Vol. 3 No. 1 7 January 2921 https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n01/letters
Labour and Antisemitism James Butler writes that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report on antisemitism in the Labour Party found it ‘responsible for three breaches of equality law, including indirect discrimination against Jews and harassment of Jews by party agents’ (LRB, 3 December 2020 <https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n23/james-butler/failed-vocation>). In case anyone mistakes Butler as implying that the report confirms the view that Labour condones antisemitism, it should be made clear that if anything the report shows the opposite. The commission studied 70 of the 220 complaints of antisemitism in the party’s files, 59 of which were statements on social media. They identified only two cases in which they found good evidence that people holding office in the party had made antisemitic statements which broke the law. Even in these two cases, to find that the law had been broken required, first, stretching the definition of ‘harassment’ given in the Equality Act beyond ‘creating’ to ‘contributing to create’ a ‘hostile, intimidating or offensive environment’, i.e. a statement by one individual may be taken as harassing everyone in the party who feels offended by it; and, second, taking as sufficient evidence the fact that many Labour members and MPs told the commissioners they felt shocked and offended by it. To avoid this seeming to give any group a veto on what can be said, simply by saying they feel offended, the EHRC states that in deciding whether a statement constitutes harassment, the harm done to those who say they feel offended must be balanced against the harm done by limiting an individual’s right to freedom of expression. The claim that the EHRC is authorised to make such a judgment – in effect to police the internal debates of any political party it chooses to investigate – would be remarkable enough were it made of an impartial, well-qualified and democratically accountable organisation and not a politically appointed body of amateurs which lacks political balance and is known for the publicly stated prejudices of several of its commissioners. Colin Leys and Leo Panitch -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6283): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6283 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80547264/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
