Antisemitism: the Socialism of Fools
The Labour Party’s recent entanglement with antisemitism came as a shock to many. At its root is the issue of nationalism.
There is much evidence that ‘the world has gone mad today’. One case is the British Labour Party’s problem with antisemitism. Social democratic and socialist parties of the Left are not supposed to have antisemites in their ranks. The Right is where antisemitism flourished traditionally. It was they who denied Jews access to the Establishment and saw them as part of a Judeo-Bolshevist conspiracy. Since the late 1940s, admittedly, the Soviets attacked Zionism and ‘bourgeois cosmopolitanism’. But Labour and other centre-left parties in the West acted as heirs to the liberal tradition of equality of citizens regardless of religion or ethnicity and became the parties for which most Jews voted. It is a topsy-turvy world if Labour is the party with an antisemitism problem.
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
