Luciana Berger’s Resignation Proves that Wavertree CLP Was Right – Tom Watson Must Go For His Attack on Ordinary Members
We should welcome the fact that Seven Political Pygmies have resigned from the Labour Party. They will not be missed and hopefully they
will not be the last. Their concern about anti-Semitism was demonstrated to be the
hypocritical cant it is by the performance of one particularly obnoxious member
of the group – pro-privatisation Angela Smith – who spoke about Black people
having a ‘funny tinge’.
No one should be surprised. I have
been criticised by a few people for calling Chuka Ummuna an Uncle Tom. Some
people have even suggested that it is racist.
The dictionary
definition is ‘A black person who is overeager to win the approval
of whites (as by obsequious behavior or uncritical acceptance of white values
and goals) or ‘a person who is overly subservient to or cooperative with
authority.’
It is difficult to think of a more
apt description of the lugubrious Chuka. Far from being racist, it is a term
used by Black anti-racists for collaborators within their own ranks. Chuka
Ummuna’s concern about ‘anti-Semitism’ is in marked contrast to his attitude to
racism against Black people. In the Independent
last year he wrote:
We can’t attack the racism that may
lie behind the Tories’ mistreatment of the Windrush generation when we don’t
get our own house in order on hate (my emphasis)
Windrush and ‘hostile environment’ was
the quintessential example of British racism – the deportation of Black British
citizens happened because and only because they were Black but to Chuka the Tories may be guilty of racism. Chuka and
the rest of the 7 abstained (i.e.
supported) Theresa May’s 2014 Immigration Act which led directly to the Windrush scandal. The idea
that this gaggle of misfits are anti-racist is for the birds.
But we should also be clear that this
resignation is, if handled correctly, likely to fizzle out. For one thing the 7
individuals are nonentities without exception. Bill Rodgers, one of the
remaining members of the SDP Gang of 4 may have come out in support
of the 7 political midgets but that is where the resemblance ends. The resignation
of the Gang of 4 in 1981 represented a significant section of the Labour Party. David Owen was a former Foreign Secretary, Roy
Jenkins was a former Deputy Leader and Home Secretary, Shirley Williams was a former Education Minister. The current
crop represent nothing. They entirely
lack any gravitas or base.
Their most prominent member, Chuka Ummuna was caught
out in 2013 on an elite social networking club ASmallWorld complaining that
‘Most of the
West End haunts seem to be full of trash and C-list wannabes, while other
places that should know better opt for the cheesy vibe. The millionaire former lawyer then called for
recommendations for "a trash-free, decent night".
 |
| This antisemitic cartoon attacking George Soros was created by Yair Netanyahu |
Trash is an apt description, not only
for Chuka Ummuna but the whole group. They represent the interests of capital
within Labour. It can do nothing but good that these vipers have voluntarily quit.
However for every snake that left, there are plenty that remain – Joan Ryan,
Ian Austin, Wes Streeting, Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth, Peter Kyle, Gareth
Snell, John Mann, Keith Starmer, Hilary Benn – the list is almost endless.
We should consider the 7 Dwarfs as merely
a down payment. There are plenty more who will do their utmost to sabotage
Labour’s chances at the General Election unless they are removed now.
However Corbyn and his advisers,
Seamus Milne in particular, bear a lot of the blame. They have allowed the anti-Semitism
smear campaign and the nonsense that the Labour Party is an institutionally anti-Semitic
party to take hold.
Their continued silence as these
attacks mount is demoralising and counter-productive. The campaign won’t go away. Those who thought by adopting the IHRA that
they had bought peace were, as we said, mistaken. The purpose of the anti-Semitism
smears is the removal of Corbyn and it is only his own sullen stupidity that
fails to recognise what it is really about.
It isn’t too late, even now, to
take this bull by the horns and say loud and clear that the Labour Party is
not overrun by anti-Semitism and that the idea that Labour is institutionally anti-Semitic
is an utter nonsense, nothing more than a crude attempt by racists to acts as
parasites on the recommendations of the MacPherson Inquiry. It is about Israel,
opposition to Zionism as the insistence by Zionist groups on the IHRA
definition of anti-Semitism proves.
Anti-Semitism in Britain is not
institutionalised. There is no Jewish equivalent
to Windrush, young Jews are not languishing in gaols, Jews are not the victims
of police violence, stop and search or threats of deportation.
Jews are not economically discriminated against. Anti-Semitism in Britain
is a marginal prejudice and the most prejudiced are Tory papers who featured Ed
Miliband, the Jewish leader of the Labour Party’s inability to eat a bacon
sandwich or who indulge in anti-Semitic attacks on George Soros.
Anti-Semitism has been weaponised
internationally. Those who are observant
will have noticed that Trump devoted 17 minutes of his State of the Union
address to demonising refugees as criminal and drug dealers and yet, he also
condemned anti-Semitism despite being an anti-Semite. For example Trump’s
final campaign ad flashed images of three prominent Jewish financial
figures: Lloyd Bankfein, Janet Yellen and George Soros accompanied by allusions
to those pulling the levers of financial power.
Why else have the Tories and the Tory
press embraced the ‘anti-Semitism’ narrative? If anti-Semitism was really a
strong force would the Daily Mail and Sun really oppose it? Why would papers that employed Katie Hopkins
whose views
on refugees were that they were vermin suddenly take umbrage about anti-Semitism?
The real disappointment about the resignation
of Chuka Ummuna, Luciana Berger et al is that so few have gone. If Corbyn had
not been such an idiot and believed that he could appease the majority of the
PLP he would have embraced Open Selection at the last Labour Party conference. As it is flocks of the rats are still in the
PLP. Unfortunately Corbyn bottled it and Len McLuskey betrayed his union
mandate to oppose Open Selection.
However there is one villain who is
still trying to make capital out of what has happened. Tom Watson it was who wanted Wavertree Labour
Party to be suspended because Luciana Berger was the subject of a no-confidence
motion. Those who had no confidence in her have been utterly vindicated. Tom Watson, who has every quality of a dog
except loyalty, should be given the boot.
There is a pressing need for Corbyn to have a loyal Deputy and for someone
from the Left, like Clive Lewis, Richard Burgon or the excellent Chris
Williamson from standing for Deputy Leader at the next Labour Party conference.
Watson pledged loyalty to Corbyn when he
was elected. He has demonstrated that he has all the grace of a viper.
Events are proving that Corbyn’s
strategy of appeasing the Right is disintegrating. The Blairite Right were never appeasable because they are loyal to capitalism and the British
state’s alliance with the United States. That is what the opposition to ‘anti-Semitism’
means. It is about Israel and British support
for the United States’s rabid guard dog in the Middle East. It is about support for the world’s only
apartheid state and NATO.
At this very moment Israel is holding
a general election. Over 5 million Palestinians,
who have lived under occupation for over half a century will have no vote. They live under a police state, subject to a
different legal regime, military law, from Jewish settlers who occupy the same
area. How can anyone pretend that such a
situation is not apartheid? And the situation in Israel pre-1948 is little better for the Palestinians, many of whom have been deprived of the vote.
The idea that this crisis is about ‘anti-Semitism’
is demonstrable nonsense. The Tory Party is in alliance with genuinely anti-Semitic
parties, the Swedish Democrats, Poland’s Law and Justice Party and Latvia’s
Fatherland and Freedom Party in the European Parliament. Yet we hear not a
bleat about this and it is testimony to the uselessness of Seamus Milne and Corbyn’s
advisers that they say absolutely nothing about this just as they never sought to
challenge the false anti-Semitism campaign.
Instead they allow this nonsense to wash over them and flattered the Zionist
leaders of Britain’s Jewish community rather than calling them out for the
reactionaries they are.
It also has to be said that Corbyn has
not exactly triumphed over Brexit. It should
be clear that Brexit is welcomed, above all, by the far-Right in Europe and the
United States. It is a project of
neo-fascists, nationalists and chauvinists including of course Trump and the
alt-Right. Rather than ‘respect’ the
referendum Labour should be committed to overturning it with a new
referendum. This would have the added
advantage of removing one prop of Chuka and friends. No one voted to make
themselves poorer but that will be and already is the result of Brexit. Instead of Diane Abbott mouthing nonsense
about respecting the referendum vote Labour should be talking about reversing
the decision to leave the EU.
All in all unless Corbyn rises to the
challenge and gives a firm indication that he is capable, in Lord Salisbury’s
words, of the ‘smack of firm government’
his time as leader is limited. There is no message coming out from the Leader
of the Labour Party. Corbyn needs to go on the offensive and bury the false ‘anti-Semitism’
narrative and put forward now a bold programme on housing, nationalisation and Europe.
Otherwise Theresa May will succeed if only because of Corbyn’s lethargy and
inactivity. Above all he should stop
apologising for what he hasn’t done.
Meanwhile we should encourage more right-wingers
to resign and thus ensure that we get deselection by default. One good piece of news is that the poisonous
Campaigns Officer of the Jewish Labour Movement Adam Langleben has resigned.
Clearly every cloud has a silver lining.
Tony Greenstein
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