JVL is becoming Jewish Voice for Liberation

JVL introduction

JVL, founded in 2017 by Jewish Labour Party members backing Jeremy Corbyn, is Jewish Voice for Labour no longer.  A well-attended online members’ meeting on Sunday September 28 adopted the new name of Jewish Voice for Liberation, marking a decisive break with a Labour Party which has, since Keir Starmer entered 10 Downing Street in July 2024, lurched further and faster to the right than any of us thought possible.

Most JVL members and supporters have been expelled or otherwise driven out of the party. A statement circulated to members in advance of Sunday’s meeting said the name “Jewish Voice for Labour” has outlived its purpose. Labour “has become an authoritarian Party which punishes dissent with exclusion.” See below the speech by Tony Booth addressing members on behalf of JVL’s executive committee at the start of the debate.

Co-chair Jenny Manson said in a notice sent to media shortly after the new name was formally adopted:  “Changing our name makes clear that while our values have not changed, those of the Labour Party have been trashed by complicity in Israel’s genocide, intolerance of immigrants and tolerance of poverty and increasing authoritarianism in Britain.“

The media notice said JVL was liberating itself from the dead weight of Labour and demonstrating its commitment, in line with its Statement of Principles, to work “for liberation from inequality, poverty and authoritarian government as our aspiration for Britain – and as internationalists, for the world” and “in support of the liberation of Palestinian people from occupation and apartheid as urgent and morally essential and part of the global struggle for freedom from political and economic colonisation and from environmental catastrophe.”

It will take a few weeks for the required changes to be made legally, financially, on social media and in our branding. The Jewish Voice for Labour bank account will continue to take payments under the current name for a considerable overlap period after the switch is made. Please don’t make any changes to payments unless we request you to.

NWI

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From Jewish Voice for Labour to Jewish Voice for Liberation

Speech in support of the name change motion, delivered by Tony Booth on behalf of the JVL Executive at the members’ meeting on September 28, 2025

(Note: This replaces a text we posted earlier which had been circulated to members in advance of the meeting.)

Jewish Voice for Labour was set up in 2017 as a Jewish led organisation to support the Labour policies of Jeremy Corbyn and defend him and others against false accusations of antisemitism by providing an alternative Jewish Voice. It is nearly eighteen months since we last met to discuss a change of name. We voted then to retain the name although “Jewish Voice for the Left”, the only proposal at the time retaining the initials JVL, gained a strong vote. However, since then political circumstances have radically changed. The JVL executive is now of the unanimous opinion that a change of name is imperative and that this should be to Jewish Voice for Liberation.

I don’t think I have to spell out at great length why it is no longer OK to call ourselves Jewish Voice for Labour, linking us to a party of the increasingly far right that is participating in genocide, exacerbating child poverty, attacking welfare for the most vulnerable, perpetuating a hostile environment for migrants, swapping military spending for foreign aid, and overturning its commitments to the environment.

Few of our members are still in the Labour Party and JVL embraces members from other progressive parties with whom we must be free to show solidarity at future elections.

We are agreed that it is essential to retain the initials JVL for obvious reasons. We want to remain independent now of any political party and do not want to lay ourselves open to any divisive forces on the left who might argue that we do not speak for them.

“Liberation” in our name offers us a new beginning. It is an active word, linking our principles to our campaigns. Our guiding message that “we are always with the oppressed, never with the oppressors”, is very well supported by “Jewish Voice for Liberation”.

We are concerned with liberation from oppression, inequality, colonialism, settler colonialism, apartheid, Zionism, racism, neoliberalism, capitalism and the exploitation of people and planet.

I am speaking to you today from Grenoble, France. This area was awarded the honour of the Order of Liberation in recognition of its role in the resistance against German occupation.

This year is the 80th anniversary year of the liberation of Auschwitz and other death camps. Liberation has become a key word in campaigns for Palestine, particularly adopted by young people including in chants such as “ up, up, up with liberation – down, down, down with occupation”.

I talked with the young people at the Peace Camp for Palestine in Cambridge who were baffled that we were still calling ourselves Jewish Voice for Labour. They loved the idea of a change to Jewish Voice for Liberation. Importantly, it has been adopted by Global Jews for Palestine, the worldwide network of which JVL is part. GJP launched its Global Jewish Manifesto for Collective Liberation on July 24th 2025.

For these reasons and for others that comrades will no doubt voice, please support the change to Jewish Voice for Liberation.