Peter Kyle’s Contempt for Democracy as he ‘persuades’ the Brighthelm Centre to Cancel Chris Williamson Meeting

The ‘Labour’ MP for Hove Uses Jews to further the Labour Right’s anti-Corbyn agenda whilst Lansman gives him encouragement

UPDATE

It would appear that the signatories accompanying the McCarthyist statement on ‘antisemitism’ have been taken down pending an ‘investigation’.



Possibly that has something to do with the number of anti-Semites and fascists who decided to endorse the statement including the late Adolf Hitler, Pinochet, Eichmann, John Vorster as well as one very alive Donald Trump! What did they expect? Socialists to sign?





Israeli soldiers demonstrate their joy as Palestinian buildings are blown up and Palestinians are made homeless – this is the reality of present day Israel





Peter Kyle, the MP for Hove demonstrated his contempt for freedom of speech when he ‘persuaded’ the Christian Evangelist Brighthelm Centre to cancel a public meeting on August 8th at which Chris Williamson MP was speaking. Hisexcuse was that‘our city should not be a welcoming place for people who bait the Jewish community or sow seeds of division.’

So according to Kyle a meeting on socialist economics and a Labour government is ‘divisive’. Such is Kyle’s contempt for democracy and freedom of speech.



Chris Williamson is someone who has been an active anti-fascist all of his life. Peter Kyle on the other hand is someone who has never spoken up about refugees or racism. Only Israel and ‘anti-Semitism’ is his concern.



We intended to auction the original Steve Bell cartoon that was banned by the Guardian – on the grounds of ‘antisemitism’ of course

The suggestion that Chris Williamson is a ‘Jew baiter’ is a despicable lie coming from someone who has supported New Labour’s racist agenda on refugees, Travellers and asylum seekers.



Kyle is also a member of Labour Friends of Israel which last year supported Israel’s shooting of unarmed demonstrators in cold blood. Kyle has refused to sign any Early Day Motion condemning Israel’s human rights abuses. That is the clue to why he sought to obtain the banning of Chris Williamson. As a dedicated Zionist he is following a path blazed by the Israeli state itself



My letter in the Argus

Banning meetings and persons, locking people up indefinitely without trial – this is what comes naturally to the Israeli state, just as it did to the South Africa apartheid state before it. Israel rules over 5 million Palestinians who have neither political nor civil rights. If all those living under occupation were given a vote there would be no ‘Jewish’ state.



The meeting, organised by Brighton and Hove Labour Left Alliance for August 8th will go on at another, undisclosed venue as planned. We are determined to ensure that Kyle and his Zionist supporters aren’t allowed to get away with their attack on free speech in Brighton and Hove



﻿At the time of the Charlie Hebdo killings, free speech included the right to attack the Muslim religion but it would seem this doesn’t extend to the Israeli state

The Brighthelm Centre will also be the subject of a full boycott. When they refused to allow Jackie Walker to speak two years ago Palestine Solidarity Campaign decided to hold its meetings elsewhere. We will now call for a full boycott of the Brighthelm Centre beginning with my own trade union branch, Unite.



As the prospect of a General Election looms so the Labour Right have started mobilising around ‘anti-Semitism’. This is a somewhat easier topic than coming out in support of austerity and things like tuition fees for students, benefit cuts for claimants or attacks on asylum seekers.



Anti-Semitism is a much easier way of fooling people. However the test of their sincerity is what their take is on other forms of racism. For these people to prioritise ‘anti-Semitism which is a marginal prejudice, when the very real racism of Windrush and Islamaphobia is ever present demonstrates the hypocrisy of these people



﻿It seems that Donald and Kyle agree about ‘antisemitism’ and why shouldn’t they?

None of those who have signed their statement and there are about 30 Labour right-wingers from Brighton and Hove, have ever spoken out about other forms of racism.



Under the banner of Labour Members Together the remnants of Brighton and Hove Right have issued a dishonest statement. It is little wonder that Adolf Hitler, Augusto Pinochet and John Vorster have (posthumously) signed it along with Neville Chamberlain and (Lord) Steve Bassam.



Their statement on anti-Semitism is a farrago of lies and distortions. Point 2 seeks

‘the expulsion of anyone who is guilty of ‘sharing a platform with members suspended or expelled for anti-Semitism.’

Classic McCarthyism. In essence they are calling for the old South Africa Apartheid practice of banning people. The fact that people who are suspended are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty is irrelevant to what we used to call ‘police state democrats’. An accusation means to this bunch of New Labour leftovers means you are guilty.



The dishonesty of the statement is evinced by Point 10 which refers to



‘the Macpherson principles, which define racist incidents as those which are perceived as such by the victim or any other person.’



The MacPherson Report says no such thing and if they lie about this then you can assume they won’t be telling the truth about anything else. As Shami Chakrabarti explained in her Report.



‘the purpose of the approach [recording incidents as racial when perceived as such by the victim] is to ensure that investigators handle a complaint with particular sensitivity towards the victim. It is to suggest the seriousness with which a complaint must be handled, but in no way to determine its outcome.’



These dishonest or stupid right-wingers deliberately omit the latter part and suggest that an accusation is in itself proof of guilt. Indeed they add ‘any other person’ for which read ‘any other Zionist or racist’!



Given that Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth and myself were expelled as part of the anti-Semitism witch-hunt, not for anti-Semitism but ‘bringing the party into disrepute’ etc. this demonstrates the hypocrisy, lack of any democratic principles and basic dishonesty of these people.



The reason why Kyle seeks to prevent Chris Williamson MP from speaking is that he knows he has no answer to the arguments of the Left. The Labour Right can only thrive through bans and prescriptions.



Tony Greenstein

