GUEST BLOG: Lois Griffiths – Revenge of the Blairites

The leader of the UK Labour party in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn, has just been  dismissed from the Party, of which he had been a member all his adult life. 

The reason given to the public and accepted unquestioningly  by ‘mainstream’ media is the accusation of being  unwilling to control anti-Semitism within the Party. 

Yet knives were out for Corbyn long before these sort of accusations appeared. 

A chapter, Killing Corbyn , in the book Propaganda Blitz by David Edwards and Davd Cromwell, describes the determination of “a small number of wealthy people who own global media  corporations”…  to stymie the political career of Corbyn who threatened to “reverse Tony Blair’s hard-won triumph transforming the Labour Party into a similar pro-corporate, pro-war version of the Tory Party.”

Labour voters were warned by media commentators, not to elect Corbyn as their leader. He was too old and dull, uncharismatic, too committed to undated, unrealistic, socialist  policies to be electable. He would be the death of the Labour party.

To  the surprise of the media detractors,  Corbyn’s policies appealed to the public at large.  Labour gained large numbers of new members, including many young people. 

How to stop Jeremy Corbyn then? 

Corbyn  is the first leader of a British political party to publicly support, even at open rallies, the  Palestinian human rights cause.

Zionism supporters within the Labour Party insisted that Labour redefine anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel.

Charges of anti-Semitism could then be used to purge the Labour Party of Corbyn and his supporters. 

As journalist Jonathan Cook has explained,

Anti-Semitism has become a useful stand-in for the deep differences in a domestic political culture between the Blairites, on one hand, and Corbyn and the wider membership, on the other.

A focus on anti-Semitism avoids the right-wing MPs having to admit much wider grievances with Corbyn’s Labour that would probably play far less well not only with Labour members, but with the broader British electorate.

As well as their enthusiasm for foreign wars, the Blairites support the enrichment of a narrow neo-liberal elite, are ambivalent about austerity policies, and are reticent at returning key utilities to public ownership. All of this can be neatly evaded and veiled by talking up anti-Semitism.

But the utility of anti-Semitism as a weapon with which to beat Corbyn and his supporters – however unfairly – runs deeper still.

The Blairites view allegations of anti-Jewish racism as a trump card. Calling someone an anti-Semite rapidly closes down all debate and rational thought. It isolates, then tars and feathers its targets. No one wants to be seen to be associated with an anti-Semite, let alone defend them.

Journalist Jonathan Cook, one of three winners of the 2011 Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism , is a former staff journalist for Guardian and Observer newspapers.  The saga of the destruction of Jeremy Corbyn and the role played by corporate media is a topic clearly followed by  Jonathan Cook. He has his own website, with several articles on this topic. 

Do visit his website for more in-depth details.

In the words of  Dr. Roger Van Zwanenberg ,the founder and chairman of the Pluto Educational Trust, writing in palestinechronicle ,

 “Corbyn’s dismissal is a political coup against socialism and the Palestinian cause.”

Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist