All too predictably, after the latest claims of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party were aired, came the new media hit squad with their trawl of any and every Labour related account they could find. This meant another lame hit job by the equally lame Fawkes-linked Red Roar blog, desperate to equate anything Labour with anti-Semitism.
So any meeting that talked, for instance, about the Pittsburgh shootings in terms that did not put anti-Semitism up front of whatever motion was being discussed, was denounced as “airbrushing” the subject. And that kind of behaviour was inevitably attributed to those who supported Jeremy Corbyn, because, well, it’s written, that’s why.
Then the Red Roar overreached itself in no style at all as it told the few still paying attention “Labour members including councillors in Norton branch, Stockton reportedly voted down this motion condemning the Pittsburgh attack, after the proposer refused to remove references to antisemitism”. But it wasn’t that simple, was it?
Let’s look at where the Red Roar got that information - a single Facebook post from Labour member Steve Cooke. What the Red Roar is not telling its readers is that Cooke is a Corbyn supporter - he’s a member of the Peoples’ Assembly, as is his partner. That detail got missed somehow. I wonder why (er, no I don’t).
Steve Cooke's Facebook post ...
Worse, what Cooke’s account of the meeting concerned shows is that much of what happened was down to him and an elected Councillor not, shall we say, having a meeting of minds on the way in which the local party should approach issues of anti-Semitism and more general racism. Pre-Corbyn Labour establishment at its worst.
... which the Red Roar didn't reproduce ...
As to the Red Roar inference that Jezza is behind the alleged anti-Semitism, this is what Steve Cooke had to say on the left versus right idea: “the conflict over this issue does not follow the left-versus-right stereotypes presented in the media. Barbara Campbell and myself are easily the most leftwing members active in our branch (I was a member of Left Unity prior to joining Labour in 2016 and we're both People's Assembly activists) and we supported the motion. It was the longer-established, Corbyn-sceptic members who opposed the motion” There was more in the same vein.
... shows the party old guard at fault
“The same pattern was followed a fortnight earlier when the CLP executive voted by eight votes to six against allowing me to organise political education on this topic. The pro-Corbyn left members mostly supported the proposal and the more 'centrist' establishment, mainly councillors, voted against”. But that is not in the script devised by the Red Roar’s backers, and so it does not warrant a mention.
Once again, the Red Roar has over-egged its pudding. There’s been an internal argument in a Labour branch somewhere in the North East which has nothing to do with whether there is anti-Semitism within the party. A motion got voted down. By the Labour old guard.
Still, someone will throw them a biscuit for the attack, so that’s all right, then.
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