Left antisemitism

See our publications and more articles on fighting antisemitism.

Debate and background on left antisemitism

In the wake of discussions over antisemitism in the Labour Party and beyond we have collated here a series of articles, new and old, on the topic of left antisemitism. An edited selection can also be found in our pamphlet 'Left antisemitism: what it is and how to fight it' which can be purchased here. More articles here . The current debate on left antisemitism and the Labour Party Don't leave it to Labour right to fight antisemitism Left antisemitism and the NEC election REVIEW: The Left’s Jewish Problem — Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and antisemitism The anatomy of "left" antisemitism Video of talk...

The left and anti-semitism

Recent controversies in the Labour Party have brought the issue of antisemitism on the left to wider attention. "Left-wing" antisemitism is not a new phenomenon: from pre-First World War conspiracy theories about Jewish financiers (a critique which German revolutionary August Bebel labelled "the socialism of fools”) to anti-Jewish campaigns in Stalin’s USSR, there is a long history of antisemitism expressing itself on the left. Is the problem one of a few bad apples, or something deeper? What are the links, if any, between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism? How can antisemitism on the left and in...

Letters

The referendum on UK membership of the European Union on 23rd June has major implications and unique divisions across the political spectrum. For staying in EU are Cameron’s wing of the Tories, LibDems, most of the Labour Party for a “social Europe”, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Greens, plus US instructions. For leaving EU are UKIP (who called the referendum), Tory Eurosceptics, the far-right and, for different reasons, most of the British left groupings, eg, CPB, SWP, SP, Counterfire and Respect. Socialist Resistance calls for a critical “in” vote to resist the xenophobia/racism of the mainstreams of...

NUS: left advances, but we need better politics!

The annual conference of the National Union of Students (NUS), which took place in Brighton 19-21 April, saw a further advance for the left in the student movement. Left-wing officers were elected and left-wing policy passed. The conference resolved to join with the junior doctors and other groups of workers fighting the Tory government. It voted to sabotage the National Student Survey, as a means of disrupting the government’s Teaching Excellence Framework, and marketisation of higher education. Conference demanded living grants for all students, funded by taxing the rich, and to support...

Lift Tony Greenstein's suspension

Tony Greenstein, a socialist based in Brighton, was unilaterally suspended from holding office or representing the Labour Party on 18 March. His suspension letter alleged a breach of Labour Party rules, citing "comments you are alleged to have made", which will be investigated internally. The letter does not state what the comments actually were. A Daily Telegraph article has claimed that the comments mentioned were those made by Greenstein in a blog article, comparing Israeli school textbooks which denounce mixed Jewish-Arab relationships as akin to the Nazi Nuremberg Laws. Greenstein's...

How to tackle “left" anti-semitism

A series of incidents in the Labour Party and in the student left over the last few months have highlighted the issue of “left-wing" anti-semitism. In January, the liberal-Zionist group Yachad, which campaigns for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine based on the 1967 borders, and an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, organised an event with the liberal Zionist Ami Ayalon at King’s College London. This meeting was disrupted by members of the KCL Action Palestine group, with fire alarms being set off and a crowd hammering on the doors and windows of the venue. In...

Against anti-semitism, for due process

In the run-up to the September 2015 Labour Party leadership election, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people accused of being associated with the far left were summarily expelled from the party, or blocked from joining. Some of those have been reinstated, but there has since been a steady trickle of further expulsions, including, recently, Momentum Steering Committee member Jill Mountford, Solidarity editor Cathy Nugent, and prominent socialist lawyer Nick Wrack. A campaign, “Stop the Labour Purge”, has been launched to resist the expulsions, carried out by the so-called “Compliance Unit”, a...

Spanish radical left follow Dieudonné

Yves Coleman of Ni patrie ni frontières discusses how Podemos, Izquierda Unida and the Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP) as well as representatives of the Spanish “cultural world”, defend the “freedom of expression”of the anti-Semitic magazine El Jueves.1 El Jueves has no inhibition in proclaiming its hatred of Jews as the magazine stated in 2009: “So says El Jueves, a coarse and anti-Semitic publication...”.2 With such a motto, so proudly sported, its readers can indulge in vile jokes about the “gazpacho3” or “judias” 4(meaning white beans, but also Jewish women in Spanish, that provoke gas...

False flag and “soft” conspiracy theories

In the aftermath of the devastation in Paris it took no time at all for new conspiracy theories to emerge. The “false flag” theory is a popular one, and has been wheeled out increasingly in response to acts of terror since it first gained popularity within the 9/11 conspiracy movement. “False flag” refers to the idea that terrorist attacks are actually covertly orchestrated by the government or axis of power which claims to be the victim of them. The alleged motive is often to provide a pretext for going to war or curtailing civil liberties. Unlike most conspiracy theories, “false flag” events...

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