A year on almost to the day since the CST smeared me. Hey Harley, the Joker is on you…
If there’s one thing we as Labour members have had to contend with over a number of years, it’s accusations of antisemitism. I’ve spoken before on the subject in general terms, on how it is a societal ill, not a specific issue with the Labour Party itself and have of course demonstrated the politicisation of this issue by taking umbrage with the fact the Tories get little if any scrutiny themselves in turn, to the point I put together three massive threads on Twitter regarding Conservative racism, they’re still online. I have been outspoken on the unfairness of media coverage of political racism because in no way has it been handled even-handedly or proportionately. The focus on antisemitism itself, whilst other forms of racism such as Islamophobia are treated as less important, indeed in the case of Islamophobia it has even been labelled a left wing conspiracy and non-existent by some. To take this stance is itself racist, to consider one form of racism as somehow worse than another is itself racist. This I believe most strongly. Racism is racism — regardless of who it is aimed at, it is wrong and shouldn’t be tolerated.
I sleep well at night and am comfortable in my own skin that this is the right way of thinking about it. That doesn’t stop others of course saying otherwise about me. Which brings me to the following tweet that got flagged up to me, of an account I blocked long ago:
@Racharley77, who goes by Harley Quinn, is clearly a pro-Israel account, nothing wrong with that per se, but when combined with a personal attack regarding antisemitism and indeed dragging up a report now over a year old, to prove their point, you get a sense of the sort of account it is. The subject of her ire is a blog post from Sunday published by the prominent left-wing social media blogger and activist @Rachael_Swindon, somebody who you can’t fail to have come across if your Twitter activity is in any way politically minded. Rachael and I have been friends for years, have been activists on the same subject matter and indeed, I had no problem when I was asked if I’d like to contribute to her article regarding Keir Starmer, since we both write — I just happen to vlog as well. The article contains absolutely nothing about antisemitism at all, it’s an opinion piece, and the opinions of others, Labour members and non-members, were sought regarding the leadership of Keir Starmer 150 days into the job. It’s no secret I’ve found him a disappointment and was prepared to say a few words on that — we are a movement after all, not all about one man and nobody can be above critique to my mind, especially not the party leader. Not only that, the subject of antisemitism never comes up in the article.
Nevertheless, despite antisemitism never being on the agenda, never in anyone’s mind when this article was being prepared, Harley here has decided to go on the attack using this article.
She labels Rachael a grifter — Rachael is an unpaid carer for her husband and is disabled herself — a genuine defender of racism, you’d think would have empathy for other discriminated against demographics, such as the disabled, but that’s not the case at all. Harley sadly is far from alone in this and anyone attacking Rachael for essentially being poor are pond scum. I’m labelled an anti-Semite and a social media thug and Derby’s Prince of Darkness can only be a reference to fellow contributor and former Labour MP Chris Williamson. All of us are used to being on the receiving end of abuse, it’s how we know we’re pushing the right buttons, which brings me to the article she’s dragged up, which is exactly that.
The Community Security Trust published last August an article called Engine of Hate: The Online Networks behind the Labour Party’s Antisemitism Crisis. Hard hitting stuff right? It’s all those pesky online activists fault that Labour’s racist! Not really. Let’s do what Harley probably never has and actually take a look at it.
Page 4 right at the top it says the problem of antisemitism has been fuelled by antisemitic posts and tweets carried out in Jeremy Corbyn’s name. It makes the claim that these are carried out by Labour members or part of an online support system. The CST for starters isn’t affiliated to Labour so has no idea how many or indeed who in particular might or might not be Labour members, we don’t all declare that information after all. We all know Twitter can be a sewer, and there are plenty of dregs there and you can’t police that yourself, you have no control over what others write, but anyway, I’m the one being accused of being an anti-Semite by Harley, so lets keep going.
Page 6 introduces us to the Engine Room, the 36 accounts that are most prominent, influential accounts talking about Jeremy Corbyn, Labour and antisemitism. So just because these 36 accounts have discussed these issues, they’ve been flagged up by the CST. Why are the most prominent accounts discussing these 3 individual issues the ones being targeted? Surely the racist ones are the ones you want? The ones actually being racist, rather than discussing antisemitism. Those being antisemitic don’t tend to use the words anti-Semite or antisemitism in what they write, they just write insults after all. If that word has been in your search criteria, you aren’t actually looking for racists, just those talking about it. Maybe it isn’t about racism after all then? Let’s continue.
On the same page it says all 36 have tweeted out content arguing that allegations of antisemitism in the Labour party have been exaggerated or weaponised. Sure, those like me who are or were at the time members have defended our party and I certainly stand by that. The brilliant @ToryFibs account on Twitter produced infographs demonstrating how so much of the narrative was demonstrably false as you can see here. The same page also showed we were picked up in some kind of fishing exercise because we’d used a variety of hashtags, the way things get promoted on Twitter, including hashtags such as #SackTomWatson, #BoycottRachelRiley, #GTTO (Get The Tories Out) or #JC9 (promotion of the then left slate for the NEC elections). Nothing antisemitic there at all. Riley is Jewish, but was pilloried for her false accusations against people, something she got something of a comeuppance with when she tried to sue barrister Jane Heybroek, who I had the pleasure of interviewing about that. Watson’s actions against Corbyn are well known and as for the other two, well God forbid we back fellow lefties or even SHOCK, HORROR, take on the Tories!
Anyway, let’s skip on to who these 36 accounts actually are, as they’re all listed on page 19. There I am, 6th one down in the first column, but look at the paragraph above those names. It says and I quote:
“It is important to state at this point, no analysis has been done to assess whether any of these accounts had tweeted antisemitic content. This is simply a list of the most influential accounts tweeting about Jeremy Corbyn and engaging with these 5 hashtags”
The hashtags in question and methodology used to find these accounts is in a blue box on that same page. They literally started by looking not for antisemitism, but who was promoting the left wing NEC slate!
So anyway, what else did they have to say about me, what other egregious content might I have produced to incriminate me, that the CST will have published in their 52 page long report? Nothing. Not a tweet, not another mention. I’m literally in there because I used certain hashtags and am apparently rather influential. Where the 36 accounts are listed it literally says at that point no analysis into antisemitic content had been done, but by calling the article what they have, Engine of Hate, they’ve implied it. Did I get a load of flak this time last year over it? You betcha. If any of these people actually believed in checking their facts by, y’know, reading past the headline, they might’ve learned a thing or two, but then, such articles rely on people not actually reading past that point!
So if an investigation linking me to antisemitism, but failing to actually find any to put in their report, what of my accuser Harley Quinn?
As you can see from this array of images, they really don’t like left wingers, they really don’t like Extinction Rebellion blockading the S*n and are quite abusive themselves.
I’ve evidenced right-wing tendencies, I’ve evidenced how that report actually doesn’t demonstrate I’m antisemitic at all.
Let me come to the second part of Harley’s tweet about me to address the whole issue of being reported to the Labour Party as they’ve claimed because, no, I haven’t been. I’ve never been reported to the Party, this is a straight made-up lie. I’ve applied to stand as a County Councillor in May’s elections and during the application process, the forms do ask if there is anything potentially embarrassing that could bring the Party into disrepute. Did I declare the CST story? Yes, I did. I provided a link to the thing as well so they could examine it and decide if it was a potential problem. Evidently they decided it wasn’t and that I think is the right decision, because there’s no evidence of racism on my part in it. I’ve now been interviewed by the Local Campaign Forum Panel, consisting of members from across the country, not locally and I passed muster. Onwards to CLP selection as soon as we’re able to. Back to Harley’s tweet and a clearly now deleted tweet from the GnasherJew account was also there, so I can’t comment on what that might’ve been, but I can hazard a guess as they targeted me some years back. The Gnasher’s target left-wingers accusing them of all sorts, but mainly antisemitism. They’ve done it for years and it has been exposed numerous times in various sources, like the Socialist Fight or Peroculos Meos blogs or by journalists such as Tony Greenstein or Asa Winstanley, who, coincidentally, gets smeared in the CST piece too.
The picture here is of an individual more interested in attacking the left, than actually fighting racism, because you undermine the fight against it if you’re dishonestly going about it. I’ve not been reported to Labour, no evidence of racism on my part is contained in that CST report and nor would there be. Singled out, along with other socialists on social media like Rachael Swindon for clicks, nothing else. You actively harm the fight against antisemitism, real antisemitism, which is a scourge. Look at our activity, look at our blogs, look where we provide evidence to demonstrate our points of view and then look at people like Harley, only interested in sowing discord and hate themselves and have no evidence to back up their sordid claims save for hatchet pieces like this report was. I pity them for how empty their lives are. The EHRC report on Antisemitism in the Labour Party is due out in November and will no doubt make for interesting reading. If rumours I’ve heard are true, it isn’t going to be the slaughtering of Corbyn and the movement behind him that was hoped for by some, then the peddlers of false accusations might have some explaining to do.
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