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'Jews in the gutter' activist to address Holocaust Memorial Day event organised by Socialist Workers Party

Glyn Secker once tried to defend Ken Livingstone’s comments about Adolf Hitler and Zionism

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An activist, who once tried to defend Ken Livingstone’s comments about Adolf Hilter and Zionism, is due to speak at a Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) event organised by the Socialist Workers Party, which is linked to the controversial Stand Up To Racism group.

Glyn Secker, secretary of the fringe, pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice For Labour group, is one of three speakers listed to take part in the Never Again: Lessons of the Holocaust event taking place on January 27 in Shadwell, East London.

Organised by Tower Hamlets Stand Up To Racism, the event is advertised as taking place to “remember the victims of the Holocaust and to commit ourselves to fight racism today”.

In October 2018, the JC revealed Mr Secker had intervened at a meeting of Dulwich and West Norwood Labour branch where a speaker from the controversial Jewdas group addressed members.

Local party member Mr Secker said that former London Mayor Mr Livingtone's real mistake over his Hitler and Zionism comments was his failure to quote Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann.

Mr Secker, who said he was a Jewish ex-member of the Socialist Workers Party, said Eichmann, "who was not very far down from Hitler in the chain of command", organised the controversial 1933 Haavara Agreement, which allowed German Jews to relocate to Palestine.

"That history is there in Yad Vashem in the memorial to the Holocaust in Israel," said Mr Secker. "We need to be clear about that."

Last May, the JC filmed Mr Secker telling a crowd at a pro-Palestine demo in central London that “Jewish leaders here… turn a blind eye to the extreme right, even when their own Zionist Federation embraces the English Defence League, a neo-fascist group banned by Facebook.

“What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter with these rats?”

In February 2019, Mr Secker told Labour activists at the Dulwich and West Norwood Labour branch that antisemitism allegations had been "made up in order to discredit the leadership”.

Last March, the Sunday Times revealed that one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest aides, Andrew Murray, had intervened after Glyn Secker was suspended.

Mr Murrary wrote an email saying the Labour leader was “interested in this one” as Mr Secker’s suspension over his membership of the controversial Palestine Live Facebook group was dropped.

Last month, a demonstration by Stand Up To Racism after the antisemitic graffiti in Hampstead and Belsize Park sparked anger among local Jewish residents and kosher store owners after more than 150 far-left activists, including at least one person expelled by Labour over antisemitism, gathered in the area.

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