Corbyn’s endorsement for book claiming Jews run banks and Press
LABOUR faced fresh accusations of antiSemitism last night after it emerged Jeremy Corbyn endorsed a book which argued that banks and newspapers were controlled by Jews.
While a backbench MP, the Labour leader wrote a foreword to a new edition of the 1902 book Imperialism: A Study.
He described it as a ‘great tome’ even though it spread conspiracy theories about the Rothschild banking family.
The work’s author, JA Hobson, an English economist who influence Lenin, said finance in Europe was controlled ‘by men of a single and peculiar race’.
Despite this, Mr Corbyn praised the ‘brilliant’ analysis of Western imperialism at the turn of the 20th century, noting it was ‘very controversial at the time’.
Last night he refused to apoloCircled: Mr Corbyn’s praise gise, saying he had praised the ‘classic study’ but ‘completely rejects the anti- Semitic elements of his analysis’.
But critics pointed out that Labour members have been suspended for retweeting comments containing Rothschild conspiracy theories.
Mr Corbyn wrote his preface in 2011, four years before he was elelected Labour leader.
HHobson’s book claimed imperialism alimperialism was driven by finance, wwhich he said was controlled ‘by men of a single and peculiar race’ who ‘are in a unique position to cocontrol the policy of nations’.
TThe author also specifically mmentioned the Rothschilds, sasaying: ‘ Does anyone seriously susuppose that a great war could be undertaken by any European ststate, or a great state loan subover scribed, if the house of Rothschild and its connections set their face against it?’
He claimed ‘great financial houses’ have ‘control which they exercise over the body of public opinion through the Press’.
In his foreword, Mr Corbyn praised the ‘correct and prescient’ passages ‘railing against the commercial interests that fuel the role of the popular Press with tales of imperial might’.
Former Labour MP Ian Austin, who quit the party in disgust its anti-Semitism problem, said: ‘This is disgusting.
‘Decent people will be sickened to see him describing as “brilliant” a book by someone who pushed deeply and clearly racist theories about Jewish people.
‘Labour members have been suspended for retweeting Rothschild conspiracy theories – and this man has written a whole foreword!’
Last month two Labour candidates for local council elections were suspended for sharing Rothschild conspiracy theories on social media.
Euan Philipps, of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, added: ‘The revelation Jeremy Corbyn wrote the foreword for a reportedly deeply anti-Semitic book is damning and damaging.’
A Labour Party spokesman said: ‘Jeremy praised the liberal Hobson’s century- old classic study of imperialism in Africa and Asia. Similarly to other books of its era, Hobson’s work contains outdated and offensive references and observations, and Jeremy completely rejects the anti- Semitic elements of his analysis.’
‘Decent people will be sickened’