Journal Association of Jewish Refugees Trotsky Recycled
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VOLUME 1 No.9 SEPTEMBER 2001 journal Association of Jewish Refugees Trotsky recycled Though the 'great' revolutionary has mutually contradictory, but the revolution see the disadvantaged '^een dead these sixty years, his ghost twisted logic of the true Trot believers Asian inhabitants ofthe mill towns as a •"efuses to lie down. This is shown by can accommodate both. The recent proletarian mass potentially capable of Various current developments which riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford being mobilised for class war. range from the sublime to the have breathed new life into the The mayhem that occurred - ridiculous. To start with the latter, Trotskyite anti-Nazi League (ANL), especially in Bradford, where rioters '^'Hema-goers will soon see Trotsky, an organisation which superficially badly damaged the economic '"e sexagenarian lover, on screen. A appears to be fighting the good fight. infrastructure of their own locality - Hollywood film, currently in dovetails neatly with Leon Trotsky's production, features him and the notorious Elendstheorie. The theory of Painter couple Frieda Kahlo and Diego immiseration stated, in a nutshell, that ^'Vera in an 'eternal triangle' in order to goad workers into manning Situation. Trotsky is Geoffrey Rush, the barricades. Socialists should not ^hose role as the pianist in Shine ameliorate their conditions, for ^^tablished him as a first-rate instance by trade union action but, on "iterpreter of brilliant Jewish the contrary, expose them to the full 'Monomaniacs. force of capitalist exploitation. A Of Trotsky's brilliance there can be variation on this perverse high risk '"^tle doubt. In the early days of the prescription - didn't the KPD argue Communist International he would that the Nazi take-over would finally ^^dress gatherings consecutively in open the German workers' eyes to the Russian, German, French and reality of capitalism? - was played out ^'^glish. By the late Twenties in last November's US presidential "owever, this internationalism, as 1 elections. There the Democrat would ^11 as personal rivalry, had pitched undoubtedly have won - irrespective ^^ into a fight to the death with the of the Florida shenanigans - if the ^>issia-centred Stalin. i Green 'consumers' advocate' Ralph Leon Trotsky t)ying in Mexican exile, he Nader had not split the anti-Bush vote. ^lueathed to the world the less than However, odd as it may seem, in a Having helped to put the man who tore f^'iign legacy of Trotskyism. This still peculiar way the ANL feeds on racism up the Kyoto protocol into the White ps adherents in Western countries. to provide itself with a raison d'etre. We House, the Greens attempted to ^ f^rance. Prime Minister Jospin only have the Birmingham Labour MP Sion justify their wrecking tactics by ^nsmuted into a Social Democrat Simon's account of how the anti-Nazis arguing that under Bush, America's '^^r a spell as a Trotskyite militant, deliberately exacerbate race relations consumers will embark on a steep ^^ their presidential candidate in his constituency for their own learning curve about corporate greed - ^vine polled two million votes some political advantage. and, anyway, Gore was hardly an anti- '^sago. Last month's mayhem in the capitalist friend ofthe earth. ^ Britain, Trotskyism is only a Northern textile towns was Yet again 'the best is the enemy of ^idual force that intermittently orchestrated by a bizarre coalition of the good'. In their bizarre way the ^'"acts the spotlight by mobilising BNP skinheads, Taliban-inspired advocates of recycling the earth's Pposition either to neo-Nazis or to young Muslims and Trots. The finite resources are currently '^ael. These two targets may be Trotskyite would-be fomenters of recycling Trotsky. Loathsome Berlin's Jewish Refugee mementos needed Museum re-opens for new exhibition Among the comments on Michael Portillo's demise, one described him as a Closed for nearly a year to prepare the Photographs, artefacts and documents "self-loathing Tory." Echoes here of 'Jewish permanent exhibition, Berlin's Jewish relating to refugee experiences and self-hatred' - yet the difference is vast. Museum opens this month with a number refugee organisations are sought for an Portillo could, conceivably, abjure of special events. The inauguration exhibition currently being created to Toryism, whereas Jewishness is ceremony on 9 September will take place record and illustrate the experiences of genetically (as well as in many cases, in the presence of German President German-speaking Jewish refugees in culturally) transmitted. Johannes Rau and Chancellor Schroder Britain. Sponsored by the AJR, ^^ In the nineteenth century, self-loathing and will be attended by prominent association with the Jewish Museum and Jews would convert to Christianity and international guests from the worlds of the Wiener Library, the exhibition is due to embrace reaction. In the last century they politics, business and the arts. After a often abjured religion and veered open at the Jewish Museum, Camden, m leftwards. Hirsch Apfelbaum became concert given by Daniel Barenboim and the spring of next year, a major event in Gregory Zinoviev, not merely to evade the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a celebration ofthe AJR's 60th Anniversary. Tsarist police scrutiny, but also to slough gala dinner, the Museum will be opened by Among subjects of special interest are off his Jewish identity. Yevsektia (Jewish President Rau. During the week which refugee hostels, refugee businesses, section of the Soviet Communist Party) follows, special events will celebrate the enemy alien tribunals, internment (on the militants enthusiastically closed down opening, including a Day of Remembrance Isle of Man and elsewhere), refugees synagogues and hounded Zionists. in honour of donors and lenders of work experiences, shipment to Canada Anglo-Jewish Communists did not exhibition artefacts, a 'Students' Day' and a and AustraUa, and experiences in the want to lag behind their comrades. day geared towards families. Pioneer Corps and in other regiments oi Imbued with the 'faith', they transmitted The exhibition has been planned with a the British Army. Organisations oi their own anti-Zionism to the next generation. Signatories to the latest 'family' audience in mind. The approach is interest include Belsize Square 'Boycott Israel' appeal include such CPGB chronological and is based on scholarly Synagogue, the Free German League ot progeny as children's books author research. Over twenty historians, Jewish Culture, the Austrian Centre, the Laterndl Michael Rosen, and the comedian studies' specialists and art historians have and Blue Danube Club. Alexei Sayle. been involved in researching the Any material on the Finchley Road areai These boycott-mongers blithely ignore permanent exhibition. The exhibition will as well as refugee life in general, is also oi the fact that Yasser Arafat trod Ehud change in the light of ongoing research and great interest to the curators. This Barak's olive branch - the most the academic debate surrounding the includes information about the Cosmo courageously far-reaching peace offer for history of the Jews in Germany. Cafe (photos of the interior and exteriof half a century - into the dust. Nor do they Between its initial opening in January being especially sought), the Dorice, ano seem perturbed by the existence of 1999 and January 2001, there were nearly other meeting places. Hamas' Gaza training school for pre- teenage suicide bombers, where virtual 350,000 visitors to the empty building. Do not hesitate to contact us if V"^ toddlers are being educated for death, believe that you could either donate o the and promised instant translation to a lend items of relevance to the German- virgin-thronged paradise. Jewish refugee experience in Grea Such an enterprise ought to revolt any Irving'sappealfalls Britain. Please contact Dr Bea LewkoWicZ humanely-inclined person on several The Court of Appeal has endorsed the or Carol Seigel at the Jewish Museum, ^ counts: the rape of the mind of minors, judgement of the High Court in finding East End Road, Finchley, London N3 2SV. the glorification of death, stupefying that no libel had been committed by Prof Tel: 020 83491141. Fax: 020 8343 2162. religious mysticism, and the depiction of Deborah Lipstadt when she described women as chattels. David Irving as a dangerous spokesman When, one wonders, will the boycott for Holocaust denial in her book Denying Tfte Cfiairman, lobby use its leverage among the the Holocaust. One of the Appeal Court Palestinians to arrest the slide into the judges was quoted as saying that Irving Management mind-boggling backwardness and Dark could be described as dangerous by virtue Age savagery which Hamas personifies? of his historiographical methods. The Committee and Staff RG Court of Appeal judgement upholds the wish afCAJR AJR Joumal personnel description of Irving by Mr Justice Gray as Richard Grunberger Editor-in-Chief a racist Holocaust denier who deliberately members a fiapjf}j> Ronald Channing Executive Editor distorted historical facts. Prof Lipstadt Marion Koebner Staff Reporter expressed herself pleased with the AJR Journal, 1 Hampstead Gate, fieaftftij 'B'jjeaeefuf la Frognal, London NW3 6AL judgement but acknowledged that there Tel: 020 7431 6161 Fax: 020 7431 8454 would always be those prepared to pervert New Year. e-mail: [email protected] www.ajr.org.uk historical records for their own ends. Exiles to the left of them - exiles to the right of them Richard Grunberger NEWTONS ^'le of the questions which puzzled 1848 Revolution many liberal Germans Leading Hampstead Solicitors observers of the South African scene lost hope and went abroad (mainly to 22 Fitzjohn's Avenue, "uring the apartheid years was that the America). They had already been London NW3 SNB Afrikaners, though descended from Dutch preceded into exile by free spirits like • All English legal work stock, were infinitely more bigoted and Heinrich Heine and George Herwegh. undertaken 'backward-looking than their cousins Thus it happened that the ex-'48er Carl "back home'.