Monitoring ex-Labour extremists

 

Earlier this month I reported that the grouping  Labour In Exile (LIE) were to establish an "Anti-Zionist Action" campaign which would:

(1) to gain knowledge of the identity, location, activities and associations, of individual Zionist trolls;

(2) to use the knowledge so-gained for the purpose of (i) taking action against the individuals and (ii) warning other members to take care of those individuals.

This warning was taken taken seriously by a number of people who began to report the matter to the authorities. LIE are now attempting to cover their backs following the publication of an article in the Jewish Chronicle yesterday.

LIE state they have set up no such organisation and it was not discussed at their conference being the work of "one individual". LIE further claim that their steering Committee decided against setting up any such network or working group.

Yet this was not mentioned by their Tony Greenstein (who is according to some the de-facto leader of LIE) when he responded to my original blog piece instead he wrote: 

"deliberately misleading. They will be targeting Zionist activists, many of whom are not Jewish."

Not only did he not state the motion was not discussed or passed at either their conference or Steering Committee he actually went on to confirm that there would  be targeting of "Zionists" and their non-Jewish allies/supporters.

Earlier today I challenged LIE on their Facebook Page:

The last part of your sentence fits the first. As a Jewish activist exposing the activities of extremist groups like yours I took them as a threat in the literal sense. Your attempt to weasel your way out of this with this so-called "counter-statement" especially with one of your supporters along with his mates sitting in the clink for "vandalism" after attacking Jewish, not Zionist property does not impress. It is those like you who made anti-Zionism antisemitism. You cannot be trusted.

LIE replied:

It is entirely up to you if you choose to misunderstand or misinterpret our statement.

For those of you not aware Tony Greenstein and others believed to be members of the extremist "Palestine Action" group have been arrested for allegedly attacking a Jewish owned firm in the Midlands. The Jewish Chronicle  reports:

A statement issued to the JC by Staffordshire Police on Monday confirmed: “A 67-year-old man from Brighton has been charged with possessing an article with the intent to destroy property after being arrested by colleagues at West Midlands Police in Walsall in the early hours of Tuesday 9 March 2021.

“Anthony Greenstein of Little Crescent, Rottingdean, has been remanded in custody following an appearance at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court on Wednesday 10 March.”

Further info: david-collier.com/elbit

Does anyone from LIE really expect anyone to believe their intentions are benign? These people are obsessed. Their activities will be monitored by Jewish organisations and activists who refuse to be intimidated by extremists whether they come from the far-left or the far-right!

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If in need of advice or have any information that would help protect members of the Jewish community please contact The Community Service Trust at: cst.org.uk

Thunder - All The Right Noises (New Album)

The latest studio album from Thunder one of Britain's  best known "Hard Rock" bands was released on Friday and certainly was a worthwhile purchase as it contains no less than eleven highly listenable tracks.

Formed i n London back in 1989 the group had initial hits between 1990 and 192 with their first four studio albums of which two reached the top ten. Their second album Laughing On Judgement day went to number two.

Despite a drop in sales and a brief hiatus their last three albums have done well in the UK from 2015 to 2019 as all reached the Top Ten.  I would expect this album to also do well and have posted the leading track below.

Official Website: www.thunderonline.com

Cyprus enters "satanic" number to Eurovision 2021

The road to the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest has opened with protests by religious extremists in Cyprus against their country's entry. The song El Diablo from ElenaTsagrinou a "Lady Gaga" type singer from the mediteranean island is said to encourage "satanism". 

Sky News reported

They gathered outside the state broadcaster with signs reading: "We're protesting peacefully, no to El Diablo", "Repent and return to Christ" and "Christ saves, Diablo kills".

But according to the artist behind the track, entitled El Diablo, the song is not intended to turn people to the dark side, but is about an abusive relationship.

Either way it's a pretty good song and since we can't vote for own entry I'll be ringing in to cast my vote for El Diablo. 

Just in case you haven't heard the UK's entry here's James Newman with Embers which frankly isn't up to scratch but for patriotic reasons I hope doesn't score the humiliating "Nil Points" that everyone likes to joke about.

The Eurovision song contest takes place in Rotterdam, with the semi-finals on 18 &20 May and the main contest on Saturday 22 May 2021.

Tibetan Uprising Day. Here's how to get involved

 

Tomorrow marks the 62nd anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, remembered every 10th March by Tibetans and their supporters.

We may not be able to march to the Chinese embassy and let them hear our voices in person but we can still let them know that Tibetans, and their supporters, will not be silenced.

At 10am, Free Tibet will broadcast the Tibetan uprising commemoration video via Facebook. The broadcast will feature a number of speakers including former political prisoner Golog Jigme.

You don't need an account to watch the broadcast on Facebook and the video will remain on Facebook, and will also be available to watch on our YouTube channel, after 10am.

Raise the Tibetan national flag and take a photo, wherever you are. Post it to your social media, tagging @FreeTibetOrg and using #March10 and #TibetanUprisingDay

Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook accounts throughout the day to see events from around the world. Sharing our posts will help us to reach an even bigger audience.

Tibet Lobby Week

The week following 10 March is known as Tibet Lobby Week.

During this week we are encouraging supporters in the UK to contact their Member of Parliament to talk to them about Tibet. This is a key opportunity for supporters to stand up for Tibet and send a strong message to the government urging them to take substantive action.

This could be a face to face meeting with your MP at Westminster or in their home constituency. It could also be via a letter or an email.

This year we have two main requests for MPs:

1. To urge the Foreign Office to target Chen Quanguo with sanctions

2. To call for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games

We are also encouraging MPs to join the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet

Strawbs - Settlement (New Album)

One of the more fondly remembered bands from the seventies was for me The Strawbs. I first came across them when had had a couple of chart hits including I'm Part Of The Union which reached No 2 in 1973 and remains a favourite (especially as a retired trade unionist) to this day. However despite their brief flirtation with what was the "Glam Rock" scene they quickly returned to the Prog Rock roots and this new album is certainly a reminder of those halcyon days.

The current line-u includes Dave Cousins with his distinctive vocals and there are a dozen great tracks to sit and listen to whenever the mood takes you! Currently there are no videos of any performances from this album but there are audios available from which I've chose this tack, Judgement Day albeit a slightly shorter version than the one on the CD.

Go to: strawbsweb.co.uk

Greenstein points his imperious finger..at me!

 

There are times when I don't know whether to laugh, cry or just shrug my shoulder in disbelief at the lack of self-awareness of some people on the so-called "left". The anti-Zionists are the worst and one of the worst of them is the self-anointed guru of all things to do with Israel/Palestine one Tony Greenstein now leader of some tiny groupscule of malcontents who were rightly kicked out of the Labour Party.

This group the Labour In Exile (LIE) which I blogged about yesterday has voted to establish an Anti-Zionist Action (AZA )group to target those individuals fighting antisemitism in the Labour Party who they like to describe as "Zionist" a word misused by the far-left to mean Jews. Of course some of our allies are not Jewish but most normal people outside the myopic world of the far-left would take that as read.

Not so the vainglorious guru of AZA/LIE would have us know. He actually troubled himself to post a comment from his Brighton lair which I thought I'd reprint in it's full hollow glory:

deliberately misleading. They will be targeting Zionist activists, many of whom are not Jewish. You should check your antisemitism Howard

So there will be Jews targeted then Tony! Plus some others! The threatening language of the motion passed was quite clear. Let us remind ourselves of the wording.

The main aims of AZA would be:

(1) to gain knowledge of the identity, location, activities and associations, of individual Zionist trolls;

(2) to use the knowledge so-gained for the purpose of (i) taking action against the individuals and (ii) warning other members to take care of those individuals.

Sounds ominously quite threatening and potentially encouraging to other to commit acts of violence. I certainly believe it needs to be treated as a serious threat and so do others following the uncovering of this groups motion

I understand this matter has been passed to the main Jewish security organisation the Community Service Trust (CST) and also complaints have been made to the appropriate authorities.

As for the laughable accusation of antisemitism (this blog has been at the forfront of fighting the rise of left-wing antisemitism) I would remind readers of the outcome of a recent court case involving Mr Greenstein:

brightonandhovenews reported in November last year that:

One of the first Brighton Labour members to be expelled during Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis has lost his case for libel after being called a “notorious anti-Semite”.

A high court judge has ruled that Tony Greenstein’s defamation case against the Campaign for Anti-Semitism (CAA) should be struck out......

It also said he had lied in a letter to the Guardian when he said the International Definition of Anti-Semitism (or IHRA) prevented criticism of Israel.

Mrs Justice Tipples said that it was possible for an honest person to hold this opinion, based on the facts that he must have known the CAA does challenge neo-Nazi anti-Semites, and that the IHRA explicitly says criticism of the Israeli government is acceptable.

The ruling also quoted tweets of Mr Greenstein’s such as: “I loathe racist scum and Jewish Nazis like you” and “yes the holocaust did happen and you Zios have been milking it ever since even though u collaborated with the Nazis.”

Mrs Justice Tipples said an honest person could reasonably hold the opinion Mr Greenstein was anti-Semitic based on tweets such as these.

Whatever your view of the Israel/Palestine conflict there's one thing for certain you really wouldn't want someone like this on your side.

Expelled Labour members to target Jewish activists

 

In a move you really couldn't make up a small group of malcontents who have been expelled from the Labour Party for antisemitism and other offences have held a formal conference under the auspices of Labour In Exile attended they say by 200 people though only around 100 voted to pass the following motion.

Proposal for an Anti-Zionist Action (AZA) Group

Coordinator: Neil Todd

We know that the witch-hunt is driven locally a network of Zionist trolls, often associated with the so-called “Labour Against Anti-Semitism” (LAAS) and other Zionist lobby groups, who spend much of their time trawling the social media accounts of party members, publicly smearing them as “anti-Semites” and manufacturing the fake anti-Semitism complaints which are used to get members investigated and suspended. We know also that many of these individuals are linked on Facebook and Twitter and regularly communicate.

The main aims of AZA would be:

(1) to gain knowledge of the identity, location, activities and associations, of individual Zionist trolls;

(2) to use the knowledge so-gained for the purpose of (i) taking action against the individuals and (ii) warning other members to take care of those individuals.

One way in which we can build knowledge is by means of a questionnaire, similar to the WAG questionnaire, which would go out to all members of the LIEN network. One such possible action could be to make complaints against them using genuine incidences of anti-Semitism, e.g. the attacks they often make against non-Zionist or anti-Zionist Jews. Another such possible action could be to publish news items about the activities of certain key individuals, such as Jonny Morris in Plymouth.

I am aware that there are already in existence local groups of members who have come together to counter the likes of Jonny Morris. I am sure that there will be others around the country, e.g. in Brighton, where we now know that Morris was also involved in attempting to block Chris Williamson from speaking. The AZAG would serve to bring these already existing groups and strengthen them by pooling knowledge and resources.

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In other words they will be targeting Jewish activists.

The ominous "take action" from these individuals should be seen as a serious threat no different to the far-right with whom this organisation has so much in common!

The LIEN group includes the following individuals on it's steering committee:

Tony Greenstein (see brightonandhovenews: "Notorious antisemite" loses libel case, Christine Tongue, Tina Werkman (Ex CPGB -WW), Stan Keable, (Labour Party Marxists a front for the CPGB), Esther Giles and Beck Massey amongst others.

These people need to be monitored by anti-fascist activists both inside and outside the Jewish community.