#12393146, By WoodenSpoon UK Politics Thread

WoodenSpoon 24 Feb 2019 18:06:45 12,360 posts
Seen 7 months ago
Registered 19 years ago

You-can-call-me-kal wrote:

WoodenSpoon wrote:
This is madness imo; there's nothing anti-semitic about that Corbyn statement. The logical conclusion of the arguments in here is that it's simply impossible for Labour to mention something as anodyne as "interest groups" without being racist. It's insane.
Again, I did not say that what he said was antisemetic. But he is enforcing the smear/witch hunt narrative which is a dog whistle to antisemites.

Can you not see that until he acknowledges the issue in a meaningful way, and takes some strong action to address it, saying things like this only makes the situation worse?

I can't see the tweet as anything other than a bland restatement of a core left wing tenet about entrenched inequalities and power imbalance. If that sounds too much like an anti-semitic conspiracy theory then I'm at a loss, I have no idea how Corbyn could make that point in a way that wasn't seen as racist. He can't just completely stop talking about vested interests "until strong action is taken" on anti-semitism.

It's frustrating because there are plenty of cases of genuine anti-semitism on the left - that Galloway tweet from the other day about fifth columnists "crucifying JC" for instance - and cases where the left is blind to anti-semitism - Corbyn retweeting the street art with the caricatured Jewish bankers - but there are plenty of examples like this one, where I honestly think there is absolutely no case to answer. It's the sort of complex, nuanced situation that our politics is absolutely useless at solving because MPs are too eager to brand their opponents a disgrace. The rush to take offence makes the whole thing intractable.

For the record, yes, I think more could be done on anti-semitism. How hard can it be to bring Momentum activists into line on Twitter - you put the comms out that they're on notice and you make examples of people... But I also think it's used as a stick to hit Corbyn with for points. Hey ho.