Socialist Equality Party but not for Jews?

One of the smaller groups that came out of the implosion of the Workers Revolutionary Party in the mid-eighties is the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) led by the Hyman clan. Originally called the International Communist Party they aligned themselves with a new guru David North of the US based Workers League.

The crisis erupted after Eileen Jennings, Gerry Healy's long term secretary wrote a letter exposing his abuse of women and young socialists in the party. Combined with a financial crisis the whole group imploded into several different factions and all of a sudden there were (for a while at least) two daily newspapers called the News Line. 

Whilst the general joke on the left was the WRP split to "double the sales of the News Line" there were serious matters involved. The WRP had long been considered a dagerous sect by all the other far-left groups and had developed a wee bit of a reputation for violence both outside and inside it's ranks. The sexual abuse scandal was something elese and finally pulled the WRP apart.

Healy had his backers including  Vanessa & Corin Redgrave. He died in 1989 and the Redgraves finally went their own way. Out of this mire several groups emerged some long gone and others still plaguing the political scene. Socialist Fight led by Gerry Downing  which has been exposed for what it is and the Socialist Equality Party which is believed to have around 50 or so members.

Like the WRP was the SEP remains heavily "anti-Zionist". They write:

Recent weeks have seen the acceleration of a campaign by the right-wing of the British Labour party to paint Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite, in hopes of driving him from his position as leader of the party.

In its scale and ferocity, these efforts have all the hallmarks of a destabilisation campaign involving MI5 in the UK, Mossad in Israel and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States...

Lying accusations of anti-Semitism, endlessly repeated since the failed 2016 leadership putsch by Labour’s right wing, provide the noose with which Corbyn is to be hung. But the goal of this campaign is to discredit socialism in the hope of preventing any challenge by the working class to austerity and the escalating pursuit of militarism and war in the Middle East and throughout the world....

An attempt is now being made by the Zionists, Blairites and Tories to redefine anti-Semitism and equate it with a left-wing critique of Israel and its brutal subjugation of the Palestinians, centred on demands that Labour fully accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of anti-Semitism. The organization defines as anti-Semitic any description of the founding of the state of Israel as a “racist endeavour.”

The SEP decided to intervene in the dispute with a public meeting in Leeds. When some local Jews tried attending they were told "Zionists were not welcome" and stopped them coming in. However some managed and eventually those left outside were allowed in. One attendee wrote:

On our arrival we were informed we couldn't attend this event, we were told Jews/zionists were not welcome. 

So we stood outside trying to speak to the people hosting the meeting who were lingering in the doorway. They wouldn't answer any of our questions (we remained extremely polite throughout)
Two of the ladies with us did get inside by pretending to not be with us. After a good 10-15 minutes they eventually allowed us in.

This meeting was hosted by Socialist Equality Party.

The only speaker was someone called Chris, who frankly waffled on about everything and nothing referring to Brexiteers as Far Right, and basically referring to anyone right of Stalin as an extreme right winger. All the worlds problems boiled down to imperialism and lack of workers rights.

He refused to acknowledge anyone could have a difference of opinion, and on several occasions was condescending towards the two Jewish ladies sat in the front row. He reeled of a list of people who he felt were victimising Corbyn, this list included Mossad, Rabbi Lord Sacks, MI5, Jewish press in the UK and Rabbis in general. When questioned about this list he couldn't actually provide evidence to back anything up.

Turn out for this meeting was rather poor, if we hadn't attended they'd have been lucky to have 10 people there including the chair and the speaker.

Considering the meeting was about slurs made against Jeremy Corbyn, that really wasn't addressed. The NHS, Brexit and the oppression of the working classes was talked about more. Our group dominated the Q&A sessions which clearly the chair and speaker didn't like, but they opened it up to floor, it's just a pity the others in attendance made no effort to ask any questions.

The Socialist Equality Party may be small but illustrates the degeneration of anti-Zionism into what it has become today. Anti-Zionism is a modern form of racism with the worlds only Jewish state demonised and only Jews forbidden to have a right to national self-determination. The left should hang their heads in shame.