Labour Affairs Incorporating the Labour and Review

No. 287 - May 2018 Price £2.00 (€ 3.00) Labour And Antisemitism

Antisemitism is being used by the right wing within the definition which ought to be narrowed down to a simple Parliamentary Labour Party to undermine Corbyn, while message: antisemitism is a hatred of Jews simply because the Tories shelter behind the antisemitism allegations in of their racial origin and religious practices. order to cover up their Brexit divisions and their abysmal Corbyn’s PLP critics, while not accusing him directly social policies which are having such a devastating effect of antisemitism, have pointed at what they see as his on hundreds of thousands of families. In their eagerness lack of leadership on the issue. This manifests itself in to attack Corbyn at every opportunity, the Labour the slow progress made in dealing with the antisemitism oppositionists and the Tories make ideal bedfellows. they believe is endemic in the party. They argue that The International Definition of Antisemitism, (IDA), failure so far to carry out the recommendations in the agreed at a conference of the Berlin-based International Chakrabarti report, (an inquiry into antisemitism and other Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in May 2016 states: forms of racism in the Labour Party), published in June “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which 2016, is evidence of this. The report, which made twenty may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and recommendations, concluded that Labour is not overrun physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed by antisemitism or other forms of racism, but there is an toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their “occasionally toxic atmosphere.” This is now being given property, toward Jewish community institutions and top priority under the supervision of the newly appointed religious facilities. General Secretary. Manifestations might include the targeting of the state The hate mail received by some Labour MPs is assumed of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, to have originated from party members, specifically criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other Corbyn supporters among Momentum. It is of course country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism conceivable that most of those responsible are right- frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, wing opponents of Corbyn and/or Labour, using social and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go media, twitter in particular where one’s identity can be wrong.” It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms concealed, to air their despicable views. Some may claim and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative to be party members, examples of the “occasionally toxic character traits.” atmosphere” within the party referred to in the Chakrabarti The generally held view that Labour under Corbyn’s report. Those on the receiving end of hate mail, such as leadership is a hot bed of antisemitism is a hard pill to Labour members Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth should, swallow. Corbyn himself has been attacked by the right- if possible, check the origin and party affiliation, if any, wing press and accused of being an antisemite, when of their abusers. even his severest critics in the Parliamentary Labour Party The Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of (PLP) admit there is not an antisemitic bone in his body. Deputies of British Jews, with some Labour backbenchers, The press’s ‘evidence’ is that he has met with Hamas have criticised Corbyn for not excluding Ken Livingstone and expressed support for the Palestinians. Ergo, he is from party membership for remarks made two years an antisemite. It seems it is not possible to be opposed ago. Ignoring the fact that Livingstone’s fate does not to Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people without lie ultimately with the party leader, but with the party’s being labelled an antisemite. Although the IDA appears to National Executive Committee. contradict this. The IDA itself is a cumbersome, catch-all Livingstone’s crime, in the eyes of his opponents, was No. 287 - May 2018 to associate Hitler with Zionism. aimed specifically at a Corbyn-led He told LBC, a London local radio Labour party? Is Labour unique in station, “When Hitler won his election this? There are two possible reasons. Labour in 1932, his policy then was that The first suggests that the accusers Jews should be moved to Israel. He of antisemitism within Labour are Affairs was supporting Zionism before he grossly exaggerating the problem went mad and ended up killing six as a means of attacking Corbyn. million Jews.” Some Labour members expressed Livingstone refused to apologise for alarm when Corbyn commented Contents his remarks and remains suspended that there were merely “pockets of No. 287 - May 2018 ISSN 2050-6031 from the party. His remarks should antisemitism” within the party. A ISSN 0953-3494 have sparked a debate within the comment he was unwise to make as it Labour And Antisemitism party, rather than hysterical criticism. conceded the argument to his critics. Editorial 1 But it seems that the subject is a The second possible reason is that it is no-go area for Labour. Not one of a diversionary tactic by the Tories. No 2nd Editorial: What Should his critics in the party has proved he amount of government spin about our Labour’s Foreign Policy Be? 3 was historically incorrect in what he new, tough Prime Minister, and slick said. He has simply been silenced and media presentation can hide that fact. “Tunbridge Wells has a Drugs and suspended at the behest of the Blairite Labour’s in-fighting over Murder Problem” 5 remnants who fear one of Corbyn’s antisemitism has handed a gift to the most powerful supporters. Tories. On 17 April the government Brian Behan Remembered It’s widely acknowledged that initiated a debate on the subject, by W.J. Haire 10 Labour has a proud record of designed to embarrass Labour and opposing racism and antisemitism. ensure maximum negative media And So To War In spite of the allegations there is coverage for Corbyn. During a highly by Martin Dolphin 13 less antisemitim and racism in the emotional debate some Labour MPs Labour party than there is in the Tory pointed the finger of guilt at Corbyn, Paradise Papers - Tax Evasion party, UKIP and society at large. as if he was personally responsible for by Michael Robinson 18 Labour’s socialist message of class the antisemitic abuse of the party’s and social solidarity, rejected by Jewish MPs, while the Tory benches Regular Features many mainstream Labour members, looked on with glee. It appears that Parliament and World War One undermines racism of all kinds. it is not only the Tories who used the by Dick Barry 7 Before Corbyn became party leader occasion to drive a stake into the heart Notes on the News the recipients of antisemitic abuse, of Corbyn’s leadership of Labour. by Gwydion M. Williams 14 allegedly from individual party Antisemitism is abhorrent, but members, were strangely silent. Even why has there been no outrage from Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier though they knew that some of the Corbyn’s leading critics about the by Michael Murray 17 antisemitic remarks were made some killing, at the end of March, of thirty Parliament Notes time ago. Naz Shah, for example, Palestinian demonstrators, with 1,700 by Dick Barry 20 Labour member for Bradford West, injured, by the Israeli military at the Orecchiette 24 committed her offence before she heavily fenced Gaza border? There was elected in 2015. Her Facebook was not a word from them during No Froggy this month page showed an image of the state the 17 April debate on antisemitism. of Israel superimposed on a map of Nor has there been a word from them Labour Affairs the USA. At the time no one in the since then. Published by the Ernest Bevin Society Editorial Board PLP pointed out that the originator of Corbyn’s opponents have played a Dick Barry Christopher Winch the image was Norman Finkelstein, despicable role in the antisemitism Jack Lane Gwydion Williams a Jewish American Professor of hysteria just before the May local Political Science, most of whose government elections to be held in [email protected] Website: http://labouraffairsmagazine.com/ family died in the holocaust. Shah London and some other parts of the later apologised fulsomely to the country. We have no doubt that the Distribution House of Commons and yet was still voters will give them their answer Dave Fennell held up as an example of Labour’s by voting Labour in spite of the Editorial Address No. 2 Newington Green Mansions antisemitism. So, why the outcry accusations of antisemitism directed Green Lanes now? And why are the accusations at the leadership. London N16 9BT

Labour Affairs 2 No. 287 - May 2018

2nd Editorial What Should Labour’s Foreign Policy Be? Labour Affairs does not usually com- Labour needs to return to the instincts to defend our vital interests. ment on foreign policy issues. However, of Corbyn and to promote them as the The main goal of any country’s foreign we do have views on foreign policy. In basis for a sensible foreign policy. At the policy should be to promote the interests this editorial we explain what these are same time it should be made clear that of that country. This applies to the United for our readers’ clarification. It should be our efforts in foreign policy should be to Kingdom as much as to anywhere else. clear why we do not take an active part in promote the interests of Britain, but not In addition, all countries should consider foreign policy discussions. We believe in some post-imperial illusion of Britain carefully what their vital interests are. non-interference in the internal affairs of as a world power nor as some auxiliary Vital interests are those whose protection other sovereign states and the promotion power of other nations who do not have is necessary to the survival of the state and of peace. We reject the imperialist herit- our interests at heart. society. Those interests which a country age of Britain’s past that lives on in the We suggest the following as a guiding reasonably deems to be vital are those foreign policy of all the major parties. Here maxim for a Labour foreign policy. which it is entitled to use force as well we set out some basic principles for what We should keep our country safe and as diplomacy to secure. It has a right to a non-imperialist Labour foreign policy secure, respected for good government promote and defend its vital interests. It should look like. and above all we should keep our noses is also reasonable to employ intelligence Labour has not had a particularly out of other people’s business. We should services to gauge the intentions of both al- distinguished record on foreign policy. certainly not act as the agent of the interests lies and potential rivals, but not to engage Although it likes to think of itself as a of any other foreign power. in sabotage and false flag activities. non-imperial party, its conduct is stained Relations between nation states are to These vital interests include: with imperialism and, worse, assistance a large extent governed by force or the The threat of foreign invasion. in the imperialism of other powers to the threat of force. Where the interests of na- The dismantling of collective security detriment of our own interests. The cur- tions are perceived to coincide there is the arrangements (about which more below). rent behaviour of the PLP over Russia and possibility of alliance and co-operation. The protection of significant national Syria is yet another unhappy example of Where they conflict, it is often possible to minorities outside national boundaries. this. Jeremy Corbyn is remarkable in his seek a compromise so that the interest of The maintenance of economic trade refusal to bend the knee to the continuous all parties are addressed as far as possible. routes and resources necessary to the artificial righteous indignation, emoting, This is the task of a nation’s diplomats. economic viability of the state (about warmongering talk. His insistence on How can nations trust one another? If which more below). looking at the evidence of Russian and you are a government, it helps if you know These are the scope and limits of any Syrian wrongdoing or more probably, the that a country with which you are deal- foreign policy which claims to be fair to its lack of it, seems, amazingly, to provoke ing will promote its interests and defend own population and to its neighbours, be indignation even within the Parliamentary its vital interests. This gives you a good they allies or rivals. This is all that should Labour Party. Things have come to a pass element of predictability in its behaviour. be meant by an ‘ethical’ foreign policy. when a leader of the opposition can be It also helps if you know that this will be Activities that do not promote a criticised for asking for evidence before the primary aim of its foreign policy and country’s interest or seek to secure its a course of war is embarked on. that it will seek to promote these aims as vital interests or which undermine them Imperialist attitudes and reflexes are far as possible by diplomacy and will use should be stopped. It is as simple as that. often disguised in the minds of Labour its armed forces and intelligence services This includes moralistic interventions in Party politicians as a concern for ‘human strictly in pursuit of these aims. Finally, the affairs of other countries, which are rights’ but they are in fact a cover for it helps if a nation state is perceived to usually designed to stir up hatred or to post-imperialist adventures, often in the abide by agreements made in international disrupt those countries. It also includes interests of a couple of foreign powers. negotiations, rather than ignore them when acting as the agents of foreign powers such Despite the wisdom of Jeremy Corbyn they become inconvenient. The whole pur- as Israel and the US. This is particularly who, on the whole, has sound instincts pose of formal agreements is that they be reprehensible as it threatens to damage the concerning non-interference, too often the kept even if national interests shift. These interests or even the vital interests of the Labour Party allows itself to follow the factors all mitigate the raw use of force in country by promoting those of countries reckless adventurism that appears to be international relations and Britain should whose interests do not coincide with ours. the dominant trend in the Tory Party. The promote and live by such principles. In recent decades the UK has been assidu- fake outrage over alleged Russian actions What foreign policy is for: there are ous in promoting the interests of the US on British soil are the latest example. The two main tasks. and Israel at the expense of our own. The Labour left is not immune either: too often To promote our country’s interests and Labour Party needs to make it clear that it allows itself to be conscripted into cam- paigns against other countries for alleged ‘human rights abuses’ where evidence is Editorials and older articles at our website, weak and where antagonism is deliberately stirred up through false flag incidents to http://labouraffairsmagazine.com/ exert pressure on countries which the This also has old issues of Problems magazine. United States wishes to intimidate.

Labour Affairs 3 No. 287 - May 2018 these activities will cease. right to tell other countries how they should interests are opposed to our own is not only Human Rights. behave. One can expect such behaviour bad foreign policy, it could be regarded as If there are human rights, they relate from the right but the left urgently needs treason. The best way to ensure security to the vital interests of human beings. to control its own post imperial illusions, within our own borders is to not give people Humans are social animals who have such as imposing homosexual rights in in other countries grievances against us developed practices and institutions over Chechnya to take just one recent example. by attacking them or colluding with their centuries to attend to those interests. Very To maintain international security attackers. Our own internal security ser- different social arrangements have been and peace. vices, who are certainly no angels in their developed in all parts of the world to ensure Our foreign policy should do this be- own conduct, have pointed out the threats that life is bearable and for people to live cause it is in our country’s interests to to our security that have arisen from our contentedly. Stable social arrangements do so. We don’t need an ‘ethical’ foreign interference in the affairs of other states. of this kind, especially those that include policy that assumes a ‘holier than thou’ Britain is geographically located in political arrangements that allow different stance towards other countries. We have Europe and should attend to its interests communities to live together in harmony, enough in our own country to be ashamed there. Russia is both a part of Europe and are particularly important. Throughout the of without criticising the practices of other of Asia. Russia is an essential component world, different groups have been thrown countries. The best way to promote our of any European collective security ar- together through historical accident and it image abroad is to attend to the injustices rangement. Russia has twice in the last two is one of the main tasks of governments that we inflict on our own citizens. hundred years been subject to devastating to ensure that stable social arrangements The promotion of international security invasions from Western Europe. It will not are protected. Above all, educated liber- and peace is the best way of securing a tolerate the threat of a third. At the same als in the West should not assume that the nation state’s interests when it cannot time there is no evidence whatsoever that arrangements that they currently favour impose its will by force on other nations. it seeks to expand territorially beyond its should be promoted across or even en- This is actually the situation of all nation current boundaries. It has repeatedly called forced upon the rest of the world. This is a states in the world at the moment, includ- for European collective security arrange- lesson that the Labour Party, with its post ing those who are deluded enough to think ments. We should press for such arrange- imperial heritage and liberal universalist otherwise. Going to war with significant ment for Europe and Russia based on: mindset needs to especially take to heart. powers (as opposed to beating up small non-aggression between signatories. It is Labour’s job to defend and expand and weak nations) is very risky and can non-interference in elections and ar- democracy in the UK, it is none of its lead to national catastrophe. Britain should rangements for transfer of power in other business to promote democracy elsewhere know this after bungling two world wars countries within the agreement. in the world. within forty years of each other and losing respect for existing borders and respect It is also not our job to campaign for an empire as a result. War is a last resort for the rights of minorities within those human rights. Many of these so-called when all other means to defend a country’s borders. rights are western obsessions: homosexual vital interests have failed. Because the Respect for the economic model and proselytization, the promotion of ‘gender UK has not been invaded and humiliated economic interests of the signatories as diversity’, feminism. They are not rights in in its own territory it has not taken that long as this does not imply predatory the sense described above, that is practices important lesson to heart. economic behaviour of some against the that address vital interests or are essential Much better is the promotion of collec- interests of the other signatories. Separate to promote peace in their own societies. tive security. Collective security means economic treaties should promote trade They are all too often used to demonise that a group of nation states consider and economic intercourse between par- countries with different traditions and their interests and how they can best be ticipants. values to our own. We should accept such promoted as a group. Naturally this im- There should be some provision against countries and societies as they are and if plies compromises, but if all are satisfied external aggression against the signatories, for some exceptional reason we have to that their vital interests are protected and but the evidence of such aggression should have a point of view on their internal af- guaranteed by arrangement between trust- meet a high standard of proof. fairs (for example where a British citizen worthy partners, such an outcome should When 2. is violated then the conditions is affected), we should express it privately be acceptable. The maintenance of an able for the fulfilment of 3. are threatened. It is or through diplomatic channels. We should diplomatic service which has signed up a particularly important provision. also remember that the 1948 Universal to such aims should be a priority. Labour Global threats to collective security. Declaration of Human Rights included needs to give some thought as to what it Where countries pose a threat to regional rights to employment, health care and wants the UK’s diplomatic service to do. or world peace, such as Israel in the Middle education. These are genuinely associ- This includes maintaining the expertise East, it is proper to speak out and criticise ated with human vital interests. They have to understand other countries with which their behaviour while working towards so- been considered ‘too expensive’ since the we have dealings and listening to that lutions that respect populations which are 1980s and cut from the budget of poor expertise. being oppressed such as the Palestinians. countries when they need financial aid. An immediate priority is that we should Israel is a particular concern for a number The UK should refrain from supporting refrain from adopting an aggressive ap- of reasons: such activities. proach to Russia and more generally to It refuses to delimit its own borders, These human rights initiatives, often assisting American plans to dominate parts making a negotiated settlement of disputes supported both on the right and the left, of the world and to intimidate countries are a post imperial reflex which assumes seeking to chart their own course. Assisting the superiority of Britain and its assumed a foreign power, the promotion of whose Continued On Page 5

Labour Affairs 4 No. 287 - May 2018

“Tunbridge Wells has a Drugs and Murder Problem” by Gwydion M. Williams Suppose my article title were a of marriage has been slow and messy. ‘batty boy’ argument5 newspaper headline? But it turned out Most people chose the quick-and-dirty But you could get the same or worse, that both drug abuse and murder rates option of saying that all morality was for any city or town you might wish to were lower in Tunbridge Wells than in false, or at least should not be imposed pick on. the rest of Britain. Wouldn’t you call against individual whims or wishes. It is just as untrue to say ‘Labour has that dishonest? This was a bad error. It left society way an anti-Semitism problem’. It’s an Exactly the same dishonesty – or open to Thatcher’s ignorant attack on example of a common media trick: create perhaps confusion or ignorance – is British basics that she imagined she was a massively false impression by selective show by those who say that Labour has rescuing. Britain’s seaside towns were use of facts that are not in themselves an anti-Semitism problem. among those that slipped, particularly false. Murders happen in Tunbridge For those not familiar with Britain, since most of the Working Mainstream Wells, but it has a mild outbreak of a Tunbridge Wells is famous as the can afford foreign holidays. general British problem. Britain’s murder archetype of respectable English identity: Being always ready to question my own rate is also low globally: 183rd out of 219, “This respectable, attractive Kent town assumptions, I checked whether inland 0.92 per 100,000. (Russia is 38th, 12 times is surrounded by beautiful countryside and Tunbridge Wells still merited its old the rate in Britain, so it is unreasonable continues to have an air of exclusivity.”1 reputation.3 I found it was indeed low- to accuse its government when Russian A 1963 BBC show had a comic episode crime compared with Kent as a whole. citizens are murdered.) called ‘Tunbridge Wells Fargo’:2 the joke No separate figures for murder, but well Britain also has a steady decline in being that it was as far from the USA’s below the Kent average for violent and both murder and crime in general, quite Wild West as you could find among sexual offences. Slightly below for drugs. different from the impression the media English-speakers. It was also easy enough to find a few gives you.6 But English ‘respectability’ is not shocking crimes if you Google ‘murder’ Deception by dishonest selection what it was. It included a silly guilt- and ‘Tunbridge Wells’: of facts is a clever method, and needs ridden view of sex, which needed to • Rough sleeper ‘set on fire and a special name to nail it. I’d suggest be scrapped. Sadly, the tricky task of murdered’ in Tunbridge Wells4 ‘Bliaring’, in honour of Tony Blair and defining an entire new social morality that • A Tunbridge Wells man has been his notorious claim that Iraq could launch accepts homosexuality and sex outside found guilty of murder following ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in 15

with all countries with whom we have dealings. It and the foreign Continued From Page 4 intelligence service should be firmly limited to gathering intel- with the Palestinian people and neighbouring nation states nearly ligence to promote these objectives. impossible. Defence It illegally occupies and settles territory that does not belong to Our defence budget should serve our foreign policy aims. It it, promoting insecurity and conflict in a region in which Britain should have nothing to do with projecting force around the world does have an interest through trade routes and raw material supply. but be concerned with protecting the security and integrity of the It consistently behaves in an aggressive way towards neighbour- country and its borders and littoral seas. There are no other major ing states and advocates the use of force as a means of settling functions that our armed forces can or should usefully perform. perceived threats to its interests. This has the potential to threaten The Labour Party the vital interests of the UK. The Labour Party has been historically compromised by Britain’s It to a large extent controls the foreign behaviour of the United imperial history. We do not advocate feeling ‘guilty’ about this States to promote its own unwillingness to define its borders, but would prefer to promote a realistic view of our place in the its illegal occupations and its aggression towards neighbours. world based on respect for the interests of other nations. Since This makes it a far greater threat to world peace than it would the Second World War British foreign policy has degenerated otherwise be. into subservience to the foreign policy of the United States in the We should work within the structure of the United Nations to mistaken belief that this is the most effective way to promote our reduce tensions and increase security, imperfect though the UN is. own interests. There is no evidence whatsoever that this policy It is, potentially at least, a forum for the resolution of differences. has succeeded in doing so. But we should be realistic about the fact that it is dominated by The Labour Party should adopt a policy that refrains from great powers. We should also note that the human rights provi- assisting the interests of foreign powers. It should not seek for sions within the UN Charter have the potential to destabilise Britain to ‘punch above its weight’ in the world by interfering in world peace for reasons outlined above and we should refrain matters that do not concern it. It should refrain from moralism from promoting them or assisting countries who promote them when commenting on or dealing with foreign powers. The best to further their own interests. way for Labour to promote the good name of Britain in the world Our diplomatic service should be oriented towards explaining would be to enact policies that serve the interests of our own to foreign powers what Britain’s interests are and how they can people such as renationalisation, industrial democracy, regional be reconciled with those of our neighbours and other countries. It policy, good public services and fair taxation. This is why Labour should have the expertise needed to promote collective security Affairs makes the promotion of these policies a priority. arrangements in our region and to ensure civilised relationships

Labour Affairs 5 No. 287 - May 2018 minutes. He didn’t mention that this was Isaac Bashevis Singer was of Polish- to Europe and Jews became a major battlefield poison gas, which Saddam’s Jewish origin but moved to the USA in target. (See Britain’s Exterminating Sea Iraq had been using for years, with a 1935, correctly fearing the rise of Nazism Empire.8) I’m now planning a work to deafening silence from Blair and others even though he lived in Poland. But he be called Jews Like Boris Pasternak, in the days when Saddam was a useful also noted that Polish Christians were Isaac Asimov and Ayn Rand: all three Cold War ally. George Galloway kept becoming more hostile to Jews. That were of Russian-Jewish origin, but had raising it and being ignored. He mended this was actually getting worse as people very different outlooks. fences with Saddam to try to prevent got more educated and prosperous. He The USA could and should have the various Gulf Wars, from a sensible wrote in Yiddish, but his works have been absorbed all displaced Jews. It gained understanding that Saddam could not be translated extensively into English. His in wealth, science and culture from those removed without enormous suffering for 1967 work The Estate is an historic novel Jews it did let in. But it also diluted a ordinary Iraqis. about late 19th Century Polish Jews. A US identity that was always an issue. There is anti-Semitism throughout young man wants to settle in Palestine, The new USA began in the late 18th British society: but not high by global then part of the Ottoman Empire. His century with a population that was mostly standard. father disagrees. of British origin, mostly Protestant There is less of it on the left and in the “‘The Turks are no better than the Poles and with non-whites largely excluded Labour Party than on the right. or Russians. Don’t be fooled.’ from citizenship. In the 1850s, the was “A survey of anti-Semitic attitudes “‘I know, Papa. But it’s our country, a strong ‘Know-Nothing’ movement in Britain, published last September by our earth’ hostile to the arrival of large numbers of the respected Institute for Jewish Policy “‘How is it ours? Because Jews lived Irish and German Catholics. Kennedy Research — an organization with no ties there two thousand years ago. Do you as US President was the first and only to any political party — contains several know how many nations have perished Roman Catholic to occupy the office, findings that are worth considering amid and assimilated since that time? If we and his religion was an issue.9 Jews in this uproar. First: Levels of anti-Semitism changed the map to what it was two the 1850s were not much of an issue: in Britain are among the lowest in the thousand years ago, three-quarters of they became so when large numbers of world. Second: Supporters across the mankind would have to be moved. And East European and Russian Jews began political spectrum manifest anti-Semitic how does it follow that we actually arriving later in the 19th century. Quite a ideas. Third: Far from this being an issue come from these Israelites? The ancient lot of them were shut out, and after World for the left, the prejudice gets worse the Hebrews were all dark… War Two the US helped create Israel farther right you look. And yet, at the “‘Take American, for example, a as an alternative. Soviet Jews, whose same time, British Jews now generally thousand nationalities. You can become right to emigrate had been demanded believe anti-Semitism to be a large and an American too. All you need is boat by the USA, were then shunted to Israel, growing problem and have come to ticket.’ encouraging more land to be taken from associate it with Labour in particular.”7 “‘All Jews cannot become Americans’. Palestinians. It is looking like a massive Labour is of course much more inclined “‘Why worry about all Jews?’” historic error, and a tragedy. to be anti-Zionist. People intentionally Jews found that in practice they did confuse the two. They are easy enough need to worry about all Jews, because Endnotes to distinguish: rising nationalism caused them to be 1 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/focus- • Anti-Zionism is a rejection of lumped together. A publicity campaign on-tunbridge-wells-vn8zqvhrg20 the creation and expansion of a putting more emphasis on the difference 2 https://laughterlog.com/2009/02/25/radio- Jewish state in Palestine, either would have been useful, and still is beyond-our-ken/ in principle or as now being useful. As a man of purely Welsh and 3 https://www.police.uk/ carried out. West Country, and also a left-wing 4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england- kent-41309644 • Anti-Semitism is hostility to thinker, I found a lot of common interests 5 https://www.kentlive.news/news/ Jews living somewhere other than with many Jews, though certainly not all kent-news/tunbridge-wells-man-been- Palestine. Either not wanting Jews. Individual Jews are found in most found-1250315 them in your own country, or forms of radicalism: science, art, culture, 6 https://ourworldindata.org/homicides & being suspicious of them wherever business and politics. This does not mean http://apps.who.int/violence-info/country/ they are. they are conspiring, or even particularly GB/ Jews up to 1914 were mostly against agree with each other. Jews in politics are 7 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/ opinion/anti-semitism-britain-labour-party. Zionism. But World War One led to much mostly on the left in Continental Europe html. The study can be found at http:// more hostility to Jews, as nationalism and the USA. Rather less so in Britain, www.jpr.org.uk/documents/JPR.2017. everywhere got more intense. Britain where the Tory elite early on admitted Antisemitism_in_contemporary_Great_ also boosted it by the ambiguous some rich Jews, while prejudices lingered Britain.pdf promises of the Balfour Declaration. among the rank-and-file. 8 https://gwydionwilliams.com/99- This was naturally intensified by the Since no one else was doing it, I’ve problems-magazine/jews-suffering-in-the- fall-of-the-british-empire/ mass killing of Jews by Nazi Germany, been writing to emphasis the differences. 9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti- th a racist aim pursued at the expense of And how genocide was a 19 century Catholicism_in_the_United_States#1960_ the war effort. But there were always pattern in which the British Empire was election some Jews who doubted it. the main culprit, before it came home

Labour Affairs 6 No. 287 - May 2018 Parliament And World War One by Dick Barry RAISING MILITARY AGE. Mr. HOGGE You have already Proclamation. It will be obvious that 09 April 1918 given us the number up to forty-five. under this provision it will be open to The PRIME MINISTER I now The PRIME MINISTER I have the Government to cancel exemptions turn to the new proposals embodied in given the numbers of men raised up in respect of men under an age to be the Bill which I beg leave to introduce to the present time, but I do hope the specified in the Proclamation. This is to-day. Our first proposal is to raise the House will not press me further. After another means of arriving at the “clean military age up to fifty, and in certain all, we must not assist the intelligence cut,” so as to secure men of military specified cases we ask for powers to branch of the enemy. age, fit young men, for the purpose of raise it to fifty-five; but that is only Mr. SNOWDEN Before the right the Army, under an age to be specified where men with special qualifications hon. Gentleman passes— in the Proclamation. Any existing are needed. For instance, it may be The PRIME MINISTER I only exemptions granted to such men will necessary to do it in the case of medical wanted to reassure the people between be superseded, and the men will be men, in order to secure their services. forty-two and fifty that all the men of taken or left on medical grounds only. It may be necessary in certain special that age are not going to be called to [An Hon. Member: “Tear up every classes, with special training and spe- the fighting line. I gave a sort of rough pledge”’] The hon. Gentleman takes cial experience, to secure their services estimate, that it would be only a small a different view of the War from the for the Army. When you come to the percentage of the men of that age who one which I take. We have to choose question of raising the age up to fifty, would be likely to come under the between either submitting to defeat, it does not mean that men between provisions of the Bill. or taking the necessary measures to forty-two and fifty are necessarily Now I come to the question of exemp- avert it. We will never submit to defeat. to be taken, in order to put them into tions from military service. It is known Mr. KING Why not resign? the fighting line. It may be that there to everyone who has experience of the The PRIME MINISTER I need are men of that age who are just as fit difficulty of obtaining man-power that hardly say that this provision will not as men of twenty-five, but I am sorry one of the many obstacles to success be used to set aside pledges given to to say they are the exception, and we is the number of exemptions which discharged soldiers; they will be care- cannot therefore depend upon men of have been granted, often for reasons fully observed. It is proposed, further, that age altogether to make the finest which at the time appeared sufficient, to make a change in the constitution of fighting material. There are a good but which should no longer be effec- the Appeal Tribunals in dealing with many services in the Army which do tive at the present time of crisis. The exemptions, and to speed up their not require the very best physical mate- Minister of National Service already procedure. I want again to emphasise rial, and it would be very helpful to get has power, under an Act passed this the fact that time is of the very essence men of this age to fill those services, in year, to cancel certificates granted on of this emergency. The existing tribu- order to release younger and fitter men occupational grounds. It is proposed nals have done very admirable work, to enter into the fighting line. There is to make free use of this power by but they will be the first to admit that also to be borne in mind the fact that means of a Proclamation, and there their work has been hampered by a we have to prepare for Home defence, will be several of those exemptions number of circumstances—the number so as to be able to release men from which will be cancelled under a power of tribunals themselves, the facilities this country, and to fill their places which has already been conferred on for unnecessary and repeated applica- by men between forty-two and fifty, the Minister of National Service. But tions, opportunities for delay under who, I have no doubt, will fight very when the existing powers have been recurring rights of appeal, and so on. tenaciously for their own homes should used to the utmost, it may be neces- In these circumstances, it is proposed there be such a thing as an invasion. sary to go further, and to deal with to take power by Order in Council The proportion of men from forty-two exemptions granted on other grounds. both to reconstitute the tribunals and to fifty whom we expect will be avail- Accordingly, it is provided by the Bill to regulate the areas in which they able is not very high—something like that His Majesty may, by Proclamation shall work; to standardise the grounds 7 per cent., that is, only 7 per cent. of declaring that a national emergency of exemption, and limit the rights of the men from forty-two to fifty will be has arisen, direct that any certificate appeal. It is impossible now to specify available for the Army. I hope I have of exemption from military service of the precise nature of the changes to be made that clear. a nature specified in that Proclamation made, but I may indicate the nature of Sir C. HENRY Can you give us shall cease to have effect, and that the changes we have in mind. Firstly, the number? while any such Proclamation remain the areas within which tribunals may The PRIME MINISTER I cannot in force no exemption shall be granted act will be reconsidered, and, in do that. which would fall within the terms of the some cases, adjusted; secondly, local

Labour Affairs 7 No. 287 - May 2018 tribunals, like the Appeal Tribunals, come to the question of Ireland. When Ireland, through its representatives, will become nominated bodies, and an emergency has arisen, which makes without a dissentient voice, committed will be reduced in size. This does not it necessary to put men of fifty and the Empire to this War. They are fully mean that use will not be made of the boys of eighteen into the Army in the as responsible for it as any part of the assistance of the existing members of fight for liberty and independence— United Kingdom. May I just read the tribunals who have rendered admirable Mr. DEVLIN And small nationali- declaration issued by the Irish party service and will be willing, I hope, ties. on the 17th December, 1914, shortly to continue to work under the new The PRIME MINISTER And espe- after the War began? conditions. Further, the continuity of cially, as my hon. Friend reminds me, to Mr. BYRNE We have had a these tribunals staff, and officers will, fight for the liberty and independence revolution since then. of course, be preserved. We propose of small nationalities— The PRIME MINISTER This is to make an attempt to standardise Mr. BYRNE What about Ireland? the declaration of the Irish party: A more accurately than is now done the The PRIME MINISTER —I am test to search men’s souls has arisen. grounds of exemption, and to prevent perfectly certain it is not possible to The Empire is engaged in the most conflicting decisions on these- mat justify any longer the exclusion of serious War in history. It is a just War. ters—different decisions in different Ireland. provoked by the intolerable military localities—which is one of the great An HON. MEMBER What about despotism of Germany. It is a war grievances felt in the country. Changes Wales? for the defence of the sacred rights will also be made in the procedure, but Mr. DILLON You will not get any and liberties of small nations, and the upon these I do not intend to dwell men from Ireland by compulsion—not respect and enlargement of the great at the moment. There is also, as I am a man. principle of nationality. Involved in reminded, the question of the extension The PRIME MINISTER As to it is the fate of France, our kindred of the Act to ministers of religion for Wales, may I just say that before the country, the chief nation of that pow- non-combatant purposes. Act came into operation, Wales showed erful Celtic race to which we belong; Mr. STANTON Why not also to the the highest recruiting record in the the fate of Belgium, to whom we are conscientious objectors? United Kingdom. attached by the same great ties of race, The PRIME MINISTER There is a Mr. PRINGLE No. and by the common desire of a small shortage of fit men very largely for the The PRIME MINISTER What is nation to assert its freedom; and the service of the sick and wounded, and I the position? I hope hon. Members fate of Poland, whose sufferings and am perfectly certain that ministers of will allow me to state my case. No whoso struggles bear so marked a religion would not care to feel that they Home Rule proposal ever submitted resemblance to our own. It is a war were exempted from the obligation to to this House proposed to deprive the for high ideals of human government serve, and especially to render service Imperial Parliament of the power of and international relations, and Ireland of this kind on the battle field. We have dealing with all questions relating to would be false to her history, and to consulted several authorities on the the Army and Navy. These have invari- every consideration of honour, good subject, and some of them with whom it ably, in every Home Rule proposal I faith and self-interest, did she not will- has been my privilege to communicate have ever seen, been purely questions ingly bear her share in its burdens and seem to feel that ministers of religion for the Imperial Parliament, so that it is its sacrifices.” [Interruption.] would be the last men in the world to no more a derogation of any national Captain REDMOND “Willingly!” claim exemption from an obligation of right ever claimed in this House than The PRIME MINISTER May I that kind. It is obvious if this change was the Defence of the Realm Act, also refer to a speech delivered by be made, care must be taken not to which was also extended to Ireland. the late Mr. Redmond at the Mansion put an end to religious ministration in The character of the quarrel in which House, , when my right hon. the country, and it has been arranged we are engaged is just as much Irish as Friend was addressing a recruiting for this purpose that the Minister of it is English. May I say it is more so—it meeting there: The heart of Ireland National Service shall endeavour to is more Irish and Scottish and Welsh has been profoundly moved by the act in concert with the authorities of than it is even English. Ireland, through spectacle of the heroism and the the different denominations, so that in its representatives at the beginning of sufferings of Belgium. The other day, in every denomination an adequate staff this War, assented to it— London, I met the Cardinal Archbishop shall be reserved. Mr. DEVLIN Because it was a war of Melines-Cardinal Mercier—and I Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKE Why for small nationalities. took the liberty of promising him then not also deal with the conscientious An HON. MEMBER Why would that Ireland would bring her arms and objector? not you fight for small nationalities? her strength to avenge Louvain and to The PRIME MINISTER Ireland, uphold the integrity and independence CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND. through its representatives, assented to of Belgium—aye, yes, Belgium, 09 April 1918 the War, voted for the War, supported Poland, Alsace-Lorraine, France— The PRIME MINISTER I now the War. The Irish representatives, and those are words to conjure with by

Labour Affairs 8 No. 287 - May 2018 the Irish people. There never was—this at stake I certainly would not hesitate in England, Scotland, and Wales —that is, I believe the universal sentiment to support Conscription. you should compel them to fight for the of Ireland—there never was a war in The PRIME MINISTER I do not freedom and independence of a small which higher and nobler issues were want to enter into a controversy as to Catholic nationality in Europe, whilst at stake.….I have heard some people what my hon. Friend meant, but that young men of twenty to twenty-five speaking of this War as an English is what he conveyed to the House, and in Ireland are under no obligation to and not an Irish war. That is absolutely if he will take the trouble to read that take up arms for a cause which is just and definitely untrue. Ireland’s highest speech, he will see that that is the case. as much theirs as ours. It is not merely national interests are at stake. The fact Mr. Redmond himself, on the Third illogical, it is unjust. that America is in this War is the best Reading, in delivering his speech put Mr. BYRNE You will have another proof of that. There are more Irishmen it on the ground that we were fighting battle front in Ireland. in the United States of America than for small nationalities. The PRIME MINISTER There is there are in Ireland. They are all subject Mr. DEVLIN We found that that such a thing as justice for England and to Conscription. was not true. Scotland and Wales, and the emergency Captain REDMOND Not by The PRIME MINISTER My hon. which Mr. Redmond contemplated — England. Friend never challenged the justice of and which I still respectfully suggest The PRIME MINISTER Irishmen the War. On the contrary, he supported my hon. Friend the Member for Mayo in Great Britain and in Canada are it, he voted for it— also contemplated — that we shall subject to Conscription. Mr. DEVLIN Who? not win the War without taking this Mr. DEVLIN Are Irishmen in The PRIME MINISTER I am measure, has arisen. President Wilson’s Australia? referring to my hon. Friend the dramatic decision in the last few days Mr. BYRNE We would not have it Member for Mayo. He voted for the is the best proof. in Ireland! War, supported supplies, voted for the And there is a special emergency with The PRIME MINISTER Mr. declaration of war. regard to Ireland. Irish battalions and Redmond, in addressing this House on Mr. DILLON The hon. Gentleman divisions, according to all testimony, the Military Service Bill, 1916, said: is going too far. I never challenged the have maintained the high honour and Let me state what is my personal view justice of the War. I believed in the repute of their native land. But those on this matter of compulsion. I am justice of the War, and said so. I never battalions are sadly depleted, and content to take the phrase used by the voted for supplies, nor did anyone else in they are now filled, or half filled, with Prime Minister in his last speech. I am this House, for a vote was never taken. Englishmen. If it were merely England’s prepared to say I will stick at nothing, I never challenged the justice of the battle, the young men of Ireland might nothing which is necessary, nothing War, and I do not now challenge it. The regard that fact with indifference. But it which is calculated to effect the purpose, right hon. Gentleman is going too far is not. They are just as much concerned in order to win this War, and this is the when he says that. Most certainly I did as the young men of England. Therefore, view, I am certain, of the people of not vote for the War. I hold very strong we propose to extend the Military Ireland. Then he was opposed to that opinions about the origin of the War. Service Act to Ireland under the same particular Bill. But he said that with The PRIME MINISTER I am conditions as in Great Britain. As there him Conscription was not a question of satisfied with the statements made by is no machinery in existence, and no principle; it was purely a question of the my hon. Friend that he supported the register has yet been completed in necessity for the raising of men. I think justice of the War. If he believed that Ireland, it may take some weeks before my hon. Friend the Member for Mayo it was an unjust War, he would never actual enrolment begins. (Mr. Dillon) took substantially the same have voted for it? Mr. FLAVIN It will never begin. view in a speech which he delivered at Mr. DILLON Certainly not. Ireland will not have it at any price. the same time: We are now engaged.” The PRIME MINISTER Well, that’s The PRIME MINISTER But there he said, “in discussing an important settled. May I say, quite respectfully, must be no delay. political proposal for this country. and after a good deal of reflection and Mr. FLAVIN You come across, and Like the hon. member for Waterford, hesitation, because after all one does try to take them. I view the thing from the point of not want to propose anything to raise The PRIME MINISTER As soon view of necessity and expediency in controversy and trouble when Heaven as arrangements are complete, the the particular circumstances. I would knows we have as much trouble as we Government will, by Order in Council, not hesitate to support Conscription can possibly deal with Mr. FLAVIN put the Act into immediate operation — tomorrow if I thought it was necessary You will get more of it. Mr. WILLIAM O’BRIEN That is to maintain liberty, and if there was no The PRIME MINISTER I would not a declaration of war against Ireland. Conscription, we ran the risk of losing do it unless I felt, after great reflection, Mr. FLAVIN And against Irishmen the War. that it is indefensible that you should ask all over the world. Mr. DILLON That was conditional young men of eighteen and a-half years on Ireland having the liberty to decide of age, married men of thirty-five and her own fate, and if Irish liberty were forty with families, and even up to fifty,

Labour Affairs 9 No. 287 - May 2018 BRIAN BEHAN by W.J. Haire Brian Behan was born in Dublin on screening to get a start despite his mili- to supply the carpenters with timber, the 10th of November, 1926 (died 2nd tancy form on such sites as the South acrows [temporary supports] and steel November, 2002) the son of Stephan Bank Festival of Britain, which had clamps, and help move heavy shutters. Behan and (nee taken place a couple of years previously. As a member of the CPGB I was aware Kearney), nephew of When management did discover who of his position on the executive com- (author of Amhrain na bhFiann, the Irish he was it was too late. The federation mittee of the party. He had met Stalin National Anthem), the younger brother steward called a meeting and it was de- on a visit to Moscow and other leading of Brendan, a world-renowned play- cided if Behan was sacked there would communists from China and Eastern wright, and older brother of Dominic, be a strike. So Behan remained. The Europe. He was a charismatic speaker a folksinger, author of some popular site was 100% trade union as far as the at the onsite union meetings. The site satirical Irish songs and a couple of skilled trades and their backup labour- also had other leading communists theatre plays. Brian is the father of Janet ers were concerned. The management working as carpenters. Behan was the Behan, an actress and playwright. He might give you a job but the steward acknowledged leader of this militant site. was, as a teenager, caught stealing from representing your union had to have A works committee controlled the site. a neighbour’s gas meter and was sent a look at your union card. Having no There was a secretary, chairman, and to Artane Industrial School, Dublin. It card you were turned away. There were someone in what would later be called was there, he was later to claim, he was no instant sign-ups then. You had to go public relations, and a small inner com- emotionally, physically and sexually through a weekly branch of a union, mittee comprising of non-CPGB people. abused. He applied for and was post- whether it was the Amalgamated Society The site was evenly divided between humously awarded damages for abuse. of Woodworkers or the Amalgamated English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh plus After release from Artane he joined Union of Building Trade Workers or a small group of West Indian carpenters. the construction corps of the Irish Army. the various other unions belonging to Full-time union reps did visit the site but In 1950 he moved to London to work steel fixers or bricklayers, where you were looked on with suspicion. They as a building labourer. Having long con- might be nominated and seconded. A seemed to spend too much time with the sidered himself an anarcho-syndicalist, union card was a precious thing. Be management and barely anytime with he now became a prominent trade union more than six weeks in arrears and the us. If a strike was looming they would activist and joined the Communist Party militant sites would reject you. It was go up to the site trying to negotiate a of Great Britain (CPGB). During the felt you didn’t have enough interest in settlement. But the management was construction of the Festival of Britain the union to keep your card clear. tough. The entire group of them had site in 1951 he was arrested and im- The first trade to act, after the foot- come back from South Africa post-war prisoned in Brixton Prison for leading ings had been dug, was the steel erec- and we were their new blacks. The real a go-slow. But this was only the start of tors (known then as spider-men) who blacks, our West Indian workers, they his trade-union activities as he shot up put up the steel frame of the building. wanted a separate lavatory block built the ranks of the party. Scaffolders then erected the platforms for. We couldn’t believe it and knocked Walbrook, a street in the financial City so as the carpenters could follow with that on the head very quickly with the of London, now Walbrook Square was concrete shuttering. threat of strike action. the site of Buckersbury House, a vast (wooden moulds for the concrete). Then Behan was called into the office 1950s office campus. It was the first The spider-men had a morbid sense of one day. When he came out he began building to exceed the City of London humour to pick up matchsticks throughout the height limit of 30.5m (100 feet), coming about falling from a height and being site. Most men smoked then and lit in at 164m (538 feet). turned into a bag of bones at the bottom. their cigarettes with matches. At one This ban was lifted after WW2, which They didn’t wear safety harness because break he said he had been ordered to had seen the City demolished by a third they said that being on piecework they pick up every matchstick he could see. through German bombs. During the couldn’t make even their full wages. When that was finished he would have bombing a building on this site was There were always dangers with men to start on collecting the smallest stones. destroyed to reveal the Roman site of working a couple of hundred feet above When living beside Palace British Army the Temple of Mithras, in honour of an your head. They walked six inch girders Barracks in Holywood, County Down, I Iranian god said to have killed a mythical carrying heavy spanners and other tools had seen national service young soldiers bull. With the requirements of rebuilding to fit the heavy bolts to connect the steel, having to do the same as a punishment the Roman site was ignored and almost A shout of: Below! when a bolt or tool while being followed by a corporal or destroyed but saved for an archaeologi- was dropped had you dodging and won- sergeant-major. Behan was being fol- cal search in 1952. It was said to be the dering if it was you who would be hit. lowed by a ganger-man. We wanted to most blood splattered Temple due to The steel erectors and scaffolders were call a lightning strike but Behan said daily animal sacrifices back in 240 AD. outside contractors and not part of the no because he couldn’t be demoralised Building started on Buckersbury main building company Humphries, and to such an extent that he would pack in House in 1954 and Brian Behan, then therefore not controlled by the unionised the job. He would just keep on picking. an unskilled building labourer, managed site personnel. And he did that for a week. Then he was to bluff his way through a management Behan, as one of the labourers, had back to normal duties.

Labour Affairs 10 No. 287 - May 2018

There were the usual casualties – nails their belts when coming and going through had tried to raise the wrath of the few Irish through shoes, crushed fingers, a broken the picket line. Behan had thought they there by mentioning the Black & Tans and arm, head injuries requiring stitches. No should be disarmed and kicked off the `how that must have upset you.’ But we ambulance was ever called. A workmate site but decided it would give the City of weren’t taking the bait. Surely he couldn’t would be instructed to go with the injured London police an excuse for closing down have wanted his office wrecked with him person to the nearest hospital. If there was the site to investigate assault. and his staff duffed up. The apology was no sign of blood the person would be al- Odd conversations took place on picket printed with the acknowledgement that it lowed to sit in the canteen hut for half an duty. It being 1956 the Suez Crisis had was a mixed site of UK workers, the Irish hour to recover from a bang on the head. broken out with a number of the English and a few West Indians. (The West Indians The management exploited the machismo strikers supporting Britain, France and did the right thing by their fellow workers of the workers. Even the bold Behan Israel in the invasion of the Canal Zone but at the same making it clear they were was knocked down once by someone and Alexandria in Egypt, whilst at the over here to make money and not to strike) suddenly swinging around with a baulk same time pledging loyalty to Brian Behan, We proceed to demonstrate through the of heavy timber on his shoulder. Behan communist and member of the Executive streets of the mostly wealthy, demonstrated got up, shook himself out of his daze and Committee of the party. That they knew outside the Ritz and any other top hotel carried on working. It was biting-the-bullet for he didn’t try to hide it. He even invited we could find like the Waldorf. Banged sort of stuff. some of the site workers along to meetings our way through the City of London and Then a man fell down an unfenced-off lift in the Daily Worker building and at 16 shouted into the corridors of the Stock shaft and broke his back. We had wanted King Street, Covent Gardens, Communist Exchange and Lloyds the Insurers. it fenced-off, but this was dismissed by Party headquarters. They came along but There was a lot of media interest with the management as ‘catering for toddlers.’ didn’t join, but neither were they hostile. cameras flashing everywhere but very When the gravely injured man was ac- I don’t remember Behan being bothered little of it appeared in the London daily cused of carelessness with a failure of the by the USSR intervention in Hungary dur- papers or mentioned on radio or on the then company to take responsibility the works ing that period of 1956. Hungary had been black-and-white TV. We sent speakers to committee called a strike. Being the City on the side of the Nazis during WW2 and various other building sites, to industrial of London, the erection of a prestigious previous to that the totalitarian Admiral complexes and as far away as Vauxhall, high-rise building on a historically impor- Horthy was in charge after the nine month the car makers, in Luton. The old BBC tant site drew a lot of attention from within communist period of Bela Kun in 1919. at Shepherd’s Bush had its workshops the City itself. Our public relations drew The USSR had sacrificed in invading infiltrated by just mentioning the word large placard-type cartoons of Romans Hungary and somehow they had rights union to the security men, who seemed exploiting slaves and nailed them to the site there now. The idea was that the middle- pleased to see us. hoardings, along with one from Sherlock class, at the first sight of blood, would run During that time in 1956 we had no Holmes: `Elementary rights, my dear screaming, much like Peter Fryer, a Daily industrial clothing, boots or helmets. Our Humphries.’ There were also appropriate Worker journalist did. Hungary could also working conditions were atrocious with quotes from Shakespeare where thievery be the excuse for leaving the party. That dry lavatories and damp huts to hang our and exploitation was mentioned in his was the consensus there among the com- clothes up in, when there should have been works. A police raid saw them tear down munist workers on this site. It was run the heated drying huts. The works canteen had the cartoons. So we drew some more and tanks over them. I don’t remember Behan rough benches and no tables. A contract had the pickets hold them. The police then ever contradicting this notion back then. caterer and his wife produced nothing but began wrestling the pickets so there was a He couldn’t be called a gentle soul. In full cheap meat sausages and rolls and weak mass sit down until they went away. Behan revolutionary mode he scared more than tea for heavy manual workers. A half hour was continually thinking up anti-police the management at times. lunch break wasn’t paid for by the com- methods for the site. He was personally One Friday morning it was noticed that pany. There were two strict 10 minute tea under surveillance by the state apparatus. a City of London newspaper had for its breaks during the day. But with the long A local public phone he used he felt was headlines: `Englishman stands alone.’ queues you rarely had the chance to eat or bugged. His letters were being opened and Reading it we found it referred to our site. drink properly, especially if this was your at times he was followed either furtively We tracked down this Lone Englishman’ 10 am break and also your breakfast break or openly as a means to intimidate him. and found he was a scaffolder. A carpenter you had missed because you had slept in. Despite our membership of the CPGB the recognised him from another site as a mem- This was the City of London and full immediate task was fighting a rapacious ber of Mosley’s Union of British Fascists. of well-dressed office workers. We were management and getting better conditions We got a delegation up consisting mostly generally a rag-a-muffin crowd with dirty on site. In order to combat us our impor- of English, Scots and Welsh workers overalls, concrete encrusted hair, broken tance was ratcheted up with a few Irish thrown in and visited the down shoes and stinking of shutter oil with to the level of state security. newspaper offices. We stormed it right mostly blackened nails and dirty paws. Then the scaffolders, who were working through to the editor’s office. The editor’s There were no proper washing facilities for contractors, refused to stop work and first reaction was not to threaten us with on site except a few buckets of cold water support the strike. Scaffolders rarely were the police but to hand round the cigarettes. for hundreds of men for hand-washing. ever union-minded and always carried an We refused them. A pity, they were the You bought your own donkey coats which air of over-the-top narcissistic machismo. best Dunhill. He spoke to each one of us weren’t cheap considering the wages. The We thought we would ask anyway. The an- to establish our nationality. After a lengthy English lads seemed more put out by the swer was no. They then armed themselves discussion he promised to print an apology conditions. They usually liked to dress up by carrying their scaffolding spanners in in the next edition of the paper. Earlier he when going home so as not to be recognised

Labour Affairs 11 No. 287 - May 2018 as manual workers. But it was no place to a vote. Andy O’Neill, from Dublin, an He published Breast Expanded, about bring in a decent overcoat or raincoat, good Electrical Trade Union rep then got in- the life of his family. Productions of a shoes or trousers. We were young single structions from the CPGB industrial dept couple of plays followed at the Tricycle men mostly and at lunch time we would to cross the MIG picket line across one Theatre, Kilburn, London, in which he stand outside to watch the girls pass. But of the studios. That we did along with a savages the country of his birth. This what girl was going to be bothered with us. number of others and broke the strike. It makes for a sharp protest by the Irish The strike was over after 13 weeks. We wasn’t a good feeling but on the building community. His reaction is: `Frig them, had won, won for the man with the broken sites nothing moved without an out and the rosary-bead-chewing Neanderthals!’ back who was now waiting for compensa- out vote. Next he turns up in and is now tion and a wheelchair. But our wretched I read a few things about Brian as he into nudism. I watch him on TV being conditions continued. It was the norm on become more and more left. He was now introduced to an interviewer by a local all building sites. The idea was this was a out of the CPGB and was a member of race-track bookmaker as the brother of tough job so what did you expect, gloves? the Trotskyite group The Club who were . Brian gives a disap- Now there was overtime to do in order to active in the Labour Party. He quickly pointed nod. A newspaper later gives him catch up with the work missed through the became the group’s secretary, and in an interview in which he says he drinks strike- an extra two hours at night and all 1958 wrote his first work Socialists and seawater. He recommends it for cancer of day Saturday. the Trade Unions. He was now working the arse. It’s unclear if this is what he has During the strike young single men, on the site of the Shell Centre, a 27 storey as an ailment. not entitled to National Assistance (long building being built for the oil company But he seems to be surviving okay when before Universal Credits) had lost their by McAlpine. It was on the South Bank he says, a few years later on TV he would bedsits and had landed in homeless hos- in London, on part of the site once used marry Margaret Thatcher if he were free. tels or in the spike at Covent Gardens, a by the Festival of Britain in 1951. It was Then on daytime TV, during an Esther shared dormitory of mostly jake drinkers. to be the highest building in the UK and Rantzen programme, he is talking in sup- (white spirit and milk). The married men had more office space than any building port of his Anti-Marriage group, while his with children were entitled to something in Europe. wife looks on. from the National Assistance Board (NAB) He was soon fired for his trade union I read in 2010 that Buckersbury House, though that didn’t amount to much. It activities at which the shop stewards’ we had sacrificed so much over, was to be was a case of selling some furniture and committee called a strike. He was given demolished. Eventually, after months, I got trying to borrow from relatives, who had the full support of The Club. His brother the tube to Cannon Street and walked to very little. Halfway through the week the Brendan, who had a play in production Walbrook a short distance away. The 14 food would run out and it was then flour in London at the time, joined him on storey building was already demolished to mixed with water and fried. Money had the picket line. Brian was arrested dur- its foundations. Archaeologists were hav- to be put aside for dried milk if there was ing a scuffle and jailed once more. The ing another look to find some more Roman a baby in the family. The 1950s was a official union, the Amalgamated Union artefacts from the Temple of Mithras in decade of little money with simple things of Building Trade Workers opposed the the Londonium days of 240 AD. And I like oil heaters having to be purchased on strike. This, combined with Behan’s op- believe they did find many more. hire purchase (one shilling and sixpence position to the Labour Party, convinced The demolition workers, in the mean- a week). There was no money for tube or The Club to leave and reconstitute the or- time clothed in protective clothing, bus fares during the strike. We walked to ganisation as the Socialist Labour League helmets, gloves and reflective jackets, the picket line from all over London. That (SLL). Behan then became uneasy about were still clearing up. Later the £1billion trip to the Vauxhall car factory in Luton the SLL leader ’s control of the European headquarters’ twin buildings to explain our case was hitchhiking job. organisation. He was concerned that Healy for Bloomberg, the US media group for When the site settled down to routine was reluctant to cut ties with the Labour Information and Technology, was built on work, and being still in my early twenties Party. In May 1960 he was expelled from the site. It opened on the 24th of October, I decided to take a few days off with the the group with a few supporters. Behan 2017. Bloomberg’s slogan is: `We Are overtime money I had saved and take my then formed a short-lived Workers Party, The Central Nervous System of Global wife and baby daughter down to Southend which published the equally short-lived Finance.’ for the sea air. On returning to the site I was Worker’s Voice. That journal was so far to instantly dismissed. The works committee the left it read like a fantasy on the then called a meeting for possible strike action. social democratic society. Shamefully we now learn that We had just been back working for six By 1964 he had been forced to give up Saddam’s torture chambers weeks so I decided to leave. Ever after- building work because of an arm injury. reopened under new management, wards I heard that the sniping was still He moved out of London to live on a boat U.S. management. going on in trying to pick off the more in Shoreham-by-Sea. In 1972 he took part militant workers. in a swearing match at the Edward Kennedy I then lost personal touch with Brian, to mark the publication of ’ having moved into a different industry, Lars Porsena, or the Future of Swearing Saddam Hussein’s trial would not the electrical trade in the film industry at and Improper Language. He was now at be public since he could name Shepperton. A lot more glamorous than Sussex University studying history and countries and persons whom he a building site. Then the MIGs struck English. Later he studied teaching, before, gave money. (Militant Industrial Group) a Trotskyites in 1973, becoming a lecturer in media outfit who usually called strikes without studies at the London College of Printing. Iyad Allawi

Labour Affairs 12 No. 287 - May 2018 And So To War by Martin Dolphin British foreign policy, including Damascus of the last opponents of assets would be met with an attack military intervention in the world, is the Syrian government and effectively on the military equipment launching based on Britain’s understanding of establish control over all Syrian towns those attacks whether they were ships its own strategic interests and is rarely and the vast majority of the Syrian or airfields. Russia warned that this if ever affected by any humanitarian population. Britain decided that one last represented a significant escalation in considerations. The idea that is being attempt was worth pursuing to prevent the level of the war being fought and it put to the British public, that Theresa that happening. Reports of a chemical was not clear how this would develop. May bombed Syrian chemical weapon weapons attack in Ghouta presented an The clear implication was that a nuclear production facilities because she had to opportunity. (Subsequent reports by war might not be avoided. assert humanitarian values, is nonsensi- Report Fisk, among others, support the And the West blinked. Or perhaps it cal. A British Prime Minister will not view that this attack never occurred but would be more correct to say that Western base her foreign policy on the death of a was staged by anti-Assad groups.) politicians blinked. I say Western few Arab women and children. The idea Trump is then made aware of this politicians because I suspect the Western is naïve at best. If Theresa May cared alleged attack and takes the bait. He military would have been very wary of about women and children, she would tweets his determination to address this backing Russia into this impasse and have done something a long time ago crossing of a red line – in the form of would have also been very clear that about The Yemen and Israel. the supposed use of chemical weapon s. there would have been no winners in a So if Theresa May is not concerned The initial response to the supposed nuclear war with Russia. with dead women and children why then attack in Ghouta was that Assad was a It is likely that it was made very clear did she advocate and participate in a mis- monster and that Russia and Iran were to Theresa May that if she did what she sile strike against Syria. Certainly any almost as bad. The ground was being was initially proposing – to degrade explanation must be in terms of Britain’s laid for an attack on Syrian, Russian and Assad’s military assets – she was going strategic interests. Iranian military assets in Syria. Initially down a path that could result in a full Two explanations come to mind. the plan was to attack not merely Assad’s scale confrontation with Russia. The first concerns itself with the British potential chemical weapon production But the West had painted itself into desire to show unity with their main facilities but also Assad’s military as- a corner by so rapidly committing to a ally in foreign policy ventures, the US. sets in the form of airfields and army. military response and needed some sort Donald Trump had announced in a tweet Essentially the situation was being set of attack on Assad however pointless that he was going to bomb Assad’s forces up for a Libyan type intervention with to avoid losing face. A very limited in retaliation for a supposed chemical the final aim of regime change. and ineffective attack was made and we weapon attack. Once tweeted it had This understanding of events is had the bizarre situation of seeing May to happen otherwise the US lost face. supported by a reading of the foreign having to announce that the attacks were Britain and France, as US allies, therefore policy recommendations made by Dr emphatically not an attempt at regime dutifully claimed that the chemical attack Lina Khatib, Head of the Middle East change, were emphatically not an attempt had occurred and stated that a red line and North Africa Programme at the to influence the war in Syria but were had been crossed and so a missile attack Royal Institute of International Affairs simply a statement by the international was justified and required. Britain and (more commonly referred to as Chatham community that you were not allowed France did all this because they felt that House). In an article in on to kill people with chemical weapons. their main ally, the US, had to be sup- 15th April Dr Khatib stated: In the past the West had announced ported. But actually Britain and France “What works in favour of the US is ‘Red Lines’. If a ‘Red Line’ was crossed would have preferred if Trump had not that its key allies – the UK, France and then the West claimed for itself the right tweeted his determination to attack and Saudi Arabia – are all aligned. This gives to intervene without UN approval. The had instead waited for the emergence of it a unique opportunity to engage in a main red line was the use of chemical any evidence through an OP CHEMICAL sustained, targeted campaign against weapons. Now, post Ghouta, Russia has WEAPON investigation. Assad’s military assets that has wide very clearly announced its own red lines. It is not impossible that this is the international endorsement.” Any missile attack by a foreign power explanation. Did Trump consult with A crucial assumption in this line of on Syria that damages Russian, Syrian anyone else before he sent his tweet? reasoning is that Russia would not dare or Iranian military assets will likely be Who knows? to oppose the combined weight of a met with a Russian military response. However a second and possibly more US, French and British alliance. Who So the West managed to save a little likely explanation comes to mind. As would dare oppose such a strong military face. But Russia has made it clear it is the war of the Assad government against alliance? prepared to go into a full confrontation those attempting to overthrow the Syrian If this was the plan, the US, France with a combined US, British and French government comes to an end with victory and Britain miscalculated on the Russian military force. That is surely a change for Assad, Britain is desperately search- reaction. Russia did not back down. in the game. ing for ways to prevent that outcome. They sent a very clear message to the In Ghouta, Assad was about to rid West that an attack on Assad’s military

Labour Affairs 13 No. 287 - May 2018 Notes on the News By Gwydion M. Williams Policeless policing? This same lady somehow managed all bothered by large numbers of black “A shift in Britain’s drugs market [is] to overlook that her department first nurses arriving later on when he was Health one cause of a nationwide increase in destroyed documents that could prove Minister (1960-63). violent crime. the legal status of 1950s West Indian But when trouble arose in the 1960s, it “Local dealers once controlled the drugs arrivals,3 and then harassed them for no was the Tories who toyed with the idea of market in most towns. They would go to a longer having proof of their legal status. driving out these troublesome non-whites. city about once a month to buy drugs from [This was written before Rudd’s resignation.] It was officially ‘voluntary repatriation’ – wholesalers. In the early 2000s, London’s Meantime Labour has shed its former but since no one had ever been prevented kingpins spotted an opportunity to cut distaste for law enforcement. And could from leaving, it made no sense except as out these dealers by recruiting their own go further: “Social engineering has a a cover for harassment. couriers to sell crack cocaine and heroin terrible reputation… Nevertheless, it can “Smethwick’s Conservative MP, Peter directly to provincial consumers. Coppers have positive results. Consider Iceland. Griffiths, had been elected in the previous call this new business model ‘county lines’, “In the early 1990s, the country had a year’s general election on the slogan ‘If after the mobile numbers that faraway problem: its young people were abusing you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote clients use to place orders. Crime bosses drugs and alcohol, and becoming a social Labour.’ in Liverpool and Manchester began to menace. When the authorities consulted “The slogan helped buck national voting copy their London peers… addiction expert Harvey Milkman at the trends in 1964. Griffiths refused to disown “A new report by the Home Office Metropolitan State University of Denver, it: ‘I would not condemn any man who said links this shift to big rises in some types Colorado, he proposed a seemingly simple that,’ he told the Times during his election of violence. Crime has been falling for solution. They should give teens the high campaign. ‘I regard it as a manifestation years but homicide, gun crime and, in they craved in a healthier form – sports. of popular feeling.’”5 particular, knife crime have gone up “It sounded promising, on paper. The Labour did limit Commonwealth since 2014. Although knife offences are challenge was to get the kids to comply. immigration, which might otherwise have still most common in cities, above all A night-time curfew was imposed on 13 brought tens of millions more seeking a London, the biggest rises have been in to 16-year-olds, and the state invested better life. Would have caused a general nearby counties... The share of murders in sports, dance and arts programmes. breakdown. But Labour also made real where the victim or suspect was linked to Meanwhile, teachers, parents, journalists and serious efforts to root out racism drugs rose from 50% to 57% in the latest and politicians all took part in a concerted against non-whites already settled here. two years for which figures are available. campaign to enforce a new social norm: This distinction has been missed by many Two-thirds of police forces say county- excessive use of drugs and alcohol was black people, who often decide it is not lines dealers in their area carry knives; no longer acceptable, and participation worth voting. others point to related acid attacks. Turf in sport and arts programmes was the Fast-forward to the 2010s. Theresa wars fuel violence, as does the need to expected standard. May as Home Secretary pushed what was enforce discipline over couriers.”1 “It worked. By 1998, substance abuse functionally a White Racist campaign, But it does not help that the Tories stick to was in decline, and today the campaign is though technically it was against Illegal their anti-state obsession even as it visibly regarded as an unqualified success. The Immigrants, some of them East European. fails globally. They don’t just cut welfare curfew is still in place. ‘Everybody’s proud We don’t of course know what she knew and the NHS: they also cut the military and of it,’ says Milkman. Icelanders even credit or what she intended. But if she’s not police. The military no longer do anything the new norm with contributing to their capable of finding out what’s going on I see as useful. But less police obviously victory over England in the 2016 European in her own department, that makes her makes life easier for criminals, football championship.”4 even less fit than if she’s a covert White There is skepticism about Amber Rudd’s Racist. There are always people who report claim that she never saw a leaked Home Windrush Generation – oddities to senior management, sometimes Office violent crime report.2 See no evil, “We Don’t Take Truth for an Answer” idealistically and sometimes maliciously, hear no evil, speak no evil: do nothing at Everyone who arrived from the West but very reliably. Harassment had been all about evil? The lady is fully occupied Indies in the 1950s came at the specific happening for years.6 by the urgent matter of flying pigs? invitation of the British government. And then, remarkably enough, the Including Enoch Powell, who was not at 1 https://www.economist.com/news/ 5 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/ britain/21740415-city-gangs-have-expand- 3 https://www.theguardian.com/uk- oct/15/britains-most-racist-election- ed-nearby-counties-leading-turf-wars-unex- news/2018/apr/17/home-office-destroyed- smethwick-50-years-on pected-places-shift windrush-landing-cards-says-ex-staffer 6 https://www.theguardian.com/uk- 2 https://www.theguardian.com/uk- 4 https://www.newscientist.com/article/ news/2018/apr/20/its-inhumane-the- news/2018/apr/09/amber-rudd-home-office- mg23731720-500-culture-clash-why-are- windrush-victims-who-have-lost-jobs- violent-crime-report-leaked some-societies-strict-and-others-lax/ homes-and-loved-ones

Labour Affairs 14 No. 287 - May 2018 scandal goes public just when the weapons are the apps, news feeds, and visibly useful skills, rather than giving the Commonwealth is debating if Prince notifications in your field of view every discards an inferior version of academic Charles will succeed as its head when the time you look at a screen. education. Queen dies. The Queen broke protocol by “They are all attempting to capture I have personal feeling on this: I failed arguing for it. She may think of it as part your most scarce resource — your and should have been shunted off as a of a royal legacy she inherited from her attention — and take it hostage for money. discard. My IQ showed I was at the top much-loved father, and hopes to pass on Your captive attention is worth billions levels: I later became a Mensan. Members to her heirs. Regardless, it was agreed. to them in advertising and subscription qualify with a measured IQ of at least 131,11 And an end to the harassment of elderly revenue.”9 though above 120 it may not mean much. non-whites who arrived in the Windrush 1960s radicals had issues with the state. Richard Feynman, genius and Nobel Prize generation was promised. Believed the fantasy that the state was winner, liked to tell of how he only scored Promised. Whether it will be delivered not needed. Delivered themselves into 125 on one test.12 remains to be seen. I’d expect calls for the hands of greedy amoral commercial Why was I judged unsuitable? Exam compensation to mostly fail. outfits. Are baffled that their nice little results showed I was not letting myself be But Labour should start targeting non- idealistic schemes get taken over or swept processed into a High-Level Standardised whites, who seldom vote Tory but often aside by the power of money. Individualist. I would have been denied a fail to vote. Tell them of the Tory MP who conventional education, except my father backed the slogan ‘If you want a nigger From Technocrat to Cashocrats could afford private education and my for a neighbour, vote Labour.’ Say yes, Many younger people blame the world’s elder brother did brilliantly in his exams. this is indeed the case. Or harmoniously imperfections on the Baby Boomer I was let into the grammar-school system. mixed-race neighbourhoods, rather – that generation, rather than a greedy amoral Eventually to university. It takes a very has mostly been the reality, despite Tory More-than-Millionaire class. I can’t prove rare combination of events to make anyone nihilism. it, but I suspect they’ve been fed this line, a serious thinker without at least some along with many other diversions. But it’s time at University. Is This the Facebook that Shipped true that a lot of Baby Boomers became Thanks to fee-paying education, many A Thousand Lies? hostile to the Welfare State system that other Eleven-plus failures avoided being I joined Facebook, because my brother had given them the good life. Most voted discarded. Some then achieved the highest and his family were already on it. And Tory in 2017, when Labour under Corbyn academic distinctions. Myself, I didn’t found many other useful things, including wanted to give the next generation the same get good exam results at any level. But intelligent political comment from a US benefits that the Baby Boomers had grown I reckon I’ve done some good thinking. site called Vox.7 And never used it for up with.10 Only 27%, including myself, To loop back to the earlier matter of anything that I’d mind the whole world voted Labour. internet data. I’ve had some personal knowing about – it was obviously open The Baby Boomers also had things to e-mail harassment, along with generic to anyone. rebel against. The system they grew up junk like a recent offer from ‘Miss Zenab For anything private, I would use e-mail. within was technocratic – it wanted the Warlord Ibrahim’. I find this positive: For anything secret, I would not use the world run by a bunch of remote experts. I am being noticed. But some curious internet at all. Nor computers. I don’t And wanted everyone to be conformists, messages denounced me for wasting the personally have any significant secrets, with harassment of those who chose to money my father paid getting me round the but back in 2000 I tried to warn others: be harmlessly different. Naturally there Eleven-plus roadblock. I never bothered “Just you, your trusted friends and a was a strong counter-reaction that created to put my time at a fee-paying school on whole gaggle of police spies. That’s how freedoms that young people fail now to Facebook, or any other electronic source. ‘libertarian’ the new technology of the recognise as major gains. And when I googled for myself, I found Internet actually is.”8 But the ideology of the radicals was nothing much about myself. So how did Many who once forecast Liberation by incomplete. They had the nice notion that they know? Internet now admit that they were wrong. children could gently ‘unfold themselves’ The person or persons identified my People are also noticing how the idealistic rather than needing to be moulded. Sadly, education as ‘Public School’ – a curious notion of Free Data is corrupted when it this was not true. What was true was that British term that arises from a long- depends on advertising. If you are not the the moulding could be done gently and with abolished sector of Private Schools not customer, you are the product. the child’s cooperation, if done cleverly subject to any outside scrutiny. Parliament My solution? Make Facebook a paid and with love. in the 1860s successfully asserted its right service. Or make it two-tier, as some Britain’s Eleven-plus – abolished 1976 to oversee of Eton, Harrow, and other noted sites including the photo-sharing Flickr – was an evil in the old system. It selected fee-paying schools.13 For a time there were choose to be. You can join for free, but the one-quarter of the population that three sectors for educating teenagers – Public, get more power if you pay. For customers, would get a superior education and might Private and State. But there was also a distinct rock-solid guarantees of privacy. An end go on to university. My father once called growth of ‘Prep Schools’, mostly for 8-to to harassment by advertisers: it a system that assumed that the working 11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensa_ “Every time you open your phone or class did not need to be educated. And International#Membership_requirement your computer, your brain is walking onto Chris Winch has written about the failure 12 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ a battleground. The aggressors are the to provide Technical Education to teach quora/2016/11/08/richard-feynmans-iq- architects of your digital world, and their 9 https://medium.com/@tobiasrose/the- score-was-only-125-and-he-loved-joking- 7 https://www.facebook.com/pg/Vox/posts/ enemy-in-our-feeds-e86511488de about-it/#18d6e8162c42 8 https://gwydionwilliams.com/46- 10 https://gwydionmw.quora.com/British- 13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_ globalisation/the-web-is-always-insecure/ Tories-rely-on-the-Old-and-the-Uneducated school_(United_Kingdom)#Origins

Labour Affairs 15 No. 287 - May 2018

13-year-olds and intended to feed into the Public Schools. A Briton for ports and regional production in the north-east. should know the difference – definitely anyone in MI5, who are actually political police despite pretending to be just about illegal Snippets and terrorist activities. It might have been US intelligence. None Korea of it bothers me much. I don’t think it an accident that the Korean War never technically To round off, Manus O’Riordan kindly agreed that I could ended. It leaves the USA free to resume the war if a good publicise things that happened to him and to his father, a noted opportunity should ever occur. Irish Communist who fought in the Spanish Civil War: Chiang Kai-shek’s threats to retake Mainland China from “My views are already an open book. My phone was tapped his exile in Taiwan are nowadays seen as ridiculous, if they are on an ongoing basis from the 70s, whether as a B&ICO or DSP. I remembered at all. But with US backing, it would not have been also took that for granted from childhood re my CPI parents. On ridiculous. In the end Nixon, having worked up much of the one occasion, when a magazine called ‘Bulgaria Today’ arrived original hysteria against Red China, had the good sense to make for my father, inside the SEALED envelope there was also a copy peace in the early 1970s. Ended the absurdity of Taiwan’s tiny of ‘The Garda Review’!” government having China’s seat at the United Nations. ‘Garda’ is the official name of the police in the Irish Republic, Now we have a South Korean president who would like to where police of any sort have a low reputation. make peace. Trump seems ready to allow it. Like Nixon, Trump has no significant enemies to the right of him. He can make China – Trade Insults, Not Goods? concessions that would be denounced as treason and betrayal if “The US ‘blame game’ with China is misplaced. Instead it made by Obama, or even Bush Junior. should re-examine its reliance on a laissez faire economy with *** neither plan nor reason. Its resort to tariffs will increase costs Wasteful Wars without raising income and improving innovation. Trump recently claimed that the USA had wasted $7 trillion “Current US protectionism began ‘still born’. The White House in the Middle Eastern wars. has already downgraded its tariff which targeted competitors. The liberal Washington Post reassured its readers that the waste Moreover its $60-billion-dollar tariff on China affects less than was a mere $3,600,000,000,000 dollars.17 Plus millions of Arab 3% of its exports. and Muslim lives, but who in the USA would care? “Instead of seeking to blame outside competitors like China The same money might easily have been wasted on free medical it would be wiser to learn from its experience and absorb care for every single US citizen, and many foreigners also. Or its technological advances and its strategic investments in if given to Russia in the 1990s, Russia would not have suffered infrastructure and domestic consumption. Until the US reduces drastic poverty. Would not have turned against the West. its military spending by two thirds, and subordinates its finance Of course, Trump would give it to the rich as further tax cuts. sector to industry and domestic households it will continue to A big cut for those best able to pay is the only solid achievement fall behind China.”14 of his Presidency so far. China meantime seems ready to fight.15 And may have figured But don’t be surprised that US liberals are increasingly despised. that Trump is a blusterer with very little ‘True Grit’. China *** strengthens itself, and works to remove inequalities: As Honest as a Fox “China’s manufacturing hubs of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and “I’m a former reality TV star who almost became a conservative Guangdong will work with the rust belt northeast provinces pundit. I couldn’t stomach it… of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang to help rejuvenate their “I was asked to read a script in which I said I was from a “small economies, the country’s state planner said on Friday. town in Pennsylvania.” It wasn’t true — I’m from Pittsburgh. “In detailed implementation plans published on its website, the When I mentioned that this description was inaccurate, they told National Development and Reform Commission called on eastern me it didn’t matter as long as people thought I was from a small China’s Jiangsu in the prosperous Yangtze River Delta to boost town. They wanted me to be more ‘relatable.’ cooperation and share resources with struggling Liaoning as part “The blonde, naive, virginal Christian character they had cast of China’s latest efforts to revive the struggling 'old industrial couldn’t be from a city like Pittsburgh, and MTV wasn’t about bases' of the northeast. to let facts get in the way of a stereotype. So I held my nose and “Meanwhile, Zhejiang will take on Jilin province as an economic read the script.”18 partner and Guangdong will provide support to Heilongjiang.”16 But later regained her personal integrity by refusing to pundit The provinces are in Northeast China. What the West calls for Fox News. Meantime the BBC is increasingly biased. It Manchuria, but Chinese official documents always avoid this is weird that Britons need to watch Russian television to learn name. Understandably: Manchuria was a puppet state under about things their government does not wish them to know: but Japanese occupation in the 1930s and it is not forgotten. It was it is so. The BBC was once a national asset, respected for its also industrialised by Japan, and had a lot more growth under fairness. With typical short-termism, the Tories wasted this to Mao. Has slid, but has a lot of potential. give themselves a little boost. As the Arctic melts, the sea-route over the top of Asia becomes *** a useful link from China to Europe and the eastern USA. A boost Websites Previous Newsnotes at the Labour Affairs website,http://labouraffairsmagazine. 14 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49130.htm, Or as a com/past-issues/. Also https://longrevolution.wordpress.com/newsnotes-historic/. PDF at https://petras.lahaine.org/trumps-protectionism-a-great-leap- I blog occasionally at https://gwydionmw.quora.com/. backward/ 15 http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/ 17 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/12/trump- article/2138763/china-has-more-weapons-use-against-us-trade-war claims-the-u-s-has-spent-7-trillion-in-the-middle-east-it-hasnt/ 16 http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2139610/ 18 https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/4/17/17247314/conservative- china-gets-richer-provinces-help-revive-rust-belt-economies pundit-reality-tv-tomi-lahren-ann-coulter

Labour Affairs 16 No. 287 - May 2018 Diary of a Corbyn foot soldier by Michael Murray Michael Murray London- a commentary/ policy and strategy. But they’ve been more Southbank. It includes informational and digest of political and general interest news successful sowing discord with the anti- training sessions in cooperative private and for busy people. Semitism issue. social housing, community based energy Dictionary definition of foot soldier: “…a What is likely to be the consequences of coops, and local procurement for building dedicated low level follower.” their recklessness this time? And will they a cooperative social economy from the be held accountable? Not in the foreseeable bottom up. The programme describes In this issue: future, is the answer to the last question: they this as a “post Carillion” policy direction. (1) Separating the Lions from the Donkeys seem to be on a roll. One thing we know Those who remember Carillion will grasp in the run-up to the local elections with certainty: if the results are below the the significance of this major strategic leap (2) Some thoughts on the importance of expected, Jeremy Corbyn will be blamed. in the evolving vision of the future of local local elections And if they’re better than expected he won’t government. I should add that Corbyn be given the credit – at least for long. The and McDonnell both have endorsed this (1) The Lions and the Donkeys pattern has been well and truly established. development and included it into the Labour The May entry in the diary of a Corbyn foot There’s that feeling, again, that many MPs Party Manifesto, with the commitment to soldier is being written on the eve of the local would rather lose the battle than see Corbyn make it a central plank in their economic elections. These are mere days away now as crowned King. This is not how things should programme for a future government. I write. So, this Labour Affairs version of be on the eve of a battle as important as next So, while the Tory strategy is to starve the diary will be brief, in line with Marx’s week’s elections. local councils of resources and strip them exhortation, in “The Theses on Feuerbach,” of power, an equal and opposite reaction that: “the point is not to philosophise about (2) Some thoughts on the importance has been generated: the realisation of the the world: the point is to change it.” of local elections necessity for greater devolved control and At the commencement of this campaign Ingrid Koehler of the Local Government ownership of social and economic resources. the general opinion, backed by the now Information Unit said some time ago: “It’s And, thus, greater responsibility for the continuous polling and straw-polling of important to remember that many people, role of locally elected representatives. In political opinion, was that Labour was going including those who don’t vote, have regular the meantime, we live with an ongoing to build on, and exceed, the achievements interactions with local government – far perceived “democratic deficit” at the local of the 2017 General Election. And now? more than with central government. For too political level. Owen Jones, journalist and Labour activist long, local government has been treated as While national turnout in the 2017 General describes “a determined effort in both the the delivery arm of national government. Election was in excess of 66% a good turnout British media and the wider political elite As local devolution progresses, hopefully in the forthcoming local elections won’t be to delegitimise the Labour leadership in people will see more reason to make much more than half that – unless it bucks particular and the wider left as a whole.” the effort to decide who represents them the established trends. For example, more Guardian, 19 April, 2018. locally.” That was from a BBC report of a EU citizens take part in what looks like being The two main thrusts of this attack at couple of years ago. their last chance to tell the Government what the moment are: defence policy issues, Things are changing fast. Hackney’s 2018 they think of it. Or the youth vote holds Russiaphobia, the related “humanitarian Manifesto is entitled “Building a Fairer, up, which would surprise me. In his study crisis” in Syria (they don’t see the Safer and more Sustainable Hackney.” “Do local elections predict the outcome of humanitarian crises in Yemen or Gaza, of It covers the areas of Health, Education the next general election?” Prosser wrote: course) - and anti-Semitism. The latter is and Training, Housing, Private and Social “Although local elections are notionally the more invidious. The leader of the trade Enterprise, Employment, Environment, ‘local’ the evidence suggests that they at union Unite, Len McCluskey, a major Urban Planning, Policing - even Climate least mirror national electoral fortunes.” financial backer of the Labour Party, called Change. These are presented not as sound (University of Manchester, 2016) out the use of anti-Semitism within Labour bites or slogans, but as spelt out qualitative So, if asked to predict the result I’d say, the to undermine the Corbynist leadership and quantitatively verifiable commitments. relentless attacks on the Labour leaderships recently, and the role of an organised anti- They are driven by central Tory government will take its toll on the turnout, in the Tory Corbyn campaign amongst a body of PLP policies detrimentally affecting all social marginals - and in the hitherto Labour members. areas. Phil Glanville, Hackney’s Labour strongholds. I hope I’m proven wrong. Not that he denies the existence of anti- Mayor, in a recent update captures this: In the meantime, under the leadership of Semitism, or that doesn’t think it appropriate “One week to go until we show that London journalist Owen Jones, quoted above, and the party should ignore it, on the contrary. has had enough – enough of Brexit. Enough Hackney mayor Phil Glanville, I’ll be in He, like me, just questions the purpose, and of cruel immigration policies and enough Kensington Chelsea borough in this last timing, of their well-publicised antics. What of austerity.” weekend of the campaign, helping the local a time they chose to mount their biggest Phil this year has declared as a joint Labour candidates oust those responsible campaign against Corbyn - ostensibly Cooperative Party/Labour Party candidate for the Grenfell Tower disaster. against anti-Semitism? On the eve of crucial in his bid for a second term as Mayor of One of the many intrinsic values of local elections! The last time they made Hackney. There are, in fact, 543 Coop electioneering is that the foot soldier has the such a big move was on the eve of the 2017 candidates in the forthcoming local opportunity of getting even, not just being in General Election, and it probably cost us elections. An impressive Local Government a permanent state of anger at the inequities the election. And, in the aftermath of the Conference for the new councillors has been of this ill-divided society. General Election, they tried, unsuccessfully, arranged for June 9th in the iconic Coin to hijack the leadership of Labour’s Brexit Street Community Centre on London’s

Labour Affairs 17 No. 287 - May 2018 Paradise Lost by Michael Robinson Each year seems to bring new revelations offshore companies, and then became “invest- revenue received. This “conventional wisdom” about off-shore finance and rampant tax ment advisors” to those companies, charging is actually a discredited dogma from another avoidance/evasion, by amongst others, multi- themselves for their own services and thereby age, but it was re-introduced under Margaret national companies, celebrities and what are avoiding tax. Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, who sought to charmingly termed “high net-worth individu- Three “stars” (sic) from Mrs Brown’s Boys overthrow the post war consensus that had als.” These revelations are now so common that who diverted more than £2m into an offshore emerged in favour of a mixed economy. By they get named for easy identification, much ‘avoidance’ scheme, (“evasion” being illegal). any measure of economic analysis, the mixed in the manner of annual hurricanes. Somewhat embarrassingly, even the Queen economy in the UK, had been reasonably In 2016 we had the ‘Panama Papers’, was not immune from scrutiny, with the Duchy successful in delivering social and economic involving the leaking of data amounting to of Lancaster, her private estate, having been progress in the post war years. It worked millions of documents detailing the dubious tax found to have invested millions offshore in the by utilising, in various proportions accord- affairs of the Great and the Good. The sterling Cayman Islands and Bermuda between 2004 ing to whether the government was Labour work was done by the German newspaper and 2005. (Nothing illegal Ma’am and no or Conservative – active and confident state Suddeutsche Zeitung in collaboration with suggestion of it from me. Phew.) intervention, with public borrowing, regula- the International Consortium of Investigative You too! tion of the economy and direct provision of Journalists (ICIJ). A flurry of media activity Also present amongst the dodgers (my public services, operating alongside the role followed the leaking, with over 100 media phrase, don’t sue), was the serial dodger Bono, of the market. groups joining the forensic examination of who had invested in a Lithuanian Shopping The “conventional wisdom” behind the the papers. centre, now under investigation for tax “eva- ‘balanced budget’ was best described by JK We are often told that Journalism “speaks sion” (illegal). Amusingly, Ian Anderson, front Galbraith in his classic work - The Affluent truth to power”, a phrase appropriated from man for the band Jethro Tull, who partially Society (1958) in the following extracts - the American Quaker movement. But to retired to run a fish farm, was quoted in the Chapter 2. The concept of the conventional paraphrase Noam Chomsky, ‘you may speak Daily Telegraph as saying – wisdom. truth to Power, but Power doesn’t have to care.’ “Bonio, or whatever his name is, said “In some measure the articulation of the And so at the end of 2017 fresh revelations stashing his cash overseas was just down to conventional wisdom is a religious rite. It is emerged with the publication of the “Paradise smart people he has working for him trying an act of affirmation, like reading aloud from Papers”, again through investigation by to be sensible. So I take it I’m not smart and the Scriptures or going to church.” …. Suddeutsche Zeitung and the ICIJ. This leak sensible. Ah well, nobody’s perfect. I paid tax “Through the nineteenth century, liberal- involved the release of more than 1,400GB at 83% in the 70s, and although I was advised ism in its classical meaning having become of data, containing around 13.4 million to move to Switzerland, I stayed here. I don’t the conventional wisdom, there were solemn documents. The leaked data covers a period regret it. I’m proud to pay tax at 50%. I think of warnings of the irreparable damage that would of seven decades, from 1950 to 2016, giving it as half for me and half for the NHS, schools be done by Factory Acts, trade unions, social a comprehensive picture of the abusive tax and all the other things we need to function insurance, and other social legislation. “ practices that have characterised the use of as a society.” “The conventional wisdom had never “Offshore Financial Centres” (tax havens). The naming of the ‘shrewd’. emphasised anything more strongly than the About 6.8 million of the documents come Notwithstanding the public naming of such importance of an annually balanced budget.” from Appleby – a law firm founded in Bermuda people, there is something in the carefully The ‘balanced budget’ was a dogma held in that helps corporations, financial institutions contrived use of the euphemistic language common between Liberals and Conservatives and ‘high net-worth’ individuals to set up and that is used to describe such ‘tax practices’ by in the USA. In his Presidential acceptance register companies in offshore jurisdictions. It those in power, which sanitises it and calms speech in 1932, Roosevelt said – “Revenue must is the largest player in this market with a register the mind. Somehow the ‘sophistication’ of it cover expenditures by one means or another. of more than 31,000 US clients, 14,000 UK and the high social standing of those engaged Any government, like any family, can for a year clients and 12,000 clients in Bermuda (which in it, elevates it above things like “corruption” spend a little more than it earns. But you and has a total population of around 60,000). and “cronyism”. Words which are readily I know that a continuation of that habit means Gerald Ryle, a journalist with the ICIJ stated understood to provoke the right moral reaction the poor-house.” – “This leak is important because it’s the high against those so accused. But those strong and Those of us old enough to remember, will end of town. People may have dismissed the emotive words are often reserved only for those know that Margaret Thatcher entered office Mossack Fonseca leaks as they were rogue Kipling referred to as “lesser breeds without explaining that “we can’t spend money we players who would take any client. Most of the law” – people like Russian Oligarchs and don’t have,” comparing the running of the the offshore world is not like that at all. Here African leaders like Jacob Zuma. economy of a state with that of a household, you have the gold-plated company.” But the actual effect of tax avoidance/ even appearing on camera washing her dishes For the few not the many. evasion/dodging is often just as morally and in a basin with her marigold gloves on, to Among those reported on by the media were – economically corrosive. Indeed it is estimated reinforce the imagery! Prince Charles, who had advocated for that the equivalent of 10% of global GDP is The Great Depression. climate change agreements that would benefit held offshore, with the UK alone losing up But, returning to the 1930s and Galbraith. an offshore financial interest, to €12.7bn a year to the Exchequer, (or the The ‘balanced budget’ dogma was about to be Lewis Hamilton who avoided UK import common weal). challenged by actual events. tax on his £16.5m luxury jet, by entering the ‘Balancing the Budget’ – “The shattering circumstance was the Great UK via a short detour and touch down in the the “conventional wisdom”. Depression. This led to a severe reduction nearest tax haven, the Isle of Man. A particular vulnerability and additional in the revenues of the federal government; it Apple (again) maintaining its ‘lowest tax problem we have is the slavish attachment to also brought increased pressure for a variety possible’ operating model, using the Channel avoiding a government deficit by “balancing the of relief and welfare expenditures. A balanced Island of Jersey. budget”. This presumes that public expenditure budget meant increasing tax rates and reducing UK millionaires who sold their assets to must always be in equilibrium with the tax public expenditure.”

Labour Affairs 18 No. 287 - May 2018

“Viewed in retrospect, it would be hard to An Eye to the truth off its share value. Another of the companies imagine a better design for reducing both But that which could go wrong, did go wrong, operates in the Cayman Islands and has been the private and public demand for goods, with virtually only Private Eye magazine shown to use that location as a way of avoiding aggravating deflation, increasing unemploy- having the courage and diligence to tirelessly tax. Another of the firms is part of a group that ment and adding to the general suffering.” speak up for the public interest. In January has reportedly abused and exploited migrant (My emphasis). this year, the National Audit Office issued workers in Qatar. My reaction to all that – I One of the US administration’s first steps (another) scathing report on the private financ- do not know whether it is un-parliamentary – is was to slash public sector pay. But as Galbraith ing of public services, noting that the financing to use three letters: WTF? notes, “circumstances had already triumphed of schools, hospitals etc. had cost billions of The Conservative members tried to deflect, over the conventional wisdom. By the second pounds more in funding than in using conven- stating that (New) Labour had been responsible year of the Hoover Administration the budget tional procurement and delivery. This wasn’t for such contracts in the past, but Jon Trickett was irretrievably out of balance. In the fiscal much of a revelation to those of us in the trade continued – year ending in 1932, receipts were much less union movement. “Thirteen of the 20 largest Government than half of spending. The budget was never It is worth refreshing the memory as to contractors have subsidiaries in tax havens. balanced during the depression.” what New Labour had become, by sharing Those companies are happy to take taxpayers’ John Maynard Keynes – to the rescue. the following extract from Simon Jenkins’ money and make a profit, but it seems that they The explanation for the reason that the heav- Guardian column of 21 January 2014, in which are not prepared to pay tax back, which is mor- ens did not fall, even though the government he observed - ally incorrect and should not be happening. In were running with an ongoing “deficit” using “Eight years ago, David Craig’s, Plundering fact, it is a scandal.” public borrowing to finance its affairs, and the the Public Sector, calculated that 10 years of In an interview in on 10 economy eventually recovered, was outlined New Labour had seen £70bn vanish from taxes November 2017, John McDonnell said – “The in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes with the into management consultancy, PFI and IT fees, last seven years of austerity has seen work- launch of his General Theory of Employment, to no noticeable public gain. Most Whitehall ing families suffer from stagnant wages, not Interest and Money. His understanding IT projects had been fiascos, and there is a new being able to keep up with prices of items that in such moments of crisis, governments one each week. The beneficiaries have been like electricity bills, and underfunded public should actively intervene, by borrowing to the rich: firms such as KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, services – yet billions has gone into the hands invest in the re-growth of the economy and to Capita, Serco, McKinsey and others. Today’s of shareholders. shore up its fundamental institutions, was then public accounts committee may howl about “The next Labour government will call an counter-intuitive, but became acknowledged as waste, but the stable is bare and the horses are end to the privatisation of our public sector, an empirical fact. over the horizon, laden with gold.” and we will look to bring back into public In time “Keynesian principles” started to be ownership many of the vital services sold off by implemented and were reflected in the ‘Bretton Labour’s resurgence? the Tories, which are undermining the living Woods’ institutions; the World Bank and IMF, The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s standards of millions of working households.” established after the second world war. That leadership has recently made enemies of such “We’re not Cuba, we’re Northern consensus in the West endured for some time, people, but as we might observe, that is no Ireland.” with President Nixon, an arch Conservative, bad thing. Indeed, John McDonnell is to be The right wing newspapers immediately stating during an economic crisis in 1971, “I congratulated for pointing out that private charged him with “extremism” and even am now a Keynesian in economics.” companies have paid out £37bn in dividends to “socialism”. But later in November, on a lit- Reverting to Liberalism. shareholders since 2010. According to research tle off-shore island, radical plans were afoot. But the Keynesian consensus didn’t endure conducted in consultation with the House of On Wednesday, 29 November 2017 a media and in 2002, not that long after the Thatcher Commons Library, in 2017 privatised firms paid statement announced – “NI Water acquires revolution, one of the architects of New out a total of £4.8bn in dividends. The analysis Kelda Water Services interests in Northern Labour, Peter (now Lord) Mandelson wrote shows that, since 2010 more than £10bn has Ireland for £28m. The following extracts an article in the Times declaring “we are all been received by National Grid shareholders, explain why. Thatcherites now.” £6.3bn by BT shareholders, and £5.2bn by “In a strategic move which brings back Chasing down the deficit to balance the investors in Centrica, which owns British Gas. into NI Water ownership, all clean water budget had become re-established as the Commenting on this, John McDonnell production in Northern Ireland, the company conventional wisdom. Latterly, the concept said – “These figures show what could have has announced the acquisition of Kelda Water of “deficit denial” has even been laid against gone into investment in these public services Services’ holdings in four treatment plants Labour by the right wing press, because in order to expand and improve them or keep that provide almost half of the treated water Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, Shadow their charges down.” in the province.” Chancellor, have started to challenge the con- In the House of Commons debate on the Len O’ Hagan, Chairman of NI Water ventional wisdom of ongoing austerity budgets. Carillion crisis on 24 January 2018, Jon said:- Thatcher’s massive programme of deregu- Trickett MP, member of Labour’s Shadow “This represents a strong fit with NI Water’s lation and privatisation had been launched so Cabinet, referred to a letter issued by the strategy to provide clean safe drinking water that the free market could work its magic and government citing the names of six companies to our customers and to do so in a way that deliver public services for less. The Private that would take over the public sector contracts secures efficiencies for our customers and for Finance Initiative formally moved the provision that Carillion had been administering, stating – the public purse.” of public services off the balance sheet and as “What a catalogue of failure. One of the “NI Water has paid £28 million to acquire an additional benefit, placed the responsibil- six companies donated money directly to the all of the equity in the project from Kelda Water ity for service delivery outside of democratic Tory party. Two of the firms are known for Services’ and will also assume responsibility scrutiny and parliamentary accountability. blacklisting workers. Amazingly, one of the for associated debt finance. NI Water said Questions about the cost and quality of ser- firms is currently under investigation by the the acquisition will allow it to generate value vices could be answered with the politically Serious Fraud Office for suspected offences from the project that will feed through to useful phrase - “commercial in confidence”. of bribery and corruption. Another has pre- customers by way of reduced water tariffs, New Labour embraced it with zeal under John viously been caught red-handed mispricing Prescott, who even got PFI written into the contracts, underestimating their eventual cost. Continued On Page 20 party’s manifesto in 1992. As a consequence, £130 million was wiped

Labour Affairs 19 No. 287 - May 2018 Parliament

Notes Dick Barry

Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for anti-Semitism into our own party rules. their communities. I also want to pay Housing, Communities and Local In the light of recent events, however, tribute to the Community Security Trust Government, opened a debate on an- I acknowledge that much, much more for its defending of our synagogues and tisemitism on 17 April. We publish be- work needs to be done. That includes, our schools and for its continued work low the speech of his opposite number among other things, the overdue full in shining a light on ant-Semitism in the Andrew Gynne, who spoke on behalf of implementation of the recommendations United Kingdom. the Labour party, and those of Labour of the Chakrabarti report, including a pro- Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab) members Luciana Berger, John Mann and gramme of political education to increase Let me be clear about this: Ken Ruth Smeeth, with a brief comment from awareness and understanding of all forms Livingstone claimed that Hitler was a Labour’s Ian Austin. of anti-Semitism. Zionist. That is anti-Semitism, pure and No political party has a monopoly on simple. It happened more than two years Andrew Gwynne (Denton and vice or virtue, but we will put our house in ago, and there has been ample time to deal Reddish) (Lab) order. Let me be clear today that if anyone with it, so it is a disgrace that it has not I want to begin by addressing the com- is denying the reality of anti-Semitism been dealt with. Kick him out immediately. ments made by the Secretary of State. As on the left, they are not doing so with the It should have been enough when the politicians, we all—and I mean all—have endorsement of the Labour party or its Community Security Trust, the Holocaust a duty to root out anti-Semitism, but recent leader. Prejudice against and hatred of Educational Trust, the Jewish Labour events have shown that we in the Labour Jewish people have no place whatsoever Movement and the Jewish Leadership party need to be better at policing our own in society, and every one of us has a re- Council all said that it was enough, but borders. The Labour party was formed to sponsibility to ensure that they are never we even had the Chief Rabbi speaking change society and to give a voice to the allowed to fester again. out and still nothing has happened. It is oppressed. Reflecting the existing defects I welcome the opportunity to debate a disgrace. My hon. Friend should stand of society can never be enough. It is our this important issue today. It is sadly long at the Dispatch Box and tell the leader of responsibility to show that we have zero overdue. My hon. Friend the Member for the Labour party that Livingstone must be tolerance of anti-Semitism in the Labour Bassetlaw (John Mann) has sought sup- booted out. Boot him out! party. There is no place for anti-Semitism port from the Government to bring this Andrew Gwynne in the Labour party, on the left of British issue to the House for several years, and My hon. Friend makes his views very politics or in British society at all. End of. I pay tribute to the work he has done in clear. I do not share Mr Livingstone’s As the Secretary of State said, the this House over a long time. I also pay views, which are abhorrent, and the Labour National Executive Committee of the tribute to the work of Rabbi Herschel party will go through the processes that are Labour Party has adopted the International Gluck and the Shomrim volunteers in well applied to each and every member of Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s work- London. Rarely do those men and women the Labour party. That needs to be done ing definition of anti-Semitism, and we receive the recognition that they deserve far more quickly, but it needs to happen have written our outright opposition to for the commitment that they give to as it would for any member. As we have heard, this year’s CST report found that hate incidents have reached a Continued From Page 19 record level in the UK, including a 34% increase in the number of violent anti- reduce resource DEL budgetary requirements and enable it to consider further efficiencies as Semitic assaults. to how the project will operate going forward.” (My emphasis). In last year’s statistics, where it could NI Water CEO Sara Venning, said: be determined, 63% of incidents were “A strong dedicated local team of approximately 30 staff operates project Alpha and we look described as being far right in motivation, forward to working with them even more closely as part of the NI Water group. 6% were described as being Islamist in Welcoming the announcement Mr Peter May Permanent Secretary at the Department for Infrastructure said:- motivation, and 30% showed anti-Israel “When the opportunity arose to bring the contract back into Government, the Department, in motivation. consultation with NI Water and DoF, carefully considered the value for money against the benefits The CST reports that 88 incidents tar- to be gained. The outgoing Minister indicated that where affordability and value for money were geted Jewish schools, schoolchildren or proven, purchase of the contract could proceed. The completion by NI Water of this transaction staff, with 50% of those incidents taking will allow them to secure further value to the public purse and will also create an opportunity place as Jewish schoolchildren made their to free up significant additional operating resource. (My emphasis). We welcome the initiative journeys to or from school. In one incident, taken by the Board at NI Water in pursuing the opportunities created by the acquisition”. fireworks were thrown at visibly Jewish Who knew we could be in the vanguard for a resurgence of Labour values and the rescue of people in public in November; in another, the economy from Neo-liberal dogmatists? Jewish schoolchildren were hit, kicked

Labour Affairs 20 No. 287 - May 2018 and punched on the bus home, but were reporting, but anyone who uses social questions. It is our job—the job of all of ignored by the driver when they tried to get media can see that this remains a very us in this place—to ensure that questions help—the children fled the bus at the next serious problem. are asked, that anti-Semitism is called stop but were followed, and found safety So I do want the Government to act more out, and that anti-Semitism is rooted out only after they entered a kosher shop and strenuously with social media platforms wherever it exists. There is no place in asked for help. It is a mark of shame on to ensure that these abhorrent views are British society, and in British politics, left our society that our Jewish schools need removed, and removed quickly. As the or right, for anti-Semitic views— end of. security guards to protect their children. Secretary of State has rightly said, we need Luciana Berger (Liverpool, On social media, as we have heard, to ensure that rightful critique of Israeli Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op) anti-Semitism is in plain sight on the Government policy, which is legitimate I beg the indulgence of the House to most heavily used sites. In January 2018, —as it is against the Government of any tell my story, which I hope will go some the World Jewish Congress found a 30% nation state—is distinct from spreading way to explain how anti-Semitism can increase in anti-Semitic posts since 2016 the demonisation of Zionism and of the manifest itself in our country. and almost twice as many posts denying right of existence of the state of Israel I come from a family that is drawn from the holocaust. itself —that is not legitimate. many corners of the Jewish diaspora: I am But anti-Semitism not only appears as But criticism of the Israeli Government, of Dutch, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian and swastikas, brown shirts and jackboots; it just like criticism of the British Government, Turkish heritage, and I am a mix of both also haunts our society as coded language is absolutely crucial, because that is part of the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. and dog-whistle euphemisms. In the 1930s, our democratic process. Those who cross My Dutch family was traced back to the the terms “usury”, “money power”, “alien” this distinction have no role to play in the Jews who were expelled from Spain in and “cosmopolitan” were used as coded struggle to put an end to anti-Jewish op- the 15th century, and in Britain we found references to Jewish people. Today, Jewish pression within the United Kingdom, and our home. While we are small in number, people in the public eye are marked out they have no role to play in the process to the Jewish community has proudly been a as “globalists”, “rootless cosmopolitans” establish peace and reconciliation in the part of British society and has made many and the “metropolitan London elite”. It middle east. great contributions to all aspects of civic runs through conspiracy theories, as holo- That peace will only come through life for hundreds of years. caust inversion and holocaust denial, in engagement and deep mutual recognition I grew up in multicultural north-west anti-Zionism and in claims of secret plots between the two peoples—a recognition London and went to a Christian school. against our country that are little different of Palestinians’ struggle for freedom I had friends of all faiths and none. I had from those seen in “The Protocols of the and human dignity; and of the centuries never seen anti-Semitism as a child, but I Elders of Zion.” of attempts by the Jewish people to flee knew from my own family history what In 2011, my hon. Friend the Member forced conversion, violence and expulsion. anti-Semitism was. During a debate in for West Bromwich East (Tom Watson), Jewish oppression affects all Jews, in all 1938, Commander Robert Tatton Bower who is now deputy leader of the Labour economic classes, and the oppression of MP told my great uncle, the hon. Member party, spoke in this House about Fox News Jewish people cannot be ended without for Seaham, across the Floor of the House propagating disturbing anti-Semitic con- transforming social injustice as a whole. to “go back to Poland”. The most perni- spiracy theories about secret plots involv- I want to make this clear in my closing cious and haunting examples came from ing holocaust survivor and businessman remarks: Zionism is not an insult. It is not the holocaust. On my mum’s side alone, George Soros. Those views continue to a catchphrase, a code word for racism or we know that more than 100 members of be broadcast. Only last week, the use of imperialism, or a name for unpleasant her family, aged from four to 83, were sent anti-Semitic imagery featuring Soros led things done by Jews. It stands for a huge by the Nazis to their death in the gas cham- to the electoral success of the Fidesz party range of beliefs and believers. When we bers of Treblinka, Sobibór, Mauthausen, in Hungary. Thankfully, the importing of fail to recognise this, we assist those on Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, for no those conspiracy theories on to the front the extremes as they use anti-Semitism to other reason than that they were Jewish. pages of UK newspapers generated the cover up the roots of injustice and shift the I was 19 when I received my first piece outrage that it frankly deserves. blame on to those who are most oppressed. of hate mail—it described me as a dirty We have seen the debate change since On Yom HaShoah last week, families Zionist pig—and so started my 18-year 2016, with triple parentheses to identify across Britain lit candles for loved ones experience of contending with anti- individuals being employed as an online who were lost in one of the most evil acts Semitism. As a university student and dog whistle to single out targets by white in modern memory. Families remembered activist, I was attacked from all quarters nationalists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and how almost one third of all Jewish people from the far right to the far left. I had those who share their views. Each of the were targeted and murdered because of members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an anti-Semitic three parenthesis represents anti-Semitic their faith. This day is a reminder that and homophobic organisation follow me claims of Jewish involvement in mass we all have a duty to ensure that such an and camp outside my house. I received media, mass immigration and global event can never happen again. Words never countless anti-Semitic emails and letters Zionism. These people even developed seem able to capture the bureaucratic and condemning my work as the convenor of an app to help them to better co-ordinate calculated way in which such a raw and the National Union of Students anti-racism and target individuals. Earlier this year, hideous act was allowed to happen. campaign. When I was selected as a Labour the CST reported that online abuse had We know that monsters exist in our council candidate in 2009, people publicly fallen slightly from last year, in part due world, but they are too few to be dangerous challenged how I could possibly represent to improvements in the policies adopted on their own. More dangerous are those anyone from the Bengali community be- by social media companies and better who are prepared to act without asking cause of my faith, and since my selection

Labour Affairs 21 No. 287 - May 2018 and election as the Member of Parliament have no words for the people purporting Labour party in Leeds in 1906, they suf- for Liverpool, Wavertree, I have received to be both members and supporters of our fered terribly because of that. The Jewish a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse. party and using the hashtag JCforPM who community in Leeds stood alongside them In total, four people have been convicted have attacked me in recent weeks for my and supported them. That is why 13 years since 2013 for the anti-Semitic abuse and comments, for speaking at the rally against ago I took on the role of chairing the all- harassment they have directed towards anti-Semitism, and for questioning the re- party group against anti-Semitism. I did me. Three of those were imprisoned; they marks of those endorsing the anti-Semitic not expect today, when Labour Members were of a far right persuasion, including a mural. They say I should be de-selected, stand in solidarity with our Jewish col- member of the now proscribed National and they have called it all a smear. leagues and with the Jewish community, Action organisation. In the wake of one There are people who have accused me not just no solidarity but to be targeted by of those convictions, a far right website in of having two masters. They have said that an organisation called Momentum, which the United States initiated the #filthyjew- I am Tel Aviv’s servant, and called me a has happened to all of us who stood in bitch campaign, which the police said paid-up Israeli operative. Essentially, this solidarity. But worse than that, there is resulted in me receiving over 2,500 violent, is anti-Semitism of the worst kind, sug- explicit targeting of Jewish members of pornographic and extreme anti-Semitic gesting that I am a traitor to our country. the parliamentary Labour party because messages in just one day alone. There is They have called me Judas, a Zionazi they are Jewish. That is what is going on currently one more person on remand, and an absolute parasite, and they have at the moment. having made threats to my life because told me to get out of this country and go When I took on this voluntary cross- of my faith. back to Israel. party role, I did not expect my wife to be I am fortunate—I have said it publicly, I am grateful to the Community Security sent, by a Labour Marxist anti-Semite, a and I will say it in this House—that I have Trust and to the police for their work to dead bird through the post. I did not expect a platform, as an MP, that affords me the keep me and my family safe, and for all that my son, after an Islamist death threat, to opportunity to speak out, and I happen to they do for the British Jewish community open the door, when he was in the house be pretty resilient. I say that I have spo- to keep our Jewish schools and our places on his own as a schoolboy, to the bomb ken out, but it is important to say that I of worship safe, but they should not have squad. I did not expect my wife, in the have been able to speak out because I am to do that. When it comes to what needs last few weeks, from a leftist anti-Semite resilient, but at a later moment my mental to be done about it, I know that many in response to the demonstration, to be health may mean I am not in a place where colleagues will be putting forward very threatened with rape. I did not expect my I have the opportunity to speak out. I am practical suggestions of what can be done daughter similarly to have to be rung up grateful to my family, friends and team of to contend with this very serious issue, but in the last few weeks by special branch to staff, and my constituents and supporters, the hurt and anguish of the Jewish com- check out her movements in this country. who serve as a welcome antidote to the munity must be understood and must be No, I did not expect any of that. bile that gets hurled in my direction. I will taken seriously. This is not the time for I will tell you the principles we have not be cowed in using the full force of the games or divisive engagement. operated on, from the very first speech I law that we have in this country to hold For the Government, there is a massive made on this 13 years ago in this Chamber: people to account. Having heard victim priority to conclude their work urgently, every party in this House should look after impact statements read out in court of better to protect everyone in this country its own backyard first. I have said that re- people who have not been able to speak online from the comments that are made peatedly on hundreds of occasions since. I out—people so negatively impacted that on a daily basis, and just in response to have specifically, in private letters to every they are now unable to work or to maintain this debate. I urge the Secretary of State party in this House, repeatedly challenged relationships, and who have had their men- to see some of the comments that are anti-Semitism. For years, action was taken, tal health affected—I know that just one already on Twitter, since we have started and it was painful action. I am not sure that instance of racism can have a devastating this engagement. people in all parties welcomed getting the impact on an individual’s life. And my party. My party urgently needs letters and the discussions that they had I make no apology for holding my own to address this issue publicly and con- with me, but that was the principle that party to a higher standard. Anti-racism is sistently, and we need to expel from our we have operated on, and we have worked one of our central values, and there was ranks those people who hold these views, cross-party. a time not long ago when the left actively​ including Ken Livingstone. I recall that Jewish people used to say confronted anti-Semitism. The work done We have a duty to the next generation. when I held meetings, “Is it true that by the previous Labour Government to Denial is not an option. Prevarication is there is a growth in anti-Semitism?” We move the equality goalposts in this country not an option. Being a bystander who turns identified 13 years ago the three forms of was one of the reasons why I joined the the other way is not an option. The time anti-Semitism: Islamist anti-Semitism, Labour party in the first place. One anti- for action is now. Enough really is enough. traditional right anti-Semitism, and the Semitic member of the Labour party is I want to conclude with the eloquent anti-Semitism of the new left. That was one member too many. words of the former Chief Rabbi, Dr all documented and has all been discussed Yet, as I said in Parliament Square Jonathan Sacks, who said that “an assault in here. It is not new, and those who say outside this place—it pains me to say upon Jews is an assault upon difference, that it is a smear to raise this issue need this as the proud parliamentary chair of and a world that has no room for differ- to publicly apologise and to publicly un- the Jewish Labour Movement—in 2018, ence has no room for humanity itself”. derstand what they are doing, what they anti-Semitism is now more commonplace, [Applause.] are saying and the dangers. It does not end more conspicuous and more corrosive John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab) with me and my family. It does not end within the Labour party. That is why I When my family helped to form the with Jewish Members of Parliament here.

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Where this stuff ends is with what happened I can assure people who are occasionally fool- surely be travelling 1st class to Tel Aviv with in Copenhagen, in Brussels and in France ish enough to google me—although I would all that slush. After all, she’s complicit in trying repeatedly, including four weeks ago: people urge Members not to; it can be unpleasant to bring Corbyn down.” “First job for Jeremy murdered because they are Jewish. That is reading—that I work not for the people of Tel Corbyn tomorrow—expel the Zionist BICOM where this ends, and we know where history Aviv, but for the people of Tunstall. Those are smear hag bitch Ruth Smeeth from the Party.” takes that. That is the reality now. just some of the regular anti-Semitic tropes that “This Ruth Smeeth bitch is Britainophobic, It is constant. This weekend in my constitu- have become normal in my world. Let me also we need to cleanse our nation of these types.” ency and last night in my constituency—it is make clear—just in case I need to say it—that “#JC4PM Deselect Ruth Smeeth ASAP. Poke constant. There is explicit anti-Semitism, and I am not, and nor have I ever been, a lizard, the pig—get all Zionist child killer scum out then there is the bigger group—the excusers trans-dimensional or otherwise. of Labour.” of anti-Semitism, the people who say, “This What I am, Madam Deputy Speaker, is a “You are a spy! You are evil, satanic! Leave! is something to do with who the leader of the proud trade unionist, a Labour party activist for #Labour #Corbyn.” “Ruth you are a Zionist Labour party is and challenging him.” No, over 30 years, and a lifelong anti-racist. I also plant, I’m ashamed you are in Labour. Better it is not—in the 13 years I have been doing happen to be a British Jew. In three decades suited to the murderous Knesset! #I Support this—and what Jewish people say to me now of political activism, there has never come a Ken.” “Your fellow traitor Tony Blair abolished is different from what they said 13 years ago, time when those four parts of my identity have hanging for treason. Your kind need to leave when they asked, “Is it true that there is growth produced any form of conflict—until now. before we bring it back #Smeeth Is Filth.” in anti-Semitism?” Five years ago, Jewish I used to run HOPE not hate, with the won- “The gallows would be a fine and fitting place people would come up to me and say, “We are derful Nick Lowles. I was the Jewish com- for this dyke piece of Yid shit to swing from.” concerned that there is a rise in anti-Semitism.” munity’s anti-British National party campaign This is merely a snapshot, and the comments I am stopped in the street everywhere I go now co-ordinator. I first stood at a demo against the are those that I would feel comfortable—if that by Jewish people saying to me, very discreetly, National Front when I was 12. I have spent my is the right word—to say in this place. It is a “I am scared.” Young people and old people life campaigning against the politics of hate glimpse into the abuse that now seems par for say, “I am scared.” We see what happened in and extremism. I have witnessed anti-Semitism the course for any Jew who has the audacity France, in Belgium and in Copenhagen and we and racism from the far right—after all, that to participate in this political world. understand why people are scared. is what those people do—and, honestly, I had But this is not the worst of it. There have People—young Jewish members—are become desensitised to it. always been racists and anti-Semites in our scared to go to a Labour party meeting with Over the past two years, however, I have country, lurking on the fringes of our soci- me, because they are fearful that they will experienced something genuinely painful: ety—both left and right—and I dare say there be intimidated and threatened and that their attacks on my identity from within my own always will be. What is so heartbreaking is the identity will be challenged. Any Jewish person Labour family. I have been the target of a concerted effort in some quarters to downplay is entitled to say that they are, to define them- campaign of abuse, attempted bullying and the problem. For every comment like those we selves as, an anti-Zionist, or a non-Zionist, and intimidation from people who would dare to have just heard, we can find 10 people ready I have no right to challenge them. Any Jewish tell me that people like me have no place in the to dismiss it—to cry “Smear”; to say that we person, as the vast majority do, is entitled to party of which I have been a member for over are “weaponising” anti-Semitism. say, “I am a Zionist,” and I have no right to 20 years, and which I am proud to represent Weaponising anti-Semitism! My family deny them that. Those that do are racists. Just on these Benches. My mum was a senior trade came to this country fleeing the pogroms in a change in language—in the use of the word union official; my grandad was a blacklisted the 19th century. Of our relatives who stayed “Zionist” as a pejorative insult—by the Labour steelworker who became a miner. I was born in Europe, none survived. We know what anti- party would alter the dialogue in this country into our movement as surely as I was born into Semitism is; we know where it leads. How in a very big way. my faith. It is a movement that I have worked dare these people suggest that we would trifle We all have a choice in what we do. Stand for, campaigned for and fought for during my with something so dangerous, so toxic and so in solidarity with the Jewish Members of entire adult life, so it was truly heart-breaking formative to our lives and those of our families. Parliament under attack today. That is the role to find myself in Parliament Square just over How dare they seek to dismiss something so of parliamentarians. three weeks ago, standing shoulder to shoulder heinous and reduce it to the realm of political Ruth Smeeth (Stoke-on-Trent North) with the Jewish community against the poison point scoring. How dare they, Madam Deputy (Lab) of anti-Semitism that is engulfing parts of my Speaker. I am devastated that we are discussing this own party and wider political discourse. I am speaking not just for me, but for the issue in this place. We should never have had If the House will indulge me, I would like to young Jewish people I meet across the country to reach a point at which we are discussing read out a small sample of what I have received who are beginning to fear they do not have a one of the oldest hatreds and how it is back in on social media, but before doing so, I have place. These are young people who are braver, our political discourse as a norm. However, I to thank the dedicated team at the CST who tougher and better than I could ever be—the am proud to be supported by so many of my have protected me, shielded me from as much kind of young people who make us feel that friends and colleagues on both sides of the of this abuse as possible, and worked with the our future is in safe hands, but right now they House. Specifically, I stand here in awe of the police on the occasions when abuse became do not feel safe. bravery and strength of my hon. Friends the threats. As others have said, they should not There is something more fundamental at Members for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana be necessary, but personally I would be lost stake here than any party’s policy platform Berger) and for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs without them. They have also worked their or electoral performance: the right of Jewish Ellman). It is their dedication and commitment way through the thousands of pieces of anti- people to participate in the politics of our that inspire and ensure that we stand united Semitic abuse I have received to provide the country as equals. Last month we heard a against the politics of hate and scapegoating. following greatest hits, although I must warn plea: enough is enough. I stand here today to Today I find myself in the bizarre position of the House that my fan-base has shown scant say that we will not be bullied out of political feeling obliged to state for the record that my regard for appropriate parliamentary language, engagement, that we are going nowhere, and entry in the Register of Members’ Financial so I apologise in advance: that we will stand and keep fighting until the Interests is in fact accurate and that I have not “Hang yourself you vile treacherous Zionist evils of anti-Semitism are removed from our failed to report any additional employment. Tory filth. You are a cancer of humanity.” “Ruth society. [Applause.] Specifically, Madam Deputy Speaker, I feel I Smeeth is a Zionist—she has no shame—and must inform you that I am not a CIA spy. I am trades on the murder of Jews by Hitler—whom not a Mossad agent, nor am I an MI5 operative. the Zionists betrayed.” “Ruth Smeeth must

Labour Affairs 23 No. 287 - May 2018 Listening to Italy by Orecchiette Battle Of The Egos after the second round of talks with The Pd continued their freefall and The Italian General Election of 4 President Mattarella. Salvini stood lost the Presidency to the Centre Right. March was inconclusive as no single between Berlusconi and the other small Berlusconi’s Fi leaked support but party or group had sufficient seats to right-wing party leader Georgia Meloni remained the largest party of the Centre form a government. and delivered his speech. Meloni looked Right. Salvini lost a mere fraction of M5S (Five Star Movement) under upwards and to the side with obvious ex- points. Berlusconi was quoted as saying Luigi De Maio were the largest single treme dramatic disdain and detachment. that his presence on the Italian political party. The Centre Right Coalition was Berlusconi marked every Salvini point scene was important for the salvation of the next group in size and they included that he approved of with a loud smack democracy in the country. Fi (Forza Italia) led by Silvio Berlusconi of his finger into his palm. He looked There was a significant drop in support and Matteo Salvini’s La Lega, previ- upwards, nodded, shook his head, sighed for M5S. Di Maio doesn’t have the bom- ously The Northern League. The Centre and visually undermined. Salvini deliv- bast of the Berlusconi type of leadership Left Coalition’s votes slumped. Matteo ered, concluded, gathered his papers and and it is necessary to compete loudly. Renzi the Pd (Partito Democratico) led the way out. Berlusconi then grabbed He seems unable to force his way onto leader resigned, and his deputy Maurizio the microphone and proceeded to con- the stage with a dramatic presence to Martina became the leader ‘regent’ and tradict Salvini. And this is a coalition. indicate that he is doing things and this Party Secretary. Two elements stand Di Maio has had discussions with does appear to be counting against him. out. The collapse of the Pd’s vote has Salvini and initially was optimistic. The second is the Presidential election resulted in paralysis within the party and Finally, Di Maio had to give Salvini in Friuli-Venezia Giulia on 29 April. The Martina stated that he would opt out of an ultimatum to separate himself from Pd’s incumbent Debora Serracchiani is responsibility for helping form a gov- Berlusconi so that they could work away not standing again and the polls suggest ernment and instead choose the position from his obvious suffocating pressure. that she would have lost her seat to the of opposition. Silvio Berlusconi’s vote They would have made an odd couple, Centre Right. The last opinion polls also slumped so that Salvini became the Di Maio, the younger man, should have (which finish two weeks before all Italian nominal Centre Right leader. been the Prime Minister. How would elections) indicated that the Centre Left On 26 April, the time of writing, they have shared power? In spite of would lose with 22% to 28% while the the parties and groups are still unable Salvini desperately wanting to have a Centre Right would win with between to agree a way forward. Italy has two higher level of national leadership, (his 45% and 51%. The M5S may poll be- elected houses but remains without a campaign slogan was Salvini Premier), tween 21% and 27% with the votes of Prime Minister and working govern- it failed. Six weeks of talks had resolved 20% of the undecided still to play for, ment. President Mattarella and the newly nothing. if they bothered to vote. elected Presidents of the Lower and The Pd, the second largest national Clearly President Mattarella can not Upper Houses have all held talks and party, remained resolute about their leave the country in limbo for much mediated, but to no result. The groups position as the opposition group. Very longer. The parliamentarian, economist and parties are more polarised now than latterly, temporary leader Martina has and author Francesco Boccia writing in in the post-election period when there appeared more interested in working Il Fatto Quotidiano predicted that he was hope that a solution could be found. with Di Maio. Matteo Renzi, the ex- would organise a short-term government President Mattarella held two series leader remains opposed and continues, to take the country into new elections of meetings starting with the small like Berlusconi, to wield influence. The next year. A period of space has been party leaders and ending with M5S’s Pd have been criticised for withdraw- suggested to avoid an identical elec- Di Maio. Di Maio and the M5S refuse ing from active participation when they tion result. to work with Berlusconi because of his could have helped at a time of crisis Who will he choose? Berlusconi conviction for tax fraud; they espouse for Italy. perhaps? On 25 April Berlusconi spoke honesty. Berlusconi is equally sure that Any resolution rests in the hands of at Porzûs in Northern Italy during the he couldn’t possibly be number 2 or even President Mattarella and two events commemoration of a massacre and 3 to Di Maio, a man 50 years his junior. could act as watersheds. the liberation from the Nazis. Il Fatto In a recent quote, sanitised somewhat, he The first was the presidential election Quotidiano reported him as saying: “All said that he would only employ M5S to of 22 April in mid-Italy’s Molise. A political forces have a duty to be respon- clean his toilets. But, Salvini as nominal small Region, which has been compared sible, in language and behaviour.” With leader of the group should be the person to Ohio, USA, as it usually predicts intended irony Il Fatto placed this next to do business with. or is a pointer to explain the result to the following headline from the same Italy was scandalised by the press of an election. It was a warm holiday speech. “People in front of the M5S feel conference that the Centre Right gave weekend and the turn-out was low. like Jews in front of Hitler.”

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