The SWP and Palestine

Submitted by martin on 12 September, 2002 - 11:40

Further contributions to the debate

The god of recruitment

As an ex-member of the SWP I feel free to comment on what is going on with them. The SWP has one great drive, one motivating factor, and that is to recruit. On this altar they will sacrifice any principle.

Tony Cliff, who some would call a great revolutionary and others a Jewish self-hater, had one redeeming quality. He was political astute, though I would say in a Machiavellian sense. Unfortunately in my opinion since Cliff's death the SWP has become a bit of a headless chicken - still driven to recruit as their attempt to "pluck the chicken" of the SA shows. But now they lack the finesse to achieve their ends.

After the events of September 11 2001 the SWP lost the plot big-time. Their thinking went something along these lines: the SWP are anti-capitalist; the Islamic fundamentalists are anti-capitalist: ergo they are comrades. The Islamic fundamentalists hate Jews; the SWP hates Israel, ergo both are anti-Zionists. My cat has four legs; my dog has four legs, ergo my cat is a dog. This obviously has nothing to do with Marxist theory and everything to do with recruiting Muslim members.

However the SWP needs an ideological shield against this argument. This is what they say: we can't be anti-semites because we have Jewish members. Well, the Spanish Inquisition was run by a Jew, Torquemada, whose ideology was love the sinner (the Jew) and hate the sin (practising the religion.) A bit like the SWP's love the Jew but hate the Zionist? Most people recognise the Inquisition as anti-semitic.

In a recent article in Socialist Review called 'The Jewish Question', Jews are referred to as "a people class" filling an economic need: "usury". Presumably Africans filled an economic need in the 18th and 19th centuries by being a "slave class".

In the article it is stated that Jews avoided assimilation. This is not the case. All of the Jews in China, for example, were assimilated. And what of the Black Jews of Ethiopia, the Falashas?
I doubt that the homicide bombers will liberate Palestinians from the tyranny of Israeli women and children queuing up at Pizza Hut. I do know that socialists can liberate Israelis from their ruling class and Palestinians from the ideological shackles of Islam.

Vic, Norwich

No u-turns

As an SWP member I feel I can issue assurances that Palestine is an area which produces a great depth of feeling. The recent petition you refer to (Solidarity 3/10) is not an SWP petition and as such can't solely reflect SWP policy. It (as I understand it, although, I may have not have been paying complete attention to the admin behind it) is intended as away for galvanising support for the issue and showing those in Westminster that there is a widespread demand for a socialist solution to the problem and that people oppose the US' interference in the Middle East, in at least it's present form. It was not launched as an SWP project and as such needs to appeal to the widest spread of socialists possible.

This idea of "U-turns" by the central committee causing "splits" in the SWP is a myth perpetuated by the AWL and the CPGB. It is an attitude which in many ways is damaging to the movement as a whole as is the sectarian attitude it represents.

Received by email from: an SWP member trying to support a united front attitude to the AWL

Why we shouldn't boycott Israel

The editorial of the last issue of Solidarity said, "We can think of only one serious argument against the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Boycotting Israel implies that only Israel is responsible for the present tragic conflict", ("Jew hunt won't help the Palestinians").

Of course Israel isn't solely responsible for the conflict in the Middle East. But this editorial still miss the point, and heads off at a tangent. Boycotting Israeli academic institutions does not imply Israel is the only entity at fault (Why? A boycott could be perfectly well adopted by people who simply believe that Israel is the main party at fault at the moment).

The boycott of Israeli academia is wrong for a more fundamental reason - it states that Israel as a whole is to blame. The boycott does not distinguish between Israelis, allowing no differentiation along political or other lines.

Supporters of the Israeli government are grouped with peace activists. Such a blanket boycott effectively blames all Israelis for the West Bank and Gaza occupation - and so the boycott's underpinning idea (and despite the fact that not every advocate will understand the logic) is another version of a "bad people" theory: the Israelis (i.e., the Jews) are just plain bad.

Dan Katz, South London

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