Gilbert Moon is a new writer here at AMERICAblog, and an old friend of mine. He's British, a lawyer (aka "barrister"), and lives and works in London. JOHN
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Tower Hamlets is a borough in the East End of London. Recently it has been the backdrop for a series of conflicts that, taken together, point to some unusual re-alignments of political groupings on the Right and Left fringes of mainstream politics.
The East End has traditionally been the part of London in which immigrant populations establish themselves. Over 36% of the population is now Muslim compared to a national average of 3%. The Labour Party, of which I am a member, holds a majority of the seats on the council. There are two reasons why that is no great surprise. First, the area is a working class one and, secondly, Labour has traditionally polled more strongly in areas in which members of ethnic minorities represent a high proportion of the population (though support amongst Muslims for Labour suffered significantly as a result of the then Government's support for the war in Iraq).
The Labour Party has traditionally prided itself on giving priority to equality and diversity and defending the interests of minority communities. For that same reason, it has often been seen as the natural home for LGBT voters. Certainly the Conservative Party did its popularity in the gay community few favours when last in government. It introduced the notorious "Section 28" which provided that local authorities should not "intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality".
Broadly speaking, there was a correlation between where a party was situated on the political spectrum and its attitude to LGBT rights and race. If you travelled rightwards you eventually encountered the National Front or, more recently, the British National Party. These parties (despite their occasional denials) are fascist. They are the parties to which racists gravitate and on the question of homosexuality have tended to take the "tolerate but not promote" line which, personally, I have always felt points reliably to intolerance. On the left are various shades of marxist and trotskyist parties. Prominent amongst the latter would be the Socialist Workers Party. If the revolution they claim fervently to desire should ever come about the understanding is that equality would follow. The picture is now much more complicated.
In February this year, posters began to appear in Tower Hamlets, declaring it a "
Gay Free Zone". There was a rise in homophobic crime. In May the press covered a
story of a religiously-motivated attack on a religious studies teacher. Commentators began to talk of the "Taliban of Tower Hamlets". Enter the
English Defence League.
The EDL claims to exist to oppose "Islamic Extremism". The first paragraph of its mission statement reads as follows:
The English Defence League (EDL) is a human rights organisation that was founded in the wake of the shocking actions of a small group of Muslim extremists who, at a homecoming parade in Luton, openly mocked the sacrifices of our service personnel without any fear of censure. Although these actions were certainly those of a minority, we believe that they reflect other forms of religiously-inspired intolerance and barbarity that are thriving amongst certain sections of the Muslim population in Britain: including, but not limited to, the denigration and oppression of women, the molestation of young children, the committing of so-called honour killings, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and continued support for those responsible for terrorist atrocities.
The purported enthusiasm for women's right, combatting anti-semitism and homophobia is, frankly, a bit unnerving. They otherwise seem a straightforward incarnation of British right-wing identity politics with a membership full of white men wearing football hooligan chic with an inclination to
violence. The suspicion is that LGBT rights are being used as stick to beat Muslims with. A Pride march through East London was cancelled earlier this year because it was anticipated that the EDL would turn out in numbers with a view to confronting locals.
Things seem to be changing at the left end of the spectrum too. What Christopher Hitchens calls the "Anti-Imperialist Left" can increasingly be seen travelling in the company of Islamists. The Imperialists that attract their ire are the Americans. On the basis of the familiar principle, America's enemies are its friends. It would not take you long combing through left wing British blogs to find people busily defending the most unsavoury people (from Ghaddafi through to Assad). Blogs such as the estimable
Harry's Place track this behaviour in almost obsessional detail. If you want to stay friends with radical Islamists though, you may have to stop being seen with other old friends. It would be going too far to say that the far left have abandoned LGBT rights, but it can certainly be said that they have begun to prioritise other matters. Those who raise issues about the lack of support for LGBT rights in Tower Hamlets, for instance, are likely to find themselves accused of being unhelpful, divisive or islamophobic.
At the beginning of September the EDL resolved to march through Tower Hamlets. A counter-demonstration was organised. Enter Peter Tatchell.
Peter is one of the staunchest campaigners for LGBT rights in the UK. Perhaps one day he'll get a knighthood for his efforts, at the moment he tends to get beatings. At the demonstration he carried a placard saying: "Stop EDL and far right Islamists. No to all hate". What he discovered was that whilst he might want to tackle far-right Islamism, the far left was less keen on him doing so. He describes events
here. Many in the gay community (you can see examples amongst the commenters at Harry's Place) feel that the Labour Party has done less than it might to tackle the affront to LGBT rights. The more charitable suggest that it is because the party fears being taken to be racist. The more cynical say that the party is prepared to stop taking calls from its former LGBT supporters if it calculates that electoral advantage lies elsewhere.
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