AWL master debaters v CPGB flankers

Mac Uaid describes the comradely and progessive debate on Sunday between the AWL and the CPGB. As advertised on this post! I like the bit about "far left.... freak show".

"Sensible souls made the most of the early autumn sunshine on Sunday. Others went along to an exchange of views between the Alliance For Workers Liberty’s Sean Matgamna and respected anti Zionist Moshé Machover. Here’s a pretty biased account of what happened which goes some way towards explaining why the far left is regarded as a bit of a freak show. A very rigorous interpretation of the comments policy will be enforced for this post.

The “debate”, which lasted the worst part of four hours, was a waste of time. In the course of the evening, Moshé was repeatedly denounced by AWL members for “Stalinism”, “imperialist economism”, “demonising Israel and Zionism”, “being in bed with political antisemitism” , “smirking” and “not knowing the history of the conflict”.. This about a man who was one of the founders of Matzpen; who was expelled from the Israeli Communist Party in 1961 for criticising the party’s slavish submission to the Soviet line and for demanding internal party democracy; who wrote the classic text The Class Nature of Israeli Society. To describe him as a Stalinist ignorant of the history of the conflict is so grossly offensive an insult that it alone discredits anything else his critics said.

Although the title was “Israel, Iran and the left”, and was sparked by Matgamna’s article effectively calling for an Israeli nuclear strike against Iran, in his opening half-hour speech Matgamna did not even mention the word Iran, instead devoting his time to attacking a pastiche anti-Zionist position which he ascribed to the rest of what he calls the “kitsch left”.
Moshé described this as “Verbiage you would expect to hear from Melanie Phillips, not from a socialist”, while from the floor later Ilana Machover commented that an Israeli would be ashamed to offer such an analysis, and that if they brought a speaker from the Israeli embassy we would have heard the same position presented with greater sophistication.

After the opening speeches, AWL members tried to argue that comments should only be accepted from members of the AWL and the CPGB, since this, they claimed, was a debate between the two groups. They then denounced the CPGB for not debating with them, but rather “hiding behind” Moshé, who of course is not a CPGB member. The AWL’s ridiculous demand was rejected; after this, their members proceeded to heckle and shout down all anti-Zionist speakers, including Moshé. Although some CPGB speakers also heckled, they were on the whole, better behaved. They also, for the most part, discussed the issue; much of the AWL’s contribution consisted of attacks on the CPGB for refusing to debate them, for lying about them, and for threatening to “drive them out of the labour movement”.

The discussion achieved little, since AWL speakers persist in denouncing positions which they would like their opponents to hold, not with what they actually say. As usual in discussions with them, every Jewish speaker presented an anti-Zionist position; which did not stop the AWL from attacking anti-Zionism, and even opposition to two states, as “antisemitic” , since it appears that in their view all Jews do, or should, support Israel. Moshé correctly noted that this was the real antisemitic position.