Jeremy Corbyn

Corbyn, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism

In video footage from a speech at a conference in 2013, Jeremy Corbyn accuses “Zionists” of failing to “understand English irony”, despite “having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives”, as well as of not “wanting to study history”. In context, it is clear his remarks refer to a specific group of Zionist activists, who tour meetings associated with the Palestine solidarity movement, often surreptitiously filming them and barracking speakers. It was undoubtedly not Corbyn’s intention for his remarks to refer to all Jews, or even, perhaps, all Zionists...

What Labour's code of conduct omits

Antisemitism, in Europe anyway, is thousands of years old, and has taken many different forms. Since the 19th century, it has a “left-wing” variant, in which anticapitalist feeling is directed against Jews as easily-targeted scapegoats for capitalism rather than, or as well as, against the impersonal and relatively-complicated real mechanisms of capitalist exploitation and oppression. The Stalin regime in the USSR coined (in 1949-53), and a range of groups self-defined as left-wing have promoted (especially since the 1970s), a new sub-variant, in which Israel is demonised as the world’s great...

Left antisemitism and the "#JC9"

The decision of Momentum to remove their endorsement of Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) secretary Pete Willsman from the #JC9 slate for Labour National Executive Committee has exposed fractures between Momentum, its supporters, other parts of the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance, and the Labour Leader's office. Willsman has been dropped because of a rant he made at a Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) in which he says he has seen no evidence of antisemitism in the Labour Party, despite sitting on the Disputes Panel for many years, which is currently dealing with multiple...

What should Labour do about policing?

Carrie Evans spoke at Socialism makes Sense: Ideas for Freedom 2018 on 23-24 June about Labour, crime, and policing. Labour have positioned themselves as the party of law and order. Most notably they are calling for police funding to go back to pre-2010 levels, and promising 25,000 extra police on the streets. In London, Sadiq Khan has promised police significant powers to ramp up stop and search, and backed something called the “Al Capone”-style task force, arresting and prosecuting suspected gang members for any crime whether gang related or not, in order to get them off the streets. There...

RMT decides against reaffiliation

The RMT SGM on 30 May voted narrowly to reject affiliation to the Labour Party. The overall vote, 25 – 31, is roughly proportionate to the votes in branches and regions on the question. As was carried in Solidarity previously part of the blame for the failure to affiliate has been the attitude towards the question by those in the RMT national leadership who supported affiliation but posed it almost entirely as a question of influence in national structures and what kind of return would be received from the affiliation fee. The SGM adopted a recommendation from the NEC allowing, “200 plus...

Preserve the right to criticise Israel

Former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has recently said that “anti-Zionism” is the new antisemitism. “In the 19th and 20th centuries [Jews] were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, Israel”. That is true, I think. But it needs explication if we are distinguish well between that anti- Zionism and reasonable criticism of Israel. And it’s been true for a very long time, for decades in fact. It is now the specifically “left” strand of antisemitism. In one of the “traditional” antisemitisms “the Jews” figure as the arch-embodiment of money and money-power, of...

We want unity in Lewisham

Activists in Lewisham for Corbyn (the established Momentum group in Lewisham) are campaigning for a new, properly conducted, democratic AGM, and for the election of a broad, politically pluralist committee representative of Momentum activists in Lewisham. This comes, after National Momentum decided to recognise a farcically inaccessible, irregular and undemocratic ad hoc split meeting in the front bar of a pub as an official Lewisham Momentum AGM. Lewisham for Corbyn have submitted complaints about this and the campaign of lies and slander conducted by Stalinist Red London supporters, absolute...

Democracy and the democracy review

The Labour Party Democracy Review is now in its third and final period, inviting submissions on the following issues: “Electing our Leadership, How we Make Policy and The Way We Work.” It still remains unclear how the findings of the review will be presented and what the status is of the various rule change motions remitted last year on the advice of the National Executive, or when they will be considered. Meanwhile Momentum is carrying out a consultation of its membership on which proposals it will forward. They have asked its members to answer “Yes” or “No” to 13 questions. Longer policy...

What happened in the Lewisham East selection

The candidate backed by the Labour right, Janet Daby, has been selected as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate in the ultra-safe Labour seat of Lewisham East. Daby won with 288 votes, with left candidates Sakina Sheikh and Claudia Webbe getting 134 and 35 votes. The other right-winger shortlisted, Brenda Dacres, dropped out the day before the selection meeting. Is this a defeat for the Labour left? In a sense, obviously. But let’s unpack it a bit. There were widespread rumours that the party National Executive Committee would impose an all-left shortlist. Two things seem to have prevented that...

Labour left at the crossroads

The left which has flooded into Labour since Corbyn’s leadership campaign in 2015 now holds the balance of power within the Party. But what kind of left is this, and where is it going? In the last issue we reported ( bit.ly/2FwqstG ) on the 23 April AGM of Lewisham (south London) Momentum. An amalgam of groups and individuals behind a slate headed by Aaron Bastani from Novara Media (although Bastani did not show up on the night) sought to oust the old steering committee, and eventually left the meeting hall to run their own “AGM” in a pub’s public bar. The coalition organised “behind the...

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