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The “Labour Against the Witchhunt” group held a rally outside Labour conference this evening. Attendees were asked to rendezvous outside a Ben and Jerry’s before being walked to the secret venue. We attended as part of our work to track antisemitism on the left. 
Ken Livingstone, who was suspended over disgraceful comments about Zionism and Hitler, talked about Hitler in his remarks. He said, "There has been an increase in antisemitism because all this media attention on it has led to real antisemites attacking people".
Asa Winstanley, suspended by Labour over his antisemitism, doubled down, and attacked the party for adopting the IHRA definition, calling it “the bogus IHRA definition of antisemitism".
Winstanley also griped about Labour revoking his press pass, and said “The state of Israel and its lobby in this country uses a long running campaign of false accusations of antisemitism to smear the left."
Jackie Walker, who was expelled from the Labour Party, used her speech to attack the Jewish members of the Labour Party who spoke out about the antisemitism they had seen. "The people in that Panorama documentary know nothing about Jewish history".
Walker complained that an antisemitic poster removed from outside the conference center was not antisemitic. Judge for yourself:
Walker also had tough words for @PeoplesMomentum, saying “Momentum no longer allows free speech". She later added, “This ban on free speech is the first step towards fascism. Wake up guys." She got a standing ovation from the supporters in the room who numbered around 100.
Chris Williamson’s fiery rant included a suggestion of a conspiracy against Corbyn: "It's no coincidence that it's Jeremy Corbyn's praetorian guard who are being targeted".
Williamson called for the abolition of the party staff unit tasked with fighting antisemitism. “I would tear down the compliance unit because we are a political party not the Stasi. Let's devolve it to the CLPs and let the people decide."
Tonight’s meeting, is reminder of the desperate need to fight antisemitism on the left. It is good that this event was outside conference, shunned by most delegates. But so much more work is needed in order to drive this scourge from the Labour Party and movement.
