It's been a depressing few days.
Trump seems determined to promote the most base form of racism that is bound to create a backlash for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
And in reaction to my sharing parts of John Harris' article in the Guardian on Labour I have received some pretty nasty emails from those claiming to be Corbyn supporters within Labour and who claim to share with him the fight against Zionism made possible because Hitler apparently killed the wrong type of Jews, so permitting the deliberate creation of the terrorist state of Israel. This, of course, is from the fantasy world Ken Livingstone resides in. But it emphatically proves how massive the anti-Semitism problem is in Labour, and how enormous the scale of denial of it is.
I just want to make it clear that I am utterly opposed to all racism, including all sorts that require Hitler to be used in its defence. I will delete all racist comments. And I will no longer engage in emails with racists from any party. So please don't try.
And please don't tell me a fascist because I think Labour has a problem to address. I am not a fascist, and it does have a problem. But the claim says a great deal about the intolerance of those making it. Just as Trump's comments make clear how profound the threat from overt public racism now is around the world.
Please note: comments on this post are now closed. I really cannot be depressed by yet more by them
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I have been a Guardian reader for far longer than I have been a member of the Labour Party. My wife used to joke that I would not believe anything if I had not read it in The Guardian. It was traumatic when I cancelled my subscription, a painful divorce. I kept it in my favourites for a while for a surreptitious fix now and then. It has now reached the stage where I can not, in all faith, believe much that is published by The Guardian and I keep an enormous bucket of salt at hand. It has now gone from my favourites too.
My father once told me the only two things to believe in any paper were the date and the football results, and he may have been right
But your view is one I find hard to understand
I read many papers. All are flawed. All have writers I disagree with. So?
Professor, you may have considered me as some lefty labour Corbynite – i am not a member. I respect your work and spread it daily to as many as I can.
So i don’t understand why my post on that article wasn’t published by you.
As for the editorial policy of the Guardian – what do you make of the censorship of their own esteemed cartoonist Steve Bell? And not for the first time?
His current daily strip ‘If’ has not been published online today.
It speaks directly to the AS/Racism trope. Bell has published the whole weeks on his own site, for these interested.
Would you be kind enough to let my comment stand and give me your opinion on Bells’ censorship?
I do not recall why I deleted your comment – I suspect I felt it breached the moderation policy
And I suspect the Guardian had its own reasons but I sure as heck am not spending my day on the issue – I have no responsibility for them
Richard you who is neither a Jew nor a member of the Labour Party has set yourself up as an expert on -Antisemitism within the Labour Party.
Richard, have you witnessed an instance of AS by a member of the Labour Party? I don’t mean have you read something in the Guardian, or heard on the BBC or such like, I mean have you witnessed?
I can only speak from personal experience of over 60 years; neither my Jewish comrades nor I have ever experienced any antisemitism within the Labour Party nor any other party of the left. I agree. Statistically, there will be some who are anti-Semitic, but like lions in Norway, there will be only a few, and they will not be in their natural habitat.
I would have thought that anybody pontificating on this alleged problem would take the trouble to study the data over time as a series. Over a period is the problem getting worse or getting better? How does it compare with other political parties and the public at large? The narrative from Corbyn’s critics suggests a step-wise increase in AS coinciding with the huge increase in the Labour Party membership following the election of JC as a leader. The inference being that the vast bulk of this new membership is antisemitic. That is a gross insult to the many thousands of working-class people opposing the only show in town namely, the pro-war and pro-austerity programmes of the Tories and New Labour. To be accused of AS for simply opposing the necessity for food banks, the privatisation of our NHS or the stagnation and decline in real wages is grossly unjust.
The drawback with anyone seeking to uncover the evidence objectively is that it is very hard to find.
(With thanks to my comrade Jane-Hollis Clark). This anti-Semitism does not seem to exist, it is an ephemeral entity, everyone knows about it, but no one has seen it happen, it has been roundly condemned and would be heavily punished if only someone could find it. In short, it is a Tory dead cat of Schrodinger. No one can positively prove its existence, positing only that it may, or may not have existed at any given time.
The Tories have found this dead cat very useful in their attempts to discredit Jeremy Corbyn, but now the stink of its carcass has started to blowback in their trenches, and Boris et al.have turned quite green. It also appears to have driven Dame Hodge, and Tom Watson into a state of gibbering insanity.
With respect, this is deeply arrogant
I did not offer myself as an expert. I made a comment. That is very different. And I think I am allowed to comment. I hope you would agree.
And have I witnessed the issue? Yes, as a matter of fact.
And you will be well aware that whilst your experience is good, and I am pleased, not all share it.
But your claim that “To be accused of AS for simply opposing the necessity for food banks, the privatisation of our NHS or the stagnation and decline in real wages is grossly unjust” is, politely, absurd. No one is doing that. This is simply made up.
I am sorry – but whilst I believe your personal claim the sentence you quote lacks all objectivity, and that is a shame. I do believe Labour has a problem, and I am utterly bemused as to why you would wish to deny it.
For the record, I know the right has the same problem, and has witnessed it.
I am not being party political by saying so
And my themes was racism in any event, in all its forms. You ignored that. I do not know why. But it’s depressing that you did.
There appears to be a hierarchy of racism. I don’t recall many Labour MP’s condemning Windrush or The Hostile Environment on Twitter, maybe someone can search profiles.
Also, remember John Mann and his anti traveller leaflets?
Where was the condemnation of the Ralph Milliband hatchet job?
If anyone has any links to anyone condemning the above, feel free to post links.
I have no idea what you are claiming
Angela Saini has written an important book, “Superior – the return of race science”. The ideas behind eugenics and racial superiority have never really gone away. But, as she and others have pointed out the concept of “race” has no foundation in science. Genetic studies have demolished the idea and shown that there is more variation within groups than between them. Unfortunately, “race” is subtly and not so subtly embedded in most of our institutions and probably in the minds and attitudes of all of us to a greater or lesser extent. Unlike Trump, not many of us could honestly claim not to have a racist bone (or stereotypical attitude) in our body.
More worrying is the way some scientists still believe in racial differences and seek to find them, often using flawed research, while other scientists as well as government institutions use stereotypical racial classifications when designing policy or medical or social interventions, despite all the evidence that “race” is nonsense.
Racism, I’m afraid, is alive and well throughout the world and is thriving on the language used by many of our politicians as the world seems destined to lurch ever rightwards.
Richard,
How can “some pretty nasty emails” from people “claiming to be Corbyn supporters” prove that there is a “massive anti-Semitism problem” in the Labour Party? Surely such a conclusion requires less anecdotal, and more systematic evidence.
In fact, there is some serious academic research on the evidence, and a quite different conclusion, at https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/check-evidence/
And there’s more academic research about misleading inaccuracies and distortions in the Guardian and elsewhere: https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/app/uploads/2018/09/Labour-anti-semitism-and-the-news-FULL-REPORT-FINAL.pdf
Of course, it takes time and a bit of effort to study evidence presented by academic researchers, and some people can’t be bothered.
I hope you’ll encourage your readers to study it, if you write about this issue again.
I would suggest that the voice you note is not the only opinion
I have noted it
I suggest a balanced perspective is required and the issue of concern is not just anti-semitism, as my headline made clear
This is crazy. There is no antisemitism problem in the Labour party.
Here’s the data – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47203397
Quoth – 673 complaints of anti-Semitism by Labour Party members were received – a Labour spokesman said this represented about 0.1% of the membership
0.1% of membership!
Blimey! How does that compare to other organisations or the population at large?
I understand that the figure in question is wrong or more than 1,000 cases could not have been considered
And no one – not least me – is saying most in Labour are anti-Semitic
But many seem to want to deny that there is an issue – as you are – when you actually prove there is one by the evidence you supply
And that is an issue