The myth of Labour party antisemitism

In the attempt to prevent a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party from ever forming a government, a hue and cry has been raised by the sections of the bourgeoisie that most fears this, using its zionist and pro-zionist stooges to spearhead the attack.

It is an attack which can only succeed if people can be conned into believing that opposing the existence, or even merely the fascist nature, of the state of Israel amounts to antisemitism. Only the hopelessly ignorant can have failed to notice that the ‘jewish state’ had to create lebensraum for the jews whom it wanted to attract by violently dispossessing without any kind of compensation and driving out of the country three million of the local inhabitants whose families had been settled in the area for centuries.

Only the wilfully blind can be unaware of the extreme race hatred fostered in Israel for Palestinian Arabs. Only those lacking in moral sensitivity could fail to support the right of Palestinians torn by force away from their motherland to do everything possible to get back what is rightfully theirs. So unless a person is ignorant, wilfully blind and morally totally insensitive, they are, by the definition the zionists and their imperialist friends want us to accept, of necessity antisemitic.

Traditionally, the Labour party has on the whole heartily embraced zionism and the state of Israel. This support was summarised recently by the Times of Israel:

“Labour proved itself a steadfast supporter of the establishment of a jewish homeland. Its own annual conferences, and those of its allies in the trade-union movement, repeatedly endorsed this principle during the 1930s. In May 1939, Labour opposed the Conservative government’s white paper, which sought to halt jewish immigration to Palestine …

“The horrors which were to unfold in Europe over the following six years only served to strengthen Labour’s conviction. In 1944, the party declared that the case for large-scale jewish immigration to Palestine was ‘irresistible’ in the face of the ‘unspeakable atrocities’ perpetuated by the Nazis. [Most European jews would have far preferred to go to Britain or the US rather than Palestine, but that case, of course, was entirely ‘resistible’!]

“Shortly after Germany’s surrender and as Britain prepared for its first general election in a decade, Labour nailed its colors firmly to the zionist mast. Addressing its annual conference in May 1945, Hugh Dalton, who two months later would become chancellor of the exchequer following the party’s landslide win, declared it ‘morally wrong and politically indefensible to restrict the entry into Palestine of jews desiring to go there’.” (It backed Israel before Balfour: Corbyn stance is stark shift from early Labour by Robert Philpott, 17 April 2018)

The article pointed out that there were times when Labour departed from its usually dependable support for everything the zionists wanted, but of course this was only where imperialist interests from time to time so demanded.

If during World War II the Labour Party was prepared to agree to restrict jewish immigration into Palestine, it is obvious that this policy was necessary to maintain any kind of an alliance with the Arab states in the war Britain was waging against Germany. It was a policy driven by love neither of Arabs or jews, much less justice, but by the interests of imperialist domination. These are normally served by support of zionism, but not always.

What it is necessary to understand about the Labour party is that it is an imperialist party – a party representative of the interests of British imperialism – whose purpose is to rally the British working class behind its imperialist masters.

In order to do that, it has to convince the working class that in so doing the working class is serving its own best interests. Hence it has to cover its bloodthirsty, aggressive, exploitative nature under a hypocritical left-wing veneer of progressive promises of ‘jam tomorrow’.

This is why it has always tolerated its ‘left’ wing, which spends its time publicly regretting the policies being pursued by the party but holding out the hope that they could be changed at the next congress, or the one after that, or, at any rate, eventually … Meanwhile the anti-working class, pro-imperialist agenda carries on, whether Labour is in or out of office – though obviously it’s much easier for it to sing its ‘progressive’ siren songs when it is out of office.

It is in this context that Jeremy Corbyn’s lifelong support for progressive causes – anti-Nato, anti-zionist, anti-EU, anti-Trident, etc, etc, must be seen. Even though he is backing down from some of these heartfelt causes in the interests, he says, of ‘party democracy’ (!), still there are elements of the bourgeoisie who are terrified that he might follow up on his previously expressed anti-imperialist sentiments if he ever became prime minister.

It is in this context that rich moneybags, jewish and non-jewish alike, fearful that some part of their immense riches might be diverted to improve schools or the NHS, for example, have been assiduously and relentlessly repeating the ‘Labour party antisemitism’ mantra, steamrollering all opposition.

Even Jeremy Corbyn lost his head in the face of this assault and was persuaded that an anti-capitalist mural that enlivened the streets of east London (showing greedy bankers living off the backs of the oppressed masses) was antisemitic – not apparently realising that he was thereby bowing to antisemitic beliefs that all greedy bankers are jewish!

Although he will probably do his best, Jeremy Corbyn, despite all the support he gets from grassroots Labour members, will not be able to turn the Labour party into anything other than it is – a party of imperialism.