The Socialist (dis)Unity blog reports that an appearance in Brighton by the antisemitic Gilad Atzmon has been cancelled due to “fears it could whip up religious hatred.”
After reading this comment by former Socialist Workers Party cadre Alex Naysmith, I get the impression of someone just emerging from long years in a dark cave and blinking in the bright sunlight:
That’s the first time in my post-SWP days that I’ve read some of the controversies of Gilad Atzmon. If any of those accusations are true – that he expressed beliefs in a global Jewish conspiracy; infers the causes of Jewish persecution as something integral to Jewish ethnicity i.e. ‘they bring it on themselves’; holds all Jews responsible for the state of Israel – then what the f**k was/is [SWP national organizer] Martin Smith or the rest of them thinking?? I had heard that Gilad was ‘a bit iffy’, but as his gigs were promoted on SW so I assumed he couldn’t have been all that bad.
The allegation that ‘Jews run the world’ is unsubstantiated nonsense, and all too common I’m afraid. We should give anyone who echoes those sorts of prejudices a wide berth indeed. This is really basic stuff.