"No" to Hamas is what the imperialists say. Saying "No" to Hamas because they are conservative, clerical, sexists and homophobic is the excuse the imperialists use; when the AWL start attacking the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people and their resistance fighters they sound like the BBC that insists on referring to them as "Militants" or the right wing media that suddenly develop a progressive political analysis and hijack the 'moral high ground' by belligerently parroting that the west must intervene in Afghanistan for the sake of Muslim women and referring to all the resistance fighters in Afghanistan as 'the Taliban'; they will not or do not accept that they are a resistance force, same with Iraq.
The Palestinian people voted for Hamas, they saw them as the only organised political and military option available in order to combat imperialism. The imperialist/Zionist "NO" to Hamas and its murder of the Palestinian people represents not just double standards but multiple standards; they only want Palestinian leaders that will capitulate as opportunistically as the corrupt kings and puppet presidents throughout the client regime Arab world - which is what Fatah did. Is that what the AWL want? How can an organisation with close ties to the Labour Party self righteously lecture anybody about the wrongs of Hamas?
Let's remind ourselves of the Labour Party and its affiliates:
“The establishment of the Labour Party was a profound setback for the British working class and the oppressed of the British Empire. It consolidated the political domination of the mass of the working class by a tiny privileged upper layer whose chief political characteristics were those of reaction and support for imperialism, racism and sexism. Since then the Labour Party has been a millstone round the neck of the British working class, preventing it from achieving anything of any consequence. From the day of its inception, the challenge for socialists has been to build a movement that could break Labour's stifling grip on British working class organisation and politics and give a lead to the mass of the working class.
Many on the left will say that Labour today is very different creature from Labour in 1900, that Blair and Brown's New Labour project is a decisive break with the party that was once a home for Keir Hardie and Nye Bevan. But they have created a myth. Labour in 1900 was no more radical or socialist that it is today. Blair and Brown's Labour Party is in substance no different from the one founded on an alliance of imperialist socialists with middle class leaders and reactionary trade union leaders 100 years ago.
Unquestioning defence of British imperialism; contempt for the rights of the oppressed; abhorrence for the poor, these were the hallmarks of Labour in 1900 as much as they are today. Yet the left both within and without the Labour Party has spun illusions in and around the Labour Party for as long as it has existed. Fearing the mass of the real working class, those whom are excluded from the official labour and trade union movement, they have pretended that the election of a Labour government would make a difference. They said this in 1983, in 1987, in 1992, again in 1997. They have fooled only themselves. Blair and Brown's government is what they promised it would be – capitalist (pro-big business), imperialist, Zionist, racist and deeply oppressive.
Labour has always been a capitalist, imperialist, Zionist, racist and war-mongering party.
Labour's list of slaughter includes:
Between 1925 and 1931:
It sanctioned the use of the RAF to bomb unarmed Kurdish villagers in 1925;
It used the RAF once again in the brutal suppression of the Indian freedom struggle between 1929-31;
Between 1945 and 1951 Labour:
Committed British troops to aid the restoration of French colonial rule in Viet Nam and Dutch rule in Indonesia;
Continued military intervention in Greece against the ELAS;
Blockaded Iran following the nationalisation of the British-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company;
Ruthlessly exploited the British empire in Africa to aid post-war reconstruction in Britain – The NHS for example;
It saw no offence to its socialist principles in using head-hunters in a murderous war against Malayan freedom fighters in 1949-51;
Between 1964 and 1970:
Defended apartheid South Africa, blocking calls for sanctions in the UN;
Capitulated to the racist settler regime in the former Rhodesia;
In 1969 it sent troops into the north of Ireland to bolster the tottering Loyalist statelet;
Between 1975 and 1979 supervised a regime of torture and criminalisation directed against the nationalist minority;
Terrorised the Irish community in Britain, (as it does now with the Muslim community);
Was responsible for the routine torture of suspected freedom fighter detainees in Aden;
It gave slavish support for the US war against Vietnam from 1964-70;
It gave slavish support for Zionist aggression against the Arab people in 1967;
Under Tony Benn’s (Labour left celebrity) guidance, it approved RTZ’s illegal plunder of Namibian uranium in 1968;
Between 1974 and 1979, it:
Implemented a ruthless regime of torture against republican prisoners in the North of Ireland;
It supported the Shah of Iran right to the last days of his regime in 1979 because his regime was the biggest purchaser of British arms;
In 1978 it sold Hawk jet fighters to the Indonesian Suharto dictatorship which were then used in the genocide of the people of East Timor.
Throughout its periods in government in the 1960s and 1970s it supported all forms of immigration controls.
Whilst in opposition from 1979, ‘Real Labour’:
Supported the Tories against the Irish hunger-strikers in 1981;
In the same summer, it supported the racist police against the uprisings of black and white working class youth;
The following year, it supported war against Argentina over the Malvinas;
In 1984-85, it betrayed the struggle of the miners and helped destroy their working class communities;
In 1990, tin pot generals such as Kaufman and Kinnock bayed for blood in the first war against Iraq.”
In August 2008 two members left the AWL. Their resignations were part of a wave of discussion triggered by an article by Sean Matgamna which argued that, "The harsh truth is that there is good reason for Israel to make a precipitate strike at Iranian nuclear capacity" from an Israeli ruling-class point of view..." The AWL National Committee has expressed that is "against" albeit not "opposed" to such an attack. "Against" but not "opposed"?
There is good reason for Israel to attack Iran? Israel, the rogue terrorist state with over 200 nuclear war heads pointed at every major Arab city? Matgamna argues that Hamas is waging war in southern Israel? Waging war? Hamas's home made inaccurate rockets are symbols of defiance; they have killed about 8 people in 7 years + a women broke her toe a couple of months ago, (seriously). He ridicules the idea that Israel is apartheid. What is apartheid?
"A state becomes apartheid when it has official policies of racial segregation involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against another race of people."
Is that what Israel does?
"Since the [Zionist] occupation of Palestine from 1948, Israel has employed many apartheid and ethnic cleansing policies in order to to drive out the native Arab population and attempt to create a pure Jewish presence in the whole of Palestine. This racists ideology is being achieved through mass discrimination against Palestinians, intended to make their living conditions so unbearable that Palestinians are forced to leave their homeland."
Israeli apartheid policies include:
Apartheid policies against Israeli Arabs include: Not having the right to buy land; no equal access to social services and assistance despite paying the same taxes as all Jewish Israeli's and Jews only job adverts.
In the occupied Palestinian Territories: Collective punishment (particularly of the Gaza Ghetto - a NAZI tactic); house demolitions and destruction of property; removal and relocation of people or "transfer" away from their homes ; mass torture and internment of family members; closures of entire villages and towns and check points, (this can also happen in Israel).
As I alluded to in an earlier post, who exactly do the AWL think are going to build a revolutionary movement (and what exactly are they doing)? The unions that are still affiliated to the Labour Party? John McDonnell - some of whom wore "Vote McDonnel" badges during the Labour leadership contest a couple of years back - individuals and unions that still support and are members of the above Labour party, spinning the same myth about "old" and "new" Labour, selling the working-class the fantasy that revolutionary change in this country can be achieved through Parliament? The AWL talk of a workers movement, what about asylum seekers, refugees, the unemployed, and when they are employed the non union affiliated lower working class or what about students? Although of course not many working class people are students because of the attacks on free education by the Labour Party.
What right have groups like the AWL from the safety of England got to tell the Palestinian people they are not going to support them because they don't agree with who they voted for when 1) as mentioned, that is what western imperialists do and 2) when we consider the blood splattered imperialists and Zionist history of the imperialists and Zionist Labour Party and the unions that support them, one could say that the AWL reek of imperious middle-calls arrogance.
Let's not have anymore blabber about the targeting of M&S being tactically inept. It is a ZIONIST company, " Aiding the economic development of Israel is one of our main objectives" Said lord Sieff, Long time Chairman of M&S. M&S is not just interested in trading with for profit like other companies, it is, and has always been an unequivocal supporter of Zionism and by explaining that in response to slander about being anti-Semitic - when engaging with people - the message can be communicated clearly - not by running away from the argument because some might accuse you of being anti-Semitic or because ant-Semites might jump on the bandwagon, (I would have thought they'd have their own bandwagon anyway).
Let's not have anymore piffle about forging links with the Israeli working class - a working class than benefit from Israel's war crimes. What do you want the Palestinians to do, sit around and wait for the Israeli working class to get its act together? Don't be so insulting.
Let's not forget that the AWL have been members of the Labour Representation Committee since it was founded in 2004, the LRC is a pressure group within the Labour Party.
The Representation Committee has a number of officially affiliated MPs, those being:
Michael Clapham MP
Katy Clark MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
David Drew MP
David Hamilton MP
Kelvin Hopkins MP
Dr Lynne Jones MP
John McDonnell MP
Bob Wareing MP
The group also receives support from unaffiliated MP Michael Meacher, as well as the Labour veteran Tony Benn.
Affiliated Unions:
The LRC maintains support from a number of trade unions, the most prominent of these being:
ASLEF
BFAWU
Communication Workers Union
Fire Brigades Union
NUM
RMT
Affiliated Constituency Labour Parties:
Ashton-under-Lyne CLP
Brentford and Isleworth CLP
Chingford and Woodford Green CLP
Delyn CLP
Ilford South CLP
Isle of Wight CLP
Islington North CLP
Leeds Central CLP
Leyton and Wanstead CLP
St Helens South CLP
Affiliated Branch Labour Parties:
Bloomsbury and Kings Cross BLP
Brislington East BLP
Henleaze BLP
Hastings and Rye East BLP
Kensal Green BLP
Newport and West Wight BLP
Sutton BLP
Other Affiliated Organizations:
Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Battersea and Wandsworth TUC
Cambridge Morning Star Readers' Group
Camden Trades Council
Education for Tomorrow
Hands Off Venezuela
Labour Against the War
Labour CND
Lambeth TUC
Leftout Socialists
Milton Keynes Trade Union and Labour Party Partnership
Ministry for Peace
Network of Socialist Campaign Groups
New Communist Party
Newrad Communist Collective
PCS Labour Left
Socialist Appeal
Socialist Education Association
TGWU Broad Left
Torbay and District TUC
United Alliance for Labour
Compass (think tank)
Progress (organisation)
You seriously could not make this stuff up.
Of course, while groups like the AWL are affiliated to the Labour Party, they play in to the hands of the fascists BNP that tell the white working class that Labour has deserted them in favour of the middle class and/or asylum seekers/refugees and economic migrants. While groups like the AWL spin the old/new labour myth they fail to point out Labours historic role in protecting British imperialism and it's opportunistic role within the working class - dividing the English working class with the international working class by simultaneously waging war on lower working class people in this country and those abroad.
The Labour Party is a thoroughly racist party and it is they, not the BNP that are waging war on asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants. With the lies and myths constantly perpetuated by racist gutter snipe middle class journalism at the behest of the privileged silver tongued Labour politicians they choose to support, a division can be created between working class people in England and the working class internationally - which is precisely what these ruling classes want; they do not want a politically aware and unified working class opposition to their thievery, profiteering and ponderous looting of the very countries from which many asylum seekers are attempting to escape. If this were to happen then by doing so working class people in this country would begin to recognise that the same economic system and the same state that is waging war on the working class internationally is the same one that is attacking them. Working class English people and many working class asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants have the same needs; decent schools for their children, clean hospitals, affordable housing etc. Labour are absolutely complicit in attacking the working class at home and internationally and so are groups like the AWL as long as they spin old/new labour myths.
The British ruling class, its multinational companies and its Labour government support Israel because Britain is an imperialist country. Britain depends on the exploitation of other countries for its massive wealth. Israel plays a crucial role in maintaining this exploitation, by acting as the attack-dog of Britain and the US in their attempts to dominate the middle east. It is the duty of all of us in Britain to stand alongside the Palestinian people in their heroic opposition to imperialism.
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