I wanted to revisit an example from last year, and I believe it will become very clear why.
Five months ago, the general secretary of the PCS union, Mark Serwotka, spoke at a fringe meeting at the Trades Union Conference. The Independent published a recording. He said: “In a year when dozens of Palestinians including children were gunned down – unarmed innocent civilians – by the Israeli military, in a year when the Americans are cutting off aid...
"Isn’t it a vile world when, instead of being on the front foot, denouncing these atrocities, demanding an independent and sovereign state for the Palestinian people, we have had a summer of asking ourselves whether leading Labour movement people are in any way antisemitic?"
He then said "now I'm not a conspiracy theorist" - the traditional pre-rant vow of conspiracy theorists, before adding: "One of the best forms of trying to hide from the atrocities that you are committing is to go on the offensive and to actually create a story that does not exist for people on this platform, the trade union movement or, I have to say, for the leader of the Labour Party.”
Here was the leader of the sixth largest trade union in the country, a union with close to 200,000 members, being, I think, openly antisemitic.
Not only is he suggesting that the countless reports of Jew-hate reported within Labour are somehow fabricated, he is also suggesting that those like myself who report on it, Jewish or not, are doing it to provide a smokescreen so that people won’t look at the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. And he’s suggesting that such efforts are being orchestrated by Israel.
The IHRA definition of antisemitism warns in its list of examples against perpetuating "the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions".
It also includes: “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
A complaint was made against Mr Serwotka to the Labour, demonstrating how Mr Serwotka had breached the IHRA.
Labour's response was silence. Until last week, when the complainants were sent the following response, saying the matter had been "fully reviewed by the Governance and Legal Unit" which had determined "that this does not amount to a breach of Party rules, we will therefore not be taking any further action".
"Should you become aware of any future conduct that you believe to be concerning then please do forward this on for us to review," it said.
“We do understand that you may find this response disappointing. However, I can assure you that due care and consideration has been taken when reaching this conclusion.”
“Disappointing” hardly covers it. For Labour to look at Mr Serwotka’s comments, shrug and say “no problem here, guv”, is proof of how deep the rot goes.
But it’s also worth noting for another reason. Because last week, Jennie Formby, the Labour Party’s General Secretary, tweeted
“Will everyone please stop this constant ‘trial by Twitter’ of individuals both left and right. If you have a complaint, send it to us and then let’s all concentrate on fighting the Tories!”
As well as telling a roomful of Labour MPs that “I don't think anyone can ever say that we can eradicate antisemitism completely”, Ms Formby also said: "What I want to make sure is that we have processes and procedures that deal with people who do (engage in) antisemitism within our party.
"And I think that's very important."
I also think that’s very important. Which is why I am furious that despite Ms Formby’s claims to the contrary, that is clearly not being done.
“It’s not ‘trial by twitter’ when the party only began to take my complaint seriously once I tweeted about it, and were more transparent about my complaint to The Times than they were to me”, one young Jewish Labour member tweeted in response to Ms Formby.
“When it was in the public domain I got same-day responses from them.
“Complaints are treated with such an utter lack of transparency or seriousness that Jewish members often feel they have to talk about it publicly to get the party to do something, anything.”
And so I would urge you – if you see someone saying something antisemitic, don’t hide it. Don’t trust in a party which has been found to be utterly untrustworthy to deal with it. Publicise it. Make some noise.
Do not aid the Labour party’s leadership in its desperate attempt to sweep its racist mess underneath the carpet.
