RE: [Marxism] Re: Gilad Atzmon controversy (Bookmarks picket)

["Jack Cade" <jack.cade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting report, going the rounds, of last Friday's picket of
the Bookmarks (SWP) bookshop in central London.

Jack Cade
.........................

About 30 activists turned out to protest the talk by Gilad Atzmon
at
Bookmarks bookshop, significantly outnumbering those who actually
went in to
the meeting. Several of these had attended for the express
purpose of
denouncing Atzmon and his views, and it is clear that very few
attended in
order to listen to and learn from him. Numbers of attendees were
further
restricted by the (unannounced) decision tomake the meeting
ticket only,
those preventing even some of their own members from attending.
Of course,
none of the pickets was allowed to attend.

Although some of the audience took our leaflets, and a few
engaged in
Debate with us, the SWP's leadership treated us with arrogant
contempt, refusing
even to acknowledge, let alone touch, the leaflets; and, in some
cases,
aggressively piushing us aside without even asking us to move.

Despite earlier attacks by the SWP that, by calling the picket,
we were
"lining up with the AWL", they, and other sectarians and Zionist
apologists
were totally absent, and the protesters were all clearly op[posed
to Israel
and its Zionist practices. We were further admonished that
"reasionable
people" like Hilary Rose and Moshe Machover opposed the picket.
In fact,
Hilary turned up and stood with us in the protest, while Moshe,
who was
unable to come, sent the SWP a letter strongly supporting and
endorsing the
picket.

It's clear that the SWP had no idea of the extent and depth of
revulsion at
Atzmon's ideas, and the anger at them for giving him a platform.
They have
been given something to think about.

After the picket, most of us went for a drink, and were later
joined by
sympathisers who had attended the meeting. We learned from them
that Atzmon
had not been received well, that no-one had sppoken in his
defence, and that
several SWP members were apparently in dismay at the views they
heard, and
the damage they have done to the party's image. Our shouts, and
the many
speeches through the megaphone, were heard clearly throught the
meeting.
Apparently, Atzmon devoted a large part of his talk to discussing
the highly
controversial theories of Otto Weininger (who, as Atzmon himself
admitted,
was Hitler's favourite Jew), who, in his work Sex and Character,
characterised the Jew as "feminine, and thus profoundly
irreligious, without
true individuality (soul), and without a sense of good and evil..
The decay
of modern (ie early twentieth century) times was due to feminine,
and thus
Jewish, influences -see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Weininger . Atzmon
also propounded his own highly sexist theory of gender, before
giving a
rambling account of his own views, and expressing his bemusement
at the
picket. In the ensuing discussion, he was roundly denounced by
several
speakers; John Rose of the SWP reportedly made a particularly
powerful and
effective response.

Members of the SWP who did not know at the beginning of the
meeting ,
certainly realised by the end what an error they had made.
However, we must
still marvel at their stupidity in even inviting Atzmon in the
first place,
as well as expressing our anger at the contempt we faced from
some SWP
leaders, notablty their national secretary Martin Smith, who
refused (unlike
most of his comrades) to exchange even one civil word with us.

All I all, we are pleased with our efforts, which in a short time
mobilised
a large and vocal protest, and which confronted the SWP with a
rreality they
wished to ignore -- that they cannot hold a meeting with a racist
and expect
it to pass quietly, and that you cannot defend Palestinian rights
if you
accept the Zionist paradigm which identifies all Jews with
Zionism.

Roland Rance



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