Monday 21 May 2018

Black Out?

Martha Osamor is the sixth, sixth, black anti-racist campaigner to have been accused of anti-Semitism by those who formed themselves into a lynch mob and marched to demand the expulsion of Marc Wadsworth from the Labour Party.

The Klansmen had no idea who Wadsworth was or why he mattered, and they have no idea why Osamor is or why she matters. In the world of the clothing range Hope Not Hate, anti-racism began with Tony Blair as surely as everything else did.

For that is what Hope Not Hate is. It should be known as Jack Wills. Imagine, just try and imagine, the Hope Not Hate lot fighting the EDL or its predecessors on the streets. You just laughed out loud reading that, and I just laughed out loud writing it.

Ruth Smeeth, Jess Phillips and John Woodcock all abstained on Windrush. Perhaps someone should hold a march against them? Someone experienced in such campaigning? Someone like, oh, I don't know, Marc Wadsworth?

But the recent failed attempt by David Miliband to re-enter British politics reminded us of where all this was coming from. In New York, when a black activist becomes too uppity for the liking of the wealthy Liberal Establishment, then he or she is branded an anti-Semite and, for the most part, never heard of again. New York New Labour expects the same tactic to work here.

Ho, hum. It looks as if Labour might not expel Ken Livingstone after all. Well, he is the wrong colour for that. So Ruth Smeeth and those who marched with her can then leave the Labour Party at that point. Or they can shut the hell up.

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