Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents in the Labour Party – and in the Establishment – are trying to manufacture a scandal out of a comment Corbyn made in response to artist ‘Mear One’s complaint in a Facebook post that his mural on a London wall was about to be painted over by the local council.
Mear One, whose real name is Kalen Ockerman, did not mention in his post the reason why the mural was to be painted over, but stated a concern about freedom of expression – which Corbyn’s comment made clear was the trigger for the response:
Why? You are in good company. Rockerfeller destroyed Diego Viera’s mural because it includes a picture of Lenin
Corbyn has apologised for the comment, acknowledging that he should have looked more closely before commenting – but of course, many of his opponents have dismissed the apology.
What many observers might not have realised, however, is that Corbyn’s comment misspells both names it contains.
The Huffington Post’s coverage of the controversy marks the two names with [sic], indicating that they are merely reproducing an incorrect original.
But does anyone really think that Jeremy Corbyn – a politician of decades of commitment to socialism and of criticism of predatory capitalism – would, under normal circumstances, really misspell both the name of a hugely-famous Trotskyite artist and the name of one of histories most famous ultra-capitalists?
He might, of course, misspell them – or miss his phone’s auto-‘correction’ of the names to versions that are wrong – if he was posting in a hurry or while distracted.
Exactly the sort of situation where you might, for argument’s sake, post a comment on the imminent destruction of a mural without checking properly what the topic of the mural was.
Corbyn’s voting record in Parliament – and his history of continuous campaigning outside Parliament – for justice and against antisemitism and racism are, of course, the concrete, unimpeachable proof that even the suggestion of antisemitism is nonsensical.
But even the circumstantial evidence tallies perfectly with Corbyn’s explanation of the comment and the terms of his apology.
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I thought it was an anti-capitalist / anti establishment painting as is the other painting he was supposedly referencing. And as the artist has said. How do people know those men around the table are supposed to be Jewish?
There’s an old article, apparently it was in the news before. Which mentions what the other painting he mentioned was about. I think he just thought it was about anti-capitalism and didn’t see or realise the connotations that apparently others are seeing. He asked why it was being removed so I don’t think he realised. His whole comment seems to me he was writing in an anti-capitalist manner, as he mentions removal of the other artwork because it featured Lenin. He should have made this more clear in his statement today.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/did-jeremy-corbyn-back-artist-whose-mural-was-condemned-as-antisemitic-1.62106
Quotes from above article:
“The graphic, Freedom for Humanity, was painted on a property near Brick Lane in London’s East End by renowned international graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One, in 2012.
It depicted a group of businessmen and bankers sitting around a Monopoly-style board and counting money. The mural was painted on the end wall of a private property, but was removed by local authorities after complaints from residents .”
“Mr Corbyn wrote: “Why? You are in good company. Rockerfeller destroyed Diego Viera’s mural because it includes a picture of Lenin.
That was an apparent reference to the removal in 1934 of a work by left-wing Mexican artist Diego Rivera from Manhattan’s Rockefeller Centre. Rivera’s piece had been interpreted as anti-capitalist.”
He should have made it more clear it was a comment on capitalism and at the time didn’t realise what is being said now
If you are viewing it from an anti-capitalist viewpoint, whether or not 2 figures may be Jewish (as people are claiming) is surely irrelevant, the focus is capitalism and the capitalist system not someones religion or ethnic heritage. Or am I missing something?
They same old blairites, keep picking the same stick up to beat Corbyn with. They have nothing else. How many more times are they going to fabricate anti Semitic lies. These are the same scum bags that shouted down Corbyn and blamed him for anything they could, remember it was his fault for brexit.
These idiots rubbished him at every turn and the MSM was happy to facilitate their lies.
If Corbyn hadn’t been attacked from all sides, his message would have got out sooner than the 2017 election. what was his position on brexit remain and reform.
So these so called moderates have been complicit with the Tories, in bringing the country to where it is now, and anyone believing and going along with their brexit position, really needs to realise the so called moderates are the EU a mirror image of the blairites, the cause of all the problems.
It would seem there are a number of MPs purporting to be Socialists who would rather see the Tories win the next election rather than Corbyn. Is it not time to re-establish mandatory reselection.
Yes, yes, yes, of course, we all know that Jeremy’s a raging malevolent anti-semite.
The fascist psychopaths never give up do they!
Racist, pro-apartheid right wing Labour MPs are accusing the lifelong anti-racism campaigner, Jeremy Corbyn, of racism.
There is no place in the Labour Party for these racist right wing Labour MPs who support apartheid.
So easily done, if you get distracted.. I was showing a friend my new stickers that I had downloaded to my iPad when I unintentionally touched one WTF & sent it to another friend I was talking to on Facebook Messenger at the time. She was not pleased to say the least.
I do wish these right wing Labour MP’s would shut up and go away to coin a phrase.
Does anyone understands there is a pattern here? antisemitism smears works and they will use it on everyone they could. the deeply worrying things here is that not all forms of racism works like that and many of the people who get “offended” with human right activists, including Corbyn, made themselves racists comments without being even putt to notice. The thing is, they don’t care about racism, they just need a reason to take down what treaten their carreer an their privileges. That struggle is the real fight that the people supporting Corbyn’s project should quickly understand or the intire movement would be destroyed and we already see people backing off because the risk to talk the truth is actually not a safe option anymore.
If you Google ‘Chuka Umunna + anti-Semitism’ the results seem to indicate that the only time Chuka is concerned about anti-Semitism is when he’s using it to attack Jeremy Corbyn.
The point no one seems to be making is that Luciana Berger and Stephen Pollard (editor of the Jewish Chronicle) who between them have promoted this story have no problem with anti-semites as long as they are supporters of Zionism and Israel. When Michal Kaminski, Polish MEP and anti-semite came under attack for his views, Pollard leapt to his defence telling the Guardian “Far from being an antisemite, Mr Kaminski is about as pro-Israeli an MEP as exists.” The idea that being pro-Israeli/Zionist inoculates you against antisemitism is simply rubbish. The irony is that these types have no problem unearthing and using such weapons to beat socialists but are strangely quiet about prominent racists who support Israel, such as Steve Bannon and Donald Trump.
Yes, this often happens. Donald Trump was recently praised for his pro-Israel stance despite his comments about the demonstrators in Virginia not long before.
It never occured to me that the old men sitting aound the table built on the backs of ordinary people were anything other than Capitalists. They certainly do not look like stereotypical Jewish bankers….
However, the irony is that it was the Right’s bete noire, Lutfur Rahman, who ordered the mural to be erased. (When Christine Shawcroft supports him, Lutfur is bad.)
Anyway, it is also interesting to see the ‘soft-left’ Lisa Nandy throwing in her lot with the Luciana Berger-led band wagon that Corbyn is a secret racist. ‘Outrage’ is such a useful weapon to attack one’s enemies… even if it is scraping the barrel.
The right wing of the Labour Party are using this comment on the mural by Jeremy Corbyn as another attempt to accuse him anti semitism.
I have identified a particular device as a type of ‘fake news’ which’,is ‘intentional ignorance’. Jeremy Corbyn’s comment in 2012 about Mear One’s mural of ‘the new world order’ was a compliment to the artist that he was genuinely ‘in good company’, in that Diego Rivera’ the great artist, had also had his mural removed. That they are digging back to 2012 and then pretending is has some other meaning for false claims of antisemitism, shows they are really running out of ideas.
“…..simply articulating the “Labour is Anti-Semitic” claim in an appropriate way. This kind of accusation is simple yet manages to sap a huge amount of time from Labour.”
a quote from a long and fairly complex article written by the excellent Kitty S.Jones that digs into how big data and nudging is being used to manipulate politics – well worth a read
https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/calibrating-academy-hubert-huzzah/
Immensely sad to see right wing Jews allied to their mortal enemies the far right.
Do they really imagine that if we on the Left were neutralised the far right wouldn’t come for the Jews next? Again?
Wow, this antisemitic smears seems to stick! I told you, these right wings labour are doing everything they could to take the entire labour down, they should be deselected for disrepute (to say the least, i would say treason) asap before too many damages are made.
Just an hour before Corbyn made his Mear One comment he was busy organising an anti-war event to take place later that day. The hypocrisy of the warmongers like Berger and Woodcock is beyond belief https://thoughtsofaleicestersocialist.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/the-hypocritical-roots-of-the-blairite-anti-semitic-mear-one-smear-against-corbyn/
Stephen Pollard editor of the Jewish Chronicle is running wih this and a few days ago wrote he would be maintaining a blog on antisemitism in the Labour Party; the relevant point on Pollard is of course not that he is Jewish but that he is of high up Daily Express journalist background and co-founder of the extreme right Henry Jackson Society. Jackson Society member Ben Bradshaw was filmed at home on Sky News last night shouting about Corbyn (again); he like John Mann seemed to have been filmed using close shot handheld camera, rather odd to see on national news though it did increase the dramatic effect.
Bradshaw and Chris Bryant, like their “opponent” home secretary Amber Rudd, look to the tirelessly Islamophobically given Douglas Murray as their co-director at the Henry Jackson Society. Another hat Mr Murray who dons another hat as an adviser at the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor. Its Wikipedia page cites sundry attestations (from within and without Israel) of its role as a front to undermine criticism and critics of Israeli government policies—such as the former Peace Now spokesperson verdict of it as “not an objective watchdog: It is a partisan operation that suppresses its perceived ideological adversaries through the sophisticated use of McCarthyite techniques – blacklisting, guilt by association and selective filtering of facts”.
The usual suspects are involved,Mann,etc and they never seem to get the message that we voted for Jeremy emphatically and they will have to live it.
The world does not owe the centrists a living.
Richard Dennis.