The shocking history of Tory Party antisemitism
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
In the context of the current weaponisation of antisemitism against Labour, Alan Woods looks at the Tory Party with its history of deep complicity in antisemitism, “completely dominated by a reactionary clique of anti-immigrant, racist and xenophobic bigots of the worst kind.
“This undoubtedly represents an ‘existential threat’ to Jewish people and to every other ethnic minority in Britain. But the Chief Rabbi cannot see this…”
This article was originally published by Socialist Appeal on Thu 28 Nov 2019. Read the original here.
The shocking history of Tory Party antisemitism
In recent years, Labour have been bombarded with accusations of antisemitism. This is part of a coordinated campaign to undermine Corbyn. Meanwhile, the Tory party, throughout history, has been a haven for antisemites and racists.
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We can also add Nancy Astor and the statue just unveiled of her.
In 1924 the Zinoviev letter – a cynical invention of the British ruling class and its agents in MI5 – was successful in overthrowing a Labour government. But this is not 1924, and the people of Britain are not so easily fooled by lying inventions and unscrupulous smear campaigns. ‘
It may not be 1924, but the fact that the survey for the authors of Bad News For Labour found that, on average, respondents believed that 34% of Labour Party members had been reported for anti-semitism, is testament to the effectiveness of the smear campaign.
That said, it’s great that so many Jewish people are speaking out about their own experience as members of the Labour Party, which is totally at odds with the claims made by the people who participated in the Panorama program, for example, who were ‘presented’ as ordinary Jewish Labour Party members, seven of whom turned out to be executive committee members of the Jewish Labour Movement, and one of the other three their former Campaigns Officer. And I expect the other two were buddies of theirs. And I have no doubt whatsoever that the OTHER participants in the program – ie the former LP staff and the so-called experts – knew EXACTLY who they were!
While it is useful to have catalogued instances of Tory antisemitism, I really must challenge the statement that the “Labour Party has been has been fighting against racism and anti-Semitism since its foundation”. The party was founded fully committed to imperialism and colonialism (it supported the first world war and notoriously initiated Britain’s nuclear weapons programme) and numerous instances of prejudice and hostility towards Jews, to say nothing of racism in general, can be found from its leading members and in the legislation is has supported from its inception:
https://isj.org.uk/the-labour-party-anti-semitism-and-zionism/
In fact, claiming that Labour has a good historical record on these issues does a disservice to the anti-racist fighters (some no longer) in the Labour Party, who have brought about a significant change in its policy and culture in the last 40 years and put a broadly anti-racist leadership in place. People like Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth, Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone spring to mind, along with Corbyn himself.
Philip is correct of course – Labour of old had many more reactionaries, racists, misogynists, anti-gays etc than today, and it is the left that has led the way to a far better party. That also mirrors general society too though in changes in social values.
Can we have souces for info provided to give such an article weight, please?
Labour are more anti racist than the Tories
Ken Livingstone, Dennis Skinner, Tony Benn, Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Grant as well as Alf Dubs have all combated racism in our movement from sun up to sun down before even when our Labour movement existed.
Interestingly, Jews were not allowed to take their seats in the House of Lords in Victorian times as it was considered they couldn’t swear the ‘Christian Oath’. Disraeli worked hard to win over the House of Commons, but was blocked for a long time by the Lords. Finally, when the ‘Jew Bill’ was passed. Lord Rothschild was able to sit in the Lords. They’ve always liked our money, but not our presence!
Carol Hedges, are you implying that all Jewish people are well off? A strange comment from a socialist!