Following CAA action, Ludlow Assembly Rooms cancel screening of antisemitism-denial film
Following correspondence with Campaign Against Antisemitism, Ludlow Assembly Rooms has cancelled a screening of a propaganda film about the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The screening of the film Oh, Jeremy Corbyn! The Big Lie was due to be shown earlier this month, but the booking is understood to have been made by a third party, and not by the venue itself, which we understand was not made aware of the nature of the film.
The news comes shortly after, following action by Campaign Against Antisemitism, Glastonbury Festival, YMCA, Unite union, Basildon Council, North Ayrshire Council, the national pub retailer Greene King, Tolpuddle Village Hall, Yeovil Labour Club, a Nottinghamshire church and independent venues around the country, have cancelled screenings of the film.
The film claims that it “investigates the ‘secret war’ waged against Corbyn” and questions whether there was an “orchestrated campaign” against the former Party leader.
The film’s contributors include a who’s who of controversial figures such as Jackie Walker, who has previously stated that Jews were “chief financiers” of the African slave trade; the filmmaker Ken Loach, who caused outrage when, during an interview with the BBC, he refused to denounce Holocaust denial. Both were expelled from the Labour Party; Graham Bash, the Political Officer of Jewish Voice for Labour, an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation; and Moshe Machover, a professor and Holocaust revisionist. All have been expelled from the Labour Party, although Mr Machover was readmitted.
Also featured in the film is the disgraced academic and conspiracy theorist, David Miller, who was fired by the University of Bristol in 2021 over comments he had made about Jewish students, a month after Campaign Against Antisemitism commenced a lawsuit on behalf of current students against the institution and amidst a Jewish communal outcry. More recently, he tweeted that “Jews are not discriminated against” before going on to write: “They are over-represented in Europe, North America and Latin America in positions of cultural, economic and political power.”
Another contributor involved is Andrew Murray, a close adviser to Mr Corbyn who, in 2005, authored an article in which he claimed that the roots of the 9/11 terror attacks lay in “Zionist colonialism” of the Balfour Declaration. However, Mr Murray has since sought to distance himself from the film.
The film is narrated by comedian Alexei Sayle who claimed in 2014 that BBC presenter Emma Barnett, who is Jewish, supported the murder of children following an article and radio interview in which she had decried antisemitism amongst anti-Israel activists.
Campaign Against Antisemitism commends the venue for its swift and decisive action to cancel the screening as soon as we brought it to its attention.
Additionally, we received confirmation from the Widcombe Social Club that a planned screening of the film, at which Mr Loach was also due to speak, was cancelled, as has one at Havant and Emsworth United Reformed Church, the independent book retailer, October Books, and Leicester Students’ Union.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
