Some very bad news from the world of Trotskyite Anti-Zionism. Here’s Tony:
The less good news is that at the instigation of Mick Napier, I have been ‘moderated’. First on the grounds that I posted an item on [The Boycott Israel Network] which called for a ‘yes’ vote in the Jewish Chronicle poll as to whether rabbis should work with the EDL, whereas in fact I was responding to a post by Terry Gallogly. And secondly because I posted a link to a report on my blog concerning the Margate conference which has just gone. Whilst Mick clearly does not like the Report, the fact is that it echoed what people were saying about the reasons for London PSC sending someone.
Either way the decision is completely undemocratic and highhanded for the reasons given below.
Isn’t it lovely to hear a Trotskyite complain about the lack of democracy!
We know all about Tony Greenstein’s attempt to frame ordinary Jews as EDL supporting racists. It is not entirely clear to me why Mick Napier would have a problem with that sort of behaviour at all.
After all it was Mick Napier who – for Holocaust Memorial Day – staged a reading of the discredited play “Perdition” which argues that the Holocaust was in effect a joint venture between the Nazis and Zionist Jews. Who followed that up at the next year’s HMD by putting on an event with the Hamas spokesman, Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi. And it was also Mick Napier who put on a SPSC event with the antisemite, Gilad Atzmon. Finally, Napier defended the terrorist murder of boys in a yeshiva, which he regarded as a legitimate target, again using far Right and racist websites to back up his arguments.
It would be unfair to suggest that Mick Napier has fallen out with Tony Greenstein because Mick has a problem with Jews. Irrespective of his ethnicity, Tony Greenstein is not a likeable person. Nevertheless, Mick Napier’s hostility to him is likely to be premised on political, rather than ethnic or personal considerations.
Specifically, it was this article by Tony Greenstein that got Napier’s back up:
The reasons for the establishment of BIN are not hard to find. Most activists have given up on Palestine Solidarity Campaign. An organisation which I helped found in 1982 has become the creature of a small stalinoid group of ex-Trotskyists under Socialist Action/Communist League. Any and every initiative is frowned upon and activism is not welcomed unless it involves lobbying of MPs.
The turning point was PSC’s decision not to support breaking links with Histadrut, for fear of offending TUC leaders like Brendan Barber on the grounds that it was a ‘changed organisation.’ [Bernard Regan] Not content with supporting linkage with Histadrut, Regan put PSC’s name on a leaflet with the TUC which stated that a Boycott of Settlement Goods was not meant to suggest that we oppose people buying ‘legitimate’ Israeli goods
So, in a nutshell, Mick Napier has fallen out with Tony Greenstein, because Tony Greenstein is even more politically extreme than than him.
Ah well.