Property Versus People

 TOGETHER against evictions.  Unite union flags on tenants' demonstration.  Which side is Labour on?

HOUSING campaigners and other friends are going to Lambeth County Court on Friday to show support for a worker from St.George's Hospital, where I used to work, who is facing eviction from her home, with her two kids, - by a so-called charity. Marian is a Guinness Trust assured shorthold tenant (AST) and she has been living in Kenwood House in Loughborough Park since 2007. Due to the ongoing regeneration of the estate, Guinness Housing Association are taking Marian to court to get possession of her flat which she shares with her two children aged 4 and 8.
Marian is one of the last AST tenants who has refused to leave to make way for Guinness to demolish her block. She is a healthcare assistant in St Georges Hospital and cannot afford private rents in London - she is demanding alternative affordable accommodation. The campaign by Guinness ASTs has meant that almost all the other ASTs who resisted eviction have been rehoused and nobody has been forcibly evicted. Campaigners want to show Guinness that Marian has strong support to resist any attempt to evict her too.


Help stop the eviction – Protest for Marian
Friday August 28 at 13.30
Lambeth County Court, Cleaver Street, Kennington, London, SE11 4DZ

The Loughborough park estate in Brixton was a 1930s estate of 390 social rented flats – until Guinness began their regeneration programme to demolish it and replace it with 487 new-build apartments. When Guinness started on this regeneration strategy more than a decade ago they decided not to take on any more housing association tenants with full life-time tenancy rights and as vacancies came up they brought in ASTs (assured shorthold tenants) who could keep the buildings occupied temporarily before they bulldozed them – but would not need to be rehoused by Guinness when they evicted them.

Many of the existing tenants, however, were not happy with the regeneration plans and opposed the move to new high-rise blocks which would lead to higher rents and would destroy the beautiful old buildings on the estate which had a unique architectural value. They lobbied and challenged the planning process and tried to set up their own tenants association but were blocked by Guinness and eventually ignored by Lambeth council.

The planning permission was delayed by many years but in the end Guinness even threatened to sell the estate outright if they were not allowed to go ahead with their regeneration plans and Lambeth capitulated. Guinness promised only 30 extra social housing units in the new development for rent to people on Lambeth’s housing waiting list – but even this was a deception as the number of social rented housing tenants had already markedly decreased (being replaced by ASTs) so the net effect of the regeneration will be a REDUCTION in social rented flats on the estate from the original 390 dow
- See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/protest/a-history-of-guinness-the-loughborough-park-estate/#sthash.3j57gqqe.dpuf

MARIAN is NHS Care Assistant.
Who cares about her and her children?

The battle on the Guinness estate is part of the ongoing struggle for living space in London which has intensified under this government. "Regeneration" becomes a formula for property development that forces working class people out of neighborhoods and even out of the capital, housing benefits are capped while rents are allowed to soar, and new developments bought and sold for profit and even money-laundering while even people in good jobs haven't a chance of buying. With some 40 per cent of council homes sold under Thatcher's much-vaunted "right to buy" policy now in the hands of private landlords and property companies, the Tories have promised to extend this to housing associations - though it would impinge on their charity status, and the cost would be subsidised at the expense of councils building new homes.

Some Tory councils in the capital have waived any obligation on builders to provide affordable homes, and made it clear they don't   want  working class and poor people in their borough anyway.   But some Labour councils too have proved unable or unwilling to resist the trend, and are telling homeless families they must move hundreds of miles away if they want to be housed.         

For all it's called "Conservative", the government can be radical when it is taking away our rights, be it in the workplace or at home. Anticipating more homelessness, and people ready to take desperate measures whether individually or organised, Cameron's Con-Dem coalition introduced legislation turning squatting of empty homes into a criminal offence.

 Some people seem to have decided this was not going far enough. Last year the social media repeatedly carried a news story from the London Borough of Redbridge about police snatching food and sleeping bags or blankets from homeless people who had taken shelter in an unused building.
People who read about this were rightly incensed about this nasty, brutal behaviour by the police who, though acting on their own initiative, said they had been asked to discourage vagrants from using the premises.  But if some Labour politicians had their way such actions would be more general and much worse.

As a local activist in Lambeth observed last year:

Chuka Umunna, Tessa Jowell and Lib Peck recently called for an extension to the law forbidding squatting to include commercial properties as well as residential. Clearly they are on the side of property developers and landlords against the homeless and those great experimental centres of creativity, artistic endeavour and learning that have been made possible by squatting. ....

I have visited several of these places and I am well impressed by their achievements. Did those three visit any of these establishments or were they running on the pure, unadulterated juices of prejudice, hearsay and the tired old Tory canard of squatters stealing peoples homes?

- See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/squatting/look-back-anger-lambeths-betrayal-commitment-social-housing/#sthash.S0Y6RwEs.dpufLib Peck is the leader of Lambeth council, and I was told there was a particular local problem over the West Norwood library site.  But whatever the rights and wrongs of that, by turning to the Tory government and asking for it to extend its laws, the Labour trio were opening the door to further oppressive action against the homeless, against community and cultural groups that have made some very creative use of empty and often derelict buildings in Lambeth and other places: and potentially also against workers or anti-cuts campaigners occupying premises to resist closures. It is a far, sad cry from the days when Lambeth Labour was used to being branded "loony left" by the press because it tried to resist the Tories and defend services to local people. 

So whose side is Labour on, the property speculators or the working people? Most Labour people I know would indignantly reply "the people of course!"  But look again at those names. Chuka Umunna was elected MP for Streatham in 2010, and the following year made Shadow Business Secretary. Calling for Labour to target Conservatives and "aspirational, middle-class voters", he said  the party needs to be "on the side of those who are doing well,."and on May 12, announced his candidature for the Labour Party leadership, only to withdraw it three days later. But he has not desisted from acting as a voice for the Right, and warning us what awful things will happen if we vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

Tessa Jowell, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, which if I'm not mistaken covers the Guinness estate at Loughborough Junction, served in both the Blair and Brown governments, while her international business lawyer husband ended up serving time in an Italian prison as a result of the money-laundering and bribery linked to former Italian prime minister (and Blair chum) Sylvio Berlusconi. Jowell is now hoping to be Labour's candidate for Mayor of London, and presumably also hoping that voters remember her part in securing the Olympics for London, rather than asking whether she really knew nothing about her husband getting Berlusconi to pay their mortgage.

There's certainly nothing about it in the letter I've received from "Trade Unionists for Tessa", signed by John Hannett, general secretary of USDAW. A lot of my friends seem to be supporting Diane Abbott for mayor, while my union's London region is backing Sadiq Khan, currently MP for Tooting. Like a lot of Unite members I was surprised just after the general election to receive a 'phone call from someone in a union survey team asking my views about the mayoralty. Contrary to the story that appeared in Private Eye, they did not mention any potential candidates, but asked what I thought should be priorities.  I said something about housing and might have also mentioned transport, and I probably was not alone, as together with a Living Wage, these are taken up in Sadiq Khan's leaflet. 

As it happens, though I'm not keen on the mayoral set up at all, or maybe because of that, I have chanced my first choice vote on a rank outsider, Christian Wolmar, whom I only know through his books on London transport, though I see he has also worked for the housing charity Shelter. At least he is not a clown and he is the only candidate standing who is not a career politician.  Whether or not he is the man we need we'll see, but at least his candidature will give them a shake up. I was helped to my decision by seeing Christian on TV recently where he said he would support Jeremy Corbyn (as does Diane Abbott of course),  Since then he has been kept out of another hustings programme, and he also had some interesting things to say about property:

Chuka Umunna, Tessa Jowell and Lib Peck recently called for an extension to the law forbidding squatting to include commercial properties as well as residential. Clearly they are on the side of property developers and landlords against the homeless and those great experimental centres of creativity, artistic endeavour and learning that have been made possible by squatting. See examples (here, here and here)
I have visited several of these places and I am well impressed by their achievements. Did those three visit any of these establishments or were they running on the pure, unadulterated juices of prejudice, hearsay and the tired old Tory canard of squatters stealing peoples homes?
- See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/squatting/look-back-anger-lambeths-betrayal-commitment-social-housing/#sthash.S0Y6RwEs.dpuf

The Loughborough park estate in Brixton was a 1930s estate of 390 social rented flats – until Guinness began their regeneration programme to demolish it and replace it with 487 new-build apartments. 
When Guinness started on this regeneration strategy more than a decade ago they decided not to take on any more housing association tenants with full life-time tenancy rights and as vacancies came up they brought in ASTs (assured shorthold tenants) who could keep the buildings occupied temporarily before they bulldozed them – but would not need to be rehoused by Guinness when they evicted them.
Many of the existing tenants, however, were not happy with the regeneration plans and opposed the move to new high-rise blocks which would lead to higher rents and would destroy the beautiful old buildings on the estate which had a unique architectural value. They lobbied and challenged the planning process and tried to set up their own tenants association but were blocked by Guinness and eventually ignored by Lambeth. 
The planning permission was delayed by many years but in the end Guinness even threatened to sell the estate outright if they were not allowed to go ahead with their regeneration plans and Lambeth capitulated. Guinness promised only 30 extra social housing units in the new development for rent to people on Lambeth’s housing waiting list – but even this was a deception as the number of social rented housing tenants had already markedly decreased (being replaced by ASTs) so the net effect of the regeneration will be a REDUCTION in social rented flats on the estate from the original 390 dow
- See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/protest/a-history-of-guinness-the-loughborough-park-estate/#sthash.3j57gqqe.dpuf

The Loughborough park estate in Brixton was a 1930s estate of 390 social rented flats – until Guinness began their regeneration programme to demolish it and replace it with 487 new-build apartments. 
When Guinness started on this regeneration strategy more than a decade ago they decided not to take on any more housing association tenants with full life-time tenancy rights and as vacancies came up they brought in ASTs (assured shorthold tenants) who could keep the buildings occupied temporarily before they bulldozed them – but would not need to be rehoused by Guinness when they evicted them.
Many of the existing tenants, however, were not happy with the regeneration plans and opposed the move to new high-rise blocks which would lead to higher rents and would destroy the beautiful old buildings on the estate which had a unique architectural value. They lobbied and challenged the planning process and tried to set up their own tenants association but were blocked by Guinness and eventually ignored by Lambeth. 
The planning permission was delayed by many years but in the end Guinness even threatened to sell the estate outright if they were not allowed to go ahead with their regeneration plans and Lambeth capitulated. Guinness promised only 30 extra social housing units in the new development for rent to people on Lambeth’s housing waiting list – but even this was a deception as the number of social rented housing tenants had already markedly decreased (being replaced by ASTs) so the net effect of the regeneration will be a REDUCTION in social rented flats on the estate from the original 390 dow
- See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/protest/a-history-of-guinness-the-loughborough-park-estate/#sthash.3j57gqqe.dpuf

Chuka Umunna, Tessa Jowell and Lib Peck recently called for an extension to the law forbidding squatting to include commercial properties as well as residential. Clearly they are on the side of property developers and landlords against the homeless and those great experimental centres of creativity, artistic endeavour and learning that have been made possible by squatting. See examples (here, here and here)
I have visited several of these places and I am well impressed by their achievements. Did those three visit any of these establishments or were they running on the pure, unadulterated juices of prejudice, hearsay and the tired old Tory canard of squatters stealing peoples homes?
- See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/squatting/look-back-anger-lambeths-betrayal-commitment-social-housing/#sthash.S0Y6RwEs.dpuf

“Last week, the political Establishment figures watched as I was undemocratically excluded from appearing on what was supposed to be an election hustings broadcast on LBC radio,” Christian Wolmar said.

“Now, it is reported that three of my Labour Party rivals for selection have been having their campaigns generously funded by property developers.

“My party colleagues forgot to mention this at our election debates.”

Property Week reports today that, “Big-name property developers and investors have emerged as some of the biggest donors to London mayoral candidates in the early stages of the campaign.”
It had already been established that Dame Tessa Jowell received £10,000 towards her campaign from the chairman of Chime Communications, the company founded by Mrs Thatcher’s former spin doctor, Tory peer Tim Bell. Dame Tessa has since taken an executive job with a Chime subsidiary.
Now Property Week reports that Canary Wharf Ltd has given £11,500 to the Jowell campaign, which has received another £5,000 from the former chairman of Land Securities.

Sadiq Khan’s campaign has received nearly £40,000 in donations from three major property developers.

And David Lammy’s campaign has racked up donations amounting to almost £40,000 from various companies and individuals with multi-million-pound interests in property development in the capital.

Christian Wolmar said: “How can these Labour Party candidates for London Mayor say they will drive a hard bargain with developers while taking money from them?

http://unitelive.org/displaced-and-dispossessed/

http://housingactivists.co.uk/category/guinness-trust-2/

http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/04/brixton-evictions-and-regeneration-the-story-of-the-guinness-trust-estate-in-loughborough-park-brixton/

http://housingactivists.co.uk/squatting/look-back-anger-lambeths-betrayal-commitment-social-housing/

http://www.wolmarforlondon.co.uk/what_do_property_developers_expect_in_return

Labour's new McCarthyism is already beyond a joke

MARK STEEL (second from left), canvassing for Labour.  But denied a vote in leadership contest.

 
 AS left-wing maverick Jeremy Corbyn continues his amazing race towards the Labour Party leadership, with the contest and his campaign particularly breathing new life into politics, bringing old members back as well as new members into the party, panic is setting in.

The contest is revealing a farcical underside, though those adversely affected might not see it as a joke.

Labour's Establishment and Blairite careerists view big public meetings cheering socialist policies with distaste.  Far from welcoming fresh young people coming to Labour with their hopes and enthusiasm, they view them with suspicion, as a threat.

Having changed the party's rules in the hope that left-wing activism and union influence could be swamped by having "supporters" register to vote in American-style primaries, where media-designed "personalities" would outweigh interest in making policies, they have sourly decided it did not work, and  are talking about having to change the rules again.

Meanwhile numerous reports are coming of people who applied to join the Labour Party, old members who rejoined, or those who registered as supporters, being told they are not acceptable, and will not be allowed to vote. Andy Burnham's campaign managers were telling reporters yesterday that he is concerned about Tories who might sneak in.  But there seems to be no evidence of this blue spectre, which some papers conjured up weeks ago, only to drop it. Whereas it is people with sound left-wing credentials and records of service to the labour movement who are being caught up in Labour's witch-hunt.

As with the original McCarthyism, this is hitting creative and well-liked people in entertainment, whom any Party in its right mind would be delighted to have on board. In a bit of name-dropping the other week I recalled standing in a bar queue with Jeremy Corbyn and comedian Jeremy Hardy during a benefit at the Red Rose Club in Finsbury Park some years back.

I hope it wasn't my doing, but Jeremy Hardy has reported this weekend that, having paid his £3 to the Labour Party, and stated that he supports Labour's aims and values, which should entitle him to vote, he has received a letter which said Labour had reason to believe that he "didn't support the aims and values" of the party.

Mark Steel, whose fast and funny performance delighted a packed audience at a Gaza benefit I attended during the Edinburgh Festival, had already received the same rejection notice from Labour. Mark's humorous take on topical subjects and willingness to travel brought him a loyal radio following. (The Mark Steel Solution, Mark Steel's in Town, BBC Radio Four). He used to be in the Socialist Workers Party, but packed them and their ways in years ago, without however ceasing to be a socialist, or a comedian with a conscience. I'd recommend his book "What's Going On?" (2008), as well as his witty column in the Independent.

At the last general election Mark Steel went out campaigning for the Labour Party. I don't know whether he got much publicity, but his help was appreciated and remembered by those who worked with him. Hearing that he had been denied a vote in the leadership contest, they started a petition       " We ask the NEC to re-consider this with a view to reinstating his full voting rights, as it is plain that Mark shares the values of the Labour party and is not in sympathy with any organisation that is against the said party.."
https://www.change.org/p/the-labour-party-we-call-upon-the-labour-party-to-reinstate-mark-steel-s-leadership-voting-rights?r

It isn't only the latecomers who are being turned away.
 Stephen Marsh
My wife has had her @UKLabour membership cancelled after 22 loyal years membership. She is v far from being an entryist #LabourPurge
   
  
And it isn't only people in the cultural fringe,like Mark,or film maker Ken Loach (who's another). Here's Mike Edwards, an engineering worker and trade unionist from Shropshire. 

Yesterday at 4.18am I received an email rejecting me as a Labour Party supporter and so making me ineligible to vote in the leadership elections.
After a long wait on the phone I finally spoke to a person from the Labour Party only to be told that they could not give me a reason why I had been rejected and that there is no right to appeal.
I said that I was willing to join the Labour Party today but was told that I would still be ineligible to vote. This is the Email I received from the Party

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your recent application to become a Supporter of the Labour Party.
As part of the process to sign up as a Supporter all applicants are asked to confirm the following statement; I support the aims and values of the Labour Party, and I am not a supporter of any organisation opposed to it.
We have reason to believe that you do not support the aims and values of the Labour Party or you are a supporter of an organisation opposed to the Labour Party and therefore we are rejecting your application.
Although you may have received or may still receive a ballot paper, it will not work and if you do vote it will not be counted.
Should you wish to dispute rejection by the Labour Party you would have to submit and pursue an application to join Labour as a full member.

Kind Regards

The Labour Party

Sent by email from the Labour Party and promoted by Iain McNicol on behalf of The Labour Party, both at One Brewers Green, London SW1H 0RH.

A brief history of my involvement in the Labour movement.
• Joined the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers 1976
• Became a Union Representative 1978
• Union Branch Secretary 1987
• Labour Party Member 1984-1997
• Wellington (Shropshire) Branch Labour Party Chair
• Member of the Wrekin Labour Party General Management Committee
• Member of the Constituency Executive and Chair
• Stood as a Labour Party Candidate in Parish District and County Elections
• Delegate to Labour Party Conferences on many occasions.
• Married to Angela McClements (1979-97) currently Labour Party Councilor for Telford and Wrekin Council and formally Secretary to Bruce Grocott MP and Peter Bradley MP
• Currently Member of UCU
• Delegate to Telford and Shropshire Trades Council and executive member
• Employed as Senior Lecturer at Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology in Trade Union Studies.
• I am not nor have I ever been a member of any other political party apart from the Labour Party.
At the recent General Election I supported and voted for the Labour Party candidate Katrina Gilman, one of my students. Delivered leaflets in support of Labours “aims and values” and helped organised 2 events in support of the Labour Party candidates in Shropshire.

I am disgusted but not surprised by the actions of the Labour Party to exclude me and many others from voting in the leadership election.Those in the Labour Party have initiated a witch-hunt among those who have signed up to vote and rejected their application need to look at themselves in the mirror and question if their actions are those of an individual or political party that truly believes in freedom, equality and democratic Socialism. I urge everyone to share my story on social media and those of you that have an opportunity to vote in the leadership election vote for Jeremy Corbin the only candidate that truly supports the aims of the Labour movement “To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service”

In Solidarity Mike Edwards

Joan Twelves is a former Labour leader of Lambeth council, back in the days when it stood for something, opposing the Gulf War and the Poll Tax, and was regularly calumnied in the Tory press. Some will also know her as the widow of RMT militant Greg Tucker, also in his time a Labour councillor.  

Joan had this to say on Facebook

"I wrote this earlier today after walking round the neighbourhood and have hesitated about posting it as it will undoubtedly be used against me (I know how witch-hunts work....). However, I am still very very angry, so sod it -

Kennington - my patch, my manor - full of the expensive flipped flats of MPs and Lords (and those who aspire to those positions), financed and furnished by the taxpayer. Next door to council estates like mine where we live under the threat of market rents, bedroom taxes, benefit caps and 'regeneration'. I opposed the first Gulf War and was deemed to have brought the LP into disrepute; they waged the second Gulf War and have never been called to account. Some of them have stood and been elected as SDP/Lib Dems/Tories. I have never stood for any Party other than Labour. Their aims are personal enrichment and aggrandisement. Mine are to fight for the working class. They do not share Labour's values of equality, fairness, social justice, peace and solidarity; I do. They can vote for Anyone But Corbyn; but I am being banned from voting for my friend. I am very angry.

Credit should be given to MP Kate Hoey, not always in agreement with Joan Twelves, for speaking out against the exclusion and voting ban on her constituent.  http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/08/kate-hoey-speaks-out-after-former-lambeth-council-labour-leader-purged-from-voting-in-leadership-election/

Finally (for now), a word from Mike Cushman, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, whom I know as a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and the British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), who went out to Gaza with books and equipment for universities when it was still possible to run the Israeli blockade. He's not the man to let things go.

Like many socialists I've been banned from the Labour election. The only way to support labour party values in the recent period hss been to support parties other than labour. Now there's a chance the party will move closer to the values that many of us believe in we are being proscribed without appeal.

I'm going to submit a DPA request for the information they hold on me so I can see the basis for their decision.

I encourage all the other banned people to do the same. 

DPA is the Data Protection Act, the same law under which the Consulting Association, gathering blacklists on building workers and others, was raided. And whether or not Mike or anybody else is able to get anywhere challenging Labour's blacklist this way, I'm sure with experience of industrial blacklisting will see the connection.

BTW, if anyone still wants to look into the issue of "infiltration" or entryism in Labour, here's something looking at this in another aspect:

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7dd3-Who-are-the-real-entryists#.Vdjch5fLrjn

And a taste of Mark Steel on the subject:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/every-club-should-be-like-labour--you-cant-join-as-a-new-member-unless-youre-already-a-member-10428421.html

Remember Deir Yassin - and Forget Paul Eisen!

WITHOUT  Fear or Prejudice. Jeremy Corbyn (second from right, in open neck) with friends at Islington event, in June this year.  Every picture tells a story, not always the same one (see below *).


THEY say a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.  These days with electronic media the lie can get right round the world, and probably be on its way back, quite likely embellished, even after it has been refuted. But we must persevere.

On August 16 I took a critical look at a story in the Daily Mail smearing Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn by association with a "notorious holocaust denier". http://randompottins.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-mail-finds-link-or-does-it.html
Thin as the story was - dependent on the MP's support for commemorating a notorious 1948 massacre, and the word of aforesaid Holocaust denier, one Paul Eisen, - it has been put to use, and is becoming shop worn.

That Jeremy Corbyn denies having anything to do with Holocaust denial, and repeatedly condemns antisemitism along with any other kind of racialism is of no importance to his opponents, or to some media hacks. They have a job to do.

I've seen claims on social media that Corbyn "shared a platform with a Holocaust denier" (which even Eisen did not claim) and in the Jewish Chronicle that 7 out of 10 British Jews actually "fear" what will happen if Corbyn wins the Labour leadership. I don't know who they spoke to, but it can't be the Jews I know in Corbyn's Islington North constituency who know and like the MP, and some of whom are supporting him in the Labour leadership contest.

I've not seen what if anything is being said  'Stateside, where people may not know much about our Labour Party, but on past experience when stories like those assailing Jeremy Corbyn are put around they get exaggerated  and cruder, whether because Americans don't do subtlety or their libel laws are more relaxed, and some stories suit certain agendas. So I am pleased to see that as well as some letters from Jewish people defending Jeremy Corbyn finally breaking through the media wall,  there's a Facebook group called Jews for Jeremy, started by that clever entertainer Ian Saville, and including besides British Jews supporters in the United States, Israel and other countries. Hopefully these chaverim will be able to help counteract the lying.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/903669616335883/?fref=ts

One of the "facts" that the Daily Mail writer found most telling was that when Paul Eisen approached Jeremy Corbyn - his MP  - fifteen years ago - about Deir Yassin Remembered, the MP took out his chequebook.  It does not seem to occur to the writer Jake Wallis Simons that fifteen years ago, far from Paul Eisen being "notorious", nobody had heard of him.  I doubt whether he's that famous now.  Whereas the massacre at Deir Yassin was well-known, and nobody denied it had happened, even if Simons and the Jewish Chronicle's Marcel Dysch seem to think they can relegate it to a "controversy" now.     

Stephen Marks on Facebook has managed to put Jeremy Corbyn's generosity fifteen years ago into context, with a little aide memoire:

As Jeremy has already pointed out in the C4News interview, he gave money to DYR when it was founded 15 years ago. At that time Eisen had not ‘come out’ as a holocaust denier, and indeed there is no evidence that he was one. And Jeremy Corbyn was far from the most distinguished public figure to give the cause his support.

According to the Jewish Chronicle on 16 April 2001;
‘Five prominent Progressive rabbis joined Sunday's Central London commemoration of the 1948 massacre of Palestinians at the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. In a concluding prayer to the evening also attended by MPs, Arab diplomats and British-based Palestinians Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues' life president Rabbi John Rayner spoke of "sorrow and shame" that the "land of our ancestors" had been the scene of bitter conflict…

‘Rabbis David Goldberg and Mark Solomon, from the St John's Wood Liberal Synagogue, Finchley Reform minister Rabbi Jeffrey Newman and Durham University lecturer Rabbi Moshe Yehudai-Rimmer also supported the event, which attracted an attendance of several hundred.

‘Rabbi Newman confessed to having been "nervous" in advance about the atmosphere at the commemoration, organised by a joint Jewish and Palestinian group, Deir Yassin Remembered. But he told the JC afterwards that the mood had been "absolutely remarkable, particularly because of the absence of hostility, rage or anger. In many ways it was a mirror image of a Jewish evening of the best sort, with music, drama and poetry," he said. ‘

Moreover there was one other even more distinguished public figure who expressed his support for the event - Prime Minister Tony Blair. In a letter to Paul Eisen, Blair’s Private Secretary, Anna Wechsberg, stated, "The Prime Minister was grateful for your kind invitation, but regrets that due to his existing diary commitments, he will not be able to attend the commemoration on 1 April.” However she added that the Prime Minister “has however asked me to pass on his good wishes for the event.”’ [see http://www.deiryassin.org/pdf/blairletter.pdf].

Once Eisen’s holocaust denial became open most of the distinguished names on the Board of DYR resigned. But many of their names remained on the website (http://www.deiryassin.org) despite requests for them to be removed. Among those who resigned, either in protest at Eisen’s views or because of the co-option onto the board of such figures as the notorious antisemite Israel Shamir, are Israeli activists such as the civil rights lawyer Leah Tsemel and Michael Warshawski of the Alternative Informaton Centre, Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, as well as Norman Finkelstein and Professor Ilan Pappe (see for example http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com.au/…/lea-tsemel-resi… and (http://www.kadaitcha.com/…/bds-attacked-by-deir-yassin-rem…/)

As the latter site makes clear, Eisen’s board of DYR is opposed to the Palestinian campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. Meawhile Eisen has been vigorously, and predictably, defended by his old friend and ally Gilad Atzmon, who is on record as saying that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Jeremy Corbyn is a Patron and which has condemned Eisen and Atzmon, is ‘controlled by Jews’.

Another person who makes an informed and well-argued case against the anti-Corbyn smears is journalist Asa Winstanley on the US-based Electronic Intifada website:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/4-reasons-anti-semitism-attacks-jeremy-corbyn-are-dishonest

The most shocking accusation, originating with The Daily Mail, is that Corbyn has “long standing links” with Paul Eisen, a “notorious” Holocaust denier involved in the group Deir Yassin Remembered.

Eisen certainly expresses disgusting views, denying the Nazi Holocaust took place and frequently expressing other anti-Semitic opinions on his blog.

However, his only real notoriety is for his attempts to infiltrate the Palestine solidarity movement.

Once it became clear what his views were, he was widely condemned and shunned by a movement which is fundamentally anti-racist in its basic principles. Indeed, even in the blog post which the Mail relied on as the source for its smear, Eisen admits that the movement has long “despised me.”

The only real link between the two men (as the Mail conveniently omitted) is that Eisen happens to live in Corbyn’s Islington parliamentary constituency in North London.

Eisen claims to have met him in that capacity – as Corbyn is his member of parliament. It is nonetheless odd that the Mail would be so keen to take the word of a Holocaust denier when it comes to his relationship with Corbyn.

A photograph has been produced of a memorial event which the Mail claims was run by Eisen. However, as this 2013 email sent out by the Palestinian Authority’s UK Mission shows, there was nothing in the advertising about the Holocaust and nothing naming Eisen. There were certainly no links to his blog.

http://palestinianmissionuk.createsend4.com/t/ViewEmail/j/E231FA473C5F10A4/E293E0DBA44E3B9DC67FD2F38AC4859C

Indeed, even on the Deir Yassin Remembered website, Eisen is not named on the contact page, the About page or the Board of Advisors page.

The page misleadingly includes several people as advisors who resigned after some of the the group’s troubling associations became clear.

This includes the Palestinian-American novelist Susan Abulhawa, who stepped down after Eisen wrote an anti-Semitic post on his blog.

See also:
How the Jewish Chronicle dismisses letter-writers supporting Jeremy Corbyn:

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/142553/anti-israel-activists-attack-jc-challenging-jeremy-corbyn

* And just to give a broader picture, as seen above,from United Synagogue news

On a recent look at events and stories on the You & US pages, I was intrigued to see an announcement that Islington Council, together with Islington Chabad were organising a commemorative plaque to be fixed to Barnes Court, Lofting Road, N.1 - the original site of North London Synagogue. - See more at: http://www.theus.org.uk/article/family-trip-down-memory-lane-islington#sthash.SZF05gWe.dpuf

Rabbi Mendy Korer, who helped to organise the event, followed with telling the audience of his involvement from inviting the local MP Jeremy Corbyn to Shabbat dinner when the MP suggested applying for the plaque to the procedure for residents in the locality voting for its installation.

Also in attendance was United Synagogue’s President Stephen Pack
- See more at: http://www.theus.org.uk/article/family-trip-down-memory-lane-islington#sthash.SZF05gWe.dpuf

Blood Money promised, then postponed.

 THOUGH left-wing politicians like Jeremy Corbyn are often accused by right-wing opponents and media of wanting a return to "the 1970s and 1980s" when supposedly unspeakable things were done by trade unions (such as raising wages), not so much has been said about a real major scandal from that period whose effects are being perpetuated. 

 Thousands of National Health Service patients were inadvertently given contaminated blood products in one of the biggest treatment disasters ever. It is estimated that more than 2,000 people died as a result of the contaminated blood, which infected them with deadly diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C.

In Britain, blood donations have always come from volunteers, and been routinely tested for infections. Between 1970 and 1991, against the advice of many experts, the NHS  imported blood products from overseas, particularly the United States and Canada, many supplied by drug companies that sourced blood by paying people in high-risk groups, such as prostitutes, vagrants and drug addicts, to donate it. In some US states the prison service made millions taking prisoners blood. In other places blood was taken from corpses, but the companies claimed it came from donors. The blood products imported to Britain were riddled with the blood-borne viruses hepatitis C and HIV.

 

These products were then administered without being screened for the viruses, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation. Patients were duly infected as a result. About 7,500 people, of whom roughly two-thirds were haemophiliacs, are now known to have been given hepatitis C during this period.

Perhaps the most famous victim of this health scandal, Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick was infected with hepatitis C by a blood transfusion after the birth of her daughter Sam in 1971. She died in 2007, aged 64, from a brain haemorrhage caused by the disease.

According to an estimate by MPs, who debated the scandal in January, as many as 35,000 victims could have hepatitis C, which is often undetected for years, without yet being aware of it. Around 1,500 of the 7,500 confirmed hepatitis victims have also contracted HIV. Many then unwittingly passed it to their partners.  In the Eighties, when most of these transmissions occurred, Aids was a virtual death sentence. Three-quarters of them died.

It does not end there. Many of those who faced terminal illness were forced into hardship by losing or having to give up their jobs, without being able to claim compensation from the governments who were responsible. Some had to turn to charities, but the process of obtaining help has not been easy.

Philip Wellman says his more than 40-year battle with Hepatitis C has reached “a tipping point” as he faces the winter without heating or electricity. He is unable to afford a plane ticket to see his wife, child and grandchildren in his hometown of Hampstead.

It comes after the 68-year-old was involved in a car crash in the early 1970s and became one of more than 5,000 given “killer blood” transfusions by the NHS.

The tainted batch, like many supplied to patients during the 1970s and 1980s, was imported by the Department of Health from US pharmaceutical companies due to supply shortages.

A recent privately-funded inquiry, led by the government’s former solicitor general Lord Peter Archer, found many batches of this blood came from drug addicts, sex workers and other criminals incarcerated in US prisons. The practice continued, it was alleged, “long after alarms had been sounded”.

With the blood riddled with deadly viruses like Hepatitis C and HIV, more than 2,000 of the infected are said to have since died as a result.

Many were infected at the Royal Free Hospital’s haemophiliac centre in Hampstead and the affair has been branded by MPs as “the last major, unclosed government scandal”.

As campaigners continue to accuse the government of an “enormous cover-up”, Mr Wellman says he is hoping David Cameron will “do the right thing” and give survivors proper compensation.

He told the Ham&High: “What the government did to us, and what they’re still doing to us, is horrendous – people would be in disbelief if they knew the story.

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/health/victim_of_nhs_contaminated_blood_left_in_poverty_as_david_cameron_pledge_expires_1_3889833

In May 1983, researchers warned the Department of Health that it should ban U.S. imports of blood-clotting agents. The warning was never followed up.In August that year, the first recorded haemophiliac died from Aids. Yet countless patients continued to be infected. Although the U.S. finally banned prison blood in 1984, exports were allowed to continue and, incredibly, the NHS continued to buy it.

Even though safer, heat-treated products were introduced in the late Eighties, some doctors continued to use up old, contaminated supplies first. Hundreds more people died as a result. By the time Britain started to screen blood properly in 1991, at least 16 other countries were doing so. In some action was taken over officials and ministers who had allowed unsafe blood imports, whereas here there was not even a public inquiry,  When a privately funded one was set up in 2007, the Department of Health withheld vital papers and would not co-operate. Caroline Flint, then Public Health Minister, claimed  key documents detailing the contaminated blood scandal had been destroyed ‘in error’ by a junior member of staff. Caroline Flint is currently standing for deputy leadership of the Labour Party.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3034412/1-800-Britons-murdered-tainted-NHS-blood-denied-justice-scandal-age.html#ixzz3jIRTOXRE

An investigation was launched by the Scottish government in 2008. under Lord Penrose, the head of court at Heriot Watt university.  It cost almost £12 million and ran to 1,800 pages. when it was published in March. Penrose did not apportion any blame and made just one recommendation: that people who felt at risk should be tested for hepatitis. He said Malcolm Rifkind could have launched screening when he was Minister for Scotland, but had stuck to a UK timetable. Rifkind is today director of a company which won a major NHS contract in Staffordshire despite bidding over the in-house price.
 
Lord Penrose said bungling officials should be judged ‘by conditions that prevailed at the time’ rather than by today’s standards. , The inquiry was  dubbed a ‘whitewash’ by campaigners, who walked out of its unveiling and burnt a copy in front of TV crews.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3034412/1-800-Britons-murdered-tainted-NHS-blood-denied-justice-scandal-age.html

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/25/cameron-apologises-infected-hepatitis-c-hiv-contaminated-blood

http://www.penroseinquiry.org.uk/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/penrose-report-blood-scandal-inquiry-branded-a-whitewash-10134095.html

Prime Minister David Cameron apologised to those who had suffered because of the contaminated blood scandal,and promised that the government would make an extra £25 million available to help victims.

But that was before the general election.

It now transpires that this money will not come until next year, at the earliest, and it is to come from existing NHS funds  - in other words the Tories will generously rob Peter from one part of the service to pay Paul -if Paul is still alive.

The government says it wants to consult those affected. But the Haemophilia Society says it has written three times to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, and been blanked. (Cash barrier, Private Eye No.1398, August 7-20).

Bill Wright, chair of Haemophilia Scotland, who was himself infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood products, said there was “real anger” around the delay to the promised funds.
He added: “We have been betrayed on this issue over decades and it is no surprise the UK government is betraying us yet again.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13599918.Victims_of_contaminated_blood_scandal_accuse_David_Cameron_of__betrayal__over_compensation_pledge/

As with past treatment of asbestosis victims, or raising the pension age, the suspicion is that by delaying payment as long as possible, the numbers who die in the intervening period will reduce the costs. And while some bitterly say they cannot afford to bury partners or relatives,  the government may be hoping it can bury the issue away from public sight.

The 'Mail' finds a link - or does it?

AS Jeremy Corbyn's campaign for the Labour Party leadership has rolled on in the past few weeks, with the bearded Left-wing veteran addressing huge public meetings around the country, from Birkenhead to Camden, Llandudno to Aberdeen,  I have been impressed by his energy and stamina, and the way he keeps his cool, explaining his ideas and the kind of policies he wants Labour to adopt, and leaving it to his opponents to just keep saying he can't win, or their friends to make the personal attacks with whatever they can find. 

It is not easy for them. At a time when Parliament and MPs have long declined in the public's estimation, Jeremy Corbyn, whether or not you agree with him, stands out as clean, well-liked by his constituents and the wider public that is getting to know him, honest and frugal to a fault, while generous with his time.

One accusation that has come from sources scraping the barrel is that Corbyn is not only "anti-Israel", that is favourable to the Palestinians, which he and his supporters would freely admit, but "antisemitic" or at least associated with antisemites.  This has come as news to Jewish friends in his constituency who say they have known Jeremy for years, and it will also surprise those who attended the European Jews for Just Peace (EJJP) conference held at Archway some years ago, who were delighted that the MP dropped in at short notice and gave a friendly question an answer session. If there was anything antisemitic about what he had to say it went undetected.

Less surprising perhaps, and even less impressive, are the publications from which these accusations are coming. The Jewish Chronicle,whose editor Stephen Pollard is notoriously not just opposed to Left-wing views on the Middle East but on the NHS and anything else: and the Daily Mail, which scores full marks for chutzpah, having not only admired Hitler and Oswald Mosley in its inglorious past, but in more recent years gone for Labour leader Ed Miliband by attacking his father, a refugee from Nazism, as "anti-British", on the basis of an essay he wrote while 17 years old criticising British society. It wasn't too hard to spot the dog-whistle antisemitism addressed to Mail readers, or to note that young Ralph Miliband went on to serve in the Royal Navy in the War, while the Mail editor's dad was performing sterling service reporting the West End night club scene.

But the story in the Mail on August 7 seemed a real shocker - so long as you didn't know better.  

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Corbyn's 'long-standing links' with notorious Holocaust denier and his 'anti-Semitic' organisation revealed 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3187428/Jeremy-Corbyn-s-links-notorious-Holocaust-denier-revealed.html#ixzz3iyGqL4DR

Note the use of quotation marks. This is the 'Mail' headline writer's concession to honesty, that neither  the "long-standing links" nor the "antisemitic" label are straight-forward facts.

The story by Jake Wallis Simons concerned Jeremy Corbyn's supposed "long-standing association" with a man called Paul Eisen, and an organisation called Deir Yassin Remembered, which Simons explained, " focuses on controversial allegations that Jewish soldiers killed about 100 Arab villagers in the run-up to the war of 1948, and seeks to promote its remembrance at annual events."

It will be news to those of us who have heard of Deir Yassin that there is anything "controversial" about this. The facts were well known at the time. Members of the Irgun Zvei Leumi and Lehi were sent in to capture Deir Yassin, on April 9, 1948, and massacred those they captured as prisoners. This was recorded by Israeli and UN witnesses, and the only controversies were about the overall responsibility (whether the main Zionist military force Haganah authorised the operation at Deir Yassin) and the number of people killed ("about 100" is a rather conservative estimate.Some accounts say there were more than twice that number).

Deir Yassin had been in the area set aside as an international zone under the UN Partition Plan. Its inhabitants had hoped to stay neutral in the looming conflict. The massacre took place six weeks before the State of Israel was proclaimed. Menachem Begin, who was the Irgun's commander in chief, wrote in his memoirs that Arabs began fleeing the country crying "Deir Yassin!". In other words, he boasted of his men's part in creating the Naqba. Maybe the crime has only become "controversial allegations" since the Irgun's successors have been entrenched in government.

I dare say that to some people the idea of remembering Deir Yassin is itself "antisemitic". But when Deir Yassin Remembered  literature from the United States first reached us in the UK there was nothing in it that was anti-Jewish or concerned with Holocaust denial. Rather it was perfectly legitimate historical publicity about the massacre at Deir Yassin, and a proposal to invite artists and raise funds for a permanent memorial. Anyone who has been there and seen the absence of so much as a memorial stone could not disagree with this idea. It is very much in line with Jewish ethics lehizkor - to Remember.


Hearing that Paul Eisen - whom I'd never met or heard of -was the UK representative for this project, I contacted him and arranged a meeting with the Jewish Socialists' Group one Sunday evening. He told us he was due to meet a couple of rabbis that week. Before long Eisen had a number of Jewish helpers and was able to stage a major fund-raiser with their help, featuring well-known artists. He did not achieve this by going round proclaiming himself a Holocaust denier or making antisemitic speeches.

Indeed for a while he participated in the Just Peace UK online discussion list, mostly Jewish and Israeli, and though he antagonised some of the people who had helped him and irritated others like myself, it took time for his increasing obsession with "Jewish guilt" to become clear enough for us to remove him from the list. It seemed to have little to do with Israel and Palestine, and had echoes of the dark side of European Christian tradition rather than any Islamicist excesses.

Regretting that "Deir Yassin Remembered" was becoming Deir Yassin Forgotten under Eisen's tutelage, I wondered whether he could not be replaced. But it seemed he had been put in place by some Catholic cleric in California who founded DYR, and the organisation had neither the members or democratic structure to remove him.  As his association with people like Israel Shamir, Gilad Atzmon,and the neo-Nazi Zundel began to emerge, we learned that DYR's prominent Israeli supporters had the same problem with Shamir, leaving them no option but to resign reluctantly from a cause they had wanted to support.(Shamir, who had initially presented himself to the world as an Israeli dissident, had a Russian background, and far Right connections. Moving from anti-Zionism through conspiracy theory to blood libel, he was uncovered by anti-fascists to have a double identity, as a Swedish Nazi),

If Eisen and DYR had been able to fool Jewish and Israeli people, or rather only emerged in their true colours quite late in the day, it is hardly surprising that they were accepted as genuine among Palestine supporters for a time, or managed to raise donations for what looked like a perfectly commendable purpose. The Daily Mail article quotes Paul Eisen as describing how he went to see Jeremy Corbyn fifteen years ago for a donation to Deir Yassin Remembered, and the MP got out his checkbook. But what does that prove except that Corbyn was prepared to make a donation to what seemed like a perfectly good cause?  The article notes that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign passed a resolution against having anything to do with Eisen - but this was in 2007. And if Jeremy Corbyn attended annual events commemorating the Deir Yassin massacre, where is the evidence that he or anybody else at these events thought they were there to support Holocaust denial? 

In fact, the claim that Jeremy Corbyn had a "long-standing association" with a "notorious Holocaust denier" comes from that denier, Paul Eisen. A highly reliable source!

The article by Jake Wallis Simons went on to tell us:
Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: 'Paul Eisen is a notorious Holocaust denier and if Jeremy Corbyn does have links with him this would be very alarming. We would ask Mr Corbyn to clarify the situation.'Notice the little word "if" that is key to that comment. We'd guess that Jonathan Arkush was rung for a comment and was careful to keep it conditional, rather than lend substance to the story.
It is a fair bet that however "notorious" Paul Eisen ought to be, few 'Mail' readers or anyone else have heard of him, or had until this month.

But the Jewish community has its own antennae monitoring real or imagined antisemitic threats and Holocaust deniers, and unfortunately also watching critics of Israel, like Jeremy Corbyn or me, and waiting for the slightest slip to pounce upon. And it's my guess that if they'd detected a "long-standing association" between Jeremy Corbyn and a Holocaust denier they would not have waited until now to start raising it.  Whereas the 'Mail' and other media....

Limited Company, or Insiders Out

Leadership hopeful LIZ KENDALL

Generous donor LORD DAVID SAINSBURY

WITH all the talk we've been hearing about "infiltrators" and outside influence in the Labour Party, I'm grateful to a friend up in Leicestershire, Peter Flack, for posting this piece of information up on Facebook.

It concerns a group called Progress, of which I've heard but not yet seen - unlike say, Labour Left Briefing, or Socialist Appeal, they don't seem to have dedicated supporters out selling their paper at union meetings or demonstrations, but can afford to send a free newsletter out to Labour Party members. Of fairly recent origin, they no longer call themselves "New Labour" but confidently describe themselves as Labour's "new mainstream" on their website.
  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/

Peter, who's of similar vintage to myself in the labour movement, though we've travelled different paths, says: 
Here we go. The donors to Progress. the real infiltrators in the Labour Party. As you can see they are all ordinary working people with a civic conscience. LOL

Paul Stanton‎The Labour Party Forum

The financing of the Progress Tendency.

I see from the Progress website that:

Progress is chaired by John Woodcock MP. Our vice-chairs are Jenny Chapman MP, Stephen Doughty MP, Julie Elliott MP, Tristram Hunt MP, Dan Jarvis MP, Liz Kendall MP, Seema Malhotra MP, Alison McGovern MP, Toby Perkins MP, Lucy Powell MP, Steve Reed MP and Jonathan Reynolds MP. Progress’ honorary president is Stephen Twigg MP.

According to Wikipedia, "Progress was founded in 1995 by Paul Richards, Liam Byrne and Derek Draper, the former aide to Peter Mandelson, as an organisation to maintain a dialogue with Labour's new leadership under Tony Blair. It has organised many events and conferences, and hosted several important speeches by senior party figures. Its annual conference has become a staple of the political calendar with many cabinet ministers and other leading politicians attending.

"Lord David Sainsbury has provided substantial funding for Progress, contributing £2 million of the £3 million of donations and sponsorship to Progress from 2001 to 2011.  In 2014 Progress was fined £6,000 by the Electoral Commission for accepting donations of £390,000 from Lord Sainsbury while he was not on a UK electoral register, between December 2011 and April 2013.
In May 2014 Progress dropped using the "New Labour" label, introduced by Tony Blair, for the Labour party."

About Lord Sainsbury himself, Wikipedia tells us:

"David Sainsbury joined the Labour Party in the 1960s, but was one of the 100 signatories of the 'Limehouse Declaration' in an advertisement in The Guardian on 5 February 1981; he went on to be a member of the Social Democratic Party formed by the authors of the Declaration. After the 1983 election Sainsbury prompted the party to give more priority to recruiting members and finding a firm financial base; he was by far the biggest donor to the party, and a trustee, giving about £750,000 between 1981 and 1987. Sainsbury's donations were typically earmarked to specific projects rather than general day-to-day operations.

"Along with David Owen, Sainsbury opposed merging the SDP with the Liberal Party after the 1987 election, and provided office space for Owen to help him re-establish a separate political party, the "continuing" SDP, which was created in 1988.That party was wound up in 1990, and Sainsbury changed allegiance back to the Labour Party, rejoining them in 1996. A year later, he entered the House of Lords as a Labour peer, being created Baron Sainsbury of Turville, of Turville in the County of Buckinghamshire on 3 October 1997.

"Between 1996, the year he rejoined Labour, and 2006, when he stood down as a government minister, Sainsbury donated £16 million to the Labour Party, usually in batches of £1 million or £2 million each year. He donated a further £2 million on 7 September 2007, stating that he was impressed by Gordon Brown's leadership and believed "that Labour is the only party which is committed to delivering both social justice and economic prosperity". He gave another £500,000 on 15 December 2008, making a total of £18.5 million.

"It was reported in April 2006 that Sainsbury, "faced a possible probe into an alleged breach of the ministerial code after admitting he had failed to disclose a £2 million loan he had made to the Labour Party – despite publicly stating that he had." He subsequently apologised for "unintentionally" misleading the public, blaming a mix-up between the £2 million loan and a £2 million donation he had made earlier.

In July 2006, he became the first government minister to be questioned by police in the "Cash for Peerages" inquiry.  On 10 November 2006, he resigned as Science Minister, stating that he wanted to focus on business and charity work. He categorically denied that his resignation had anything to do with the "Cash for Peerages" affair, stating that he was "not directly involved in whether peerages were offered for cash", although this was contradicted by subsequent press reports attributed to "Labour insiders" which suggested that his resignation was indeed a direct consequence of the affair.

From July 1998 to November 2006, he held the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, as the Minister for Science and Innovation in the House of Lords, a government position for which he accepted no salary.

He was the Blair government's third-longest-serving minister after Tony Blair himself, and Gordon Brown. Because of his importance to the Labour Party as a donor, contemporary press reports described him as "unsackable." He has argued that there are "far too many reshuffles", and that there were considerable benefits to his remaining in post for so long.

David Sainsbury has also been associated with the Institute for Public Policy Research and Progress. Between 2001 to 2011 he provided £2 million of funding for Progress. In 2009, he created the Institute for Government with £15 million of funding through the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to help government and opposition politicians to prepare for political transitions and government.

" Sainsbury donated £390,000 to Progress and the Movement for Change between December 2011 and April 2013, while he was not on a UK electoral register, which is contrary to electoral law, leading to Progress and the Movement for Change being fined by the Electoral Commission."

(Wikipedia, my emphasis).

Unusually, for the labour movement, Progress is registered as a limited company, which means though it may be run by members, there is a tighter legal definition of who is a member.  But with its big names and big money it must have expected little limit on its influence.

Environmentalists noting Sainsbury's views on nuclear power and GM crops have been among those concerned that he might have too much influence.

By 2003 Lord Sainsbury had given over £11 million to the Labour Party. Mark Seddon, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, told the BBC, 'In any other country I think a government minister donating such vast amounts of money and effectively buying a political party would be seen for what it is, a form of corruption of the political process.' Seddon said it was causing Labour to lose members amid criticism from the grassroots that the party was now 'in the pockets of the powerful and the rich'.

When he was made Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury resigned as Chairman of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain and put into a blind trust major investments in two plant genetics-related investment companies (Diatech Ltd and Innotech Investments Ltd). Innotech has a substantial stake in a firm called Paradigm Genetics involved in a joint GM-related venture with Monsanto. Between 1996 and 1999 Diatech was granted three patents for GM products that are said to have the potential to make millions of pounds in royalties.

 .......

For some, the choice of an unelected biotech investor and food industrialist to be Science Minister, based within the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), was more than emblematic of the UK's corporate-science culture. While Lord Sainsbury is officially supposed to leave the room whenever GMOs are discussed at government meetings, even if this occurs, critically related areas like the strategic direction and the funding of the bio-sciences and of biotech related institutes fall directly within Sainsbury's area of responsibility and influence. As The Times (Apr 17, 2002) has noted, 'Suspicious minds looked at the 300 per cent increase in the government grant to the Sainsbury Laboratory and pondered whether this might be linked to the fact that Lord Sainsbury of Turville is the Science Minister.'
Sainsbury's biotech business interconnections with areas of his official responsibility are numerous. For instance, when Lord Sainsbury travelled to America as Science Minister in 1999, to research a report into biotechnology, he was accompanied by members of the BioIndustry Association, a lobby group for companies involved in GM food (the DTI helped pay their costs). His company, Diatech is an Associate Member of the BioIndustry Association.
Eight days before he became Science Minister he loaned Diatech money to buy a £2 million office in Westminster. Diatech has registered a patent for a genetic sequence taken from the tobacco mosaic virus for use in genetically modified plants. This was developed at the Sainsbury Laboratory by Mike Wilson who is a consultant to Diatech.

http://powerbase.info/index.php/David_Sainsbury

As for Progress , here is Wikipedia again:

"In 2012 Progress was at the centre of the debate over the direction of the Labour Party under Ed Miliband, after a widely circulated anonymous report called for Labour’s national executive to "determine the organisational nature of Progress, and whether or not this form of organisation is acceptable inside the Labour Party." Criticism of Progress had concentrated on the generous funding that Progress had secured from external donors, and on positioning, regarded as being on the right of the Labour Party. Following circulation of the report the GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny led calls at the 2012 Labour conference for Progress to be "effectively… (outlawed)…as part of the Labour Party."

In response, a Labour Party statement said, "We are a party that is reaching out to people, gaining new supporters and offering real change for the country in these tough times. The Labour Party is a broad church and we are not in the business of excluding people." 

These fine words must have been echoing through the mind of Harriet Harman in recent weeks, even if they seem to have been forgotten by some Labour MPs!

See also:


http://www.leftfutures.org/2012/02/call-for-labour-inquiry-into-the-organisation-activities-of-party-within-a-party-progress/

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/03/labour-party-within-progress

http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/why-are-right-endorsing-liz-kendall.html

Could Spin Turn Flip to Flop?

WITH newspapers and right-wing Labourites desperately digging for something to derail the Jeremy Corbyn campaign, a figure has stepped from the shadows of the not-too-distant past to remind us they are right about outside influences, alien to Labour's traditional  values, meddling inside the Party.

Only these elements are not left-wing "infiltrators", in fact they are not left-wing at all, and if anyone should be embarassed over this intrusion it is not Jeremy Corbyn.

Think back two years to the row over Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland. Supplying much of Scotland, it had fallen along with much of BP's chemical business, into the hands of a Swiss-based private equity firm, INEOS. From his £130 million luxury yacht on the Cote d'Azur, INEOS boss Jim Radcliff declared that Grangemouth was losing money, and would have to be closed unless the workers took a wage drop and attack on pensions.

The 800 workers, mainly members of Unite, threatened to go on strike. But the pressure was on, with the threat to their jobs and a knock on effect on the whole area.  Scotland's SNP Finance Minister voiced sympathy with the workers, and said his government would seek interested buyers for the refinery. But he ruled out nationalisation. And obviously the workers could expect no help from the Tory government in London.


Unite backed down, agreeing to a three-year pay freeze, an end to final salary pensions, and some job cuts, without enhanced redundancy payments. The workers, those who kept their jobs, were not happy, but were relieved not to be going down the road just yet, or seeing their area become a ghost town. Further afield, among those who had not had to take the decision, it was a chance to condemn the union, or more especially Len McCluskey, for a "sell-out".

Labour seems to have got off with staying in the background - or at least until this year's election,

And now comes this interesting story on the Labour Uncut website:

A lobbyist from the firm that advises energy firm Ineos, which was involved in a biter industrial dispute with Unite the Union, is now working as a key member of Andy Burnham’s leadership team.

Katie Myler, a former special adviser to Burnham when he was health secretary, now works for international lobbying company, Burson-Marsteller.
They claim on their website that their staff have provided “senior counsel” to the Ineos “CEO and management team” during “the Grangemouth industrial dispute.”
Back in 2013, 800 staff at the petrochemical plant in Falkirk threatened to go on strike after management brought forward a survival plan, which included a three-year pay freeze and changes to pensions.

Unite later relented in a bid to save jobs.

 But the Grangemouth dispute was not the only row in that area in 2013. Grangemouth is part of the Falkirk constituency. The local Labour MP,an ex-army man in trouble over brawls in Commons bars, was due for replacement. Unite the union was accused of recruiting its members into the Labour Party - as though there was something wrong with that - in order to assist its preferred candidate.
Labour not only held it own inquiry but asked the police to look into the alleged goings-on. They did, and could find nothing warranting their interest.  But the Tory press was naturally delighted to keep the alleged "scandal" going.

Unite reported on November 5, 2013:

...., Unite itself verified that all of its members who it did recruit to the Labour Party under the then-extant Union Join scheme had indeed willingly consented to join the Labour Party.  In view of all this new or clarified evidence, it was evident that the allegations asserted in the original “Falkirk report” could no longer hold water.  The Party then issued the statement on September 6, which made it clear that Unite, Mr Deans and Ms  Murphy had done nothing wrong and had broken no rules.  Police Scotland had much earlier found no basis for any criminal investigation in the matter.

Stevie Deans, chair of the Falkirk Constituency Labour Party, who found himself the subject of police inquiries, had been Unite convenor at Grangemouth. INEOS forwarded e-mails he had allegedly sent in company time to the police, and also leaked private information from them to the press. It did not manage to persuade the police he had done anything wrong, but it was able to get rid of the convenor as it took on the union.
http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/unite-statement-on-stephen-deans/



Karie Murphy, whom Unite had favoured for the Falkirk seat, found herself blocked, not just in Scotland but again this year when her name was kept off an all-women shortlist at Halifax. But above all the Falkirk row became Labour's spur to loosening ties with the unions, and adopting the current rules about which the right-wing is once more complaining, saying they don't stop "infiltration". 

Getting back to the Labour Uncut report, it says:

"Myler was appointed as director of communications for Burnham’s campaign last week, after taking a sabbatical from Burson-Marsteller where she works as a managing director, according to a report in PR Week.

She joins fellow lobbyist, John Lehal, who is acting as campaign director.
His company, Insight Consulting Group, has worked for a string of private medical companies, according to reports in this morning’s Independent.
The revelations will come as a major embarrassment to Burnham, who has made much of his opposition to private sector involvement in the NHS."

Indeed, Andy Burnham impressed a lot of people last year when he joined the Darlington "Mums" march to defend the NHS, and spoke at their Trafalgar Square rally.  Before Jeremy Corbyn's campaign took off he had been expected to get most union backing. He has called for the NHS to be shielded from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) with its drive for privatisation.
In the Labour leadership election battle he has begun making "left"-sounding statements about the NHS and railway public ownership, which critics have dismissed as mere "flip" designed to win back support that is drifting towards Jeremy Corbyn.

That his PR team is revealed to include people with very different associations may not be his fault, or even their's - it is not a matter of conviction, just what they do for a living. All the same it does not do him any favours.
 
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/grangemouth-crisis-billionaire-ineos-boss-2474762

http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigning/unitepolitics/unitepoliticsblog/unite-ahd-falkirk-clp/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-25828321

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/03/labour-falkirk-karie-murphy-voting-investigation

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/halifax-selection-row-leaked-emails-reveal-labours-war-with-unite-over-choice-of-candidate-10112356.html

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2777-Burnham-joins-hero-mums-from-Darlington-on-NHS-march#.VcaASfnLrjk

http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2015/06/13/burnhams-spin-doctor-is-director-at-lobbyist-firm-that-advises-union-buster-ineos/