Labour’s “democracy” means silencing a Jewish Holocaust survivor – and a descendant of survivors
We publish here a letter sent by Karel Schling to Keir Starmer and a motion he drafted for consideration at his Branch Labour Party objecting to the threatening communication from London Region to Stephen Kapos, a Holocaust Survivor , because he had agreed to speak at a Holocaust Memorial Day Event organised by a group that the Party chose to ban.
Karel is outraged as so many of us are at the treatment of Stephen. Kapos and it is important to note that Karel is himself the son of a Holocaust survivor; his father managed to leave Czechoslovakia before the German Occupation but almost all his relatives were murdered by the Nazis. Furthermore, his father did not escape Stalin’s antisemitic show trials of the 1950s and was killed by that regime. These are two men, among many others, who truly understand antisemitism and understand what the Holocaust was and the importance of having a day to commemorate it; we can only wonder if the Labour Party has the necessary understanding.
The motion said ‘…distressed by the action of the London Regional Labour Party which threatened Mr Stephen Kapos with expulsion..’. London Labour Party said was out of order because “the motion seeks to target the regional office and the actions of Labour Party staff who carry out their roles on behalf of the NEC. As a party of trade unionists, we trust that all members will understand why motions that seek to criticise and attack party staff is entirely unacceptable and a likely breach of our rules and codes of conduct.” This is ridiculous. Of course attacks on individual named staff who cannot answer back is not acceptable. This ruling goes far beyond that to insist that corporate acts are beyond criticism.
They also ruled that “motions relating to disciplinary processes and cases are not competent business for CLP discussion. The motion is therefore ruled out of order in line with Chapter 1.VIII.5-6. of Labour Party rules.”. These rules say nothing about discussion of cases. In accordance with natural justice any motion that prejudices any disciplinary process should not be debated even though the rules are silent on this. The political and organisational issues raised by cases must be to debate.
The party is not only acting capriciously: it is seeking to prevent any discussion of their abusive behaviour being aired.
Half an hour before the branch meeting was due to take place, the meeting was cancelled by the branch secretary. The reason given was that the guest speaker cannot attend. We can only wonder whether the main reason is the proposed emergency motion.
Stephen Kapos has made it clear that he will speak to any audience that really wants to hear his testimony and the lessons he draws from his experience of the Holocaust. We doubt that he would have received such a threat if he had spoken to a Conservative Association – nor should he have – but that is surely an organisation with aims antithetical to those of the Labour Party.
We are grateful to Karel Schling for sending us this information, which we publish with his permission.
This is the letter sent on 30th January – there has been no reply so far:
Dear Keir Starmer
Could you please explain to me how it is possible to threaten a Holocaust survivor with expulsion from LP for accepting an invitation to speak on Holocaust Memorial Day? Stephen Kapos was threatened with expulsion from the Labour Party for accepting an invitation by Socialist Labour Network to speak about his experience as a Holocaust survivor on 27 January 2023. I do believe that you know what Holocaust Memorial Day is and what it stands for. What I do not understand is how you can play political football with such an important event. Don’t you understand that this has nothing to do with current politics? Are you really serious in your belief that it is acceptable to censor anyone when and to whom he/she is allowed to speak about Holocaust?
Stephen Kapos was a member of Holborn and St Pancras CLP. As a result of a threatening letter Stephen Kapos resigned from the Labour Party on 27 January 2023. The Labour Party should apologise to him for this truly appalling treatment.
In expectation of your written response
Yours
K M Schling,
Member of Walthamstow CLP
And the son of a Holocaust survivor
This is the Emergency Motion sent by Karel Schling for consideration at his Branch Labour Party
“This branch and CLP are distressed by the action of the London Regional Labour Party which threatened Mr Stephen Kapos with expulsion for planning to participate in the Holocaust Memorial Day webinar organized by the Socialist Labour Network. Holocaust Memorial Day is the day when on 27 January we remember millions of Jews, Roma and Sinti killed by Nazis during the Second World War. It is an event that must be kept outside current politics. Stephen Kapos is one of the last Holocaust survivors. He survived Holocaust in Budapest as a seven-year-old child. To censor a Holocaust survivor for his willingness to speak about his life experience is simply unacceptable. As a result of London Labour’s threatening letter Mr Stephen Kapos resigned from the Labour Party on 27 January 2023. This branch and CLP believe that the Labour Party owes Mr Stephen Kapos an apology.”
The motion was ruled out of order by the branch chair who wrote this to Mr. Schling:
“I have received the following guidance from London Region with regard to your motion:
‘In line with guidance circulated for several years by both the previous and current General Secretary of the Labour Party, motions relating to disciplinary processes and cases are not competent business for CLP discussion. The motion is therefore ruled out of order in line with Chapter 1.VIII.5-6. of Labour Party rules.
In addition to this, the motion seeks to target the regional office and the actions of Labour Party staff who carry out their roles on behalf of the NEC. As a party of trade unionists, we trust that all members will understand why motions that seek to criticise and attack party staff is entirely unacceptable and a likely breach of our rules and codes of conduct.’
As a result of that guidance, your motion will not be on the agenda for discussion.”
Reword the motion so as to criticise NEC policy and await the response.
Uncle Joe would have been proud of whoever drafted THAT response. The Labour Party (and my final Party Card reminds me that the Party is a “Democratic Socialist Party”) has sunk to this level?
Starmer is a total disgrace! He is a, zionist, a racist, a tory and establishment stooge. He is,a proven liar, fraud, deceiver, and backstabber. He and his cronies have betrayed all that labour stands for, they have betrayed all of us.
Labour Party under Starmer is beyond belief. And members of LFI are boasting today of being on a 5-day junket to Jewish caliphate with present from Starmer for president Herzog.
The Starmer-led Labour Party has again shown itself as unfit for government.
I think Starmer does understand what Holocaust Memorial Day stands for, contrary to the caption above. It’s just that his understanding is different from our understanding.
To Starmer and his ilk HMD is there to be exploited as an occasion to reinforce the policies and practices of imperialism in particular via the Israel state and its treatment of the Palestinian.
Stephen is the wrong sort of holocaust survivor because he draws universal rather than particularist lessons from his experiences. For Zionism and Starmer boasts he is a Zionist without qualification, the Holocaust only has meaning as a justification for their treatment of the Palestinians
Starmer just bends Holocaust Memorial Day into something that reflects his views on it. Open, honest debate are dead in starmer’s party as is free speech. I for one have no expectations of starmer, but i am shocked and horrified at to what depths he still can sink.
I have known Karel for forty years and know how much he has had to struggle with actions of inhumane bureaucracy under the CSSR regime. To learn that he and a holocaust survivor now have had to contend with such divisive behaviour by the Labour Party in London makes me very sad.
Ans they DARE criticise Vladimir Putin….
Few Labour Party members on the left – and under Corbyn’s leadership it seemed that the majority of members fitted that description – could have dreamed that this ignoble farce would be the outcome of electing Keir Starmer Leader. No doubt, however, many on the right, including the majority of the PLP, understood what was in store for us, and rubbed their hands with glee, knowing that we had been taken in. But we believed his deceitful pledges and his assurances that he would continue the Corbyn project. I myself voted for him – to my great shame. It was entirely my own fault. I failed to research his career sufficiently; I was overly impressed by his credentials as a human rights lawyer and his pro-bono work for the pair being sued by Macdonalds. Since then Oliver Eagleton’s The Starmer Project has come out, and there is no longer any excuse for anyone’s ignorance. As well as seeing the depth of his support for apartheid Israel, we now have an inkling of the (well concealed) part he played as DPP in the persecution of Julian Assange and his collaboration with the US in other matters relating to the secret state. We have also heard him declaring his unwavering support for Cressida Dick, the Police Commissioner who enabled the grotesque mess of corruption and sexual crime that is now being revealed at the heart of the Met. Starmer has long abandoned any commitment to human rights (if that was ever anything more than a ruse to advance his reputation); it is now plain that in any conflict between individual freedoms and the power of the state he will, with dogmatic precision, opt for the latter. It is no surprise to see him presiding over the expulsion of Jewish members, destroying any vestige of democracy in the running of CLPs and denying the description of the new Israeli government as a brutal fascist state operating a system of apartheid. He is a danger not just to the left but to all the world’s oppressed, and if he becomes PM that danger will be magnified to an incalculable degree.
Holocaust Memorial Day means nothing to Starmer compared to his allegiance to Zionism and all that it entails. I think that is now a given . What concerns me however is the coercion of the NEC . Does it really entrust Starmer with the possible position of PM given his already dictatorial and callous actions and the unknown future influences and alliances that may cause serious racist divisions in the U.K.
The Labour Party is Tory MK2 and a danger to the working class. It has degenerated into an organisation of political scabs to which no trust whatsoever can be extended.
Progressive people need a clean break fro this shower of detritus.
Disgusting response from the LP.
The reference to the actual Stalinist purges and persecution is apposite. Victims of the LP processes, or their supporters, are not allowed to ask for the support of their party branch or constituency, who probably know them much better than the central or regional party. The latter can punch down with impunity and may well be rewarded. Disguisting.
So its NEC policy is it ? Thats easy – suspend anyone on the NEC (on a flimsy excuse) if they have a different viewpoint to Starmer and Evans! As for the Regional Office – they are just the paid officials and they do as they are told !
John (Bowley) said:
The Starmer-led Labour Party has again shown itself as unfit for government.
That’s all very well John, but Starmer and Co have been ahead in the polls for over a year now, and during the past five months they’ve been 20-plus points ahead. And the reason(s) WHY of course is that the vast majority of people get their ‘news’ via the corporate media and the semi-corporate Tory run-and-controlled BBC, and it’s mainly only those of us on the left (and the right of course) who know Starmer and Co’s true colours. There are OTHER factors of course – the state of the economy etc – and needless to say, the Tories have been in a shambles for some time now.
Everything posters have said above about Starmer and his henchmen is true, and Yes, Martyn, he IS a total disgrace and an establishment stooge and a liar and a fraud and a deceiver, and Yes, he and his cronies HAVE betrayed all that labour stands for AND betrayed all of us. BUT, a significant proportion of the electorate is totally unaware of this reality, courtesy of the MSM.
Kuhnberg ….. Yes, indeed.
As Ken Loach reminded us via “Labour Heartlands” the efforts made by the CPS to avoid Assange being tried in the UK, which would have (at the time) avoided the likelihood of extradition from Sweden to the US:
The emails between the Swedish Prosecuting Authority (SPA) and the CPS show that the latter was closely involved in the Assange case at every stage.
In one such email, dated 25 January 2011, a CPS lawyer advised the SPA not to send someone to the UK: “My earlier advice remains, that in my view it would not be prudent for the Swedish authorities to try to interview the defendant [Assange] in the UK.“
In August 2012, in response to an article saying Sweden could withdraw the warrant against Assange, a CPS staffer (name redacted) warned [pdf, p1] Sweden’s Director of Public Prosecutions Marianne Ny: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!“
I don’t suppose Keir Starmer, as DPP, had anything to do with what his office were up to on this? For is not Starmer an honourable man?