The great liberal betrayal

Nick Cohen rips into the Stop the War Coalition in the New Statesman over its fingering of the free Iraqi Trade Unions.

He begins, ‘The British anti-war movement is falling apart, but for a reason that the most cynical observer of the left in the 20th century could never have imagined. The left, or at least that section of it which always manages to get the whip hand, has swerved to the right - to the far right, in fact - and is actively supporting theocrats and fascists: the oppressors of racial minorities, secularists, women, gays and trade unionists’. He draws three conclusions: “1) The people who can be relied on to make a stand in hard times won't be found in the broadsheet opinion pages or on Radio 4 chat shows, but in the boring and perennially unfashionable labour movement. 2) The democratic left should never again allow itself to be led by the supporters of totalitarianism. 3) No one who considers himself a democrat, liberal or socialist can continue to associate with the Stop the War Coalition”.

To read more of the article you will have to buy the New Statesman.