Dear Comrades,
I was notified this evening that my hearing of the disciplinary charge that has been presented by the NEC against me will take place on Saturday 27 January 2018, starting at 12 noon, at a venue in Oxford, details of which will be confirmed shortly. Needless to say, I will keep you posted.
As I have already made clear, I am not going to make any attempt to reason with those who are determined to seize every opportunity to sabotage the Party and stifle Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. They have most magnanimously granted me permission to be represented by a lawyer but I will be represented by myself – and not only because I can’t afford hiring the services of a high-powered member of the legal trade. The bubble of a show-trial like this can only be bursted if the accused become accusers- and that is precisely the show which yours truly intends to stage there. To accuse an Israeli-born Jewish convert to Christianity, a son of Holocaust survivors of being an ‘anti-semite’ is mind-bogglingly Kafkaesque (mother survived Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps and father managed to flee his hometown and join the Red Army 24 hours before the invading Germans reached his hometown. Their respective families were annihilated by the Nazis).
As you all know, this is part of the Party’s (allas, still relentless) right-wing to mount resistance to Labour’s return to its Socialist roots – and labelling any criticism of the State of Israel as ‘anti-semitism’ is an essential ingredient in this dish. The coalition of right wingers within Labour and certain stake-holders outside the Party have identified fake antisemitism a convenient method to tarnish the Labour Party. It is high time to put the kibosh on these machinations. Especially as today’s NEC election results reflect clearly and distinctly the Party’s will.
I intend to make all of this (and beyond) very clear to the honorable adjudicators. Even if it costs me my Labour membership.
And I know I shan’t be standing there alone.
In solidarity,
Cyril