Senior Corbyn-backing trade unionist criticises Labour supporters for not speaking out against Iran and Saudi Arabia regimes
Unite assistant general secretary also says left-wing activists have left ‘vacuum’ for far right to exploit by not protesting against Islamist terrorism
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Your support makes all the difference.A senior trade union ally of Jeremy Corbyn has condemned left-wing activists for criticising Israel but not standing up against Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of the Unite trade union, said it was wrong that Corbyn-backing campaigners had protested against the Israeli government and Donald Trump but not against Islamist terrorism and oppressive regimes in the Middle East.
Failure to do so had left a “vacuum” for the far right to exploit, he said.
Unite is the UK’s largest trade union, the biggest donor to the Labour Party and a staunch backer of Mr Corbyn.
Speaking at a fringe event at the TUC conference on how to fight the far right, Mr Turner told members: “We need to stop talking to ourselves and talk to the people who are drawn to some of these organisations – for a multitude of different reasons.”
He claimed some supporters of the far right “have genuine fears and concerns”, emphasising that trade union members “need to talk to those people” in an attempt to fill “the vacuum that we’ve left as the left”.
He said: “They say ‘you’re protesting austerity, I see you advertising the protest against Trump, I see you protesting against the Israeli government ... against this, against that [but] where were you protesting when somebody used a car as a weapon to mow people down on Waterloo Bridge?
“Where was the left? Where were we? Where were we when the Manchester bomb went off? Where were we on Westminster Bridge? Where was the left?”
Calling on left-wing supporters to stand up against the Saudi and Iranian regimes, he added: “Where’s the left criticising the state of Iran, for instance, who whipped trade unionists for taking strike action, who denies women human rights, who runs an obscene regime? [Or] Saudi Arabia, where we welcomed the head of Saudi Arabia to the UK?
“Did we protest? No we didn’t protest. Why not? What’s so sensitive in the left about having a discussion about these issues that leaves a vacuum that the right, for no reasons, are only too willing to fill?”
Referring to far-right groups, he added: “They’re filling a vacuum that in part is being left by us. We need to talk to those people who are attracted by it and stop talking to ourselves. We don’t do it, and it’s uncomfortable.”
Mr Corbyn has faced criticism over his links to Iran. Before becoming Labour leader, he appeared frequently on the Tehran-controlled state television station Press TV.
The channel was at the centre of a fresh row last week after it was allowed to attend a Labour Party meeting in the Enfield North constituency where a motion of no confidence was passed in local MP Joan Ryan, the chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group.
The local Labour branch has launched an investigation into the incident, and the filming was condemned by party officials.
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