conspiracy is not by itself a violent crime. for example, i could conspire with you to flypost. you conspire to commit an act, that act not necessarily being violent.
The last four years of Labour Party politics has been characterised by constant factional fights. Some have been lost by the left, some (actually quite a lot) have been won. Some have been abandoned for tactical reasons and some, no doubt, have been sorted out in the back rooms without us knowing. But what you can't really say is that they haven't been happening. FWIW my understanding was the unions were the significant block to open selections, rather than pushing for them.
I think an awful lot of people do think that antisemitism is some weird fringe thing that is only present in (group X that they dislike) as opposed to being generally distributed within society and still really active. This is how you get the idea that the Labour Party particularly has a problem with antisemitism - the refusal to believe that it's a broader issue.
I think it's a bit more than that, though. The imagined anti-Semitism of the Labour party isn't that of your average golf club bore. It's a very specific kind of anti-Semitism that stems from pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli sentiment and accompanies suspicious support for certain Muslim types. Anti-Israel, pro-Hamas. I would presume it can also be traced back to some of the alliances, real or imagined, that were forged during the Stop the War campaign.
Curious - Whose definition do you like best ?
Well, it is going to be expressed in various different ways depending on the background of whoever is involved. There is absolutely 100% antisemitism that turns up in that area of politics and that's one of the big areas where it will within the group of Labour supporters. But the insistence that there is only antisemitism amongst those opposing the Israeli government, and crucially comes about due to that, is denial. It can be found everywhere, for instance definitely amongst people who support the Israeli government - e.g. Trump as the most obvious example.
Ok, but the AS Labour is specifically accused of (and of which Corbyn, among others, has indeed been guilty) is that which comes from opposing Israel in a crude, stupid way. And ironically enough, Labour has been accused of such AS by people who themselves exhibit AS of the Trumpian variety - North London Intellectuals, etc.
Broadly, yes, sure, varies in instances but there's a general thread of not being willing or able to look at antisemitism across broader society.
Did the left actually manage to purge any MPs in the ballots they did orgainise?.
By purge do you mean deselect? Or do you mean evict from the Labour Party?
That's just AN's tedious one question bullshit style (well, actually, every tv interviewer who thinks they're hard post Paxman, Neill doesn't have the imagination to come up with it on his own) combined with JC trying to reframe the question to one he thinks is more relevant, which he always tries to do. There are certainly issues with JC being far too tolerant of antisemitic shit when he should know better, but that isn't one of them.
Fair dos I had missed that. It's frustrating cos this should be real basics stuff. It's not hard to get right .
Yes the you're a hypocrite* if you boycott Israel but don't boycott X line is nonsense. It effectively is an argument against all boycotts, indeed all political action.Oh so you're holding the Chinese govt to higher standards than the Japanese or Korean governments then?
I'm being a bit flippant. I don't think there's much to be gained in boycotting particular countries and I don't think BDS, at least in a blanket form, is a very useful tactic. I'm just pointing out that by the same logic I could say you don't really care about the super exploitation of Japanese and Korean workers. Or if the child miners in the Congo who mine a lot of the precious metals used in mobile phones wherever they have made. But obviously I'm sure you do care as we all do and where your phone comes from is not super important within that.
