semitic as the press and the Zionists allege. Nevertheless these moves are incorrect.
These mistakes have come about almost solely due to a mistaken policy of the Socialist Workers Party and its student supporters, a policy which shows a serious mis-interpretation of the "no platform policy. The SWP are not the only ones who have been guilty of this mis-interpretation, but they are the only ones who persist despite the obvious errors that have resulted from it.
FASCIST MOVEMENT The too platform" policy was originally adopted by NUS to defend democratic rights. It was based on the analysis that the emergence of organised fascist groups posed a serious threat to the rights of the black community and, in time, to the whole labour movement. In order to defend their rights the labour and black movements had to act to prevent the growth of a mass fascist movement. As part of the campaign a policy stopping major fascist rallies and demonstrations would be needed.
The response to the NUS adopting this policy in 1974 was a massive press witch-hunt supposedly in defence of free speech. The response of the left to this witch-hunt was two-fold. The reformists in the NUS began retreating and eventually made a head-long dash for cover, completely dropping the "no platform" position. The far-left responded by the slogan No Free Speech For Fascists'This fell into the trap of actually believing what the bourgeois press said about our campaign - that we were out to deny democratic rights rather than to defend them against the growth of the fascist movement.
FASCISTS AND RACISTS A further complication, and error, was the lumping together of fascists apd racists, fascism and racism. The essential fact about fascism is that it organises to actually implement its policies, including its racist policies, by direct action. While all fascists are racist and prepared to try and physically drive black people out of Britain the reverse is not true.
There are racists throughout the labour and trade union movement. Even the 'left' inside this movement supporters racist policies such as immigration controls. The NUS itself is committed to a policy of supporting equitable and democratic immigration controls — a racist policy. Does that mean "no platform' for the NUS? Such a position is patently absurd, but it is exactly the logic of the position of 'no platform' for racists, and the logic of those who seck to deny a platform to Zionists, or limit their freedom to organise In fact "free speech" for fascists and racists play a very different role. The fascists demand the freedom to organise, demonstrate and speak in order to win recruits to their bands of goons and thugs. To them it doesn't matter if they lose debates, if the majority are against their reactionary ideas. They are a party of action. Racists, on the other hand, are actually afraid of free and open discussion.
An Arab student once said that the worst enemies of the Jews are the Zionists. They We refuse to de to the did to our pareats. are certainly racist, a fact which is not understood accepted by the vast majority of the student movement who bold all sorts of illusions about poor little iscaci. The best way of exposing Zionism and Israel Is to openly challenge the Zionists to defend their case.
OPEN DEBATE Moves to restrict the rights of Zionists have actually aided those who want to avoid an open debate about Isracl and the Palestinians. The NUS Executive have seized the opportunity to beat the ultraleft' over the head with both hands, ably assisted by the press. The majority on the Executive, the Broad Left, do not have a clear policy on Zionism and tend to capitulate to the pressure from the Zionist lobby. They do not want an open debate. which is why they did not attempe to get Palestine discussed at the up-coming NUS Conference.
The Executive has also been attempting to repeal the "no platform' policy for almost two vears and have been blocked by an alliance of their own supporters with the "ultra-left. By their heavy-handed attack on those Unions who have restricted the rights of Zionists they have sought to win the dual objective of avoiding a debate on Palestine and defeating the 'no platform' position. I1OSC like the SWP who compound this confusion of issues are merely preparing the ground for a successful conclusion to this attack, Only by understanding the specitic character of Zionism and the appropriate tactics to fight it can the muddle be sorted out.
RACIST CARTOONS Racism is discrimination against people on the basis of their ethnic origins. Zionism, as implemented in the state of Israel, certainly does that. As part of an NUS delegation which visited the Near East, I saw a shop in Israel full of cartoons, Israel the Palestinians - but it is not the same thing. The Israeli state is one which both oppresses the Palestinians as a people and breeds racist discrimination against individual Arabs.
Those who live in Israel, at least the anti-Zionists, know that since 1948 there has been a massive growth of racism as such. Overt racists such as Prime Minister Begin, who in 1948 were considered the lunatic fringe of the Zionise movement, today are nearer the centre of the Zionist political spectrum. It is important for the anti-Zionist movement to realise these two aspects of the nature of Israel, as national oppressor and as racist state, rather than USINg the crude formula Israel equals racist" and thinking that disposes of the problem.
ORIGINS OF ZIONISM There is a furtber and vital point to understand about Zionism. It originated not as a justification for oppression but as a reaction against the oppression of the Jews in Eastern and Western Europe. This clearly macks it off from virtually every other racist ideology. The fear of antiseritism is still a real and justified one for most Jews, the Nazi holocaust has indelibly printed this fear on their minds, It is quite wrong for socialists to simply dismiss or ignore this problem. Zionism provides a reactionary answer to the Jewish prob lem", one which disarms Jews from fighting anti-semitism.
Zionists actually agree with the antisemites that Jews have no place in our society, the anti-semites want to push Jews our and the Zionists want to push them in, to Israci. Socialists must pur forward an alternative - an uncompromising fight against all forms of racism and particularly against racism against blacks and lews.
We fight for the rights of blacks and Jews to live in this country and to live their own lives with their own cultures. More than this we fight for abolition of the root cause of anti-semitism and racism, the moribund and decaying capitalist system. Zionism's answer is for Jews to retreat to the gbeto, even one as big as israel, while we say Jews should stand up and fight for their rights.
FREEDOM OF DISCUSSION A campaign around the question of Zionism must have three essential elements. Firsily it must assert clearly the national rights of the Palestinians, for the disposses sion of the Palestinians is the single and most important question. Secondly it must expose the racist nature of the Isracli state, which is a logical consequence of the dispossession of the Palestinians and the project of a Jewish state. Thirdly we must put up an uncompromising fight against one of the roots of Zionism semitism.
The methods by which these objectives should be pursued are those appropriate to By encouraging defence of democratic rights and the BLESTELHE freedom of debate the bureaucratic attempt by the NUS Executive to choke off the debate can be blocked, and a major blow struck at the "ghetto" consciousness from which Zionism feeds.
making an edorial statement in TEAE DOORSI SUO. SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 17 November 1977 pege 14