What’s up with the RMT’s Steve Hedley? On October 24th he aimed an anti-Semitic barb at me at a joint RMT/PSC event at SOAS called Fighting for Palestine’s Freedom:
After his rant (see clip above for the part I managed to film) our brief exchange went like this:
Me: “Feel better?”
Hedley: “Better than you, obviously. But then again you’re one of the chosen people so you might feel better than me, huh?”
A nearby stranger: “That’s right.”
Me: “So it’s about being Jewish is it?”
Hedley: “No, it’s about being a Zionist.”
Chris Elliott, The Guardian readers’ editor, has recently said this of the “chosen people” phrase:
“It has never meant that the Jews are better than anyone else. Historically it has been antisemites, not Jews, who have read “chosen” as code for Jewish supremacism.”
Now Hedley has tried to defend himself against allegations of anti-Semitism by making a defamatory attack on me on the RMT’s London Calling website.
He claims I called him a Nazi twice. I did not, even once, call him that. If I did, he should prove it.
His post, some two weeks after the event, looks like it is in response to a post titled “Racism in the RMT” by David Greenstein on the WorkRep website where Greenstein quotes what happened at SOAS. Hedley also claims that I have “posted (the recording) on the internet on a number of right wing websites”, which I haven’t.
Greenstein mistakenly asserts that Hedley’s rant was aimed at me. But, as you can see from my clip of Hedley’s rant, it wasn’t aimed at me but at someone somewhere behind me. If I had just called him a Nazi surely he would have been looking and pointing at me. And, believe me, if I had just called him that I wouldn’t still be sat there calmly filming.
Furthermore, Hedley’s rant contained comments like “your friends in the media”, “the attack on those innocent women and children who you starved and turned into the biggest concentration camp on the earth”, “you’re an absolute disgrace to the Jewish people” and “you’re a modern day Nazi”.
As you can see these comments weren’t about Israel but about the person he was shouting at. But, in his post Hedley tries to defend himself against claims of anti-Semitism by claiming he said to me after our brief exchange “I have no idea what your religion is”. He never actually said that to me but, I would like to ask, if he didn’t know my religion how did he know the person’s religion he was shouting at with his “you’re an absolute disgrace to the Jewish people” remark?
He seemed to have it in for Jewish people that night.
He finished off his post with another despicable smear by implying that I “openly consort with the neo-fascist EDL” and claimed that I have had to register my blog out of the UK because I have been sued for slander and libel by other victims of my “maniacal denunciation of everyone who dares to speak out against the Israeli state’s role in the Middle East”.
I always denounce the EDL, I use WordPress, which is registered in America, and I have never been sued by anyone for anything ever!
Despite his clearly anti-Semitic remark Hedley hasn’t had the courage to make an unreserved apology in his post. He says he regrets saying “chosen people” and calls it “unwise” and only apologises “to anyone who may have been offended by this remark”.
But that’s parts of the left for you these days; unable to conceive of any anti-Semitism in their ranks and, therefore, having nothing to apologise for.
Anyway, should Hedley’s defamatory post stay up any longer I will, as they say, be considering my options against both Hedley and the RMT.
RichardMillett's Blog 
Hey Richard – you are indeed a thorn in their sides – good on you. Its always amazing how bigoted racists always seem to blame others for their hatred.
Richard
How long are you prepared to wait . It’s up there it’s defamatory and you have the recording .
As you say Richard – that’s the Left these days.
Thank goodness they are out of power for a generation at least.
And roll on, driverless tube trains …..
The EDL are the only organisation standing up to state-sponsored and state-abetted racism in the UK today, and to the treasonable social engineering project started by Labour, abetted by the LibDems and only meekly criticised by the Tories, of changing the makeup and culture of the UK.
Richard, i have only just started following your blog. i appreciate the material you gather at the coal face, so to speak. i am curious though why you say: ‘I always denounce the EDL’? i had a quick search on your blog but could not find a position paper or clear statement from about the EDL. Can you point me to one? Thanks
I always denounce them and this is clear from the comments section on this blog where I have condemned their approach and tactics as well as their ideology. I haven’t written a specific blog on it though.
As regards that term ‘Chosen People’? Of course there is something inherently supremacist about that, how can it not be? If you proclaim to be chosen by the highest authority (i.e. the Flaying Spaghetti Monster, LOL) then how can that NOT BE a statement of ‘we’re better than you’? And where do Jewish people (Zionists in this case) express that more than in Israel, which clearly is seen to be ‘for the Jews’, non-Jews need not apply? Joshua from Brooklyn can move to Israel, get automatic citizenship (assuming he passes the local version the Nuremberg Laws, of course) while someone non-Jewish born in 1948 has to slog it out in a refugee camp with no chance of returning?
The fact that antisemites have often used that term is neither here more there: Jews use the term too. And let’s not forget that those Jews who disagree with Israel’s policies are considered decidedly less ‘chosen’ by their Zionist brethren… Wherever it goes, Zionism leads to racism and discrimination.
It’s pretty obvious what happened here. You and a bunch of fellow Zionists/Jewish supremacists set out to disrupt a meeting about Palestinian rights.
It is also clear from Jonathan Hoffman’s comment (roll on driverless tube trains) that you are a bunch of anti-working class petty bourgeois snobs. Exactly the kind of people who adored Hitler.
If you take action against Steve Hedley he will not be short of support.
And by the way, the term “Chosen People” is (however regrettably) spot-on as a choice of insult.
Not about Jews, but about Jewish supremacists. In the same way that “Master Race” is an appropriate ironic insult applied not to Germans, but to German Nazis.
Steve Hedley should not back down. It is time someone stood up to you lot.
I see the troll anti Semites have come out of the wood work.
The term “antisemite” is flung around so liberally that it has lost all meaning.
It used to mean someone who hates Jews. Now it means someone whom Zionists hate.
The term ‘antisemite’ is applied to those who behave in an antisemitic way. Simples. We can see plenty of that from the ignorant Jew-hating trolls currently infesting this thread.
… if it means anything at all that is.
To be called an “antisemite” by people who are clearly supremacists, who believe that one people has the right to turn others into refugees, is a badge of honour.
In fact, Hunter, it has all the sting of being called “anti-aryan” from 1933 to 1945.
Actually Gert you are not quite correct. I believe Israel admits non-Jews, just so long as they are not the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed to make room for Israel in the first place.
However, you are absolutely right about one thing. Supremacist Jews hate non-supremacist Jews with a vengeance. Look at the way they treat decent people like Gilad Atzmon and Norman Finkelstein, whom they regard as traitors and breakers of tribal taboos.
No it is a term that people such as your self have well earned. You support the extermination of the Jews of Israel and ally your self with Islamofascist genocidal maniacs. Know this – if Israel goes down she will take you with her.
Flaying Spaghetti Monster – could that be a Freudian slip? If so what an invitation for free associationing.
I thought mentioning Gert landed one in moderation, or does that apply to me only?
well, here’s the test.
Hi Rich
You have a troll infestation . I know you have a deliberate free speech policy which is admirable but there comes a point that it simply fouls up an otherwise excellent blog .
Proper debate and diverging opinion is healthy . What you have here is a toxic mix of bds and a fair smattering of antisemites .
I suggest you remove them and prevent them from posting again – and then take a long hot shower !
Hi Harvey, I wanted to show the kind of people that support Hedley’s ideology really. That’s all. I agree with you though. Shower taken. Thanks.
The vile anti-Semites here that have wormed their way into this estimable blog is reminiscent of something out of Julius Streicher’s, Der Stuermer.
I am old enough to remember those events and never thought I would hear again. Only this time we are not so helpless and know how to defend ourselves – this is what bugs them.
Am Israel Chai!
Rubin,
Nothing infuriates antisemites so much as seeing Jews standing up to them and telling them to eff off. They simply can’t comprehend how it can be: Jews answering back? It doesn’t compute in the tiny minds of these worms.
Rubin
Am Israel Chai!
Interesting but sadly sensible to hear that your blog is registered in the US (so much for free speech). Don’t drag a union down although it would be helpful to clip Mr Hedley’s wings (might make union focus on what it should be focusing on).
Interesting to see editor of Jewish Chronicle demean all public sector workers on Question Time tonight. I won’t be buying his newspaper again. We public sector workers contribute to the health and well being of our society. Also rose tinted view of Murdochs was interesting. I like reading The Times and will always be grateful to the News of the World for unveiling the cricket corruption but Murdoch’s dominance of the press is not helpful to our society.
You public sector workers have been exploiting the rest of us for years, with your early retirement ages and inflated pensions. You were mollycoddled under Labour for your votes. Now it’s time for you to join the rest of the population on planet earth.
As to unions holding meetings about Middle East politics (never mind the antisemitic rants): totally bizarre, in fact utter lunacy. It’s none of their effing business.
And when the RMT strikes it stops other workers getting to work and they lose commissions, bonuses or wages. How does that correlate with Marxism?
I don’t know about Marxism but as best I know the workers’ unions of old would have stood up for eachother.
PS: I am sure Leah would have told off any employer who’d dared to “bribe” her with higher wages and pensions. i.e. to attack the workers and the unions is attacking one’s own kind unless of course one belongs to the “meritocracy”.
Silke, do you have some congenital condition that makes you come out with this nonsense time after time? You have no idea what I would or would not have done. Moreover, you have no clue what goes on in the UK, with a hugely bloated public sector enjoying specially favourable conditions that the rest of us have to subsidise. Why do you comment on what goes on in a country about which you know so little?
I assume that even in the to me unknown UK it is employers who have the final say on remuneration.
If of course in the UK should have achieved what no country trying to live real socialism and it should happen by acclamation of the employed then of course and only then would the employed be the ones that need to be bashed.
Some things happen to be basics.
Obviously you don’t understand the situation vis-a-vis public sector employees in the UK, with the last (and any other) Labour government being in the unions’ pockets since it’s the unions who bankroll the Labour party.
if they outnumber you at the ballott box tough luck for you, that’s democracy.
Look I remember the times when a department of my American employer had to relocate from Paris and fought tooth and nail for any country anywhere but not the UK because of union power there.
So if they are now, more than 40 years later, still a force to reckon with it must be because the majority aka the elected by the majority governments wants them to be just that.
if they outnumber you at the ballott box tough luck for you, that’s democracy.
Another thing you don’t understand is democracy, then. Democracy goes far beyond simply voting. The majority oppressing the minority is NOT democracy. You should have learned at least that from the end of Weimar.
that non-union members qualify as minority is news to me. Maybe that’s due to the fact that I am still stuck in “Weimar”- But when you bring up Weimar you should always keep in mind that the empowerment of the Nazis at exactly the point in time when their ballot numbers started to go down was greatly helped by elites and wannabe meritocrats. But maybe they qualified as minority back then.
Really Leah, the nonsense you manage to come up with is appalling.
The only nonsense I see here is from you, when you spout the nonsense that numerical percentages at the ballot box are the end-all and be-all of democracy.
You are the one who brought up the utterly silly argument “if they outnumber you at the ballott box tough luck for you, that’s democracy” – well, it isn’t.
Now you are trying to turn it round and pretend that I was the one who brought up ballot-box majorities, not you.
You keep doing it: last time, you claimed that old pottery is unimportant in looking at history, and when I disagreed, you claimed that I am the one who’d never heard of clay tablets.
Also I still don’t get the fuss about the ‘chosen ones’. I read Isaiah 49 as suggested by Daniel and the Wikipedia blurb on the subject. It seems merely that Mr Hedley misrepresents how the Jewish community feels it it is the ‘chosen ones’.
I see it as a sometimes valid criticism of my views on Britain to accuse me of thinking that we are a superior nation and remind me of our flaws and that whilst we are a better society than many and that our ways of doing things are superior at the moment they are not inherently so.
However, may be my tolerance for such things is different to society. I would not think someone a racist if they referred to me as an ‘f…. white c…’ (the colour merely being descriptive to me)
Maybe it was the way he said it. I assume that when Isaiah spoke his delivery and body language were different from the clip. Actually, the gentleman in question reminded me more of other prophets altogether, especially the first one.
Attila, it is an old anti-Semitic slur. Even The Guardian readers’s editor has said so.
Hedley went for my religion, don’t you get that? The whole sentence was:
“Better than you, obviously. But then again you’re one of the chosen people so you might feel better than me, huh?”
What could he have meant apart from i feel superior because i’m Jewish? Jews have been slaughtered in the past because people have been going around whipping up hatred by saying this type of thing.
People know so little about the past that they will never learn for the future. I despair.
WordPress is registered in America. I have no choice about it. I am sure all the major blog sites are registered in America. It doesn’t stop free speech anyway so what a ridiculous comment.
Well, what else can he say? He has nothing sensible to say, so he scrapes the bottom of the barrel.
Rich I am find it a shame you can’t be hosted in UK (even if it is not a conscious decision in this case) and that only the US defends free speech sufficiently. Our libel laws do stop free speech.
Oh with that I agree. In usa you can call someone an anti semite for example without being sued. I have a long list of anti semites but, sadly, you can’t name them here. Anyway, where a blog is hosted is irrelevant. As I live in the uk I am still subject to uk libel law.
Not only is Hedly a brainwashed moron, but a racist bigot to boot.
Well done Richard for getting under this bigot’s skin. He is a hatemonger.
Well, I don’t live in the UK and I have no hesitation in saying Hedley is an antisemitic piece of ****.