Tariq Ali replies to 'Jewish Chronicle' slurs.
Marxists "fascists of the left'? Tariq Ali "anti-Jewish'? These wild accusations, made at a Jewish Board of Deputies meeting following the 4 July demonstration acainst racism, were reportec in the Jewish Chronicle of 30 July.. An accomoanving editorial acain equated anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, stressing that Anglo-Jewry's atural allies' in the fight against fasciam, racum and antisemitm art 'the moderates in the coloured community.
Tariq Ali, a well-known leader of the International Marxist Group, was singled out for special comment because he pointed out the anti-Arab racism that existed in Israel during his speech on the 4 July demonstration. In a letter to the Jewish Chronicle he replies:
"To call us "fascists because we are opponents or zionism is an intantile way of conducting a political debate. To level this remark against Trotskyists, in particular, is absolutely scandalous. The record of the Fourth International in fighting fascism and anti-semitism is second to none.
Leaving aside that many of our members were butchered by the Gestapo in the concentration camps, there is a more concrete demonstration of our line ever since the Fi was founded. Our American comrades of the Socialist Workers Party waged a single-minded and fierce campaign in the nirties in the United States to demand an open door policy trom the Us Government in order to admit all Jewish retugees They were opposed by the zionists, who did not favour such a policy because they wanted the refugees to be forced to settle in Palestine!
our organisation nas aiways fought anti-semitism, and in countries where anti-semitism is equated with anti-Zionism some of us (myself in cluded) have been accused of being "Jewish agents" because many of the leaders of the Trotskyist movement (and, of course, Trotsky himself) were and are of Jewish origin.
Ali stresses that the International Marxist Group is in favour of the broadest possible united front against racism and ascism — anes cludes the Jewish board or Deputies and the Association of Jewish ExServicemen (AJEX) - but not at the cost of limiting the views of any of the groups involved.
*The fact that you struggle against racism in Britain is to be welcomed, but vou have then to explain your inconsistency in not struggling against it in Israel and vou have to explain the close relations enjoyed by Israel and the white settler regimes in southern Africa. If you do not wish to defend these things then that is your privilege, but we defend our right to criticise you for it.