Moshe Machover, members of Labour Party Marxists, a front for the "CPGB" group, which publishes the Weekly Worker newspaper, have been expelled from the Labour Party.
Labour Party Marxists distributed a leaflet at the recent Labour Party conference, extensively quoting Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust, appearing to support the creation of a "Jewish state", to justify the outrageous claim that Nazism and Zionism share an essential ideological core.
The leaflet was distributed at a fringe meeting of the right-wing Labour First faction, in a stunt obviously designed to catch the eye of the Labour right and provoke expulsions to generate publicity for themselves. (For more on this, see Andrew Coates's blog here).
The expulsions letters from Labour say the party is investigating the Heydrich-quoting leaflet, but that, in the course of the investigation, Machover's links to the "CPGB" "came to the attention" of party officials (in fact they are a matter of longstanding public record). The rule under which Machover has in fact been expelled is 2.1.4, which prohibits membership of, or "support for" any "political organisation other than an official Labour group or unit of the party" - the same rule under which many members of Workers' Liberty and other left-wingers have been expelled.
We restate our opposition to the existence of this rulebook clause, and its usage to justify summary expulsions, including in this case. But we have no sympathy with the leaflet stunt, and no desire to defend it as an exercise of democratic rights.
