2 July 2024

Vote Green ONLY when there is no socialist alternative – they are neither anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist or anti-racist

As the Neo-Liberal Parties Head for a Record Low Vote, the Left has to Come Together Under One Umbrella like in France

Time is Running Out Says Young Palestinian Woman

There is widespread contempt for Starmer’s new patriotic Tory Party. His parachuting in of 14 army officers, his pledge to increase ‘defence’ expenditure, wrapping the Union Jack around himself, reminiscent of the NF and his attack on Bengalis, shows that Starmer is a racist fraud. As Samuel Johnson once said, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’ and Starmer is nothing if not a scoundrel.

The tearing up of his 10 Pledges have marked Starmer out as a cynical liar on a par with Boris Johnson. His reliance on corporate donors like Sir Trevor Chinn, a Zionist who gave £50,000 to his leadership campaign, but whose identity he refused to divulge during the leadership campaign, tells us everything about him.

My local Green Party candidate - not a mention of Gaza Genocide anywhere

The parachuting in of lobbyists and right-wingers such as Chris Ward in Brighton Kemptown, whilst deselecting the local MP and removing candidates like Faiza Shaheen and the imposition of Luke Akehurst have led to mass resignations. The Labour Party is beyond salvation.

By sticking to Starmer the trade union barons have demonstrated that their loyalty is to their own rather than their members’ interests. This is the problem that the working class faces. We have to get rid of the Gary Smiths, Sharon Grahams and Christine McAnea

There are some brilliant socialists standing against Labour such as Andrew Feinstein against Starmer, Jodi McIntyre standing against Jess Philips despite scare stories in the local media, Leanne Mohamad standing against Wes Streeting and Tanushka Mara standing against ‘Killer’ Kyle in Hove. The Green Party [GP] have insisted on standing in every constituency, including against Jeremy Corbyn. Despite their image as a ‘left’ party they are nothing of the sort.

A reminder about how broken promises are second nature to the Lib Dems

Starmer’s war against the left provided the impetus for a socialist alternative in this election. It goes against the grain not to vote. People want nothing to do with the Liberal Democrats, after their austerity coalition with the Tories for 5 years and the breaking of their pledge to abolish tuition fees. They are Tory lite. Yet the Greens were in tactical alliance with them in the 2017 parliament.

Many on the left see the GP, which at first sight has a radical manifesto, as on the left. It isn’t. The GP is an opportunist not a socialist party. Its main aim is to become part of the political establishment.  It seeks to green capitalism not replace it. That is why many Tory voters vote for it in local elections.

Allan Todd, a former GP member, the first Green councillor in Keswick and member of the party’s Climate Campaign Committee spoke about ‘the number of times members of the leadership spoke about the need to focus on attracting ‘soft Tory voters’. Their

other cause for concern came after the 2017 general election, when the right wing of the Party began pushing back against radical policies for social and economic justice. On internal online discussion groups, there were many who began calling for (and I quote) “such socialist stuff” to be left to the Labour Party.


Despite this I voted Green because in Brighton Kemptown there is no socialist standing. However the Green Party is not an anti-imperialist party. Where there are socialists, and I include the Worker’s Party despite differences with them over immigration and the family/sexuality, I support them. Some of their candidates, such as Chris Williamson and Craig Murray, are excellent.

Following WW2 the US replaced the UK as the main imperialist power. The US sought to dismantle the British Empire and bring an end to imperial preference. According to the US Office of Historian

Roosevelt wanted the British to pay compensation [for Lend Lease aid during WW2] by dismantling their system of Imperial Preference, which had been established by the British Government during the Great Depression and was designed to encourage trade within the British Empire by lowering tariff rates between members, while maintaining discriminatory tariff rates against outsiders.

In the Middle East the US allied with nationalists such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser, just so long as they were also anti-communist. Until 1967 it refrained from too close a relationship with Israel. A good insight into the competition between the US and Britain is James Barr’s Lords of the Desert which details how both powers sought to destabilise and overthrow any regime not to their liking.

The US was responsible for overthrowing radical regimes in Guatemala and Iran (1953), Chile (1973), Congo (1960), Brazil (1964), Indonesia (1965). It has also maintained a blockade of Cuba since 1962. It took over from the French and fought a bloody war in Vietnam before it was forced to withdraw.

The US war drive today centres on the proxy war in Ukraine, the arming and financing of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the ‘pivot to China’ via the AUKUS Pact. US foreign policy, whether it is the isolation of Russia or attacks on Libya and Syria is conducted in the context of NATO’s framework.

Yet in 2023 the GP abandoned their policy of withdrawal from NATO. The pretext for this was Ukraine despite the responsibility for this war lying with NATO. The US insisted, despite promises to Gorbachev at the time of German reunification, on expanding NATO in Eastern Europe right up to the borders of Russia.

The GP argues that NATO is a defensive pact despite it waging war in Afghanistan and Libya as well as orchestrating the bombing of Serbia, Syria and Libya. The GP is at heart an imperialist party.

Victoria Nulan talking to US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt about who to put into Ukraine’s Government

It was the US role in the overthrow of the elected President of Ukraine, Yanukavych in 2014, which set the scene for Russia’s invasion in 2022. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, US Ambassador to Ukraine, was bugged by the Russians. Newland and Pyatt were discussing the make-up of the new Ukrainian government.

This directly led to the banning of Russian language rights in Ukraine (which 39% of the population speaks) and then a war on Luhansk and Donetsk regions. A war which was conducted by Ukraine’s state sponsored neo-Nazi militias such as the Azov Battalion.

As Dimitry (not his real name) a member of Azov battalion explained in an interview with the Guardian in 2014:

I have nothing against Russian nationalists, or a great Russia," said Dmitry, as we sped through the dark Mariupol night in a pickup truck, a machine gunner positioned in the back. "But Putin's not even a Russian. Putin's a Jew.... Dmitry claimed not to be a Nazi, but waxed lyrical about Adolf Hitler as a military leader, and believes the Holocaust never happened.

None of this prevented Israel from working with, as well as arming and training this neo-Nazi militia.

Those who doubt this should listen to John Mearsheimer’s lecture to King’s College students or read John Pilger’s May 2014 article which predicted war in Ukraine. He wrote

Every year the American historian William Blum publishes his "updated summary of the record of US foreign policy" which shows that, since 1945, the US has tried to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democratically elected; grossly interfered in elections in 30 countries; bombed the civilian populations of 30 countries; used chemical and biological weapons; and attempted to assassinate foreign leaders.

John Mearsheimer’s lecture at King’s College

By accepting NATO the GP accepts the role of US imperialism vs other countries, Israel included. The US created death squad regimes in Latin Americaa and trained them in torture and counter insurgency at the School of Americas. Lesley Gill, who sat in on School of America’s classes, described how

So widely documented is the participation of the School’s graduates in torture, murder, and political repression throughout Latin America that in 2001 the School officially changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

 US sanctions and aggression has led to a trail of failed states. Having created and sponsored Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda, it used them as an excuse for the War on Terror.

There is a complete absence of any recognition by the GP of what US and Western imperialism has entailed for the peoples of the Global South. Instead we are fed a series of platitudes such as

 The Green Party recognises that NATO has an important role in ensuring the ability of its member states to respond to threats to their security’ before going to say that ‘We would work within NATO to achieve (1) A greater focus on global peacebuilding (2) A commitment to a ‘No First Use’ of nuclear weapons.

Working with NATO for peace is like working with a rapist to ensure the safety of women or with Nigel Farage to achieve better race relations. The GP disguises its purpose with bland verbiage.

Green policy on Israel/Palestine consists of human rights rhetoric devoid of analysis. Their failure to recognise the role of British and Western imperialism is not an oversight. It is fundamental to their chauvinist and racist first worldism. Partly it is a reflection of their electoralism but it is also a reflection of their own class politics.

Anti-Semitism

During the Corbyn years the GP adopted this false antiracism of the right. ‘Anti-Semitism’ was a form of White ‘racism’ that defined opponents of Zionism as racists on the basis that people oppose Zionism and the Israeli state, not because of what it does to the Palestinians but because of their religion. It is as if anti-Apartheid campaigners in South Africa had opposed apartheid because of the colour of the settlers’ skin.

Caroline Lucas and the GP leadership fought to get the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism adopted, despite it originating at Tel Aviv University with the sole purpose of conflating anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. The person who drafted it, Kenneth Stern, testified to Congress that the IHRA definition

has been used primarily to suppress and chill some pro-Palestinian political speech, and it is particularly inappropriate to use it in this fashion on university campuses, where the point is to examine ideas, including ones that might be contentious or disturbing.

It is important to make a distinction between actual harassment, intimidation and bullying, on the one hand, and expression of opinions, on the other.

See Stern’s article I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it.

The IHRA, whose very name tramples on the memory of Jews who died in the holocaust, was devised in order to legitimise Israeli Apartheid. One only has to observe the mobs of Jewish settlers, accompanied by government ministers, in Jerusalem who chanted ‘Death to the Arabs’ as they invaded Arab East Jerusalem to ask what kind of self-determination the IHRA refers to.

The seventh IHRA illustration of ‘anti-Semitism’ claims that ‘Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination is a ‘racist endeavor.’ The suggestion that Jews are a separate nation from non-Jews among was historically considered a form of anti-Semitism.

In Brighton & Hove Green councillors in October 2018 voted with the Tory and Labour groups to support the IHRA definition. Being on the same side as the Tories over racism speaks volumes.

The Green group put out a weasel worded statement attempting to suggest that the IHRA and support of the Palestinians were not incompatible. If that were so why is it that the Zionist movement supports the IHRA whereas Palestinians oppose it?

The statement quoted the Home Affairs Select Committee that:

·         “It is not anti-Semitic to criticise the Government of Israel, without additional evidence to suggest anti-Semitic intent.

·          “It is not anti-Semitic to hold the Israeli Government to the same standards as other liberal democracies, or to take a particular interest in the Israeli Government’s policies or actions, without additional evidence to suggest anti-Semitic intent.”


 

This entirely misses the point. Israel is not a liberal democracy. Nor is it any particular Israeli government that is the problem but the Israeli State itself. An ethnically based ‘Jewish’ state must be racist. If Israel is a Jewish state then all non-Jews are, by definition, untermenschen. Why else would a plurality of Israeli Jews call for the expulsion of Israeli Arab citizens? [Israel’s Religiously Divided Society, 3/16. The most popular car bumper sticker in Israel is ‘finish them off’.

Has anyone in the GP ever asked themselves why the founder of the alt-Right in America, neo-Nazi Richard Spencer describes himself as a ‘White Zionist’ or why Tommy Robinson calls himself a Zionist or why Germany’s AfD, riddled as it is with holocaust deniers, is the most pro-Zionist party in Germany?

Intellectual poverty and clichés distinguish the GP on Palestine. Political expediency trumps principle. The GP, instead of choosing the Oxford English Dictionary definition of anti-Semitism, ‘hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people’ adopted both the IHRA and the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism. Facing both ways at the same time is their means of resolving political conflicts.

When it came to the dismissal of Prof. David Miller at Bristol University, which an employment tribunal found to be unfair and discriminatory, Caroline Lucas put her name to a letter calling for his dismissal. I wrote to her pointing out that she was signing alongside racists such as Bob Blackman MP, who supports discrimination against Dalits (untouchables) and the fascist Baroness Cox. Lucas was completely unconcerned at the company she was keeping.

The same old 'antisemitism' smears the Zionists used on  Corbyn's Labour Party

When the Zionist Board of Deputies targeted GP candidates, instead of defending them, the leadership abandoned them. None of their comments were anti-Semitic. This was sheer political cowardice. According to the Jewish Chronicle,

Talukdar circulated photographs comparing Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin (sic) Netanyahu with Adolf Hiter. One photo depicted Jewish prisoners being taken on a pickup truck to a Nazi death camp. Talukdar captioned the photos “it’s becoming REALLY hard to spot the difference” and the “past becomes the present”.

What is anti-Semitic about this? There is an exterminationist mentality in Israel today. Adam Keller, a veteran Israeli peace activist, wrote about how

This week Roy Sharon, a "respectable" radio and TV commentator on the main Israeli broadcasting corporation, spoke very explicitly of his desire to see “a million dead bodies in Gaza”.

And the streets of Tel Aviv are flooded with red stickers reading "Exterminate Gaza!". Not "Destroy!", not "Flatten!" – but clearly and explicitly "Exterminate Gaza!". "Le-Ha-Sh-Mid!" - "Exterminate!" Every Jewish Israeli knows from a young age exactly what this word means. ….

Not merely calls to ‘exterminate’ or chants of ‘Death to the Arabs’ [ ‘Death to the Jews used to be the anti-Semitic chant]. Netanyahu invoked Amalek who God commanded should be wiped out, every man, woman and child. Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defence Minister, called Palestinians ‘human animals’ the same phrase that Himmler used about the Jews on October 4 1943 in Posnan.

Professor Ze’ev Sternhell, a child survivor of the Nazi ghetto of Przemsyl wrote for Ha’aretz in January 2018, ‘In Israel, Growing Fascism and a Racism Akin to Early Nazism’. Was Sternhell an anti-Semite or are the GP’s leaders political cowards?

The IHRA says that ‘Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’ is anti-Semitic. The JDA definition does not. It is clear that the GP in practice is only using the IHRA. The GP leadership could have chosen Clause 15 of the JDA which says that:

Political speech does not have to be measured, proportional, tempered, or reasonable to be protected... Criticism that some may see as excessive or contentious, or as reflecting a “double standard,” is not, in and of itself, antisemitic... the line between antisemitic and non-antisemitic speech is different from the line between unreasonable and reasonable speech.

Another candidate Elizabeth Wright, posted an Instagram video in which a woman said:

“What’s left for the Zionists [is] to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Palestinians… I think this will happen soon.” She also posted a statement justifying Palestinian “resistance”.

Is this anti-Semitic? Comparing Israel’s behaviour in Gaza to Dracula? Israel has deliberately executed children in Gaza. It has taken body parts from those they have murdered. It is difficult to think of any allegation against Israel that is anti-Semitic unless it is suggested that Israel behaves the way it does because it is a Jewish state. Gaza has changed from a concentration camp into a death camp.

The third candidate Chris Brody, shared an article that suggested 9/11 and October 7 were “false flag operations executed to open the path toward more slaughter and mayhem”. Note that Elizabeth Wright and Brady merely shared an article or video.  The suggestion that October 7 was carried out by Israel is based on the fact that the Israeli military had advance knowledge of the attack. Whatever the truth may be such a statement is not anti-Semitic.

Maddison Wheeldon said that ordinary Israelis “are akin to the Germans that supported the Nazis”. A perfectly reasonable comparison. Not in the least anti-Semitic but she was deselected.

Joe Belcher claimed that Israel had paid Hamas to carry out the 7 October attack saying it was part of a “big pay-off” for Hamas leaders that enabled Israel ‘to claim rights to “billions of dollars worth of oil and gas” in Gazan waters.’ Batty no doubt but anti-Semitic? Why?

Also arousing the wrath of the Zionists was Sherief Hassan, the candidate for Hemel Hempstead, who liked a post which said “Israel must be eliminated” and another which claimed Jeffrey Epstein ran a blackmail operation for Israel.

Saying Israel must be eliminated as a state is no different from saying Apartheid South Africa must be eliminated. It is Israel which is eliminating Palestinians. That is the only issue.

As for Jeffrey Epstein running a blackmail operation for Israel that is clearly true. Even the Daily Mail ran the story. It is sourced from ex-Mossad official Ari ben-Menashe and can be found on the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea’s website!

The GP's leadership has refused to push back against accusations which come from the same bad faith actors who made similar accusations against Corbyn. This in the middle of genocide in Gaza.

Their statement and that of Carla Denyer, its co-leader was:

“The Green Party takes all accusations of antisemitism extremely seriously. We have robust internal processes for all accusations raised.” 

There is also a statement on the GP website saying that the leadership has been meeting with Lord John Mann ‘to discuss the important issue of antisemitism’. If anti-Semitism in Britain was a problem does anyone think that bigots like Suella Braverman, Sunak, Mann and Starmer would be concerned about it?

John Mann hectors and bullies Ken Livingstone about Nazi-Zionist  collaboration

Mann when he was a Labour MP hectored and bullied Ken Livingstone for having mentioned the pro-Zionist policy of the Nazi state which resulted in the Ha'avara trading agreement which broke the Jewish Boycott of Nazi Germany. That is a historical fact.

After leaving Labour Livingstone applied to join the GP. His application was rejected because the GP accepted that Livingstone, who pioneered anti-racism in local government whilst leader of the Greater London Council, was anti-Semitic or tolerant of it.

Under Starmer Jews in the Labour Party are up to 13 times more likely to be expelled than non-Jews but the GP leadership have swallowed the lie of Labour anti-Semitism.

Mann is a dedicated racist towards anyone bar Jews. He supported Phil Woolas MP when the High Court removed him from Parliament in 2011 after having run an Islamaphobic election campaign designed to make the White folks angryin Oldham East & Saddleworth.

In 2007 he produced a handbook on anti-social behaviour which targeted Gypsies and Roma, giving them as examples of anti-social behaviour. This was precisely the charge that the Nazis made against Gypsies and Roma, that they were asocial. They ended up alongside Jews in the gas chambers. Yet the GP has no problem sitting down with this racist scumbag to talk about ‘anti-Semitism’.

John Mann's opposition to 'antisemitism' doesn't extend to any other form of racism - strange that! 

Mann was interviewed by Nottinghamshire Police on 28.11.16. as part of an investigation into ‘hate crime’ for having produced this racist handbook and given a warning. Yet the GP leadership entertains this anti-Roma racist. Mann never once voted against the Tories racist immigration laws, including the hostile environment Immigration Act 2014. Just 6 Labour MPs voted against it.

Isn't it strange how all those who oppose the fake Zionist definition of 'antisemitism' are racist towards everyone else - but the Greens just don't get it

On 9 June 2024 the GP issued a joint statement with Mann:

“Lord Mann and the leadership team at The Green Party of England and Wales met last week to discuss the important issue of antisemitism. Both parties have committed to continued dialogue and working together to ensure that antisemitism, like all racism, has no place in Green politics and to better educate Green representatives about anti-Jewish racism. The Green Party has taken a series of proactive steps towards these goals but understands that this will take consistent work going forward.”

The GP current manifesto on Israel/Palestine is nowhere near having an anti-Zionist position. Under the heading A Fairer, Greener World there is a small section ‘Israel and Palestine’.

John Mann's Opposition to 'antisemitism' does not extend to Islamaphobia or any other form of racism - strange that - perhaps he's a Zionist?

Even after 8 months of genocide in Gaza the Greens haven’t bothered to take the time to make themselves familiar with the situation of the Palestinians. There isn’t a word about genocide or ethnic cleansing.

released hostage tells how Israel killed captives rather than let them be captured

The section begins by condemning ‘the appalling murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians by Hamas’ seemingly ignorant of the fact that one-third were Israeli soldiers and that many of the remainder were killed by Israeli tanks and Apache helicopters intent on preventing the taking of captives under the Hannibal Directive.

Israeli forces shot their own civilians, kibbutz survivor says (5.52)

Jasmine Porat, one of only 2 captives to escape from a house in Kibbutz Be’eri told Israeli television, it was an Israeli tank that opened fire on the house she was sheltering in killing the civilians.

Zionism's Genocidal Mentality Meant It was Better to Kill Your Own People Than Let Them Be Captured

The GP statement ignores Israel’s ‘mowing the lawn’, as Israel demonstrates who is in control by deliberately massacring civilians every few years. Or as David Weinberg wrote in the Jerusalem Post

Winning the current war against Hamas is not only about denying the terrorist army’s ability to target Israel ... A critical part of Israel’s purpose in this conflict is proving that the Jewish state retains freedom of military action against its enemies...

Just like mowing your front lawn, this is constant, hard work. If you fail to do so, weeds grow wild and snakes begin to slither around in the brush. So too, reducing enemy capabilities and ambitions in Gaza require Israeli military readiness and government willingness to use force intermittently, while maintaining a healthy and resilient Israeli home front....

October 7 was a shock to an Israel because the Palestinian Resistance attacked first for once. Israel had lain siege to Gaza for 17 years. 

The Palestinian Resistance decided for once to initiate an attack. There is an international law right to resists an occupation but that is something that the GP does not quote.  The call to end arms sales to Israel is welcome but would the GP, if it came to power, observe it?

The Green Party's Manifesto on Palestine


Contrary to Israeli Propaganda the Hostages have been treated well says Israel Journalist Alon David

Another indication of the pro-Israeli orientation of the GP is its call to ‘Redouble(d) efforts to secure the release of hostages taken on 7th October 2023.’  Israel has over 8,000 Palestinian prisoner, suffering dire treatment including torture. Over 2,000 are held in Adminstrative Detention, imprisoned without trial. The rest have been convicted by Military Courts which have a 99.74% conviction rate. Yet there is no mention of them.

The call to reinstate funding for UNRWA and support for South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice is welcome. But nowhere does the GP talk about Israeli Apartheid, still less Zionism, the ideology of the Israeli state. As Yair Lapid put it, Zionism means maximum land and minimum Arabs. The GP approach is human rights based but it ignores the conclusion of human rights groups Amnesty, HRW and B’Tselem that Israel is an apartheid state.

Israel's fake evidence that was used to justify bombing and destroying Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital

In its response to a Palestine Solidarity Campaign questionnaire the GP calls for the Palestinian people to recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist within recognised, agreed and secure borders. Would they have called on Black people to do the same in South Africa?

As long as Israel is an ethno-nationalist state it is not going to do any of the things the GP calls for. From its foundation Israel refused to define its borders. On May 12 1948, three days before it declared independence, the People’s Administration voted 5-4 not to define its borders or to accept those of UN resolution 181. Expansion is inherent in the settler-colonial dynamic.  Yet the GP doesn’t recognise this paradigm.

It is welcome that the GP supports BDS but it is not in its manifesto. If the experience of Brighton & Hove Council when it was under Green control is anything to go by, this will be a dead letter.


The experience internationally of Green Parties is not a good one. In Germany Die Grunen is avidly pro-NATO and pro-Zionist.  Pro-Palestinian activists have filed criminal charges against Volker Beck, a former Green member of parliament, for incitement of hate and denial of war crimes. It has gone along with the severe repression of Palestine solidarity demonstrations and even a police attack on a Palestine Congress in Berlin, which included the banning from Germany of Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek Finance Minister.

For as long as the GP refuses to discuss Palestine seriously or develop an analysis of why the situation in Palestine exists and as long as it defers to Zionist cries of ‘anti-Semitism’ then it will be confined to human rights rhetoric.

It is as if, during the Apartheid era in South Africa, the GP condemned human rights abuses but had nothing to say about Apartheid. Zionism is Israel’s Apartheid ideology.

Mark Strong - Brighton Green, Zionist, Strong on smearing opponents as 'antisemitic'

One anecdote. In Brighton I was added to a Green Supporters in Kemptown WhatsApp group without my knowledge. The group was set up for non-GP supporters in the election. I was removed soon after without posting by Mark Strong, a Green Admin who has a history of support for Zionism, genocide in Gaza and involvement with the Labour ‘anti-Semitism’ allegations. Clearly an anti-Zionist  was not to his liking. Strong is not unrepresentative of the Green rank and file.



Interestingly though it seems that the cowards in the GP leadership won't come out and say that what is happening in Gaza is genocide.  They rely on the International Court of Justice's ultra-cautious phrase 'plausible genocide'. 

Strong also didn't welcome Stop the War publicity on a Green WA Group - Apparently it doesn't fit with their policy on Israel Gaza or more likely with Strong's support for 'plausible' genocide in Gaza.

The Green Party prefers to hide behind legal jargon in order to offend the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Zionist lobby.

As soon as Strong saw my name I was removed - I guess I am to Zionists what the silver cross is to Dracula!

Tony Greenstein

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for this article Tony. There is a campaign by some on the left in Canterbury to vote Green and potentially get rid of the sitting Labour MP Labour MP Rosie Duffield. Duffield conspired with others to bring down Corbyn by constantly posting and giving media interviews about the L party's problem with anti-Semitism. Since Corbyn has been expelled from the L Party she seems to have forgotten about anti -Semitism and has shifted her focus to Trans people. I would like to get rid of Duffield but when I found out that the GP was standing down candidates on the basis that they were anti -Semites with no evidence to show I couldn't bring myself to vote for them so I had to spoil my ballot paper. I was feeling a bit guilty about this but now I've read your article I think I am justified. You are right there are some great independents. A Muslim woman is standing for TUSC in Folkestone and I have made contact with her but can't vote for her. It's brave of her to stand and speak up for Palestine in such a politically contested area. All this gives me hope.

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  2. thanks Kate. I think in your situation I would have voted Green just to get Duffield out. I have done the same in Brighton Kemptown but of course it's your decision

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  3. As always, thanks for the great writing Tony. I don't completely agree with voting Green, but can understand why you and others are doing it.
    Have you heard about the things unfolding in Bow & Stratford ?

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    1. What is happening there?

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    2. Two left candidates are standing - Halima Khan and Fiona Lali. I think the former might of been standing first and having them both could risk splitting votes, which could spell victory for Labour.

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  4. I will vote for the lady you refer to, Kate.

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  5. I voted for the Worker's Party in Harrow East, standing against the incumbent Bob Blackman, who is for once nervous about the Labour Party candidate a wishy washy Starmer clone.

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  6. Best deconstruction of GP I've read, confirming my suspicions. I too have Duffield as my m.p who I leafletted for in 2017 when she won by less than 200 votes on the back of Corbyn's popularity, which she never acknowledged. Jon K

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