One of several risks in aftermath of the #FordeReport is that discussion around antisemitism, and other bigotries, in the party/movement yet again gets lost in weeds of process, procedure, and bureaucracy, rather than being about a political confrontation with reactionary ideas.
The most robust and efficient complaints procedure in the world is not going to uproot bigoted or reactionary ideas. Obviously those procedures should be improved (although “make it easier to expel people” shouldn’t be the aim), but changing ideas requires political education.
On antisemitism, the issue I’ve been most engaged with, successive Labour leaderships have failed on this. Under Corbyn, one decent educational resource (the ‘No Place for Antisemitism’ pamphlet) was produced, but there was no accompanying drive to use it for ongoing education.
Under Starmer, the emphasis has largely been on expelling more people. JLM has run some training, but from the materials I’ve seen, it’s pretty superficial. Where CLPs have tried to run their own education/training, some have been blocked: workersliberty.org/story/2021-01-…
The best work that’s been done, in my view, is by CLPs acting independently who managed to avoid those bureaucratic obstructions and bans: labourlist.org/2020/08/how-ou…. That’s the kind of work that needs to be resourced throughout the party, and not only on antisemitism.
For those interested in seriously critiquing antisemitism on and of the left, from the left, @shane_burley1’s extremely comprehensive reading list for @fullstopmag is probably the best place to start: full-stop.net/2022/04/04/unc…
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