Gilad Atzmon, Linda Grant and the SWP

Well it's that time of year again. Marxism 2006 is almost on us and the SWP's resident jazz buff, Martin Smith, has yet again decided to embarrass SWP members and allies by inviting Gilad Atzmon. Last year when some members tried to persuade Smith to rescind the invitation to Atzmon he said that it wouldn't happen again and that Norman Finkelstein would be attending this year's Marxism or attending an SWP hosted event. He didn't. He and a chap called John McClaughlin also barred one of their own comrades from Bookmarks for talking to me and then the idiots told her that Roland Rance, Tony Greenstein and I were zionists and members of the misnamed Alliance for Workers Liberty.

A few of us at Jews against zionism have discussed this latest invitation and decided that Atzmon's buffoonery is so transparent that it's pointless doing anything about it. But what I did find interesting was Linda Grant's support, on the Engage site, for Atzmon's appearance.

Gilad Atzmon is best described by that well known medical term, 'a meshuggenah.' He's possibly one of the rare examples of someone who actually is a self-hating Jew. He's an apologist for the anti-semitism of 'Israel Shamir.' His political ideas are incoherent, and often racist.

Gilad Atzmon is also, apparently, a very great sax player, but even if he was a terrible one, I oppose cultural boycotts. I oppose any attempt to instigate a cultural boycott against Israeli artists and have written about this twice, on this site, at its inception, and on Open Democracy. I opposed attempts to prevent the staging of I Am Rachel Corrie at the Royal Court in London, and again in New York. I opposed attempts to prevent the screening of Paradise Now or its being nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar.

I'm opposed to cultural boycotts, full stop.

Dostoevsky was an anti-semite. Arnold Schoenberg was a supporter of Ze'ev Jabotinsky's far-right Revisionist Zionism, which was influenced by fascism. I revere the work of both of them. During his Reith Lecture, Daniel Barnboim said that no-one should force Holocaust survivors to listen to Wagner. But at the same time, Holocaust survoivors cannot prevent others from performing his works.

When Gilad Atzmon performs, he often riffs about his views on Jews and Israel. That's part of his performance. Some critics have assumed that he since he is an Israeli, he is 'making a plea for peace' or something like that. He isn't.

Atzmon should not be prevented from performing. What we should do is expose his ideas for what they are, so the audience is aware that what it's listening to is essentially race hate. And if Atzmon doesn't realise that this is what he's saying, that's his problem.

But no to cultural boycotts, of anybody.

Now this is dead peculiar because it is not a case of boycotting Atzmon or not. The point is whether it is appropriate for socialists and anti-zionists to host a known racist, not whether that racist should appear at all. Looking at her Wagner analogy, it's fair enough for Wagner to be performed, but would you want his work performed at an Anti-Nazi League rally? Don't answer that if your name's Martin Smith, Gilad Atzmon or Linda Grant.

Of course Linda Grant has an interest in the SWP shooting itself in the foot and in saying that she opposes "cultural boycotts," Linda Grant is only defending her zionist project under a guise of consistency but it shows a complete lack of understanding of what the objections to Atzmon actually are and why for example we at JAZ picketed Bookmarks when Atzmon was there but not Waterstones (a commercial book seller) when he was there. Also, in spite of the stab at consistency she is not being terribly consistent. This blog may not be as fine an example of culture as the cool jazz of Mr Atzmon, but blogging is a part of our modern cultural life and it seems to me like only yesterday that Linda Grant was threatening to have my entire blog pulled.