The Jewish Labour Movement, the organisation that has represented the views of mostly working class Jewish Zionists in the UK since 1906 and has had a 99 year association with the Labour Party, has messed up really badly. This organisation, which is increasingly looking like a bunch of mugs, had a first class opportunity to send a powerful message about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his cohort of Jew haters in the Labour Party by disaffiliating from Labour. Sadly they blew it.

The Jewish Labour Movement, the heirs of the Pole Zion group that once represented the masses of Jewish workers in often sweated labour in the early to middle part of the 20^th century, could have stood up for decency and turned their back on Labour and what it has become. Unfortunately the JLM has shown extreme cowardice and seems to have been paralysed by a desire to ‘ hold onto nurse for fear of finding something worse’.

According to a piece in the Labour List blog the Jewish Labour Movement stepped back from their earlier threat to disaffiliate with Labour and instead took a route that is both pointless and destined to fail. At a meeting recently the JLM rejected the opportunity to dump Labour and instead replaced the Corbyn critical leadership with those who believe, falsely in my view, that Corbyn and his crew can be fought from within. I do not believe that this can be achieved, groups like the rabidly anti Israel Momentum sect that support s Corbyn are too powerful in Labour to enable the JLM to be able to fight Corbynism from inside the party.

Labour List said:

The Jewish Labour Movement held its annual general meeting on Sunday, when it elected Mike Katz as national movement chair and Ruth Smeeth – replacing Luciana Berger, who has quit Labour to form a new party – as parliamentary chair.

Katz fought off incumbent Ivor Caplin, as well as Colin Appleby, who ran on a platform advocating disaffiliation from the Labour Party – an idea that was rejected as JLM activists pledged to “stay and fight” rather than sever the 99-year link.

The former Camden councillor and parliamentary candidate, who pledged to raise funds for a professional organiser and build relationships with youth networks, reportedly won by a significant margin.

In his candidate statement, Katz said: “We have a party leadership which continues to insult, ignore and disrespect us and the many progressive Jews we represent.”

JLM members did not opt to disaffiliate from Labour at the AGM, but did pass a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn almost unanimously following speeches from Labour MPs Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and Louise Ellman.

The motion said that the party leadership – including its NEC, the shadow cabinet and the general secretary – had “fundamentally failed to address antisemitism” and “continue to provoke” JLM by, for example, ending the use of the body for antisemitism training.

The JLM motion resolved: “To make a proclamation stating that we have no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn and our belief that he is unfit to be Prime Minister.”

Although the proclamation about Corbyn’s unfitness to be Prime Minister is strongly worded, it will achieve absolutely nothing. It is going to have the same effect on the Corbynites as would a mosquito bite on an Elephant,which is to say not much at all.

By disaffiliating with the Labour Party the JLM could have done a great deal of good, it could have shown Britons, not just Jewish Britons but all Britons, that decent people who were prepared to stick by principles did still exist. The JLM have failed to do this and have to my mind come out of this really badly. If the JLM had walked away from the Labour Party it could have done much to encourage the other decent members of Labour that hang on in their despite Corbynite lunacy, to walk away as well. Walking away could have been the point when the Labour Party started to reform itself and turn back to being a proper party to represent Britain’s working classes, but this will now not happen because of the JLM’s cowardice in deciding to continue to associate with Labour.

The JLM has behaved shamefully over all this and I will no longer take their protestations about Labour’s internal problems seriously ever again. They could have made a stand but instead they capitulated and by doing so the JLM can no longer in my view be considered as decent.