Not only does sexism and anti-Semitism go right to the very top of the Labour Party, we now know violence does too.



Sadly it’s no surprise Jacob Rees-Mogg was confronted by a group of masked Antifa thugs at the University of Bristol on Friday evening. Why? Because the Shadow Chancellor of Britain’s opposition party, John McDonnell, has openly and explicitly been calling for such flashpoints.

“I want to be in a situation where no Tory MP, no Coalition minister can travel anywhere in the country or show their face anywhere in public without being challenged by direct action,” he told a Unite rally in 2011.

McDonnell clarified his definition of “direct action” in 2013 when he told attendees of Goldsmiths University: “…we used to call it insurrection. Now we’re polite and say it’s direct action. Let’s get back to calling it what it is, it’s insurrection. We want to bring this Government down by whatever mechanism we have.”

What does “insurrection” mean, we hear you ask? The definition: a violent uprising against an authority or government.

The Labour frontbencher also urged a “day of rage” following the Grenfell fire and praised the 2010 student protesters as “the best of our movement” – riots which resulted in 153 arrests and a fire extinguisher being thrown at the police from the roof of a building. He also glorified images of violence against immigration officials when he shared images last year of a group of leftist thugs surrounding an immigration enforcement van.

But that’s not the only direct Labour connection to violence. Former Mayor of London and anti-Semite Ken Livingstone was the chair of Unite Against Fascism (UAF). He is now an honorary president. UAF pre-dates Antifa in the UK, as the violent street-protest arm of the left-wing extremists. They usually turn up to counter-protest groups such as the EDL and attack police officers. Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, of Greater Manchester Police, spoke about UAF in 2010 when he said: “We have seen groups of people, predominantly associated with the UAF, engaging in violent confrontation. It is clear to me that a large number have attended with the sole intention of committing disorder and their actions have been wholly unacceptable. They acted with, at times, extreme violence and their actions led to injuries to police officers, protesters and members of the public.”

There has been a long history of organised far-left violence. Notable groups include left-wing anarchists J18 Reclaim the Streets, who claimed responsibility for 58 protests and demonstrations from May 1995 to June 1999 many of which resulted in violence and riots which injured police officers and caused millions of pounds worth of damage.

The Occupy Movement of 2011-2014 was similar – an anti-capitalist movement with violent protests, riots, squatting on Parliament Square and the targeting of the London Stock Exchange. Many members went on to take part in the 2015 student riots. In late 2015, there was also the ‘Million Mask March’ which took place in London and spread across the globe. Again, Socialist Worker placards were aplenty as police made arrests for offensive weapons and criminal damage.

In 2016, left-wing activists ‘No Borders’ travelled to Calais to incite 500 refugees into violence by storming the port. 35 members were arrested. The G20 in Hamburg last July saw a ‘Welcome to Hell’ anti-capitalist riot which was led by Antifa. Cars were set on fire, stores looted and police injured. Hamburg resembled a war zone and close to 500 police officers were injured.

Groups such as Antifa have publicly admitted – sorry, boasted – that they’re willing to physically attack, as long as force is used in the name of social justice.

It isn’t just MPs that are targets either. Just last week a farmer received five days of death threats for posting a picture of his new-born calf triplets, for what the far-left claim was “sexually exploiting animals” and called for the farmer’s children be trampled or suffer the same fate as the animals. The eco-terror group, Animal Liberation Front (ALF), were quoted as saying “Animal liberation is a fierce struggle that demands total commitment. There will be injuries and possibly deaths on both sides. That is sad but certain.” This is the empowered left.

All we hear in the mainstream media is about the ‘rise of the far-right’ – but what about not only the rise of the far-left but also their increasingly emboldened attitudes to violence which are spurred on from the top by McDonnell and his ilk? When Jo Cox was tragically murdered by a lone far-right nutter, all we heard for weeks was analysis of the groups he purported to support and that supposedly radicalised him.

Yet when Rees-Mogg suffers threatening abuse by a gang which openly advocate violence against their political opponents, you could barely spot the name ‘Antifa’ anywhere across the endless press coverage that ensued. The Antifa ringleader of the Bristol Uni flashpoint, Josh Connor, is a staunch Corbynite. Where was the analysis around this group of anarchists and their serious threat to safety, democracy and freedom of speech?

So emboldened are this group that they posted afterwards: “Our disruption was a complete success” and “We are the raindrops of a storm that is brewing.” Had a ‘far-right’ group written that, needless to say their front-doors would have been kicked off their hinges for incitement to violence by now.

The Government were quick enough to proscribe National Action – another group of fascists intent on political violence – as a terrorist organisation. In 2017 confidential documents revealed that US Homeland Security officials had classified Antifa as “domestic terrorists”.

Shy Society today calls on the UK Government to join the United States of America in making Antifa a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000. As a result, being a member – or inviting support for – the organisation would be a criminal offence, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Violence and intimidation in politics must never be tolerated – and should never be seen as ‘morally more acceptable’ by those holier-than-thou hypocrites on the left.

Shy Society.

Standing up for those without a voice in Britain

Follow @mattlynchgb on Twitter.

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