Good statement opposing bans and proscriptions in Labour, giving some background to the history of proscriptions and expulsions from the party.
Some supporters of the ban, I’m sure, aren’t thinking beyond, “I’m bothered about antisemitism, these groups are the worst offenders, they should be kicked out.” I understand that impulse, but administrative/disciplinary mechanisms can’t deal with an ideological problem.
Other supporters of the ban undoubtedly see this is as part of a move against the left more generally, part of a tightening up of party culture that will inevitably have a deadening effect on political debate in general and criticism of the leadership specifically.
There are folks on my TL lauding the ban because of Socialist Appeal’s crap line on Syria. Again, I get it. But they’re not being kicked out for being soft on Assad or insufficiently supportive of democratic struggle in Syria - and I still wouldn’t support a ban if they were.
Take a different case: the agitation by Labour Friends of India that led to Starmer’s u-turn over Kashmir last year. I’d like a Labour Party where those views didn’t find a home. But we won’t get there by proscribing Labour Friends of India.
Bans, expulsions, proscriptions all feel like the most effective “direct action” you can take against shit ideas, because it feels like a way of directly excising them. But that’s not how ideological composition and re-composition works, especially in a party like Labour.
The long-term work of ideological confrontation and political education is much harder - and messier/uglier because it involves direct confrontation with the ideas you’re trying to marginalise, rather than just saying “you can’t say that here, get out” - but it’s the only way.

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More from @therubykid

18 Jul
I’m against the Labour leadership proscribing organisations because I’m against bureaucratic and disciplinary mechanisms for dealing with political problems - and if you license the use of those mechanisms, at some point they’ll be turned on you.
There are reactionary views across the spectrum in the Labour Party, including plenty held by individuals who aren’t in a group/faction (how do you “proscribe” that?). The only way to sort that is a more robust culture of open political debate and ideological confrontation.
In terms of my critique of the groups facing proscription, especially the ones whose main purpose is promoting left antisemitism, I undoubtedly have more in common with many who’ll support proscription than those opposing it.
Read 6 tweets
14 Jul
A problem with these “[thing] of the oppressor/[thing] of the oppressed” distinctions is that people invoking them often (not always, but often) stretch the category of “the oppressed” so it can include the ruling classes of basically any state claiming to oppose US imperialism.
In a relationship of direct colonial subjugation (e.g., Israel/Palestine, Turkey/Kurdistan, etc.), there is a national oppression that affects capitalists within the colonised national group as well as workers (although it doesn’t affect them equally/evenly!).
In a direct struggle for national liberation there *is* an important distinction between (say) the use of violence/other forms of coercion (although I wouldn’t call that “authoritarianism”, personally) on the part of an oppressed people and use by the state oppressing them.
Read 9 tweets
28 Jun
“Dog whistle racism”? I’m not sure. That might be the case if it said “Johnson is Modi’s man”, or suggested Johnson was being puppeteered by a powerful “Indian lobby” in the UK, but as far as it goes, the actual content of the leaflet doesn’t seem objectionable to me.
What *can* be said is that it’s a late-in-the-day, opportunistic grab for votes. I want Labour to campaign about the issues on this leaflet all the time, not only when electorally expedient, and not only amongst voters assumed to already know/care about them.
There is a real conversation to be had about how the left navigates “communal” politics. There’s waaaay too much conceded to communalism (i.e., seeing “communities” as blocs with unitary interests that should be engaged with via “community leaders”) and not enough class politics.
Read 5 tweets
22 Jun
This thread seems right. Some of the flack OJ is getting for “platforming” GG is unreasonable IMO, there’s a journalistic case for interviewing him. But if you see your journalism as fundamentally connected to your politics, as OJ does, the considerations in this thread matter.
I’m not accusing Owen of this, but there’s still too much “well, Galloway has gone off the rails a bit, but he’s still basically good on anti-imperialism/Palestine/Iraq, etc.”-type sentiment around on the left.
He’s not “good” on those things - he never was. His “anti-imperialism” is inseparable from his vicarious nationalism/sycophancy towards authoritarian regimes. His politics on “Palestine” are what impelled him to tweet about “no Israel flags on the cup” when Spurs (?!) didn’t win.
Read 4 tweets
20 May
I’ve always stressed that antisemitism on the left has to be distinguished from the racialised antisemitism of the far right. Whilst the former is ideologically toxifying, the latter poses a far greater physical threat to Jewish safety. (1/9)
That’s still true, but if Williamson’s “Zionist teachers are violating children’s rights” rhetoric turns into any sort of serious campaign, I think that could also have implications for Jewish safety. (2/9)
The only way such a campaign could be enacted would be by demanding Jewish, or presumed-to-be-Jewish, teachers declare their views on Israel/Palestine, and if they refuse to respond, or fail to meet the “anti-Zionist” standard set by Williamson and co, hounding them. (3/9)
Read 9 tweets
17 May
Seen this go viral. I’m sure the person with placard had good intentions, and obviously I don’t know what their grandfather’s beliefs are/were, but I think formulations like this are problematic and sail close to the sentiment I referred to here: (1/8)
It’s likely some of the people dropping bombs on Gaza *are* descendants of Holocaust survivors. And? Should Allied armies have made survivors sign a waiver on the way out of camps? “You can leave as long as you promise your descendants will never do anything oppressive”? (2/8)
There’s an implication that having been a victim of attempted genocide should imbue you with a kind of heightened morality. Why? In fact, the conclusion many Jews drew from the Holocaust was that they would never be safe until they had their own, armed, state. (3/8)
Read 8 tweets

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