Mick Hartley

Socialist Worker held its Marxism Festival in Shoreditch last week, with exciting guests of the calibre of Bobby Vylan, Lowkey, and Jeremy Corbyn. Shea Ferguson, at UnHerd, was there:

During a steel drum rendition of Bob Marley’s “Is this Love” in the Saturday evening heat in Shoreditch, a ponytailed young Marxist is discussing the future of Britain’s Marxist movement. “I’m not sure if we will see socialism in my lifetime,” he says, “but if a revolution is just around the corner, there needs to be a body ready to direct it to victory.”

Absolutely. In the meantime, in the absence of any immediate signs of this revolution, what are the assembled Marxists talking about? Well, there’s Gaza. Also Israel and the Jews, of course. And Palestine. Especially Palestine.

The spectre that most haunts this festival is that of Palestine. The superstar names, the peak weekend slots, and the biggest crowds are dedicated to the topic. During the talk “In the shadow of genocide: the struggle for solidarity with Palestine”, a member of the Filton 25, “political prisoners” who received jail time for destroying arms equipment linked to Israel in an Elbit Systems factory, is greeted with a hero’s welcome. A speech by punk singer Bobby Vylan begins with cries of “Death to the IDF” taking over the crowd. “I did not chant that,” Vylan cautions to the “undercover police” who he says are “definitely” in the room. Irish politician Richard Boyd Barrett declares Israel as part of a broader Western colonial project “which uses genocide in order to dominate and control the world”. Chants of “Free, free Palestine” punctuate the gaps between speakers.

Palestinian flags are waved with gusto across the packed room. Meanwhile, above the heads of those in the main hall, decorated banners in the old trade union style — featuring the raised fist of the worker and the calls towards “socialist revolution” — evoke memories of the Eighties labour movement. The word “comrade” gets the occasional mention, but it is largely an antiquated nicety. The expression of the modern movement is the keffiyeh and chants to “globalise the intifada”, rather than renditions of “The Internationale” or “The Red Flag”.

Also featured, the Greens deputy leader Mothin Ali, giving a talk on Islamophobia.

So they obsess with Palestine, and cheer an Islamist speaker celebrating perhaps the most reactionary force in the world, where women are veiled, gays are punished with death, and Jews are reviled.

So yes this was, quite clearly and unambiguously, a festival of fools celebrating the socialism of fools.