In 1987 a debate occurred in public sphere on a play written Jim Allen, someone who had previously been associated with Gerry Healy’s organisation the Socialist Labour League, a forerunner to the WRP. The play was called Perdition and was in the genre of faction, a fictional play with historical facts brought in. The historical facts in this case was that of the Zionist leaders in Hungary during the Holocaust and of Zionism in general during the 1930s and 1940s. The play was loosely based on the Kasztner trial that occurred in Israel in the 1950s.
Allen was quoted in Time Out, (January 21-28, 1987) declaring the play:
the most lethal attack on Zionism ever written, because it touches on the heart of the most abiding myth of modern history, the Holocaust. Because it says quite plainly that privileged Jewish leaders collaborated in the extermination of their own kind in order to bring about a Zionist state, Israel, a state which is itself racist.
The play was due to be shown at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs but was pulled by the theatre in January 1987 shortly before public previews were due to go ahead. The Artistic Director, Max Stafford Clark, had lost confidence in the play. But this was not before there had been a storm of controversy played out in the press and as a result of meetings that had occurred between the theatre and the play’s critics. Critics had accused the play of distorting the history of the Holocaust and of antisemitism.
One of the more interesting polemical exchanges on the play was in a few issues of the Trotskyist magazine Workers’ Liberty, the magazine of the organisation Socialist Organiser, the forerunner to today’s Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL). The reason for this post is that the AWL have recently published the debate on their website. Sean Matgamna, writing under his pen name, John O’Mahony, wrote the initial article attacking the play. In two subsequent issues there was an exchange between Matgmana and the anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein. The Engage web site has linked to this debate and a discussion is under way where both I and my good friend Paul Bogdanor have commented.
For those interested in either the anti-Zionism from the far-left in the UK or in portrayals of the Kasztner affair, then an understanding of this play and the controversy that ensued is useful. One of the more important debates on the play was a televised debate on March 18, 1987 for Channel 4′s Diverse Reports. A recording of this programme has been uploaded to the Internet and can be seen below:
Thanks for the link.
Communists trot out the familiar Zionist- Nazi alliance while ignoring that the Soviet Union was allied with Hitler. The Trotskites also forget the Saint Leon advocated obstructionism of the allied war effort. They get very testy when you remind them of the latter. They also get testy when the war record of a certain Palestinian leader is discussed.
Communists are obsessed with genuine Jews and viewed Zionism as a rival ideaology long before Israel became a state. There were progressive papers in NY cheering the Hebron massacre in 1927.
The familiar game of the criminal left is to drag a Norman Finklestein or a Deb Fink as a fig leaf cover for frothing mad populist Jew hatred. What never ceases to amaze me is the total
obsessive absorption of Jew hatred by the criminal left. The Jew hatred is reaches pathological levels rivaled only by loons in the KKK.
Of course when you or I object to Communism, they feign moral indignation. I view Communists in the same manner I view Nazis and the KKK. They are not the moral arbiters of anything. Given their historical record their passing judgement on anyone should be a comedic punch line.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall I thought my days as a Cold Warrior were over. After 9-11 which I survived my city was in a state of mourning. All of us wondered about the people in our lives that were incinerated. The air had a foul burning evil smell that I can’t describe. On that Saturday local Communists held a Nuremberg style rally in Union Square Park. They blamed everyone except the actual perpertators of this crime against humanity. It was at this site that the 9-11 Truther movement was born while the buildings were smoldering in the distance. Of course the usual suspects blamed the Jews, CIA, Mossad and the military industrial complex.
The Cold Warrior in me was reborn and will not rest for the remainder of my days.
Thank you Mr. Ezra
There is an interesting snippet where the bearded lefty goes off on Reagan. I tend to dismiss the line of thought that the animus from the left is because Israel is supported by the USA. Unlike Soviet client states, Israel has had and should determine its own policies independent from the USA. This line of thought is very strange from those who rail about the USA getting involved in the internal matters of foreign countries. Left out of this discussion is weapons and advisers from leftist countries turning up all over the planet.
Did this person say anything when Cubans turned up in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola or Syria.
One would think that many of these deranged lefties would give it a rest when America elected its most leftist President ever. Amazingly, the comments of the far left are frequently
more over the top than the comments of the Tea Party. Some of the far lefties toss in references to Uncle Tom and other racist classics. The term mindless anti Americanism is frequently bandied about, but what does Reagan have to do with a discusssion of the merrits of Zionism.
On a serious note, do these leftist types sound as unhinged when discussing domestic matters? In the case of Livingstone if he had kept his focus on local matters he likely would have never lost an election. Frequently, I hear lefties complain about being marginalized but a diet of obsessing about Israel and cop killers on death row doesn’t help matters.
Beakerkin,
Your comments are not really about the play or allegations of Zionist collaboration with the Nazis, but in relation to what you have said: I have written about the type of far-left activists to which you refer previously. I referred to them as the ideological flag burners.
Actually, this is a very poor attempt to create a leftist version of QBVII. The reason that work is remembered is that it was handled by a skilled writer. In fact the backstory of a libel trial from a short passage in Exodus was unkown to me. If the book were to make Adam Kelno
a brutal sadist without any redeeming qualities it would be forgotten. In this case the author seems to have forgotten craftsmanship and conveying a story that holds the audience. I doubt that this author is capable of creating a multilayered version of his protagonist. The problem is that this work is more of shrieking libel than a well crafted story.
Do note that even when I disagree with the author’s views I can sit back and admire the craftsmanship of a Eugene Oniel or Arthur Miller. I was floored at how nuch of the politically incorrect film, (not staged in memory for many reasons) the Emporer Jones my parents had retained after not seeing it for 30 years. I haven’t seen it in roughly 20 years and remember
it clearly.
Maybe the true injustice is authors who forgot their craftsmanship and shouted at their audience.