Sunday Supplement at Howie's Corner

Editorial Comment:

Regular readers will notice that there has been a slight increase in the number of posts since I retired. That's because I have more time but still cannot cover everything I would like to so here is the first of a "Supplement" series.

Today's Sunday hence the title but I may well vary the day depending on what I want to bring to your attention. It will probably always be in addition to the main post but that will also depend....

But I digress.

UKIP block IHRA Statement



With everyone concentrating on the Labour Party NEC finally taking on board the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism despite attempts by Steptoe and some of his more deranged supporters I missed the story about UKIP in the Daily Mirror published nearly a month ago:

UKIP was tonight dragged into the anti-Semitism row.

The party has been urged to accept the globally recognised definition of anti-Semitism.

But senior figures blocked the move, claiming members’ free speech should not be restricted, according to emails leaked to the Daily Mirror.

Elizabeth Jones, a member of Ukip’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), wrote: “No way. We are the party of free speech. We cannot sign any document that restricts that position.”

......Paul Oakley, the party’s General Secretary said he would be happy to sign up to the definition, arguing anyone using “free speech” to spread anti-Semitic abuse would be breaking the party’s Constitution.

Ukip leader Gerard Batten last night refused to sign the party up to the definition in full, insisting anti-Semitism is covered under the party’s existing rules against discrimination.

It's a myth that the IHRA stops criticisms of any Israeli governemt policies and actions mainly put around by the far left. Jewish UKIP supporters may well want to take this issue up with their leadership.

Anne Marie Waters banned from Twitter

The leader of the For Britain party got into hot water over a twitter remark which resulted in what seems to be a permanent ban.  The alt-right website Info Wars reported that:

Between 1997 and 2013, around 1,400 mostly white children were sexually abused in Rotherham by predominantly British-Pakistani men.

In addition, violent crime in South Yorkshire is up by nearly 60% while stalking and harassment reports increased by a massive 158% over the last year.

This prompted Waters, leader of anti-mass migration party For Britain, to accuse South Yorkshire Police of getting their priorities wrong.

“I was thrown off Twitter for saying that Muslims are raping girls in Rotherham,” Waters said in a Gab post. “But the police care more about tweets. So, just to repeat, Muslims are raping girls in Rotherham but the police care more about tweets.”

Whilst Waters is not a racist (I hear howls of protest as critics hit their keyboards but having had some contact with her in the past I don't think she is).as a trained lawyer she should have chosen her words somewhat more carefully. 

I'm currently reading her new book Beyond Terror: Islams Slow Erosion of Western Democracy and will publish a review in due course.

Liberal Democrats


Photo: By NCVO London

I don't belong to a political party and prefer to maintain my political independence mainly because I'm not the sort who can toe the line. As a trade unionist I used to orientate towards Labour, certainly at election time. Oddly those who opposed me like Mark Serwotka are now inside the party or backing Corbyn like the Socialist Party (Militant) and the SWP.

Labour is no longer for me which leaves me politically homeless so to speak. I noticed the Liberal Democrats are going down the road of letting non-members sign up and may allow non-members to vote for their leader. So I signed up to see what they are up to and their conference starts today. I may dip in to see whats going on of interest, if anything.

By the way Vince old chap. Letting people from outside the membership vote turned out so well for Labour didn't it? Just saying.

___________________________________________________________

Comments Policy

First of all I owe a number of people an apology. I hadn't checked the "pending comments section of the blog since returning from hospital. With my e-mail account bursting to the rim I've so far deleted over 3,000 unread e-mails. More to go!

The bulk of these are Facebook notifications but I do subscribe to a fair number of things. I have now published those comments (except one which was superseded by a recent discussion).

I have also changed the settings. I'm not sure why it was set for blogger accounts only so I've changed it. Anyone can now comment, even anonymously. Comments will remain moderated but with me being mostly housebound they will appear sooner. My on-line "stalker" seems to have disappeared so hopefully this will allow for more comments from readers.

Labour Conference: One motion backwards, One motion to defend women's rights

Photo: By Rwendland

This months Labour Party conference promises to be more interesting than in previous years as the Corbynista left having swept the National Executive elections, prepare to consolidate their grip on the party further.

Blythe Valley and Forest of Dean constituency parties are proposing motions demanding the return of "Clause 4", which was dumped in the Blair years as "being out of date" as Labour was turned into a party for the future. The Corbynistas want to turn the clock back and restore this staement to the party's aims and printed on every membership card:

To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.

The ideological motive behind this move is to continue the process of turning Labour into a party of the hard left and will further alienate any remaining "modernisers".

The proposal is a constitutional amnedment which needs a years notice and will be voted on at the 2019 party conference.

Labour's "broad church" is  to be dismantled. Momentum and other far-left activists will use this as a tool to help in their deselection purge of moderate MPs, a process already in motion against Labour's Jewish MP's.

Thousands of "old school" Labour members have quit or been driven out of the party since Corbyn came to power. The new intake are a mixture of the idealistic and naive along with nearly every disgruntled demonstrator and some far-left groups.

Most of the latter just don't know how to behave in meetings or on-line and are behind the hate campaigns against the "Blairite/red tory/Zionist" members of the party. Used to shouting down their opponents in the streets or on pickets they are deaf to alternative arguments.

Meanwhile Cardiff Labour Party have submitted the following motion calling for consultation about the proposed amendments to the Gender Recognition Act which is bound to cause a stir. Discussion may be stilted by the PC brigade who will probably call the movers "transphobes" or TERFs.

Labour conference runs from 23rd Sept to 26th Sept 2018.

Mark Serwotka Denies "Conspiracy Theory" but....

 
Photo: By Glastonbury Left Field                   Photo: Plan 9 from Outer Space

Mark Serwotka is General Secretary of the largest Civil Service union the PCS. He has also been elevated to the Presidency of the TUC. So here is a man who should have some responsibility for what he says and how he acts, but like Jeremy Corbyn he originates from the fringes of politics living in the same ideological bubble.

The decision of the unions to allow a divisive character like Serwotka assume the Presidency is questionable given that he and his Socialist Party (Militant) allies broke up the long running Council of Civil Service Unions because the other unions wouldn't toe the PCS line.



PCS is a union that has been run by the far left for nearly a couple of decades and is in part due to the decline of the civil service but also due to the politicisation of the union down in numbers from it's heyday.

There was one serious split when Serwotka suspended all the reps in the Serious Organised Crime Agency for having the audacity to come to a deal acceptable to it's section members. The SOCA group left PCS en-mass. See: Mass resignation of SOCA Reps who formed the succesful NCOA.

PCS is controlled by Mark Serwotka in an alliance with the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party and various others under the Left Unity banner. Currently under pressure due to a personal conflict involving Serwotka's desire to purge his Assistant General Secretary, Chris Baugh with current PCS President Janice Godrich. See: Socialist Party Splits in PCS.



With all this in mind it was hardly surprising to see that Serwotka seems to beleive that Israel is behind the attacks on Corbyn's Labour Party.

The Independent reports:

Mark Serwotka who leads the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and is a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, told a fringe event at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference that the Jewish state could have “created a story that does not exist” in order to distract attention from “atrocities” he said it has committed.

Serwotka told a meeting of the pro-Hamas Palestine Solidarity Campaign that:

he “deplored” antisemitism but claimed accusations against Mr Corbyn were the result of “something sinister going on”.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I’ll tell you what – one of the best forms of trying to hide from the atrocities that you are committing is to go on the offensive and actually create a story that does not exist for people on this platform, the trade union movement or, I have to say, for the leader of the Labour Party.”

The inference is clear. Israel, the Zionist state is behind the campaign against the growth of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Of course Serwotka is "not a conspiracy theorist" but alleges a foreign country that happens to be a Jewish country is conspiring against poor old Jeremy.

That sounds awfully like he's referring to an "International Zionist Conspiracy" normally the province of the far right but has in recent years gained traction with large numbers of left wing activists particularly the ones claiming to be fighting for Palestinian rights.

Serwotka should be ashamed of himself. But he won't be. For years under his leadership "Palestine" was "central to the international work of PCS. Indeed Hugh Lanning the Deputy General Secretary of PCS (until his "retirement") was Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.  As a result the union never developed a proper "foreign policy" even supporting the Cuban regime that sacked thousands of it's own civil servants and suppressed free trade unions.

It was necessary for me to launch a Campaign Against Anti-Semitism in PCS. During one election got both Lanning and Baugh to issue statements condemning anti-Semitism. Serwotka did at one stage ask what he could do to help. 

I requested space in the PCS journal. I never had a reply...

The attempt by Serwotka to deflect legitimate accusations of anti-Semitism as the result of an intervention by a foreign power is not only wrong but disturbing.

Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and on the "left" is very real.

_________________________________________________-

I resigned from PCS in 2015. Here is my letter:

Why I am Resigning from PCS and joining Prospect

Sacked for having an opinion

The trans-censorship campaign is spreading to our centres of learning. Angelelos Sofocleous has been sacked for tweeting a politically incorrect view.

"Is it a crime to say women don't have penises"

Apparently the Philosophy Department at Durham University does and tried the culprit in secret before firing him.

The student newspaper Palatinate reports

Angelos Sofocleous, the recently appointed assistant editor of the journal, was removed from his position after posting a tweet that read: “RT (retweet) if women don’t have penises” linked to an article on the same subject in The Spectator. Angelos then wrote an article in which he defended this position in resigning as President-Elect of Humanists UK.

The Durham University postgraduate student was subsequently sent an email from the President of the Philosophy society notifying him that he had been removed from his position following a vote. The email stated that his comments served to “belittle trans experiences” while leaving “no room for or to promote any fair discussions.”

Let's consider the last part of that sentence which says "leaving no room for or to promote any fair discussions".  

The man wasn't even invited to defend himself and was tried in his absence, unable to defend himself.

So much for free speech. Trans activism has resulted in the growth of censorship and all critics are silenced. The mere raising of the term "transphobe" has become the new "racism" of today's so called progressives. 

Even women are barred from defending their spaces from men who self-identify as women (we used to call them transvestites back in the day)and are subject to abuse and further exclusion by what is a frankly male demand.

Besides Women really don't have penises. Men do. Deal with it.

Dress and live any way you like but don't oppress the rest of us with your testosterone fuelled rages guys. This has gone too far. 

It's no longer a question of tolerance which would be fine but has now turned into thought imposition.

Censorship is oppressive.

___________________________________________________

Gender Recognition Act Consultation (Closing date 19th October)

You can have your say thanks to Fair Play For Women. 

Go to: consult.education.gov.uk

"Even an anti-Zionist Jew is still a Zionist"

Reading the Weekly Worker, paper of the tiny Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) can sometimes be a bit of a chore given their dryness but it's a great source of left wing sectariana, though this week it was not so obvious.

In a report back from this years "Communist University" Danny Hammil reports:

There were also lively and always provocative contributions from members of Socialist Fight and the undeniably odd Economic and Philosophical Science Review group.

Now Socialist Fight is the three man operation run by Gerry Downing who was kicked out of the Labour Party and made a complete arse of himself when interviewed on TV. That and the mad ravings of ex CPGB member Ian Donovan who thinks that there is an "International Jewish Bourgeoisie" conspiracy are well known. Ironically the CPGB kicked Donovan out on the grounds his theories were "anti-Semitic".

The other group was however new to me and I had to investigate further. It seems that the Economic and Philosophical Science Review was a breakaway group from the Workers Revolutionary Party in 1979 and originally went by the name Workers Party, the the International Leninist Workers Party before adopting their current name.

Founded by the late Royston Bull, they broke with Trotskyism entirely. This became evident as the rise of the LGBT movement had it's issues taken on by the Communist and Trotskyist left. The EPSR opposed this saying that this had an obvious evolutionary disadvantage in evolutionary terms for any species. Or homophobia as it's known today.

It hardly comes as a suprise that their views on Jews and Israel are equally repugnant. In the latest issue of their "journal" (which was published at one time in an A4 format) is on line in a barely readable format.

The EPSR outline their demented view of the current anti-Semitism crisis in Labour:

"..the insane topsy-turvy nonsense of the browbeating “anti-semitism” campaign, attempting to paint as “racism” all the growing mass world hostility to the vile and vicious Jewish-Zionist occupation of Palestine (falsely labelled “the state of Israel”) and the inevitable hostility its barbaric genocidal actions generate, not just against Zionism there, but against the entire ‘Israel’-supporting Jewish freemasonry elsewhere throughout Western imperialism.

...it plays on the retreat by the entire fake-”left” into single-issue reformism, from feminism to LGBTQ rights and black nationalism in a dozen ever more convoluted PC permutations, which they have used to maintain a pretence of radical action for decades while evading and diverting from the revolutionary politics

Particuarly disturbing is this reference to Jewish members:

The reactionary warmongering Blairite wing (with a number of outright Jewish members), now obscenely riding this demented campaign, has long gone far beyond the “normal” treacherous class collaboration of Labourism into outright collusion with imperialist fat cats and warmaking of course, and confirms it now by playing an utterly vicious role to sabotage even the tame Corbynite “left” with this gobshyte.

But the slimy apostasy of the Corbynites, dishonestly hidden behind denials of past positions or solidarity gestures, is essentially no different.

Make of that last sentence what you will. I find it disturbing.

Then there's this. Even an "anti-Zionist Jew  is still a Zionist". :

Zionism in real terms lies in the support for the continued occupation of “Israel” by the Jews which is a common position held by both overt Zionists and virtually all notionally “anti-Zionist” Jews too.

And since that occupation is possible only by violently dispossessing the Palestinians to greater or lesser extent, even “anti-Zionist” Jews in practice, are effectively Zionist.

A whole race condemned. There is no hope for any of us it would seem.

The theory that politics come full circle at the extremes is once more confirmed as the EPSR becomes no different to the National Socialist of the far-right.

Fortunately neither the EPSR or it's equally evil twin Socialist Fight are around in any number but they illustrate the way  that anti-Zionism morphs into outright anti-Semitism. These organisations may get laughed at by the rest of the left but there are many Corbynistas who use the same logic when it comes to "The Jewish Problem.

Fake letters in the Tsarist Tradition

 

The continued battle against the rise or rather exposure of wide-spread anti-Anti-Semitism has been at the centre of the battle for the Labour Party's "soul" for some months now. Most British Jews are united in their determination that the new Blackshirt that have emerged amongst Corbyn's followers.

There are always those who against the grain and we see the establishment of the tiny and wholly unrepresentative Jewish Voice for Labour run by the likes of Naomi Wimborne-idrissi who are wheeled out along with the Tony Greensteins of the world to give "left cover" to the antics of the Corbynista anti-Zionist/anti-Israel mob.


Photo: By Brian Naughton

However the worst of those types are the tiny Jewish Sect the Neturei Karta. Wiki usefully sums up their beliefs thus:

Neturei Karta believe that the exile of the Jews can end only with the arrival of the Messiah, and that human attempts to establish Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel are sinful. In Neturei Karta's view, Zionism is a presumptuous affront against God.

It is this group that is alleged to be behind the fake letter issued in the name of Haredi Rabbi's today.today:

The group is so demented one of it's members was arrested in Israel on charges of spying for Iran in 2013. Indeed the sect are regular attendees of anti-Zionist events organised by the fascist Clerical regime in Iran.

Tony Greenstein meanwhile complains:

You will be surprised to hear that neither the BBC nor the mainstream press, the Guardian included, have seen fit to give this statement any publicity. Clearly it is a message that is not welcome to supporters of British imperialism and its racist rottweiler in the Middle East but it is also clear that the activities of the Zionist rabbis, in claiming to speak on behalf of all Jews, have riled the Orthodox sections of British Jewry. In particular their attempt to conflate British Jews and the actions of the Israeli state, which is an example of anti-semitism, has particular annoyed Orthodox Jewry. Given the media blackout, I am happy to give this publicity.

The "MSM", left talk for the mainstream media that they despise have ignored it because it's fake:

Goldsmiths Student Union suspends LGBTQ+ Society

Photo: By Forrásjelölés Hasonló,

An astounding series of tweets has led to the suspension of the Goldsmith's LGBTQ+ Society. Whoever had their handle on the groups Twitter account referenced the pro- Enver Hoxha website:
The Espresso Stalinist which amongst other things told readers Gulags were just "re-education camps" and were only used as a last resort. The "work until you die" reputation is a myth.

Words fail me but this site is just a stalinist version of "holocaust denial"  or the kind of "revisionist history" one would expect from the far-left....




Goldsmiths Students Union has issued the following statement:

Yesterday, Monday 10th September, a member of the LGBTQ+ Society with access to their Twitter account posted tweets containing offensive material. We condemn the abhorrent content of the tweets and they are in complete opposition to the views and values of the Students’ Union.

The Society have broken multiple Union policies and procedures, including failing to adhere to our code of conduct, and we have issued multiple requests for the group to delete the tweets. As such, the Society have been suspended and disaffiliated from the Students’ Union, pending investigation.

Societies are autonomous groups that operate with support of the Students’ Union, governed by our policies and procedures, but their views and behaviour is led by independent groups of students.

Following this, we will ensure that there is other support in place for LGBTQ+ students, including those starting at Goldsmiths later this month, by building networks and facilitating events led by our LGBTQ+ staff and students.

Hat/Tip: Harry's Place