What is to be done?

If you didn't read Eve Garrard's guest post at Norm's place, "What is to be done?", about the rise of European antisemitism, please do (and then, if you want, read the comment thread at Engage). It's a great piece of writing. Although the best writing is in the first half, I want to extract here from the second half:

There is, however, one further strategy [for Jews] which can be canvassed. We should bear in mind that Jews are not friendless, even on the left, and we should try to build on that. There is a distinct section of the liberal-left* which sees what is happening, and doesn't like it - within the blogosphere, and beyond that domain as well. Some of these people are heroes, who have themselves been the object of hostility and condemnation for the stance which they've adopted. They don't think that Jews should be singled out for special obloquy for supporting the Jewish state, nor do they see Jews as exercising sinister powers in expressing that support. The anti-racism of these people doesn't make an exception for anti-Semitism; they and their views form the basis for a genuinely universal struggle against discrimination uninfected by the traditional prejudices which are once again crawling out of the shadows. One strategy for Jews is to work with these figures and others like them to revive a universal anti-racism, alongside support for other universal rights and values, as well as more particular ones appropriate for individual situations and commitments.

I thought this was important. Another cause for hope is the launch last week of TULIP, Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine, subject of a future blog post here.

(*I imagine the folks at Shiraz Socialist didn't like the word "liberal" being allocated to their hyperlink!)

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Talking of antisemitism, here are a couple follow-ups on the Ken Loach affair. Notwisconsin at the Daily Kos; Mira V at Engage; Alec again.

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It might be a bit arcane for some of my readers, but Waterloo Sunset and Contested Terrain (with a couple of contributions from Mike and Mod) had a very interesting debate about nationalism, anti-nationalism and anti-Germanism here. I learnt a lot from it.

This recent Hitchens piece, on Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers, is relevant to those issues.

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Euronationalism/unsavoury alliances watch: Modernity (via Jim and Fiachra Gibbons) bring news of Libertas' unpleasant alliances with antisemitic Polish nationalists.

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Good causes: Here's some causes you might want to take action in relation to. Defend Florence Hartmann. Union rights for Iranian workers. Harassment of broadcasters in Chavez's Venezuela. Iranian political prisoner Behrouz Javid Tehrani in danger of death. Help fight the Taleban in Pakistan. Palestinians displaced by Operation Cast Lead still living in tents. Tamils in London continue to protest, without much far left support.

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Finally, here's Modernity's Normblog profile

Soundtrack: Kutiman and evil Zionist funk. Early Ike Turner rumpshakers. Swine flu cumbia. And, from the wonderful Mudd Up: Matoub Lounès, profane Berber rebel martyr; Chaabi and reggada from the Maghrebi diaspora; Morroccan gnawa dub. Oh, and (via Jogo, but placed here with Daniel in mind) a bird digging Ray Charles.