Fighting antisemitism

Martin Thomas : Pour beaucoup de sympathisants de gauche aujourd’hui, l’antisémitisme semble n’être qu’une forme de racisme parmi d’autres, indésirable certes, mais pour l’instant assez marginale. Selon eux, cette question ne passerait au premier plan dans les discussions que parce que le gouvernement israélien utilise cette accusation pour écarter les critiques auxquelles il est confronté. Vous affirmez cependant que l’antisémitisme diffère des autres formes de racisme et qu’il n’est pas marginal aujourd’hui. Pourquoi ? Moishe Postone : Il est vrai que le gouvernement israélien utilise l...

Lors de la manifestation de solidarité avec la Palestine qui s’est tenue à Londres, le 26 juillet 2014, j’ai interpellé un manifestant qui brandissait une pancarte proclamant « On recherche : Les Protocoles des Sages de Sion » le tout accompagné d’une étoile de David, dégoulinante de sang, avec au milieu le chiffre 666 [symbole de la Bête, du Diable dans l’Apocalypse de saint Jean. L’image se trouve ici : ici . Les Protocoles des sages de Sion sont un faux antisémite datant de la Russie tsariste, qui prétend dénoncer une conspiration juive destinée à dominer le monde. Ce texte a été utilisé à...

On the 26 July London demonstration against Israel's assault on Gaza, I confronted a man who was carrying a placard which read “Research: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”, with an image of a Star of David, dripping blood, with “666” in the centre. The Protocols are an anti-Semitic forgery dating from Tsarist Russia, which purport to expose a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. They were used in their time, and have been used since, to whip up racist hatred, often violent, against Jews. I told the man that racism had no place on the demonstration, that his presence harmed the...

Extracts from an interview with Marcel Beaufrere after he spent two years in Hitlers jails. Published in La Verite, 11 May 1945 click here for PDF

How Hitler could have been stopped. 'Don't let yourselves be reduced to slaves!' The Left Opposition appeals for working class unity. (1933) Download PDF

A crowd of about 200 people gathered outside Tottenham Town Hall on Monday night to protest fascism in the area following a racist attack on Saturday night.. A 24 year-old Polish man, believed to be Jewish, was knifed at a music festival in Markfield Park after neo-Nazis from the Zjednoczeni Emigranci (ZE) group stormed the event. They also threw flares and rocks at the crowd. The man who was stabbed was treated at hospital and is recovering well. Unite Against Fascism (UAF), which is led by the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP), called a demonstration, to which a good number of activists showed...

A middle-aged woman is being examined by a man who could be a doctor, or a vet. She is standing, naked, though it is mainly her skull that receives attention. Her nose is measured with a specially designed instrument, the shape of her jaw, the heaviness of her lower lip, the characteristics of her gums, the type of her body hair, the shape of her hips, and finally the fact that she has flat feet, all are recorded with 'scientific' precision by an assistant who notes down the 'doctor"s comments. The woman's face is pink from the rough explorations of the doctor's fingers, and it has a fixed...

A middle-aged woman is being examined by a man who could be a doctor, or a vet. She is standing, naked, though it is mainly her skull that receives attention. Her nose is measured with a specially designed instrument, one the shape of her jaw, the heaviness of her lower lip, the characteristics of her gums, the type of her body hair, the shape of her hips, and finally the fact that she has flat feet, are all recorded with 'scientific' precision by an assistant who notes down the 'doctor"s comments. The woman's face is pink from the rough explorations of the 'doctor''s fingers, and it has a...

On 27 April, 25,000 people protested against anti-semitism in Hungary. Every year, a march takes place in Budapest to commemorate the Hungarian Jews killed in the Holocaust. This year, a record number joined the march, with many marchers protesting against the rise of anti-semitism in Hungary. Just three weeks earlier, elections had seen the far-right, anti-semitic Jobbik party win 21 per cent of the national vote. 600,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Hungarians constituted the largest nationality amongst the victims of the notorious Auschwitz death camp. Sadly, anti-semitism...

Le fait majeur des derniers mois écoulés en France est l'épuisement du crédit apporté à Hollande au moment de son élection en 2012. Click here for English-language version of this article. Ce n'est pas par son programme et sa campagne que Hollande a pu battre Sarkozy, c'est parce que les masses cherchaient une issue politique et que cette volonté de se débarrasser de Sarkozy a été stimulée par la campagne du Front de Gauche et de Mélenchon, notamment à partir du succès de la manifestation parisienne du 18 mars. Sans l'existence de cette dynamique suscitée par cette mobilisation, en 2012 on...