Support for Jeremy Corbyn from Roger Waters, Robert Del Naja and more
JVL Introduction
We reproduce a letter that has just been published in New Musical Express
This article was originally published by New Musical Express on Sat 16 Nov 2019. Read the original here.
Exclusive: New letter supporting Jeremy Corbyn signed by Roger Waters, Robert Del Naja and more
Brian Eno, Vivienne Westwood and Mark Ruffalo are also among the 30 signatories declaring their support for the Labour leader ahead of next month’s general election
An open letter written in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has collected 30 signatories from a wide range of high-profile public figures, including musicians Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Thurston Moore, Robert Del Naja and Lowkey, NME can exclusively reveal.
The support follows the release of a letter from other celebrity names who oppose Corbyn’s position as leader of the party, denouncing what what they feared to be “the prospect of a prime minister steeped in association with antisemitism,” and comes less than a month before the UK general election on December 12.
In the new letter, the signatories – also featuring a range of major authors and academics, notably Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky – describe Corbyn as a “life-long committed anti-racist” and claim that “no political party or political leader has done more to address [antisemitism] than Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.” Read the full letter below.
“To the Editor:
“The coming UK election is indeed a landmark and monumental one as signatories to a recent letter attest. However, we are outraged that Jeremy Corbyn, a life-long committed anti-racist, is being smeared as an anti-semite by people who should know better. Antisemitism is a problem within society and is present within all political parties and movements, including Labour. It must be confronted and rooted out at every turn. No political party or political leader has done more to address this problem than Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. In the last two years, the speed of investigations has increased fourfold, staffing committed to dealing with the issue has doubled, legal experts have been drafted, and rules changed to expedite sanctions. But the prevailing evidence speaks for itself: Labour’s political opponents and much of the media have trivialised and weaponised this issue for ideological ends.
“Progressives around the world are looking to this election and to the Labour Party as a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world. It has never been more important that voters are made aware of the truth of what the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn stands for: the eradication of all racism, including antisemitism, wherever it rears its ugly head.”
The text concludes with the full list of signatories, listed below:
Noam Chomsky
Naomi Klein
Yanis Varoufakis
Brian Eno
Rob Delaney
Angela Davis
Steve Coogan
Alexei Sayle
Maxine Peake
Roger Waters
Jason Hickel
Francesca Martinez
Lowkey
David Adler
Raoul Martinez
Miriam Margolyes
Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack)
Vivienne Westwood
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
John Keane
Michael Mansfield QC
Adjoa Andoh
Mike Leigh
Michael Rosen
Robert Cohen
Mark Ruffalo
Amir Amirani
Mark Rylance
Caryl Churchill
David Graeber (London School of Economics)
Des Freedman (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Justin Schlosberg (Birkbeck, University of London)
In an NME interview with Jeremy Corbyn prior to the UK’s last general election in 2017, the Labour leader revealed he has a wide range of musical tastes. “I’ve got to ’fess up here: I’m not very musical but I love music,” Corbyn said in the interview. “When I’m at home late in the evening I have Classic FM on or I have Radio 3 on or I put some music on of other sorts. I listen to a whole range of things.”
Well done!
Someone had to publish the truth – I felt sick at
reading those smears from “public figures” – the world
has gone mad.
It seems to me that when UKIP was on the rise and the
referendum in prospect xenophobia
and racism increased and along with it other forms of
hatred and the lies that go with it.
Best wishes Margaret
Any chance they could also send it to The Guardian? If it deigned to publish the letter, it would be a fitting riposte to the one from 24 Corbyn haters that they were happy to publish last week.
I am so pleased with this new letter as I was very sickened and upset by the letter in the Guardian. I know that the rebuttal work of JVL helped to reaffirm at least one of the signatories supporting Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you all round.
It is great that this has been published in NME. I wish it could appear in any of the daily newspapers.
Great letter with far more worthwhile names on it than than the shameful letter to the Guardian, signed by of all people, John le Carre.
This letter should be sent to the Guardian as a riposte.
Thanks to everyone of those signatories for standing up for truth. The only person who can rescue this country from racism and poverty is Jeremy Corbyn. This is why he is been attacked by the far right and tax Dodger cooperates. #JC4PM.
The level of celebrities on the NEC letter is at least equal to that of the Guardian letter. That was picked up on and referred to across the main media. A Google check suggests that the opposite has happened with the NME letter, despite it being equally newsworthy. Business as usual.
There was in fact a letter published in the Guardian yesterday by fourteen Jewish academics etc in response to the ‘Joanna Lumley’ letter, but I have no doubt that it received zero media coverage:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/nov/17/a-vote-for-labour-is-not-a-vote-for-antisemitism