As is evident, I have come to the judgment that the time has come to break some UCU confideniality. I am pro-union and I am a loyal UCU member. Engage is, to its very core, a pro-union network and website. It is our profound attachment to the principles of trade unionism which make us so adamant that what goes on in the union is important.

So why publish confidential material?

I believe that there is a problem of institutional antisemitism in the UCU. By this I do not mean that significant numbers of people in the union hate Jews. But I do believe that ways of thinking, norms and practices have developed which allow the union to behave in an antisemitic way and to normalize antisemitic expression. I am not going to make this case here - I have made it over the years on Engage and in my formal complaint to the union here.

I think there is an analogy with the Metropolitan Police in the 1980s. The Scarman report after the Brixton riots came close to saying officially that there was a problem of institutional racism in the police force. The Macpherson report did so after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Many police officers felt undermined and insulted by the charge of institutional racism but this was largely because they didn't understand what it meant. It did not mean that they hated black people. It meant that there was a culture of racism in the institution, there were norms and practices which created racist outcomes. It meant that Stephen Lawrence's murder was not investigated effectively and that his friends and family were treated appallingly.

The significant problem in the UCU is not one of people who hate Jews. But there is a campaign to exclude Israeli academics from British universities. There is a culture of accusing Jews who raise the issue of antisemitism in the union of doing so in bad faith. There is a culture of accepting antisemitic conspiracy theory as a legitimate side of a debate. There is a culture which accepts that it is normal to demonize Israel and to argue for the exclusion of Israelis from the academic, sporting, cultural and economic life of humanity.

This culture is facilitated by union staff. Staff are backed up by union officers, in particular the General Secretary Sally Hunt. Union officers are backed up by the National Executive Committee. The NEC is backed up by Congress.

Institutional racism requires a culture of secrecy to operate. It relies on shared ways of understanding, 'canteen culture', loyalty and keeping your mouth shut.

The UCU is not a private golf-club where women or Jews can be excluded. In such a golf-club it is argued that it is nobody's business but the members.

The UCU is not an abusive family where violence must be kept 'within the family' and where 'our dirty linen may not be washed in public'.

People associated with Engage (and others) have tried to address the problem. We have warned members and officers of the union, as best we can, of what is going on. We did so both informally and also through the formal procedures of the union.

The union refused to investigate my own formal complaint about institutional antisemitism. This official and formal refusal to investigate, this refusal even to mention the word "antisemitism" is a sure indication of an institutional antisemitism, in my view.

I think that it is not at all a bad thing that debate on the activists' list is now being published outside of the in-crowd. I think that UCU members should know that they may have to stand by their words in public. This is a public debate. Jews - both British and Israeli have a right to know what is being said about them in the UCU. It is a debate that is important for academic life in general, for the labour movement in general and for the British intelligentsia in general.

If people are prepared to publish their views in front of 700 union members then they are in fact speaking in public.

One curious argument for keeping the debate secret and closed has been raised. It has been argued that confidentiality is important on the e-list so that activsts can discuss cases or union strategy in relation to management - in confidence. Firstly, of course I would not publish such material - I am interested in opening the bocyott debate up and in addressing institutional antisemitism - not in gossiping about union or individual disputes with management. People shouldn't think that opposing antisemitism is a sign of a more general disloyalty. Secondly, only a fool would distribute genuinely confidential material to 700 people up and down the country.

It is true that I am in a difficult position. A key part of my case against exclusion from the e-list was that I would respect its confidentiality. And now, here I am, saying I am prepared now to publish. This is a classic whistleblower's dilemma. I promised to obey the rules of the list if I was allowed back on. I was not allowed back on. I have no voice within the union. I was not listened to when I made informal and formal complaints to the union. I can, now, only speak in public.

The fact that UCU members, including Sue Blackwell, are now rallying around Jenna Delich is atonishing. Delich has a record of using antisemitic language on the e-list. She then linked to an antisemitic article on David Duke's website. Now boycotters on the e-list, including leaders of the campaign like Sue Blackwell and Mike Cushman are rallying around her and defending her against those antiracists who have spoken out in public.

They are supporting the purveyor of David Duke's antisemitic conspiracy theory against the Jews and antiracists who are upset about it.

One UCU member has argued that since Delich is not from an 'anglo-saxon' culture it is racist to criticize her for linking to an antisemitic article on David Duke's website - how was she supposed to know? Unbelievable, to read an antiracist defence of antisemtic behaviour.

The UCU cannot cure itself of its own institutional antisemitism on its own. It needs help. Perhaps from wider public, trade union and academic debate. Perhaps from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Perhaps from the TUC.

David Hirsh
Goldsmiths UCU