Thread by @MrBenSellers

🧵 The closer it gets to the reality of @ZohranKMamdani becoming the next Mayor of the New York, the more frenzied become the voices of reaction. Over the last 24 hours, the transatlantic support of former @UKLabour leader @jeremycorbyn has got people in a
real lather. (1/16)

Mamdani’s rival @andrewcuomo seized on Corbyn’s support to trot out some familiar themes (to those of us here in the UK) of Corbyn’s “moral compromise” on antisemitism, seemingly referring to the Equality & Human Rights Commission’s 2020 report, but not naming it. (2/16)

Dozens of other commentators were sent into a tailspin over @jeremycorbyn’s support, with the usual lurid language: “a tidal wave of extremism”; “one of Europe’s most well known anti-Semites”; “the nastiest anti-Semites”. Plenty of slippage, not so much evidence. (3/16)

But let’s go back to Cuomo & the EHRC report. Because there are a few things that New Yorkers should be aware of. While it was presented by a hostile political & media establishment in the UK as a neutral report condemning Corbyn, the truth is a bit more complex. (4/16)

The report was lobbied for heavily by 2 factional organisations overtly hostile to @jeremycorbyn because of his open support for Palestinian liberation - that is, the Jewish Labour Movement & the Campaign Against Antisemitism, two organisations that need some explanation. (5/16)

The Jewish Labour Movement is not what it might appear to be. Formerly Poale Zion, it was effectively reinvented as a right-of-centre factional organisation by Blairite activists to beat back the socialist advance in @UKLabour under Corbyn in 2016. (6/16)

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) is no such thing. It is an aggressively factional organisation, with a vicious politics that stretches from the right of the Labour Party rightwards, linking with Zionist right-wingers to smear & defame socialists & anti-racists. (7/16)

Both of these organisations pushed the EHRC into an investigation, while @Keir_Starmer’s witch-hunt of not just Corbyn, but the whole left of @UKLabour was in full swing. The whole thing dovetailed beautifully, if your aim was to stigmatise & marginalise socialism. (8/16)

As @JVoiceLiberatio pointed out, the whole process was flawed. Even the terms of reference were unsatisfactory, referring to “unlawful acts” without specification. Their thorough analysis of the shortcomings of the report can be read here: (9/16)jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/the-…

Amongst other things, the JVL analysis also points out the absence of history & context, a dismissal of the politics of the Labour Party, the clumsy application of “agents” of the party & a failure to publicly explain the findings adequately. It’s worth a read. (10/16)

Lo & behold, when the EHRC did start to gather evidence, huge chunks of it came from the CAA (230 complaints from them alone) & JLM. The report never seems to recognise these organs as factional operators & took their evidence at face value, whilst being silent on others. (11/16)

When the report was published, @jeremycorbyn criticised aspects of it, saying the antisemitism problem in @UKLabour was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. He was right - it was. All evidence-based reports backed him up, yet he was castigated for it. (12/16)

Part of the re-writing of history has it that Corbyn was expelled from Labour for antisemitism. That’s a brazen lie. He was expelled after finally declaring himself an Independent, following years of manipulation of the disciplinary structures by Starmer post-2020. (13/16)

The facts: prevalence of antisemitism in Labour during the Corbyn years was lower than any other mainstream party. Complaints connected to antisemitism amounted to approximately 0.1% of party membership, with even less actually proven. (14/16)

The centrist & rightwing media did a very good job of ignoring these facts & instead presented a fantasy narrative that served their interests well. As a result, academic studies showed, the general public hugely overestimated antisemitism within Corbyn’s Labour. (15/16)

In sum, the EHRC report was at best flawed, written without nuance in a febrile atmosphere not dissimilar to that around the @ZohranKMamdani campaign in New York. It’s no coincidence that the same trick is being replayed in desperation. I trust they won’t fall for it. (16/16)