From: steuart@btinternet.com   
      
    The Daily Politics edition (27th March, 2018), Jo Coburn opened her interview   
   with David Baddiel writer and comedian, with the question  if he thought there   
   was a problem with anti-Semitism on the left?  David answered in the following   
   terms,   
      
   "Jews are the only ones who apparently have a high status - bad thing - as   
   well which is their in control, and secretly pulling the strings behind global   
   capitalism and own all the money, and all the rest of it.   So that idea which   
   is a racist myth    
   propagated first of all in the protocols of the elders of zion but goes on   
   before that  is something that activates the left ......."   
      
   As somebody who has studied the phenomenon of left wing anti-Semitism and has   
   collated the major academic works associated with it in the UK, I found   
   David’s claim extraordinary.  The following are  the major works on the   
   subject.  If there is evidence    
   for David’s claim, it is here that you would expect to find it.   
      
   The Left’s Jewish Problem by David Rich, brings us bang up to date with this   
   theme, focusing on the Labour Party in the Corbyn era.  There are about three   
   references to the Protocols but none of them refer to the Protocols   
   influencing or activating the    
   UK, American or European Left.   
      
   The Socialism of Fools by W Brustein and L Roberts  takes a longer historical   
   view.  It references anti-semitic discourse in terms of the lefts   
   anti-religious, anti-national and anti-capitalist narrative, though the   
   authors admit that there is “less of    
   evidence” of this today[location 235].  There are 19 references to the   
   Protocols but the only connection is made to a left  paper at the end of the   
   19th century called Justice, which according to the authors took a   
   contradictory position,  nonetheless    
   denies there is a global plot by Jews to dominate the world[location 4690].   
      
   Another book that takes an historical view is From Ambivalence to Betrayal by   
   Robert S. Wistrich.  There are 17 references to the Protocols in this work.    
   There is much about Stalinism and the impact on the Middle East, but nothing   
   on the Left accept for    
   the following admission at location 6940 that the Western Left “does not   
   embrace the Protocols”, the exact opposite of David’s claim!   
      
   The Left and the Jews by David Cesarani, has a reference to the Protocols at   
   page 59, but this is to say that the argument for an international jewish   
   conspiracy “become the received wisdom on the anti-socialist right”   
      
   That’s Funny You Don’t Look Anti-Semitic by Steve Cohen has 6 references   
   to the Protocols.  One of these is an episode that occurred between two   
   organisations – the WRP and Socialist Organiser –  in which the latter   
   claimed that the former was    
   conducting an anti-zionist discourse as ‘code’ for an anti-semtic one.  I   
   wish to deal with this in a separate piece.  As someone familiar with the   
   writings of the WRP, I think SO got this one wrong.  But clearly this is down   
   to the interpretation of    
   the reader.   
      
   There are also some excellent books and thesis on the Labour left and its   
   relationship with Zionism.   The most prominent is The British Left and   
   Zionism: A History of a Divorce by Paul Kellerman, which shows that the Labour   
   left was sympathetic to    
   Israel, as a socialist project, at least until the early 80’s.  No evidence   
   is made available on the pernicious influence of the nasty Tsarist fraud of   
   the Protocols.   
      
   There is also a mound of literature on the influence and impact of the   
   Protocols.  The two that come to my mind immediately are Warrant for Genocide   
   by Norman Cohn and Aaronovitch chapter in his excellent Voo Doo Histories.     
   Neither provide any evidence    
    the Protocols “activated” the Left.   
      
   I have enjoyed your comedy over the years, but I think you have over stepped   
   your expertise, with your interview with the Daily Politics.  There is no   
   evidence, that the reformist or revolutionary left in the UK, has been   
   influenced by the Protocols of    
   Zion, a notorious fraud, which contrary to your stated view, has stimulated   
   fire in the bellies of the far right.   
      
   Leaving aside these political differences, can I take this occasion to wish   
   you all the best on your up and coming tour.   
      
   Geoff Steuart   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)