Live dangerous – shop at Marks and Spencers. A poem by Steve Cohen.

In comments to an earlier post, Richard Gold drew attention to this poem by independent socialist Steve Cohen.

He wrote it after finding out that the weekly picket of the “Zionist” Marks and Spencer in Manchester had begun to carry pro-Hesballah placards.

Live dangerous – shop at Marks and Spencers

I don’t want to be a court jew
A court jew kneeling before the throne of the idiot anti-zionist
The court jew in the palace of the stupid anti-imperialist
Martin Buber where are you now
You who refused to kneel before the ultimate socialism of fools – anti-semitism.
You who abstained from being the house nigger
From being an Uncle Tevye

I don’t want to shout out “not in my name”
(and my name is Y’Israel Zev ben David)
Instead I want to scream out “Jews don’t need to disassociate themselves from collective guilt cos there is no collective guilt”

I wanna be a dangerous Jew, a frightening Jew, a threatening Jew, a communist Jew, a revolutionary Jew
I don’t wanna be an easy protest Jew
And today the easy protest is to demand the blood-stained might of Israel , gets out of Lebanon, gets out of Gaza, turns back on the road to Damascus, ceases its recreation of armeggedon
You don’t have to be a socialist to demand this, you don’t have to be a Trotskyist to demand this
You don’t have to be a Cohen or a Levy or a Gluckstein to demand this
Or a Y’Israel zev ben David to demand this
You just have to be sane
And in the name of sanity demand it!

Being a dangerous Jew, a frightening Jew, a threatening Jew, a communist Jew, a revolutionary Jew means living on a different planet
The planet of Truth
As Trotsky said “Only the truth is revolutionary”
And the truth is that Hizbollah are not the Sandanistas, are not the ANC, are not the IRA, are not Gueverrists, are not anti-colonialists, are not Spanish Republicans, Sparticists or Bolsheviks
Are not a fitting emblem for our tee shirts

The truth is that they are fascists, neo-fascists , proto fascists
They are feudalists, medievalists,obscurantists
Theocratic collectivists
Seeking to re-establish the Caliphate
A thousand years too late
Without the science, the medicine, the mathamatics, the poetry, the philosophy
Just the Protocols of Zion

Concealing these simple truths
Is not part of any honest anti-war movement
It is part of a dishonest anti-war movement
It is part of a pro-war movement
It is the 1930s. And it is the 1940s.
It is the same movement which saw the red flags of the Israeli Communist Party unfurled in solidarity with Haj Amin al-Husseini
The Mufti of Jerusalem
Idiot anti Zionist
Idiot collaborator with Adolf Hitler

I wanna stand between the anti-zionist picket of Marks and Spencers
And the Zionist picket of the anti-zionist picket of Marks and Spencers
Denouncing the massacres
Wearing the mascara
Being camp
The third camp
Asking do you want to buy a picket or two.

Asking do you enjoy kids’ games.
So let’s play Spot The Difference
A Palestinian child in a two foot coffin
An Israeli child in a two foot coffin
Lids closed
Where do you put your Stop The War flags?
Your Hizbullah flags?
Your Zionist flags?
Your red flags?
Let me tell your where to put them.

I hate this poem
Rather I hate writing this poem
Rather I hate the truths behind this poem
Where sticking simply to the easy protest
Would be an easier way to win friends
But not to influence people

Because the enemy of your enemy can also be another of your enemies
And the friend of your friend can be a bastard reactionary
So don’t dance with the boy who danced with the girl who danced with the prince of darkness
It’s just an accident of geography and sperm direction that Jews weren’t born Muslims
And vice versa
It can get worser
So fight for workers unity
Cut out the communalists
The Board of Deputies and the Muslim Association
So fight for workers unity
Cut out the opiates
The synagogues and the mosques
So fight for workers unity
Sling out the middlemen
The Jihadists and the Israeli leadership
So fight for workers unity

Get a new tee shirt
In my name