Some things about me & my bias

3 min read

The following I wrote originally as part of a piece I am writing in relation to the Green Party and the Israel & Palestine conflict.

The purpose of it to do my best to ensure people understand where I’m coming from, what my values and ethics are, and why I writing the way I am about matters of Anti Zionism, Zionism, antisemitism and so forth.

I am white (mostly Celtic ancestry) and originally from a traditional white working class background, from an industrial town in the Midlands. I am not part of any organised religion. I am not anti religion.

I am not a Zionist (by any definition of the word), I condemn the actions and militaristic aims of the Israeli government and against Palestinians. I condemn the actions and goals of Hamas.

I believe in empowering people to have agency. I believe in giving space to marginalised, persecuted, oppressed people, I support them against all tyrants whatsoever, and that support includes not speaking on their behalf, taking up their space, and deciding what is best for them. That is for them to lead and decide.

Through my personal experience with trauma, and intensive therapy, I recognise the need to address trauma, and I see there is extremely serious individual and collective trauma for Jewish people, for Palestinians, and most people in what is a horrific, very long, traumatic, and ongoing conflict.

I see complex relationships between a great many people. I want an end to conflict, and that is what guides me.

I am a Green Party member. I have voted for The Green Party all my adult life. I first joined The Green Party in the early 2000s when I was still in my 20s. I have had friends in the Green Party since the 1990s, that includes former Green Party councillors, and I have friends who are Jewish, Green Party members, and members of the Jewish Greens group.

My support for The Green Party is absolutely conditional. I have my own values, ethics, and principles, and even my own ‘ideology’ which is based around Anarchy and the importance of emotions. I regularly review my membership and support for The Green Party, and my boundaries in terms of what or who I will give support to, are well defined. If I consider that The Green Party has crossed a serious boundary with me, I will withdraw my support for it, and I will criticise it. I also see risks around leaders, particularly around their fallibility and the risk of their words and actions being used to damage an entire movement or cause. For this reason, and others, I did was never pro Corbyn, and though Zack Polanski (who I voted for to be the leader of The Green Party) I feel is genuine, I can also be critical of him. I am not a follower of anyone in that sense.

For approximately 8 years of my life, from the 2000s, I was very actively, mostly online, in what may be considered anti fascist and anti racist activism. I was never part of any group, I mostly did this alone but I had some contact with various others, however, I avoided the UAF (Unite Against Fascism) due to serious issues of trust around the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and handling of sexual assault cases. I did communicate with some of the ‘Unity’ groups that emerged at that time. I ran my own anti BNP website which I filled with as much information as I could find about The BNP and other fascist/racist groups, from various sources including Searchlight, and Hope Not Hate. I operated in exposing and opposing bigots in various places on the Internet, before social media such as Facebook became more common. This included various newspaper comments sections and forums, local forums, and places like Stormfront (at the time, perhaps the major forum for ‘White Nationalists’).

The people I was exposed to regularly, included a wide cross section, from the kinds of people who support parties like Reform, and Restore, to neo Nazis, people who cosplayed dressing up as Nazis, using photos of Nazis and the names of Nazis for their profiles.

I have never, and could never experience racism against me.

I do though have some understanding of and some empathy even with the feelings of those affected by such extreme prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry by way of being transgender and experiencing hostility toward me for being transgender, and by way of being part of a marginalised community.

I have been exposed to (through my choice to oppose these things) racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, Islamophobia and most if not all kinds of bigotry.