UK: Defend Nazeem Shah and Ken Livingstone against the Pro-Zionist Labour Leadership!
Statement of RED LIBERATION (Socialists Active in the Labour Party), 30 April 2016, https://redliberation.wordpress.com/
Nazeem Shah the Muslim Labour MP for Bradford West who defeated George Galloway in the General election in 2015 has been suspended by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party, for making Facebook comments. “The Bradford West MP today made a personal statement to fellow MPs expressing her regret for sharing Facebook posts that called for Israelis to be relocated to the United States. She said in the Commons: Anti-Semitism is racism, full stop. As an MP I will do everything in my power to build relations between Muslims, Jews and people of different faiths and none.” [1]
Shah has apologised for the Facebook comments which have been seized upon by the Blairite and Zionist elements in the Labour party to accuse anyone of anti-Semitism who criticises the State of Israel and supports the Palestinian cause.
“The decision to suspend Shah - just hours after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared to give her another chance - follows a revolt by Shadow Cabinet ministers who demanded that the party took tough action” [2]
These comments were made two years ago before she was an MP. Both Corbyn and McDonnell have capitulated to the onslaught of the Blairite and Zionist forces inside the Labour Party. Shah is just another casualty of a purge being conducted by right wing elements in the Labour Party.
Ken Livingstone, a former Labour MP and Mayor of London, was the only Labour MP to come to her defence. He added: “I don’t think her comments were anti-Semitic. They were bitterly critical of Israel and its supporters. She went over the top, she apologised let’s not forget that in that horrendous conflict for every Israeli that was killed, 60 Palestinians were killed and an awful lot of innocent men, women and children.” [3]
Ken Livingstone, a long-time supporter of the cause for a free and democratic Palestine, has now himself been suspended by Jeremy Corbyn for comments he made last Friday 29th April 2016 “Mr Livingstone was suspended by Labour after claiming Hitler supported Zionism “before he went mad” but Mr Corbyn’s deputy went further and demanded new rules to purge anti-Semitism from the party. Speaking to the Evening Standard exclusively today, Mr Livingstone stood by his controversial words. “Everything I said yesterday was true and I will be presenting the academic book about that to the Labour Party inquiry,” he said. Mr Livingstone’s defence is expected to rest on the writings of a controversial American Marxist historian Lenni Brenner, who claims there was collusion between the Nazis and early campaigners for a Jewish homeland." [4]
The collaboration of various Zionists with the Nazis is a fact which has already been established for a long time. [5] Livingstone and Shah are not racist or Anti-Semitic. Both Shah and Livingstone are strong supporters of a Free Democratic Palestine. Livingstone while he was Leader of the Greater London Council supported the Palestine Liberation Organisation and on occasions invited PLO speakers to Britain to speak. It is no accident that the Pro-Zionists and Blairites in the Party are choosing now to launch an attack on Corbyn’s leadership just before the May Elections. It is obvious that the Blairites and Zionists in the Labour Party are hoping that Labour fail in the May elections. With the Tories split these pro-capitalist elements launch an attack.
It is not Shah and Livingstone who must be expelled from the Labour Party but rather these pro-Zionist and Blairite elements! Unfortunately Corbyn and McDonnell have confused Anti-Semitism and Zionism and are capitulating to the right-wing elements in the Party. Corbyn now says he is going to conduct an inquiry into Anti-Semitism in the Party. Of course the pro Zionist elements in the party – the ‘LABOUR FRIENDS OF ISRAEL’ – are forcing Corbyn and others to instigate a witchunt against pro-Palestinian elements in the party. [6]
It is particularly shameful that left-wing supporters of Corbyn – like Jon Lansman, founder of Momentum – are joining now the Zionist camp. According to the Guardian, Lansman said: “A period of silence from Ken Livingstone is overdue, especially on antisemitism racism and Zionism. It’s time he left politics altogether.” [7]
RED LIBERATION denounces the witchunt being conducted against Shah, Livingstone and other members of the Labour Party who are being accused of Anti-Semitism. The comments made by Shah and Livingstone are not anti-Semitic or racist and they both should be reinstated and the suspension lifted. Momentum must clarify if it wants to join the camp of Zionism – which is the camp of racism and oppression of the Palestinian people – or the camp of Anti-Zionism. Only the latter is the camp of democracy and freedom! We urge Momentum to raise its voice and no longer support uncritically the capitulation of Corbyn and McDonnell to the pro-Zionist Blairites!
RED LIBERATION calls on Momentum and all socialists in the Labour Party to jointly fight for the following demands:
* The suspensions of Nazeem Shah and Ken Livingstone to be lifted and reinstated back into the Labour Party again!
* Reinstate all Labour Party members threatened with Anti-Semitism who in fact have only denounced Zionism and who support a FREE DEMOCRATIC PALESTINE!
* Call on Jeremy Corbyn to call off this enquiry into so called Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party which is nothing more than a witch-hunt against Pro-Palestinian supporters in the Labour Party
* Expel all Pro-Zionists elements in the Labour Party! Proscribe ‘The Labour Friends of Israel’! Zionism is a cancer in the Labour Party! Call on the Corbyn leadership to campaign for a Free Democratic Palestine!
Footnotes
1-3) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ken-livingstone-naz-shah_uk_5720df33e4b0d6f7bed5525c
5) See on this e.g. the works of Lenni Brenner, an excellent US-American Marxist historian who has been active in various Jewish Anti-Zionist initiatives. In particular we refer readers to his books 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis, originally published in 1983, republished by Barricade Books 2002 and Zionism in the Age of the Dictators - A Reappraisal, Lawrence Hill, Westport 1983, republished in 2014. See also Yossi Schwartz: The Origins of the Jews (Chapter III: Anti-Semitism and Zionism) which has been published in Revolutionary Communism No. 38 (July 2015), the English-language journal of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/origins-of-jews/
6) “Jeremy Corbyn has set up an independent inquiry into antisemitism within Labour as he battles to assert control over a party in turmoil on the eve of crucial local elections.” (http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/jeremy-corbyn-sets-up-inquiry-into-labour-antisemitism-claims/ar-BBsqUPQ?li=BBoPRmx&ocid=SK2MDHP)