Momentum to tackle antisemitism in the Labour Party, whilst not beyond criticism, are welcome and should be supported.
• The current situation represents a failure to tackle an issue which is so basic and where the expectation for action is so low.
• The Labour Party has a responsibility, to the working class and to the Jewish community, to use its resources and influence to do everything it can to ensure the Labour Party is fit to govern.
• The JLM in its modern day form is affiliated to the Labour Party, because we believe our pursuit as group of Jews with a progressive outlook on the wider world is most effectively pursued through the election of a progressive government
• That solidarity for those less fortunate than us or who have suffered discrimination or injustice are both Jewish and Labour values.
• That every Labour MP, councillor and candidate has a duty to show solidarity to the Jewish community in our fight against antisemitism.
• Words are not enough – zero tolerance must mean zero tolerance – and elected Labour representatives who fail to stand with us and call out antisemitism in their CLPs must also be called to account. Every Labour MP, councillor and candidate has a duty to show solidarity to the Jewish community in our fight against antisemitism.
• The leadership of the Labour Party have demonstrated that they are antisemitic, and have presided over a culture of antisemitism in which they have failed to use their personal and positional power to tackle antisemitism, and have instead used their influence to protect and defend antisemites.
• Jeremy Corbyn is directly responsible, whether through his own actions, where he appears to have condoned antisemitism and antisemites, or through his inaction to tackle the wider problem within the party.
• That we have no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to understand, respond to or solve the problem.
• Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party combined with his past actions and associations shows a complete disregard for the Jewish community in Britain.
• Anyone who denies the problem and who does not take action to address it directly is not an ally of the Jewish community. Jeremy Corbyn has not been an ally against antisemitism in the Labour party.
• That blame for both the crisis of antisemitism within the Labour party and the party’s failure to deal with it therefore ultimately rests with Jeremy Corbyn.
• Jeremy Corbyn is therefore unfit to be Prime Minister and that a Labour government led by him would not be in the interest of British Jews
JLM Resolves:
• Continue to pursue action against the Labour Party through our complaint to the EHRC, and through other legal means.
• Call for a fully independent disciplinary process.
• Support recently announced efforts of the Deputy Leader, Tom Watson
• Withhold endorsement, support or campaign time from any candidate who is not an not ally in the fight against antisemitism in the Labour party.
• To refuse any cooperation with CLPD, the LRC and JVL including but not limited to; refusing to share a platform with their representatives, undertaking joint campaigns or endorsing candidates in any fashion.
• To call on Momentum to publicly distance themselves from JVL and to commit to excluding them from their slates going forward.
• To write to every Cllr, MSP, AM, and MP to ask them how the crisis of antisemitism is being handled in their ward and constituency parties, and what action they have taken to show active solidarity with the community and take a stand against this racism against Jews.
• To publish a quarterly scorecard on all elected representatives providing an assessment of their level of solidarity, starting with MPs. This will be supported by open and transparent database of our correspondence with said individuals and our understanding of the action elected representatives have undertaken to proactively demonstrate their solidarity.
• Refuse any engagement or meeting with the Leader of the Opposition and his office, and use our influence within communal organisations to whom we are affiliated to adopt the same position.
• To make a proclamation stating that we have no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn and our belief that he is unfit to be Prime Minister.
