The far-left free speech conference farce

As the the far left project inside the Labour Party fails and thousands of them head back to whence they came a number of recidivists have formed factions around which to organise and shout loudly from even if their audience has shrunk to just the hard core.

Take the much vaunted Free Speech Conference promoted by the comrades to take place on-line this weekend. It should bring them all thereto to make their case collectively one would have thought, but no the inclusion of one speaker led to a potential boycott by many of the others effectivley "no-platforming" her.

Before we turn to the actual case in hand it's worth remembering that the hard left has itself been no-platforming all sorts of people mostly over women's rights speakers where their views clash with their inability to recognise that the issue is not straightforward and there is a clash of rights or interests which needs to be thoroughly debated without censoring views that others don't like.

It's called ironically "free speech" but as is the case with the hard left when they talk about such freedoms they only want it for themselves. The likes of feminists such as Germane Greer are not afforded such niceties and like many other women are refused speaking facilities in universities and meetings are violently picketed and even attacked in the name of their favoured side.

Hardly surprising that a lot of us refer to them as "Blackshirts" given their propensity to shout sown women and Jews Zionists, conservatives and anyone else they don't like and want to silence. JK Rowling got vilely attacked with rape and death threats by activists who don't want their views questioned in any way.

The reason for me taking the time to point out the way the debate over trans-rights vs women's rights is because the far left cannot tolerate dissent even within it's own ranks and consider even some of their supposed fellow travellers suspect. 

Labour Against the Witch Hunt report:

We are very concerned to hear that Esther Giles of the successful campaign Save Our Socialists and Labour in Exile Network, has been de-invited from the February 7 ‘Stop the Labour Lockout’ event. She was billed to speak next to Alan Gibbons and Gaya Sriskanthan of Momentum, Matt Wrack of the Fire Brigades Union, Leah Levane of Jewish Voice for Labour and Socialist Councillors and many more.

But the day before the event, she was contacted and it was explained to her that some speakers had threatened to withdraw from the rally if Esther was allowed to speak. The reason: three years ago, she supported a comrade who was pressurised to make a statement about trans women. Esther’s feeling was that - regardless of the issue of the debate - nobody should be bullied. We continue to campaign side by side with all those oppressed by this capitalist society, including (but not only) women and all our LGBT comrades......

It is also highly debatable whether this event really presents a “major united left initiative”, as Jewish Voice for Labour puts it here. Neither the Labour in Exile Network, the Labour Left Alliance nor Labour Against the Witchhunt have been invited to participate in what is billed as an ongoing campaign. This is particularly troubling, as these three organisations have been among the most outspoken opponents of the purge of left-wingers and Corbyn supporters

The three overlapping memberships of the groupscules LAW, the LLA and the LIN seem to have been sidelined by the conference organisers. Shades of Monty Python once again it would seem.