STEERPIKE Watch: Labour’s expelled Trotskyite says he will not ‘condemn’ 9/11

by Guest Fri Mar 11, 2016 5:43 am

This week Jeremy Corbyn received flak from the Prime Minister during PMQs over the decision by Labour’s NEC to allow Gerry Downing — a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Fight — to re-join Labour. Cameron said he was ‘completely appalled’ by the decision — as revealed by Guido Fawkes — as Downing has previously described the motivation for 9/11 as ‘entirely understandable’. After Labour finally expelled Downing again late last night, he appeared on today’s Daily Politics to fight his corner. In an interview with Andrew Neil, Downing attempted to show why he should be allowed to join Labour. Alas, he appeared to do the opposite as he spouted several alarming view points:

AN: Do you still not condemn the 9/11 attack?
GD: I wouldn’t use the phrase ‘condemn’ because I think like old Baruch Spinoza I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, not to hate them, but to understand them.
AN: So you would understand rather than condemn?
GD: Yes, I would understand the motivation for the people who did that

As for Isis?

GD: Tactical support means that we are opposed to the US bombing of them. Because first of all US bombing involves the killing of what they call collateral damage, and a vast number of civilians.
AN: And what about military assistance for them, what would that require?
GD: Well, if you analyse world imperialism as the main enemy then you always oppose its actions. That follows logically, you would always be for driving out US imperialism from the Middle East etc.

Downing also has some pretty interesting views when it comes to Zionism:

AN: You’ve also said that we need to confront the Jewish question, what is the Jewish question?
GD: Well, the fact that Israel can commit absolutely heinous crimes against, Palestinians, they can bomb them without letter and this is presented in the Western media as an attack on terrorists.
AN: Your group says that Zionism plays a major role in politics of all the advanced capitalist countries. You say that Zionists are behind the witch hunt behind Jeremy Corbyn. You say that Zionists hold great sway over our three main political parties. You say that Zionism is the vanguard of injecting anti-Muslim hatred into Western politics. It would sound when you see all that that for you the Jewish question is a Zionist conspiracy?
GD: No, it’s not a Zionist conspiracy. It adds up to something very material and that is the number of millionaires and billionaires of Zionist persuasion which in the American ruling class and in the European ruling classes in general it is their economic and political power, that leads to ridiculous situations.
AN: And Zionists — as you call them — play a key role in that?
GD: They obviously do play a key role, they have duel-citizenship most of them.

And to think he was a member of the Labour party just yesterday!

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/03/watch-labours-expelled-trotskyite-says-he-will-not-condemn-911/