Jeremy Corbyn’s record as an anti-imperialist has been sacrificed to his priority of maintaining the unity of the Labour Party. Since becoming leader, Corbyn has conceded to its reactionary members: allowing MPs free votes on bombing Syria and renewing Trident nuclear missiles; succumbing to the Israeli embassy and Zionist campaign to brand support for Palestine as anti-Semitic.
In 2003, 254 Labour MPs voted for the invasion of Iraq, 84 voted against and 69 abstained. This was a defining moment in British politics when the Labour government disregarded public opposition to pursue an illegal and bloody war. Responding to the July 2016 Chilcot report into the war, Corbyn said the Labour Party had been misled by a ‘small number of leading figures in the government’ who were ‘none too scrupulous’ about how they had made the case for war. An offended backbench Labour MP shouted ‘Sit down and shut up, you’re a disgrace.’ His was the voice of many of the 254.
Just 11 Labour MPs voted in March 2011 against the UN resolution allowing NATO to bomb Libya. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott voted for the NATO attack, as did the current Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith.
Corbyn gave Labour MPs a free vote in December 2015 on the government’s proposal to allow the RAF to extend bombing from Iraq to Syria. 66 Labour MPs, led by Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper and Deputy Leader Tom Watson, backed the bombing, resulting in a government majority of 174.
Given his record of supporting Palestine, Corbyn was subjected to an orchestrated attack by pro-Zionist MPs, the Israeli embassy and British media and he capitulated, setting up the Chakrabarti review into mostly unsubstantiated allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Over a third of Labour MPs belong to Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry joined the group. Labour Party members critical of Israeli government policy have been subjected to charges of anti-Semitism and Party disciplinary procedures.
When, in January 2017, it was revealed that an Israeli embassy diplomat had infiltrated the Labour Party and intended using embassy money to set up a youth wing of LFI, several Labour Party branches demanded an investigation into Israeli interference in Party affairs. No such investigation will take place; for a century there has been no stauncher ally of Zionism, and then Israel, than the British Labour Party.
The 2015 Labour Party conference voted to maintain nuclear weapons. In July 2016, while debating the government’s motion to renew Britain’s Trident nuclear missiles, Theresa May said she would be willing to authorise a nuclear strike. Corbyn gave Labour MPs a free vote: 140 voted for renewal, 47 against and 40 were absent. The Labour manifesto states that ‘Labour supports the renewal of Trident’. From the First World War to the invasion of Iraq and bombing of Libya, Labour is a party fit for imperialism.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 257 May/June 2017 Election Special
