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Nov 18, 2020, 5:35 PM

With Corbyn allowed back, who will be held accountable?

JLM Chair Mike Katz, Ruth Smeeth, Campaigns Officer Adam Langleben, (front row) Margaret Hodge and National Secretary Peter Mason, during a press conference by the Jewish Labour Movement at the offices of Mishcon de Reya in London, following the publication of damming anti-Semitism report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). (Via Jewish News)

On the day of the release of the EHRC report, Jeremy Corbyn characteristically achieved the very same that he had done throughout his leadership. He positioned himself as the victim of Labour antisemitism. He is not the victim of Labour Party antisemitism. Rather than addressing...

May 20, 2020, 4:50 PM

Herculean effort needed to change party’s culture

Keir Starmer (Photo credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

The meeting between the Jewish Labour Movement and newly elected Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer was remarkable. The last meeting of its kind took place way back in 2014, with Ed Miliband. Three leadership elections, and three general elections later, JLM finally achieved a formal...

Jan 8, 2020, 12:02 PM

If you care about the future of Jews in Labour, don’t sit this fight out

Peter Mason addressing the JLM Extraordinary General Meeting (JLM on Twitter)

The Labour Party will not be led by Jeremy Corbyn after 4 April. But the departure of the beleaguered leader, who has decided to remain in post despite the worse election result since 1935, may not mark the end of the party’s antisemitism crisis. As...

Dec 18, 2019, 2:23 PM

Labour will only reform if we are part of the conversation

Peter Mason addressing the JLM Extraordinary General Meeting (JLM on Twitter)

The result for Labour at this election was crushing. As the clock struck 10pm, and the exit poll announced, the overriding emotion Jewish Labour members the feeling was one of deep conflict and anguish. A large part anger at the scale of Labour’s defeat and...

Apr 3, 2019, 2:08 PM

Labour’s leadership must finally own its own failure

Peter Mason addressing the JLM Extraordinary General Meeting (JLM on Twitter)

Whether since the earliest days of Jewish artisans battling for representation within British trades unions at the time of the first ‘hostile environment’ at the turn of the 20th century, or later forming electoral pacts with the Transport and General Workers Union to defeat the...

Mar 12, 2019, 1:51 PM

Labour leadership should be expelled for bringing party into shameful disrepute

Peter Mason addressing the JLM Extraordinary General Meeting (JLM on Twitter)

Reflecting over the last three years ahead of the Jewish Labour Movement’s AGM, it is hard to believe what has become of the Labour Party. Luciana Berger resigned, the party is dogged by a culture of antisemitism, obfuscation and denial that has grown to such...

Jul 31, 2018, 5:07 PM

As long as Pete Willsman remains there can be no trust at all

Pete Willsman

In the run up to a vote by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee to water down the IHRA definition and examples for use in its internal disciplinary procedures, something remarkable happened. Decades of delicate intercommunal management of cross communal rabbinic engagement went out the window....

Dec 20, 2017, 11:51 AM

McCluskey making a mistake in shunning Jewish Labour Movement

Len McCluskey’s tell-all interview in last week’s Jewish News might have shed some light on the man who leads one of Britain’s largest trade unions, but actions speak louder than words – and Unite has much to do. Trade unions are an integral part of the party,...

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About Me

Peter Mason is the National Secretary of the Jewish Labour Movement