A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity

War of the drones: n Letters and debate n Labour Left Alliance Ted Crawford looks at fast n Migration: 39 dead changing military technology n SWP pre-conference No 1273 October 31 2019 Towards a Communist Party of the European Union £1/€1.10

JEREMY CORBYN MUST APPEAL TO CLASS LOYALTY

BUT BREXIT ISSUE CANNOT BE AVOIDED weekly 2 October 31 2019 1273 worker LETTERS

Letters may have been to get an extension until January 31 2020. Frank - to name but a few. I’ve also read their conversion to Christianity - or their similarities between Africa today and pre- shortened because of If Labour wins the general election we quite a bit of Lee Child and Jo Nesbo, burning in hell. The fact that Zionism was revolutionary Russia. space. Some names will still be in the EU by September 2020. but I feel no impulse to join either the US originally a Christian ideology surprised What is needed is a Communist Party  may have been changed This is surely the greatest example military or the Norwegian police. me, as did the demonstrable anti- of Africa (because of the advanced nature of guerrilla warfare since Fidel Castro To go back to my political history: it Semitism of its adherents. Nonetheless, it of the economy in South Africa, the South - with only 19 supporters, more than took me a few years to decide that I was was later picked up by a small minority of African Communist Party will play a major Election at last Corbyn has in the Parliamentary Labour no longer a Trotskyist and a few more to Jews and, especially after World War II, role in such a development). The population In the Weekly Worker back in July I argued Party - conducted a brilliant campaign decide that I was not a Leninist, though attracted many Jews of widely disparate of Africa is predicted to double by 2050 and that “The election of Johnson as prime in the Sierra Maestra mountains. No I still believe that they both contributed values. quadruple by the year 2100, making the minister is a time to reflect on the dangers wonder Corbyn hailed Fidel Castro much. I retain my belief that I am a For me, Ilan Pappe got it right when he possibility of a socialist revolution in Africa the working class movement now faces. as a “champion of social justice” (The communist and a Marxist, though Marx described the Edinburgh-Gaza twinning more likely. At the same time, Nigeria will Johnson can win as long as he avoids Independent November 26 2016), whilst would no doubt disown me. After all, I campaign as a “blessed initiative”. have a population of 300 million by 2050, imposing a no-deal Brexit and avoids a Boris Johnson compared Corbyn to “Fidel haven’t accomplished much in the field ‘Blessed’ can be used to refer to something making it the sixth biggest country in the general election before the UK leaves the Castro, Goldilocks and Count Dracula” of revolutionary politics. But then neither welcome, and in these divisive times, world by population. The working class in European Union on October 31. After the (Andrew Gimson, Conservative Home). has anyone else lately - with the possible what could be more welcome than a Nigeria, that of alongside South Africa, will deal is ratified by the Commons, Johnson By pretending to be useless, Corbyn exception of Gerry, of course. proposal that brings people together - one- be the key to the African revolution. will use this patriotic kudos to call and win has lured or even forced the Tories into Gerry points correctly to “inspiring stater, two-stater, Brexiteer and remainer? In Africa, from what I can make out, a general election” (Letters, July 25). two general elections in two years despite working class uprisings” (though there Could the twinning of Edinburgh the international revolutionary left only How could this happen? “We can only having a law which only allows it once may not be enough Trotskyists in Hong with Gaza, though to an extent symbolic, has small groups in South Africa, Nigeria, guess how Johnson will get his revised every five years! He held his nerve and Kong apparently) and I’m sure that he not at least recognise and begin to make Zimbabwe and Egypt - the latter being May deal. The most straightforward is to has now come out fighting for an election. would agree that there are also individual amends for the role played by a son of a bridge between the African revolution draw the economic border with the EU While he is doing that, he has at least a examples of extraordinary courage the former in the plight of the latter? and the revolution in the Middle East. The down the Irish Sea and do the checks in chance, with an army of close to half around the world, by journalists and Potentially, it could mean much more than International Marxist Tendency has a few Liverpool, etc. There is then no need for a million ready to go to war against a activists - mostly not Marxists. mere gesture, however. It would promote members in South Africa and a section an Irish backstop. Of course, Johnson will Tory Brexit and their anti-working class We need “the theory and practice cultural and commercial ties, certainly, but in Nigeria - Workers Alternative. The have to throw the Democratic Unionist austerity policies. of the revolution itself”, as Gerry says it could also provide practical assistance Committee for a Workers’ International Party under the bus. Yet the Tory rank and Who would have a chance against - and aren’t we lucky to have his pure to a people under siege. has sections in Nigeria (Socialist Party file have already said they would happily the combined leadership of Castro, version to guide us. Gerry is also happy to Unbelievably, the initiative has not of Nigeria) and in South Africa (Workers lose Ireland if only they could get Brexit Goldilocks and Dracula? Not many. So explain the resumption of the relationship received backing from those who you and Socialist Party - Wasp). The British and defeat Corbyn.” the last word belongs to the Tory, Andrew between Hannah Arendt and Martin might expect it to. Neither Edinburgh Socialist Workers Party’s International In October The Sunday Times editorial Gimson: “Corbyn, the disregarded Heidegger. Apparently, and I may have Action for Palestine nor the Scottish Socialist Tendency has a small group in came to a similar conclusion: “A prime Corbyn, may turn out to have greater misread him, it was so that they could Palestine Solidarity Campaign have Egypt (Revolutionary Socialists) and a minister who has delivered Brexit affinity with Middle England than opinion cooperate in providing a “rationalism for lent it support - doubtless the shades of small group in Zimbabwe (International would be in a strong position to inflict polls suggest. He could be the underdog capitalism” - very romantic. sectarianism and egotism that often plague Socialist Organisation). a heavy defeat on a hopeless Labour who was underestimated.” Soon we Arendt was and is not an answer to our progressive movements. But the support However, in my opinion, the key to leader, particularly one around whom will find out the next twist in the Brexit prayers, but I believe that she was not a of pro-Palestine Scottish politicians too the African revolution is for Marxists to the vultures in his own party are already revolution. Zionist or a Nazi either. has yet to venture beyond mere rhetoric. carry out systematic work within the South circulating” (October 13). The birds of Steve Freeman Jim Cook At least part of the psychology behind African Communist Party, which has more prey - Swinson, Watson, Blair, Starmer, London Reading these jitters among politicians and activists than 180,000 members. As the Weekly Thornberry and McDonnell - were seen almost certainly lies with the fact that Gaza Worker has pointed out, the SACP needs to in the skies squawking for a second Party line Twinning is currently governed by Hamas. Another break from the African National Congress referendum to finally finish Corbyn off. Gerry Downing has kindly explained It’s not every day you get the opportunity consideration is the fear of being labelled and stand its own candidates in elections to Rachel Sylvester in The Times noted my trajectory from revolutionary politics to ask a direct question of your country’s anti-Semitic, given the current ludicrous all levels of government in South Africa. that “most Labour MPs would prefer to (in the Workers Revolutionary Party?) leader. I was lucky enough to do just claims about the British Labour Party. Whilst I’m not a fan of Martin Jacques have a [‘remain’] referendum first. Some to the exit, from reading Hannah Arendt that at an event in this year’s Edinburgh Fortunately, ordinary people still have (former Eurocommunist editor of the of them hate the idea of campaigning for and books about sects. Apparently what Book Festival. Following an interesting a voice and can still make a difference. now defunct Marxism Today magazine), a hard-left Labour leader to become PM; I should have done was note “the defeat chat between Scotland’s first minister, They can take three minutes of their time Spiked Online and the Academy of others fear that the party’s position on of the miners’ strike, the fall of the Berlin Nicola Sturgeon, and the Booker Prize to add their names to our petition. Ideas, I do agree with them that Africa Europe is so confused that they would Wall and restoration of capitalism in the winning Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, the If you agree, please sign the petition at needs more capitalist development. haemorrhage votes” (October 15). So the USSR and China (1985-92)” (Letters, former opened up the discussion, inviting www.tinyurl.com/gazatwinregister. Note The Chinese bureaucracy is playing last battle in the Commons had Corbyn October 24). However, I felt that I had questions from the audience. My arm shot that it is only open to Edinburgh citizens. a positive role in Africa. In return for securing Labour backing for a general been taken for a ride for 11 years and up and I asked, “Do you think the idea to Joe Spailpeen the supply of raw materials, China is election, not a second referendum. wanted to understand something about twin Edinburgh with Gaza is a blessed Edinburgh helping many countries in Africa with It is perhaps no coincidence that why. initiative?” the development of public services, Corbyn’s victory came in the same week Why didn’t I just leave, as so many Who has the time and energy to worry CP of Africa especially infrastructure in the form of that the People’s Vote campaign split. The others did? Any criticism of the party line, about Palestine? We’ve Brexit, possible I agree with Michael Roberts that the roads and ports. The isolationist policies underlying or unseen tension is between which might come out inadvertently in a extinction and Scotland’s latest fiasco global proletariat is continuing to grow of the Trump administration in the two polar extremes - a democratic discussion ‘unconsciously’, was deemed attempt to qualify for a major football (‘Global and national inequalities’, USA gives China a golden opportunity demand for a ratification referendum and to be a betrayal of the party and hence tournament on our collective plate. October 17). This is clearly shown in to spread its influence across Africa. the liberal demand for ‘remain’ question of the working class - why did I swallow What’s more, even those who support Africa, where the working class - both China’s activity in Africa will lead to the in a ‘second referendum’. The democrats this bullshit? And why do so many to Palestinian rights can’t agree: one state, industrial workers and those in ‘service’ further development of capitalism in that confront the liberals. this day - in sects, political parties and two states …? It seems that this dispute industries - has never been larger in continent and its gravedigger, the African The demand for a second ‘remain’ leader-adoration groups of every political, has no solution agreeable to both sides. human history. Trotsky’s famous theory proletariat. referendum has no majority in parliament national and religious flavour - swallow it Of course, twinning with Gaza is not a of ‘combined and uneven development’ John Smithee and no majority support in the country. too? solution, but a very modest proposal for applies to Africa. To some extent there are Cambridgeshire The liberals are trying to overthrow the In his long letter the previous week the people of Edinburgh, or any city that 2016 referendum without the backing of (October 17) Gerry draws out the lineages thinks itself enlightened, to concretely and the majority of the working class. This is of those who got it right - Spinoza, Paine, positively affect the lives of a people long straight from the anarcho-liberal playbook Babeuf, etc - and those who got it wrong in dire need of our help. Fighting fund of Swinson, Watson, etc. The only - Kierkegaard, Benjamin, Sartre, etc. That Today, what remains of Palestine is purpose of this nonsense on stilts was, like must make it easy to decide who can join either under military occupation or what the Zionist campaign, to undermine or Socialist Fight and who can’t; when you David Cameron characterised as an destroy Corbyn. move on from Aristotle, you must take the “open-air prison”. Two million people Urgent action The tension between the more right line of travel. are crammed into one of the most densely democratic and more liberal sides of I too studied philosophy as an populated regions of the earth. According ith, as I write, one day to WE and AR. And that same AR People’s Vote campaign burst out into the undergraduate, though I’m afraid that I did to the World Bank, it has an economy Wgo before the end of our is still making a second monthly open this week, as confrontation between a lot more drinking than I did studying, in that is 90% dependent on government October fighting fund, we still donation within days of the millionaire businessman Roland Rudd, that portion of my misspent youth before expenditure, UN and other external need £136 to reach our £2,000 first - he also contributes £10 by who wants an ultra-‘remain’ campaign, I joined the WRP. Since leaving them I donations. 95% of the water is not fit to monthly target. standing order. Other standing and James McGrory, Tom Baldwin and have read far more of Marx and Marxist drink and access to electricity is confined In other words, if we are going orders this week were from DG Patrick Heneghan, who want to appeal to thought than I did in it; I won’t list any to just a few hours daily. 70% of Gazans to maintain out excellent record (£60), JT (£50), SS and GT (£15 ‘leave’ voters (which a second referendum books or authors for fear of seeing in a are refugees. of achieving that target in recent each) and JM and RL (£10). slogan cannot!) future edition of the paper Gerry’s much The Balfour declaration was a months, we could do with some All in all, we received £345 It is a long time since prime minister longer list. I’ve read more philosophy 1917 policy of the British government urgent action from our readers, over the last seven days, taking David Cameron told Corbyn he should than I did at university too - and not all declaring support for the establishment of using either PayPal or bank our running total up to £1,874. resign - “For heaven’s sake, man, go!” of it Marxist! I particularly enjoyed Mary a “national home for the Jewish people” transfer. You have until 12 noon But now we need a few more Every day since then the mainstream Midgely, not least her stabs at Richard in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman on Friday November 1 to help us comrades to either click on the national media has attacked Corbyn as the Dawkins, and also Ted Honderich. empire. It effectively promised the get there! PayPal button on our website or worst Labour leader ever (sic), opposed The latter is an avowed non-Marxist, support of the most powerful state on the Pride of place this week goes to make a bank transfer to account even by his own MPs, many of whom say but he does question why human beings globe at that time for a Jewish state on comrade FW, who sent us a £100 number 00744310 (sort code 30- he is not fit to be PM. Yet Corbyn has seen can only do good accidently, as it were - land where 90% of its then population cheque. He was joined by PBS, 99-64) as soon as they read this. off Cameron and May and had a central an attack on the ‘invisible hand’, I believe. were non-Jews. And it was pioneered and who also wrote a cheque for that You can do it! l role in keeping the UK in the EU by the I can recommend his Conservatism and bears the name of one Arthur Balfour - a amount, but £60 of it was for his Robbie Rix absolute deadline of March 29 2019. Punishment: the supposed justifications Lothians man. annual subscription, meaning that Then Labour led the fight to stop no revisited. You don’t have to agree with Balfour was a Tory foreign minister the remaining £40 counts towards deal by building a giant barricade. Despite everything that a writer says, whether under Lloyd-George and then prime our fighting fund. Fill in a standing order form Johnson getting his deal by selling out the Marxist or not. There are quite a few non- minister. Like many of his class, he was Then there were three gifts that (back page), donate via our DUP, he was blocked from his “die in a Marxists who have, I believe, interesting also an evangelical Christian who believed came our way via PayPal - £25 website, or send cheques, ditch”, total, absolute deadline of October things to say: for instance, Noam that a return to Palestine by the Jews would from CT, plus a fiver each from payable to Weekly Worker 31. Thwarted again, Johnson was forced Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Thomas herald the second coming of Christ and BCM Box 928, London WC1N 3XX l 07903 054393 l www.weeklyworker.co.uk l [email protected] weekly worker 1273 October 31 2019 3 MILITARY

London Communist Forum Sunday November 3, 5pm: ‘Palestine and the struggle for liberation’. War of the drones Presented by a recent visitor to Palestine. Calthorpe Arms, 252 Grays Inn Road, London WC1. Technology is fast changing the military-political landscape, Organised by CPGB: www.cpgb.org.uk and Labour Party Marxists: www.labourpartymarxists.org.uk. writes Ted Crawford Radical Anthropology Group recent headline in the Financial Tuesday November 5, 6.30pm: Series of talks on social and biological Times reads: “Saudi Arabia anthropology, Daryll Forde seminar room, Anthropology Building, attack signals growing threat 14 Taviton Street, off Gordon Square, London WC1. This meeting: A ‘Woman’s biggest husband is the moon’. Speaker: Jerome Lewis. of drone warfare in Mideast. Region’s states are struggling to counter cheap Organised by Radical Anthropology Group: and rapidly evolving weapons that http://radicalanthropologygroup.org. can evade detection” (September 18). Unions for Cuba This is a very interesting piece, which Saturday November 2, 10am to 5pm: Conference, NEU, Hamilton shows the faint technical-economic House, Mabledon Place, London WC1. Celebrate 60 years of the Cuban parallels of the present with World revolution and 80 years of the Cuban trade union federation (CTC). War II. Speakers include Len McCluskey (Unite), Kevin Courtney (NEU), Dave Both the long U-boat anti-shipping Ward (CWU) plus many leaders of trade unions in Cuba. Tickets £15 (£10). war and in particular the earliest drone Organised by Cuba Solidarity Campaign: or ‘doodle bugs’ period of four-five www.facebook.com/events/415105932685809. months in 1944 were economically asymmetric, in that the resources Stop climate change needed for the offensive were vastly Saturday November 2, 10.30am to 4.30pm: National meeting and less than for the defence against them. AGM, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1. The doodle bugs were of steel, could Working in trade unions for climate justice, building on climate strikes, be detected by radar and downed by preparing for the 2020 UN climate event in Glasgow. Registration free. existing weapon systems. Present- Organised by Campaign against Climate Change: day drone attacks seem far cheaper, www.facebook.com/events/1292959547531124. as far as contemporary weapons are 500 drones put on display at Travis air force base, California Socialism 2019 concerned, than the doodle bugs, Saturday November 2 and Sunday November 3: Socialist Party are far more accurate and are also and military contracts that the rest president after 2020. school, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, Bloomsbury, London improving rapidly - largely by using of Silicon Valley is too squeamish There is a further point. During WC1. A festival of ideas on how to boot out Boris, end austerity and new software - and do not need large to handle”. The company - founded World War II the Allied powers could change the world. Entrance £40 (£10). resources of forced labour to build in 2017 by Palmer Luckey, who muffle new ‘super weapons’ by the Organised by Socialist Party in England and Wales: massive launching platforms, as did donated to a Donald Trump campaign sheer number of more conventional www.socialism2019.net. VI machines during World War II. group - was working for the secretive munitions, but, while this is still Indeed the FT says that the Yemeni firm, Palantir Technologies, which possible in theory, in practical terms Government, state and big business First of three fortnightly classes, Marx Houthis may be using 3D printing “has been criticised for working for the cost might be so enormous Tuesday November 5, 7pm: Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1. How big machines for many manufactured the US government on projects that that it would probably not be a business exercises political power and how we challenge it. drone parts. … threaten people’s privacy”. Both serious option. Even cheap hard-kill Speaker: Dr Jonathan White. Entrance £5 (£3). In World War II, of course, attacks companies are financially backed missiles might still need a massively Organised by Marx Memorial Library: were successfully countered because by the multi-billionaire, Peter Thiel, expensive detection system and be far www.facebook.com/events/2324482081096621. the massive economic resources of considered by many to be a somewhat more costly than the drones they were the USA were so much greater than sinister figure. Anduril also provides targeting. Of course, if the missiles Standing with Palestine any other combatant - far more indeed software for the Lattice Surveillance were reusable, each destroyed drone Tuesday November 5, 7.30pm: Public meeting, St John’s, 200 than all the Axis states combined. At system, controlling the frontier along would be more cheaply dealt with, Cambridge Heath Road, London E29. Protest against Tower Hamlets one period in 1943-44 the American the Mexican border. but this I doubt, given the profit- blocking The Big Ride in aid of Palestinian children. Speakers include Liberty ships were being launched at a The Israeli method of countering maximising Californian firms. Clare Short and Rob Ferguson (Free Speech on Israel). faster rate than Nazi submarines could such drone attacks in the Gaza strip However, the resources needed to Organised by Tower Hamlets Palestine Solidarity - Jenin Friendship: even theoretically sink merchant - which are much less sophisticated do this today may be less susceptible www.facebook.com/events/438069393732621. vessels. Japanese Kamikaze machines than those used against the Saudis to assessment in simple numerical Undercover policing and trade unions were also cheap, but needed, unlike a - seems simple, but quite effective: terms: eg, the quality of software Saturday November 16, 10.15am to 7.30pm: Conference, University drone, a human pilot, who was often the use of terror. The number of experts among opponents - Iranian of Greenwich, Stephen Lawrence Building, Park Row, London untrained and so less skilled than a Palestinian civilian casualties are universities apparently turn out many SE10. Exposing the political policing of trade unions and progressive present-day chip or two with clever totally disproportionate to those of them. It took at least two years of movements. Registration free. software. The pilots did not, after all, of the Israelis, and the Palestinian intensive effort from a joint US-UK Organised by Police Spies Out Of Lives: improve with experience. wounded often suffer greatly (the investigation to discover that Turla, a www.facebook.com/events/474999329994353. There are various ways of detecting Geneva Convention does not cover Moscow spy unit, had hacked Iran’s drones, but the FT article points out ‘terrorists’, after all). However OilRig, another spy unit, to launch Solidarity with the Kurdish people that you need all of these methods to be brave, bitter and fanatic the Gazans cyber attacks, apparently from Iran, Saturday November 16, 2pm: Public meeting, Quaker House, sure of stopping them. The detection may be, eventually they will want to into at least 35 countries. This seems 74 Mutley Plain, Plymouth PL4. Mayer Wakefield (Stop the War methods are acoustic, infra-red, call it a day long before the Israeli quite a compliment to Iranian abilities Coalition) plus Plymouth Kurdish community speakers. electro-optical, radio-frequency and government gets tired of killing them by the Russians. All this information Organised by Plymouth Stop the War: radar, but “the cost of these methods and their families. There seems to be came from a US source - one Paul www.facebook.com/groups/141963062489638. are inflated by their relative scarcity”. precious little pressure within Israel to Chichester of the US National The labour movement and anti-war strategy In addition the numerous possible temper vengeance and internationally Security Agency, who added that this Meetings to discuss strengthening anti-war positions in the labour targets in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf such pressure depends on the political sort of thing was very difficult to do, movement and agree a programme of actions and activities. States - such as the huge oil refineries, context within and between the but the Russians had managed it. This Saturday November 16, 2pm: South-west regional meeting, The pipelines and special oil loading ports western powers. might all be fake American news, but Robin Hood, 56 St Michael’s Hill, Bristol BS2. - are impossible to conceal and need Here the mass media play down ... Organised by Bristol Stop the War Coalition: huge numbers of very expensive settler methods and exaggerate the From this information it is www.facebook.com/events/699984130489020. weapons on their perimeters to defend atrocities of the resistance, and no apparent that the Iranians might Sunday November 17, 2pm: North-west regional meeting, LEAF, 113- them. For example, the methods of western power does any more than often have been blamed for attacks 115 Portland Street, Manchester M1. Registration free. destroying these little drones may blame both sides equally. Of course, which were in fact Russian and, just Organised by Greater Manchester Stop the War Coalition: involve missiles costing $3-4 million, if such drone-type methods did as important, that Moscow may have www.facebook.com/events/410355703198313. compared to a drone worth maybe succeed in killing a few thousand US understood a great deal of what the $1,000 - and that is before we consider servicemen in one blow, the American ayatollahs were up to. What this may Britain’s role in oppressing Palestinians the cost of detection mentioned response might be terror on a super- augur for the future is very difficult Monday November 18, 6.15pm: Panel discussion, St Brides above. The Pentagon advisor, Bilal Y industrial scale (though hopefully to ascertain, as there appear to be far Foundation, 14 Bride Lane, London EC4. From Balfour to Boris Saab, quoted by the FT thinks that the short of the nuclear option) and would too many unknowns - not merely for Johnson - exposing and reversing Britain’s colonial legacy. Speakers offensive has the advantage. I sense include determined attempts to kill the readers of the Weekly Worker, but for include professor Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and author. Tickets free. that there is no technical solution leaders of whoever was believed to be all the great powers. In the short run Organised by Palestine Community Foundation: available or even in prospect at the responsible. Martyrdom, including there will be huge uncertainty, both www.facebook.com/events/795492947564354. moment - though I must qualify this, that of women and children, might technical and political, which must The working day for clearly attempts are being made to cease to be so attractive, whatever the inhibit vigorous imperialist efforts, Thursday November 21, 6pm: Capital study session, Jack Jones find a technical answer and very great delights of paradise. and for this reason I believe there will House, 2 Churchill Way, Liverpool L3. resources are being mobilised. be an element of restraint from all Organised by Merseyside Socialist Theory Study Group: On this theme, the FT featured Uncertainty sides - assuming they will display a [email protected]. another interesting (and worrying) However, the international context is, degree of rationality. article on October 23, headlined of course, very different today in one In the longer run, the future role, Merseyside Marxist book fair “‘Hard kill’ drones mark new front for important respect: it is now very clear wealth and technological capacity Saturday November 23, 11am to 4pm: Book fair, The Casa, 29 Hope Silicon Valley”. They are described as Trump has no wish to get militarily of China will surely start to shift the Street, Liverpool L1. Find out more about Marxism and Marxist ideas. “hard kill” because they are designed involved in the Middle East and few balance of technology and world Stalls and workshops, admission free. to smash into drones and thus bring North American patriots among the affairs far faster than occurred in the Organised by Merseyside Marxist book fair: them down, but their cost is still voters seem to want to pay the ‘blood last great military-technical revolution merseysidemarxistbookfair.uk. quite unclear - possibly even to the tax’. Any considerable losses for the in the 60-year period from about CPGB wills firms developing them. The company benefit of the Saudis and Israelis 1860 to 1920. At the end of those 60 Remember the CPGB and keep the struggle going. Put our party’s name mentioned is a defence start-up would be exceedingly unpopular with years things would have been quite and address, together with the amount you wish to leave, in your will. called Anduril, which “is willing to the American electorate. That also unrecognisable to the military men of If you need further help, do not hesitate to contact us. pursue controversial government seems true of any possible alternative the mid-19th century l weekly 4 October 31 2019 1273 worker ELECTION Appeal to class loyalty Boris Johnson has finally got his election to ‘get Brexit done’, writes Eddie Ford, but the final result is anyone’s guess n his fourth attempt, Boris Johnson finally got what he O wanted. With Labour backing he secured a general election for December 12 by 438 to 20 votes after the European Union granted a ‘flextension’ until January 31. While Jeremy Corbyn - who declared that the election would represent a “once- in-a-generation chance to transform our country” - is satisfied that this rules out no deal, in reality it just means moving the cliff edge again. Interestingly, given the Fixed-Term Parliament Act, does this mean that every election from now on will have to be in December? Previously, the prime minister had failed in his bid to get an election under FTPA terms - needing two-thirds but only getting 299 of the 434 votes required to pass, with 70 MPs voting against the motion and the remainder abstaining. As that happened before the EU came to its final decision on an extension, Labour and the opposition were still spooked by the thought of a ‘no deal’ crash-out on October 31 - it was not worth the gamble. Maybe Emmanuel Macron would not budge and insist on a very short extension that ruled out an election or even a Class solidarity can trump siding with one or another bourgeois camp veto, however unlikely that might have seemed. The opposition parties When it came to the actual vote or rather punish him by voting instead Labour rival. But his offer has been government is planning to demolish also objected to the fact that the vote on the early election bill, the Lib for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party? contemptuously dismissed by the workers’ rights after Brexit - which was linked to another hurried effort by Dems and SNP abstained because Furthermore, how do the Tories make Tory leadership, a No10 source saying should hardly come as a blinding Boris Johnson to get his Withdrawal their preferred day of December 9 net gains, when their own ministers Farage was “not fit” to be allowed revelation. Agreement Bill through parliament was rejected - apparently those three predict big losses in Scotland, near government. Boris Johnson is We read that the workers’ rights before it was dissolved to make way days would make all the difference. where they hold 13 seats. Questions, still convinced that he can mop up and environmental commitments for the election - having rejected last Almost half of all Labour MPs were questions, questions. Brexit Party votes by pitching ‘the contained in Johnson’s Brexit deal week the government’s proposed absent or voted against the legislation Building some bridges as part of people against parliament’ in the leave “room for interpretation”. The three-day timetable (“programme - a sign of unhappiness about a snap his election campaign, Boris Johnson election - the heroic struggler against leak suggests that the government motion”) for the bill. election. A total of 127 Labour MPs, has restored the party whip to 10 of the arrogant metropolitan elite. thinks it will be able to disregard Still desperate for an election, the including Corbyn, actually voted the 21 rebel MPs who were kicked You could argue that these nervous pledges to maintain a “level playing prime minister agreed to put WAB on for Johnson’s bill. Those rejecting out of the parliamentary party in Tory MPs are worrying too much, field” and find ways to erode ice for the duration of this parliament an election included strongly pro- September after they voted for the if the latest Opinium poll for The employment rights after Britain has and instead replicated - or photocopied ‘remain’ campaigners, such as Benn Act (‘surrender act’). Four have Observer is anything to go by. That left the EU. According to a government - a simple one-page bill proposed Margaret Beckett, Peter Kyle, David already announced that they will has the Tories on 40%, Labour at memo, it can now be argued that it by both the Liberal Democrats and Lammy and Owen Smith - the useless stand down at the election, but the 24%, Lib Dems with 15% and the is “inappropriate for the future UK- the Scottish National Party seeking leadership candidate, who said he others will be free to seek re-election Brexit Party getting a fairly low 10% - EU relationship” that disputes about to amend the FTPA by providing a would be standing down in any case. as Conservatives, subject to the meaning that Labour is standing still, commitments on employment and one-off definite date for the election: Parliament will dissolve by agreement of their local parties. which is not good news, whilst you do other areas, such as the environment, in this case December 9. Under the November 6 for a short campaign of One of those still whipless, former not have to be a genius to work out tax and state aid, should be subject to unamended FTPA, the prime minister five weeks, so long as the House of chancellor Philip Hammond, said he that Boris Johnson’s strategy appears binding arbitration. The FT comments can use his royal prerogative powers Lords passes Johnson’s legislation feared the ‘leave’ “cohort that has to be working. He is encroaching that the British government’s to set the date for the election - over the coming days - which it will. seized control in Downing Street and upon the Brexit Party. Then again, understanding of what constitutes suspicious MPs fearing that he might to some extent in the headquarters some pundits are predicting that there a level playing field will be “very use jiggery-pokery to get election Backlash of the Conservative Party” wanted will be a “record number” of non- different” from the EU’s and that day falling after the new deadline of Speaking in the House of Commons, to use the election to remove MPs Conservative and non-Labour MPs in the pledge is a “much more open January 31, or engage in some other Boris Johnson argued that a “new and like himself from the Commons and the coming parliament, maybe over starting point” for negotiating a trade form of skulduggery. The Lib Dems’ revitalised” parliament was needed in general “change the shape of the a hundred - making the thumping deal in the future. In other words, a and SNP’s sudden enthusiasm for to take Britain out of the EU. “We Conservative Party in parliament” majorities of the past near impossible. plan for a reduction in regulations, an election was an acceptance that a are left with no choice but to go to - ie, move it sharply to the right and Another interesting poll by whereby the UK would try to out- second referendum was never going the country to break free from this become the ‘Vote Leave Party’. Opinium reveals that 57% of adults compete on the basis of generous tax to happen with this government or impasse,” he told MPs - it was time Perhaps with a hint of desperation, it surveyed believed that the Brexit cuts for corporations and the wealthy, parliament - the only way to achieve for the country to “come together seems some Tory MPs are asking the referendum should never have been combined with exploitative working that goal is to get more ‘remain’ MPs to get Brexit done”. However, he Brexit Party not to run candidates in called at all - compared with 29% of conditions, low wages, environmental elected. Of course, Johnson’s WAB is struck a far more cautious note later their seats, according to the Brexit voters who believed it was the right destruction, and so on. a live grenade for both parties, the Lib at a backbench meeting of Tory MPs, Party chair, Richard Tice, who said decision (the rest were ‘don’t knows’). Labour will need to appeal to class Dems in particular. If it were ever to telling them that it would be “a tough he had received a frantic text message This demonstrates why the CPGB loyalty in the general election. We pass and therefore ‘get Brexit done’, election but we will do the best we from one Tory, who had urged Nigel was right to call for an active boycott expect another woolly manifesto that their core appeal to ‘remain’ voters can” - not exactly the Churchillian Farage not to stand a candidate in his of the referendum. If Labour and the commits Labour to running capitalism would be at serious risk - hence they rhetoric you would expect. constituency, as that might let in the trade unions had refused to support in the interests of ‘the many, not the might have calculated that it was Just like many Labour MPs, lots of Lib Dems. an anti-democratic and fraudulent few’. But the left needs to be clear - a ‘now or never’ moment to get a Tories are less than overjoyed by the The Brexit Party has so far vetted operation, we would be in a much that is impossible. We fight for a clear, ‘remain’-fuelled surge at the ballot thought of an election. One worried: 600 candidates for a general election better place politically. As things socialist perspective. box. “It’s like a can of paint. Once it’s open, and there is a presumption it is aiming stand now, independent working class Not that the issue of Brexit can As for Ian Blackford of the SNP, it’s going to splatter everywhere. No- to stand in all 650 seats - it took 29 politics barely exists - trammelled be avoided. Far from it. Oppose all when asked whether he accepted one really knows how it’s going to seats in this year’s European elections into the bourgeois politics of either proposals for a withdrawal. Deny the that a potential outcome of a general turn out”. Another said: “You’d be and also has four Welsh assembly the ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ camps. legitimacy of David Cameron’s June election could be a Tory majority and hard pressed to find a colleague who members. However, Farage is still 2016 referendum. Fight for sweeping thus a no-deal Brexit, he replied that is certain this election is a good idea.” offering the Tories a “non-aggression Rights constitutional changes both in the UK is was “up to the Labour Party and Some fear that knocking on doors pact”- which is a bit odd, when you It is worth mentioning again the 19 and the EU: abolish all monarchies, others in England and Wales to do their just before Christmas will generate consider that he denounced Boris Labour MPs who defied the whip by abolish all second chambers, abolish job in defeating the Conservatives”, a backlash, while others are anxious, Johnson’s EU deal. Anyway, the voting for the second reading of Boris standing armies, abolish the EU whilst “we will do that in Scotland”. understandably enough, about how Brexit Party wants a free shot at Johnson’s WAB, whether because commission and council of ministers. Blackford added that in Scotland “we Boris Johnson’s noticeable failure Labour heartland seats and in return they believe the prime minister’s Establish a popular militia, for have the insurance policy of having a to “die in a ditch” will impact on it has offered not to run where a promises or out of electoral advantage PR elections and a sovereign EU referendum on independence”, which voters. Will they buy his narrative Tory MP is enthusiastically backing purely for themselves. This despite the parliament l the SNP obviously intends to make that parliament is to blame for the its brand of Brexit or where a Tory fact that leaked documents obtained the central election issue. breaking of the October 31 deadline has a reasonable chance at beating a by the Financial Times showed the [email protected] weekly worker 1273 October 31 2019 5 LABOUR LEFT Recoiling from the challenge Carla Roberts of Labour Party Marxists is puzzled by the decision of the Labour Representation Committee he Labour Representation Committee national trade unions can appoint has decided to withdraw from up to three representatives once T the Labour Left Alliance. As they have paid the affiliation fee we understand it, this decision was of £500/annum.” At no point has reached at a meeting of its executive, there been any other proposal, but was far from unanimous. Graham based on numbers of affiliated LLA Bash, for example, tells us he argued supporters in a particular union. This “strongly” against it. claim by the LRC is just nonsense In his article in last week’s Weekly - based presumably on a serious Worker, he stated that “rebuilding misunderstanding. the Labour left is a matter of extreme  Last but not least, we are told urgency”. Quite right. According that the “emphasis” of LAW comrades to the LRC’s statement, however, is “that small left groups should be launching the LLA in July 2019 - encouraged to affiliate to LLA, while three and a half years after Jeremy questioning the affiliation of broader, Corbyn’s election - was “premature” genuine Labour left groups like Red and “a short cut”. We disagree. If Labour and Grassroots Black Left.” anything, this launch has come very, Here the comrades are being very late - hopefully not too late. rather economical with the truth. Thanks to John McDonnell (who We understand that LAW comrades will remain president of the LRC raised the question as to why Marxist despite his effective cooperation with groups active in the Labour Party the witch-hunters), there is now real - for example Socialist Appeal, pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to step Labour Party Marxists or Red Flag down as Labour leader, should the - should be barred from the LLA (as party lose in the December 12 general demanded by the LRC), while groups election.1 Any candidate who wants like Red Labour, which barely exists to replace him will still require 10% even as an online endeavour, should of the votes of all MPs or MEPs. unquestioningly be allocated three This remains a very difficult hurdle representatives on the OG. This was to clear for any leftwinger (not that raised, discussed and then put aside there are that many). Sadly, in the But many in the LRC leadership aren’t within two days. Clearly, this is an hope of appeasing the right, Corbyn issue that can be resolved at the LLA and his allies have refused to back LLA organising group (OG) have been  The comrades write that for them of persuading existing, established conference in February. measures that would help change the somewhat reluctant to get involved it has been “crucial to win trade and active local left organisations - We repeat: it is a shame that the composition of the Parliamentary in actually building the initiative, union support”. But when a couple whether Momentum, Labour Left or LRC has decided to jump ship, Labour Party - they instructed Len despite being one of the two principal of LLA members proposed a strategy whatever - to affiliate.” especially at this crucial time in the McCluskey to use his Unite block vote organisations (along with LAW) that that would, for a start, organise our We really struggle to see how that civil war and the witch-hunt. Many at the 2018 Labour conference to vote set up the LLA back in July. supporters in the unions, they opposed is a bad thing. Where the left in the LRC members have expressed against the mandatory reselection of LRC’s statement contains a good it. No other effort to win unions to the Labour Party is not yet organised disagreement with this decision parliamentary candidates (aka ‘open number of inaccuracies, while giving LLA has been made by the LRC, we and therefore unable to efficiently online and it is good to see that the selection’). the impression that it was somehow understand. and effectively organise in the party, departure has - so far - not harmed There was, of course, the earlier in a minority within the LLA and  They write that the LRC argued clearly the point of a national Labour the LLA. It might actually help it to Grassroots Momentum initiative, therefore could not achieve all the for “the insertion into the LLA left is to support exactly the formation move forward at a quicker pace and which was set up just after the Jon many good things it wanted to. And statement of the clause ‘supports and of such new groups? allow it to set its sights far higher. In Lansman coup of January 10 2017. it mainly blames Labour Against the encourages struggles against austerity  Rather weirdly, they then claim which case the LRC will hopefully But it was underorganised and, Witchhunt. Readers should keep in and all forms of oppression’. While that LAW representatives demanded come back on board soon l crucially, allowed the witch-hunting mind, however, that LAW only has this met no opposition, it has not been that, in order to affiliate, unions Alliance for Workers’ Liberty to three representatives on the LLA OG reflected in the political proposals of would have to have a “minimum of Notes participate - no wonder it came to (which had over 30 members). The those LAW comrades involved in the members” who were “individual, 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=joo4w_BwEJs. nothing. After all, AWL members LRC, on the other hand, had its three LLA project, whose sole emphasis signed-up LLA supporters”. 2. www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/matthew- collings-suspended-by-labour-day-after-being- had helped Lansman to boot national reps, plus three more from seems to be on internal party matters. Labour Against the Witchhunt selected-to-stand-1-6344841. Jackie Walker off the leadership of local LRC groups that had affiliated. We feel that this shuts down the wider has published its draft constitution 3. www.labouragainstthewitchhunt.org/our- Momentum (just before they in turn The three delegates from Red Labour potential and ambition originally for the LLA3 and this is what positions/proposed-draft-constitution-for-the- were booted off). Important lessons are also close to the LRC. Clearly, envisaged.” was proposed on this issue: “All labour-left-alliance. have been learned from this disaster: they could have easily outvoted Well, it is not called ‘Labour the LLA founding statement crucially LAW’s representatives on any issue, Against the Witchhunt’ for nothing, contains the principled positions that had they so wished. and it should therefore not come as it “opposes attempts to conflate anti- It seems to us that, in reality, the a surprise that LAW would propose Zionism with anti-Semitism” and LLA has developed more quickly, initiatives around trigger ballots, LAW statement that it supports “the democratic and more successfully and with a stronger the selection process and the Chris national rights of the Palestinians” - forward ‘momentum’ than the Williamson case. The LRC, on the t is a shame that the executive At the same time, the witch- both demands that the AWL social- comrades had envisaged or could keep other hand, with its focus on “wider Icommittee of the Labour hunt against Corbyn supporters has imperialists would not support. up with. The LRC is a rather slow issues”, did not make any proposals Representation Committee1 has accelerated once more. Automatic The rightwing campaign against and inert organisation, with very few at all - apart from inserting the above decided to withdraw from the suspensions have been reinstated Corbyn and his supporters has been active members (just over 100 made phrase. Labour Left Alliance. and we have seen evidence of raging for over three years, but there it to the last AGM). It argues that the  The comrades criticise the fact Especially now, with a general members having been suspended is still no viable organisation that can LLA should not move beyond the that there has not been “space in the election on December 12, the need on ridiculous charges, which exercise any real pressure from the stage of a network and should, under LLA to raise issues that should be the to build a viable left alternative in include sharing posts by Labour left, as the politically corrupt selection no circumstances, elect any officers. bedrock of Labour left organising - the Labour Party and the labour Against the Witchhunt. process of parliamentary candidates The flaws of such an untransparent for example, whether solidarity with movement seems to us more urgent In our view, the LLA has made is clearly demonstrating. Since last structure of ‘volunteers’ taking workers taking industrial action, and more important than ever. great strides forward since it was week, we have heard about three initiatives (or not) have, however, international campaigns, opposition For example, we are deeply launched in July 2019: more leftwingers who were removed become increasingly obvious in to climate change or defence of public worried about the way Labour’s  Almost 1,600 individual from their local shortlist - just before recent weeks, as the pressure to elect services”. national executive committee supporters from over 450 CLPs the hustings meeting that was voting officers has grown. Now this is where things are getting has taken over the selection of have signed up to the Labour Left on the parliamentary candidate. In The LRC’s inertia has, of course, a bit bizarre. We understand that LRC parliamentary candidates at the Alliance. South West Norfolk, the selected a political basis. The organisation reps did not make a single proposal on beginning of October. Many  More than 20 Labour Left Labour candidate, Matthew Collings, used to act as entirely uncritical any of those issues on the OG. Which candidates favoured (or already groups have affiliated - among the was suspended one day after his cheerleaders of the official Labour seems to us would be the perfect selected) by local Constituency latest are Swansea Labour Left and election.2 The ‘evidence’ presented left. With the left now running the “space” to make them. Or they could Labour Parties were left off Northants Labour Left. is, as can be expected, laughable: it party leadership, the LRC has come have used the three LLA Facebook the long lists. And even where  Preparations for the LLA launch includes support for Chris Williamson under increasing pressure to criticise groups in existence. In reality, LRC leftwingers made it onto the conference on February 1 2020 are and Labour Against the Witchhunt. the many political retreats and the comrades have consistently argued shortlists, we have heard of more well underway. However, decisions reached because ever-expanding witch-hunt in the against the LLA taking any positions than a dozen cases where they were LAW is committed to continue of the party’s “need to exercise due party. But it is clearly struggling on anything. They opposed LAW’s swiftly removed once a rightwinger building and participating in this diligence” cannot be challenged - an with that role: it is used to defending suggestion to discuss LLA’s political or regional officer complained. important initiative and we urge all affront to democracy, clearly. Corbyn, McDonnell and co, rather aims and campaigning priorities at the Often, no reason was given beyond socialists and Corbyn supporters to So, while this is very strange than criticising them. The LRC forthcoming conference, because the the party’s “need to exercise due join the LLA: timing from the LRC (which released looks to us like an organisation at an groups affiliated to the LLA “already diligence”. In other cases, reasons www.labourleft.org l its statement one day after the general important political crossroads and have their own campaigns”. given for the removal include election was called), its decision does it could dwindle into oblivion pretty  They also charge “leading LAW pictures of the candidate with Chris Notes not come as a great surprise to those quickly. That is not something we comrades” of promoting “the Williamson or posts criticising 1. https://labourrep.com/blog/2019/10/30/ involved in the LLA. We understand would celebrate. formation of local LLA groups, rather Israel. There is no right of appeal. the-lrc-and-the-labour-left-alliance that the LRC’s representatives on the What are their arguments? than the - on paper - agreed approach weekly 6 October 31 2019 1273 worker MIGRANTS Another avoidable tragedy Sickening scenes in Essex show the need for a working class response to the migration question, argues Paul Demarty

ittle enough is known about the 39 people found dead in a lorry L in Essex, except that some are Chinese, and some are Vietnamese, and that they were on their way to London to make some sort of life for themselves. With such a sickening tragedy landing on the British doorstep, however, speculation is all but inevitable - as is the process from outrage to self-righteousness, and the demand for ‘those responsible to be brought to justice’. The question of culpability is a thorny one, as we shall see, but the rounding up of the usual suspects is in full flow, with several arrests of Irish men and women having taken place - including the driver, Maurice Robinson, who is on the hook for 39 charges of manslaughter. Bourgeois discussion of these deaths focuses on the problem of ‘trafficking’, which is a rather overloaded term. A series of moral panics over decades have left the traffickers with something of an image problem, even without the periodic discovery of gruesome scenes like Mo Robinson’s truck (it will be remembered that 59 bodies were similarly found at the port of Dover back in 2000, and more recently Terrible consequences of migration laws a truck was abandoned in Austria, with 71 corpses in the container, poverty, so that they can earn a better Kurdistan. It is refugees who suffer of aid and a meaningless nod towards a glut on the market. A version of this rotting in the heat of August). This living in the shadow economy and the most from the sick consequences future European Union membership, idea is floated by John Sentamu, the is because the term has been made send money back home. of hard borders, after all, even though in return for which he would keep archbishop of York, when he reminds slippery. It sometimes refers to those - in theory - countries are obliged to Syrian refugees in Turkey, where they readers of The Guardian that “apple who effectively trade in slaves, with Chauvinism take them in. They are, after all, the live miserably in squalid camps. We growers have been forced to leave a particular prurient emphasis on Opposing refugees to economic most desperate to get out, and more almost want to laugh at the unintended 1,000 tons of fruit unpicked because sexual slavery. Otherwise, it may migrants brings us up against the likely to lack the means to travel even consequence that Turkey now has of a 30% drop in labour. Brussels refer to anybody who makes it their chauvinist rhetoric, whereby this in the relative comfort of a lorry. About Europe by the balls - except that the sprouts, cabbages and cauliflowers are business to assist illegal immigrants is a difference of moral desert - of half of the dead and missing migrants bullets in Erdoğan’s gun are, after all, also at risk because of an anticipated across borders (perhaps more course we are obliged to take in counted by the IOM were travelling people, who should be treated with labour shortage in the period leading precisely called people smugglers). refugees, but not people who are just around the area of the Mediterranean, dignity and not in the reprehensible up to Christmas.”1 Analyses of the numbers involved, greedy for higher wages or going to most especially refugees from Libya way they have been by the EU and What this tells us is hardly surprising: especially when they get into the scrounge off the benefit system … crossing to Italy in vessels of - at best Turkey alike. that substantial parts of British hands of various NGOs, often end up and the corresponding activity of - dubious seaworthiness. agriculture cannot continue profitably using the stats on the latter in a way doubting the authenticity of claims The arrival of these refugees in Our response with the officially prevailing labour that implies there are that many sex for asylum, alleging that many of Europe has caused a series of political To state what should be the case is to market conditions (maximum hours, slaves knocking around. these refugees are ‘really’ economic crises over the last few years, and invite the question of how it might minimum wage) adequately enforced; This is one of many ways in which migrants. We get the picture almost takes place against a background be. What must be said at the outset is and thus that it is dependent on a serious discussion of the illegal of people in far-flung lands lying in of all players placing ever more that, if the human dignity of people shadow economy of the sort that migration question is foreclosed - the long grass eating peaches, but insuperable obstacles in the path of put to flight - whether by political or (perhaps) the 39 victims of Grays were reducing it to a matter of individual deciding whimsically to move to asylum-seekers, to make sure they economic immediate causes - is to be bound for. Working class agitation evil and crime, and puffing it up to Britain, where the peaches are a little are who they say they are. The panic respected, it shall not be by the agency against immigration is fundamentally look as heinous as possible. Evil is sweeter. The scenes in Essex - if about ‘fake’ asylum-seekers is largely of the various states of the world. The senseless not because it never depresses certainly the word for abandoning they show us the remains of would- a fiction of the rightwing press; and latter are competing firms in the global wages, but because illegal immigration dozens of people to a slow, terrifying be economic migrants after all - are the facility with which the tabloids hierarchy, and from the point of view of usually does, by creating a section of death; but it is an evil of the banal a reminder that the economy can swerve from spinning jeremiads about state logic, mass migration is a problem the population untouched by the hard- type - of the driver who does not destroy body and soul as effectively hordes of migrants to lachrymose to be managed in the momentary won concessions of the historic labour distinguish between a container as torture or aerial bombardment, and chest-beating when a pile of their interests of the state. Pompous displays movement. full of vegetables and one full of turn a sealed, refrigerated shipping bodies is uncovered is not a little of official compassion - such as The solution is therefore migrants. What makes this sort of container into the least-worst of the nauseating in itself. It has the effect of Germany’s momentary welcome to solidarity in the most practical sense: evil banal, rather than outrageous available options. ratcheting up bureaucratic resistance Syrian refugees after the image of the relentless combat against both the and aberrant, is that it is all too easily So far as the bringing of Robinson to elementary human solidarity, for dead child, Alan Kurdi, went viral a reactionary fantasies of nativism comprehensible in its wider context. and his colleagues to justice goes, we fear of the angry mob. few years ago - must be understood and the hypocritical charade of The International Organisation for merely note the international character So far as Erdoğan goes, it is worth equally according to the imperatives of ‘cosmopolitanism’, favoured by Migration (IOM), a United Nations of this operation - Irish (northern and recalling how exactly he came to have state competition. the liberal faction of the state - as body, estimates that over 4,000 southern, and expatriates in Britain) this loaded gun pointed at Europe’s The working class, on the other exemplified in the EU elite’s support people a year die or simply disappear characters arranging to pick up this head. A series of political reversals hand, has no country; which is to say, for open borders within and callously on route across borders. We await, special delivery from Belgium, in Germany left chancellor Angela in rather less elevated language, that militarised borders at the edges (and, with some trepidation, the figures for full of people from the far east, via Merkel vulnerable on her right flank competition between various national for that matter, in the diplomatic 2019. however many steps. The signs are over the issue of Syrian refugees. sections is intrinsically a negative silence of virtuous remainers on We do not know exactly why the that whatever criminal organisation This tipped the scales for Europe as sum game. The various states have this question). In their place, let us victims in this particular case were is ultimately behind this has more a whole, and now it was a crisis that huge budgets and armed forces fight for common organisation in on the move. The high proportion than a handful of people on Europe’s had to be dealt with, as opposed to with which to compete; the working the official and unofficial sectors of of men among them suggests that Atlantic fringe involved, and that the when it was only Greece feeling the class has only its ability to act in a the economy, and indeed across the we are not talking about sex slavery, Mr Big types will be insulated from full force. The core European powers united fashion to defend its interests world’s borders themselves. On such in any case. It is possible that they potential arrest by several layers of were increasingly unable to offload effectively. a basis, the working class would have were refugees in the conventional underlings - a buffer zone to stir the the problem of housing thousands of It certainly is the case that sections nothing to fear, and everything to sense: the increasingly authoritarian envy of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. desperate people onto the peripheral of workers set out to defend their gain, from open borders, making the Chinese regime does generate more Speaking of Turkey’s ever more ones under the supposed doctrine that interests from other sections; and this likes of Mo Robinson a distant and than a few of those, and no doubt dictatorial president, it seems politic the first European country entered by is not purely on an illusory basis. There queasy memory l there are ways to get on the wrong to mention that he is at the centre a refugee was responsible for them. is a leftwing and liberal shibboleth side of the heirs of Ho Chi Minh as of the week’s other big migration That would be all very noble if it that states that immigrant labour [email protected] well. It seems more likely, however, story, threatening to unleash millions was Norway that was undergoing an cannot depress wages, which would that the compulsion behind their of Syrian refugees in the general apocalyptic civil war … make labour-power not only a special Notes move was economic: that these direction of Europe, if the latter So they came up with a plan B, commodity, as it is for Marxists, but 1. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/ were migrant workers, sent abroad continent’s collective authorities which basically involved bribing a magical one - being the only one oct/26/grief-is-not-enough-we-must-open-our- by families at risk of falling into protest against his invasion of Syrian Erdoğan with a lump-sum payment that does not drop in price if there is doors-as-well-as-our-hearts. weekly worker 1273 October 31 2019 7 SWP Pretence of democracy Peter Manson reports on the first of three SWP pre-conference internal bulletins

o doubt members of the Socialist International Socialist Tendency, and British state a living debate again”. And, Workers Party were pleased argues that only the SWP, as currently in case you had forgotten, “Socialists Nthat the pre-conference period organised, can lay the basis for the should be on the side of those who want began at the beginning of October - mass party we need. to weaken and dismember that state.” the only time of the year when they The SWP has, of course, faced Talk about ‘What is bad for them must can put their viewpoint before the a series of recent splits. In 2010 the be good for us’. entire membership in one of the three former leadership around John Rees The CC also reiterates that, in the Pre-Conference Bulletins (PCBs). and Lindsey German quit to form event of a second EU referendum, During this three-month period Counterfire, and then a major scandal “it is possible that we could call for only, they are also permitted to form erupted in 2013, when former national an active campaign of abstention”. temporary factions - but, of course, secretary Martin Smith was accused That is because “any new vote will be these must be disbanded immediately of sexually assaulting a female slanted, anti-democratic and designed after the annual conference has taken SWP worker and the CC had clearly to rescue big business interests”. place (this time being held over the attempted to cover the whole thing Presumably the 2016 referendum was weekend of January 3-5). up. Having mentioned this scandal ‘unslanted’ and ‘democratic’ then. Even during the pre-conference in passing, without going into any What about the Labour Party? It period, debate is not exactly free details, the CC refers to “three small goes without saying that the CC does and open. The central committee splits even before 2013, each centred not recommend any tactics aimed at warns in its ‘Guide to SWP national on groups of comrades seeking to winning the internal left-right battle - conference’ in October’s PCB: “All substitute various social movements apart from ‘on the streets’, of course: pre-conference discussion should (electoral formations, anti-austerity “If there is a Corbyn government we take place through the PCBs, the movements, etc) for the patient work will need action outside parliament aggregates and the party’s democratic of building Leninist organisation”. Treated as mere pawns by a self-perpetuating leadership and independent of Labour to beat structures, and not by any other The particular ‘electoral back the bosses’ pressure, hold means” (my emphasis). So you cannot formation’ was, of course, George about the relationship between alongside XR is the SWP’s priority, Labour to its promises and to confront circulate your views by email or state Galloway’s Respect, which the SWP the leadership and rank and file. that does not mean it has relegated the its retreats so that we can go further.” them at a public meeting - not if they under Rees and German effectively Sometimes the leadership, it declares, work of Stand Up To Racism (SUTR). differ from those of the leadership ran - apparently with the support of In fact it has thought of a way to Members anyway. Presumably you cannot talk the rest of the leadership at the time. must respond to real pressures link these two spheres of work: by The remaining CC contribution about them in private conversations I am not aware of any retrospective emerging from members, campaigning for “climate refugees”! is headed ‘LGBT+ education in either. criticism by the subsequent leadership as they seek to implement And it goes without saying that for schools’ and deals with the protests And the CC also warns: “Motions of the overall SWP policy during the party’s perspective, re- the SWP ‘racism’ can now largely be in Birmingham organised by mainly to conference cannot be discussed the Respect period. Is the CC now orientating accordingly. At defined as opposition to migrants. In Muslim parents against the inclusion outside the pre-conference period.” implying that the SWP departed from other times it must resist such ‘State racism, racist populism and the of same-sex relationships in the local So, officially you have to wait until Leninism at that time? pressures to avoid simply far right’, the CC declares that racism education authority’s curriculum. the beginning of October before you What does the CC understand adapting to movements. This is “remains at the heart of the ruling This appears to be a response to can engage in any way with comrades by ‘Leninism’ anyway? It states: a question of judgement - the class’s strategy to ‘divide and rule’”. “Bridget (Birmingham)”, one of who may share your views, if they “Leninism begins from the central ‘art’, rather than the science, of In fact there has been a “further the five non-CC contributors to the diverge from those of the leadership. concept of Marxism: the emancipation Leninism. intensification of state racism” in the PCB (only forenames are given to You can also stand for the national of the working class is the act of form of the “scapegoating of migrants protect comrades’ security). I say it committee - a subsidiary body to the the working class itself.” It also This vagueness stands in contrast and refugees”. is a response, even though the CC’s CC, which “normally meets every two “binds together lessons derived from to what Lenin wrote on democratic Surely what we are talking about statement appears before hers, since months between annual conferences” the history of proletarian struggle, centralism: here is nationalism and national it deals with her concerns about (constitution). Mind you, “Each concentrated in theory, with the chauvinism. Is the ruling class opposing both the homophobia of candidate should submit up to 50 vitalising element of struggle in the ... only on the basis of this attempting to use racism internally the protestors and Islamophobia words explaining why they should here and now”. principle can all disputes and to “divide and rule” black and in general. Interestingly, in her be on the NC. Please do not submit It goes on: all misunderstandings be settled white workers? As if to illustrate contribution, headed ‘LGBT+ more than 50 words.” That should be honourably for the party ... The the contradiction, the CC gives the education’, she states rather enough, don’t you think? We still believe that a mass principle of democratic centralism following as an example: “Home mysteriously: “The problem started, Meanwhile, the self-perpetuating revolutionary party is an indispensable and autonomy for local party secretary Priti Patel told the Tory I think, in that we never talked about CC is in complete charge. I say ‘self- prerequisite for a successful socialist organisations implies universal Party conference that she would end this properly in the branch, because perpetuating’, because no-one can revolution. The SWP is not that mass and full freedom to criticise, so freedom of movement ‘for good’.” we were told not to.” stand for election to it as an individual, party, but without attempting to build long as this does not disturb the Presumably people like Patel and Another of the rank-and-file but only as part of a complete slate some sort of Leninist organisation it unity of a definite action; it rules chancellor Sajid Javid are appointed contributions also deals with this - and for the entire committee. So the is not clear how the seeds of such a out all criticism which disrupts to somehow accentuate the divisions is also in line with the CC’s position. existing CC will recommend its own party can be sown. or makes difficult the unity of an between black and white. After all, But it is in the name of five comrades re-election (with perhaps one or two action decided on by the party.1 Patel as home secretary is ultimately from places including London, proposed changes) and conference It claims that there are “two important responsible for the police and its “use Birmingham and Leeds. It makes you delegates must decide whether to elements to Leninism: the relationship And that, of course, stands also in of racist ‘stop and search’ laws”. wonder how they got together to draw vote for the CC slate, take it or leave of party to the class and the centrality contrast to the SWP’s practice - that The leadership claims that SUTR’s up the statement without breaking it. Members can, of course, propose of politics within the workers’ of top-down bureaucratic centralism. recent conference on October 19 SWP rules, as they do not appear to an alternative slate - but all those movement”. And that is it. was “a crucial event to map out an be a recognised ‘faction’. nominated must agree to be part of it. However, in my view Leninism Climate and racism anti-racist strategy in the upcoming Two of the other three contributions Which means that in effect you cannot relates either to the theory and As for the other CC statements, they election and the run-up to the from members are also in line with nominate any existing CC members if practice of the Bolsheviks prior are very much par for the course. international UN anti-racism day leadership thinking, the exception you oppose others. to the civil war in Russia, or the What we need is mass action on the protests on Saturday March 21.” being that of “Richard (Coventry)” So are the members champing at theory and practice of the civil-war streets - which is why the leadership Obviously, while the strategy of the and his ‘The continuing gaps in our the bit, just waiting for the moment period, as encoded in the theses welcomes unreservedly the protests major capitalist states remains that of perspectives’. “Richard” has been when they can put their alternative and resolutions in the second and organised by Extinction Rebellion: racist “divide and rule”, that does not making basically the same point for views to fellow comrades (the PCBs third congresses of the Communist “Now it might be said that another apply to their collective voice in the the last couple of years - he contrasts are “for members only and should International. Because of civil war the great power has arisen: the people who shape of the United Nations. the CC’s insistence that “capitalism is not be shared outside the party”)? Bolsheviks were forced to militarise are not prepared to watch the planet Now, according to the CC, for in terminal decline” with the continued Not exactly. PCB No1 carries just themselves. They also believed, not burn and become uninhabitable for the moment the far right has been rise in global GDP and expansion of five submissions from individuals or without foundation, that the world hundreds of millions of people.” The defeated: “thanks to the successful certain manufacturing sectors. He groups of members, taking up less stood on the cusp of revolution, September 20 climate strikes were campaigning of anti-racist and anti- thinks the leadership has been too than eight of its 32 pages. But it also and that, consequently, the newly “an amazing global day of action and fascists, they remain on the margins”. influenced by Michael Roberts (who, includes five contributions from the formed communist parties should revolt” - “a timely reminder that feet And, of course, “Stand Up To Racism Richard states, believes that “China CC, taking up 14 pages (the other organise along similar lines. This on the streets can change the political was the driving force to change the is socialist”). He does not seem to 10 pages are taken up by questions was a mistake, and one, regrettably, atmosphere”. balance of forces on the streets” - not grasp that there is no contradiction of organisation, including the SWP never corrected. Of course, Stalin But what about the politics of to mention in ensuring that Tommy between asserting that we are in a constitution). The leadership’s five built a terrible police regime in the XR and those it mobilises? Do they Robinson got a dismal vote in the long recession and at the same time lengthy statements concern the Communist Party of Russia. But really make up a “great power”? May European Union elections. So, recognising that individual sectors of current overall situation and SWP his left opponents, including what Yes, XR acts as a form of pressure whereas “This time last year it was capital are still expanding. perspectives; climate protests; racism; became the SWP, operate in a spirit on capital and the state, but to do Stand Up To Racism’s main task to But, when it comes to PCB No1, LGBT+ education; and - perhaps most that is a million miles away from the what? The CC criticises those on the mobilise against the far right on the he is the only one to oppose the interestingly - Leninism. pre-civil war Bolsheviks. What they left who worry too much about XR’s streets, now the rise of racist populism leadership in any way. Let us hope operate has precious little to do with aims and tactics: “This is the wrong [eg, opposition to immigration] is there will be an improvement in the Democracy democratic centralism. starting point. Instead, we should becoming increasingly central.” next two bulletins l Let us start with this statement, True, the phrase ‘democratic begin with Extinction Rebellion’s In its general assessment of the which is entitled ‘Is there a future centralism’ is not mentioned by the capacity to bring London to a current situation, titled ‘Fundamental [email protected] for Leninism?’ It tries to deal with SWP’s CC here, despite the fact that standstill by mobilising thousands of crises and new strands of resistance’, the various splits that have affected the statement carries a subsection activists” (from ‘Is there a future for the CC talks about “the crisis in official Notes the international revolutionary left, headed ‘Democracy and centralism’. Leninism?’). politics” as a result of the Brexit debacle. 1. ‘Freedom to criticise and unity of action’: www. including the SWP itself and its Instead, it talks in vague terms While, for the moment, organising This has “made the break-up of the marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/may/20c.htm. weekly 8 October 31 2019 1273 worker REVIEW Book they want to ban Greg Philo, Mike Berry, Justin Schlosberg, Anthony Lerman, David Miller Bad news for Labour: anti- Semitism, the party and public belief Pluto Press, 2019, pp288, £14.99 t says all you need to know about Party when Corbyn was elected leader? suggests a political innocence in a examples the presence of travellers. In or its agencies might be involved in the the Zionist lobby’s hatred for free  How did the allegations of anti- debate where guilt must be assumed. the section on travellers Mann states: anti-Semitism issue in Labour. Such a Ispeech, that the Brighton book Semitism link in with the allegations It also demonstrates the pitfalls of a “The police have powers to remove any question is not in itself anti-Semitic” launch for Bad news for Labour - that Corbyn was a ‘terrorist’ supporter? purely academic approach to what is gypsies or travellers, and have powers (p75), but they leave the matter there. which focuses on the McCarthyite  Is it true, as Jonathan Arkush and a political problem. Statistics alone to direct people to leave the land and The question running through this attack on freedom of speech in the others allege, that socialists, anti- will not prove that the anti-Semitism remove any vehicles or property they book is ‘What is anti-Semitism?’ For Labour Party - was itself subject to imperialists and anti-Zionists see ‘crisis’ is less serious than it is made have with them.”6 Jonathan Arkush of the Board of Deputies such a torrent of Zionist abuse that Jews as inherently rich, powerful and out to be. the answer is clear: “delegitimising Waterstones cancelled it - although conspiratorial? The authors commissioned an Labour and Israel Israel” (p32). Because Israel is a CEO James Daunt later admitted that opinion poll which showed that The problem with Bad news for ‘Jewish’ state, any attempt to deny the this was a “mistake”. Corbyn’s politics people believed that ‘anti-Semitism’ Labour is that no attempt is made at right of Israel to exist is automatically So afraid are the Zionists that their During the leadership contest Corbyn had affected 34% of all Labour comparative analysis of how Labour anti-Semitic, since it denies the Jewish scurrilous campaign of defamation had been interviewed by Krishnan Party members. However, it is deals with other forms of racism. people the right to self-determination could be exposed for what it is that a Guru Murthy on Channel 4 as to why easy to demonstrate that the ‘anti- Without such a comparison we cannot (pp40-43). The problem which Philo and book by five distinguished academics, he described Hamas and Hezbollah Semitism crisis’ was overblown, see whether or not anti-Semitism is Berry do not mention is that Jews are which looks at the evidence for their as his “friends”. Corbyn handled it disproportionate, etc, whilst still being exceptionalised and if so why. not a nation - they are members of every allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’, was disastrously. His only explanation accepting that there was a problem. What we can see is that, when nation. It is the anti-Semites who assert itself portrayed as “Jew-baiting”, was that he was simply being polite. Maybe it is not 34%, but there can still it comes to most forms of racism, that Jews form a separate nation. And “offensive to the Jewish community” Ten years ago, however, he said that be one. Tom Watson and John Mann have no even if they were a nation, the authors and even “anti-Semitic”. Presumably to label either organisation as terrorist This is a fundamentally mistaken hesitation in joining in with the racists. do not question why opposition to self- British Jews are such delicate flowers “is really a big, big historical mistake” approach to take. I would argue that Philo and Berry mention the case determination is racist in itself. that statistical evidence in a dry (p59). Corbyn now admits that he there is no evidence of Labour anti- of a Welsh councillor who said that Philo and Berry alight on the academic book will cause them to made a mistake. Semitism, apart from a handful of Hitler had the right idea when it came to destructive and nefarious role played by relive the holocaust! However, there was another way he eccentric individuals, nor has there travellers and asked, “Anyone got any Jon Lansman. Why he decided to act as Instead of standing up for the basic could have handled it. Corbyn could ever been. If we want to talk about gas canisters?” (p69). I am not aware an outrider for the JLM, confirming at right of freedom of speech on Palestine, have challenged the ‘terrorist’ term. racism, then what we need to do is talk that this individual has been expelled, every turn their venomous and destructive Israel and Zionism, Jeremy Corbyn He could have asked himself why about actions, not thought; deeds, not yet the authors do not ask why. allegations, will best be left to others. and Jennie Formby have succumbed Hamas and Hezbollah were terrorists, prejudice. Given that gypsies were exterminated However, I have no doubt that Lansman to their opponents’ vitriol. Today in and why a suicide attack was worse Tom Watson has said that he will in the holocaust in the same proportions was aware from the very start that the the Labour Party anyone who doubts than dropping a massive bomb on a not rest until every last anti-Semite is as Jews, what is it about Jews that does real goal of the JLM was the removal of the veracity of the ‘anti-Semitism’ house, killing 20 civilians, in order kicked out of the party. Leave aside not apply to gypsies? Could it be Israel? Corbyn and that it was with this in mind moral panic is now being accused of to assassinate a Hamas operative? the problem of how you define an anti- What was needed was not PR that he said that anti-Semitism was “more anti-Semitism themselves. As was the He could have explained that before Semite, what we should do is ask what strategies, educational counter-offensives widespread” than originally thought (p61). case at Salem, the denial of being a the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in are Watson’s bona fides. Is he being or other technocratic solutions, but a Lansman is again quoted, saying, the witch constitutes irreversible proof of 1982, when over 20,000 people were genuine and sincere? Is it the case that political counter-offensive. But in order following year: “we have a much larger witchhood. killed, there had been no Hezbollah. Tom Watson really does not sleep well, to mount a political counter-attack one number of people with hard-core anti- This book should be read in Hezbollah was a creation of Israel, as thinking about the plight of Jews in the needs to understand where the ‘anti- Semitic opinions ...” Again no evidence conjunction with The anti-Semitism was Hamas. Israel’s Shin Bet security Labour Party? Semitism’ offensive is coming from was offered, but, as Philo/Berry conclude, wars (Spokesman Books, 2018), agency sponsored it as a bulwark In 2010 Labour MP Phil Woolas in the first place, and that is the prime “because it is from such an unexpected including my chapter, ‘The story so far against secular Palestinian nationalism. was removed by the high court from failing of this book. source, it carries greater legitimacy” ...’. Bad news for Labour has six parts, Corbyn could have compared his position as MP for Oldham and When I was suspended from the (p62). However, I would question how but as a whole it is less than the sum Hamas and Hezbollah to the French Saddleworth. He had run a campaign Labour Party in 2016 subsequent to the unexpected the source was. He seems to of its parts. It suffers from being a dry resistance and asked why one was of lies against his Liberal Democrat false allegations circling around Oxford have behaved pretty consistently, as with academic tome, rather than treating the terrorist and the other freedom fighters. opponent in the election, alleging he University Labour Club, it was clear to Jackie Walker’s removal as Momentum evidence it reveals in the context of the He could have pointed to US support supported violent jihadists. During me that the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign vice-chair! politics of Labour and Corbynism. for the Contras and other terrorist the course of the proceedings an email was not spontaneous, but organised When Margaret Hodge called Jeremy The book’s major failing is that it groups such as the Central American from Woolas’s election agent surfaced, by state actors. As Asa Winstanley Corbyn a “fucking anti-Semite”, no fails to locate the source of the anti- death squads. It was Corbyn’s political which stated that the campaign strategy revealed, the key actor in the Oxford disciplinary action was taken. Why? Semitism smear campaign. Greg Philo weakness that prevented him asking must be to “make the white folk allegations had been an intern for the Because “the leadership had decided and Mike Berry in ‘What could have these questions. He too operates angry”. What was Watson’s reaction? pro-Israel PR grouping, the Britain to avoid a split in the party at virtually been done and why it wasn’t’ and within the ambit of western imperialist He wrote an article in which he Israel Communications and Research any cost”. The problem was that “it ‘Will it end?’ observe that “the claims assumptions. confessed: “I’ve lost sleep thinking Centre (Bicom). became impossible to have a coherent about anti-Semitism had begun after The authors did not even mention about poor old Phil Woolas and his Al Jazeera’s The lobby confirmed or united message”. This points to the the election of Corbyn in September this accusation, which is repeatedly leaflets.”3 What was the reaction of the involvement of the Israeli embassy, key weakness of Corbyn’s strategy. 2015” (p45). This is incorrect. The used against Corbyn. It more than John Mann and other New Labour but I had no doubt that US and British Appeasing the right at any price rendered claims began as soon as the media anything has undermined him with MPs? When the high court removed intelligence were up to their ears in what you incoherent and inarticulate, forever realised that Corbyn was going to win the electorate (far more so than ‘anti- Woolas, Harriet Harman immediately was happening, This has subsequently fire-fighting. the Labour leadership campaign. Semitism’). On Ireland he and John suspended him and removed the whip. been confirmed by the remarks of Mike Philo/Berry focus on the fact that People may recall the panic that set McDonnell could have explained his John Pienaar revealed that Pompeo and the revelations about the Jennie Formby had admitted that just it off. MPs like John Mann and Barry support for Sinn Féin and pointed to charity-run Integrity Initiative and its 12 people had been expelled for anti- Sheerman urged Harriet Harman, the a war against the 40% of the north of ... a mutiny took place during last state funding. See also Asa Winstanley’s Semitism and they assume that these 12 interim leader, to call off the leadership Ireland that never accepted partition. night’s weekly meeting of the PLP article for Electronic Intifada about how were guilty. However, there is a danger election altogether. General secretary Instead McDonnell apologised ... The decision to suspend and the Jewish Labour Movement was in assuming guilt when pointing to the Iain McNicol was meanwhile purging profusely for ever having described the disown expelled MP Phil Woolas, refounded in 2015 for the purpose of minute fraction of those disciplined. All the £3 registered voters of anyone that IRA as brave! found guilty of lying by a special taking out Corbyn.7 the evidence is that those suspended, appeared to be a Corbyn supporter, It is little wonder therefore that election court, has provoked what When I spoke in June 2016 in like Jo Bird, the Jewish councillor in the including myself. Philo and Berry resort to superficial Labour MPs and former ministers Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, I Wirral, were actually innocent. On August 7 2015, a month before remedies such as “a coherent public are describing as a “mutiny” explained this succinctly. If I was the I was suspended as part of the fake the result was declared, the Daily Mail relations strategy” or “self-study and against the Labour leadership at CIA director, the idea that an opponent anti-Semitism witch-hunt. That is what ran an ‘exclusive’ entitled ‘Jeremy group discussion training” (pp46- Westminster. of Nato and US wars in the Middle Sam Matthews leaked to The Daily Corbyn’s “long-standing links” with 47). They suggest the leadership did East and a supporter of the Palestinians Telegraph and The Times. But when it notorious holocaust denier and his not have a “strong public relations Jim Pickard reported: should be leader of the second major came to the charges, the allegations of “anti-Semitic” organisation revealed’1 infrastructure” (p60). party in Britain, America’s closest ‘anti-Semitism’ disappeared (apart from - a completely bogus story alleging Elsewhere they advocate that the there was “real anger” at the event, ally in Europe, would have caused my use of the term ‘Zio’). that Corbyn had close links with Labour Party must “acknowledge what with a lot of “shouting” from enraged nightmares. US intelligence agencies The book shows how it is only holocaust denier Paul Eisen. This was has happened is wrong and completely MPs. According to PoliticsHome, have spent hundreds of millions of racist abuse directed at Jewish Zionist followed five days later by the Jewish unacceptable for your organisation”. nine members spoke out ... They dollars destabilising regimes they do members of parliament, such as Luciana Chronicle’s ‘The key questions Jeremy But this is precisely what has happened. included George Howarth, Steve not like in Latin America and Asia. Berger and Ruth Smeeth, that merits Corbyn must answer’.2 By the time he Corbyn has repeatedly apologised McCabe and Dave Watts, I’m told. They have helped fund and support anti- attention in the press, whereas Diane had been elected on September 5, the and, far from helping matters, it has Among those to have spoken out in communist groups in Europe, where the Abbot’s experiences of far greater ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign was well been used as ‘proof’ of Labour’s anti- support of Woolas was John Mann, communists seemed influential: eg, in abuse merits no attention. Likewise the underway. Semitism and Corbyn’s responsibility a close friend of his.4 Italy. On what basis would the US adopt studied bigotry of Tory Party members, It is fine to suggest, in hindsight, for it. The authors’ remedy is worse a ‘hands off’ policy towards Britain? 43% of whom would prefer that Britain possible strategies to combat than the disease. This also assumes that At the Hodge Hill by-election in Would those who brought Pinochet did not have a Muslim prime minister, Corbyn’s disastrous handling of the the allegations of anti-Semitism were Birmingham Tom Watson was Labour’s and the Argentinean generals to power, goes unremarked (pp69-70). What the anti-Semitism claims, but first it is made in good faith. That Tom Watson, campaign organiser and issued a leaflet who helped Suharto murder one million authors do not ask is why. necessary to actually diagnose where Luciana Berger and John Mann with the slogan: “Labour is on your Indonesians, have qualms of conscience they originated. Never, not once, do seriously believed that the Labour side. The Lib Dems are on the side of about interfering in Britain? None of the Subjective nature any of the authors ask the following Party had been overrun by anti-Jewish failed asylum-seekers.”5 authors even raise this question and that Justin Schlosberg frames the anti- questions: racism. John Mann was the publisher of is a fatal weakness of this book. Only Semitism controversy as a prime  Is it credible that anti-Semitism This displays incredible naivety the Bassetlaw anti-social behaviour once do Berry/Philo suggest that “it is example of a ‘disinformation’ spontaneously arose in the Labour on the part of Philo and Berry. It handbook, which listed amongst its not therefore illegitimate to ask if Israel campaign, which he defines as weekly worker 1273 October 31 2019 9

“systematic reporting failures that Langleben, which argued that the JLM  The resulting disadvantage which Even the Zionist CST in its 2009 Jewish war and the poisonous privilege a particular ideological or had never accepted Labour’s anti- they suffer as a result. Anti-Semitic discourse report rejected atmosphere around Israel” must be political agenda”. The media narrative Semitism guidelines and there were Lerman shows that, if anything, victim perception in favour of an brought to an end. “It is a festering rested on two assumptions: firstly no differences within the JLM.9 Their there is a de facto discrimination in objective approach (p119). David sore. It’s a boil that needs to be that anti-Semitism under Corbyn argument included the non-sequitur: “If favour of Zionist Jews in the Labour Feldman of the Pears Institute for the lanced.” He goes on to recommend a had become endemic to the Labour we had approved them, we would have Party. This is because the JLM, an Study of Anti-Semitism noted that, “managed but open debate” on Israel Party; and secondly that there was a deserved to resign for betraying our affiliated ‘socialist society’, is only if the definition of racism rested on and Palestine, minus all discussion of wholesale failure by the leadership to members.” open to Zionist Jews. Non-Zionist Jews, individual or minority perception, then “state-based paradigms”. Again this deal with the problem The Guardian demonstrated that, the majority in the Labour Party, are is wrong. This was never primarily Schlosberg argues that the anti- when it came to the fake anti-Semitism ineligible: “no other affiliated society ... we open the way to conceptual about Israel or the Middle East. It was Semitism controversy “by its very campaign, there was no difference makes membership dependent on the and political chaos ... Without an about Corbyn, who was seen as the nature inhibits the development of a between it and the Tory tabloids. Critics individual expressing support for the anti-racist principle which can be figurehead of anti-imperialism. The counter-narrative”. Why? Because of Labour’s anti-Semitism code were official, nationalist ideology of another applied, generally we are left in archetypal anti-capitalist. The Middle “much of the discursive framing three times as likely to be quoted as state” (p148). Normally the Equality a chaotic situation, in which one East and Palestine were secondary, serves to pre-emptively delegitimise those supporting it. Even The Sun’s and Human Rights Commission subjective point of view faces not primary (p164). any defensive response as ‘part of the coverage was more balanced (pp92-93). (EHRC) would have its work cut out another (p120). In the ‘Conclusion’ the emphasis is problem’”. Television news programmes were four proving Labour is ‘institutionally anti- on stamping out all forms of racism, This goes to the heart of what times as likely to quote those attacking Semitic’. However, given that its CEO, Neve Gordon, a politics professor at whoever is the target. It makes no has happened. Why has the response as those supporting the code (p95). Rebecca Hilsenrath, has already stated Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, has distinction between actions and words. been so pathetic and weak? Why has Schlosberg notes that “the degree that “the Labour Party needs to do more observed that “The Israeli government Miriam Margolyes commented that Jewish Voice for Labour lamentably of consensus surrounding the IHRA to establish that it is not a racist party”, needs the ‘new anti-Semitism’ to anti-Semitism has been weaponised failed to provide an alternative Jewish definition formed the crux of the there can be no such assumptions. justify its actions and to protect it as a means of attacking Corbyn. response? In these few sentences controversy and evidence of widespread Lerman also notes that two years ago from international and domestic The CAA responded that “accusing Schlosberg puts his finger on the dissensus was overwhelming”. Jonathan the EHRC “was subjected to withering condemnation” (p125). Lerman Jews of making accusations of anti- unique and problematic nature of the Freedland, who has single-handedly criticism for itself targeting disabled concludes that one of the consequences Semitism in bad faith... is a well- whole anti-Semitism campaign. been responsible for The Guardian’s and ethnic-minority employees and of this is that if “almost everything is established anti-Semitic slur”. One The problem lies in the subjective poisonous output and its stifling of denying them work opportunities in anti-Semitic then nothing is. The word wonders whether CAA’s accusations nature of the offensive. When Smeeth debate, referred to the “near universally other agencies” (p155). is rendered useless.” Or “when anti- against other Jews of ‘anti-Semitism’ complained of 25,000 anti-Semitic accepted” IHRA (p101).10 Lerman examines whether Semitism is everywhere, it is nowhere. are also anti-Semitic? If so my libel tweets (which was a lie) or Berger of a In fact there was confusion over Labour’s anti-Semitism code did reject And, when every anti-Zionist is an action is likely to succeed! Would deluge of anti-Semitic hate mail (also whether or not the 31 member-countries the IHRA, as the Zionists asserted, anti-Semite, we no longer know how this be true of any other group, whites highly unlikely) it is difficult to rebut. of the IHRA had adopted the definition. and he convincingly demonstrates to recognise the real thing - the concept included? Jews are as capable of This can only be done by locating both In March 2018 the IHRA published that it did not. This proves that Jewish of anti-Semitism loses its significance” being Machiavellian as the next group Jews and anti-Semitism in a wider a fact sheet, showing that just eight Voice for Labour was wrong to have (Brian Klug, quoted on p126). and Zionists almost by definition are context of racism and imperialism. had adopted it and, when the BBC embraced the code. The JVL put its Never can such a poorly worded dishonest! (p176). In other words, you can only meet published a correction of its previous faith in Labour’s bastard child and its piece of prose have been so closely The section finishes with a quote the subjective with the objective. You misstatements on this, it was tucked disappointment was all the greater, examined as the IHRA ‘definition’. from Alexander Gauland, the co- cannot simply assert that Smeeth and away out of sight. Persistent efforts when it was stillborn (p115). Anti-Semitism is said to be “a leader of Germany’s Alternative for Berger were lying, to engage with editorial staff at The Lerman correctly describes the certain perception’ which leaves out Germany (AfD), that the holocaust Jews in Britain, as Geoffrey Guardian over this “did not bear fruit” actual IHRA definition as being just 38 discrimination and hostility, but, as was “a small bird dropping in over Alderman and William Rubinstein and “a protracted formal complaints words (p129) - something which the Lerman remarks, we are not told what 1,000 years of successful German have pointed out, are not economically process resulted in a blanket dismissal IHRA’s permanent office confirmed this “certain perception” is. David history”.17 A comment which recalls discriminated against. Rubinstein of the research by The Guardian’s on September 12 2017: Feldman called it “bewilderingly Le Pen’s description of the holocaust wrote: “... the rise of western Jewry to ‘readers’ editor’” (p106). imprecise”. I prefer to think of it as as only a “detail” of French history.18 unparalleled affluence and high status The Guardian makes great play of Anti-Semitism is a certain deliberately obfuscatory (p130). In May the German Bundestag voted ... has led to the near disappearance what it calls its “internal ombudsman”, perception of Jews, which may Kenneth Stern, who drafted it, to condemn the boycott, divestment of a Jewish proletariat of any size; boasting that ‘The Guardian was the be expressed as hatred toward warned against making the IHRA and sanctions campaign as ‘anti- indeed, the Jews may become the first UK newspaper to adopt a readers’ Jews. Rhetorical and physical legally binding - a situation which Semitic’ and it was the AfD which first ethnic group in history without a editor in 1997.” Clearly, when it comes manifestations of anti-Semitism may be fast approaching. Geoffrey wished it to go further and make BDS working class of any size.”8 to systemic editorial sponsored bias, its are directed toward Jewish or non- Robertson QC concluded that the a criminal offence.19 Jews in Britain are not the readers’ editor is useless.11 Jewish individuals and/or their IHRA was “not fit for purpose ... as All this is an irony that is lost on the victims of state racism. Police and property, toward Jewish community an adjudicative standard” (pp132- leadership of the Labour Party - and fascist violence, judicial bias, stop Institutional? institutions and religious facilities. 33). on Corbyn above all. Anti-Semites and search, deportation, etc do not The fifth chapter by Antony Lerman Rebecca Gould, an academic at may hate Jews, but they love Israel! l affect them. Jews are white and is based on three articles written for It is followed by three paragraphs which Bristol University, was targeted by Tony Greenstein privileged. Zionist cliques can define Open Democracy. Lerman begins with provide a context for the 11 examples the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism their identity in whatever way they the allegation made against the Labour of ‘anti-Semitism’ - seven of which (CAA), which demanded that she Notes choose, but this does not change the Party of “institutional anti-Semitism” relate to Israel. They are permissive be sacked for having written an 1. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3187428/ reality. The International Holocaust by the Zionist ‘charity’, the Campaign and conditional. The examples “might” article, ‘Beyond anti-Semitism’, for Jeremy-Corbyn-s-links-notorious-Holocaust- Remembrance Alliance defines ‘anti- Against Anti-Semitism, and the JLM and “could include, depending on the Counterpunch in November 2011. The denier-revealed.html. 2. www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/the-key- Semitism’ by denying the Palestinian (p111). The ‘institutional’ concept context” anti-Semitism. This is clearly article linked the use of the holocaust questions-jeremy-corbyn-must-answer-1.68097 experience of oppression and that is arose with the Macpherson report not a definition. As Stephen Sedley to the deflection of criticism of 3. http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2010/12/08/tory-lies- why it is illegitimate. No-one has the into the death of Stephen Lawrence observed, it is “indefinite”. Palestinian suffering. That was enough lib-dem-lies-phil-woolas-and-a-mystical-shaman- right to define themselves in such a and it represented an “appropriation” Lerman slaps down Mark Gardner for the CAA. Kenneth Stern called this of-truth. way as to legitimise the oppression of of the anti-racist struggle in Britain of the Zionist Community Security out as “chilling and McCarthy-like” 4. www.ft.com/content/1a077a64-49c3-32b7-b5b5- 15 98a4ca7421eb. another group. by supporters of Israel. The Zionists Trust (CST), who “is simply wrong in his testimony to the US Congress 5. www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/02/tom- Schlosberg mentions Labour’s ‘anti- had not contributed anything to the when he claims that ‘the definition is (p134).16 By making the term, ‘anti- watson-step-down-controversies. Semitism guidelines’, which were Lawrence campaign or indeed any a single document, but Labour treats it Semitism’, meaningless the IHRA 6. https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront. net/labourclp50/pages/122/attachments/ overturned after a concerted Zionist anti-racist campaign, but they acted as as having two parts’. It has two parts. actually makes Jews more, not less, original/1432291825/John_Mann_anti-social_ campaign in September 2018 in favour parasites on the anti-racist struggles of Period” (p116). vulnerable to anti-Semitism (p136). behaviour_handbook.pdf?1432291825. of the wholesale adoption of the IHRA. black people. Lerman shows how the Zionist 7. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa- He quotes Ivor Caplin, then JLM chair, Lerman quotes Chuka Umunna, lobby has systematically lied about Moral panic winstanley/jewish-labour-movement-was- refounded-fight-corbyn. as saying: “There have been extensive who in October 2016 told Labour List: the Macpherson ‘principle’. Indeed One of the results of the false 8. https://electronicintifada.net/content/ discussions about how we deal with there is no such principle: merely a allegations is that people lose any lets-be-honest-about-britains-obsession-anti- anti-Semitism and get it right ... I think Some have suggested that there is definition of a ‘racist incident’, which understanding of what anti-Semitism semitism/27711. we are starting to see the progress that I institutional anti-Semitism across is “any incident which is perceived to actually is. In a 2015 survey 45% 9. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/ religion/2018/07/jewish-labour-movement-did-not- wanted to see.” the whole of the Labour Party. be racist by the victim or any other were not confident they could explain approve-labour-s-anti-semitism-guidelines. Only The Sun, on July 5 2018. ran This is not a view I share, not least person”. However, there was nothing what it is and in a poll in March 2019 10. www.theuardian.com/commentisfree/2018/ a story about how JLM representatives because I have not seen one incident in the Macpherson report that suggests some 40% of people did not know jul/27/jewish-anger-labour-listen-antisemitism- had met with Jennie Formby to discuss of anti-Semitism in almost 20 years moving from a “rule about recording what anti-Semitism is - that rose opinion. Freedland has turned The Guardian’s this. “Remarkably, no other reference of activism within my local Labour the victim’s perception ... to a general to more than half amongst under- ‘Comment’ pages from a discursive to a 12 propagandist forum. to this consultation was found within Party in Lambeth. rule that only the victim can define the 25s (pp158-59). Yet, as Lerman 11. www.theguardian.com/info/2014/sep/12/-sp- the sample of coverage analysed” racism they experience”. observes, the UK must be one of the how-to-make-a-complaint-about-guardian-or- (p89). Barely a month later, Pete Contrast this with what he told Sky This dishonest elision was fronted safest places on earth for Jews to observer-content. 12. https://labourlist.org/2016/10/chuka-umunna- Mason, secretary of the JLM, claimed News on February 24 2019 (p140): by Britain’s most dishonest journalist, live! (p160). He describes what has clause-iv-tells-us-to-live-in-solidarity-tolerance- on Sky News that “there have been “I’ve been very clear: the Labour Jonathan Freedland, who tweeted on happened as a “moral panic”, which is and-respect-but-labour-has-failed-to-deliver. no formal conversations with the Party’s institutionally anti-Semitic July 5 2019 that “Labour’s decision when “a condition, episode, person or 13. www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/09/ Jewish community; there have been no and you either put your head in the means a break from the Macpherson group of persons emerges to become chuka-umunna-labour-is-institutionally-racist. invitations offered” (p91). This was a sand and you ignore it or you actually standard, which held that a minority defined as a threat to societal values 14. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ 13 labour/9973697/Labours-Chuka-Umunna-under- barefaced lie. What really happened was do something about it.” Umunna was best placed to define prejudice and interests”. fire-for-labelling-people-trash-on-elite-social- that there had been a furious reaction displays all the consistency you would against it”. Since when has ‘defining’ Where Lerman goes wrong is network.html. within the JLM to Caplin’s comments. expect of someone who described his oppression been the sole preserve of to suggest that what has happened 15. https://cst.org.uk. 14 16. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/ Caplin had clearly not understood that own constituents as “trash”. a minority? Are all Jews oppressed is a “Jew on Jew war”. This is a JU00/20171107/106610/HHRG-115-JU00-Wstate- it was imperative never to accept any So what is this ‘institutional anti- and of one mind? Are all ‘minorities’ fundamental misreading of the SternK-20171107.pdf; concession that the leadership offered Semitism’? Lerman goes back to the oppressed? Billionaires? Capitalists? situation. Behind the JLM stand non- http://fathomjournal.org/fathom-report-institutionally- - apart from Corbyn’s resignation: that Macpherson report (p143) and isolates Warmongers? Jews, such as Tom Watson and Joan antisemitic-contemporary-left-antisemitism-and-the- crisis-in-the-british-labour-party. was the goal. three elements: With identity politics there is a Ryan. Jews have been the alibi, not 17. www.cbsnews.com/news/alexander-gauland- The New Statesman was quite  The collective failure of an conflict of rights - the right of the the instigators. Unfortunately JVL calls-nazi-era-a-speck-of-bird-poop-in-german- happy to go along with this cover-up. organisation to provide an appropriate oppressed vs the right of the oppressor. also fell for the idea that simply history. From the start it had run with the anti- and professional service to Since identity politics excludes context creating a non-Zionist Jewish group 18. www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/06/jean- marie-le-pen-fined-again-dismissing-holocaust-detail. Semitism smears and on July 5 2018 it people because of their protected and power relations, it automatically could remedy this. It was never about 19. www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/17/ ran a propaganda piece masquerading characteristics. privileges the powerful, who in this Jews. german-parliament-declares-israel-boycott- as an article by Mason and Adam  The resulting discrimination. case are Zionist Jews. But Lerman states that the “intra- campaign-antisemitic. weekly 10 October 31 2019 1273 worker REVIEW Problematic Tory assumptions Jonathan Sumption Trials of the state: law and the decline of politics Profile Books, 2019, pp112; £9.99

n July I argued in this paper that Party of Britain most clearly, the quite consistent with each other. what was occurring over Brexit Socialist Workers’ Party and Socialist The first reason is “collective Iwas a political crisis - one of the Party of England and Wales muddle- identity” - that is, without making Conservative and Labour parties - headedly, and so on). the point fully explicitly, nationalism. and not a constitutional crisis, which To intervene at all effectively, we Sumption had argued for national implicated the structural balance of need to start from the terrain on which identity as a ground of legitimacy in the great formal institutions of the the fight is going on - albeit doing so ‘historical’ lectures given in 2013 about state (monarchy and executive power, with our own political goals in mind. the UK union, and in an interview with House of Commons, House of Lords, the Evening Standard about human judiciary).1 Since then things have Tories and judges rights in 2015.10 The idea continues to moved on, and in addition it looks as Tory politicians have been arguing for echo in this book. though I was wrong: Johnson and his years that the judiciary has become The other line of reasoning is team turn out to be ‘revolutionaries’ unduly interventionist in politics. public acceptance of the fairness of the on the constitution and, if they are They mean by this specifically decision processes. allowed to get away with their schemes interventionist against Tory ministers’ The inconsistency here is that and succeed in winning a ‘people exercise of their powers. The legitimacy arising from nationalism versus parliament’ general election, hypocritical quality of the argument need not involve perceived fair decision the British political regime will come is reflected in their not advocating processes at all - witness Nazism as an to look more like those in Poland and any reduction of judicial review of extreme case. Conversely, legitimacy Hungary. the decisions of local authorities - let Jonathan Sumption: Labour-voting Tory arising from acceptance or perception I was certainly wrong when alone any restoration of the powers that the decision processes are fair in July I wrote: “There is not the which have been gradually stolen making. But the other propositions expanded expectations of the state, and need not be national. Witness, in slightest likelihood that the courts from local authorities since the Heath in the book detract from these sound partly because our (human) technical fact, the case of the United Kingdom would be willing to enjoin the prime administration in 1970-74, or any claims in favour of propagating capabilities to interfere with each - clearly a multinational state - in minister against advising the queen to reduction of judicial interventionism Tory historical myths and modern others’ lives have increased, but not those periods in which the union was prorogue.” In the event, the supreme in the affairs of trade unions. ideologies, and overall, the book is just our ‘solicitude’ for each other (pp16- relatively politically stable; there are court did (after the fact) quash the What has mainly been targeted badly argued. 17). More law, he argues, means more other examples. There have been prorogation advice. This was an by these Tory polemics is the Blair state power - because the state merely periods in which both the European intervention of the judiciary in a field government’s Human Rights Act 1998 Law “is us” (p19). Communities and the United Nations it has traditionally left untouched - and, lying behind it, the European In the preface, Sumption begins with It was an observation made by had this sort of legitimacy. - parliamentary management by Convention on Human Rights. (It is the major claim that “The law is the David Robertson in his Judicial Past this point, we arrive at ministers using the royal prerogative to necessary to flag up, as usual, the fact tool by which the state imposes its discretion in the House of Lords Sumption’s argument for diluting discipline MPs. that the ECHR is quite separate from will” (pix). This is something that is (1998) that senior judges who had at majority rule, on the ground that pure At the same time, John Bercow has the European Union, apart from the violently debated among academic the bar worked for government, as majority rule, by denying any claim to persistently acted independently of fact that the EU has signed up to it.) lawyers. Treasury Devil or otherwise, tended the minority, would destroy political government - very unusual conduct for Trials of the state is an intervention Law can alternatively be claimed to to be more sceptical about the motives community. This argument takes us a speaker of the House of Commons, in this discussion. It is the book of rest on popular consent (and Sumption of ministers and officials than those back to Hobbes and his argument for though technically justifiable because Jonathan (Lord) Sumption’s May-June comes back to making that argument whose careers at the bar had been the danger of the ‘war of all against all’ the speaker is technically the servant Reith lectures. Lord Sumption started later in the book). Or it can be claimed mainly in the commercial or property as the ground for the absolutist state. of the House. Hence, Boris Johnson’s life as an academic historian, and to rest on ‘natural law’, meaning an fields. Sumption’s claim that the state The true objection is that pure and supporters have argued that, once has continued, gradually, to produce internal logic which grows in the “is us” is an extreme form of this exclusive majority rule, excluding they have won their ‘people versus volumes on the ‘Hundred Years War’ last analysis out of fundamentals of tendency of commercial lawyers to all claims of the minority, inevitably parliament’ election, they will radically (1337-1453). In 1979 he and Sir Keith physical and human biological nature, be unduly generous to government. It turns into the rule of the ‘majority curb the powers of both the courts and Joseph co-authored a polemic against constraining the possible set of rules: dematerialises altogether the official of the majority’ - and behind that of the speaker (and perhaps increase the the idea of equality; and in 2000 he for example, an Act of Parliament armed bodies (most notably the police) the ‘majority of the majority of the already-heavy government control of said that “basically I’m a Tory who cannot ‘repeal the law of gravity’; and the bureaucracy from the Sir majority’ - in other words, the rule of the House of Commons agenda). votes Labour much of the time”.2 and, more extensively, the attempt to Humphreys down to the jobsworths in a minority. Witness, for an immediate That would be a constitutional He took the ‘law conversion course’ prohibit alcohol in the US (1920-33) the low levels of the home office who example, the effective tyranny of the revolution - a sharp, radical change in and bar vocational course while still proved practically unenforceable and choose how to implement the ‘hostile most extreme wing of the Brexiteers. the constitutional structure. It would teaching, was ‘called to the bar’ undermined the authority of law - in environment’, and their potential Sumption’s first route to diluting tend to reduce the right to electoral (qualified) in 1975, and went on to the future, people will probably say abuses of power. majority rule is the system of representation to only a vote once make a fortune in commercial practice. the same of the attempt to prohibit The historical argument about electoral representation, following the every five years to (indirectly) elect the He was (unusually) appointed directly other recreational drugs. Alternatively, expanding expectations of law is arguments of James Madison (1751- prime minister from among candidates from the bar to the supreme court (and law can be said to be merely an merely rubbish. It would only be 1836) and Edmund Burke (1729-97) selected by the press barons, by voting hence to the peerage) in 2012. He ideological cover for the personal necessary to dip into the medieval that an assembly of representatives for your local ombudsman-MP, who retired from the bench in 2018 and has preferences of judges - and Sumption statutes in the statutes of the realm - would be less likely to act for short- proceeds to delegate the legislative thus escaped the rules which require uses that analysis in relation to non- let alone the fat volumes of canon law term, sectional interests than an power irrevocably to the PM and the serving judges, when they are speaking Conservative judicial decisions (the enforced by bishops and archdeacons’ assembly of the whole people. This is, ministers he or she appoints. or writing extrajudicially, to remain large C here is intentional). courts, and the multifarious local he argues, a form of beneficial elitism In a sense, as I already wrote politically very bland.3 What Sumption is offering is a regulations of boroughs and manors - (pp26-27). in July, the Brexit project from The main burden of the argument particular variant on the ‘command to see that the medievals had as high Further, political parties have the autumn 2016 had already become the of the lectures and this book is against positivist’ theory of law, taught (and expectations of legal regulation as same effect: because they are driven beginning of a constitutional coup by judicial overreach and ‘over-extension’ generally criticised) in modern law moderns, but just implemented these to assemble coalitions in a political the Tory newspaper proprietors against of ‘human rights’. However, Sumption schools on the basis of the work of in different ways. marketplace, they are also driven to parliamentary sovereignty, by asserting voted judicially with the majority in John Austin (1790-1859, professor Sir Stephen Sedley has made the produce proposals which are ‘least that a referendum explicitly declared to the 2017 supreme court decision in of jurisprudence at the new London point in reviewing the book that the worst’ and hence accommodate be advisory was binding - and that no Miller v DEXEU, that article 50 could University). In fact, it goes back to ‘administrative law’, which Sumption minority views, rather than ‘winner sanctions could be applied to the plain only be triggered after parliamentary Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679, most in the Reith lectures said dated to takes all’ operations, like referendums. lies knowingly printed by newspaper legislation.4 He had retired by the famously in his 1651 Leviathan), and the 1960s (the book tones this claim Sumption admits his argument is editors in the referendum campaign. time the recent prorogation case came before him in turn to Saint Augustine down), goes back certainly to the weakened by the decline in the number To say that we are in the territory before the court, but he wrote in The of Hippo (354-430, most clearly in his 1600s.9 Imagined gardens of Eden, of members of political parties, which of a constitutional crisis means that the Times on September 24 supporting late Unfinished work against Julian from which ‘modernity’ and the leads to them being (in his view) workers’ movement as much as any the decision5 - and in the Evening of Eclanum): law can only be law if regrettable entry of the masses into captured by ‘extremists’ and becoming other political trend needs to discuss Standard on October 11, denouncing it is a command from a determinate politics evicted us, are commonplaces “unrepresentative” (pp31-32). the distribution of power among the the referendum as “a completely superior (god or god’s vice-regent on of high-Tory ‘thought’ ... Contrary to Sumption’s account, institutions, and begin to propose illegitimate way of resolving an earth), and neither customary laws nor politics is not merely compromise and our own ideas on this question. To issue that is fundamental to this ‘natural’ laws are ‘real law’. Politics coalition-building. It is also persuasion. pose the issue merely in terms of country’s interests ... The old trope Sumption’s particular variant Chapter 2, ‘In praise of politics’, is People can and do change their minds. ‘workers’ councils’ is to fail to engage that referendums are instruments of goes back to Roger Scruton’s The the real core of the book’s arguments. The procedural forms of politics at all, since it is clear enough that mass division and despotism has rarely been meaning of conservatism (1980): It starts with the circumstance that therefore have to allow for the right strikes and workers’ councils are not so completely vindicated.”6 These “The law is the will of state, and the politicians have traditionally had and to do so (outside the very limited class on the immediate agenda. Then the ideas are also present in the Reith domestic expression of its power.”8 still have a bad press. The problem, he of decisions which require immediate result is that the Labour Party is blown lectures and this book, and led some To acknowledge this echo from argues, is how to control the potentially execution). between short-term, ‘parliamentary Brexiteer academic lawyers who were Scruton is to flag up the fact that oppressive character of majority Unrepresentative parties, Sumption cretinist’ manoeuvres as responses otherwise favourable to Sumption’s Sumption’s starting point is not merely rule without undermining the idea of argues, result in the expansion of to the capitalist parties’ latest tactics. ‘limits of law’ arguments to criticise Conservative, but high-Tory. democracy. judicial law-making. This has always These lack a clear, narrative thread, him on this front.7 There were five Reith lectures - The framing point is that people existed, but has increased either in the which can be explained to masses to Cards on the table. I am also a reflected in the book in five chapters. obey the state because of the “last half century” or in the “last three counter the fraudulent narratives of the ‘limits of law’ advocate, and I also Chapter 1, ‘Law’s expanding empire’, legitimacy of its decision processes. It decades” (both at p34). He gives a capitalist parties and media. think that Sumption is right (chapter 2) claims that law has since the 19th is necessary for this to happen for us series of examples. The 2017 Unison Meanwhile the far left either tail- that ‘winner takes all’ is a problematic century expanded at the expense to live together without the “systematic case on judicial fees was ‘orthodox’, ends the liberals (Alliance for Workers’ decision procedure and that, hence, of “custom and convention” - and application of force”: ie, Hobbes’s because MPs would probably not Liberty, Socialist Resistance, and so referendums are anti-democratic and that it has done so partly because of “war of all against all”. The legitimacy have voted for the regulations if they on) or tail-ends the national-populists that there is also a need to limit undue the development of “broad-based of law works, according to Sumption, had been told that the purpose was (the Morning Star and its Communist trust in judges and in judicial decision- democracy” since the 1860s, leading to for two reasons which, I think, are not to deny the rights granted by other weekly worker 1273 October 31 2019 11 What we fight for statutes (pp36-37). On the other hand, decision (pp68-69). But this was taken to have been held by the 1950s centrist government is transparent in n Without organisation the the 2015 decision on The Guardian’s precisely about the right to vote, which drafters of the ECHR. Israel - and even the moderated forms working class is nothing; with Freedom of Information Act claim, Sumption says on p50 is a fundamental I have already referred to of PR found in Italy and Germany, with the highest form of organisation which revealed the Prince of Wales’s right. We should be particularly clear Sumption’s critique of the entry thresholds and so on, can now be it is everything. lobbying on planning decisions, was about this, because denying prisoners development of a ‘right to privacy’ in seen not to do so. n There exists no real Communist wrong, because the legislation made and ‘felons’ the right to vote has been US constitutional law and its relation It was an attempt to approximate Party today. There are many the minister judge of the ‘public an extensively used tactic in class and to contraception and abortion. He the open primary model which so-called ‘parties’ on the left. In interest’ in revealing the information race gerrymandering in the USA, and does also make passing reference to allowed Jeremy Corbyn to become reality they are confessional sects. or not (pp37-38). the case of Lady Porter in Westminster examples of judicial overreach in the leader of the Labour Party. Indeed, Members who disagree with the A variety of other decisions are means that we should not imagine USA less tied to conservative-Catholic the supposed “zealots and entryists” prescribed ‘line’ are expected to hand-waved over as problematic, that British politicians are above such dogma: the 1857 Dred Scott case on produced a massive rise in Labour 13 gag themselves in public. Either before he argues that the Miller tactics. slavery, race and citizenship (p90), Party membership - contrary to that or face expulsion. decision on activating article 50 The case is all the stronger in relation and the ‘Lochner-era’ cases of around Sumption’s underlying diagnosis of its was correct, because it asserted to freedoms of speech, assembly and 1897-1937, in which the supreme causes. n Communists operate according parliamentary sovereignty. But the association. I have written at length court struck down a wide variety of The fact is that it is only possible to the principles of democratic loss of legitimacy of the judicial before about the tendencies of both labour and consumer protection state to be a leader if enough people are centralism. Through ongoing debate decision through overreach threatens parliament and the judiciary, since legislation as violating ‘substantive due prepared to follow you.18 What we seek to achieve unity in action to lead to the introduction of political the 1960s, to undermine freedom of process’ (p86). But the point interlocks Sumption is complaining of is that and a common world outlook. As ‘confirmation hearings’, as in the US, association.14 For freedom of assembly, with the ECHR issues - and those of not enough people are prepared to long as they support agreed actions, which would be undesirable (p41). if Sumption really thinks that this is the EU. In the first place, the guarantee follow the ‘moderate’ (Tory, Catholic- members should have the right to The chapter concludes with praise a fundamental right necessary to a of the right of private property in inflected) ‘centre’. PR and open speak openly and form temporary of “opacity, inconsistency and fudge” democracy, he should be willing to ECHR A1P1 provides a shorter route primaries will not solve this problem. or permanent factions. as “inseparable from the kinds of characterise the 2007 (court of appeal) to striking down regulatory legislation Moreover, his account of the n Communists oppose all impe- compromises that we have to make as and 2009 (House of Lords) decisions than ‘substantive due process’. But relation between the hollowing-out rialist wars and occupations but a society if we are to live together in upholding ‘kettling’15 as violations of Sumption does not seem to object to of politics and the rise of law is the constantly strive to bring to the fore peace” (p42). the judicial oath. this provision. reverse of the truth. Rather, the party the fundamental question–ending war The third point in this territory generals have lost their soldiers. is bound up with ending capitalism. Human rights is that Sumption does not in this Elitism They have done so because they, and n Communists are internationalists. Chapter 3, ‘Human rights and wrongs’, argument mention the right to peaceful Chapter 5, ‘Constitutions, new and the courts, denied the local initiative Everywhere we strive for the closest explores the European Convention on enjoyment of possessions (First old’, extends the argument by arguing through which the party rank and file unity and agreement of working class Human Rights. Sumption is here a lot Protocol to the Convention, Article 1 - against the common idea that problems can actually experience the politics and progressive parties of all countries. less antagonistic to the ECHR than he or ‘A1P1’ in legal usage). The reason with politics mean that Britain needs a of compromise, coalition-building We oppose every manifestation was in 2015. He makes the conventional is clear: A1P1 cannot be justified ‘written’ constitution. Here Sumption and persuasion. It is through that of national sectionalism. It is an points that a good many ‘human rights’ on either of the ‘fundamental rights’ shows more of his political colours. His experience that the ranks can throw internationalist duty to uphold the decisions complained of by the press grounds Sumption offers, unless conception of the British constitution up actual, competent political leaders, principle, ‘One state, one party’. (meaning, mainly, by the Daily Mail) ‘possessions’ is interpreted very much is one in which “Parliament is an as opposed to the bland-leading-the- n are not either principled (the Islamist more narrowly than the text justifies instrument of government. It is there to bland Blairite opponents of Corbyn The working class must be Abu Qatada would not have been (let alone the case-law).16 support the executive, or change it for in 2015 or the irresponsible Oxford organised globally. Without a global extradited before the Human Rights Insofar as there is a justification another that it can support” (p98). Here Union Committee-trained ‘knife Communist Party, a Communist Act) or not that serious (as in the case for A1P1 at all, it has to be that the the role of scrutiny and amendment of operators’ in the Tories. International, the struggle against of government failure to legislate any recognition of private property and legislation disappears. The MPs’ only Sumption’s inversion of the causal capital is weakened and lacks procedure for removal from the sex free markets is necessary for judicial proper options are to choose between process means that he cannot accept coordination. offenders register) (pp45-46). He is independence, and therefore for governments. what would actually be needed to n Communists have no interest for certain fundamental rights, which the protection of the other rights. This is in his view an outcome reverse the decline of public political apart from the working class he finds in William Blackstone’s This is a view openly defended by of British history, in which the activism: that is, to get rid of the as a whole. They differ only in 1764-67 Commentaries on the laws of US libertarians, and one which had monarchy “gradually and on the whole anti-union laws and the Political recognising the importance of England11: “rights to bodily integrity, support elsewhere in the 1980s-90s, peacefully” ceded power (p99) in a Parties and Elections Acts, to abolish Marxism as a guide to practice. property, free speech12 and immunity but is now rather dated, because of the “long and unbroken constitutional rate-capping and most other central That theory is no dogma, but from arbitrary arrest, together with a plain failure of property rights-based history” (p100). This is more historical controls on local government, and must be constantly added to and right of access to the courts to enforce libertarianism to deliver the other nonsense, which Sedley again points to savagely restrict judicial review enriched. them” (p47). rights.17 out: Sumption is here erasing a full- of local government and voluntary n Capitalism in its ceaseless But “to say that some rights are In essence, Sumption’s complaint dress civil war in the 1640s, a victorious associations. search for profit puts the future inherent in our humanity, without about the ECHR and its judicial Dutch invasion in 1688, followed by But that would require looking at of humanity at risk. Capitalism is elaboration, is really no more than interpretation here is that article 8 three years of open warfare in Scotland politics from the standpoint of actual synonymous with war, pollution, rhetoric” (p48). Rights are “the creation of the convention, which guarantees and Ireland and nine years of European democracy, of promoting the broadest exploitation and crisis. As a global of law ... and therefore necessarily a “the right to respect for his private war (with the reversal of the revolution possible engagement in self-government system capitalism can only be matter of political choice” (p49). He and family life, his home and his of 1688 figuring also in French aims in (and thus, of the interest of the working superseded globally. argues that only two sets of rights are correspondence”, has been too the wars of 1702-13, 1740-48 and 1756- class in democracy) - not from that of n The capitalist class will never fundamental: some “because without widely interpreted. He shows himself 63). Another Tory imagined Eden. a Tory conception that ‘democracy’ willingly allow their wealth and them social existence is not possible” particularly concerned with the This false narrative of British long- can only consist of choosing your l power to be taken away by a - “freedom from arbitrary detention, questions that have been raised about term gradualism then figures as the ‘aristocratic’ governors parliamentary vote. physical injury and death, equality the criminalisation of suicide, and ground for rejecting codification of the Mike Macnair before the law and ... recourse to about the prohibition of abortion in constitution - with British devolution n We will use the most militant impartial and independent courts”. The Northern Ireland (pp57-66). In chapter here a better ‘gradualist’ solution [email protected] methods objective circumstances second class is “rights without which 4, on the US, he similarly has special than the legal conflicts over Catalonia allow to achieve a federal republic a community cannot function as a concern over the anti-democratic or under Spain’s codified constitution. Notes of England, Scotland and Wales, democracy ... freedom of thought and anti-political character of Griswold On this one we should wait and see: 1. ‘Constitutional or political’ Weekly Worker July 18. a united, federal Ireland and a expression, assembly and association, v Connecticut (1965), which struck Cameron’s 2014 knife in Gordon 2. I Irvine, ‘Jonathan Sumption: donnish but United States of Europe. deadly’ The Independent October 11 2011. n Communists favour industrial and the right to participate on equal down a contraception ban, and of Roe Brown’s back (the referendum and 3. Though he seems to have partly avoided terms with everyone else in fair and v Wade (1973), which struck down his English nationalist speech, which complying with the convention anyhow. See, unions. Bureaucracy and class regular elections” (p50). abortion bans (pp84-86). secured the Scottish National Party for example, ‘Britain can ditch European human compromise must be fought and I flag up at this stage that the The argument here, in relation to majority in 2015) may yet lead to rights laws, says top judge’ Daily Mail September the trade unions transformed into 21 2015 - a very clear party-political intervention. schools for communism. argument for the first class of rights is the ECHR, is exceptionally weak - an illegal Scottish UDI: under those 4. [2017] UKSC 5. completely senseless ultra-Hobbism. far weaker than the argument against circumstances, will Britain do better 5. ‘Supreme Court ruling is the natural result of n Communists are champions of Many human societies live, and have finding a privacy right in the US than Spain? Boris Johnson’s constitutional vandalism’. the oppressed. Women’s oppression, lived as societies, without freedom ‘due process’ clause. For the ECHR “All political systems,” Sumption 6. ‘Forget emotion, look at the facts. The price of Brexit is too high’. combating racism and chauvinism, from arbitrary detention, and the contains an explicit guarantee of the says, “are aristocracies of knowledge. 7. Eg, Richard Ekins: https://judicialpowerproject. and the struggle for peace and rest of the rights quoted, down to right to “private and family life”. The Democracy is only different, in that org.uk/category/posts/series/commentary-on-lord- ecological sustainability are just and including access to impartial difference is that Sumption is arguing the aristocracies are installed and sumptions-reith-lectures. as much working class questions courts. The reason is that, contrary to from inexplicit Christian commitments removable by popular vote” (p106). 8. London 1980, p75. 9. Sedley, ‘A boundary where there is none’ as pay, trade union rights and Hobbes’s assumptions, human beings to say that something (not clear what This is again old-fashioned Toryism, London Review of Books September 12. demands for high-quality health, are not wildcats, which hold territory - perhaps the right of parents to insist though also Weberianism and later the 10. Lectures: www.supremecourt.uk/docs/ housing and education. as individuals and come together only their children be educated in church arguments of fascist Robert Michels. speech-131105.pdf; Standard as reported by Mail n for episodic sex, but social animals, schools?) is the subject of a right He sees the rise of populism (and above (note 4). Socialism represents victory 11. Vol 1, chapter 1 (pp117ff). in the battle for democracy. It is who cannot avoid living in social to privacy and family life properly hence the Brexit vote) as a response to 12. In fact, it is stated a good deal more narrowly groups. included in ECHR, but abortion, the contradiction between this ‘reality’ the rule of the working class. by Blackstone. Socialism is either democratic or, The second class is certainly true - suicide and contraception are not. and the ‘illusion’ that MPs should be 13. US: see, for instance, M Day, ‘Why socialists political democracy as such requires It would be legitimate to argue ‘representative’. should care about felon voting laws’ Jacobin as with Stalin’s Soviet Union, it freedom of communication (speech that only rights closely connected What, therefore, he wants to do September 21 2018. Lady Porter: https:// turns into its opposite. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homes_for_votes_scandal. n and so on) and of assembly and with democratic decision-making is restore the elite control, which has 14. ‘It is not enough to call for abolition of Socialism is the first stage association, and the right to participate procedures should be ‘entrenched’ been lost through the major parties anti-union laws’ Weekly Worker April 7 2010; of the worldwide transition to in fair and regular elections. But this in the way the ECHR does so. But losing membership and hence being narrower, but in more depth, is ‘Free association communism–a system which versus juridification’ Critique Vol 39, pp53-82 knows neither wars, exploitation, class of rights is regularly denied by that is not Sumption’s argument. ‘colonised’ by “hard-edged zealots (2011). the English constitution and quite often Equally, it could be argued that the and entryists”. His solutions are to 15. Austin v MPC [2007] EWCA Civ 989 [2009] money, classes, states nor nations. by the courts. ECHR was always characterised by introduce proportional representation, UKHL 5. Communism is general freedom Sumption objects to the Strasbourg excessive indeterminacy in the content and to enforce coalition government 16. ‘Possessions’ in the text, but ‘property’ and the real beginning of human in the subhead; in the French text, ‘propriété’ history. decision in Hirst v UK (2005) that of the rights and the various balancing and compulsory open primaries for is in the subhead, while both ‘biens’ (‘goods’) prisoners could not be deprived of clauses. But, again, that is not parliamentary candidates. and ‘propriété’ are in the text. In AXA General The Weekly Worker is licensed by the right to vote without good reason. Sumption’s argument. His point seems The idea that these ‘solutions’ will Insurance v Lord Advocate [2011] UKSC 46, the November Publications under a Creative He thinks that Strasbourg should to be that the very broad words of get rid of ‘extremism’ illustrates just UKSC gave the terms an extremely broad meaning. Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 17. M Macnair, ‘Law and state as holes in Marxist 4.0 International Licence: http:// have deferred to Westminster after article 8 should be read more narrowly what is wrong with the ‘aristocracies of theory’ Critique Vol 34, pp211-36. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ the latter made clear it would follow to fit with the Christian conservative knowledge’ variant of natural inequality 18. Cf M Macnair, ‘Socialism from below: a legalcode. ISSN 1351-0150. the Daily Mail’s denunciation of the (small c here) commitments, which are theory. That PR does not enforce delusion’ Weekly Worker August 13 2015. No 1273 October 31 2019 Made in a US prison, financed by US allies Who was al-Baghdadi? The US is boasting of yet another spectacular victory. Clearly it cannot learn from history. Yassamine Mather looks at the circumstances that produced the jihadist leader

he October 26 US special dozens of prominent Saudi business forces attack on Islamic State’s leaders on the orders of Mohammad T hideout in northern Syria bin Salman. and the subsequent suicide of Abu In June 2014, several hundred Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the members of the jihadist group defeated group, were right out of a Hollywood five divisions of a demoralised Iraqi movie, and Trump’s subsequent army. Basically the soldiers refused exaggerated announcement made the to fight - most fled the battle zone, whole episode appear even more like while others actually joined Islamic fiction. State. This gave the group control of A US general was quick to tell a major Iraqi city, as well as Tikrit - a us that Donald Trump’s claim that Sunni stronghold and the birthplace al-Baghdadi died “whimpering and of Saddam Hussein. Both in Syria crying and screaming all the way” and Iraq, religious minorities were was not true and he had no idea attacked - Sunnis, Christians, Yazidis where Trump had got it from. The and Shia Turkmen faced a terrible US president thanked Russia, Turkey situation, with many becoming and Syria for their assistance, but refugees trying to escape from IS. the Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Al-Baghdadi’s response to Forces claim that they had provided ‘sectarian’ Shia Iraqis in Baghdad the information about the IS leader’s was the slaughter of 100 Shia soldiers hideout - they had a spy amongst in Tikrit - they were pictured lying the group who stole al-Baghdadi’s in a gutter, their hands tied behind underwear, which were used for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: modern, not medieval their back. This was a deliberate DNA tests that proved his identity propaganda image aimed at spreading before the attack. government. According to journalist and sometimes rape and murder. Such demonising the Shia religion, as fear among the local Shia population. So who was Abu Bakr and commentator Mehdi Hassan, abuses were made public after the opposed to imperialist aggression The same year IS announced ‘Frankenstein’ al-Baghdadi,1 also many Arabs and Muslims blame publication of photographs by CBS and occupation, blaming it for the the establishment of a “worldwide known as ‘Caliph Ibrahim’, and how George Bush for the creation of News in April 2004. terrible situation in the impoverished caliphate” with al Baghdadi as its did he become IS leader? How did Islamic State. In Iraq, says Mehdi Al Baghdadi became a cities of northern Iraq. In 2011, as caliph. Reverting to his real first name, IS under his leadership manage to Hassan, the US morphed from heroic spokesperson and was later chosen genuine protests against the Bashar he was now called “Caliph Ibrahim”. control a territory of 88,000 square liberators into brutal occupiers within as leader by fellow prisoners in the al-Assad regime were being diverted It was only in 2015 when the jihadi kilometres, covering large chunks a matter of weeks. In Fallujah, which camp. It is in Bucca that he made into sectarian Salafi propaganda, the group’s international affiliates waged of western Syria and Iraq? How did would later become an IS stronghold, alliances with former Iraqi Ba’athists, group joined the opposition against terror attacks on civilians in dozens he manage to rule over eight million US troops opened fire on a crowd who were later to play an important Assad and moved some of its forces of countries throughout the world that Syrians and Iraqis, and to organise of peaceful protesters in April 2003, role in his organisation. to Syria. Throughout this period western governments started paying trade, export local products, including killing and wounding dozens of Following his release from Bucca, Saudi Arabia and a number of Persian attention to its atrocities. It is said that oil and cotton, from the territories Iraqis: Al Baghdadi rejoined Al Qa’eda and Gulf countries transferred their IS has killed around 1,200 civilians he occupied, purchase weapons in 2006 he pledged allegiance to propaganda machine from satellite outside Iraq and Syria. and recruit volunteers worldwide, The shootings, the torture, the the Iraqi section’s jihadist council, TV stations to social media in order Far from the image portrayed by including many from Europe? general chaos - all helped drive known as the Mujahideen Shura. That to promote Sunni fundamentalism western media of al Baghdadi as a The BBC tells us he “generated thousands of Iraqis from the year, the organisation changed its and anti-Shia propaganda - all with man transported into the present from billions from oil, extortion and minority Sunni community into name to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) the aim of weakening their arch- the Middle Ages and ‘savage’ Islamic kidnapping”.2 But who did he sell oil the arms of radical groups led and it was Al Baghdadi who headed enemy in the region, Iran’s Islamic history, he was actually a creature to and how? Who gave them enough by brutal gangsters, such as Abu its Sharia committee. Republic, which was considered an of modern times - a monster whose money to start up this group ? Who Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi’s Al At this stage western intelligence ally of Damascus. There is no doubt existence had more to do with US paid ransom money? I will try and Qa’eda, formed in 2004 to fight organisations were predicting the that Islamic State’s infamous slogan - wars and the policies of its regional address some of these questions. US troops and their local allies, demise of jihadist ‘terror groups’ ‘Today Damascus, tomorrow Tehran’ allies than any branch of Islam l Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri was a precursor to IS.4 in the region, but he rebuilt the ISI - if not devised in Riyadh, was (al-Baghdadi’s real name) was the with financial help from supporters popular in the Saudi kingdom. Notes son of a religious Sunni family, born Al Baghdadi joined Al Qa’eda and in Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf Of course, throughout these early 1. In the words of professor Hamid Dabashi: in 1971 in Samar, central Iraq. He was arrested in Fallujah in 2004. He countries, and recruited a number of years there was little attempt by the “Abu Bakr ‘Frankenstein’ al-Baghdadi - created became religious as a teenager and was held with thousands of other, Ba’athist-era military officers, some US or its western allies to tackle and killed by the US - [was] a creature of the US unleashing of ferocious violence in Iraq [which] moved to Baghdad in 1990, where, mainly Sunni, Iraqis in Camp Bucca of whom he had met in Bucca. the jihadist group. No-one proposed boomeranged into the making of a vicious mass according to his supporters, he did a - a US prison notorious for the brutal When US military forces withdrew sanctions against Arab countries murderer - now evidently dispatched to hell and master’s degree in Islamic studies and treatment of its prisoners. In the form northern Iraq, the newly formed whose citizens and religious done with by its original creators” (www.facebook. later a PhD at the Islamic University words of the prison’s commander, US group used the dissatisfaction of the organisations were funding Islamic com/dabashi). 2. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle- of Baghdad. This was the period after general James Skylar Gerrond: “Many mainly Sunni population with the State. When challenged, the rulers of east-50200392. the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, at a time of us at Camp Bucca were concerned sectarian policies of the Shia-led these dictatorships told us they cannot 3. https://oxfordre.com/religion/religion/ when Saddam Hussein had launched that instead of just holding detainees, government in Baghdad to recruit control how individual citizens of view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/ his ‘faith campaign’, encouraging a we had created a pressure cooker supporters and get a foothold in cities their country spend their wealth! I acrefore-9780199340378-e-255. 5 4. https://theintercept.com/2018/01/29/isis-iraq- more prominent role for Islam in the for extremism.” Many prisoners such as Mosul and Tikrit. personally find this very strange, war-islamic-state-blowback. Ba’athist state. were transferred to Bucca from Abu All this was very much in line coming from those such as the Saudi 5. www.pressherald.com/2014/11/06/locked-up- At the time he was not opposed Ghraib prison, who suffered torture, with Saudi Arabia’s policy of royal family, which imprisoned but-learning-terror. to Saddam or the Iraqi dictator’s backers - the United States and its Subscribe Name:______Standing order allies. But during his Islamic studies 6m 1yr Inst. To ______Bank plc ______he became familiar with the Muslim Address:______UK £30/€35 £60/€70 £200/€220 Brotherhood and later Salafism. The Branch address ______Europe £43/€50 £86/€100 £240/€264 ______spread of this brand of Sunni Islam Rest of £65/€75 £130/€150 £480/€528 Post code ______Account name ______is related to a period when “Saudi world ______Sort code ______Account No ______Arabia actively started pursuing a New UK subscribers offer: policy of spreading Wahhabism as 3 months for £10 ______Please pay to Weekly Worker, Lloyds A/C No 00744310 sort code 30-99-64, the sum of ______every month*/3 months* a conservative counter-narrative, UK subscribers: Pay by standing order and until further notice, commencing on ______This replaces any previous order from this account. (*delete) backed up by money made in the oil Tel:______3 save £12 a year. Minimum £12 every 3 Date ______industry”. Email:______Al Baghdadi’s political activities months... but please pay more if you can. Signed ______Name (PRINT) ______began in 2003, after the US invasion Send a cheque or postal order payable to ‘Weekly Worker’ at: Sub: £/€ ______Address ______of Iraq and the establishment of Weekly Worker, BCM Box 928, ______a Shia-dominated occupation London WC1N 3XX Donation: £/€ ______