Today In Labor History April 3, 1950: Composer Kurt Weill died. Weill’s most famous song was Mack the Knife ("Die Moritat von Mackie Messer"), which became a schlock classic after Bobby Darin’s rendition. However, Weill wrote the song as part of Bertolt Brecht’s “Three Penny Opera,” which was a socialist critique of the capitalist world. Weill was persecuted by the Nazis for his political views and his Jewish heritage. He fled to America, with his wife, singer Lotte Lenya. Some of Weill’s other well-known songs include: Alabama Song (covered by the Doors), Pirate Jenny (covered by Nina Simone), Mack the Knife (also covered by Louis Armstrong), Der Kleine des Lieben Gottes (covered by John Zorn).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orDcL0zt34

"... the current obsession with a definition of antisemitism is obscene. We are distracted from the horror by panic about an alleged explosion of antisemitism and concerns about Jewish safety – even though it’s been exposed as mostly bullshit.

My mother and grandmother survived the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz, and I grew up hearing their stories. So, l think I know antisemitism when I see it. In fact, there has never been any antisemitism at our rallies, at universities or anywhere in Australia in my lifetime.

Saying “F**k Israel” or “F**k Zionism” is not antisemitic."
https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/peter-slezaks-speech-to-the-uts-rally-on-26-march/
@palestine

#AusPol
#zionism
#censorship
#antisemitism
#repession

"Although the contributions here were written before the events of October 7, it is impossible to read the book outside of the many conflicts that continue to divide the left on the question of Israel and Palestine. At times, the arguments here lack a sufficiently critical perspective on Israel, Zionism and the political economy of occupation. Antisemitism, indeed, exists. There are also antisemitic perspectives regarding the state of Israel and Zionism. In a treatment of the Initiative Socialist Forum (ISF), for example, Stoetzler relates some of the history regarding the anti-Zionism of the Stalinist and Maoist, German New Left (16-17). The politics of antisemitism, however, is also being instrumentalized by defenders of Israeli policy against those who express solidarity for occupied Palestine. Although one does find a differential account of the Frankfurt School’s varying political orientations in regarding Zionism here, too often the treatment of the Palestine question plays into equivocations regarding the politics of anti-Zionism and antisemitism in a manner that reduces all criticism of Israel to pathologized forms of anti-imperialism or anti-capitalism. The uncritical acceptance of an absolute identity of Israeli policy and Jewishness can also be a form of antisemitism, as Braune observes (165). Such equivocation preempts the possibility of enlightened, rational criticism of Israeli policies. Can such a critical perspective that grasps the concrete violence of Israel-Palestine be grasped in its mediation by capitalist society? At times it seems not. Still, the arguments presented here are far from monolithic­, and should be considered."

https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/22052_critical-theory-and-the-critique-of-antisemitism-by-marcel-stoetzler-ed-reviewed-by-charles-a-prusik/

Today in Labor History April 2, 1840: Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright, journalist was born. He was also a liberal activist, playing a significant role in the political liberalization of France, and in the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army officer falsely convicted and imprisoned on trumped up, antisemitic charges of espionage. He was also a significant influence on mid-20th century journalist-authors, like Thom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer and Joan Didion. Wolfe said that his goal in writing fiction was to document contemporary society in the tradition of Steinbeck, Dickens, and Zola.

Zola wrote dozens of novels, but his most famous, Germinal, about a violently repressed coalminers’ strike, is one of the greatest books ever written about working class rebellion. It had a huge influence on future radicals, especially anarchists. Some anarchists named their children Germinal. Rudolf Rocker had a Yiddish-language anarchist journal in London called Germinal, in the 1910s. There were also anarchist papers called Germinal in Mexico and Brazil in the 1910s.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #zola #germinal #anarchism #writer #fiction #strike #dreyfus #antisemitism #rebellion #novel #author #books #france #mining #coal #journalism @bookstadon

All over the West, free speech is falling victim to pro-Israel supporters in government and institutions, and anything related to the Gaza genocide is being severely punished and suppressed with the blanket accusation of 'antisemitism'.

c: @5149jamesli on IG

In more "What the heck is going on in Australia?" news, it looks like a city council realized it had a problem on its hands when a song calling for the murder of Jews won a song contest, and the author of the song made antisemitic statements in her acceptance speech for the award.

The town has shut the context and the organization down, so that's good at least.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/03/28/australian-city-council-pulls-funding-local-music-awards-anti-israel-song-river-sea-wins-top-honor/

Well, that escalated quickly.

Isn't America great or what?

It is not hypocrisy, it is protecting the right of the chosen people to commit genocide to defend themselves.

And if you dare exposing their crimes, you are an antisemite.

#US #Antisemitism #ColombiaUniversity #Freespeech #Antisemitism #USPol #Politics #Genocide #Dumbfuckistan
@palestine @israel

#Trump & #MarcoRubio claiming the #student #deportations are because they are fighting #antisemitism in the US, is like #Putin saying he’s fighting #Nazis in #Ukraine.

Bullshit.

Especially because Trump is happy to defend #FreeSpeech in favor of #WhiteSupremacy, even if the people spouting it are violent criminals, like the #ProudBoys or #OathKeepers.

Quoting Hanin Majadli: Eva Illouz was a mouthpiece for right-wing propaganda, and in response received a slap

Majadli discusses how Israel's Education Minister Yoav Kish disqualified Professor Eva Illouz from receiving the Israel Prize due to what he called her "anti-Israeli ideology." The reason cited was her 2021 participation in a petition to the International Criminal Court in The Hague requesting an investigation into whether Israel committed war crimes in the West Bank.

In response to this disqualification, Illouz stated to Haaretz: "During the last 18 months, I dedicated my energy to writing for the international press with the aspiration to defend Israel. In the most prestigious newspapers in Spain, France, and Germany, I never stopped clarifying that Hamas is a terrorist organization, that Israel had the right to respond to a ground invasion of its territory, that anti-Zionism is an expression of antisemitism, and that the accusations of genocide against it are nothing but a continuation of antisemitic discourse."

Majadli criticizes Illouz for having been a "loyal mouthpiece for the most right-wing Israeli propaganda" for a year and a half, only to be rejected by the state she defended. Majadli argues that there is little difference between Illouz's response to the war and that of any standard Zionist leftist in Israel.

She says that Illouz and other Zionist intellectuals who identify as leftists were focusing on "deciphering esoteric shades of antisemitism in the global left" while diverting attention from the violence being carried out in Gaza. She suggests that Illouz could have gained more respect by refusing any prize from a state that killed tens of thousands civilians in Gaza.

Majadli wonders when will the academic community understand that the "Israel Prize" is not a badge of honor but a mark of disgrace, and characterizes Illouz as symbolizing "the ongoing failure of the Zionist left to understand the State of Israel as it truly is, and not as they would like it to be."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hebrew https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/2025-03-27/ty-article-opinion/.premium/00000195-d323-da7e-adb7-fbbbef440000 or https://archive.is/QDjkq

Hanin Majadli is a Palestinian Israeli journalist, publicist, and editor at #Haaretz.

@palestine
@israel
@academicchatter
#GazaGenocide
#Zionism #EvaIllouz
#antisemitism #WeaponizedAntisemitism

Today in Labor History March 25, 1919: Cossack troops murdered 4,000 Jews in the Tetiev pogrom in Ukraine, two-thirds of the Jewish population. They tossed infants into the air and dashed their bodies on the pavement and burned the Jewish quarter to the ground. The Tetiev pogrom would become the prototype of mass murder during the Holocaust. During the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921, there were 1,236 violent attacks against Jews in 524 Ukrainian towns. 30,000-60,000 died in these pogroms. The Ukrainian People's Republic army, Ukrainian warlords, the Red Army and the Polish Army all participated in anti-Jewish pogroms.

Exclusive: As Trump Threatens to Deport Him, Momodou Taal Says It’s “Time to Escalate for Palestine”

A #Cornell student suing the #Trump administration over free speech — and now facing deportation threats — shares his story on The Intercept Briefing.

from #TheIntercept
March 24 2025, 6:00 a.m.

"“Anything that shows solidarity of #Palestine is being mischaracterized quite erroneously as #antisemitism. That’s the way in which they are trying to get us to stop speaking about Palestine,” he says."

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/24/briefing-podcast-momodou-taal/

#DefendMomodouTaal
#DefendAcademicFreedom
#repression
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#MomodouTaal
#SolidarityWithPalestine is #NotAntisemitism
#EqualRightsForAllFromTheRiverToTheSea is #NotAntisemitic
#JewHatredHurtsPalestine
#Gaza #Israel #MiddleEast #WestAsia #politics
#USA #US #USPolitics
#news #press @palestine

Well, I'm back. #introduction
#genderqueer dà-anam storyteller/beat poet making their way in the greasy underbelly of the 'net. #filk, #scifi, and thinking about #aviation are pastimes. #activism , #GroenLinks , #ClimateChange , #TransrightsAreHumanrights , stomping #antisemitism; #TikkunOlam means *everyone*.

I am Universalist with strong Old Celtic leanings, Jewish-adjacent, Baha'i-adjacent, my bestie is Christian, and my circle is generally eclectic, including at least one athiest. None of them try to *impose* their views.

I am also a former professional and current amateur journalist. Sources get cited, mistakes corrected; I invite you to do likewise.

Love wins, hate gets used for a DANCE FLOOR. Can't stop the

AND MY INTRO FITS IN ONE! Thanks, #hachyderm !! It's good to be back.