Yet more False Anti-Semitism Smears - Elected by the members and removed by the corrupt GMB and Labour's Right inc. Claudia Webbe
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| Labour's Gutless 'Left' Voted to Endorse Guido Fawkes base accusations |
The NEC’s shameful decision to deselect South Thanet’s socialist Parliamentary Prospective Candidate should be seen in perspective. The decision was taken at the behest of Douglas Murray’s far-Right Islamaphobic Henry Jackson Society and the Tory Guido Fawkes. It is a prime example of the cowardice in the face of adversity. Such gutlessness can and will only rebound on the left.
One of the defining moments in consolidating the grip of Tony Blair in the Labour Party was the deselection in 1995 of Liz Davies as Leeds North-East PPC. The right-wing press had whipped up the normal storm of lies against Liz. She had broken the whip twice on Islington Council to vote against the closure of a nursery. As Tony Benn noted in his Diary:
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| Karen Constantine |
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| Karen Constantine |
“Liz Davies is due to have her endorsement as a parliamentary candidate for Leeds North East refused by the NEC tomorrow morning… Frank Field, MP, has encouraged Labour voters in the past to ‘Vote Liberal’ and that’s alright. Roger Liddle, who was an SDP councillor until May and voted against Labour, is taken into Blair’s private office. But Liz Davies, who voted against her Labour Council – to save a nursery school – is not allowed to be a candidate.”
When Liz Davies was deselected as Labour PPC Jeremy Corbyn spoke up strongly in her support. Today he has remained silent after a campaign by the same political forces that were responsible for the defenestration of Liz Davies. Today the so-called Left on Labour’s NEC has gone along with these Tory hyenas.
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| Karen Constantin's baiting of the elected PPC for South Thanet |
South Thanet Labour Party is a model party. It was their vigorous campaign which helped see off Nigel Farage when he stood in the 2015 General Election. The area has been a focus of activity by fascists and the NF for many years. South Thanet’s Vice Chair, Jackie Walker, the Black Jewish activist who was scandalously suspended by Iain McNicol’s witch hunters, led the fight against the fascists.
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| Andrew Cunningham - GMWU NE Regional Official Gaoled for 5 (cut to 4) years in prison |
South Thanet recently selected as its PPC a well-known and locally respected socialist activist, Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt. Her main opponent was Karen Constantine, a Labour Councillor who is known locally as ambitious and self serving. Constantine was at one point employed by the GMB, a notoriously corrupt union.
Those with long memories will remember their North-East Regional Secretary Andrew Cunningham who was also Chairman of Durham County Council. In 1974 Cunningham was gaoled for 5 years for graft and corruption, alongside John Poulson and T Dan Smith, former leader of Newcastle Council. It was a scandal that brought down the Tory Home Secretary of the time, Reginald Maudling. Regional Secretaries in the GMB are unelected and unaccountable. One of their main activities is feathering their own nests.
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| Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt - deselected by cowards on the NEC |
Constantine was supported by the GMB in particular in her bid to become PPC. She had however become extremely unpopular since her involvement in ‘Soapgate’(Feb 2017) Soapgate could and should have led to her suspension from the Labour Party. It was in essence theft from the poor and was seen as such. However under Iain McNicol a blind eye was turned to the misdemeanours of the Right.
For example the late Riad al-Taher, an Iraqi member of the Labour Party who had been gaoled for 10 months for breaching UN sanctions on Iraq which were killing thousands of Iraqis, was expelled summarily from the Labour Party. On the other hand Jeremy Newmark, who was Chair of the racist Jewish Labour Movement, was not suspended because his corruption, documented at length by the Jewish Chronicle, was considered ‘private’ by McNicol.
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| As part of the campaign around fake antisemitism allegations merely alleging that antisemitism is being weaponised is in itself 'antisemitic' |
Lush Cosmetics is an ethical company much like Body Shop used to be. Kent Online reported that in early 2017 it donated hundreds of pounds of goods to various charities to support the homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Karen Constantine got her paws on the goods and instead flogged them to raise funds for Labour’s election campaign, in which she was involved, raising over £400 in a table top sale. Lush gave 100 tonnes of products to 38 charities, including Food For All. FFA handed some of them to Constantine and her agent Kaz Peet. The pair then held a Lush for Labour sale. See Thanet Labour councillor apologises after selling charity Lush products to raise money for election campaign
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| Lush's stolen goods |
Constantine posted “Absolute bargains to be had - there has never been a better time to buy a bath bomb!!!” and Kaz Peet posted: “Many serious bargains to be had at the sale of Lush products - this afternoon at Churchills - all funds to the Labour party KCC campaign.” Undoubtedly this was true!! When they were exposed they were forced to hand over the £415 collected to local charities.
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| Douglas Murray of the Henry Jackson Society |
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| This is the intellectual racist who is motivated the NEC to deselect Rebecca |
Constantine later exclaimed that she had not known that she could be in breach of electoral law. Selling goods donated to a charity for private purposes is not only a breach of electoral but charitable law and possibly a breach of the Theft Act. David Goodfellow of The Kindness Offensive said:
“We make it very clear that anything we donate is used for people in desperate, desperate need. I am a bit surprised as it is made abundantly clear that these should go to the end user.”
This should have been an expulsion offence. Selling goods intended for the homeless for the sake of her election campaign.
Constantine unsurprisingly lost out in her first attempt to become PPC at the 2017 General election. In her second attempt in 2018 she lost out again to Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt. On both occasions her behaviour at LP meetings alienated people. She had a sense of entitlement and expectation that she should become the candidate.
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| GMB member Stuart McCann resigned because the views of his and other branches were overruled by the GMB region |
Although nominated by the corrupt GMB union as their candidate in 2017, no local branches of the GMB were asked for their opinions resulting in the resignation of local GMB representative Stuart McCann. The Isle of Thanet Newsreported in March 2018 McCann, a former President of the Thanet Trades Council, as saying that:
“I am sad to say that as of today I have resigned from all my GMB posts and will also be resigning my membership of said union (Thanet TUC) over what I believe to be corruption at regional level in the nominations from GMB branches for PPC candidate Karen Constantine.’
“My branch is listed as a nominating branch, however I can confirm that W09 Asda Dartford branch has not met to nominate Karen, in fact my branch secretary informs me he hasn’t even heard of her never mind nominating her.”
Frank Macklin, the GMB Regional Organiser complained that Stuart had failed to contact him personally. At no time did he dispute the accuracy or truthfulness of the allegations which had been made.
Constantine was selected by Momentum to be their candidate though she has never attended a Momentum meeting and kept her distance from the local group. Her support for Corbyn was initially non-existent and only appeared to develop after she saw which way the wind was blowing. Unfortunately this is symptomatic of Momentum these days.
Since Rebecca was elected, Karen and her supporters have consistently undermined her on a local and national level. Most party members have no doubt that Constantine was behind the smearing reports of the Weekend Furlough, a nasty far-Right blog and that Constantine was their ‘senior Labour source’.
The Weekend Furlough is published by Sam Armstrong, a shady character who was accused of rape recently while working in Westminster as an aide to Craig Mackinlay MP, ex UKIP and now Tory MP for South Thanet who’s on trial at the moment over his election expenses!!! Like many men accused of rape, Armstrong was acquitted. These are the people the LP are listening to.
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| Rebecca's Open Latter Explaining the Background to what happened |
However it didn’t matter how nasty, racist and right-wing this blog is. Certain people in the upper echelons of the Labour Party, left-overs from crooked McNicol, were determined to do their best to undermine an elected socialist candidate. According to the Furlough:
Our first call was to a senior Labour source – one who as a consequence of the result – we thought might be talkative. We made the call on the 10th of April... We were not disappointed. Over the course of a 30 minute phone call, the individual told us that there was a “big story here” and we should be “grateful” because she was giving us a lot of news. The individual pointed us in the direction of a lot of different allegations. We made a note of all of them. Some did not check out – many did.
It was clear that our source had an axe to grind and would tell us what we wanted to hear in order that we may criticise Dr Gordon-Nesbitt. She obviously felt hurt by the way that she thought Gordon-Nesbitt had betrayed her. Clearly at that stage she was disappointed at recent events and wanted to lash out. Her view was that the PPC election should be re-run. However, while much was unfocused and unpublishable she gave us a lot that was actionable... We ended the phone call, feeling excited. If just some of what our source had claimed was true, this could be big. We were amazed that we had gained all of this from an elected official.
It is clear that this ‘elected official’ was Constantine. Who else ‘had an axe to grind’? The ‘Weekend Furlough’ is a local version of the Tory Guido Fawkes blog. Here’s what Fawkes had to say
Labour’s newly-selected parliamentary candidate in South Thanet runs a pro-Corbyn ‘think tank’ which repeatedly defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker during their anti-Semitism scandals and questioned the “Zionist sympathies” of John Bercow. Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, a socialist historian who wrote a book praising Castro, was selected in Thanet earlier this month after joining the Labour Party when Corbyn became leader. She also runs a think tank called The Centre for Cultural Change. Whois records show Gordon-Nesbitt registered its website and there are no other staff listed at the organisation. Its Twitter account has repeatedly promoted Gordon-Nesbitt.
As you can see these are really serious charges. The kind of McCarthyism you expect from the rabid Right. It is a sad indictment of the ‘left’ on Labour’s NEC that they took this kind of rubbish seriously. Not only was Rebecca guilty of defending Jackie Walker, who is suspended (& in the eyes of Labour’s witchhunters you are guilty until proven innocent) but she defended Ken Livingstone and worse still wrote a book praising Fidel Castro. For these crimes, Labour’s witchhunters removed Rebecca as the democratically elected PPC.
Armstrong is now communications manager with the cold-war warriors of the Henry Jackson Society, founded by Douglas Murray, author of ‘The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam’. The Guardian Review describes the bookthus:
Think Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins, but with longer words, and for people who wouldn’t be seen dead on an English Defence League march – although one of the more ridiculous contentions in this book by the journalist Douglas Murray is that the EDL are actually terribly misunderstood chaps, who have a point, and aren’t really to blame for the way their rallies regularly end in violence.
This is the kind of scum that Labour’s NEC, Claudia Webbe and Lansman listened to when deciding to deselect Rebecca. The whole fake ‘antisemitism’ smears and witchhunt are driven by Zionists like Douglas Murray. For a racist union like the GMB this is no problem.
The HJC recently held a public meeting called “The Left’s Jewish Problem — Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Antisemitism” which held that ‘antisemitism is a ‘sickness’ at the heart of left-wing British politics that has become increasingly insidious in recent years.’ Speaking at this meeting was Dave Rich of the Zionist Community Security Trust which is responsible for the manipulation of ‘anti-Semitism’ incidents, year by year, in order to create the appearance of ever increasing anti-Semitism in British society. Tony Lerman, the former Director of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, showed in ‘Anti-Semitism Redefined: Israel’s Imagined National Narrative of Endless External Threat’ how Israel’s Mossad, took over responsibility for the collation of statistics of anti-Semitism internationally as part of a narrative that the only refuge from anti-Semitism is the emigration of Jews to Israel (‘Aliyah).
Alan Mendoza, the Executive Director of the HJS was ‘aghast’ at Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis. He explained:
"It is shocking that a party such as Labour, which used to be a big bastion of support for Israel, has now fallen by the wayside. Of course, there are still a good number of Labour MPs who are supportive of Israel. "I think the big change in British politics has come on the right. There is now large support for Israel.’
It is clear that for the Right, Labour’s ‘anti-Semitism crisis’ is not about hatred of Jews but criticism of Israel.
Rebecca, who was the real left candidate, was supported by the grassroots and most local Momentum members. She won PPC democratically and against huge odds. Have a look at the letter she has written about the NEC decision for more details. A number of local LP members have already resigned. The local party is united against the decision of the NEC.
Thanet Labour councillor apologises after selling charity Lush products to raise money for election campaign
By Paul Francis Published: 16:30, 27 February 2017
A Labour councillor sold cosmetics meant to benefit the homeless and disadvantaged to charity to raise money for her election campaign instead.
Karen Constantine, who is already a Thanet councillor and is standing in May's county council election, raised more than £400 in a table top sale of Lush cosmetics and other beauty products that were supposed to have been handed directly to charities serving the homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Instead, the cosmetics were sold to fund Labour’s county council election campaign for candidates in South Thanet.
Karen Constantine
Under election law, charities are not usually considered as permissible donors.
There is no suggestion that Lush was aware of what happened and its website makes clear that anything it donates should not be resold or raffled as prizes.
The chain of events began when a charity called The Kindness Offensive was offered a 100-tonne consignment of Lush products.
It gave the products to 38 charities, including Food For All. A charity shop run by Food for All offered some to Karen Constantine and her agent Kaz Peet, who then collected them from London.
Lush products were for sale on the stall
Postings on Facebook by Karen Constantine and Kaz Peet then advertised the table sale taking place at a Ramsgate pub on February 18 - making it clear the money made would go towards the Labour party’s campaign costs.
In one, Cllr Constantine said: “Don't forget the Lush for Labour sale at Churchills! 2pm today. Absolute bargains to be had - there has never been a better time to buy a bath bomb!!!”
In another, Kaz Peet posted: “Many serious bargains to be had at the sale of Lush products - this afternoon at Churchills - all funds to the Labour party KCC campaign.”
Cllr Constantine told the KM Group she acted to rectify the situation as soon as she was aware of it but had not known that she could be in breach of electoral law.
"I am sorry that this happened and unreservedly apologise" - Karen Constantine
“We made a mistake. I was absolutely unaware of any issue that could cause problems. As soon as I found out, we arranged for the proceeds to go to charity," she said.
In a statement, she added: “I fully apologise for not knowing the election funding laws regarding charities.
"Once the law was made clear to me and I realised there was a mistake I took immediate steps to ensure monies raised - £415 - were donated to local charities. I am sorry that this happened and unreservedly apologise. This will not happen again."
David Goodfellow of The Kindness Offensive said: “There has clearly been a mistake here. We make it very clear that anything we donate is used for people in desperate, desperate need. I am a bit surprised as it is made abundantly clear that these should go to the end user.”
It is understood that party officials in Ramsgate are due to meet tonight to discuss the issue.
Food For All has been approached for a comment.
A row has broken out in the Thanet Labour Party ranks about the group’s parliamentary candidate nominations for the South of the constituency.
This morning (March 12) former Thanet Trade Union Council President and GMB (General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union) member Stuart McCann resigned all his roles in protest at a regional level nomination for South Thanet candidate Karen Constantine.
In a statement Mr McCann, who remains a member of the Labour Party, said: “I am sad to say that as of today I have resigned from all my GMB posts and will also be resigning my membership of said union (Thanet TUC) over what I believe to be corruption at regional level in the nominations from GMB branches for PPC candidate Karen Constantine.
“My branch is listed as a nominating branch, however I can confirm that W09 Asda Dartford branch has not met to nominate Karen, in fact my branch secretary informs me he hasn’t even heard of her never mind nominating her.”
Candidates
The resignations centre on the contest for South Thanet’s parliamentary candidate for Labour. The candidate voted in will fight to take the constituency seat from Tory Craig Mackinlay in the scheduled May, 2022, General Election.
Hustings are currently underway and there are six candidates, including Cllr Constantine. The others are Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, Raushan Ara, Helen Elizabeth Whitehead, Simon Warley and Mohammed Rodwan Abouharb.
The argument is that Cllr Constantine has already been ‘given’ the role as PPC due to regional GMB backing.
Cllr Constantine announced the backing on social media saying UNISON South East Labour Link Committee had voted to nominate her as well as five GMB branches.
GMB response
Frank Macklin, GMB Regional Organiser, responded to the accusation by Mr McCann, in a social media post. He said: “As the officer responsible for Stuart and his workplace, I was made aware of Stuart’s issues via social media. At no time has Stuart contacted me personally about his issues surrounding the endorsement of Branches for parliamentary candidates
“If Stuart had contacted me I would have given him the same advice that I have now had to do on social media.
I have advised Stuart to raise this matter with the region and if he is unhappy with the response he receives he can then invoke the complaints procedure under the GMB rulebook
I have advised Stuart to raise this matter with the region and if he is unhappy with the response he receives he can then invoke the complaints procedure under the GMB rulebook
“Unfortunately Stuart has chosen not to do this but instead he has chosen to air his grievance on this forum, which is a shame. I have known Stuart for a number of years and I am truly sorry that as a longstanding trade unionist he does not trust his union enough to at least give them the chance to investigate his grievance properly.”
Mr Macklin added that: “Trade union democracy and procedures should be explored to find an amicable resolution.”
A GMB Southern Region spokesman added: “The GMB Southern region can confirm that Karen Constantine has been nominated by the GMB in the Labour Party selection process for Parliamentary candidate in South Thanet.
“Following our internal procedures this nomination has been endorsed by our regional committee. This nomination was submitted to the Labour Party in accordance with the Labour Party selection timetable.
“GMB has very recently become aware of comments made by an ex GMB member regarding this process. The regional political officer has asked for the substance of the complaints (if any) to be clarified to us in writing.”
TUC
The national Trades Union Congress (TUC) declined to comment.
Thanet TUC is hosting the hustings for candidates at the Red Arrows Club, Newington Road, on March 21 at 7pm.
TTUC President Jon Flaig said: “This is not a matter for Thanet Trades Union Council. We are friends with both Stuart McCann and the GMB and hope they can resolve this matter.”
Cllr Constantine has been asked for comment.
Latest in Guido’s Candidate Watchseries: Labour’s newly-selected parliamentary candidate in South Thanet runs a pro-Corbyn ‘think tank’ which repeatedly defended Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker during their anti-Semitism scandals and questioned the “Zionist sympathies” of John Bercow. Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, a socialist historian who wrote a book praising Castro, was selected in Thanet earlier this month after joining the Labour Party when Corbyn became leader. She also runs a think tank called The Centre for Cultural Change. Whois records show Gordon-Nesbitt registered its website and there are no other staff listed at the organisation. Its Twitter account has repeatedly promoted Gordon-Nesbitt.