Here is the SWP’s response to Michael Rosen’s anguished request for the Party to stop promoting the racist provocateur, Gilad Atzmon.
Essentially, Rosen has been told:
(a) You should realise that “the main form of racism” is not directed against jews, but muslims. You complain that the SWP thinks that racism directed at jews doesn’t “matter as much”. You’re right. It doesn’t. In any case, racism directed at jews is caused by Israel. (Linsdey German)
(b) Atzmon is not a racist. “He has never made any offensive/racist comments”. We should “celebrate his undeniable musical talent”. (Hannah Dee and Viv Smith)
Hakmao has an excellent piece up at the DSTFW – which you should now read in full – chronicling the full extent of Atzmon’s extreme racism. She asks:
Well indeed, there are so many talents to be celebrated. Are we to take it that Simone Clarke‘s invitation to perform at Marxism 2007 is in the mail?
Engage puts the matter succinctly:
For how long will the Socialist Workers Party be accepted as a legitimate part of the left, of the trade union movement, of the student movement, of the anti-racist movement and of the peace movement?
The Socialist Workers’ Party, alongside the British National Party is, as Oliver Kamm has observed, “the most prominent racist and fascist organisation in Britain today”.
(via Jim Denham at Shiraz Socialist)
UPDATE
Two pieces from The Self Harmer’s blog
– Long standing SWP member, Richard Jones decides that there is no evidence of Atzmon’s racism, and accuses Michael Rosen of “parotting Zionist slanders”.
– The suspiciously jewish-looking Gilad Atzmon declares himself an ex-Jew, and goes on to ask:
The far more interesting question is who is killing Jesus now! I ask, how come Rosen, a poet, is concerned with this question in 2007? My answer is simple. Those Jews who are concerned with the question are those who may be engaged in a very similar crime today. Zionists kill innocent Palestinians. Rosen and Friends are trying to kill the enemies of the ‘Jewish tribal socialists’.
…
The reason that you and your racially orientated comrades fight me is not because you care for the Palestinians or the solidarity movement, but rather because it is yourselves whom you try to save. The issues I raise reflect very badly on you.
…
Rosen: (May Gilad tell us something) concerning the nature or amount of power Jews have or seek to have in the world?Gilad: This is indeed a big a question. However, as someone who was lobbying for a month pressuring the SWP , trying to tell them what they should do (without even being a member), Mr Rosen should be the one who answers this question.
You were performing as a proper Elder, acting as a Jewish lobby group putting pressure on a British political party. Yet, Mr Rosen, you were not very good at it. As you know the concert was a major success.
Anyhow, the facts concerning Jewish power are rather well established. A serious academic body of work focusing on the Israeli Lobby is available. Jewish influence within the Neocon movement is clear beyond doubt. Anyhow, in my work, I do not engage in conspiracy theories. Instead, I do suggest some different alternative analysis to address the issue. ‘The 3rd Category’ is my favourite one. It claims that the 3rd category subject operates within a network. Each member has a role, you, Rosen, act as a left fig leaf. I do not say that you are doing it intentionally but I do not exclude this possibility.
This is, apparently, the sort of thing that Socialist Workers Party activists are under instructions to defend.