This Londoner has come by a load of ‘Sack Boris’ travel card wallets produced by the Transport Salaried Staff Association. Nowadays, this concerned trade union member checks whether a given union is boycotting Israel before getting involved with their campaign. This trade union member has noticed that the boycott of Israel’s, and no other country’s, workers and produce, is antisemitic. Antisemitic in its singular hyper-scrutiny and antisemitic in its singling out for punishment. So the TSSA has compromised itself badly with an antisemitic thing.
I do not like Ken Livingstone. He has cuddled and comforted antisemitic visitors like Al Qaradawi, he has nurtured oppressive political Islam in London, and he has sneered at Jewish fears. But I’ll be holding my nose and giving him a vote to keep Boris out.
So I’ll be giving out the wallets – but not with any pride.
Sure, they’re all we have – but until this country’s trade union membership understands that they need to support Israeli workers rather than excluding, condemning, and starving them of a market, they’ll remain estranged from a truly ethical labour movement.