LABOUR Party activist and GMB union shop steward Pete Gregson yesterday took part in an event to publicise the fact that he and other party members are being charged with anti-Semitism for their protests against the Israeli government.
The publicity stunt involved the spreading of sewage – actually expanding brown polystyrene foam – at the TUC headquarters in London.
Gregson and his allies took the action to publicise the ongoing action by Labour and trades unions against members who have protested the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians.
The protesters say that Israel is a racist apartheid state. Doing so contradicts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, which has been adopted by unions, councils and the Labour Party.
Gregson is suspended by Labour and the GMB but has received the backing of Tony Greenstein, vice-chair of Labour Against the Witch-hunt, which opposes such action against party members.
Ina letter to the GMB, he wrote: “Allegations of anti-Semitism are serious and not to be used as a means of pursuing political vendettas or defending the indefensible. There is nothing I have seen in what Peter Gregson has written which remotely approximates to that charge.
“Opposition to the world’s most racist state, the only state in the world where Donald Trump is more popular than unpopular, is not anti-Semitism. It is a continuance of the anti-apartheid traditions of the Labour movement.
Gregson told the National: “Action is needed. For any Labourist or trade unionist who points up the racist nature of Israel for allowing such actions by settlers faces expulsion. I am an NHS shop steward presently suspended by the GMB. My hearing is next week. Labour think me anti-Semitic too. And that’s pretty crappy.”
Neither Labour nor the GMB commented.
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