Labour against the Witchhunt endorses the thrust of the motion put by comrade Stan Keable before the Ravenscourt branch of Hammersmith CLP in November 2106, which demanded:

“.. the immediate lifting of all of the suspensions and expulsions from Labour Party membership in any way connected to the ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign and witch-hunt. That includes Jackie Walker, Ken Livingstone, Tony Greenstein, Gerry Downing and numerous other supporters of the Palestinian cause.”

Membership of Labour Against the Witchhunt should be open to all those who adhere to the principles of this resolution, i.e. to Labour Party current members and victimised members who oppose the witchhunt root and branch. It should not be open to those, such as the Alliiance for Workers Liberty, who refuse to defend all  these  and others,  such as Moshe Machover, who have been purged on the say-so of Zionists and/or Blarities. These are outside of the framework of Labour Against the Witchhunt by virtue of not really being opposed to the witchhunt.

Provided this class line is observed, we follow the practice of freedom of political debate among LAW members. In particular we should uphold the norms that we advocate in the Labour Party itself, that “the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions” should not be grounds for exclusion.

More generally, Labour against the Witchhunt considers that the current witchhunt, specifically the anti-Semitism smears, but also other facets of it, are only the latest in a long series of efforts by the right wing to purge all socialist and anti-imperialist voices from Labour. We demand the readmission of all current and past socialist, working class and oppressed minority expellees on condition that they are not currently involved in standing against official Labour candidates in elections.

In that regard, we note that the most prominent victim of pro-Zionist, pro-imperialist witchhunting in the last historical period of Blairite domination, was George Galloway. His 2003 expulsion was an outrage, and the most prominent purge of a left-wing dissident since the expulsion of Konni Zilliacus MP at the height of post –WWII McCarthyism.

We therefore publicly call for the reinstatement of George Galloway to full membership of the Labour Party forthwith, and resolve to write to him, given his prominence, to invite him to play the role of our honorary president.