Anti-Semitism, The Jewish Labour Movement and the Far Left

The crisis inside the Labour Party over the anti-Semitism scandal continues unabated.  On Wednesday night the Jewish Labour Movement debated whether the time had come to abandon the Labour Party. For now as the Jewish Chronicle reported:

The Jewish Labour Movement voted to remain affiliated with the Labour Party for another month at the end of an impassioned meeting on Wednesday night.

Around 250 members of the group met at London’s Western Marble Arch Synagogue to debate whether to break away over the party’s handling of antisemitism among the membership.

An indicative show of hands suggested around 80 per cent of members supported the motion to remain affiliated to Labour.

But the vote was only informal. JLM members will hold a binding vote at its annual general meeting next month on whether the group should end its 99-year association with the Labour Party.

There are a number of practical reasons why members took this indicative position. Firstly most do not want to give up on a party they have contributed for nearly a century and their small organisation is able to "punch above it's weight" whilst inside Labour. 

The problem would be where would they go? The Independent Group has thousands of people wanting to jump on board and more than a few local councillors have signed up but it has yet to form into a party. There is also the fightback being led by Tom Watson against the perfidious Corbyn and his followers.

Photo: By Bundesarchiv

The left are rattled and call it an attempted "coup" since they do not tolerate opposition of any kind. The tiny and unrepresentative group of miscreants the Jewish Voice for Labour is trying to manoeuvre itself as an alternative to the JLM and would seek affiliation the group departs. No one wants that to happen.

Problem is that despite Tom Watson's efforts and the Corbynite leaderships panic, the hardliners are rallying behind Chris Williamson in their thousands. The left outnumbers the much depleted ranks of the moderates, so many of whom have gone elsewhere.

The Labour Briefing founder Graham Bash spoke at Canterbury Momentum Group on the same night as the JLM and ranted:

Comrades, I am so sorry Chris Williamson is not here today. And I’m devastated that he has been suspended from the Labour Party. We are in a pivotal moment, at a tipping point.

The witch-hunt against the left has now claimed a leading parliamentary ally of Jeremy Corbyn. We are in the middle of another attempted coup – this time, possibly, a slow one – but it is gathering force, and the false and exaggerated allegations of antisemitism within the party will not stop unless and until Jeremy himself is either toppled or, in effect, taken prisoner by the right of our party. This coup is about re-establishing the primacy of the PLP against the members – and it is a coup supported by sections of the left itself, including the leadership of Momentum.

Note even Jon Lansman one of the men behind Corbyn's rise to power is fingered as an enemy. Lansman has of course been campaigning against anti-Semitism. Graham Bash of course is the partner of Jackie Walker one of the harridans of the JVL.

Now Bash who claims he has only come across it once in the Labour Party and says he has a "sixth sense" about anti-Semitism denies there is a problem. Bash claims:

So what is the problem? There was no problem until the lifelong anti-racist Jeremy Corbyn became leader. His predecessor as leader Ed Miliband was Jewish and the main challenger to Ed was his brother David, also Jewish. Clearly all these antisemites in the party were doing rather a poor job.

The problem he ignores is two-fold. Firstly it is precisely because Corbyn became the Labour leader that all these individuals with strange conspiratorial views of the world, Bankers media, the Rothschild's and Zionists have joined up. Add to that the strange religion of "palestinianism" and you have a toxic mix. 

The anti-Semite problem in this country comes from the left not the right. The Tories suspended a councillor without fuss for an anti-Semetic tweet. the Guardian was forced to admit that UKIP expelled a youth member for posting anti-Semitic material despite a supposed swing to the far right. The For Britain Party's leader posted a video condemning anti-Semitism.

So comrades YOU are the threat and it's real. We will not go quietly into the dark ever again and will fight anti-Semtism from wherever it originates. The far-left are the new black-shirts..