Thread: Len McCluskey hasn’t offered “continued dialogue” with @JewishLabour and certainly hasn’t supported us. When it was clear his mind was closed and agenda fixed, we figured there was little point trying to explain anti-Jewish racism to a “lifelong anti-racist” #Marr
Almost two years ago, in early 2018 I along with a small group of people went to meet Len at @unitetheunion’s offices in Holborn. The meeting lasted over 2 hours and was painful as it was embarrassing. It followed a spat over his behaviour at 2017 Party Conference
He had earned his place within the trio “Ken (Livingstone), Ken (Loach) and Len” denying and diminishing the extent of anti-Jewish racism within the Labour Party, whilst showing up to the launch of a group founded to whitewash it. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
We had responded, via me in the @JewishNewsUK a little later. I was told by officials at Unite at the time that Len was ‘upset’ about the article. Len doesn’t like unkind things said about him apparently blogs.timesofisrael.com/len-mccluskey-…
So a private meeting was arranged at which we would attempt to explain antisemitism, Jewish identity, and @unitetheunion’s important role within the Party, as well as their uniqueness in having many Rabbis as members of the @UniteFWB (Faithworkers) branch...
We opened the meeting explaining the historic role of the T&G at the Whitechapel by-election, and the agreement by the union to bury the Passfield White Paper, should their candidate, with JLM (Poale Zion) support, win the election against the Jewish Liberal candidate...
This alliance was instrumental in JLM’s affiliation to the Labour Party, and the eventual solidification of the Jewish east end vote around the Labour Party. None of this seemed to matter to Len. He rebutted with a bizarre series of assertions...
Firstly, he said, he was a militant atheist. He wasn’t a fan of organised religion. Yet moments later would describe Corbyn as the left’s “messiah”, whilst the other officials in the room grimaced, presumably in embarrassment...
Secondly, he was frustrated by JLM, and didn’t like what we said. But he’d met other Jewish people who said things he agreed with, so wanted to help and support them instead...
He asked us why we didn’t support Corbyn. We explained that we were a membership organisation. That we had members from across the political spectrum, including supporters of Corbyn and Momentum. That we engaged with LOTO...
But that over the years, increasingly our members were becoming more and more stridently opposed to Corbyn *because of his failure* to deal with antisemitism. That we had held out hope and through our naive cooperation were trying to fix the situation m...
Len explained that he sees the world in two camps. ‘You are either with us or against us’. If JLM members were angry at Corbyn for failure on antisemitism, then we were against Len and the left...
He namechecked some specific MPs that he really disliked. It won’t be too hard to guess which ones he mentioned. They just so happen to have been the strongest voices in calling out antisemitism. It was they, Len claimed, were the weaponisers, not the antisemities...
But all of this was fine, Len was more than qualified to make these pronouncements because he was a “life long anti racist”. He *even* cried when he watched Schindlers List, he told us.
The verdict afterwards in our little huddle was that he didn’t want to listen, and very much didn’t care. Everything that has happened since pretty much confirms that view. Be it his constant statement fuelling the culture of denial within the Labour movement...
Or using the resources of an otherwise important and powerful union to pursue personal and political vendettas against people he disagrees with. I imagine my little thread might earn me a letter from Howe+Co...
Unite is a great union. I’ve seen how on Heathrow, in construction and for that matter with faithworkers, their industrial disputes have brought about real change by collective power and strength.
Being on the other end of that in a dispute over racism is pretty tough. ENDS.
Being on the other end of that in a dispute over racism is pretty tough. ENDS.
