UPDATE
Minutes after I posted this article, the ludicrous Jess Phillips published an article in the Guardian which could not have been better designed to prove my thesis. A number of people have posted comments on the Guardian article pointing this out, and they have all been immediately deleted by the Guardian. I just tried it myself and was also deleted. I should be grateful if readers could now also try posting comments there, in order to make a point about censorship on the Guardian.
Catching up on a fortnight’s news, I have spent five hours searching in vain for criticism of Simon Danczuk from prominent or even just declared feminists. The Guardian was the obvious place to start, but while they had two articles by feminist writers condemning Chris Gayle’s clumsy attempt to chat up a presenter, their legion of feminist columnists were entirely silent on Danczuk. The only opinion piece was strongly defending him.
This is very peculiar. The allegation against Danczuk which is under police investigation – of initiating sex with a sleeping woman – is identical to the worst interpretation of the worst accusation against Julian Assange. The Assange allegation brought literally hundreds, probably thousands of condemnatory articles from feminist writers across the entire range of the mainstream media. I have dug up 57 in the Guardian alone with a simple and far from exhaustive search. In the case of Danczuk I can find nothing, zilch, nada. Not a single feminist peep.
The Assange case is not isolated. Tommy Sheridan has been pursuing a lone legal battle against the Murdoch empire for a decade, some of it in prison when the judicial system decided his “perjury” was imprisonable but Andy Coulson’s admitted perjury on the Murdoch side in the same case was not. I personally witnessed in court in Edinburgh last month Tommy Sheridan, with no lawyer (he has no money) arguing against a seven man Murdoch legal team including three QCs, that a letter from the husband of Jackie Bird of BBC Scotland should be admitted in evidence. Bird was working for Murdoch and suggested in his letter that a witness should be “got out of the country” to avoid giving evidence. The bias exhibited by the leading judge I found astonishing beyond belief. I was the only media in the court.
Yet even though the Murdoch allegations against Sheridan were of consensual sexual conduct, Sheridan’s fight against Murdoch has been undermined from the start by the massive and concerted attack he has faced from the forces of feminism. Just as the vital messages WikiLeaks and Assange have put out about war crimes, corruption and the relentless state attack on civil liberties have been undermined by the concerted feminist campaign promoting the self-evidently ludicrous claims of sexual offence against Assange.
As soon as the radical left pose the slightest threat to the neo-con establishment, an army of feminists can be relied upon to run a concerted campaign to undermine any progress the left wing might make. The attack on Jeremy Corbyn over the makeup of his shadow cabinet was a classic example. It is the first ever gender equal shadow cabinet, but the entire media for a 96 hour period last September ran headline news that the lack of women in the “top” posts was anti-feminist. Every feminist commentator in the UK piled in.
Among the obvious dishonesties of this campaign was the fact that Defence, Chancellor, Foreign Affairs and Home Secretary have always been considered the “great offices of State” and the argument only could be made by simply ignoring Defence. The other great irony was the “feminist” attack was led by Blairites like Harman and Cooper, and failed to address the fact that Blair had NO women in any of these posts for a full ten years as Prime Minister.
But facts did not matter in deploying the organised feminist lobby against Corbyn.
Which is why it is an important test to see what the feminists, both inside and outside the Labour Party, would do when the leading anti-Corbyn rent-a-gob, Simon Danczuk, was alleged to have some attitudes to women that seem very dubious indeed, including forcing an ex-wife into non-consensual s&m and that rape allegation.
And the answer is …nothing. Feminists who criticised Assange, Sheridan and Corbyn in droves were utterly silent on the subject of Danczuk. Because the purpose of established and paid feminism is to undermine the left in the service of the neo-cons, not to attack neo-cons like Danczuk.
Identity politics has been used to shatter any attempt to campaign for broader social justice for everybody. Instead it becomes about the rights of particular groups, and that is soon morphed into the neo-con language of opportunity. What is needed, modern feminism argues, is not a reduction of the vast gap between rich and poor, but a chance for some women to become Michelle Mone or Ann Gloag. It is not about good conditions for all, but the removal of glass ceilings for high paid feminist journalists or political hacks.
Feminism has become the main attack tool in the neo-con ideological arsenal. I am sceptical the concept can be redeemed from this.
Many independent readers might be interested in the Working Definition of anti-semitism drawn up by the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in 2005:
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. In addition, such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong’.”
The EUMC then goes on to cite specific examples of antisemitism including:
……..
“Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
Specifically with respect to Israel, taking into account the overall context, the EUMC gave the following examples:
“Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
………
………
Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’m sure certain posters on CM will recognise themselves in one or several of the above examples…..
********************************
I have been told that the professional body in the UK for policing now includes that definition in its Hate Crime Operational Guidance.
I shall check that out and report back appropriately.
Meanwhile Vlad (the Impailer) Putin’s right hand Chechen hard man, Ramzan Kadyrov has posted pictures of Putin’s critic on the web with crosshairs, on their heads.
Kadyrov has become increasingly hostile towards Putin’s opposition and adversaries.
Kadyrov who sent thousands of Chechnens to fight Russian forces, until his father was killed, has become a Putin puppet, in a country where Putin sees himself as a omnipotent leader.
“Jackie (three breakfasts) Baillie, Scotland’s equivalent to London’s Tommy (two dinners) Watson, had the audacity to berate SNP MP cancer surgeon Philippa Whitford, for carrying out life saving breast cancer surgery on women over the Christmas holidays.”
Christmas wasn’t the only time she’s been taking £500 a day from the NHS for locum work though is it? The register of interests shows she was doing it in August and September as well.
But that is not the point, the point is that before the election Peter Wishart pledged that no SNP MP would have a second job and a quarter of them have.
“Many independent readers might be interested in the Working Definition of anti-semitism drawn up by the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in 2005:”
______________________
Strange then that when a J**ish UN rights investigator spoke out about Israeli “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, he’s branded anti-Semitic.
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBREA2K1JM20140321?irpc=932
“But that is not the point, the point is that before the election Peter Wishart pledged that no SNP MP would have a second job and a quarter of them have.”
______________
Fred, you really are a belligerent little tosspot, what if it was your mother, sister or daughter that needed the life saving surgery, a hypocritical c#nt like you would be screaming blue murder if no one was available to save their life.
I’d love to see you say that to to the faces of the families that had relatives saved by the cancer ops….you’d shit yourself. Now FOAD.
“Fred, you really are a belligerent little tosspot”
Fuck off and die retard.
You were pretending she had only worked as a locum once at Christmas, you were dishonest, tried to deceive us.
Then when you were found out you became abusive like the nasty little Natzi scumbag bully boy you are.
John Goss Sorry Bevan, not the CO Bevin of Bevin Boys infamy. What a cock-up. Apols.
Actually, it is “Bevin” and not “Bevan” we are both trying to thank. I got it wrong (sorry Bevin) and you initially got it right before correcting yourself wrongly. Right?
Republicofscotland
““Many independent readers might be interested in the Working Definition of anti-semitism drawn up by the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in 2005:”
______________________
Strange then that when a J**ish UN rights investigator spoke out about Israeli “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, he’s branded anti-Semitic.
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBREA2K1JM20140321?irpc=932”
______________________
Nice try at diversion there.
But tell us : have you any comment(s) on the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia’s 2005 working definition of anti-semitism
and
ditto wrt the various examples it gave?
Thanks for your regular updates on the ongoing ethnic cleansing of occupied territories in Palestine, Node, much appreciated.
My best wishes to anyone who is in touch with our cyber victim, hope she’s managing that frog in her throat, gotta stay positive, spring’s just around the corner.
My best to you Clark, those who can’t see what Cameron is involved in, by design or inadvertently, should realise that one day this will become obvious and then access and trade will not be guaranteed.
Cameron is discussing with NATO whether we should station 1000 British troops in Libya, our previous shame, in order to start a new migration route from Libya, create more refugees he can ignore.
The man is becoming a menace, he likes to sell anything hard to keep his failing economic ideas in line, especially arms.
Oil price, I repeat, for no reason whatsoever, has climbed another 50 cents to $35.72, pure speculations, that China, despite the attack Hedge funds are planning on the Yuan, will manage to get its economy back into the fast lane.
Sadly it does not stop people dying off the Ghaza coast. I think Gaza needs one of those rigs that can drill sideways so it can access its gas off the coast from land.
Mind that would only encourage the IDF to bomb the plant.
The NHS said “Dr Whitford had been providing a valuable public service. She said she performed three shifts over the parliamentary recess in the summer and worked a further five days over Christmas as a colleague was ill.”
________________
No need to deceive the likes of you Fred.
We should be thanking her for working over the xmas period, keeping away from the pseudo religious tosh, staying sober and making people healthier, families happier. She deserves every penny she earned.
You fail to address the possibility of a human animal from your genetic bloodline becoming gravely ill needing such operation, Fred, all very fine for porpoises and other species getting max attention at xmas. Human animals have to pay for that service, others don’t.
Why don’t you pick up rubbish from the roadside,rather than the shite that is printed in the MSM.
Republicofscotland, 3:00 pm:
I agree with most of this comment, but:
It would be wrong to crush the people. The monarchy and the religious power structure both need to go. Just cutting of the supply of weaponry would be a big start.
Nevermind, 4:29 pm; Cameron was always a menace. His preferred social circle includes common criminals like Coulson. Proper Conservatives should disown Cameron, he does not represent true Conservative values, but I suppose the party members form their impressions of him from the corporate media.
This answers a few questions many will not like to hear. Yeltsin, drunken darling of the west, sold the highly principled people of the Soviet Union to the oligarchs, who stole much of the mineral wealth, the Berezovskys of this world. It has been a hard job to get Russia back on track but Putin has done it and that is why the people (Russian people) love him, and why the manipulative west despises him and wants to replace him.
Perhaps people like Resident Dissident can learn something from having a leader with morals and guts.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/demonization-vladimir-putin/ri12557?
‘The NHS said “Dr Whitford had been providing a valuable public service. She said she performed three shifts over the parliamentary recess in the summer and worked a further five days over Christmas as a colleague was ill.”’
Yes, £1008 for 17.5 hours in August and September I looked it up.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=25318
So it wasn’t just at Christmas as you implied, it wasn’t a charitable act she got paid damned well for it and it shows Peter Wishart’s claims regarding SNP MPs not having second jobs are not true.
Thanks Node for putting e straight. I got a few things wrong there. Bevin Boys were not ‘conchies’ like me and all other sensible people, they were just conscripted to work in the mines rather than abroad. Apols.
abroad = in some god-forsaken military operation.
Raphael Lemkin, the author of the Genocide Convention, originally developed his ideas about the crime of genocide in the 1930’s on the basis of what the Turks had done to the Armenians.
Whether or not what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians constitutes genocide, it certainly constitutes the crime of apartheid under the Apartheid Convention.
Apartheid Convention.
http://journal-neo.org/2016/02/01/washington-s-secret-war-in-syria-uncovered/
“So it wasn’t just at Christmas as you implied, it wasn’t a charitable act she got paid damned well for it and it shows Peter Wishart’s claims regarding SNP MPs not having second jobs are not true.”
_________________
Bollocks Fred I didnt imply that, I implied that that London Labour’s branch office in Scotland and in particular its chief carper Jackie Baillie complained about Philippa Whitford saving lives over the Christmas period, when asked by the NHS to cover critical shifts due to staff illness.
She did the same again during parliament’s recess, and instead of congratulating her on saving lives when no one else was available to step in, you go off on one over money and constituents.
One day it could you Fred, waiting on a crucial op, that saves your life, keep that in mind…if you can.
“Nice try at diversion there.”
___________________
Not diversion but a prime eample of the shifing sands that surround the handling of ethinc cleansing among other things regarding Israel’s odious relations with the Palestinian people.
On the EU Monitoring centre, if your pushing it then you obviously know whats what, ergo I see no point in affirming your position.
I’ll stick with confirmed incidents.
US Pentagon forced to release 10% of the less-incriminating photographs of abuse a Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Many still not happy with this, which we know from detainees accounts at Guantanamo was going on there too. It is endemic in military establishments for personnel to have no conscience. The US is a despicable, detestable and loathsome regime, a blight on the planet. The sooner this evil empire collapses the better.
http://www.shoah.org.uk/2016/01/31/pentagon-to-release-about-200-photos-of-tortured-afghan-iraqi-prisoners-under-court-order/
Unfortunately these greedy people are likely to try to take everyone with them. Like the spoilt brats who destroy a toy rather than shaer it.
John Goss, 6:11 pm:
Not if economic collapse causes their nuclear reactors to melt down, their 300,000 tons of depleted uranium fluoride to escape into the groundwater, and multiple chemical releases from their industry to occur.
Same goes for any industrialised nation.
We need a non-destructive way out of this nightmare.
“Bollocks Fred I didnt imply that, I implied that that London Labour’s branch office in Scotland and in particular its chief carper Jackie Baillie complained about Philippa Whitford saving lives over the Christmas period, when asked by the NHS to cover critical shifts due to staff illness.”
It is indeed a sad indictment on our health service, which has been devolved for some time now, that people would have died if Philippa Whitford hadn’t generously taken large amounts of money off our health service. Do you have details of how many people would have died it would be good to know the exact number. Maybe if our SNP government weren’t so inept the health service wouldn’t have to give large amounts of money to one of their SNP MPs.
Republicofscotland
“On the EU Monitoring centre, if your pushing it then you obviously know whats what, ergo I see no point in affirming your position.”
___________________
I wasn’t asking you to affirm my position because I wasn’t posting my position.
I was posting the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia’s working definition of anti-semitism and asking you if you had any comment to make on it.
Do you?
Habbabkuk, 6:46 pm; yes, I have; most of it seems reasonable but some of the later points seem too broad. Particularly “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”; it should always be possible to point out hypocrisy. Also “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” is perilously close to outlawing criticism of racist policy in Israel; though the wording is technically saved by the use of the word “endeavor”, much distracting smokescreen could be raised by reference to that point, and in the end it would be misuse of words versus the much greater evil of racism.
Looks like I was right to stop donations to Amnesty International and I’ve never donated to AVAAZ even though I have signed their petitions.
http://russia-insider.com/en/mainstream-media-corrupt-core/ri12420
What’s happened to the layout of the blog. Or is it just me.
“I was posting the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia’s working definition of anti-semitism and asking you if you had any comment to make on it.”
__________
Habb.
I normally wouldn’t pander to your whims, but I’ll make an exception this time.
According to this report dated 2013, there isn’t one. But if there were one I’d be more interested in who funds it.
The European Union’s agency for combating racism dropped its definition for anti-Semitism and now is unable to define the term, an agency spokeswoman said.
“We are not aware of any official definition [of anti-Semitism],” Blanca Tapia of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency told JTA.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-drops-its-working-definition-of-anti-semitism/
Habbabkuk, 6:46 pm re: my 7:17 pm; on second thoughts, the second point I mentioned is saved by the wording “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor”.