Over the last few days both Red Pages and the Labour Party Marxists newspaper have received plenty of attention from so-called professional journalists hanging around conference with time on their hands.Tom Newton Dunn, political editor of The Sun, tweeted on Sunday’s Red Pages lead, ‘How to get rid of Tom Watson’, which suggested that the role of the leader of Momentum in the affair was less than honourable: “Jon Lansman is sell out right wing splitter: the view of Labour Party Marxists (aka, the People’s Judean Front). Got to love #LabourConference2019.” What we’ve also got to love is journalists so stuck for things to say that they have to rely on jokes from a 40-year-old film, Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Other journalists found the latest issue of Labour Party Marxists, with its headline ‘A racist endeavour’ – relating, of course, to the state of Israel – objectionable. Funnily enough, none of them mention that the article was written by the internationally respected, Israeli-born professor, Moshé Machover, who was briefly expelled two years ago after writing a similar article for LPM (and then quickly reinstated after an international campaign). This was photographed and tweeted by the Observer’s Michael Savage and picked up by Dave Rich (author of the execrable The left’s Jewish problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and antisemitism), who wrote: “Of all the issues facing this country that #LabourConference2019 will be discussing, this is the one the publishers of this trash think is the most important to put on their front page.” But it’s on the front page because it’s true and the likes of Rich can’t face that – along with the fact the vast majority of conference delegates support the Palestinian struggle.
The Sunday Telegraph feigns outrage about our “leaflet”, but can only come up with the rather accurate description that comrade Machover’s article “describes Israel as a ‘colonial settler project’ involved in the ‘systematic discrimination’ against the Palestinians”. Erm, and what exactly is the problem here?
Along with puerile allegations about Labour Party Marxists being a ‘racist’ organisation, some Labour supporters have been attempting to downplay the publicity given to us in the last few days. One writes: “Not to minimise antisemitism, but ‘Labour Party Marxists’ are literally a handful of people who have probably all been expelled now.” A case of wishful thinking if there ever was one.