Why I Support George Galloway as the best placed Left Candidate to Defeat Starmer Labour on July 1st
Today the Labour Campaign for Free Speech Steering Committee
unanimously issued the following statement:
The
statement from a ‘senior Labour source’ during the Batley & Spen
by-election that Labour was “haemorrhaging” Muslims voters, because of “what
Keir has been doing on antisemitism” implies that Muslims are antisemitic –
when in fact many voters oppose Starmer’s Labour, because he is bowing to the
Israeli government and refuses to support the Palestinian struggle. That is not
antisemitism, it is anti-Zionism.
That this statement was issued has not been
denied by Angela Rayner and the suspicion must be that it emanates from
Starmer’s office if not Starmer himself. In the forthcoming Batley & Spen
by-election, we refuse to support the Labour candidate, an incredible
apolitical and nondescript candidate who was chosen by Keir Starmer directly.
There
is no doubt that Starmer and his apparatchiks have been suspending and
expelling people for supporting the Boycott of Israel and anything that is seen
as critical of Israel. Calling Israel a racist state is guaranteed to get you
expelled even though it’s true.
In
the Daily Mail of 19th June, Dan Hodges quoted
a ‘senior Labour source’ as saying that:
'We're haemorrhaging votes among Muslim voters, and the reason for that
is what Keir has been doing on antisemitism. Nobody really wants to talk about
it, but that's the main factor. He challenged Corbyn on it, and there's been a
backlash among certain sections of the community.'
The implication is clear. Muslims are anti-Semites who resent Starmer’s promise to ‘root out anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party. Except of course that Starmer has done no such thing. There is no anti-Semitism to root out. He has been ‘rooting out’ supporters of Palestine and anti-Zionists and he has been doing so at the behest of the Israeli state and its local pawns, the Board of Deputies.
If Starmer was seriously concerned about ‘anti-Semitism’
in the Labour Party he wouldn’t have suspended and expelled dozens of Jewish members
of the Party or in my case welcomed
my expulsion (which was the first time that this apology for a mannequin came
to my attention!). In an interview
with the Times of Israel Starmer gave
away his real motives, namely that he is a ‘Zionist
without qualification’. In other
words a racist without qualification.
The reasons are clear as to why Labour is going to
lose another Red Wall seat. To all intents and purposes, the Labour Right acts like
it is on a suicide mission. They lost working class Scottish voters under Ed
Miliband, they forfeited much of the support of the Northern working class at
the last election and now Starmer is determined to say goodbye to the votes of Britain’s
3.3 million Muslims.
At first glance it might seem as if Starmer is more
concerned with the 300,000 Jews in Britain than a Muslim population over 10
times as big. However that would be a misreading. The Labour Right’s concern is
not with the Jewish vote, not least because for 60 years (with the temporary exception
of 1997 and 2001) the Jewish community has voted heavily for the Tories.
The real reason is that New Labour is wedded to
slavishly following US foreign policy which is to support Israel as imperialism’s
armed watchdog in the Middle East. Batley & Spen is the price they are
going to pay for Starmer’s craven submission to imperialism.
police beat man
In addition, at the very beginning of his
misleadership, Starmer tore
up Labour’s policy to support Kashmiri independence. He preferred to cuddle
up to Hindu racists who, like the Zionists, wish to colonise Kashmir and who
have put it
under martial law for the past two years. Starmer was more interested in supporting
the communalist government of Narendra Modi of the BJP than supporting self-determination
for the Kashmiris.
In
the forthcoming Batley & Spen by-election, we are taking a leaf out of the Jewish
Labour Movement’s book. The JLM refused to support Labour candidates who were
seen to be pro-Jeremy Corbyn. They were supported in that by the Labour Right
so they can’t complain now the boot is on the other foot.
Angela
Rayner did not deny that the statement emanaged from the Labour Party. Indeed
she all but admitted
that the comments were genuine when she said that
“I will be
ensuring that the party investigates this reported comment in line with our
party’s rules and processes. Anybody who has made these comments should and
will be dealt with in line with our independent disciplinary procedures, which
I have no role in as deputy leader.””
However
there is no need for an investigation. Dan Hodges is on good terms with Starmer
and the Labour leadership. A ‘senior
Labour source’ is code for either Keir Starmer himself or his advisers.
Perhaps the hapless Rayner could have a quiet word with Sir Keir?
As the Guardian reported Labour’s candidate Kim Leadbeater,
received
a hostile reception from voters who are unhappy with the party’s stance on
foreign policy issues such as Palestine and Kashmir, amid a perception that the
party takes some forms of racism more seriously than others.
The accusation “you’ve taken our
votes for granted” was repeatedly levelled at Leadbeater and Lisa Nandy,
the shadow foreign secretary and Wigan MP, who joined her on the campaign
trail.
Perhaps the final straw was Starmer pulling out of a
virtual Iftar event on the last night of Ramadan. The Jewish Chronicle had
engaged in its usual Islamaphobic witchhunting. It reported
that the CEO of the Muslim group which had organised the event, Omar Salha,
supported the prisoner support group CAGE. Even worse, he had supported a boycott
of Israeli dates!
In Starmer and the Board of Deputies view, boycotting Israeli
Apartheid is anti-Semitic. Presumably boycotting the produce of South African
Apartheid was also racist? He might be a
QC but Starmer is an intellectual lightweight.
Starmer and the Labour Right simply expected Muslims to take these insults on the chin and still support the Labour Party at the ballot box. They are in for a rude shock.
When a couple of idiots shouted anti-Semitic slogans,
allegedly, in North London, Starmer rushed
to condemn it in a joint statement with Boris Johnson and yet he had
nothing to say about the hundreds of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza,
including 67 children, the pogroms against Palestinians in Israel itself and
the massive
Israeli Police violence in Jerusalem against worshippers. To say nothing of the ethnic cleansing of
Sheikh Jarrar and East Jerusalem.
As a group of prominent Palestinians in the Labour
Party wrote:
“The leader is practically treating the whole
community as outcasts and is refusing to meet or even respond. We cannot
separate this from the alarming shift in Labour’s approach to issues of race,
or the shift in Labour’s position on Palestine.
“The message is loud and clear: I don’t care about you
or your issues.”
Labour has elected not only a liar but an open racist
in Starmer A man who hid
the funders of his leadership election campaign until it was over. Starmer
received hundreds of thousands of pounds from rich businessmen including £50,000
from Trevor Chinn, a prominent Zionist. Labour simply doesn’t deserve to be supported
as and until Starmer and Rayner are removed from the leadership and the posts are
occupied by socialists.
I support George Galloway but not without criticisms.
George has without doubt capitulated to a backward political consciousness
amongst the white working class with his attack on ‘woke’ politics. His opposition
to free movement of labour and his support for Brexit is a capitulation to British
chauvinism. In particular his previous support
for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.
Nonetheless George has been a staunch opponent of the
Iraq War, US imperialism in the Middle East and above all a supporter of the Palestinians.
Weighing all this in the balance I have no doubt that George Galloway, who let
it not be forgot was expelled by Tony Blair, would make a good MP in comparison
with the appalling Leadbetter. I also share his detestation of identity
politics which alienate working class voters.
I have no hesitation in supporting George Galloway and
I hope anyone living in Batley & Spen reading this does likewise.
Tony Greenstein
