Corbyn should learn his lesson: compromise with the devil is not an option
by Kit
Michael Pacher – “St. Augustin & the Devil”
There are two kinds of compromise: the strong compromise, and the weak.
The former is where you cede an interest to uphold a principle, the latter when you ignore your principles to further your interests.
The first is an important tool in all aspects of life, the second should almost always be avoided. Jeremy Corbyn should learn that lesson.
Twice in recent weeks Corbyn’s leadership has faced an opportunity to cede a point of principle in order to further – as they apparently see it – the interests of their party. Both times they have done so, both times were a huge mistake.
Antisemitism
The first question is: What does “Antisemitism in the Labour party” actually mean?
Let’s start by acknowledging what it isn’t. Criticising the government of Israel is not antisemitic. Supporting Palestine in its struggle for emancipation and justice is not antisemitic. Opposing George Soros’s neoliberal crusade through his various NGOs is not antisemitic. Accusing a Blairite MP (who happens to be Jewish) of working hand in hand with the right-wing press to undermine Corbyn is not antisemitic. Claiming Hitler was a “zionist” may or may not be accurate, but it is not antisemitic. Even supporting the freedom of expression for a painter who makes a mural about the 1% that some third parties allege might appear to represent unflattering images of Jewish people(even though the artist denies it completely) is not antisemitic, unless specific intents can be established.
When we remove all these non-antisemitic incidents from the list of alleged “antisemitism” in the Labour Party, how much real antisemitism remains?
Very little to none would seem to be the answer. You might even argue there is less antisemitism within the Labour party than within the general population. Certainly there’s little evidence of any more. Ken Livingstone shows no signs of being antisemitic. Nor does the latest victim of the latest purge – Marc Wadsworth.
Wadsworth – a veteran anti-racism campaigner – has been expelled from the party for notionally being racist (it was actually “bringing the party into disrepute”, the evidence of racism was so little they couldn’t even officially call it that). He has been effectively sacrificed to appease the state-sponsored and state-supporting media in the UK.
This is a terrible mistake. By conceding this point of principle in order to gain a perceived strategic advantage Corbyn’s team have in fact conceded both principle and strategy to a force that has no interest in compromising with them and simply wants them gone. The result is this:
1. Labour’s right-wing, (who DO, demonstrably, work “hand in hand” with the anti-Corbyn press), have been allowed to define what “antisemitism” means, and they are going to take full advantage of this. From now on, any Labour MP or even grassroots member who criticises Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians – or who simply disagrees with another Labour member who happens to be Jewish – can look forward to being shamed and expelled. How does Corbyn see this as furthering the cause of freedom and democracy?
2. They have accepted the lie as truth. A man has been expelled for antisemitism. Even though the grounds are spurious, it will in future be cited as evidence that the left does indeed have a problem with antisemitism.
Corbyn’s team decided to play soft and weak, in the hopes that letting a little blood would sate the thirst of the media. But you don’t abate a feeding frenzy by chumming the water. You don’t compromise with the devil by selling a piece of your soul. They have made it immeasurably worse. Livingstone and Walker will follow, and slowly Corbyn’s allies in the party will be chipped away.
Russia
The same exact process is playing out with the “Russian interference” situation. When the first accusations of being “soft on Putin” were thrown around, the strong principled position to take would be to dismiss the smears as racist and stupid. Argue the issues, ignore the white noise of smear and innuendo.
Corbyn’s principles, and those of the Labour party, dictate that they should stand against prejudice, abuse, censorship and summary justice.
They COULD have made statements that RT is just as valid a medium to be interviewed on as the BBC or CNN. They could have pointed out that Russian money in London is fleeing Putin’s crackdown on the oligarchs. They could have stood by the truth, and to hell with what the press say.
Instead Corbyn’s camp saw a chance to score some easy points in the media. McDonnell decided to publicly denounce RT, whilst the “leftwing” press tried to attack the Tories for their “dirty” Russian donors.Instead of saying “this campaign of demonising Russians is degraded & offensive”, they said effectively “Yes, Russians are demons, but they like the Tories more than us!”
This is potentially a more egregious mistake than the antisemitism issue. Firstly, it endorses the quasi-racist idea that all things Russian are inherently tainted with evil. Secondly, it undermines RT, an important voice for alternative politicians in the UK. And it opens the gates to this:
Headline in the Sunday Times, April 29 2018
This is the most predictable headline I have ever seen. It’s more predictable than sunrise or the tides or the waning moon. It was destined from the moment of his first leadership victory. And Corbyn has no one to blame but himself.
By allowing the “Russiagate” hysteria to blossom without challenge, by allowing the memes of “dirty Russian money” in London, and the “Russian influence” of the Brexit vote to go unchecked, Corbyn has encouraged the climate where people can be “denounced” in true McCarthyite fashion. And now he is paying the price.
Corbyn seems to think a few little compromises will get him accepted in the mainstream media. It pains me to say it, but this is fundamentally untrue. You can’t compromise with someone who wants nothing but your total destruction. Hopefully Corbyn has learned this lesson by now.
And truth in politics is important, it has power, not simply through its rarity. Corbyn’s power came from telling truths we all knew and no one else was saying, and he has undermined it by allowing convenient lies to stand.
You can’t build a greater truth on a foundation of small, convenient lies. When a person tells a lie, it is an act of weakness to allow it to stand. Responding “Yes, but”, does nothing but reinforce the initial dishonesty.
You cannot allow the deep state to use their tools in the media to set the narrative. You cannot try to meet them in the middle, because they’ll just use that leverage to pull you further over to their side. A half-truth is just a lie that lacks conviction, and by letting them slide you allow the media to set the width of the Overton window.
Jeremy Corbyn is a good man, his entire career – apparently his entire outlook on life – is built around principle. It’s those principles that got him elected leader and made him so popular. He should not compromise them now, in order to appease people who will never be appeased.
SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN
If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.
For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.
Reblogged this on circusbuoy.
I think it’s called appeasement – and it’snot good!
I agree with the sentiments of this article but attacking Jeremy Corbyn for this is not accurate – or helpful here. The decision to expel Marc Wadsworth (which I’m strongly against) was not because “Corbyn’s team decided to play soft and weak, in the hopes that letting a little blood would sate the thirst of the media.” It was the NCC(National Co-ordinating Cmt) – where there is a right-wing majority.
the labour party has a history and cultural attachment to appeasement – if only to stay in government or, indeed, to get into government in the first place – it is part of their modus operandii – so i am not apportioning blame particularly to Corbyn – however, it is a measure of how the labour party operates in a capitaist society – there’s the rub!
Why is the NCC a secret body? No one can publicly name its members. Is this not rather sinister? Though wise for them if they are inciting hatred. They fear openness. And they fear the British courts. Marc Wadsworth must use the courts to out the actual evil people in bed with the Devil.
Jazza….. this appeasement is a parallel to what let Hitler into power. It seems there will be no good at the end.
This article expresses exactly the confusion I feel at why people simply don’t stand up and speak the truth. I don’t see the difficulty in simply denying false accusations and explaining what’s wrong with them. Has a politician ever tried it?
In 1984, Tory politician, Terry Dicks, was trying to improve members’ sartorial standards and stated that scruffy MPs such as Jeremy should be barred from addressing the house. When asked by interviewer, “Is that the jumper that your mum made?” Jeremy replied proudly, “Yes, it is … It’s very comfortable, and perfect for this kind of weather.” Jeremy needs to go back to that.
youtube.com/watch?v=wZsYvkTw4Rg
On what basis do you think Corbyn or ‘his team’ were able to control the Wadsworth outcome? Given this is fundamental to your argument, may be good to make this clear.
Somebody controlled it, Winston, because it delivered a sordid travesty of justice- a lynching in fact.
He has the bully pulpit. He failed to use it (again).
Reblogged this on Declaration Of Opinion.
An excellent article. Although Corbyn seems like a good person, with him bowing down to the parasites who scream about the fictitious anti-Semitic nonsense he shows he has no spine like pretty much all politicians, just one more reason not to buy into the left/right political puppet show.
The author used to edit Der Sturmer.
What?
obvious right-wing troll.
they’re as vile as they are stupid.
Are you saying i’m a right wing troll? If so, you are very funny, and stupid. Perhaps learn to read better – “just one more reason not to buy into the left/right political puppet show.”
I would have thought it was obvious who I was referring to, but apparently not.
My apologies, i must have scrolled down too fast, didn’t even notice that comment.
They are scraping UNDERNEATH the bottom of the Barrel at Hasbara Central.
Honestly, this Off-Guardian commentary is precisely what has needed to be said–for how long, but specifically since Corbyn stood up and called for due process and evidence in the Salisbury affair. As the commentator has observed, Corbyn is where is now because of who he has been through the virtual entirety of his political career. He is liked and trusted for his principles during a time in which they seem to have abandoned virtually the entire Enlightenment edifice of the West, ever more evidently a Potemkin Village now just waiting to be blown down.
Since that time Corbyn gives every impression of having disappeared, except as dredged up for the next kicking. This government was utterly reeling with its incompetent, insanely dangerous Russia baiting, drowning in its incoherent narratives. And then Corbyn’s team backs off, and disappears into a servile media’s three-monkeys routine.
The Labour Party self-destructs (in order to kill its host) again and again, as after Manchester–that is, each time they are set to pull away from a Tory party that makes the Clinton DNC look like political geniuses.
Right on. And a real shame given that full spectrum dominance is now dead. https://drowningwitches.com/2018/04/19/5969/
If there is one iron law in politics it is that when social democracy comes under pressure it throws in the towel, often even before it takes office (I say takes office rather than takes power, there is a difference). Thus even before the next general election the retreat has already begun: On NATO membership (which of course is sacrosanct) and Trident replacement for starters. If of course Labour is elected then in all probability the retreat will turn into a rout, as per the usual pattern.
The globalist left, of which Labour is a paid up member, argues that reform is possible from within (sic) – kindly note that a system which is not democratic means therefore that reform is unrealisable in such circumstances. Don’t overthrow King Charles 1, reform the Divine Right of Kings from within! The brute fact is, however, that social-democracy, historically, has been proven to be a total failure in stopping the reversal of all the major social/political/economic conquests of the last century … full employment, adequate working conditions, the rights to strike and demonstrate, let alone the right to a ‘social wage’ in terms of the social welfare state that was condemned to death by the Transnational Elites and their neoliberal programmes. And now we have the grotesque spectacle of the ‘centre-left’ parties in league with the centre-right, (and not forgetting the ‘Green’ Die Grunnen parties) carrying out neo-liberal policies.
What’s the word I am looking for, what the French call Le Mot Juste – Got it. BETRAYAL.
To say that someone has betrayed you, implies that there was some point in time when they were actually on your side.
It’s been quite clear whose side Social Democracy is on, since August 1914, at the very latest. Anybody who has harboured illusions in them since then, hasn’t been paying attention.
From Wikipedia:
Some recent genetic studies have found (by analysis of the DNA of Semitic-speaking peoples) that they have some common ancestry. Although no significant common mitochondrial results have been found, Y-chromosomal links between Semitic-speaking peoples of the Middle East like Arabs, Jews, Mandaeans, Samaritans, and Assyrians have shown links, despite differences contributed from other groups (see Y-chromosomal Aaron).
A DNA study of Jews and Palestinian Arabs (including Bedouins) found that these were more closely related to each other than to neighboring Arabs.[12][13]
Genetic studies indicate that modern Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Mizrahi specifically), Levantine Arabs, Assyrians, Samaritans, Maronites, Druze, Mandaeans, and Mhallami, all have an ancient indigenous common Near Eastern heritage which can be genetically mapped back to the ancient Fertile Crescent, but often also display genetic profiles distinct from one another, indicating the different histories of these peoples.[14]
After the Roman expulsions of J-people, many of that tribe remained in Palestine thereafter, most later converting, willingly or not, to Christianity and Islam. After the failed Messiah Sabbatai Zevi, converted to Islam, many J-people did so, too, but remained secretly loyal to their ancient religion, and were known as doenmeh, whose ranks included Mustafa Kemal, and the founders of Wahhabism and the Sordid crime family, who entered an hideous alliance that continues to today. J-people and Palestinians are brothers and sisters, separated by a violent, racist, aggressive ideology-Zionism.
So you can remember your name-congratulations.
I’m not a great fan of Corbyn or his style of politics. To me he looks and sounds like backbench material, not someone who should be leading Labour or the country. He’s out of his depth. But he is the leader of the Labour Party, only Labour is at least two parties. The majority of MPs don’t support him, whilst the overwhelming majority of the membership do support him. This is a very difficult position. He’s not only fighting the Tories in front of him, but the Labour Tories, behind him. Both groups loathe him and everything he stands for; the return of middle-of-the-road social democracy.
At the same time the assembled media is massively against Corbyn and ready to jump like a ton of bricks on any misstep from his side.
Corbyn’s strategy seems to be to hold the party together long enough for his supporters to ‘take it over’. This entails not giving the ‘right’ the opportunity to split Labour before this ‘takeover’ happens.
If Corbyn was a really strong leader with great gifts; like charisma, authority, confidence, rhetorical skills, a quick wit, political brilliance… only he isn’t that person. That kind of person doesn’t exist inside Labour or the left. One can’t just wish that Corbyn was something he clearly isn’t. He’s the best Corbyn there is, nothing more. The question is, is that going to be enough? Thursday will be an interesting day I imagine.
If the last election campaign had lasted a few days longer Corbyn would be sitting in Downing Street, so things aren’t that bad; only even if he was PM, the battle would only be starting.
“If Corbyn was a really strong leader with great gifts; like charisma, authority, confidence, rhetorical skills, a quick wit, political brilliance… only he isn’t that person…”
Sounds a bit like Mussolini (or Tony Blair) to me.
This longing for Lefty, the charismatic leader who will solve all ills, is very destructive of democracy. And democracy is the only way to make permanent progress.
It wasn’t Kinnock or Blair or even Thatcher who broke the Trade Union movement and reversed the gains of decades of struggle. They certainly helped but the real work was done by millions of Trade unionists not going to meetings, not caring whether their ‘leaders’ were working with MI6 or making corrupt deals to preserve their careers, ordinary people waiting for Lefty to come along and cancel out all the bad things that Righty did.
In a capitalist society apathy and indifference on the part of the system’s victims always consolidates the power of the ruling class and enables them to cut deeper into the rights and living standards of the masses.
Those who don’t like what Corbyn is doing have to join the Labour Party or one of its affiliates and tell him what is necessary. And refuse to shut up until your voice is heard.
Russia: I think that Russia has direct or indirect responsibility for poisoning the Skripals with military grade Novichok; I think that we should punish Russian abusers of human rights; that we should, through sanctions, target the laundering of money through secret tax havens and undisclosed assets, as practised by many of the London-based Russian oligarchs, on whom so much of Putin’s power depends; I think that the most important thing the UK could do to curb the power and punish the actions of Vladimir Putin is to hit his billionaire allies in their pockets: as advised by Alexei Navalny; and I have been a robust critic of the actions of the Russian Government for more than 20 years. I opposed the abuse going on in Chechnya by Russian forces, the manipulation of elections, the oppression of LGBT rights, and the dodgy laundering of money through London by Russian oligarchs; I think that in Syria, where Russia stands accused of supporting and committing war crimes in its backing for the Assad regime; I thought that It was surprising that any democratic leader saw fit to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his election; and I think that for all the punishment beatings meted out to student activists, for all the horrendous state-approved homophobia against the LGBT community, and for all the intimidation and banning orders against political opponents, Putin will be around for six years, so get over it.
Does anyone think that this characterisation of Russia is balanced and fair? Would it qualify as Russophobic? I think that if I held any of these views and posted them here, I would be castigated. Yet this is how Jeremy characterises Russia. Other than edit them together, these are largely his own words (OK, I added the last little bit!) [I posted the full quotes here: https://off-guardian.org/2018/04/22/alexander-shulgin-to-the-opcw/%5D. This isn’t a small compromise: this amounts a full racist Russophobia. It contains all the Establishment talking points (Navalny? Who could support Navalny?) all of which is propaganda: none of which is true.
If Labour get elected, they will codify, legitimate, and state sanction Russia with a Magnitsky Law. Yvette Cooper has already got the “From Russia With Blood” BuzzFeed allegations being re-investigated by the ex-Home Secretary Amber Rudd (if she can find the paperwork) …a policy, framing Russia as a vengeful assassin rogue state, Labour would no doubt also pursue for themselves. So, how do we diffuse the Cold War when our binary political parties both are set on demonising Putin? And the ‘one cool head’ and oasis of reason Jeremy is a Russophobe too?
We can’t, we’re fucked.
My fantasy political party is called ‘The Salvage Party’.
[Bullshit manifesto follows]
We promise that under our party (or under any party) the future will be harder than today, with less resources and less energy, and most likely a shorter life expectancy for all. The Salvage Party cannot stop the decline of our civilisation which will come as an inevitable result of over-expansion, materialism and the abandonment of any ecological wisdom. Our political mission will dismantle the warfare state while promoting peaceful redistribution of dwindling resources, and work tirelessly to put in place contingencies for when the financial system judders to a halt. We will wind things down in an equitable and peaceful a manner as we possibly can, always with an eye on the long term recovery of a more balanced society. We are passionate about trying to take what is best from the past four centuries and to let go of the rest : to salvage democratic ambitions from the looming shaddow of simplistic or unhinged futures….
It’s a hard sell I know.
I’d vote for you…
Honestly, it’s not necessarily a harder sell than what we’re being fed from all comers now. A bit of honest gumption might seem a blessed relief.
I presume the Salvagers don’t even want personal weapons to fend off the freelancer armed warbands that they’re likely to encounter during their time of government? If so, then vote for ’em all you like but you’re still going to end up with rule by warlord; or worse still, by feuding warlords – which, you know, happens from time to time.
I guess that the intention would be to try and avoid such a situation, or minimise it.
Much as I loathe Steven Pinker’s work, it is hard to argue against his arguemtn that, statistically speaking, people were much more likely to die a violent death in eras of warring tribes.
We have a lot of tools at our disposal, can we not at least aim for something higher than ‘all against all’ ? If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Saying that, you are probably right about the most likely future. If however, it is inevitable, then what is politics but a freak show ? Why bother even paying a moment’s attention to any of it?
Several people here seem to be focusing attention on Zionism as an ultimate evil behind everything in our world. Whether or not that is true, it seems clear that the Zionists would love a future of ethno-tribal warfare. It seems to be exactly what they are about.
[Mog: in reply to your earlier “Salvagers” comment]
Absolutely not Mog, we are only fucked if our imagination cannot bypass captured binary BAU party politics. And if the UK is to transition prosperously into a post-carbon human scale economy, tailored to post-abundant resource and sovereign neo-self-sufficiency: WE MUST bypass BAU. This is akin to Marcuse’s “end of transcendence” problem; when all current thinking is based on the continuation of organisation around production and the reproduction of hierarchical capitalist materialist solutions to current problems. So much so, that those within the dominant culture cannot even begin to think outside the increasingly fictitious and anti-empirical constructs of cultural reproduction and change (perpetual growth, infinite resources, perennial prosperity based on burning carbon). Even the posited solutions are ‘mirror capitalist’: seeking to find de-radicalised market solutions to our problems. So we must do it for them, be our own (Gramsciian) intellectuals and vanguard the future …and if necessary create our own small scale solutions (Transition Towns; Bristol Pound local currency initiatives; P2P finance; communities of invested equals; commoning, etc). The key issues as I see them are sovereign energy solutions to replace our redundant nuclear and gas generation with renewable energy by 2030 (not more nuclear or gas with the untried, unproven carbon capture and storage that Labour are pursuing: 100% renewable de-centralised solutions); sovereign food solutions (requiring land reform, not just a proposed Land Tax that was quickly dropped, organic farming solutions, macro-scale permaculture, etc); tax justice: closing down the City and moving to post-financialisation, post-service-based tertiary economy, and reverse globalisation solutions (local economies, sovereign life valorising capital investment, commons, local and regional finance solutions: not central bank solutions). There is the possibility of an emergent eco-Chartist movement to end party politics and create a representative democracy that serves the people. Or an empowered people exercising their Constitutional right to nonviolent peaceful revolt. The possibilities are endless if we open our minds to imagine and invent a human scale future. Possibilities that are killed and de-radicalised by the inculcation of ruling class dictated history that we only have the route of Parliamentary shamocracy. Or waiting for Godot for the theorised “Great Man” (or woman) charismatic authoritarian leader to lead us to the Promised Land. The future is ours if we want it …if we can re-imagine the ruling class imposed and recuperated elected dictatorship and tyranny of the minority. Dream big!
Pinker, I fear, is full of it.
Reality Denial: Steven Pinker’s Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence
Thank-you.
Zionism is just an extremist, supremacist, ideology, afflicting Jewish society. As such it is akin to Nazism in regard to the Germans, although Zionism is less hostile to non-conforming Jews, so far, than Nazism was to dissident Germans. Other ideologies akin to Zionism are ‘American Exceptionalism’, Indian ‘Hindutva’ caste and sectarian fascism. Japanese Imperialist revanchism as exemplified by Abe and Aso and their accomplices, Greater Ukrainian fascism etc. These exceptionalist, supremacist, ideologies always end up destroying the supposed ‘Master Races’ generally amidst much bloodshed and suffering.
[[ people were much more likely to die a violent death in eras of warring tribes.]]
Tell it to the Serbs who were massacred in their own homes when Tony B Liar and the Clinton Clan bombed them from the cowardice of 10,000 feet above Belgrade?
Pinker is the same kind of worthless preening dross as Peterson.
Exactly. Corbyn must be a Trojan Horse, another Sanders, to act as he is doing. He has surrendered COMPLETELY to the Zionist thuggery over ENTIRELY fraudulent accusations of ‘antisemitism’, and the next step will be joining the drive to outlaw ALL criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinians. Of course, that will not be enough-the Zionist lynch-mob will be back with new demands, to hate the Palestinians as much as they do, and say so, and to join the drive for aggression and genocide to be inflicted on Iran. Who would imagine that Corbyn will do other than cave, then, too. At least Ken Loach shewed some integrity and guts at hitting back at the loathsome, slandering, Belgian pipsqueak PM.
Sieg Heil & fucku, you Hamasshole
Yes, Bibi-now be a good boy, take your meds, and have a nice lie down and dream of dropping white phosphorus on Gazan children.
Why do these scum even bother?
Hatred-it is the existential fuel of their existence. They hate everyone, believe everyone hates them, and have long made Hate their one true God.
I think that “Fucku” is a retarded adolescent going by the mangled spelling in many of his(?) posts. I sometimes get the impression that he is frothing so much that he is actually banging the keyboard with his head.
I agree with BigB and I am very concerned with Jeremy’s attitude to Putin and Russia. I would have thought that it would be in the interests of the Labour Party and the UK to join Putin’s and Xi’s drive towards a multi polar world which working together in the interests of all mankind would be a good thing.
The way I see it, Jeremy handed the head of Marc Wadsworth to Salome Smeeth on a silver salver. Not only did he not support his lifetime comrade, he did worse, denying that he offered any support to Marc by denying he said Marc had “done nothing wrong”. In walking back his support, it appears (verifying Tony Greenstein’s assertion) that the contact from Corbyn’s office was to get Marc to call off his Labour Against the Witch-hunt supporters. Nothing was done to call off the tiki torch white racist procession organised by Streeting, and obviously coordinated with the media. If that did not confirm to him what the former Israeli (BICOM) spin-doctor and US “strictly protect”ed asset Smeeth was up to all along, I don’t now what will?
This is a coup against democracy, not a whipped up anti-local elections campaign that will fade away. Corbyn’s appeasement amounts to an empowering and enabling. If being a lifetime anti-racist, a black activist campaigner, and 40 year friend and colleague did not count for anything, what does? Now any Ruth Smeeth can cry crocodile tears for her assembled media and claim a torrent of antisemitic abuse; and any Marc Wadsworth will be metaphorically lynched.
We are two more lynchings away (Jackie and Ken) from having a fully compromised Zionist Labour Party of Israel. If people do not know what the BOD/JLM demands from Jennie Formbie’s review of the disciplinary procedures they are:
1) the BOD/JLM representation in the disciplinary process via an unelected, undemocratic, unrepresentative ombudsman;
2) the de-platforming of anyone who has been falsely accused of antisemitism; or anyone who supports anyone accused of antisemitism (i.e. Chris Williamson and Clive Lewis would be suspended in future for testifying for Marc);
3) the dis-empowering the anti-Zionist ‘fringe’; such as the BOD cancelling last weeks round table discussion because they refuse to sit down with JVL and Jewdas;
4) and last, but definitely not least, is the adoption of the full set of ‘working examples’ of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Coupled with the kangaroo disciplinary procedure; this amounts to the end of free speech.
Then there is the new left antisemitism; which is an unconscious bias and thoughtcrime according to Momentum …remediable by racial “awareness training” (the sort of reprogramming Jackie was set up at for dissenting over the conflationary IHRA definitions):
“Second, there are people who have come to see capitalism and imperialism as the product of conspiracy by a small shadowy elite rather than a political, economic, legal and social system. That is only a step from hoary myths about “Jewish bankers” and “sinister global forces”. [JC: Standard article – “How I am bending over backward to be shafted by racists”]
So Jeremy’s enabling of this coup by sacrificing the real anti-racist, anti-Zionists and his friends to the real racists and Zionists is close to enabling the end of free speech, the end of criticism of Israel, the end of Palestinian solidarity, the end of BDS, and the end of criticism of the “small shadowy elite”. Well, that’s me fucked then. It is also tantamount to the end of democracy (if that has not already occurred) as we will have two Anglo-Zionist capitalist imperialist war parties working to further the agenda of the upper one percent. Whoops, I must be a nu-antisemite racist.
Nothing but the wholesale deselection and replacement of the majority of the PLP can save the Labour movement from a willing and unopposed capitulation to Zionism. That’s if Jeremy remembers he has a spine in time.
Of course that racial “awareness training” might be conducted by the Jewish Labour Movement [JLM] who are supporters of the Israeli Labour Party the JLM say it organizes within the World Zionist Organization [WZO] whose goals include establishing Eretz Yisrael as a greater Israel from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean, including the whole of Jerusalem. WZO’s Settlement Division actively supports settlements in the Occupied West Bank. Should the Jewish Labour Movement [JLM] be expelled from the UK Labour Party because they support grave war crimes [article 49.6 Geneva Conventions, settlements] Should Diane Abbott Shadow Home Secretary resign when she claims “We are looking at introducing a programme of education quite possibly delivered by organizations like the Jewish Labour Movement”. An organization that supports grave war crimes teaching Labour party members the error of their ways. You could not make it up.
You like Hamas?
You clearly prefer hitting Gazan kids with cluster-bombs–morally pure cluster bombs, eh Bibi.
You like Hamas?
Hamas is a great organization. They’ve thrown the fascist foreign invaders out of their own country twice in a row, and are now helping the people of Syria do the same.
It will be a great day when Hamas rocket artillery puts a permanent end to the shitty little country that starts with an “I”.
In conclusion, fuck u too, zionist scumbag.
oops, I meant Hezbollah. But I bet you hate them even more. Because they always win against the zionazi scum.
I believe it is mandatory to hate Hezbollah throughout the West, as ‘terrorists’, which they plainly are not. However if you got up to defend their bravery and decency in defending their Homeland from the racist, terrorist, invaders from the south, who turned their country into a Hell of oppression and torture from 1978 to 2000, and in repelling another vicious and murderous aggression in 2006 (the ‘best-planned war in Israeli history’ according to Israeli media)you would be likely to be prosecuted and face a lengthy prison term. And PRECISELY that situation is fast approaching for anyone who dares support the BDS movement, or the Palestinians in any way.
A programme of education? Why not let Jewish Voice for Labour/Jewdas/Tony Greenstein do it? Oh, no, they’re the wrong kind of Jews. Rather too dangerously left wing.
I am in complete agreement about Corbyn’s lack of resolve (to put it kindly), This has been a profoundly demotivating factor for me in terms of campaigning for Labour in the forthcoming council elections. It is so depressing to see Corbyn (and McDonnell) making concession after concession to warmongers, Russophobes and Blairite witch-hunters selling false allegations of anti-semitism. How many more of his political friends will Corbyn be prepared to sacrifice for the sake of appeasement. We have seen both Christine Shawcross and Marc Wadsworth thrown to the wolves. Almost inevitably Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker will follow. I really wish there was something to be cheerful about.
But perhaps the beleaguered Theresa May will at long last resign? Even this would be cold comfort, as I, surely in common with many others, am rapidly losing whatever conviction I once had that a Corbyn Labour government would lead the nation with principle, courage and integrity at the forefront.
Do you suspect, as I now do, that Corbyn was a Trojan Horse all along. A sort of Bernie Sanders. His utter cowardice and treachery to his real comrades in favour of a vicious, braying, Zionist lynch-mob in OPEN alliance with the Tories, the Blairite Quislings and the fakestream media vermin has been DESPICABLE.
I broadly agree with your analysis and feel especially aggreived about the sacrifice of an honourable man like Marc Wadsworth, but the other side of the coin is that there is literally – not. a. single. politician. – who would pass the Off-G perfection test.
Anybody who thinks that we are going to pass from decades of neoliberal violence to a socialist paradise overnight is nuts – put another way, if not Corbyn then who else will challenge the dark forces that control so much of our political and economic discourse?
Smeeth may be a grade-A phony but this doesn’t alter the fact the mistreatment of Jews, including mass murder on an indistrial scale goes back for millennia.
It seems Corbyn just can’t win – today he is a zionist, the week before he was a Hamas sympathiser, before that he was pro-Iranian, and if we go back far enough we can recall his days as a sleeper in an IRA cell.
Personally I don’t believe any of these labels even if he was wrong not to show loyalty for Marc.
After the Chakrabarti incident Jeremy and Marc were joking together. Clearly he did not think his friend had just committed a vile antisemitic act then: how could he let it get this far? You talk of a “perfection test”; and I totally agree about the Realpolitik: my support for Labour was always limited. I saw them as a vanguard away from neoliberalism: a means to an end and not an end in itself. But any move away from neoliberalism is now nominal as I see it; and the trade off is support for NATO capitalist imperialism abroad. That means support for CW attacks or another Rashidin in Syria. And an aggressive Cold War build up in the Baltics. Just how much of a compromise does the Realpolitik have to be before it becomes unethical?
All the talk is about one man, who is not a party, casting him as a faux victim as the crypto-fascist right eliminates any left of centre candidates one by one: further isolating Jeremy. Everyone closes ranks around him: ignoring the obvious fact that the current make-up of the Labour party IS neoliberal. And predominantly Zionist: and becoming more so. The press spun leftwing takeover of Labour is in fact a re-neoliberalisation. Jeremy is either unwilling or unable to stop the rightward shift: and his inaction is enabling. Any attempts to democratise the party have been resisted (by Lansman’s coup and the sacrifice of Christine Shawcroft {which came from Corbyn himself according to Tony Greenstein}. This allowed Eddie Izzard to accede to the NEC unelected: balancing the ‘left slate’). At what point should the grassroots move away from the non-choice between a centre left and centre right war party: because that is what we have, bar for one man? A truly anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-war party or movement will have to emerge elsewhere. And yes, if someone has a spare £50mn, I will start it! 🙂
Don’t worry – nobody is calling Corbynistan a Zionist!
The history of J-ish persecution (and the J-s did plenty of persecuting others, including one another)must never be forgotten, as the persecution of every suffering people must never be denied or erased from history. But to cite REAL Judeophobic hatred to justify this VILE campaign of ENTIRELY FALSE denunciations of ‘antisemitism’ designed to destroy UK Labour and the lives and careers of really honourable people, is, in my opinion, gravely mistaken.
the mistreatment of Jews, including mass murder on an industrial scale goes back for millennia.
sure, the Romans killed sixty-four million Jews in just one city:
If anybody doubts that story, they must be an evil anti-semite. Compared to that, other atrocities with only 100x200x300 victims pale into relative insignificance.
The sheer audacity of this Zionist take-over of Labour is mind-boggling, but they would have been thwarted, possibly, if Corbyn shewed any guts, loyalty and integrity-but he did not. And, as ever with these creatures, their demands will NEVER cease until a loyalty oath to Israel and to Bibi, personally, is required of all Labour members.
He hates Israeli Jews.
That makes him just another racist Hamasshole.
By the way: Fucku
Any you chaps are ALWAYS boasting of how clever you are supposed to be. I guess you were hiding behind the door when the brains were handed out. Sad.
I am a happy member of the Labour Party, is it radical enough? No, but Jeremy is far and away the best leader for a generation.
He is, wisely in my view, concentrating on nitty gritty issues at home such as housing, the NHS, policing and above all good quality jobs that give some kind of security on which to base a life. He may not always get it right, or be as radical as all of us would wish but he’s a hell of a lot better than Owen Smith or any of the other Blairites.
Some months ago I was accused of anti-Semitism by a young member of Momentum (Some of you will recall I don’t buy Israeli avocados!) because I support Palestinian rights and I’m sure he reported the argument to someone on high, and when it got to the very top it became part of the “proof” that “The Labour Party is rife with anti-Semitism”.
Anyone who is prepared to advocate the re-nationalisation of some of the most fundamental parts of our society, NHS, water, rail and perhaps even the power grid is fine by me. Someone who is prepared to invest in housing and proper education with free university attendance for all people will do me, even if he’s not perfect. Someone who is an English gentleman in the face of all attempts to rile him who is prepared to listen to people, because, as he himself admits, he doesn’t know everything, whose policies are well thought out and appealing gets my vote every time.
Feel free to vote Conservative, if you think he is not up to scratch, who will squeeze the generations to come until they rise up and take us all to the sunny uplands of a post revolutionary utopia: good luck with that.
It sounds like you have reservations about Corbyn’s recent actions.. maybe I am reading between the lines.
What would be a red line for you with regatds future compromise from Corbyn on say foreign policy or Israel in particular?
‘Compromise’? On Corbyn’s recent record I expect TOTAL SURRENDER. I’m just waiting for him to slither out and denounce the Palestinians as ‘terrorists’.
CF: don’t take it personally, but this is the root of the personal battles (I lost) with my local CLP when I was a member …the strictly Anglophile view. There is a world beyond our borders and the payoff for UK development is support for a Cold War standoff with Russia in the Baltics and Black Sea; the regime change war in Syria (the contradiction being that Corbyn does not support this directly, but NATO does); support for soft power projection and the White Helmets; a Russophobic Magnitsky sanctions policy and demonisation of Putin; capitalist materialism and imperialism (our standard of living is violently extracted elsewhere); nuclear power and weapons; and the exported extractivism, human exploitation, and degradation of the environment …to Africa for instance. We need a more radical polity that redistributes wealth internally and allows us to reach a median standard of living without drawing more and more energy form the world and handing it to the few parasitic wealth hoarders. Which is what pro-business and pro-EU amounts to. A radical polity that can never develop if we only vote to maintain or increase our standard of living: whatever the overseas consequences may be?
Of course there is a world out there which we must pay close attention to, Palestine, the third world in general, the monstrosity of the US empire which must be faced. But first we have to form a Labour Government and for that we have a very hard slog.
I worked in factories for 25 years and those who read papers read the S-n or the Fail and believed every word they read. The only way to beat this is through the internet, and the Labour Party and Momentum and Jeremy himself are working on that every day. Across the media he is reviled as the most inhuman bastard ever to be in a position to one day be PM. Every accusation that can be thrown at him is. But if you watch him on TV he comes across as a mild mannered, highly principled advocate of socialism in the UK. Then people listen and question what they read.
Why the hatred? He is a socialist; he believes, as do I, that all people have the right to a dignified life, free education and health and his mission is to help people achieve that.
Worst of all he is incorruptible. As many have pointed out he may have compromised unwisely on some issues, but he cannot be bought.
Paul Craig Roberts has told us, from his days in the Reagan admin that the US buys the allegiance of world leaders; Blair, Merkle, Macron and a thousand others, but I am willing to wager you a pint or three that Corbyn won’t take the money.
If he cannot be bought they have no power over him and Jeremy, an idealist, will only answer to those who put the Labour Party into power: the idea is democratic socialism where our country is run for the people and not the elite. They can’t buy Putin either and so we have Russiaphobia.
I am with you in your sentiments CF.
I joined Labour specifically because of Corbyn. In particular, his history of principled stances on foreign policy issues and a commitment to peace.
I campaigned for the first ever elected Labour MP in my constituency, elected last June. I have not doubted the man’s integrity, until now.
Why has he indulged in boosting Russophobia, supporting a degredation in international relations on the basis of pure speculation?
Why is he appeasing the moves to outlaw criticism of Israel ?
I can only guess : that he thinks a compromise with the reactionary forces of the UK Establishment will get him a seat at the table of power. What I ask is ‘If it came down to it, would it be worth it for the sake of free education and nationalised rail in the UK to further escalate the New Cold War whilst enabling Israel – all during the build up to an attack on Iran ?’
‘Our landfill is third world bling Doug Stanhope
The honest answer Mog is I don’t know; I can only hope that if we achieve a Labour Government McDonald will be in charge of the socialism (the proposed Northern Bank to help balance the City of London and so on) and Jeremy in charge of the peace making, but nothing is guarenteed.
Dream on. One of the SPECIFIC examples cited by one Zionist grandee of Labour ‘antisemitism’ under Corbyn was its ‘Leftwing policies’. Once the Zionists and their Blairite stooges control Labour again, your dreams of ‘socialism’ will be outlawed as ‘antisemitic’.
OK Mulga, I’ll meet you at the pub at 10am and we can spend the whole day pissing up against the wall. What next? Cocaine? Heroin? If we say that our enemies are all powerful and that socialism is unobtainable and a better life beyond any reality, we may as well enjoy ourselves while committing suicide.
You have a point, only in Scandinavia has socialism ever worked and it’s under threat there. Anyone else that tried it, Libya, Syria, Chile, Venezuela, and so on and the empire has hit them with a ton of bricks.
But f-ck it I’m prepared to try and Labour is the one small hope we have.
If we give up we all lose and all that is left is “I told you so”.
The human race ‘lost’ long,long ago, when the distribution of psychological states saw the numbers of psychopaths pass that critical threshold where they might have been contained, and treated for their spiritual disease. To see a witch-hunt by psychopaths destroy the lives and work of decent non-psychopathic human beings is an everyday occurrence. Just ask the Palestinians what it is like to live in Hell, forever, under the ‘morally pure’ jack-boots of these creatures.Or ask the ancestors of the current oppressors what it was like to live under the jack-boots of the Nazis, or the Ukrainian fascists. Humanity had to solve the question of moral Evil among its members, but failed, and the level of scientific/technological force having reached the level required, omnicide is assured, and I rather suspect much sooner than people expect. No need to commit suicide-our fellows will take care of that.
Does your support for “Palestine” onclude supporting their right to legslly treat women therr as inferior, or to carry out the “honour” murders of vulnerable women, for the “crime” of trying to escape from a forced marriage?
A place where nobody has ever been prosecuted for murdering gays, lesbians, or any other sexual minority?
A place where Jews are illegal.
Why don’t you boycott them until they mend their ways?
Yet you hate Israel, a place where all citizens are equal, regardless of religion.
The only country where sexual minoritirs are free.
Where the Christian population is growing.
You’re a bigoted Hamasshole.
Pucku, you are mistaken. Both Jews and Christians lived peacefully in Palestine, together with the Muslim majority.
Far from being a “place where all citizens are equal”, “israel” is an illegitimate entity that practices apartheid. My Jewish friend is welcome to stay in Occupied Palestine as long as she likes, but I’m not welcome there.
I don’t hate “israel”, but it’s in the wrong place. And its behaviour is appalling.
Actually I am a supporter of Israel. If you look at the anti- Semitism in today’s Ukraine it is quite clear that Jews, under threat of death from Nazis, still need a safe place to go, and Israel provides that haven. I don’t know if there are any Jews left in the Ukraine but were I part of the Israeli Government I would encourage them to relocate to Israel.
The only difference between us is that I believe in an Israel behind the 1967 borders, a compromise that all Palestinians, and most of the rest of us, would settle for, whereas you, I suspect, support the greater Israel project which is illegal under international law.
I rather fear that your very typical Talmudic hatred will only cause you and Israel great harm. Of course it already has caused, and continues to cause, very great suffering to Israel’s victims, predominately the Palestinians, but also the Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians, Libyans, Lebanese etc, all victims of Zionist hatred inflicted by Israel or its stooge hyper-power, the USA. This, of course, just makes Israel all the more hated and hateful, a situation that I would have thought that even a mind twisted by 3500 years of hatred of the other would realise is untenable, and, unless Israel is prepared to wipe out the entire Near and Middle East (not beyond the bounds of possibility) must eventually cause Israel’s own destruction. I find that prospect chilling and tragic, but your type seem to welcome it, suffering as you do from ‘Masada Complex’ (as well as several other spiritual maladies).
a mind twisted by 3500 years of hatred of the other
Israel Shahak — Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years
Another excellent article Kit. Perhaps the Guardian will make you a job offer!
Agree 100% ‘it’s those principles that got him elected…’. Be rather nice to have a leader with proven integrity, an increasingly attractive proposition for UK voters ( & rest of the West?)
A must-see, if you haven’t watched it yet, Ian Shilling demonstrates the power of integrity (bucket loads of it):
https://youtu.be/nuWoLTV9StU
edited by admin to fix video url
Apologies again – I don’t understand what’s happening with the URL.
The correct address (& tested to be accurate) has been inserted twice above but instead takes you to 1st video of a playlist of 3 items – it’s the second item aimed for.
Vicious editing of the errors wil be appreciated.
TECH HELP
You’re looking at the first vid. Press >| = skip to the end. Second vid plays; right-click on that screen. Choose “Copy Video URL at Current Time”. Open new Tab. In the Address slot, Paste the URL you just copied.
When I did this, the URL ended “t=3”, so it’s going to start 3 seconds in. I change that to “t=0” and we’re ready:
RUSSIAN BOTS:
If the juicy bits start at 1:12, for example, right-clicking at that point in the vid will automatically put “t=72” at the end of the URL: you don’t have to calculate it (but you can if you want).
And it didn’t work! WTF!
Copy and paste this. Remove XXX.
XXXwww.youtube.com/watch?v=nuWoLTV9StU&feature=youtu.be&list=PLxFiSxvLLWSeVnlfHqui6c6wZZ-O4k-J-&t=0
OR:
I wonder what people here think would be Corbyn’s (or MacDonnell’s) response if, hypothetically, you got him alone and strictly off the record and asked about 9/11 ?
Would he have read anything of substance about it? How much significance would he see even in the 28 pages?
Would anything from 9/11 evidence bear any influence on his political standpoint or his approach to adversaries?
I suspect that he would basically say what he does in public ,i.e. repeat the official account, with little or no knowledge beyond the superficial.
Just a guess.
I was pondering how the emerging voices of reason and integrity in the independent media have a noticeably open and critical mind on the subject : Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett, Caitlin Johnstone, Abby Martin, this place….
The torygraph aren’t happy with Corb’s take on 9/11 – apparently “Mr Corbyn appeared to blame George Bush and Tony Blair for using the September 11 attacks in New York to allow them to go to war. In a series of further articles, Mr Corbyn also appears to endorse controversial conspiracy theories about a “New World Order”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/11892383/Jeremy-Corbyn-911-was-manipulated.html
Mr Corbyn is not usually wrong though is he?
Unfortunately some of Corbyn’s appointees to the shadow Cabinet illustrate more than a little compromise. Nia Griffiths , his Blairite Shadow Defence Secretary, is a grade A1 warmonger and fan of Hillary Clinton, who goes out of her way to praise NATO and believes in sanctioning any country that the USA considers an enemy. In fact there are a substantial group of Welsh labour mps that have absolutely nothing in common with the radical party of the past and are just waiting for any excuse to get rid of Corbyn. Some of the worst examples of this Blairite clique include Owen Smith, Chris Bryant, Steven Kinnock and the aforementioned Nia Griffiths. Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones is so enamoured with the Trident missile system that if the Scots kicked it out of it’s Faslane base he would invite it to Pembrokeshire. Fortunately he has decided to retire early and Owen Smith has also resigned his post as he thought Corbyn wasn’t opposing Brexit strongly enough.
If it were left to the constituency parties on a one member one vote election, I doubt if any of these would be Labour mps.
His problem is that only about 10 Labour MPs see him as anything but an apologist for Hamas, Iran and Russia.
Sadly, they are correct.
Are you really the best that Hasbara Central has on offer?
Apparently so.
Gets paid piecework, based on the number of times the word Hamas is used in his/her/its (probably an it) rantings.
If it seems like they’re reading off a script, it’s because they are. Rather astonishingly, it’s actually called the “Hasbara Handbook”.
https://www.middle-east-info.org/take/wujshasbara.pdf
No matter how Corbyn responds, when you have the countries TV and newspaper media out to get you one way or another, they will spin it how they want. So far as the anti semitism smear goes, from my experiences in generally white working class environments and social events, there is no problem with anti semitism in this country and probably even less in the Labour Party.
Crimes against Jews, because they are Jews are almost non existent. Black people and Muslims are at much greater danger of both physical and verbal abuse. In comparison, many of the CST (Community Security Trust) claims of anti semitism are puerile insults that a fat person or a small person might encounter from a group of youths on a street corner. Included in their figures of incidents is random graffiti that is nowhere near a Jewish community or synagogue.
In fact, in the 2015 report by the CST the only example of an extremely violent attack was an incident involving a psychologically disturbed man attacking and screaming Jewish insults at a man. However, the victim wasn’t even Jewish.
The anti semitic hate crime ‘spike’ is a complete fraud, both in the Labour Party and the wider community. The groups attacking Corbyn, the JLC and BoD are pro Israel propagandists and Corbyn shouldn’t have even given them the pleasure of his company.
Absolutely! Many so-called examples of ‘antisemitism’ are nothing but someone arguing with a belligerent Zionist, and there are copious examples of ENTIRELY fraudulent claims, such as the Israeli youth who made numerous threatening ‘antisemitic’ phone calls from his home in Israel. All Corbyn had to do to act properly was to denounce all REAL Judeophobia, and all Islamophobia and other racisms and xenophobic hatreds, declare his support for the Palestinians in their unending horror of vicious racist oppression, and utterly reject the vile imposition of the Zionists that declares ALL criticism of Israel, its leading thugs and of Zionism is ‘antisemitic’ in nature. But he did the exact opposite, readily sacrificing old colleagues, life-long anti-racists, to the braying Zionist lynch-mob, and begging for mercy from merciless thugs whose ambitions to control and dominate KNOW NO BOUNDS. What is even worse, this display of wanton Zionist thuggery and hatred is bound to stir feelings of REAL Judeophobic hatred in some of those who can see their lifes’ work being destroyed right before their eyes, but that is PRECISELY what the Zionists want. Their thrive on hatred and a siege mentality of ‘Us against the world’.
” screaming Jewish insults at a man”
Like shiksa, putz, goy, aliyah, schmuck?
Maybe the perp was Jewish!
Well done Kit. It was not the politicians who elected Corbyn as the leader of the opposition but the members. Whilst Momentum membership is increasing with new sign ups, some of those who originally threw their lot in with him now feel betrayed. His success was based on his supposed integrity, honesty and principles which he seems content to chuck out with the baby’s bathwater. I am still a member of momentum and donate each month, I have nothing to do with them beyond that. He has failed me on NATO, Trident, then Russophobia and RT and Syria and anti-semitism. One might ask: What’s Left?
It’s a bit like the first cuckoo; ‘we’ve been betrayed!’ It’s surprising it comes before anything has happened. It’s a well worn even well oiled track.
But they HAVE been betrayed.
Are you for or against anti-semitism?
Silly question, really.
Are you for semitism?
Because that’s OK.
Just don’t do it in Palestine.
‘Antisemitism’ is an entire invention, used to silence, vilify and intimidate. Judeophobia, the hatred of Jews simply because they are Jews, is, like all such hatreds, vile, stupid and destructive.
Are you for or against anti-semitism?
I keep hearing that “anti-zionism is the same thing as anti-semitism”. So often that you’ve convinced me; I’ve decided to stop arguing the point. It appears that the overwhelming majority of people who self-identify as “Jewish” are supporters of the fascist terror state of Israel and its vile policies. It’s certainly not my place to tell them that they don’t understand the content of their own identity.
On closer examination, “Jewishness” turns out to be a nasty ethnic-supremacist brainwashing cult, left over from the European middle ages. Which explains much.
http://desip.igc.org/holo_lysson.html
So sign me up for “anti-semitism”, please.
On the issue of Anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, it is absolutely despicable that Marc Wadsworth has been expelled for bringing the party into disrepute, when in no way could what happened at that meeting be described as Anti-Semitic. To falsely accuse a person of being an Anti-Semite has the potential of destroying a persons life and career, if Livingstone is found guilty his life long service to the Labour Party and his campaigns against racism will be for nought. In reality it is Smeeth who should be charged with bringing the Party into disrepute.
Marc Wadsworth was especially eloquent about the racism that blighted the Stephen Lawrence investigation.
Using sensitivities around Jewish identity as a political device to get at people is a dangerous road to go down.
He hates Israeli Jews.
That’s actually anti-semitic.
You appear to be lying, but that’s hasbara business, ain’t that so.
My guess is that the attitude being taken towards the Israeli Embassy funded anti-semitism campaign is that, given a bit more rope, the Zionist/Blairites will hang themselves long before their messiah returns. It will take a local Labour Party with a stomach of tempered steel to put up with one of the Fifth Columnists to represent them in the next Parliament.
So far as Corbyn is concerned I hope that his attitude is that there must be well defined limits on what the elected leader can or should do. He comes from a democratic tradition in which the ‘strong leader’, after whom foolish people yearn, is to be guarded against rather than revered. It is just not his business to interfere in the workings of the disciplinary procedure. Were he to do so he would be sparing the Constitutional Committee members from taking responsibility for what they have done to Wadsworth, Greenstein, Walker and Ken Livingstone. All of which cases ought to be dealt with by the Party Conference as part of the vital and barely begun process of making the Party democratic.
The careful reader will note that I have merely been guessing and hoping: I have no idea what is actually happening in the leadership of the party and I doubt that anyone else commenting here does either.
What I do know is that there is not a more promising breach in the iron wall of neo-liberalism in the world than that being offered by the current movement within the Labour Party.
Everywhere else neo-liberal ideas are rampant and virtually unchallenged. And, because they are, all the anti-imperialist governments are weak and open to subversion since none of them is ready to side with the people against the oligarchs. In the admiration that we tend to feel for the courageous resistance of Russia, Iran and Syria to US hegemonic bullying we tend to forget that each of these countries is riven with class tensions and is deeply divided between a highly privileged, albeit anti US, elite and masses of impoverished people desperately struggling to survive. In Russia, for example, the Central Bank is run on principles of the most reactionary nature by disciples of Alan Greenspan.
Across Europe and throughout North America the role of the opposition has fallen into the hands of the right- the left has run out of ideas and softened in office into Blairism/Hollandeism/PASOKification.
In Britain both in global policies and in socio-economic policy something different, opposed to neo-liberalism and zionism is being offered.
In the actual context of reality in the world that is a massive difference and an historic opportunity. This is the quickest route to Revolution, the traditional route: first a reform movement takes office, then it is thwarted and cheated and subverted at every opportunity, the state refuses to surrender its power to the people. That is how revolutions begin, provided that the people understand what is happening and the reformers are backed by a mass movement.
That is how revolutions begin, provided that the people understand what is happening and the reformers are backed by a mass movement.
This is why MacDonnell’s boycotting of RT is so disturbing.
I get the impression that there are plenty of people in the Corbyn Labour movement who have very little idea of what is happening: in Syria, in the A/S scare, in the Salisbury/ Douma charade.
Paul Mason has 601,000 followers on Twitter. As one of Corbyn’s most high profile supporters, he is either clueless or extremely corrupt.
When people roll over in the face of a Zionist lynch-mob, I generally suspect either moral cowardice, long-term infiltration, or personal threats, blackmail or bribery. All integral to the Zionist modus operandi.
Not as much as you.
Self-evidently.
zionazi scum.
That’s what they want-sinking to their level.
Social Media will be his Saviour on this one. AntiSemitism is irrelevant to most people and many people hate Israel. SkripalGate has been a total farce and no-one takes it seriously. Syria bombing has not been popular and the MSM and BBC have been cruelly exposed for their endless lies and distortions over this time. Corbyn has been too cautious on the AntiSemitism issue but the new general secretary and NEC will be a turning point on matters disciplinary in the Labour Party. Windrush will be the dominant issue this week, as will Grenfell, and the other issues will simply fade away. This will prove how out of touch the Westminster Bubble has come.
Only Jew-hating Hamassholes hate Israel while supporting a place – Palestine – where women are legally defined as inferior, & nobody has ever been prosecuted for murdering gays or lesbians.
You’re quite a fuck-up!
many people hate Israel
When this hatred extends to Israel’s foreign supporters, the game will be up.
In both instances Corbyn might have played a different hand but neither issue (fundamentally) makes that much difference to what has made him such a terrifying figure for Britains rotten establishment – in other words Corbyn is an idealist who, if given the chance, will use political office to further the common good rather than the naked self interest of neoliberal asset strippers.
If anything, despite negative coverage across virtually all of Britians media, his stock has grown, evolving from a joke figure, reminiscent of Citizen Smith in the early days, to someone who almost over turned a sizable tory majority at the last election.
More and more people have finally realised there is a simple, and stark choice between a 1,000 year tory reich or a return to a more balanced, and less socially divided society, and Corbyn for all his faults is the only left of centre political figure who can deliver on it.
The anti-semitism and Russophobia tropes are merely further signs of how desperate his opponents have become – yes, a good socialist would like to put the world to rights, but the first priority is a living wage, decent homes, education and accessible health care, all of the things that are in the process of being rested from mean income families and handed over to the likes of Richard Branson.
RT – this a useful source of news/information and offers a valuable alternative to the BBC who increasingly seem to tow the Government line on the big Foreign Policy issues. One wonders whether this is something to do with licence renewal. My problem with RT is that whilst it is interesting and illuminating on news outside Russia it rarely reports on what is going on inside Russia from a critical perspective of the Russian Government. You could say that this is because it is geared towards a UK audience, in it’s UK edition, and that’s fair enough but have we ever ever heard any criticism of Mr Putin on RT? Whilst I abhor the way that the West is trying to attack Russia, on multiple fronts, it is certainly fair to reflect that Putin is, in all probability, not a good man unless of course you happen to be a Russian nationalist.
No, it’s the Putin govt’s propaganda TV channel.
How intensely boring and stupid you are. Are you paid by the insult?
Don’t feed the troll Mulga. Let him sit under his bridge talking to himself
I don’t think for a minute that Corbyn is willing to make compromises “in order to be more acceptable to MSM”. He faces a rabid and ruthless opposition from the Rightwing media as well as from inside the Party. He tip toes around antisemitism for good reason knowing it’s a trap and is baseless. Few non Jews think there is anything in it except a chance to kick him. But I agree not speaking out about a possible ban of RT is regrettable as it’s a principle of freedom of speech (as well as a very good and informative TV station). There are powerful people ready to smoother him at the first opportunity and it’s sensible not to give them fuel for their fire. He needs to reserve his condemnations to the coming war on Iran,
How is ‘reserving his condemnations’ not ‘making compromises’ ?
By reserving his condemnations of the anti semitism nonsense and the attack on RT he loses nothin* because they are both baseless and in regards to RT will never happen. They are red rags designed to draw him into a position that they can attack with confidence. If you reserve condemnation on issues that don’t really exist it makes condemnation of the enlarging war more powerful. There’s no point in demanding Corbyn sacrifice the movement to a false flag, unless you want to see him on the sacrificial stone.
I don’t understand your argument.
Corbyn should condemn the anti-semitism smear and the Russophobic propaganda drive precisely because to appease them will weaken his position and the position of rationality itself and thereby lead us closer to a wider war.
I agree with Kit’s article that he has appeased UK Establishment forces that seek to undermine him – an approach with a poor success rate whether one thinks the tactics outweigh the morals or not.
Kit puts it at the top:
There are two kinds of compromise: the strong compromise, and the weak.
The former is where you cede an interest to uphold a principle, the latter when you ignore your principles to further your interests.
Anyone who knows of the Zionists”Iron Wall’ approach to their innumerable victims knows that they DO NOT DO ‘compromise’. It is100% compliance, or else, and await further demands. Just ask the Palestinians-no, better not. That would be ‘antisemitic’, now wouldn’t it.
Exactly! Already the local fakestream media here in Austfailure is beginning to vibrate with anti-Iranian hate. The ‘multicultural’ SBS, long an avid supporter of the takfiri child-killers attacking Syria, has begun to characterise any reaction by Iran to the USA abrogating the JCPOA as ‘Iranian aggression’. Once the Zionists enter blood-letting mode, all fakestream media presstitutes know that it is career-preserving to ‘get on board’ with as much venom as possible.
Someone’s a bit deluded about RT.
nothing’s more credible than a drooling psychopathic moron.
Great article Kit.
Maybe what we need is a political party that completely disregards the corporate media on principle, from the outset. No interviews, no articles, no press releases except through a people’s media- one that is provably separate from vested interests. A party that seeks to build a base solely through independent media through a political narrative wholly outside of the corrupt sphere of propagandists.
Recent events have made it abundantly clear that Westminster’s political opposition (Labour, SNP, Greens et al) is a sad joke until this matter of the whopping-lies-being-told-every-day is addressed.
Those who play with the devil’s toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword. Buckminster Fuller
Splendid idea, but how is anyone going to be elected when the whole of the MSM is united against them?
Answer: they’re not.
The media are a dying entity. Or so it is repeated often here abouts.
If the media and the political legislature are two symbiotic elements of the same beast then I wonder how a genuine alternative can emerge at all within a corporate media dominated system? Control the debate, control the polity has been the game for a century.
A real alternative has to recognise this, has to be fundamentally based on the recognition that the debate is politics, and that people politics will only come about from ordinary people controlling the limits of debate.
Such a fantasy party as I have mentioned, would draw people by mere fact of being able to speak plain truths which are currently outside the much mentioned ‘Overton Window’ (i.e. media framing and limitation).
Maybe a long game. Maybe not, things are changing fast.
Of course ‘things are changing fast’ For the worse.
One has to wonder why Corbyn has been so spineless. This can only harm him. One cannot mobilise a force for social and economic equality by cowardly appeasing the forces of social and economic inequality. Corbyn needs to remember that it was not the Parliamentary Labour Party or the corporate media that elected him leader; on the contrary, they did everything they could to prevent it and continue to do everything they can to undermine it, if not overthrow it. He needs to remember that it was taking a principled stand against the immorality of the political media elite that resulted in his election(s).
Jeremy Corbyn is just another example of a politician who has taken too many donations from too few people who now curtail his character until the original man is no more.
Spot on, Kit.
I have been saying the same. With the Skripal case, f.e., he tried to look mainstream and “moderate” by merely requesting the evidence, instead of firmly pointing out the inconsistencies, the lies, the stupidity and the violation of international norms. The response? Corbyn with a Bolchevik hat with the red square on the background on Newsnight.
His advisors need to understand that his popularity in fact stems for his record of boldness when speaking about matters that no other politician would dare to touch. Many are feeling disenchanted with this new mainstream posture that is, by all means, counterproductive.
Corbyn only had one ‘weapon’, that was his integrity.
He’s blown it in my opinion.
As I said to the Labour rep on the door step, “He’ll have to do something to win me back”.
What “something” are you thinking about?
He could make a noise about the lack of evidence in Skripal and Douma.
For a start.
There is no way out for him except radical truth telling.
He could explain that Livingstone’s history of Zionism is actually correct – Overton window be damned.
The electorate are communicating much more through Social Media and the Douma and Skripal issues are not being believed by the vast majority of the public. Corbyn does not have to elaborate as the MSM and the BBC are declining in importance. The Telegraph lost 18% of its readership in ONE YEAR! Most comments sections online are crammed full of endless skepticism.
I wish I was as hopeful.
I do see the change, but I am not sure how significant it is. I keep speaking to people who are both intelligent and pretty well brainwashed with Russophobia – it’s rife.
It takes more time and effort than most people are prepared to give in order to make an informed opinion beyond the mass media. I think the declining sales of hardcopy are not necessarily an indication of people ‘waking up and questioning’. Maybe some of them are, some are just reading online, maybe some are going to Guido Fawkes instead of the Telegraph….
Those in comment sections are an unrepresentative cross section I would say.
Corbyn has played a shrewd hand with the Establishment media until recently. I think he has broken form, probably because he was cornered and wasn’t prepared- I have a hunch that Skripal, Douma and the A/S witchunt are all timed and from the same source.
Maybe Corbyn wants to win now, perhaps feels the weight of all the expectations. Before, he wanted to do what was right, and that is something else entirely.
But neither Salisbury or Douma have yet run their course. It would be foolish to fly a kite that was later shot down. To accuse the UK, France and America of staging an atrocity so they could wage a bogus war is a big call and to get it wrong a disaster. It may well be another Suez but the information has to come out, as no doubt it will. Just proclaiming it in speculation isn’t good enough. So Corbyn thinks ahead rather than rushing in? Sounds very sensible to me, As for the anti semitism row I think he has handled it brilliantly. Anti semitism is a form of racism and he has always been in the forefront of the protest. Rightwing religious groups want to argue anti semitism is somehow different from other forms of racism. They don’t equate it with anti Muslim which is now widespread in the media or old fashioned British prejudice against blacks, browns and yellows. To argue with those religious groups is to accept their case that they are different from a Muslim in some peculiar way and deserve their own argument. They don’t because it’s a political ploy. Corbyn refuses to play their game which clearly infuriates them to the point of overreaching and pricking their own media bubble. Corbyn seems particularly good at giving his enemies enough rope etc.
Corbyn, his team and his media ‘big hitters’ have already flown a number of kites, this is the issue.
They have flown a kite for MI6’s account of Skripal, for rampant Russophobic hysteria, for the existence of a gas attack in Douma, for the veracity of JLM’s accusations and for the supposed ‘worth’ of the media which repeats all this bullshit.
I cannot see how these matters can ‘run their course’ if the authorities are blocked, their objections silenced, the corporate media complicit and the dissenting media marginalised and ignored?
In my view, the Corbyn movement has always been fundamentally about challenging the hegemony of a corporate media narrative. These recent weeks have been a test for that, but Corbyn has taken the other side to me and the people I admire.
That is saddening.
[I apologise for swamping the comments here, but this issue has pre-occupied my thinking for weeks].
Fucku, you Hsmasshole
Return to your CIA/zionazi masters. Tell them that you have failed.
Grow a back-bone for a start. Make a definitive statement of support for the Palestinians, before his ‘new’ Zionist controllers get him to denounce them as ‘terrorists’.
I’m beginning to suspect that Corbyn sold out long ago, and was put up as a leadership candidate solely to give the impression of ‘diversity’, before the next Blairite was appointed. Corbyn won accidentally, and the techniques of election rigging were not utilised as effectively as in the USA, where the DNC stole the Democratic nomination from Sanders, another Trojan Horse who shewed his colours by rolling over to The Harridan, and betraying the latest generation of Hopey Dopeys, who had their revenge by staying home and delivering the Presidency to the imbecile malignant narcissist. Rigging ‘democracy’ in capitalist kakastocracies is getting harder and harder, and the preferred tactic now is to incite mass abstention among the intelligent, moral and aware, leaving the process to the greedy, stupid and brainwashed. Hence Corbyn’s treacheries, which will continues as Ken Livingstone and God knows who many others are sacrificed to the baying Zionist lynch-mob sucks the life out of the mass movement he is leading into the desert.
Give Meshaal another blowjobby
A perennial Zionist obsession.