UK Labour suspends Corbyn for stating the obvious about anti-semitism in the Party

Written By: - Date published: 7:36 pm, October 30th, 2020 - 35 comments
Categories: Deep stuff, Dirty Politics, israel, Jeremy Corbyn, Propaganda, racism, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, uk politics, uncategorized, Zionism - Tags:

Following a report into anti-semitism in the UK Labour party, Corbyn said anti-semitism exists in the Party but it is over-stated and the campaign against it is politically-motivated by opponents inside and outside the Party. He was instantly suspended from the party and had the whip removed by leader Sir Keir Starmer, which seems excessive and will cause further discord. Corbyn is not an anti-Semite.

The issue of anti-semitism in Labour in my opinion has been a very successful psyop, running over several years since Corbyn became leader and  most likely originating in the Israeli state. When Corbyn was riding high, his support for Palestinian rights would have  been seen by Israel as a threat. As a long-time human rights activist, Corbyn’s past statements were productive fodder for his opponents, and provided much grist for UK media mills.

The issue came to a head in a debate in Labour Party National Executive committee over the definition of anti-semitism, as to whether it included opposition to the activities of the Israeli state. The committee agreed to the definition advanced by some that such opposition was included. Those who want to get into the weeds of the issues can visit the wiki here.

I think that decision was a mistaken compromise  and has led to the issue being endlessly litigated, resulting in the report from the Equality and Human Right Commission that Corbyn has had the temerity to criticise in some respects, even though the report seems to allow for such criticism.

All this is bad news for Labour, which is probably also an objective of the psyop. John O’Farrell’s Things Can Only Get Better comes to mind – they are already up to ten years in the wilderness. I think Cobyn is right in his assessment – I’ve had personal experience of over-statement by his inside opponents in the UK. People can choose who they wish to blame, but I like the views of David Graeber expressed here. Sadly he’s now no longer with us.

35 comments on “UK Labour suspends Corbyn for stating the obvious about anti-semitism in the Party ”

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  1. Wilfrid Whattam 1
    30 October 2020 at 8:27 pm

    Not just an Israeli psyop but deliberate machinations within the Labour Party to get rid of Corbyn and halt any move to the Left and wider political participation. The establishment felt very threatened.

  2. Pierre 2
    30 October 2020 at 8:29 pm

    The editorial in today's Morning Star is solid:

    Corbyn's suspension is a declaration of war

    Even on legal grounds it's hypocrisy, if it is somehow a violation of norms for LOTO to make political interventions in disciplinary cases (to speed up the prosecution of people like Ken Livingstone, shown in the leaked report earlier this year)… then what is this? This is very clearly a political intervention by Keir Starmer in the party's disciplinary procedures to immediately suspend Corbyn without going through a proper process. If only Corbyn himself had been so dictatorial when dealing with the right-wing wreckers while he was leader!

  3. greywarshark 3
    30 October 2020 at 8:37 pm

    Is it time that some well-positioned Jews who know what is right and what isn't to start a Friends of the Jewish State group and have Corbyn as an Honorary Member or something? Make a stand for him, and for bringing cool heads around the table discussing what can be resurrected from the Palestinian home ground mess. It's a funny old world – Jews have suffered badly at the hands of Christians who blamed them for crucifying Jesus. Now some Christians have decided to join with Jews, and they are all together in some purity for the end of the world. Now the popular victim that the mob is calling out is Corbyn.

  4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4
    30 October 2020 at 8:43 pm

    "30,000 sign petition to reinstate suspended Jeremy Corbyn, backed by JVL"

    https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/30000-sign-petition-to-reinstate-suspended-jeremy-corbyn-launched-by-jvl/

    • Pierre 4.1
      3 November 2020 at 12:36 am

      Corbyn also has a legal fund from earlier in the year, which has been piling up with donations recently. 🙂

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 4.1.1
        3 November 2020 at 7:51 am

        Aye Comrade ! Best Of for UK LABOUR. Of course in NZ we had the neolib "labour" of sir Douglas,Prebble and the other act party originals. Certainly fucked NZ for Generations. Still paying the price….

        Anyway see Boris is heading UK into Lockdown. Take care matey….

  5. Anker 5
    30 October 2020 at 8:55 pm

    What a feeling mess. Completely obvious that this is ruse to get rid of Corbin. Corbin is right the anti semitism complaints blown up

  6. Andrew Miller 6
    30 October 2020 at 9:00 pm

    Whether Corbyn himself is an anti Semite or not is a matter of argument, but what isn’t is that he’s been happy to associate with anti semites, doesn’t really care about the issue and has been happy to view the entire thing through some lazy ‘anti imperialist’ binary whereby Jews end up on the wrong side on wrong side as the only thing that counts is Palestinian oppression.
    Not content with having lead UK to its worst defeat in living memory he and his cabal of far left fantasists seem determined to destroy the party and ensure Tory rule for a generation.
    What really makes me sick is that whilst some of us with genuine experience of UK politics and indeed what Corbyn and his ilk really represent who have friends and family in the UK stuck with a government appalling even by Tory standards people (who seem oblivious to the fact we have a Labour government only because they and the likes of those who elevated Corbyn to the leadership are an utter irrelevance) on the other side of the world get to play some game regurgitating the narrative of ‘betrayal’. Meanwhile British Jews have been chucked under the bus by the left, and Starmer faces an unbelievably difficult task of trying to make Labour electable again.
    The only go thing to come of this, is that the toxic sewer may now finally leave.

    • Stuart Munro 6.1
      30 October 2020 at 9:13 pm

      Laughable. Corbyn restored Labour to undreamt of popularity – but that wasn't enough for the self-serving Blairites – rather the reverse – it made him a threat.

      Boris and the Covid death toll is the price England has paid for this dishonesty. But it has discredited claims of antisemitism, which are poised to displace 'wolf' as the signature form of false alarm.

      • greywarshark 6.1.1
        31 October 2020 at 10:35 am

        Andrew Miller you speak authoritatively. And it sounds as if you are repeating long; held diatribe. Not convincing except that you are not likely to look hard and dispassionately at what has gone on in the UK against Corbyn. Which is not good and makes me sick in my turn as well.

      • Marcus Morris 6.1.2
        31 October 2020 at 11:27 am

        Well said Stuart. Andrew Miller's comment is nonsense. Jeremy Corbyn is a thoroughly decent man who almost lead the party to victory. He was defeated by treachery within his own party and the unrelenting vitriol of the Red Tops (and Murdoch of course). English politics is a shambles. The Conservative Party has always been the party of privilege and how the country is suffering under the "guidance" of a blond mop-head whose true vocation is that of a circus clown and whose catch cry was "Get Brexit Done" with no plan as to how this was to be carried out – a populist of the worst order. Brexit has been a disaster led by fraudsters such as the abominable Farage – now campaigning for Trump – that says it all.

    • Pierre 6.2
      30 October 2020 at 10:36 pm

      Graeber's point is correct. Who was it who stood against the fascists at the battle of Cable Street? It was the working class of the East End alongside the British Communist Party. Corbyn's own mother was there. It's the immortal tradition of Stjepan Filipović and Colonel Fabien. This is the movement you denigrate a toxic sewer.

      A few years ago when the English Defence League were terrorising British cities, where were all the well-meaning liberals then? Who was there in the streets, with those who formed lines to defend the mosques? When the fascists come we know who puts up a fight and who hesitates on the sidelines. What really makes me sick is that for all his faults Corbyn is an honest man with a proud history of standing up to racism, him and his ilk are the best of us.

    • Gabby 6.3
      31 October 2020 at 11:00 am

      One could as easily claim that whether Andrew Miller is an antisemite is a matter of argument. It's just a sly smear isn't it.

    • Bearded Git 6.4
      31 October 2020 at 11:05 am

      Andrew Miller-Corbyn would have been PM in 2017 but for some freaky results in Scotland because the Conservatives had a popular leader there at the time that took about 10 seats away from the SNP. It was an incredible result for Corbyn and Labour.

      He was stuffed up by Brexit and the idiots in the Lib-Dem Party at the next election. But the result was never as bad as portrayed in the media. If the UK had MMP he would have been PM in 2019 with that result.

      Read this if you want to see the true story about the findings of the EHRC report yesterday.

      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/uk-labour-anti-semitism-probe-finds-only-two-unlawful-acts

      You will see Corbyn and Labour were found not-guilty of the central charge:

      "The UK’s official equality watchdog has failed to find the Labour Party guilty of “institutional anti-Semitism,” after a 17-month investigation."

    • sumsuch 6.5
      1 November 2020 at 7:03 am

      Is Israel morally right? Corbyn was right about them? Anti-semite, my shite on a shoe.

  7. Ad 7
    30 October 2020 at 9:10 pm

    Jeremy Corbyn and his core of supporters should leave Labour and form their own party. Labour would have a better chance of winning if they did.

    The failure of Corbyn and his supporters have sustained the Conservatives in power for at least ten years.

    Corbyn has been proven over and over again as their worst political experiment since Kinnock in 1992.

    • SPC 7.1
      30 October 2020 at 9:20 pm

      The classic defence of two parties competing to occupy the same space in turn.

      The illusion of choice, programmed by some architect who cannot be recalled …

      • Ad 7.1.1
        30 October 2020 at 9:44 pm

        Call his new party Old Labour.

        Corbyn can go and find all those up the northeast who still think there's a time before Blair. It's like the perfect analogue for the Conservatives and the rise and death of the Brexit Party.

        The UK moved on real fast.

        • Mike Smith 7.1.1.1
          31 October 2020 at 10:15 am

          I like to think "For the many not the few" is original Labour not old Labour. It found much support in 2017.

          A more generous and confident New Labour party could have let Corbyn have his say and moved on. Their reaction condemns it to yet another round of useless and spiteful infighting, while the originators of the psyop laugh all the way to yet another UK Labour defeat.

          Craig Murray’s view of Starmer is interesting https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/10/time-to-stand-up-and-be-counted/

          • RedLogix 7.1.1.1.1
            31 October 2020 at 12:28 pm

            I've not really been arsed to follow this particular story; it strikes me as one of those affairs where no-one can be relied on to tell straight story.

            But these charges of anti-Semitism just don't pass any kind of sniff test IMO.

    • Siobhan 7.2
      31 October 2020 at 10:09 am

      @Ad, wrong as usual. the UK Labour party (as the NZ Labour party) were both infiltrated and ultimately taken over by free market capitalists aka New Labour aka neo liberals, so it is right and proper for Corbyn to fight for the very soul of the UK Labour party, it is what any person who really believes what they stand for politically would do, I just wish there was the same movement in NZ.

      Thatcher's self confessed greatest achievement was new labour…and you think that this is still the way forward for the Left?

      "In 2002, twelve years after Margaret Thatcher left office, she was asked at a dinner what was her greatest achievement. Thatcher replied: “Tony Blair and New Labour ”

      https://economicsociology.org/2018/03/19/thatcherisms-greatest-achievement/

    • Bearded Git 7.3
      31 October 2020 at 10:56 am

      Ad-this only works if you have MMP or similar.

      • lprent 7.3.1
        31 October 2020 at 1:39 pm

        That is the truth. Forming parties in a FPP environment and making them effective is a damn near impossible business.

        Look at the Liberal Democrats in the UK. The husks of more than two previous parties, one of which was a centrist segment of the Labour party. It is a party that subsists but is stunningly ineffective.

        Splitting Labour into what would be two more regional parties (the SNP pretty much looks like an earlier regional split from Labour to me), would simply make sure that a weak and riven Conservative can continue to dominate UK politics.

        Basically, if the centrist portion of Labour wants that, then I'd suggest that they work on electoral law reform so it becomes possible. Otherwise they'd just going to have to get off their arrogant arses and learn to deal with issues inside the party rather than forever trying to sweep them under the rug.

    • Tiger Mountain 7.4
      31 October 2020 at 1:32 pm

      No experiment Ad, he was “allowed” to stand originally by the Blairites, who never imagined in their worst nightmare that Mr Corbyn would be elected leader and recruit thousands of new working class members.

      Jeremy made the great mistake of being conciliatory as membership climbed. He should have attacked-organised deselections of many MPs and made Party technocrats and crawlers reapply for their own jobs…

      His bette noir was Brexit, simply saying Labour would respect the result AND implement working class policy and nationalisations would have sufficed.

      But whatever, he does not deserve the pile of persecution being served up by the British Ruling class and their collaborators like Starmer.

      • lprent 7.4.1
        31 October 2020 at 1:42 pm

        Jeremy made the great mistake of being conciliatory as membership climbed. He should have attacked-organised deselections of many MPs and made Party technocrats and crawlers reapply for their own jobs…

        My comment at 7.3.1 applies to your statements as well. You'd have had to been a political idiot to do that under FPP. Corbyn doesn't seem to me to be one. So he didn't.

    • sumsuch 7.5
      1 November 2020 at 7:08 am

      Corbyn was the heart, long neglected, of our movement. The neglect of Sanders and Corbyn here speaks much.

  8. SPC 8
    30 October 2020 at 9:25 pm

    The irony is in the state of Israel it would have been Cameron's backing for (our co-sponsored – on behalf of Cameron and Obama) 2016 UN Resolution which began this campaign to change the political landscape there – as they did with the gollum man-child flaming bird head in the White House in place of Obama/Clinton.

  9. Stuart Munro 9
    31 October 2020 at 11:04 am

    There is a strategic elephant in the room for Labour though. Blair's legacy is the loss of confidence of Scotland, and Labour needs those seats to govern – most probably by accommodation with Nicola Sturgeon. Until Labour reaches such an accommodation, a lot of votes will be lost to fratricide.

    • sumsuch 9.1
      1 November 2020 at 7:18 am

      As a NZ Scot, or a Scottish NZer, I'd prefer my homeland to be free above all. England can do what she wants.

      • Stuart Munro 9.1.1
        1 November 2020 at 8:04 am

        Certainly an England that supports a class of cretinous buffoons like Boris is nothing to want to be part of.

        Mind, the same can be said of a neoliberal NZ held together (for the well-paid classes at least) by slave workers and a real estate bubo. No freedom for the rest of us.

        • sumsuch 9.1.1.1
          4 November 2020 at 10:12 pm

          Second para, an acute summary, especially about slave workers in my district of Gisborne. And bubo … !

  10. Byd0nz 10
    31 October 2020 at 1:18 pm

    The Labour Party destroyed itself when Blair and his cronies took out a founding clause that stated that Labour was a working class Party and would put working class politics at its core. JC was probably the last chance to salvage the original values of its creation. The final nail as been hammered in. Labour is now forever doomed. Scotland and the North of England will split away from the UK Capitalist swamp.

    • Pierre 10.1
      3 November 2020 at 12:48 am

      The Labour Party destroyed itself when Blair and his cronies took out a founding clause that stated that Labour was a working class party.

      I remember there was (and maybe still is) a proper group in Labour which campaigned to reinsert Clause 4 into the party constitution. While Corbyn was leader I think it was a real possibility that it could have been brought back, but there's no chance of that now unfortunately.

  11. Darien Fenton 11
    1 November 2020 at 9:44 am

    UK Labour will be in opposition for years to come. We should all know from NZ Labour (and National) that in fighting is the worst turn off for potential voters and activists. The sad thing it isn't the old purists (or the new) or the activists in Momentum who will suffer. I guess we are lucky here in NZ that we haven't had to deal with Antisemitism as an issue in our party.