Al Jazeera’s The Labour Files, much like its 2017 series The Lobby, contains neither the explosive revelations promised nor a convincing political case that “antisemitism smears” were the downfall of the Corbyn leadership. Over nearly four hours, we get only a handful of information that people active in the labour movement during the Corbyn period would not have known.
The right-wing in the Labour party are devious and seek to disrupt left-wing activists from organising. MPs worked alongside the Labour bureaucracy to shut down local parties, shared correspondence and were more interested in maintaining control than welcoming new members. All true, but not news.
The primary purpose of the footage is not to give insight, but to further Al Jazeera and the attitude to Israel of its owner, the Qatari state.
The entire second episode and much of the other episodes are focused on accusations of antisemitism against Labour activists. Some of those accusations, so we on Solidarity believe, carry weight. None that we know of related to Palestinian solidarity activity.
In the footage we never see what any of those interviewed have been accused of. Instead, interspersed clips of Israeli assaults on Gaza and Palestinian demonstrations are used to suggest that these are activists who stood with the Palestinians and Labour officials or right-wingers concocted accusations of antisemitism as a
consequence.
Solidarity has been relentless in its criticism of Labour’s disciplinary procedures: the lack of natural justice, activists often for many months not told what they are accused of, prolonged periods of limbo, the lack of rights to appeal, a thoroughly opaque process. None of that undoes the fact that antisemitism on the left is a real political issue.
Al Jazeera has no interest in exploring that. Much like The Lobby, The Labour Files is best avoided.