To
Jeremy Corbyn MP – leader of the Labour Party
As
artists and writers, we would like to thank you for raising political
awareness in our country to a level not seen since the end of World
War II. Your humanity, courage and insight have mobilised a new
generation of socialist activists.
Much
of our work reflects the world we live in and, as leader of the
Labour Party, you have inspired and energised us for the future.
The
media has been atrocious in the recent election and, in the face of
provocation, we congratulate you for keeping your dignity and
clarity.
You
will never be forgotten.
Sincerely
Ken
Loach - film director
Brian
Eno - musician/producer
Grime 4 Corbyn
Nigel Kennedy - musician
Ken
Livingstone - writer and ex-Mayor of London
Alexei
Sayle - writer and comedian
A
L Kennedy - writer
Michael
Rosen - writer/poet
Francesca
Martinez - comedian
Peter
Kennard - artist
Matthew
Collings - painter and art critic
Victoria
Brittain - writer
Louise
Christian - writer/ human rights lawyer
Habib
Ahmadi - writer
Jacky
Alty - glass artist
Sue
Angus - artist
Tessa
Angus - photographer/musician
Anthony
Anaxagorou - poet
Anne
Aylor - writer
Frank
Barat - writer
Gerry
Barnett - musician
Greta Berlin - sculptor
Heather
Bird - musician
Cecily
Bomberg - writer
Richard
Bradbury - writer
Jezz
Brown - writer
Carol
Browne - writer
Emma
Catnip - musician
Klaudija
Cermak - writer/artist
Julia
Chantrell - artist
Penny Crichton-Seager - artist
Nigel
Clark - musician/former ‘Dodgy’
Frank
Darnley - sculptor
Neil
Devlin - writer
Annie
Duarte - theatre director
Valerie
Driscoll - artist
Neil
Faulkner - archaeologist/writer
Odette
Farrell - artist
Andrew
Feinstein - writer
Nicola
Field - writer
Mary
Finnigan - writer
Matt
Foot - writer
Owen Gallagher - poet
Donald
Gardner - poet
Lindsey
German - writer
Ian
Graham - writer/computer scientist
Lana
Grant - writer
Adrian Green - poet
Kevin
Higgins - writer
Kate Hudson - writer
Amanda
Hunter - silversmith
Tansy
Hoskins - writer
Robert
Ilson - poet
Stuart
Inman - poet/photographer/writer
Katherine
Jameson - painter
Thusitha
Jayasundera - actor
Pallo
Jordan - writer and Minister in Mandela’s SA government
Judith
Kahn - writer/musician
Ronnie
Kasrils - writer and Minister
in Mandela’s
SA government
Penny
Kealey - artist
Alice
Kilroy - banner maker
Natasha
Koczy - musician
Richard
Kuper - writer
Simon
Leibowitz - photographer/educator
Maxine
Linnell - writer
Tom
Loffill - painter/musician
Vanessa
Lucas-Smith- musician
Lee
Mark-Jones - Theatre of the Wild
Anna
Mazotta - artist
Kathleen McCreery - writer/playwright/director
Susan
Medina - writer
Russell
Mills - artist
Nak
Modak - actor
Les
Monaghan - photographer
Brendan
Montague - Editor, The Ecologist
Merilyn
Moos - writer
Deicola
Neves - musician
Maggie
Nicols - musician
Mia
Nisbet - fashion designer
Rebecca
O’Brien - film producer
Miriam
O’Donovan - director Speakeasy Sessions, Skibbereen
Matt
Panesh - writer
Hekate
Papadaki - writer
Jamie
Perera - composer/producer
Billy
Radford - artist
John
Rees - writer
Selese
Roche - poet
Emma
Rowell - independent bookshop
Dilshini
Sandhu - musician
Sabby
Sagall - writer
Tim
Sanders - illustrator/cartoonist
David Seeger - ceramics artist
Nabil
Shaban - actor
Sarah
Shore - illustrator
Angela
Tapping - poet
Theresa
Tomlinsion - writer
Greg
Tree - musician/artist
Andy
Turner - musician
Michael
Walling - Border Crossings, Artistic Director
Mat
Watkinson - voice artist/former DJ
Roy
Weard -writer/musician
Samantha
Welstead-Wood - illustrator
Richard
West - AKA Mr C
Merryn Williams - poet
Ian
Wilson - sound designer
John
Wilton - Prof. Intern. Relations
David
Wilson - writer
Jan
Woolf - writer
Haifa
Zangana - Iraqi writer
As of 5 Jan 2020 the 'artists' letter has been signed by over 4000. These have come directly to me by email, registered on this web page or recorded on multiple entries at Peoples Campaign for Corbyn Facebook.
Is he standing for the leadership? Just a thought.
NOTE:
Please contact david@davidwilson.org.uk f you want further information.
Penny Crichton-Seager
Chris
Williamson (re-suspended from the Labour Party) joins Jackie Walker
and Marc Wadsworth in their suspension from the party. All three are
left-wing, Corbyn-supporting actvists. The former London mayor, Ken
Livingstone remains suspended along with others such as Jewish
activist, Tony Greenstein.
Chris Williamson MP was suspended after
telling a Momentum meeting that Labour’s reaction to anti-semitism
allegations had led to the party being ‘demonised’. He was also
filmed saying he had celebrated the resignation of MP Joan Ryan,
former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and who has since quit
Labour because she claimed she was a victim of anti-semitism'.
Jackie
Walker, of mixed Black/Jewish ancestry and former Momentum Vice
Chair, was suspended after she criticised Holocaust Memorial Day for
commemorating only Jewish victims. “In terms of Holocaust day,
wouldn’t it be wonderful if Holocaust day was open to all people
who experienced holocaust?” she said.
Marc Wadsworth, Labour
Party activist and founder member of the Anti-Racist Alliance, set up
after the murder of Stephen Lawrence, was filmed accusing MP, Ruth
Smeeth of working, ‘hand in hand’ with the Telegraph in smearing
the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. She claimed that, as a Jew, his
remarks were 'anti-semitic'.
The target is of course Jeremy
Corbyn, who has become the enemy of the Establishment media,
right-wing labour MPs and the Israeli Embassy. His anti-austerity
platform, support for the Stop the War Coalition, and for Palestine
and the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement ensures his
demonisation.
When former Israeli lobby intern Alex Chalmers
claimed “a large proportion” of the student Labour club “and
the student left in Oxford more generally” had a “problem” with
Jews, his claims were highlighted by the press. No one mentioned that
Chalmers was a member of the far-right Progress faction in the Labour
Party and soon after he defected to the Liberal Democrats.
When, a
few months ago, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of
Deputies of British Jews organised a demonstration against Corbyn
outside Parliament, they were happy to use anti-Semitic abuse against
left-wing Jews who were holding a counter-protest in support of
Corbyn.
Ben Southern-Thomas, from Jewish Voice for Labour, said “I
came away crying” after anti-Semitic abuse from two demonstrators.
He was told he was “not a real Jew” and was just “pretending to
be a Jew.” He added that “being Jewish is a really important part
of my identity,”
And so it goes. Recently Jonathan
Goldstein, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council claimed on BBC
Newsnight that Jeremy Corbyn is “the figurehead of an anti-Semitic
political culture.”
We are involved in a struggle which is
way beyond waiting for the next election polls to open. If we want
any possibility of radical change ( no more wars, no more austerity,
defence of the dwindling NHS, action on climate change … the list
is long) we have to realise what is going on and act now. This means
supporting the three W's - Williamson, Walker, and Wadsworth
If Ken Livingstone is a 'disgusting Nazi apologist' (John Mann MP) then so were Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt and not forgetting Marek Edelman - leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Time to dust off an article I wrote about this for Stop the War Coalition. Better speak up for myself as well. My first street politics was being beaten up by real Nazis from the British Movement and my father - a major influence on my life, was one of the first Allied medics to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation.
