Book Burners ‘R’ Us – Waterstone’s Shameful Decision to Cancel the Book Launch of Bad News for Labour is an Attack on Freedom of Thought
‘This is worse than McCarthyism’ – Now even a peer-reviewed Academic Critique of the false Anti-Semitism Smear Campaign Must Be Suppressed
This is not the first time that the Zionist movement in this country has sought to attack freedom of speech and the arts.
Over 25 years ago they sought to ban a play Perdition by socialist playwright Jim Allen, which was based on real live events in the Jerusalem District Court, when in 1944 the leader of Hungarian Zionism, Rudolf Kasztner was found to have aided Adolf Eichmann in deporting half a million Jews to Auschwitz. In the words of Judge Benjamin Halevi, Kasztner had ‘sold his soul to the devil.’
The Royal Court Theatre under Max Stafford Clarke shamefully bowed to the pressure but the result was that instead of a few hundred people seeing the play in the Royal Court Upstairs, thousands of people learnt about what was being banned and why. Eventually it was shown over 6 days at Conway Hall in London and was the subject of a book. Dramas Played Off Stage
That is what we need to see happen with Bad News for Labour. The Zionists know that their anti-Semitism smear campaign in the Labour Party is fraudulent and that they have cowed and coerced timid Corbyn into going along with the nonsense that the Labour Party is full of anti-Semites including himself. We must ensure that this book is publicised because it contains all the ammunition and evidence we need to demonstrate that the ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign has nothing to do with antisemitism and has no evidential basis.
Book Launch at the Rialto
It is shocking enough that the supporters of Israeli Apartheid have been able to ‘persuade’ through threats and abuse, venues like the Holiday Inn, Jury’s Inn and Friends Meeting House into cancelling meetings with Chris Williamson. The cancellation on Monday night of a book by 5 academics of Bad News for Labour- Antisemitism, the Party and Public Belief takes this one step further. It is an attack on freedom of thought and inquiry and demonstrates the police state mentality of Zionism’s rabid supporters
Greg Hadfield introduces the book launch
As Justin Schlosberg, a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck College, London University said last night, this is worse than McCarthyism and is approaching the book burning of the Nazis. Heinrich Heine prophetically wrote in 1832 ‘Where books are burned, in the end, people will also be burned.”
Ken Loach and Chris Williamson at the book launch – standing room only!
Cancelling a book launch and threatening to boycott Waterstones for holding the event is a Nazi tactic. It demonstrates just how far along the road to destroying our civil liberties and freedom of speech the Zionists have travelled. Literally Zionism is the enemy of a free society, not only in Israel/Palestine but in Britain, Europe and the United States.
If the Left had done this and attacked a right-wing book such as Douglas Murray’s racist Strange Death of Europe – Immigration, Identity and Islam then you could expect the Tory press to shriek in protest about the Left’s attack on basic freedoms
Audience at the book launch
But the cancellation of a book by five academics, based on peer reviewed research, has gone unnoticed except in the Canary and Skwawkbox. I await to see, with interest, the ‘liberal’ press – the Guardian and Independent – who have been at the forefront of the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign, will now find their liberal principles
Barely literate Zionists ask a ‘when did you beat your wife question’ – they assume that the book launch would have been antisemitic – evidence is not their strong point
It is fortunate that because of the advance threats of the Zionists to prevent Chris Williamson and others speaking in Brighton that Brighton and Hove Labour Left Alliance with the support of a friendly charity, took steps to ensure that freedom of speech would prevail in Brighton.
Sussex Friends of Israel supporter and former councillor Cattell suggests a boycott of Waterstones – these same people are opposed to boycotting Israel because it is about ‘hate’
The cancellation email said that the book launch had been cancelled ‘due to reasons out of our control’ itself a lie
We hired the Rialto Theatre in Dyke Road, Brighton. The venue were warned in advance that they should expect a barrage of abuse and that is what happened. To their immense credit they stood firm against the Zionists and racist scum like former councillor Julie Cattell who has been urging people on Twitter to contact Trip Advisor to give The Rialto a false and lying review. These are the tactics that the enemies of free speech sink to
My ticket for a book launch that never was
Earlier this week I bought a ticket for the launch of Bad News for Labour- Antisemitism, the Party and Public Belief. I did not imagine that even the execrable racists of Sussex Friends of Israel would attack a book launch. I was wrong. There is nothing these people will not do in order to defend their bastard state.
Bad News for Labour’s authors are Professor Greg Philo, Mike Berry, Justin Schlosberg, Antony Lerman and Professor David Miller.
Abusive social media attacks on Waterstones – their PR and CEO James Daunt denies there was any such pressure
As the blurb for the book explains:
Accusations about the Labour Party have made headlines on a daily basis. In the three years after Corbyn became leader there were over five thousand news stories and articles in the national press alone.
Bad News for Labour examines the impact of this coverage on public beliefs about the Party. It replaces media hype with the rigorous analysis of evidence. The authors draw on carefully compiled research to reveal surprising findings in this guide to the reality behind the headlines.
However this is what the Zionists were most afraid of. An academic study demolishing the myths of Labour ‘anti-Semitism’. Zionist propaganda can only thrive in the darkness without proper scrutiny aided by a yellow press not interested in the truth
Publisher Pluto Press attributes Waterstones cancellation of the book launch to ‘external pressure’ which of course it was
The decision to cancel the book launch was not taken in Brighton. On the contrary the staff were livid about what had happened. The decision was taken by the CEO James Daunt in New York who when I spoke to him earlier today accepted responsibility. Mr Daunt insisted that the only reason that the event was cancelled was because it had been unprofessionally organised and he laid the responsibility for that at the feet of the publishers Pluto Press.
This idiot objects to the media Professor David Miller speaking during Labour Party conference on some vague grounds of ‘antisemitism’
However as I explained to him this is not credible. Since when does the CEO of a large company or even its head office cancel a locally organised book launch
Explanation for cancellation sent to one complainant
I put it to him that the real reason for the cancellation was the pressure that Waterstones had been subject. He denied this but then he would of course. I also suggested that in the circumstances standing up for freedom of speech was more important than the alleged lack of professional organisation. Corporate capitalism has no sense of ethics or morality. In the words of George Soros capitalism is essentially amoral.
All the authors were scheduled to appear, as they did at the event. They had books on them what more was needed? The event itself was sold out. The arguments about lack of professional organisation are simply not credible.
However Daunt has assured me that he is happy to reschedule the event if it is properly organised. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I suspect that is one promise that will fall by the way.
Their Events Team also denied that they had been subject to any harassment or threats which is directly contradicted by the volume of abuse directed at Waterstones by various Zionist trolls on Twitter as can be seen below
Waterstone’s PR Department struggles to explain the cancellation of the book launch – they blamed it on the unprofessionalism of their own staf
Eva von Reuss of Waterstone’s PR Department explained in 5 contradictory bullet points why they bowed to the Zionist twitter campaign
It is also at variance with the explanation sent to me by Eva von Reuss. She explicitly stated that ‘it raised considerable emotion from various parties on both sides of the debate.’ Presumably this would mean that one should not stage a book launch for any controversial or indeed anti-racist book because racists might take exception. Perhaps a book on climate change should not have a book launch because ‘climate sceptics’ might object!
‘we do not wish to be caught in this debate at an especially emotive moment: it is not a debate from which we shy in terms of book stock but it is not one in which we wish to be perceived to have taken sides
There have been ‘especially emotive moments’ since time immemorial. This is just a means of avoiding responsibility for one’s actions. Reuss went on to state that they hope to ‘reschedule the talk in this shop, or in others when we can be better prepared’.
Ms Reuss claimed that ‘the shop decided to cancel the event in discussion with the central events team’. Having spoken to the staff it is very clear that this is untrue
Jewish News hack Jack Mendel reports with ill-concealed glee the cancellation of a book launch on antisemitism
As Professor David Miller of Bristol University, one of the authors toldThe Canary: “It is really extraordinary that [this book event] has been cancelled as a result of threats”. He called it a “serious attack on both freedom of speech and academic freedom”.
In alleging antisemitism wherever the Zionist agenda isn’t followed these people trivialise genuine antisemitism
Waterstones should hang their head in shame for bowing to this campaign of censorship. This is the road to a police state. Bookshops in particular should be vigilant to protect freedom of speech. The fact that supporters of the Israeli state, a state which to the Palestinians is a police state with censorship, torture and arbitrary imprisonment, are seeking to prevent any discussion of their propaganda offensives abroad, is reason enough to hold firm.
As Edmund Burke was reputed to have said (in fact it was John Stuart Mill) “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
The attacks on free speech by the Zionists need to be fought. We know what their ‘anti-Semitism’ campaigns are about and they are not about Jews but about the State of Israel.
Tony Greenstein
