Infantile and Disorderly

New Blog!

2009-08-19T22:31:00.002+01:00

Update your bookmarks, I've moved!

http://infantile-and-disorderly.com/

Carnival of Socialism #39

2009-07-05T14:01:00.004+01:00

When I agreed to the Carnival of Socialism, I wasn’t thinking clearly. Otherwise, I would have said that the week when I start a new job and move house (into one without the internet I might add) is not the best time to be trawling through the left blogosphere. But who cares? Hastily compiled round at a friend’s house on a borrowed laptop, here is the - by no means comprehensive - 39th Carnival of Socialism! Enjoy… And happy blogging!

Let's start with the tennis. Splintered Sunrise tackles ethnic slurs of Eastern European tennis players in The Telegraph, and Cruella Blog observes that sexism is flourishing in the world of tennis.

The Third Estate has an exclusive interview with Mark Steel, addressing the Green Party ("Caroline Lucas is a very impressive character") and the SWP's call for left unity ("it’s like an alcoholic going back to his wife and saying ‘I’ll be different this time I promise!'")

Revolutionary Road provides some of the most up-to-date information in English of the situation in Iran.

Vengeance and Fashion can think of better things to privatise than the railways and postal service. Like the Queen, for instance.

Don Paskini at Liberal Conspiracy tackles the so-called "Red Tories".

HarpyMarx reports on India's overturning of the homophobic Section 377 (here) and the cops' spurious allegation that Ian Tomlinson's killer could have been a member of the public disguised as a police officer (here).

Reading the Maps commends the role played by New Zealand soldiers in fighting Franco.

Liam MacUaid writes about the MOD's approach to compensation, and doesn't think that $210 compensates for the murder of an Afghan man's wife.

Left Luggage tackles the tricky subject of Left Disunity.

Benjamin Solah calls for full marriage rights in Australia.

The Red Wombat Hole has a statement of solidarity with Iranian workers and protesters.

Charlie Pottins has an interesting question to ask: "WHY, in these recession-hit times, when companies are backing off so many projects, have six big corporations - one of them BAE Systems(formerly known as British Aerospace) found money to lobby the US Congress, not over trade restrictions, taxes or legislation that might obviously effect business, but on an issue concerning something that happened almost a century ago?"

A Very Public Socialist highlights evidence from New Scientist that the world is perfectly capable of feeding a growing population...

The Daily Maybe reports on the climate protesters found guilty this week.

Though not from the Socialist Blogosphere, you should still check out Marjane Satrapi (the maker of Persepolis) speaking of her longing to return to Iran and her admiration for the courage of the Iranian youth in the New York Times .

Finally, Hands Off the People of Iran will be playing cricket against the Labour Representation Committee to raise funds for Iranian workers. Attila the Stockbroker and John McDonnel MP will be heading up the two teams. More details here.

- - - - -

Thanks for reading and apologies if I missed you or your submission out.

Peace and solidarity,

Vicky (Infantile and Disorderly)

News From Iran Blog

2009-06-20T23:24:00.003+01:00

About two years too late Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI) has developed a blog covering events in Iran. It's full of up to date information and highly worth checking out. News From Iran Blog

This is not their victory. It is our failure.

2009-06-08T03:15:00.003+01:00

An eyewitness report of today’s anti BNP demonstration in Manchester.

At 7pm, a small crowd of anti fascists began to assemble outside Manchester Town Hall. Unite Against Fascism erected a gazebo and played a soothing medley of reggae tunes while the latecomers began to appear. A few stray fascists were chased away, before a handful of speakers addressed the crowd. It began to rain, and I cannot recall the speakers’ names, or indeed much of what was said. From here on, braving bouts of rain and freezing cold (whatever happened to June?), Manchester’s anti fascists waited around, occasionally running here, there and everywhere as rumours of Nick Griffin’s presence reached us. The majority of protesters eventually assembled outside a side-entrance of the Town Hall. The entrance was guarded by large numbers of police and BNP security, most of whom openly admitted to supporting the fascists. At around nine, two large cars pulled up outside the entrance and the BNP security attempted to block the anti fascists from the vehicles. Some protesters hurled eggs, while others attempted to break the windows, or block the vehicles’ progress with their own bodies. They were hauled away by the BNP’s security thugs. One woman was injured.

Chasing the fascists’ cars round to another entrance, most of the anti fascists were forced into a police cordon. Myself and a few others avoided this, and were left free to hang around the Town Hall, waiting for the BNP to make their next appearance. At around this point, the only arrest of the night was made, when Chris S was handcuffed by plain clothes officers and arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, ostensibly for saying the word “fuck”. The officers, who repeatedly refused to give their names and numbers, then dragged Chris away to a police van. He was removed to a police station miles away in North Manchester.

In the meantime, two anti fascists were left to confront three fascists sitting on a bench outside the Hall without aid from the majority of the crowd, who continued chanting “the BNP is a Nazi party” nearby. The fascists ran off, shouting “BNP!”. At the same time, police cleared a path outside the same entrance to the Town Hall where the cars had previously been attacked. As BNP security amassed here, the cars once again pulled up and were surrounded by growing hordes of angry anti fascists. As the police and the BNP’s own louts combined to crush the mobilisation against the vehicles, the first rumours that Griffin might already be inside began to circulate. It turned out to be true; the cars and security had been a decoy… Griffin had sneaked in through a back entrance.

The anti fascist protest continued for about two and a half hours. Chants of “black and white, unite and fight!” and “build a bonfire…” began to ring hollow, as more protesters drifted off. At its peak, the mobilisation was perhaps 200 strong. But by midnight, scarcely forty were left. Two brief interludes of fighting broke out in the meantime: the first when police assaulted a drunk woman who was not part of the protest and the second when one of the BNP’s team, wearing a BNP identity badge, was spotted attempting to make a quiet phone call scarcely a few yards from protesters. After news of the BNP’s victory in Yorkshire and Humberside, everything became subdued. Hearing stories of the BNP trailing behind the Greens at the count taking place within the Town Hall, the mood was one of anger and, in some cases, disbelief. The Greens appeared particularly shocked.

A Labour Councillor addressed the anti fascist mobilisation poorly, omitting the fact that the degeneration of her own party had driven many working class people into the hands of the fascists. UKIP candidates came to join the protesters, and were met with fierce accusations of racism from several anti fascists. A SWP member and UNISON steward intervened, arguing that it was not the time to be exposing UKIP. A while later, at around quarter past twelve, the protest disbanded.

In the European elections, the BNP gained two MEPs. They gained a platform in Europe, and large amounts of taxpayers’ money with which to propagate their fascist lies. They managed it not just because of wide mistrust in the Labour Party, or the expenses scandal, or even the economic recession. They succeeded because the Left is fractured and weak. Because the Left didn’t stand candidates (the soft nationalism of No2EU and its pathetic results notwithstanding). We have a political alternative to fascism, we have the answers, and we need to start putting them forward. If the Left doesn’t learn this, things are only going to get worse.

Finally, we can say with utter sincerity that the “vote anyone but the BNP” strategy of UAF, Hope Not Hate etc. has been a decisive failure.

If only he went under...

2009-06-04T19:48:00.006+01:00

Happy times.

Sex Workers' Safety!

2009-06-02T14:24:00.010+01:00

These are three letters (two from yesterday's Guardian and one from the same paper on May 22nd) addressing the government's continuing attacks on sex workers. The government-funded Poppy Project has previously earned condemnation for its falsified data alleging that 75% of all UK sex workers are trafficked, and its government-sponsored conclusion that the "Swedish model", i.e. criminalizing the purchase of sex, rather than decriminalizing prostitution, is the best thing for British sex workers.

Sex Worker Safety and the Poppy Project

If the Poppy Project is concerned about prostitutes being criminalised, where is it when the law raids, detains and deports women (Letters, 26 May); when mothers working collectively face closure, brothel-keeping charges, imprisonment and separation from their children; or when women driven out of premises risk rape or murder on the street?

While anti-rape organisations struggle to survive, the Poppy Project has received £9.5m from the Office for Criminal Justice Reform since 2003. Its research implying that most sex workers had been trafficked was condemned as flawed by 27 academics. The legal definition of traffiking for prostitution, unlike all other trafficking, fails to mention coercion. So foreign accents alone can inflate figures, which are then used to justify laws criminalising both clients and sex workers. High figures lead to large funding, not to women's safety.

Cari Mitchell
English Collective of Prostitutes

The Poppy Project claims it is feminist. My feminist organisation in Turkey was approached by a group of sex workers after the police smashed streetlights where they worked, making them vulnerable to attack. Should we have refused to help on the basis that their job legitimises men's violence against women? No, we considered that sex workers knew best how to protect themselves, and supported them. Even if you are against prostitution, you should distinguish yourself from the Home Office - though this is harder if, like the Poppy Project, you are funded by it.

Filiz Gul
London

Double blow for poor mothers

The government is criticised for not criminalising prostitutes' clients enough (New law on forced prostitution weakened, say women's groups, 20 May). But what about their increasing criminalisation of women? Not accidentally, the crime bill and the welfare reform bill are going through parliament together. If passed, mothers, especially single mothers, will lose income support and must "progress towards work" or take a job; so will over-60s and people with disabilities and their carers, mostly women. If you can't find a job, you must "work for your benefits" ie for £1.73 an hour - the biggest attack yet on the minimum wage - or lose them.

Street workers will be rounded up and "rehabilitated". Those working indoors - 10 times safer than the street - will be raided and their earnings seized by police and prosecutors who collect their own expense claim: they keep 50% of all proceeds - a corruption of law and order which now determines priorities.

At least 70% of sex workers are mothers escaping poverty, homelessness, debt, low wages and domestic violence. Four million children live in poverty. What right has the House of ill repute to judge what mothers do to feed them? Feminists Josephine Butler, Eleanor Rathbone and Virginia Woolf would be horrified that a parliament with more women MPs and ministers than ever has launched this attack on mothers and others with the least, during a deep recession.

Butler campaigned against the criminalisation of working-class women. Unlike anti-prostitution feminists today, she never dismissed the effects of laws on mothers supporting families through prostitution. Rathbone fought for unwaged mothers, on whose work the whole society rests, to have independent money from the state. She influenced the Beveridge report which proposed family allowances. Virginia Woolf feared that women entering the professions could end up dancing "round and round the mulberry tree, the poison tree of intellectual harlotry". It is a man, John McDonnell MP, who has taken the lead in defending women against this injustice. Where have (almost) all the feminists gone? Briefings on both bills and an open letter to sign opposing them are at globalwomenstrike.net

Selma James Global Women's Strike
Cari Mitchell English Collective of Prostitutes
Kim Sparrow Single Mothers' Self-Defence

European Election Results...

2009-05-29T21:13:00.009+01:00

You'll be pleased to know that I've finally got round to doing something with the results from that European elections poll I ran for a few days last week, and I have to say that - as far as predictions go - I wouldn't be putting much money on these turning out accurate...

Green Party - 11 votes
No2EU - 8 votes
BNP - 7 votes
Lib Dems - 3 votes
Labour - 2 votes
Tories - 1 vote
UKIP - 1 vote
English Democrats and Libertas - 0 votes

Apologies to the Socialist Labour Party. I forgot to even add you as an option. What can I say? You are that forgettable.

Now, with this super duper gadget you simply enter how many votes each party gets, as well as how many blank or spoilt ballots (in this case, the 11 people who voted for the They're all bastards option) and it deals out MEPs according to the number available for your region.

So, if the European Elections for the North West go the same way as my blog poll, we will be getting 4 Green MEPs, 2 No2EU MEPs and 2 BNP MEPs. The next party to obtain a MEP would be No2EU, stealing one off the Green Party if it had received just one more vote.

So that's that.

Royal Fascists

2009-05-24T14:06:00.013+01:00

It's been splashed across the papers for days: Nick Griffin has been invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.

Why is this news?

There are plenty of places that Griffin could visit that would be cause for concern. Buckingham Palace isn't one of them. In fact, where better for a fascist to go than the historic epicenter of British establishment support for the Nazis? Why, he'll feel right at home!

The Queen's Uncle, King Edward VIII (later the Duke of Windsor) was an enthusiastic cheerleaders for Hitler and the Nazi regime. The picture on the right shows him and his equally fascist wife making friends with Hitler in 1937. The Duchess of Windsor was also a friend of famous British fascists, the Oswald Mosleys.

Then there is the case of Princess Michael of Kent's father, Baron Gunther von Reibnitz, who was - you guessed it - a Nazi party member and SS officer. There's also Prince Philip, the Royal Family's chief sexist, racist, homophobic bigot. Aside from his desire to be reincarnated as a "deadly virus" to stop the population "problem" (sounds like a nice guy, doesn't he?), there's also the question of his sister's marriage to a SS Colonel who named their son "Adolf" in honour of Hitler.

Oh, and there's also Harry's sensitive choice of fancy dress...

Hazel Blears and the Deathly Hollows

2009-05-23T23:52:00.009+01:00

Has anyone else noticed that Hazel Blears and Professor Dolores Umbridge are clearly the same person? Did she really think a couple of bottles of extra-strength ginger hair dye would be enough to fool the discerning general public?

In her Hogwarts days Posing as a muggle cabinet minister

No to a Men's Society at Manchester University!

2009-05-16T22:21:00.005+01:00

The plan to establish a Men's Society at Manchester University (you know, a place for men to engage in the manly pursuits that they simply can't engage in anyway else in this man-hating matriarchal society), have been greeted with support by a lot of people ostensibly committed to women's liberation. If you don't think men need a University society (and union funding) to drink beer, compete in strongman competitions, go to gadget fairs and perpetuate the myth of the gender binary, why not join this Facebook group to fight against the move?

There is a Women's Society on campus - technically the Women's Rights Collective - to campaign for the liberation of women in our society. If the Women's Group existed purely to promote knitting, makeup and cookery we would be outraged... And rightly so.

Let's fight plans to establish a testosterone-fueled society designed to promote old-fashioned gender stereotypes of how a traditional man should behave in a patriarchal society.

News Flash: Everyone is Free in Iran!

2009-05-15T14:48:00.004+01:00

Breaking news, comrades. It's time to drop all that stuff about oppression in Iran. An article in the Guardian told me so. So forget the imprisonment and torture of trade unionists, revolutionaries and Marxist student leaders; forget the persecution of secularists and the liberals behind the One Million Signatures Campaign for Women's Rights; forget the murder of Kurds and other minority groups; forget the execution of LGBT Iranians; forget the compulsory state-funded sex changes; and, above all, forget the 1979 Islamist counterrevolution that was drenched in Communist blood.

This is the real deal:

The leaders, a range of very different political figures with very different political views, have won the support of the majority of the population through the electoral process... both state and society in Iran are modern and legitimised, based on dialogue between those who wish to preserve traditional conservative Islam and those who wish to embrace democratic modern Islam... Today the majority of the population supports the prevalence of modern ideological thinking in the context of Iran and Islam. Today the democracy movement seeks a balance of power between state institutions and civil society, to guarantee the rule of law, good governance, accountability, and collective and individual freedoms – as well as the role of religion in politics.

Well ain't that just lovely.

If, however, you feel that the author of the article in question, Elaheh Rostami-Povey, might be overlooking a few not-so-savoury aspects of the Iranian regime, you can come along to this event in London and ask her and Mohajerani (a minister under the Islamic Republic) a few questions...

British Museum / Guardian Public Forum
Empire of the mind and soul: what does modern Iran owe to Shah 'Abbas?

Tuesday 19 May, 19.00
Reading Room and BP Lecture Theatre
£15, concessions £12

19.00: Exhibition
Private view of the exhibition Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran
20.00: Debate
A high-profile panel will use the exhibition as the starting point for a broader discussion of contemporary issues relating to Iran.
Chaired by Jon Snow, writer and broadcaster, with an introductory talk by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum.
Speakers include Azadeh Moaveni, journalist and writer, Dr Ata’ollah Mohajerani, historian, writer and former Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Dr Elaheh Rostami-Povey, Lecturer in Development Studies at University of London

Which way are you voting?

2009-05-14T23:18:00.003+01:00

Those unsure of who to vote for in the European Elections, can try this nifty gadget. It won't tell you much- I'm down to vote Green, but I'm also close to the views of the Tories and the BNP (no questions on whether or not you support fascism, alas). Basically, if you're not in favour of showering the European Parliament with untold powers, you are going to come out as a bit of a racist- or, in my case, 59.7% in accordance with the fascists. Bleugh.

So tell me, who are you planning on voting for in the upcoming Euro elections?

(Answer in the poll at the top of the sidebar!)

Permanent Revolution: no socialist should support No2EU!

2009-05-09T19:08:00.004+01:00

On 7 May the “NO2EU: Yes to democracy” campaign announced its candidates, and its intention to stand in all constituencies in the 4 June European elections. Stuart King looks at the politics of the campaign...

The driving forces behind NO2EU are the rail union RMT, whose Executive voted £45,000 for the campaign, and the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) and its paper the Morning Star. Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary heads the list in London, while Rob Griffiths CPB General Secretary tops the list in Wales. Surprisingly NO2EU has also drawn in sections of the far left – the Socialist Party/Campaign for a New Workers Party, Socialist Resistance, Solidarity in Scotland, as well as individual members of Respect and the remnants of the Socialist Alliance.

Surprising because the NO2EU campaign has a platform based on the old Stalinist CP programme of anti-EU nationalism, reformism and protectionism. While some of its demands are positive, the call for rejection of the neo-liberal Lisbon Treaty and EU directives re-inforcing privatisation policies, the overall thrust of the campaign is based on anti-EU, little-Englandism.

Defending British capitalism

The campaign never mentions the word “socialism” and for good reason – there is nothing socialist about it. It follows the old CP line of trying to build an alliance with “progressive” sections of British capitalism, in this case supporting “good” national industrial capital against “bad” European and international finance capital.

Thus NO2EU wants to “defend and develop manufacturing, agriculture and fishing industries in Britain”; it wants, it says, to “revitalise the economy, Britain must return to creating a wealth based (economy?) especially in manufacturing, hi-tech and trade across the world”. This means “massive investment and where appropriate protection of home industries” (see No2EU website).

In the context of capitalism, protectionism means exporting unemployment to other countries, supporting “our industries” against foreign competitors and stoking up economic nationalism. The NO2EU campaign comes dangerously close to extending this economic nationalism to campaigning against foreign workers. It attacks the EU “for promoting the social dumping of exploited foreign workers” and seems to oppose the free movement of labour across Europe (se its “worker rights” section).

A Socialist campaign would not be calling for support for capitalist British industry but for taking it over. With the bosses laying off workers left right and centre we fight for their expropriation, and to place industry and finance under the control of the workers – socialists want to abolish the scourge of unemployment and produce for social need not profit. Far from blaming foreign workers for undermining conditions, we should be uniting with them to smash the EU directives that undermine trade union rights throughout Europe. The enemy is international capitalism – there are no national solutions to this crisis

Not so for the NO2EU campaign. It declares that “Nation states … and their governments are the only institutions that can control the movement of big capital and clip the wings of the trans-national corporations and banks.” Really? Socialists always argued it was the working class that had do this, but for the CPB, and apparently the RMT leadership, it appears the British Parliament with a progressive majority can do it for us.

A reformist programme

The campaign puts forward a reformist programme to fight the crisis – a programme to be carried out within the confines of capitalism. NO2EU wants “democratic control of the major banks, including the Bank of England, and full public ownership and democratic accountability of railways, postal services, NHS, and the energy industry.”

Such calls for nationalisation of parts of the economy is a capitalistic measure, not a socialist one – which is why the Economist argued for the nationalisation of Northern Rock and why Gordon Brown’s government can happily take public control over the failing banks in the interests of capitalism – they nationalise them at our expense and then pass them back to the capitalists at a later date. Democratic accountability means little in this context – in the case of the CPB it means accountable to a “progressive” Parliament. Indeed this programme is not even as radical as the old, Labour-left demand for the nationalisation of the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy – it leaves out key sectors like pharmaceuticals, road freight, car and aircraft manufacture, engineering etc, etc.

Anti-EU not anti-capitalist

The whole thrust of the NO2EU campaign is anti-European not anti-capitalist. For example, much is said about the anti-democratic nature of the EU, yet not a single demand is put forward to change it. Why not call for a European constituent assembly to introduce a new EU constitution, a fully democratic and socialist one? Why not call on workers to struggle for a different type of European Union? The answer is simple – because this is an anti-EU campaign that logically should call for leaving the EU but hasn’t got the guts to say so. So it just regurgitates the little-Englander criticisms.

NO2EU even tries to bring the anti-war movement into the campaign against the EU, having a whole section on “EU militarisation”. Yes we should oppose the EU rapid reaction force but the NO2EU campaign makes no mention of NATO or the need to smash it. It is not the EU that is conducting a war in Afghanistan and trying to extend it to Pakistan; it is the NATO alliance. It wasn’t the EU that took military action in Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, but NATO. It wasn’t the EU that invaded Iraq, but Britain and the USA as independent states. Yet the NO2EU campaign chooses to concentrate its fire on the EU as though it is the major force for war in the current period.

Democracy for them but not for us

The NO2EU campaign makes much of the undemocratic nature of the EU institutions, yet ironically they are far more democratic than the NO2EU campaign. The ordinary RMT members had no say in agreeing to this campaign: all the organising meetings were by “invitation only”, the platform of the campaign was drawn up by a cabal of unelected leaders, and there have been no conferences with resolutions where supporters could have influenced the campaign. It makes the Labour Party look positively democratic by comparison!

As a result the NO2EU campaign has ignored the opportunity to build itself on the real struggles going on against new Labour and the capitalist crisis. The Lindsey struggle raised the fight not only against the EU posted workers directive but against the anti-trade union laws – something completely ignored by NO2EU. The Visteon struggle against redundancies and pension fraud, shows how workers' occupations, seizing the bosses property, is a vital tactic in struggle. Both struggles demonstrated the paralysis of the trade union leaders and why we need to organise a rank and file movement of trade unionists that can act independently. Parents' occupations of schools in Glasgow, Lewisham, Greenwich, and student occupations throughout the country over Gaza and Israeli oppression, showed a militancy that could and should be built on.

None of this is reflected in the NO2EU campaign and its platform. It is an electoral campaign in the midst of a serious economic and political crisis that prefers to concentrate on anti-EU bashing. And it does it from a narrow nationalistic and reformist perspective. It is shameful that sections of the far-left are supporting this campaign.

No internationalist or socialist should “lend their vote” to this campaign even for a moment.

- - - - -

Article can also be read on the Permanent Revolution website here. If you want to engage in discussion, our website comments section is a good place to start!

Real Parent Power

2009-05-06T14:15:00.007+01:00

Yesterday, parents and protesters from the group 'Hands Off Lewisham Bridge' helped ruin Gordon Brown's day. Brown was due to deliver a speech on parent power - the nerve! - at Prendergast Hilly Fields School in Lewisham, when he found himself confronted with some real life parent power. Prendergast school is in the same London borough where parent activists have been continuously occupying the roof of Lewisham Bridge primary school for thirteen days in protest at the council's plans to demolish the Grade II listed building.

Arriving at nearby Prendergast school, Brown was confronted with angry chants of 'Students and Parents Unite' and 'Hands Off Lewisham Bridge'. One protester, fancying himself a modern day Emily Davison no doubt, even launched himself in front of the Prime Minister's car before being bundled away by violent police. So much for parent power, Mr Brown. Here is the incident caught on film:

Check out the Independent for further information.

Manchester May Day

2009-05-05T13:23:00.006+01:00

Yesterday's May Day march in Manchester was marred by wind, rain and more rain*.The turnout was around 500, although this rapidly dwindled during a sedate rally in Castlefields arena at the end of the march (partly due to a dire sound system that prevented most of the speakers actually being audible above the wind when standing more than twenty yards away- somewhat mercifully when it came to the likes of union bureaucrat Billy Hayes, UAF's Weyman Bennett and another speaker whose main complaint about Nick Griffin appeared to be "he's an evil person".) The largest contingents on the demonstration were the Congolese Action Group, doing good work helping prevent deportations, and the Workers Communist Party of Iran. The presence of the British far left was undeniably small, and union banners were relatively few and far between.

There is a short video of Manchester May Day here on Channel M (if you know who I am, you'll get the pleasure of seeing me twice!)

The day was also marred by some less welcome filming. At the assembly point, a fascist from the so-called British Freedom Fighters (linked to the National Front) walked amongst the marchers, filming uninterrupted for several minutes before finally being spotted by a SWP member. The footage is circulating fascist websites. During the march itself, numerous fascists could also be seen lining the route and photographing the May Day demonstrators. One was confronted by a member of Permanent Revolution.

*Just to give you an idea of how crap the weather was, the stalls belonging to the SWP and Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) actually blew away.

Keira Knightley Advert Banned from TV

2009-05-03T21:39:00.004+01:00

Last week it emerged that advertising body Clearcast had declared an anti-domestic violence advert produced by the charity Women's Aid and starring Oscar-nominated actor Keira Knightley, "too violent" to appear on TV, even post-watershed. To be shown on TV, the scenes depicting Knightley being physically assaulted would have to be removed, effectively ensuring that even adult viewers are shielded from the horror of domestic violence.

You can watch the advert, in its original form, below.

I have only one qualm about the advert: it shows domestic violence in one of its most "extreme" forms. Not all domestic violence is this incredibly violent, for instance, and a person does not have to be assaulted like this (or indeed physically assaulted in any way) to be a victim of domestic abuse.

Barmy email sent by No2EU

2009-05-03T17:22:00.004+01:00

The following email was sent out this morning to Manchester comrades (and possibly those a bit further afield) who were signed up to the Convention of the Left email list. This particular list has since been hijacked by the CPB to use for advertising No2EU. As you can see, however, they're doing a particularly good job of discrediting themselves with remarkably little help from the rest of us.

`Hey don't you remember, they called me....

To all who may recall,

Please tell me I'm not suffering from FMS...

TIME- 1975

EVENT- Referendum on EU (EEC) membership....

PLACE - Manchester Free Trades Hall....a barn-storming rally for a `NO' vote

(one of many throughout the country)

Speakers...among others...Michael Foot, Tony Benn, Barbara Castle..

Referendum result a 47% NO vote!

Also I have absolutely no recollection of any of the above `consulting' me

before they launched the campaign!?....If I remember right they used to believe in

something called `political leadership'.

So Buddy can you spare the time?'

with apologies to Rudy Vallee

and younger Companieros.

nor t' thEU!

DaveH.

Errrrr... You what??

Poverty Boss on £1m Salary

2009-05-01T18:27:00.004+01:00

Just when you thought the media couldn't possibly find any more parasitic executives, dining on fois gras and gold nuggets at the expense of the rest of us mere mortals, there emerged a certain Richard Laing, the multi-million pound man behind a government initiative ostensibly aimed at eradicating poverty. The irony. You can read more about Mr Laing and his poverty-combating exploits (and £250,000 performance-related bonuses) in the Independent.

No 2 No2EU!

2009-05-01T14:47:00.005+01:00

Internationalists might be somewhat heartened to learn that last night's Manchester launch of No2EU was attended by only eight people, four of them hostile to the 'audacious' (No2EU's choice of words, not mine) electoral initiative. I was certainly cheerier when I heard that their soft nationalism was not going unchallenged.

Report of the meeting at Serge's Fist.

Defend Education! Support the occupation of Lewisham Bridge Primary School!

2009-04-23T11:29:00.003+01:00

Early this morning, parents of children who attend Lewisham Bridge Primary School bravely occupied the roof of the school in protest at Lewisham Council's reprehensible decision to bus all the pupils and teachers 3 miles each day to another site. For decades, Lewisham Bridge Primary School (a grade II listed building) has been at the heart of the community... There is a facebook group called Hands Off Lewisham Bridge Primary School (you will need to be logged into facebook to see this). Join the group, or check back here, for pictures and updates. If you're one of the strange people who prefer twitter, you can keep up to date with events here.

Miss America? More like Miss Moron.

2009-04-21T16:26:00.013+01:00

Conservative Christians ewwwwww.

(She didn't win.)

Extra helping of propaganda with your pudding?

2009-04-20T00:19:00.007+01:00

I love cooking. I find it a little frustrating that as a woman I actively enjoy spending hours in the kitchen, but hey, it can't be helped. I like spices, I like herbs... Heck, I even like stirring things. And I love cookery shows. Or at least I used to before it became passé to produce a cookery without a section devoting to cooking for "our boys", "our brave troops", or - my personal favourite - "our heroes".

First it happened on Masterchef and now in its fourth series Great British Menu has emerged as a BBC cookery show practically devoted to pro-war propaganda. In this particular show, Britain's top chefs compete to produce a culinary masterpiece deemed fit to serve to troops returning home from Afghanistan. Has the Ministry of Defense branched out into television cuisine? It certainly appears so, because anyone wishing to watch the cooking and ignore the propaganda, will have to filter out tens of references to "the war heroes who defend our country" every episode. Bleugh.

Wouldn't it be nice for some talented chefs to cook for us anti war activists for a change? Or for that matter for some nurses, firemen, cleaners, road sweepers, ambulance drivers, carers (you get the drift...)

Gay Iraqis Being Massacred

2009-04-13T20:15:00.004+01:00

Last Sunday, two gay Iraqi men were found dead in Sadr City, a slum in Baghdad. They had been murdered. In March, four gay Iraqi men were also murdered in the same slums. Signs tied to their bodies displayed the words perverts and puppies. According to Amnesty International, this is merely the tip of the iceberg. As many as 25 gay men have been reported killed this month in Baghdad alone. Thousands more have good reason to fear for their lives.

All of this happened in what the New York Times called "the relative freedom of a newly democratic Iraq". I beg to differ. Freedom to be openly gay and killed for it, is no freedom at all.

Palestine Trade Union Conference

2009-04-13T17:59:00.006+01:00

Report from Trade Union conference Saturday 18th April in Liverpool:

Around 60 trade unionists gathered in Liverpool from across the North of England to listen to speakers from Palestine, Ireland and South Africa, and discuss the response of trade unionists in Britain to the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian workers and farmers against Israeli occupation and oppression.

Delegates were reminded of the all too frequent reality and ever present danger of the situation with an announcement at the beginning that only the night before a man had been shot dead by the Israeli Defence Force, at one of the weekly Friday protests against the apartheid wall in Bil’in.

Palestine

Conference started with an introduction from Manawel Abdel-Al of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). Manawel gave an account of the daily conditions of Palestinian workers and the terrain in which unions are forced to operate. Three sets of labour laws compete in East Jerusalem; the pre 1967 Jordanian; the post 1967 forced Israeli; and the Palestinian National Authority post 1994. Unemployment runs at 33% in the West Bank and 50% in Gaza, where 70-80% of the population are living under the poverty line. Those in work can earn as little as $5 a day.

Restrictions on movement mean that Health workers in hospitals in East Jerusalem are unable to visit their families behind the apartheid wall, as they would be unable to return to work, so they have to stay where they work.. Students are prevented from attending University. UNOCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) cited over 600 obstacles from checkpoints, to trenches, walls, iron gates and sudden/flying search points. All of which severely restrict movement and close off entrances and exits to Palestinian towns and villages.

Racist laws prevent Palestinian access to employment. Those working in Israel have to swear loyalty to the state of Israel. The train authorities will not employ anyone as a railroad crossing guard, who has not served in the Israeli army.

Manawel urged all trade unionists in Britain and the rest of the world to support the boycott of all Israeli products. He described how news of the South African Dockers refusal to unload an Israeli ship which was forced to return to Haifa, had lifted the spirits of Palestinian trade unionists during the recent war on Gaza. He also spoke of the role Veolia are playing in building a tram system in East Jerusalem. This bypasses Palestinian areas and is designed to connect up Jewish settlements around Jerusalem to the city and to West Jerusalem. It does not serve the Arab community and is in fact destroying its economy.

There was some discussion about relations with Histadrut (Israeli TUC). Several conference delegates described Histadrut as an arm of the Israeli state which supported the war on Gaza and whose former head Peres, had lead the war on Lebanon, and that trade unionists should have nothing to do with it. Manawel was clear that the PGFTU only had an agreement with Histadrut to retrieve the money illegally taken from Palestinian workers, and had no hesitation in advocating disassociation from Histadrut.

Further discussion took place on the extreme difficulties of representing workers in Gaza and working with Hamas’s Islamic trade union. Manawel said it was not always possible to represent workers in East Jerusalem, but in Gaza their offices were taken over by Hamas and subsequently destroyed by the Israelis. They are now in the process of trying to set up new premises.

We also heard and saw an eyewitness account from Sameh Habeeb a photojournalist on 3 years of siege and the last war in Gaza. He combined graphic photographs of the destruction of both people and infrastructure in Gaza, with a description of the collapse of the Gazan economy. Construction is forbidden, nothing has been built for 3 years. Sewage now contaminates the water as pipes are broken and not repaired. 4,000 factories have closed as exports are banned. The power plant was bombed in 2006 leading to widespread shortages and a reliance on power from Israel and Egypt. Israel will only allow a certain number of trucks into Gaza, forcing the authorities to make an impossible choice of having oil or flour but not both. Israel controls the ports and the airport. The only other way to get goods into Gaza is through tunnels. Over 200 people, many of them university graduates, have died in the tunnels as the Israelis target them.

Sameh described the recent war as psychological warfare and genocide. Israel targeted schools, hospitals and ambulances. Snipers also killed cattle and chickens.

Ireland

Brian Campfield (Deputy General Secretary of Northern Ireland Public Sector Union) and Eamon McMahon (Trade Union Friends of Palestine – Irish Congress of Trade Unions) then lead a discussion on the progress of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign throughout Ireland. Resolutions starting in Belfast and Derry Trades Councils calling for a boycott have lead to ICTU overwhelmingly adopting a position of support for BDS in 2007. There has been opposition from Zionist influences within the unions particularly fundamental Christians, also some inertia on the part of the Executive, but generally the campaign has been “pushing at an open door” since 2005 when ICTU agreed to campaign in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Sligo and Galway Councils have now agreed to have no new contracts with Veolia.

A measure of how concerned Israel is about BDS is that following ICTU’s support for it in 2007 they were attacked by Histadrut and the Israeli ambassador to the UK immediately set up meetings with them in Belfast and Dublin.

South Africa

We were next treated to a telephone interview with Bongani Masuku (International Secretary COSATU). Bongani said there was no more dramatic an example of apartheid anywhere in the world today than in Palestine, and in COSATU they should know. He compared Israel’s role to that played by Colombia in South America and connected them both to the strategic needs of US imperialism. He said there could be no peace until Israel is compelled to obey international law, and stressed the importance of eyewitness accounts from Palestine.

Bongani said that COSATU was committed to BDS and would develop the campaign through mass marches as well as actions such as the Dockers took, and working closely with PSC in South Africa. They were also organising a Conference for International Solidarity in June 2009. Not just for Palestine but also Burma and Zimbabwe.

He said we should not be bullied or intimidated by the Zionist actions for instance when the US and Israel pulled out of the Durban 2 review conference over the Palestinian issue. Neither should we accept the double standards of some trade unions that try to treat the colonised and the coloniser as equals.

Union caucuses from Unite, Unison, and UCU met over an excellent if somewhat delayed lunch.

Workshops

Conference broke into 2 workshops after lunch. One on trade union delegations and links with Palestine, the other on BDS in Britain.

I attended the BDS session, which mainly concentrated on comparisons (unfavourable) with the situation within the Irish trade unions, where they have national confederation backing and resources. They have also produced a document with a strategic and an operational element on how policy should be translated into action. However discussion lead to proposals to improve communications and coordination between PSC and FOP branches across the North of England at least. An attempt to form a liaison committee between the trade unions and the campaign groups, which could be presented to Trades Councils, was also suggested and initiated.

Further discussion covered Veolia’s contract in Liverpool to construct waste management systems. The argument against cancelling this contract is currently that it is not the same company as Veolia transport who are constructing the tram system in East Jerusalem. All Veolia’s accounts say that it is, and therefore could be cancelled as the tram system is consolidating further settlements in breach of UN articles.

Joint action continues at Liverpool University between student groups and UCU over boycott actions aimed at arms sales and pension fund investments in BAe.

Final Plenary

The final session concentrated on where now? or what is to be done? for the movement as a whole. Hugh Lanning (Deputy General Secretary PCS and PSC) introduced. He said the task was now to link the solidarity campaigns with the trade unions. We need to create a mass campaign on the scale of the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980’s. Trade unionists need to turn their union policies into action. Many trade unions have very good national policies on Palestine and following the upcoming round of national conferences many will have even better policies, as the wind is in the right direction at the moment. However they must become more visible within the movement both in terms of promotion and action. Key to this is BDS. The 16th May demonstration should be a part of this process.

Trade unions should also be lobbying for a change in government policy via groups like Labour Friends of Palestine, which has about 70 MP’s. They should press for the suspension of the EU trade agreement with Israel in the run up to the EU elections.

Discussion from the floor once again brought up the issue of Histadrut. Hugh did not think this should be a priority for the campaign as it meant little or nothing to the majority of members. There was a need for education of members as to the realities of daily life for Palestinians.

Kevin Brown (FBU) summed up by saying we cannot become the “3 day resolutionaries” who pass excellent motions at national conferences then do nothing for the rest of the year. We have to turn union policy into action. Challenge our own union policies; affiliate to Trade Union Friends of Palestine; invite guest speakers from PGFTU for example; dedicate socials to Palestine campaigns.

In Conclusion

My overwhelming impression of the conference was its thoroughgoing internationalism. “We are all Gazans” was a sentiment that could be felt throughout the day. In that sense it was a great success. It did however reveal how much further we still have to go in Britain in terms of significant trade union action. The majority of delegates were over 40, white and male, which is a sad reflection on the general state of union organisation and participation in the UK as a whole.

This was a step forward however and the organisers should be congratulated for their commitment to the internationalist cause and to presenting an informative day of lively debate and discussion on such an important issue. I look forward to the next, bigger and more diverse conference linked to a more active trade union movement in the near future.

John Cooke

Ian Tomlinson should not be the one on trial.

2009-04-13T00:57:00.005+01:00

Hands up who hates Janet Steet Porter? Me, me, ME!

In today's Independent, dearest Janet has an article called 'Tomlinson was no saint, but he deserved better', which looking at the content, could just have easily been titled 'Tomlinson was a worthless working class alcoholic, but at least he wasn't an anarchist'. I've reproduced it here, with a bit of commentary...

"The circumstances surrounding the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests on 1 April are only gradually becoming clearer. What has emerged, however, is that Mr Tomlinson was a troubled man with quite a few problems [so?] I am not trying to diminish his death, [yeah you are] and the sad loss felt by his family and friends, but before we put the police in the dock, it might be worth considering what Mr Tomlinson was doing that night, and what state of mind he might have been in. [If he wasn't in the "right" state of mind as judged by Janet, his death apparently becomes that little bit more understandable...]

Mr Tomlinson was an alcoholic [so?] who lived in a bail hostel [so?] around the corner from me in the City of London. He'd tried and failed to stay away from booze [so?] but I make no judgement about that [then why the hell are you bringing it up?] How many of us are just an inch from going down that path, where alcohol takes over your life to the point where your family don't want you around? It's all too common. There are dozens of people like Ian Tomlinson in the City every day, hanging around in churchyards, sitting on park benches, selling The Big Issue. [Dozens more waiting to be murdered by police, perhaps?] They turn up at the AA meetings held in the City every night of the week, where rich and poor talk freely about their struggle to stay sober. By the way, there are plenty of salaried alcoholics holding down good jobs in the City, disguising their addiction.

Mr Tomlinson did not have that opportunity, having started out as a scaffolder and shifting from job to job, to the point where he ended up in a hostel for the homeless in Smithfield. Mr Tomlinson probably sold me a newspaper when he had a pitch outside Blackfriars station for a while and I worked in Fleet Street. [Well that must have been one pleasant experience in his tragic life... Well done, Ms Porter.]

One columnist has said that the "steady drip" of information about his background is designed to denigrate an ordinary man. [Spot on] I disagree. [You bloody would] Knowing that he was an alcoholic is critical to understanding his sense of disorientation and his attitude towards the police, which might on first viewing of the video footage, seem a bit stroppy. [Hands in pockets walking away from police... Stroppy indeed.]

Mr Tomlinson was wearing a Millwall shirt smoking a cigarette, and he'd had a few drinks. [So?] He didn't look anything like the people the police had corralled into a confined space around the Bank of England that night. They were mostly younger, middle class, and worlds apart from a working-class bloke whose face seemed older than his years after a life on the street. One perfunctory glance ought to have shown officers that he was completely harmless. Witnesses say Mr Tomlinson appeared to be drunk, he wasn't coherent and couldn't move very well. Over an hour later, footage shows a police officer wearing a balaclava aiming at his legs with a baton, and he falls to the ground. [Pushed to the ground, Janet. *Pushed*.]

It had been a long and trying day for the police. [Poor them. Hard work, this detaining innocent protesters without trial.] Mr Tomlinson wound them up when he didn't get out of the way. But he wasn't a 20-something anarchist with a placard. [20-something anarchists with placards deserve to be killed, don't they, Janet?] The fact he didn't swiftly jump to attention when ordered to do so should have been just a mild irritant, not something requiring physical manhandling. The police have been trained to deal with drunks, just as they are trained to deal with demonstrators. This man was not a threat to public order. His life story demonstrates that the only person he ever harmed was himself. I can understand how annoying he might have been, but I can't understand why anyone would want to hit him, especially not an officer who is paid to protect ordinary citizens.

Ian Tomlinson deserved some respect and understanding, and he clearly didn't get any that night." [Maybe he also deserves to not have his private battle with alcoholism spashed across the media too, Janet. After all, he's not the one who should be on trial here. He's the unarmed man who was murdered by an armed cop. And those are the only details that matter.]

G20 Again

2009-04-13T00:28:00.003+01:00

This overview of the G20 protests was written as a report for a comrade in Germany.

The protests marking the G20 in London last week were large and varied. On Saturday, trade unions organised the Put People First March, which attracted the most protesters to London since January’s Gaza demonstrations. 30,000 turned up to march for two hours, beginning on the Embankment and ending for a rally in Hyde Park. The trade unions had large contingents, particularly UNISON (flying gigantic helium balloons in the signature UNISON purple), UNITE and the RMT, which had a vibrant contingent. Otherwise, there was an abundance of charity organisations, including the World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam and Save the Children; these groups easily outnumbered the organised left. Several churches also put in an appearance. The left itself consisted of blocks of around 200 each from the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party of Britain. Other small pockets of left groups, some truly barmy, were scattered throughout the long march.

The policing of the march was fairly minimal, with only the sizeable anarchist block of around 500 receiving much attention. In organising the Put People First march, the TUC had clearly intended for it to be sedate and peaceful, as something to contrast with the violence that was expected later in the week. For all that, however, it did receive plenty of positive media coverage. What it didn’t do is offer any political alternative to Capitalism. The rally at the end of the long march saw celebrities such as actor and presenter Tony Robinson (NEC of the Labour Party) speak, as well as layers of the trade union bureaucracy who form part of the left's problem. Their demands were hollow and vacuous, which isn’t surprising on a march that couldn’t call for anything more specific than 'Put People First’.

On Wednesday April 1st Stop the War (keen to distance themselves and the Socialist Workers Party from any violence) called a protest, which has not been covered by the media. The only thing I have heard was that it was relatively small. Around 10-20,000 other protesters congregated outside the Bank of England in the early afternoon. This protest against the banks had been organised by an umbrella group called G20 Meltdown (including the moronic celebrity anarchist Chris Knight and some giant puppets called the Horsefolk of the Apocalypse). I must stress that I use the word “organised” very loosely: the day was hugely lacking in leadership and direction. Those who arrived early found themselves contained within a tight police cordon. Transport to the city centre had been affected by the protest; not knowing London very well, I had to walk the last fifty minutes of my journey to the Bank of England, and found myself on the outside of the cordon. Earlier in the day, protesters had smashed the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland. This was the only bank to be physically attacked on the day.

By 3 in the afternoon, the day looked to be over. The police released protesters from the cordon and I wandered in to look at the damage that had been done. Down the street from the banks, a large group of protesters who had been inside the police cordon raised an anarchist flag; the police then stopped the rest of us leaving. I had been outside the police cordon for most of the day so far; suddenly I found myself trapped inside it for the next six hours, during which time the area in which protesters were kept got progressively smaller. There were no toilets, no food and no drink. Even the ill and wheelchair-bound were not permitted to leave. Police began to be provocative, goading protesters into violence. Two “protesters” were exposed as police agents in front of my own eyes and chased to the police line where they produced passes and were allowed straight through. These agent provocateurs had been throwing bottles at the same police line minutes earlier; it may sound far-fetched but it’s true. By 7 O’clock, protesters were desperate to break out of the cordon. At one point after trying to break out, riot police raiding into the crowd hitting protesters and bystanders alike with their batons and causing many injuries. I was mildly hurt.

It appears that Ian Tomlinson was walking home from work when he became trapped in the police cordon. Video footage from The Guardian shows him walking away from a line of police with his hands in his pockets, when one police officer, wearing a face mask, moves forward and strikes him with a baton. He is then pushed to the ground. None of the other policemen intervene. Protesters move forward to help him and after a while, Tomlinson gets to his feet and walks off shakily. Minutes later, he was dead. Initially, the police attempted a cover-up, claiming Tomlinson had died of natural causes. They also claimed that bottles were thrown at the police, meaning they couldn’t resuscitate him. Subsequent evidence has exposed this lie: protesters called an ambulance and medics tried to aid him, before the police forced the medics away. No bottles were thrown. Footage on Channel 4 News showed protesters moving to let Tomlinson’s ambulance through, while police vans moved to obstruct it. Not all police officers involved in the murder have come forward.

7 other protesters were hospitalised outside the banks on Wednesday, and tens more injured to some degree. Moreover, while many protesters were busy there, the peaceful Climate Camp in the City was razed to the ground. Police entered the gathering of climate activists with dogs, and brutally attacked those there with shields and batons. Because of this violent attack, 2000 people were left homeless in the city that night, which partly explains exactly why the next day’s protests were so small. On Thursday, about 500 gathered outside the Excel Centre where the G20 Summit was taking place (by outside, I mean quite a long way down the road in a police pen). Most of them were protesting Western complicity in African genocides. On the same day, about 200 attended the Socialist Party’s Youth March for Jobs, which followed an extremely long path around not particularly populated parts of the city. The third protest on that day was called on short notice. Tapping into a huge feeling of anger, this protest against police violence (and calling for an independent inquiry into Ian Tomlinson’s death) attracted 2000 people to the Bank of England.

Police tactics used during the G20 are relatively new in this country. Indeed, the detention of large groups of people without trial only became legally acceptable earlier this year. Police violence here is escalating at an alarming rate. Soon the British police will be acquiring taser guns, which is another matter of grave concern.

God Bless America!

2009-04-11T15:11:00.011+01:00

Every now and again I find it nice to remember that however mad things might get over here, I could live in America, where no doubt I would have to deal with evangelist freaks more than once or twice a year. Taken from feministing, this particular lot of bigotry is an anti-gay marriage video currently broadcast on TV up to eight times each day in California:

Also, Amplify has a story of a Virginia teen who was suspended for two weeks from her high school for taking the birth control pill. According to the school rules, that's more days than she would have received if caught in possession of heroin and the same number of days for taking a gun to school. I'm a bit late on the uptake with this story - it's quite local newsy so it slipped under my radar - but seriously, what the fuck?

Muslims beware! Tony Blair is reading the Qur'an

2009-04-10T11:33:00.007+01:00

Has Tony Blair become a master of irony in his new life away from Parliament? Certainly his recent interview for the BBC appears to suggest so. In the interview, Blair mourns the "wholly innocent people that have died" from terrorism (Afghanistan? Iraq? No innocent people there, it seems) and argues that the invasion of Iraq in particular was the right decision to make, because not invading in the 1980s led to "a million casualties" (unlike the million that came after). But hey, not to worry, because Catholic Tony has found a new source of divine wisdom. He apparently reads the Qur'an every day.

Communist Students vs Communist Students

2009-04-08T00:00:00.009+01:00

Communist Students (logo to the left), the student group established by the Communist Party of Great Britain at the end of 2006, has always had a slightly rocky relationship with the Communist Party of Britain's youth group, the Young Communist League (YCL). Perhaps this is because typing communiststudents.org does in fact take you to the YCL homepage, or perhaps it's because Communist Students and the CPGB, for all their faults, are actual bona fide Communists, unlike their Stalinist counterparts in the CPB.

And then, a few days ago, this rocky relationship fractured further when an exec member of the YCL removed all information from the Communist Students Wikipedia page and replaced it with information of another group called - you guessed it - Communist Students and founded by the YCL (logo to the right). This Communist Students claims to have been in existence since 2005; if so it predates the CPGB's Communist Students. Having said this, I've been fairly active in the students' movement and though I'm by no means a leftist trainspotter (this post belies that statement somewhat, doesn't it?) I can't claim to have seen the CPB's youth active under any name other than the YCL.

How very strange. So now, where one Communist Students would no doubt have been enough for the world, we find ourselves blessed by two. Who will get to keep the name?

Galloway is Not Good Value

2009-04-06T23:04:00.005+01:00

It's not so long ago that George Galloway railed against the secrecy surrounding the expenses of MPs. "Time for openness" it says on his website (scroll down a little- it's on the home page). There's a letter addressed to the House of Commons authorities too, which reads: "I have told the House authorities that I have no objection to the disclosure of the information pertaining to me. I don’t claim for a second home; I don’t have family members on the payroll and I don’t claim for travel." All of this, however, appears to have come back to stab Mr Galloway in the back. Two years ago, he was the most costly backbencher in parliament (costliness is measured in terms of how much money each MP claims and how many parliamentary votes they attend). Today it has emerged that Galloway is still, to put it mildly, scrounging. On top of his exorbitant £60,277 salary, he is also claiming in excess of over £100,000 while spending an absolute minority of time in parliament, just 12% of divisions in fact.

For a long time now, it's been clear that Galloway isn't a massive fan of showing up to vote, particularly when something a bit controversial is on the cards (IVF for lesbians, abortion time limit, hybrid embryos etc.) But 100,000 is really taking the piss. What is the man doing? Eating fois gras and caviar, and downing Bollinger by the bucket? How many staff is he employing? And if he is merely employing plenty of staff - and staying well away from the champagne and pay-per-view adult films - why hasn't he got the bloody time to represent his constituency in parliament? Elected representatives should be on the same wage as the average skilled worker. Socialists shouldn't be pretending to be Socialists if they can't abide by this. There's a good article by Dave Vincent (PCS) in the Weekly Worker about this here. Dave reminds us that bureaucrat sponger Mark Serwotka was elected on a manifesto of promising to take a wage in line with that earned by PCS members, but ditched this ethos when confronted with the £109,000/year salary and numerous freebies.

Bomb blast leaves gaping hole in Lenin's rear

2009-04-05T11:46:00.005+01:00

An explosion in the early hours of Wednesday morning left a bronze statue of Lenin with a gaping hole (around a meter in size) in his rear. The statue is outside Finland Station in St Petersburg and marks Lenin's return from exile in April 1917. It is one of Russia's most famous monuments. The Telegraph chooses to blame Russia's "anarchist community" for the attack on Lenin, although admits that no group has actually claimed responsibility. Whoever perpetrated the attack may well have done so as an April Fools' day joke. Since the bottomless statue is now deemed structurally unsound, Lenin will have to be removed from his plinth for the first time since the 1920s.

Press Release by G20 Witnesses

2009-04-03T11:23:00.003+01:00

Various participants in the City of London demonstrations on April 1st have come forward as witnesses to the collapse of a man later identified by authorities as Ian Tomlinson. Four different university students witnessed the collapse of Mr. Tomlinson. "He stumbled towards us from the direction of police and protestors and collapsed," said Peter Apps. "I saw a demonstrator who was a first aider attend to the person who had collapsed. The man was late 40s, had tattoos on his hands, and was wearing a Millwall shirt."

While the first aider was helping the man, another demonstrator with a megaphone was calling the police over so that they could help.

Natalie Langford, a student at Queen Mary, said "there was a police charge. A lot of people ran in our direction. The woman giving first aid stood in the path of the crowd." The running people, seeing a guy on the ground, went around them.

Another demonstrator had already called 999 and was getting medical advice from the ambulance dispatcher. "Four police with two police medics came. They told her [the first aider] to 'move along'.", said Peter Apps. "Then they pushed her forcibly away from him. They refused to listen to her [the first aider] when she tried to explain his condition."

The first aider, who did not wish to be named, said "The police surrounded the collapsed man. I was standing with the person who'd called 999. The ambulance dispatcher wanted to talk to the police, the phone was being held out to them, but the police refused."

Another witness, Elias Stoakes, added "we didn't see them [the police] perform CPR."

Other people who had tried to stay with the collapsed man were also pushed away.

All of the witnesses deny the allegation that many missiles were thrown.

According to Peter Apps, "one bottle was thrown, but it didn't come close to the police. Nothing was thrown afterwards as other demonstrators told the person to stop. The person who threw the bottle probably didn't realize that someone was behind the ring of police." All the witnesses said that the demonstrators were concerned for the well-being of the collapsed man once they realized that there was an injured person.

Natalie Langford said "when the ambulance arrived the protestors got straight out of the way."

These witnesses are happy to give media statements.

They can be contacted through this press liasion email: g20witnesses@gmail.com

Police Violence at G20

2009-04-02T00:36:00.007+01:00

Today's demonstration outside the bank of England was directionless and leaderless, but otherwise vibrant. It was also marred by severe police brutality, certainly the worst protesters have experienced this year, eclipsing the police violence at January's Gaza protests. Today, at the hands of the police, one man died. Seven were taken to hospital. Tens were given medical assistance. After the wave of police brutality that occurred at around 7.30pm when hemmed-in protesters - thirsty, hungry and cold - attempted to break through the police cordon and escape, many were left bleeding. A number had head wounds. One young man knelt on the ground with his head in his hands. Another sat on the floor crying.

I was knocked to the ground and trampled underneath others who were trying to flee the police batons. A well-built man dragged me to my feet; it was painful but I'm grateful to have escaped with nothing worse than bruises. Following the crush, riot police ran into the mass of protesters, hitting people with both their batons and their shields. Many protesters were shaken and dazed. Easy targets. This early on, little is known about the man who died on the demonstration. I saw an unconscious man taken away by ambulance- I can't say whether this was him, or indeed whether he was killed in the crush, from a police baton, or from something else entirely. Already, however, the police appear to be covering up their role in the violence, portraying protesters as mindless hooligans and removing the media focus from their own thuggish attacks against unarmed protesters.

Following the attack I have described above, reinforcements of riot police arrived to guard every exit. The last chance at escape had been lost, and protesters were subsequently detained for another 1.5 hours. Even then, we were only allowed out 1-by-1, with each protester being escorted away by their own police officer (and led past barking and snarling police dogs...) Most were searched and several of the so-called "trouble makers" arrested.

Pics to follow tomorrow.

The police had also set about decimating Climate Camp, while many of the Climate Campers were otherwise engaged (being beaten by cops) outside the banks.

Put People First March

2009-03-30T12:37:00.007+01:00

I hate London. I hate it with a passion. It's not the centre of the political universe; it's too big, too crowded and everything costs the earth. £3.50 for a pint. No thanks.

Just to exacerbate my hatred of London, even the demonstrations are getting pretty dire, or at least that was the case with Saturday's Put People First march. Backed by the TUC, 30,000 turned out to march sedately through the capital. A few contingents were pretty impressive, notably the anarchists who appeared to have a few hundred present and the IWW who carried flags in lovely rainbow colours. The RMT looked fairly impressive too, and not at all ashamed to be handing out the nationalist No2EU leaflets. The Socialist Party contingent, also distributing said nationalist leaflets, appeared to be roughly on a par with the Socialist Workers Party. The SWP were bottlenecking the demonstration at times and then releasing their comrades, at which point young and old ran forward yelling excitedly for a couple of hundred yards. We've had "jump against the police": evidently running is the new way of keeping the membership lively on otherwise woefully tedious marches.

30,000 is a strong turnout for a protest that lacks the strength of feeling that accompanies an issue such as Gaza. Sadly, however, the majority of marchers failed to offer any alternative to the G20, with most appearing to advocate nothing more than a mysterious form of "nice Capitalism". Amongst a good number of liberals and greens, there were endless charities: UNICEF, Oxfam and even the World Wildlife Fund showed up in force. Placards reading "You've Saved the Bankers... Now Save the Children" did seem to miss the point of the Capitalist System somewhat, but no doubt tapped into a climate of public anger. Then there was Chris Knight: fresh from a week spent attempting to u ndermine the Left, he looked perfectly at home amongst four idiotic horse puppets, "the horsefolk of the apocalypse" or some such nonsense. And just to top it all, there was a frustratingly huge samba band in the middle of the march, helpfully subduing the protesters' anger with their resolutely cheerfully drumming.

Poor organisation and no direction represented the main failings of Saturday's demonstration. At one point, a gap of almost a mile formed in the march, separating the front half of the protest from those at the back. The rally at the end went on for far too long, with endless streams of people drifting off to get coffee and warm up. They didn't miss much anyway: speakers proposed a series of vacuous demands, along the lines of "we need a world that puts people first". Well yes, but don't you think you could be a little more specific?

This is what you get when the trade union bureaucracy organises what could have been a vibrant anti-Capitalist event.

Manchester students in solidarity with our Iranian Comrades

2009-03-26T22:34:00.003Z

Over 20 students and activists stood in solidarity with our Iranian comrades on Wednesday. Assembling outside Manchester University Students' Union at 1pm, we held up placards bearing the faces of some of the latest students to be imprisoned by the Iranian regime, including Amirhosein Mohammadifar, Sanaz Allahyari and Maryam Sheikh, and gathered round a banner reading 'Free Our Comrades'. Messages of solidarity were recorded by myself, Ben Lewis (CPGB), Dan Lee (Green Party) and Robbie Gillet (Plane Stupid). Tina from PR read out a letter written by the imprisoned teacher and trade unionist, Farzad Kamangar, who is currently facing execution. I also read out a message of greetings from the Iranian Workers Solidarity Network. After that, we chanted for a while ("Justice! Peace! A workers' Middle East!" and "1,2,3,4! Student arrests no more!") before holding a successful meeting to plan for further actions.

Israeli far right grows in strength

2009-03-24T13:54:00.006Z

100 far right Israelis marched through the city of Umm al-Fahm in Haifa today. Umm al-Fahn is almost entirely inhabited by Arab Muslims, and has no real Jewish population. About 2500 riot police were deployed to protect the right-wing nationalists from the Arab citizens, who had vowed to prevent the racist march from going ahead. Stun grenades and tear gas were used. "The State of Israel is the Jewish people's state," said one of the march's organisers, a former member of the banned Kach party.

Today's march had been planned a year in advance. It was a well-organised show of Zionist confrontation in a city inhabited by 43, 000 Arabs.

Shocking pictures can be found here on the BBC Website.

LGBT and the Left

2009-03-24T11:43:00.004Z

There's some wild characterisation of the Left going on at this year's National Union of Students (NUS) LGBT conference. Here's an extract from Motion 413 "Identity Politics With Pride":

Conference Further Believes:

1) On the Left Wing, some Marxists political organisations airbrush identities out of the struggle, believing that only class is a factor.
2) Such organisations rarely get involved in NUS Liberation Campaigns, and where they do, they often belittle the identities of which we are proud.
3) More often than not, these organisations often carry more prejudice towards our proud identities than the Right Wing, because when 'the revolution' comes, our identities will be traded and sacrificed in their political chess game as to who forms the new Politburo.

Ouch. It's a long time since one of Ted Grant's supporters labelled homosexuality a bourgeois deviancy, but it's true that LGBT is an issue that most of the Left either fails to grasp, or chooses to not pay enough attention to. It's probably a by-product of a Left that's dominated by white heterosexual males, although it was the SWP's Lindsey German who declared that she wasn't going to make LGBT "a shibboleth" back in 2003. In fact, when it comes to the perception some LGBT students still have of the Left, RESPECT is probably the deciding factor. By neglecting liberation politics and choosing to enter into an opportunist electoral alliance with conservative forces, the SWP have allowed the rest of the Left to be tarred with the same brush.

You can read all motions to LGBT Conference here.

The Revolution has a New Leader

2009-03-23T20:59:00.005Z

This clip appeared on Channel 4 News. It deals with the possibility of violence at the demonstrations marking next week's G20:

According to Channel 4: "Upstairs in a terrace house in South East London is effectively the headquarters of the movement to paralyse the city of London..." The terrace house in question belongs to Chris Knight, who appears to be an anthropologist with an unhealthy obsession with female menstruation and a belief that the revolution is imminent.

Knight has also appeared in The Observer: 'Chris Knight, of the leading protest group Government of the Dead, warned: "the revolution is coming. This is our time, and I honestly believe that the army, the police, will be so intent on keeping the ExCel centre they will lose the City of London".

What nonsense.

UNITE Poll Reveals Nothing

2009-03-23T20:16:00.007Z

This immensely depressing poll of UNITE members reveals the following:

79% are are very satisfied or reasonably satisfied with the job the
leadership of the union is doing in representing members' interests. Voting intentions are Labour 34%, Tory 31%, Lib Dem 19%, and BNP 3.5%. The most popular newspapers are The Sun (read by 18%), Daily Mail (13%) and The Mirror (8%) and the broadsheets are all on 6%.

Oh well, only 1023 people responded to the questions out of around 1,096,000 UNITE members. So maybe the actual figures aren't quite this bad.

Abolish All Immigration Prisons

2009-03-23T12:15:00.004Z

On Saturday, 70 activists gathered outside Manchester town hall to protest at the continuing imprisonment of asylum seekers in Pennine House Detention Centre, adjacent to Manchester Airport. How many of the happy holiday makers are aware of what is going on just 100 yards away from Terminal 2, I wonder? Conditions in detention centres are horrific, with many asylum seekers choosing hunger strikes as their only means of protesting the environment in which they are locked up. In Tinsley Detention Centre, food is produced off site and is three days old ("spoilt" as one inmate put it) by the time it arrives before the asylum seekers. Portion sizes are inadequate and parents have gone on hunger strike to protest the hunger experienced by their children. We have to be absolutely clear that "Detention Centre" is merely a euphamism for prison... but these prisons contain people who have committed no crime.

Saturday's protest was organised by Manchester No Borders, and largely comprised of anarchists and general campaigners, with few from the Socialist/Communist left. Permanent Revolution had 4 along but the SWP, CPB and the like were absent. After a rally outside the Town Hall, the athletic half of the demonstration cycled off to Manchester Airport (about 7 miles away). They took with them a dummy of the immigration minister Phil Woolas, locked in a cage. The other half of the demonstration, including myself, then briefly attended a protest against deportations of the Congolese to show our solidarity, before heading by train to Manchester Airport. It wasn't easy to get into the Pennine House car park to protest, and about a third of all demonstrators were searched. The receipt for my search is actually ludicrously flattering: I refused to give any personal details, but my physical description reads "Known Protester - Blonde - Slim". Why thank you, Officer.

The search was only one aspect of the massive policing of Saturday's demonstration. A helicopter followed the cyclist contingent overhead. Police officers accompanied us on the train both ways. Police dogs and horses were on standby, in case the huge police presence, helicopter and searches weren't quite intimidating enough. With five megaphones and an assortment of drums, sirens and other loud things, there is little doubt in my mind, however, that those detained in Pennine House could hear our protest. And we made the BBC, which isn't so bad.

Galloway vs Weinstein

2009-03-23T00:01:00.003Z

Galloway getting barred from Canada is old news, but I wanted to flag up this just in case anyone missed it: Channel 4 had an interview with George Galloway and Meir Weinstein, the Chairman of the Jewish Defense League in Canada. It's sheer class. I'm not a Galloway fan - anything but, in fact - but he can certainly argue with the best of them. The Canada guy on the other hand, well he's thick as pig shit (and a nasty racist piece of shit to boot). You can watch the interview here. I can't vouch for the text underneath, but it's the only version I can find.

For a guy who talks an awful lot about the Holocaust, Weinstein (formerly a supporter of the racist Israeli Kach party) manages to sound very fascist indeed: talking about the Canadians who actually want to hear Galloway speak, he says "we will see to it that the Canadian government will be monitoring every individual and organization." How very sinister.

We were originally told that Galloway was banned because of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan. Was this all a big lie? According to Galloway, he's being kept out because of the imminent Canadian elections... Conservative neocons aren't so keen to have anti war and anti Zionist propaganda in the country so close to their likely electoral defeat.

The Jewish Defense League as an organisation has 'faith in the greatness and indestructibility of the Jewish people, our religion and our Land of Israel'. In the last few years, it has not only wormed its way into a position of influence with the ultra-Conservative Canadian government, but has also been extremely active undermining the Palestinians' cause, counter-protesting Palestinian activists and stamping out boycotts of Israeli goods. Worse than this, these racist scumbags also deny the existence of the Palestinian people.

Saving the Children

Bill Bailey is one of my favourite comedians and he has it spot on when talking about American TV Presenter Rosie O'Donnell: "There’s this one celebrity, Rosie O’Donnell, a talk show host, and she said this: “I don’t know anything about Afghanistan, but I know it’s full of terrorists, speaking as a mother.” So what is this "speaking as a mother" then? Is it a euphemism for "well, talking out of my arse"? "Suspending rational thought for a moment"? As a rational human being, Al-Qaeda are a loose association of fundamentalist zealots who could be rounded up with a sustained police investigation. But speaking as a parent, they’re all eight foot tall, they’ve got lasers under their moustaches, a huge eye in their foreheads and the only way to kill them is to nuke every country that hasn’t sent us a Christmas card in the the last 20 years. Speaking as a mother…"

In America, everything is about protecting children; protecting them from sex, from paedophiles, and especially from Islam. Now it seems this obsession has spread across the border into Canada. Meir Weinstein, you see, wants to prevent the teachings of Hamas reaching the kids. He also wants to ensure that George Galloway isn't allowed to train any child suicide bombers while he's over there. God bless him, he's doing it for the kids.

Smarmy fucker.

Jade Goody is Dead

2009-03-22T12:41:00.005Z

The best thing Jade Goody accomplished is inspiring a 20% rise in the number of young British women taking smear tests. This may well save plenty of young women's lives. Nonetheless, Gordon Brown's statement that he was "deeply saddened" by her death and "that the whole country has admired her determination" rings a little false. In fact, if I have to hear one more expression of tacit sympathy from the exact same people who damned her as a shameful racist two years ago, I might just get very angry.

You might get the impression that I'm not terribly upset at Goody's death. Well, it all seems a bit absurd to me. 1500 people die daily in occupied Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, a third of them under the age of 5. Any sadness or remorse for these forgotten people, Gordon?

Who's scared of dying?

2009-03-20T15:51:00.009Z

They may think they're guaranteed a seat by Jesus in the afterlife, but a new American study has determined that religious people are just as afraid of dying as the rest of us. Even more so in fact, with the majority of religious patients suffering from a terminal illness choosing painful life-prolonging procedures and declining to make plans for their deaths, such as DNRs or living wills.

Is it the prospect of finding out that all those Sunday services might just have been a waste of time? Or is it the fear of arriving at somewhere a little warmer than Heaven?

Either way, thank God for atheism.

Homophobia on X Box Live

2009-02-27T16:09:00.004Z

I have been known to have the odd play on my boyfriend's Xbox 360 Console. I love Fable II, but I dislike Fallout 3 because it's too scary and Grand Theft Auto 4 because it turns me a bit... Well, evil actually. But I was interested to read this account of homophobia on Xbox Live (Microsoft's online gaming portal) that has been circulating the internet for a few days:

"... my account was suspended because I had said in my profile that I was a lesbian. I was harassed by several players, 'chased' to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn't want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.

As if xbox live is really appropriate for kids anyways! My account was suspended and xbox live did nothing to solve this, but instead said others found it offensive."

This is apparently not the first example of such a thing. Youtube has a video of the homophobic abuse directed at the player xxxGayBoyxxx and there are multiple stories of players with the word "gay" in their profiles finding their accounts mysteriously suspended...

Student march not entirely ignored by press...

2009-02-26T22:27:00.006Z

Yesterday I marched alongside 600-700 students against fees in London. Guess what, comrades, we actually made it into the Guardian!

And, errrr, Socialist Worker (they pointedly refuse to mention any other left groups) Education Not for Sale (they pointedly refuse to mention the SWP) Communist Students (lots of pictures of the banner that took up my kitchen floor and slowly ruined my life for days) and the Commune (fair report).

EDIT: Socialist Students have also produced a report, containing a couple of numeric inaccuracies: "a march of over a thousand students" and "hundreds marched behind the banner of the Campaign to Defeat Fees". Someone get Socialist Students a calculator!

Review of Milk

2009-02-16T15:31:00.011Z

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let the bullet destroy every closet door…”

"My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you!"

As far as I am concerned, Milk achieved the impossible. It nearly made my boyfriend cry. He doesn’t ever cry, so nearly is quite an achievement. As for myself, I must have been socially conditioned to embody every tired feminine stereotype… I wept.

Milk is a relatively straightforward biopic of the US’ first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk, elected in 1977 to the San Francisco board of supervisors and assassinated just eleven months later by Irish Catholic Conservative, Dan White. As films go, Milk treads little new ground; but it has a tremendous amount of heart and brims with righteous fervor. And watching Milk, I didn’t find the inevitable comparisons with Martin Luther King, so unlikely. As in the case of Luther King, we can only speculate that if Milk has survived he might have gone on to do even greater things.

Milk opens with archive footage of LGBT persecution, mainly men being expelled by police from gay bars in the fifties and sixties. The archive footage reappears throughout the film, showing news broadcasts from the day and television appeals by evangelist singer Anita Bryant, who led a moralist crusade against the LGBT community in the 1970s. The use of footage is excellent and adds to the realism.

Sean Penn is an astounding actor, and more than capable of playing Harvey Milk. In fact, it’s refreshing to see him not playing his usual racists, murderers and psychopaths. The ensemble cast is pretty damn good too, especially Diego Luna (Y Tu Mamá También) who plays Harvey’s disturbed boyfriend and Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men) who makes Milk’s killer every bit as despicable as one might hope.

For a film set in seventies America, Milk does not feel that distant. The fight against Proposition 6 - an act to revoke the immunity of Americans from losing their jobs (particularly those working in the education sector where they can “corrupt” kids) on the grounds of sexuality - and the waves of homophobia that accompanied it, are more than reminiscent of the recent Proposition 8, which removed the rights of same sex couples to marriage in the state of California. That too was fought by Christian bigots and evangelist crusaders.

Despite the parallels with today (thirty years on LGBT liberation is still a distant dream) and the film's tragic ending, Milk is not particularly downbeat. Rather, it's angry and yet immensely hopeful. Harvey Milk emerges not just as an gay activist, but as a man, a martyr, who stood up for the rights of the elderly, the workers and the disempowered. Go see it: it's a brilliant film.

Review of Che Part One here.

Viva Palestina Drivers Arrested as Terrorists!

2009-02-14T16:00:00.006Z

Message from Viva Palestina:

Nine members of the Viva Palestina convoy - delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza - were arrested last night under "anti-terrorist" legislation. Six have now been released but without passports. Three from Burnley are still held; plus the ambulance they were driving.

The BBC is reporting the arrests as "terrorists".

So it's ok as far as the BBC is concerned to report Israel's onslaught on the palestinians as a legitimate conflict - and it's ok for the UK to supply arms to Israel and gunboats to maintain the siege of gaza - but if humanitarian aid is on its way to help the people who have lost families, homes, schools, hospitals and livelihoods, then it's "terrorism".

* Urgent assistance needed with breaching the BBC (continued) blockade of the truth.

* Urgent assistance needed with breaching the anti-terrorism laws in order to free the drivers and vehicles still held.

* Urgent assistance needed to breach the siege of gaza and to assist the convoy getting through.

Please contact MPs and BBC.

Edit: The arrests are covered on the BBC and in the Lancashire Telegraph. The press is displaying an inability to mention the words 'Viva Palestina'.

Government Rejects Decision to Reclassify Ecstasy

2009-02-13T22:30:00.002Z

Ecstasy is the most common club drug and nearly 10% of 18-25 year olds have tried it. Each year, ecstasy is responsible for about ten deaths in the UK. According to a drug expert, Professor Nutt from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), ecstasy has no impact on short term memory loss, has no link to criminal behaviour and is not addictive. In fact, the number of deaths caused by ecstasy (and here we should remember that the illegality of the drug means that the active ingredient, MDMA, can be cut with all sorts of crap) are roughly on a par with the number of deaths from horse riding. The chief executive of the UK Medical Research Council has stated that MDMA is "on the bottom of the scale of harm," and should be considered of lesser concern than alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. When examining the harmfulness of twenty popular recreational drugs, ecstasy was only rated number eighteen.

Despite all of this, ecstasy is a Class A drug, meaning possession alone can be met with seven years. Professor Nutt has accused the government of making a political decision when they rejected the findings of the ACMD and decided to keep ecstasy as a Class A (on a par with Heroin). Jacqui Smith, never one to let the odd fact get in the way of oppressing the people, accused him of trivialising the dangers of drug use. When did she become a scientist, we wonder?

Socialists are for the complete legalisation of all drugs. We recognise that banning drugs has never stopped them from being used: American Prohibition is surely the greatest example of this fact (coupled perhaps with the number of us who have drank or smoked underage!) As long as the distribution of drugs is pushed underground, there will not be adequate information on how to take them safely - the government initiative ‘Talk to Frank’ is a textbook example of how to scaremonger kids with lies about drugs - and people’s safety will be left in the hands of dealers and drug gangs. Furthermore, alcohol and smoking, both completely legal, are addictive and highly dangerous. In 2007, alcohol alone was responsible for 10,000 deaths in the UK.

All of a sudden, ecstasy and horse riding are looking particularly harmless.

Workers Power U-Turn Explained

2009-02-12T00:01:00.005Z

Workers Power's last statement on the wildcat strikes can be found in a leaflet they distributed to construction workers and those involved in the action. It's quite apparent upon reading it that their criticisms have been toned down somewhat... So what's behind the u-turn? New political analysis or blatant opportunism?

Luke Cooper (WP) appears to have the answer: "It would be pretty stupid not to tone them [the criticisms] down when we were leafleting the strikers." Ahhhh. So that would be blatant opportunism, then.

More here

The Students are Revolting!

2009-02-08T15:12:00.004Z

There's a brilliant article in today's Independent, arguing that the student occupations in the UK represent a reawakening of the spirit of '68. It seems rather early to be making such bold claims but still, it's a nice thought, isn't it?

"They are the iPod generation of students: politically apathetic, absorbed by selfish consumerism, dedicated to a few years of hedonism before they land a lucrative job in the City. Not any more. A seismic change is taking place in British universities.

Around the UK, thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres, offices and other buildings at more than 20 universities in sit-down protests. It seems that the spirit of 1968 has returned to the campus.

While it was the situation in Gaza that triggered this mass protest, the beginnings of political enthusiasm have already spread to other issues..." Rest here

BNP poll 30 % in Greater Manchester election

2009-02-06T19:06:00.005Z

The BNP's push to get Nick Griffin elected as an MEP to the North West, appears to be looking promising for them. They only need 7.5% to get the fascist leader elected to the European Parliament, and yesterday 889 people (or a staggering 29.4%) in the Hyde Newton ward of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, Greater Manchester, voted BNP.

An article from last Saturday's Guardian, however, disputes the likelihood of the fascists getting their MEP.

UAF email actually spins the 889 votes (second only to Labour) as a failure for the BNP. Astounding.

Man Uni Students: Turning Defeat Into Victory?

2009-02-04T14:06:00.008Z

Today, an emergency general meeting was called at the University of Manchester. There was only one motion, dealing with the union's response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For this solidarity motion to even be discussed, however, 500 people needed to attend the meeting. It was always going to be touch and go, when it came to getting the numbers for the quorom count, but fifteen minuts before the meeting's start, 440 students had slready been waved in by security. With five minutes to go, only a handful of the five hundred seats were empty. It was then that the trouble started. According to the count, we were a tiny number short of five hundred, but pro-Palestinian activists began claiming the doors had been locked on people trying to get in. Looking towards the doors, it did indeed look like plenty of people were struggling to get. "Let them in and do the count!" people argued with the chair to no avail. With five hundred people clearly ready to discuss and vote on the Gaza motion, we were not permitted to do so by Chair of Council, Jonti Prior, (Labour Students). One might speculate that Jonti, a member of the national committee of Labour Students, might have a vested interest in stifling the pro-Gaza movement, since the local Labour Students banner was prominent at a recent rally held in support of Israel. The rally was held as the bombs were still falling on Gaza.

The emergency motion contained practical aid for the people of Gaza: if passed, Manchester University would have been committed to providing more aid to the people of Palestine, both through supporting the Viva Palestina lifeline and aiding Palestinian students in studying at our university. It would also have committed the University to disinvesting in Israel and advertising the DEC appeal. But because of the actions of a few, this will not happen. Because of the actions of a few in preventing the extra aid getting through, it is not dramatic, fanciful or indeed unrealistic at all to state that more innocent Gazans, suffering through a catastrophe beyond our own wildest imaginings, could die. When it turned out that the motion would not be discussed, amongst the anger of the pro-Palestine supporters, several Zionists cheered.

Following this, around 300 Manchester University students occupied the corridor outside the Vice Chancellor's Office. They are still ocupying, and likely to be staying the night!

Students Suspended for Gaza Occupation

2009-02-02T19:27:00.004Z

Students who occupied Sheffield Hallam University as part of the waves of student occupations for Gaza, are being victimized for their role in the protest. They ended their occupation on the condition that there would be no repercussions for students, but since then many of them have been suspended. According to the Sheffield Hallam blog, a meeting will "be discussing the current victimization of student campaigners at Sheffield Hallam University including the suspension of students for leafletting about Gaza and the refusal of university management to allow the Free Gaza Movement to hold meetings on campus". This meeting will be held on Wednesday 4th February, 7pm at Quaker Meeting House, St James Street, Sheffield.

For more information on the student occupations, visit the occupations website.

Wildcat strikers kick out BNP!

2009-02-02T14:26:00.010Z

Found this little gem courtesy of Ian: a video of the BNP being forced by the workers to leave the picket line... Watch it here!

This is the excellent statement by Permanent Revolution on the strikes:

"The current rolling unofficial mass strike of Lindsey refinery workers has sparked controversy through the prominent display of Gordon Brown’s racist slogan “British jobs 4 British workers”. The first slogans on the TV screens in marker pen on the few homecard placards ran along the lines of "UK job for UK workers" and "New Labour is Foreign Labour"; but these have since been replaced by images of neatly printed laminated A4 posters declaring, "Put British Workers First" and quite possibly produced by Unite.The strike has divided the left: some like the Socialist Workers Party have condemned the strikers warning that to support them means “playing with fire”, in effect leaving the ground open to the fascist BNP.

By contrast the Socialist Party has given the strikers their backin g.

The facts on the ground

The facts on the ground are far from clear. On the British left only the Socialist Party seems to have any implantation among the strikers. The statement from Keith Gibson, of the G.M.B. - elected onto unofficial LOR Strike Committee but writing in a personal capacity – gives the most detailed explanation of just what is going on so far available.

Gibson explains that the strike broke out as a result of a contract being awarded to an Italian firm IREM and that redundancy notices were issued as the existing British workforce were to be replaced by contract workers from abroad employed by IREM. He says the temperature was further raised by an identical situation at “Staythorpe Power Station where the company Alstom were refusing to hire British labour relying on non-union Polish and Spanish workers instead.”

The strike broke out when on “Wednesday 28th January 2009 Shaws' workforce were told by the Stewards that IREM had stated they would not be employing British labour.”

Socialists support strikers taking action against companies undercutting wages and/or terms and conditions or indeed taking their jobs. It would not be the first time existing work forces have had their jobs sold above their heads. It is so normal that when jobs were plentiful people barely noticed it anymore, it is only now with the recession is throwing thousands onto the dole queue everyday that the defence of jobs has become a burning issue.

Sub-contractors

Were Total to be the sole employer, and not sub-contracting the work out to IREM, those workers of theirs who lost their jobs when the contract was awarded to the Italian company would have had to be offered the jobs before anyone else.

There is no doubt that many of the workers and the union leaders see the issue as one of opposing sub-contracting and the casualisation of labour and the right of employers to ride rough shod over terms and conditions. This is entirely supportable.

There is a very real issue around sub-contractors undercutting locally negotiated wage rates, especially with the more intense exploitation in recent years of workers from Poland, the Baltic republics and other East European accession states. Since last autumn there has been a long-running dispute at a power station site near Newark, Nottinghamshire, where a Spanish-based contractor clearly has been using Polish workers as cheap labour.

“British jobs for British workers” a reactionary slogan

But the slogan “British jobs for British workers” is a reactionary one, although one impression is that it was initially taken up as a snub at Brown and his failure to adequately protect UK jobs, despite his use of that very phrase and it is also true that some of the workforce are aware that the far right such as the BNP are seeking to exploit the strike to push their racist agenda and want no truck with this.

The question of whether the Italian workers are explicitly under-cutting wages is obviously a crucial one. It appears they are officially on blue book rates, but those rates are being fiddled because the workers are being housed in the floatel, which allows the company to pay a lower real rate, and make more money on their generously provided accommodation. Another key aspect of this strike is the impact of the ECJ's Laval and Viking rulings from 2007, which state that workers terms and conditions must only meet the regulations of the country from where they were recruited, not from where they are due to work. This is a very serious issue in various industries, which is already leading to workers being imported and exported by bosses (so hardly 'free movement of labour'), and one which will exacerbate all kinds of antagonisms between workers. Alan Johnson the Labour Minister has finally noticed that the rulings need to be challenged.

There is a very real danger that the slogans used could be allowed to translate into explicit racism. If the left crudely condemns the strike (as the SWP article does), or if it simply acts as a cheerleader for it (as the CPB does) then there is no chance that we could influence the strike in an anti-racist manner. It is essential that every effort is made to get the IREM workers and the LOR strike committee reps to meet up and break through the barrier that the employers have set up.

Oppose racism

This positive approach to them would cut the ground from under the BNP and would allow the LOR workers to establish first hand how the IREM workers are being treated, whether they are unionised (if not they should be), whether they are on proper blue book terms and conditions. They should encourage the IREM worker to demand they live in proper lodgings onshore if that is what they want.

If the contract workers are being used as a cheap, unionised labour force to undercut jobs and union organisation in the UK then that is a different issue; but even then the first line of attack must be to get these workers on full pay and conditions and not expelled from their jobs.

In opposition to the narrow "Little Britain" economic nationalism espoused by the Derek Simpson (and for that matter Tony Woodley) wing of the Unite bureaucracy and the regional leaderships of the GMB - not to mention the xenophobic and racist filth peddled by the BNP - the socialist left needs to be arguing against ever tighter immigration controls and in favour of forging links between trade unionists across the EU to push for the upward harmonisation of wages and conditions across the continent as a central element in a fight to end subcontracting generally alongside raft of demands for combating unemployment."

Women of the Revolution

2009-02-01T20:50:00.006Z

It is with great excitement that I make this announcement: the latest edition of Red Pepper is considerably better than usual. The reason for this is simple- the lead article is by Azar Sheibani and it addresses not only the involvement of women in the Revolution of '79, but also the continued resistence of radical secular women to the Iranian regime and the necessity of solidarity with these women in their struggle against both Tehran and Washington.

Read the article here. You know you want to!

Arrest of Leading Labour Activist in Iran

2009-02-01T19:30:00.003Z

Behzad Sohrabi was arrested by Iranian security forces yesterday. Sohrabi is a leading labour activist and an anti imperialist who has played a key role in exposing several of the Iranian "labour organisations" that have connections with the CIA solidarity centre and other organisations that are working towards a US imperialist regime change in Iran.

Please send messages of support to office@hopoi.org

BNP Targets Oil Refinery Strikes

2009-01-30T22:36:00.006Z

It's hardly surprising on one level, and yet enough to fill me with anger on the other. The fascist BNP has been targetting the wildcat strikes that have swept across the country in response to the employment of the Italian workers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery. Fascists on Stormfront have been rejoicing at the strikes, praising the strikers and mocking the response of the "Marxist Unions" (if only). One fascist even declares "all Capitalists have Semitic souls", an obvious example of the racist filth that drives these people.

At Grimsby, not so far from where my family comes from, a BNP team has joined the 1000 striking workers. This is the "BNP representing British workers on the front line. Proud!!!" reads one of the site's comments. "This is a great day for British Nationalism..." said a BNP spokesman.

We must be clear about what the fascists are doing here: fascism, by its very nature, is an ideology designed to crush workers' organisation- it is, to put it simply, the last resort of the ruling class when faced with a strong workers' movement. At this time, however, the BNP is agitating amongst the strikers in order to pit domestic worker against migrant worker, directing the workers' anger towards race, when it should be directed at those in charge. The BNP is not offering solidarity to the striking workers; it seeks to manipulate their legitimate fears over the selection of cheap EU labour instead of the skilled local workers, to serve its own ends. These people are such enemies of the labour movement that they had to start their own fascist union, Solidarity (which, according to the last membership figure realised, has 124 members).

All of this begs the question: where is the left? On Channel 4 news there was the BNP "Truth Truck" driving back and forth past the picket lines at Warrington, but no sign of an organised left. This is not the time to be turning a blind eye. We cannot allow the BNP to agitate amongst the strikers unchallenged- it is absolutely imperative that those near the strikes mobilise. The Left must back the strikes, but make it clear that the enemies are the Capitalists who hire migrant labour to bring down pay and conditions, and undercut union activity.

Interview with me in a German socialist daily

2009-01-29T00:16:00.005Z

In Großbritannien protestieren Studierende gegen Israels Kriegsverbrechen an den Palästinensern. Ein Gespräch mit Vicky Thompson

Interview: Wladek Flakin

Vicky Thompson ist Studentin der Religionswissenschaft an der Universität Manchester

In Großbritannien haben jetzt Studierende aus Protest gegen den Krieg in Gaza zahlreiche Universitäten besetzt. Wie ist es dazu gekommen?

Die erste Aktion gab es in der SOAS, der Schule für Orientalische und Afrikanische Studien an der Universität London. Die Studierenden besetzten dort eine Ausstellung des Verteidigungsministeriums und forderten die Hochschulleitung auf, den israelischen Angriff auf Gaza zu verurteilen. Zwei Tage später geschah das auch, und zusätzlich bekam das Militär für die nächsten fünf Jahre verboten, das Uni-Gelände zu nutzen.

Als nächstes wurde die London School of Economics (LSE) besetzt; die Studenten harrten dort sieben Tage aus, bis ihre Forderungen erfüllt wurden. Bis heute wurden mindestens 16 Universitäten in ganz Großbritannien besetzt. Es dauerte ein paar Tage, bis die Protestwelle auch den Norden Englands erreichte, aber am Ende kam sie auch dort an.

Was war der Auslöser für diese Proteste?

Viele Studenten waren wütend über die Massaker der Israelis in Gaza; darüber hinaus waren sie aufgebracht über die vielen Lügen in den Massenmedien und die Weigerung ihrer Universitätsleitungen, zum Krieg Stellung zu beziehen. Wenn auch nur für kurze Zeit – wir Studierenden haben die Macht an den Universitäten in die eigenen Hände genommen. Es war eine aufregende Erfahrung.

Welche Forderungen wurden erhoben?

Die meisten Forderungen drehen sich darum, Investitionen in Israel rückgängig zu machen und palästinensische Studenten finanziell zu unterstützen. An manchen Universitäten wurde auch zum Boykott israelischer Erzeugnisse aufgerufen. In Leeds forderten die Besetzer gar die Ausweisung des Botschafters und das Ende jeder britischen Unterstützung für Israel. Sie haben unsere volle Unterstützung: Selbst wenn unsere Forderungen nicht erfüllt werden, machen sie der Öffentlichkeit die Lage in Gaza bewußt.

Sie erwähnten die Erfolge bei der SOAS und der LSE. Ging es anderswo auch so reibungslos?

In Oxford war die Besetzung nach zwölf Stunden beendet, weil die Forderungen umgehend erfüllt wurden. Es dauerte zwei Tage, bis die Besetzung in Essex zum Sieg führte. An der Stadtuniversität von Manchester hatten wir schon nach 27 Stunden einen Teilerfolg. Viele Besetzungen gehen mittlerweile in die zweite Woche. Reibungslos war es aber nicht überall: In Birmingham wurde die Universität schon am ersten Tag von der Polizei geräumt. Die Ergebnisse sind also sehr unterschiedlich.

Sie haben an der Besetzung in Manchester teilgenommen. Wie war Ihre Erfahrung?

Ich studiere zwar an der anderen Universität der Stadt, bin aber mit zahlreichen Kommilitonen aus Solidarität zur Stadtuniversität gegangen. Wir liefen zuerst die Oxford Road entlang – mit Sprechchören, Transparenten und Plakaten. Dann drangen wir in einen Hörsaal ein und besetzten anschließend das Geoffrey-Manton-Gebäude.

Das war eine spontane Entscheidung, wir hatten daher keinerlei Vorbereitungen getroffen. Erst am nächsten Morgen bekamen wir etwas zu essen und zu trinken, über Nacht knurrten uns die Mägen, und wir froren jämmerlich, da wir keine Schlafsäcke hatten. Das war bestimmt nicht die beste Nacht in meinem Leben. Es gab auch Ärger mit privaten Wachleuten – eine Frau wurde von ihnen verletzt. Insgesamt war es ziemlich schwierig.

Immerhin konnten wir einige Forderungen durchsetzen: Die Uni-Leitung verurteilte in einer öffentlichen Erklärung den israelischen Überfall auf Gaza, außerdem soll Tom Hurndall, ein von der israelischen Armee ermordeter Student der Stadtuniversität, ein Denkmal bekommen. Das sind zwar keine großen Erfolge – aber es ist ein guter Anfang.

Werden die Besetzungen weitergehen?

Ja, wir machen weiter. Ich weiß natürlich nicht, ob es neue Besetzungen geben wird, aber ich vermute, daß wir in Manchester einen neuen Anlauf starten. Es muß auch nicht immer eine Besetzung sein – es gibt viele andere Möglichkeiten für unseren Protest. Das Wichtigste ist jetzt die praktische Solidarität mit den Palästinensern – wir sammeln also Geld und Medikamente für die Hilfskonvois.

Strike for teacher sacked over trainers!

2009-01-27T14:31:00.006Z

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) at St Paul's Way Community School in the East London borough of Tower Hamlets have given a substantial boost to the campaign to win the reinstatement of their victimsed NUT rep, Adrian Swain. In an indicative ballot, conducted by post, 81% of NUT members said 'yes' to discontinuous strike action on a turnout of 88%.

A member of the school's entirely unaccountable Interim Executive Board summarily dismissed Adrian on Thursday 18 December for his continued defiance of an imposed dress code that barred the wearing of trainers, Adrian's customary footwear throughout his 17-year career at the school.

Management at the school should be notified later today (Tuesday 27 January) of the decision to move with immediate effect to an official strike ballot. A motion in Adrian's support gained unanimous support at the Monday evening meeting of the local NUT association, ELTA. Despite this and the outcome of the indicative ballot, ELTA secretary, Alex Kenny, spoke only of the outcome of a consultation exercise on the dress code and Adrian's willingness to abide by its outcome rather than making an unequivocal call for Adrian's reinstatement.

Following a 40-strong protest on 16 January, a further demonstration is planned by NUT members for Monday evening 09 February outside a full meeting of Tower Hamlets Council, the education authority ultimately responsible for St Paul's Way, to escalate the demand for Adrian's return to his rightful place at the school. Details to follow.

For background info, here is a briefing I was requested to write for the Weekly Worker on Adrian's case. They refused to publish it, explaining that 1) It didn't question whether or not Adrian was right to act as he did 2) It didn't suggest the two possible paths that the CPGB believe could have been taken: a) getting everyone to wear trainers to defy the dress code or b) retreating to fight another day...

Adrian Swain, a supporter of Permanent Revolution and NUT rep for St Paul’s school in Tower Hamlets, was sacked before Christmas, after daring to defy a dress code imposed without consultation by a temporary head teacher. Adrian, a popular and experienced maths teacher, committed only one crime: wearing trainers. In the immediate aftermath of his dismissal, Adrian’s case received huge publicity, appearing in the East London Advertiser and Evening Standard, before being taken up by the Guardian, the Telegraph and even the Daily Mail. His dismissal clearly tapped into overwhelming public feeling that education is suffering at the hands of bureaucratisation and a government that cares more about targets than teaching.

Even George Galloway MP came out in support of Adrian, declaring ‘of all the difficulties facing children in Tower Hamlets - poverty, overcrowding, lack of resources, and an education system geared to testing not teaching - it is truly astonishing that a well liked and experienced teacher has been sacked for what he was wearing on his feet.’ But then, we have to be very clear that Adrian was not singled out by the management for wearing trainers; he was singled out as a fierce NUT rep and a communist militant. The NUT group at St Paul’s Way is reputedly one of the best organised NUT groups in London. Its members have a record of thwarting management attacks and even took strike action against the Iraq War. Adrian’s decades of experience as a fighter in the labour movement had made him a target.

The failure to prevent his sacking in large measure stems from the repeated failure of the East London Teachers Association leadership to take a decisive stand against St Paul's Way management and in support of Adrian. This is in sharp contrast to the stance of the neighbouring Hackney Teachers Association, which has managed to stymie efforts to take action against another maths teacher at Haggerston Girls School for having the temerity to wear an eyebrow stud. Partly, however, responsibility also lies with the Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Teachers Alliance. Not recognising the attack on Adrian as an attack on trade union activity, they spoke out against backing Adrian against the management and smashed the attempt to forge a united campaign against his victimisation.

Of course, the campaign to have Adrian reinstated will not be won without industrial action and in recent days, Adrian has received news that the NUT Action Committee has agreed to ballot for discontinuous strike action. This is a positive step forward for Adrian and all those who wish to fight management attacks on trade union activity.

Women are losing jobs twice as fast as men

2009-01-25T12:07:00.003Z

The recession is hitting British women harder than men it seems, with women losing their jobs twice as quickly as men in these hard times. One of the key reasons for this is most likely down to bosses discriminating against female employees on the grounds of the added cost associated with maternity leave. The number of women in full time work fell by a staggering 53,000 in the last quarter- could the recession leave women out of the workforce for a generation?

Solidarity with Greek Protesters!

2009-01-25T02:49:00.008Z

Protesters calling for the release of prisoners from last month's riots assembled in Athens today. It is believed a total of 67 people (50 in Athens) are still being held, after the fifteen days of rioting that followed the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Several hundred protesters, mainly anarchists, crowded into Athens' shopping district, where they allegedly attacked and looted a Nike shop. Banks are also said to have been damaged in the course of the march. Later on, there was clashes with riot police outside the University of Athens. More than 300 protesters then marched down to the district of Exarchia, where there were further clashes. The protesters set fire to trash cans and smashed pavements before being tear gassed and charged by riot police. Photos of the demonstration are difficult to come by; the picture shows rioters assembled behind a burning barricade on December 18th.

Three days ago, over 3000 marched to the Labour Ministry in Athens to protest against an acid attack on an immigrant cleaner, who was also a trade union activist. As the demonstrators began to disperse, there were clashes with police who were armed with tear gas, pepper spray and stun grenades.

Meanwhile, Greek anarchists have raised $18,000 for an elderly woman after her kiosk was torched in November riots. "It was an act of solidarity to a woman who could be our mother," one of the anarchists explained. "I feel very fortunate that these boys came along to help," said the 74 year old kiosk owner in response to the gift. She was not eligible for government compensation.

This is a Conservative Ohio Blog

2009-01-24T10:59:00.004Z

It has come to my attention that I am listed as a Conservative Ohio blog on the Conservative American blog network site, netrightnation.com (run by Americans for Limited Government). Since I’m not remotely Conservative and haven’t so much as stepped on American soil in my lifetime, I’m guessing someone got a bit confused.

The Vice Chancellor's Response

2009-01-23T12:40:00.003Z

At 9AM this morning, the students occupying the Freedom Theatre were greeted by Vice Chancellor John Brookes and the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Ann Holmes. Brookes entered the occupied lecture theatre with a smile on his face and helped himself to a cup of our tea. We began to film the meeting, but Brookes demanded that we could only film if he was also permitted to film each and every one of us and record our names. We refused. Brookes, clearly aware that the occupying students were from Manchester University and Salford University as well as Man Met, responded that he would have been "happy" with the occupation going ahead and "willing to support our objectives" if only we were comprised solely of Man Met students. This is clearly a lie, designed to make our Vice Chancellor look gracious and understanding, without obliging him to look at our demands or speak with us honestly.

Brookes argued that the occupation had been "Socialist Worker gatecrashed"; this is an attempt to undermine our protest, which has been supported by a wide range of groups and plenty of non-aligned students, as well as staff members and prominent trade unionists from UCU and UNISON. In fact, only two members of the SWP had took part in the overnight occupation.

One thing that came across from the meeting, was that Brookes was clearly on the defense, claiming that we were not a peaceful demonstration, unlike the "other occupations" that have been taking place across the country. He would have no "difficulty with students of this university [Man Met] having a friendly occupation and making a political statement". We doubt this immensely.

This is what the occupiers of the Freedom Theatre have to say in response to Vice Chancellor Brookes: university students from across Greater Manchester have joined with the students of Manchester Metropolitan, to stand together in support of their struggle and in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The purpose of an occupation is not to accept half-baked terms proposed by a Vice Chancellor unwilling to listen. We will not give in and nor will we allow Manchester Met students to be victimised for their role in the occupation. This space is under our occupation. We determine the rules, who may enter and what they may do. John Brookes must be aware that the students from other occupations, LSE and Oxford for instance, have won their demands. We shall do the same.

EDIT: The occupying students have accepted terms. No repercussions for students, a memorial to Tom Hurndall (MMU student murdered by the IDF) and a public condemnation of Israel by the Vice Chancellor.

We're occupying Man Met for the night!

2009-01-22T21:25:00.007Z

I'm currently occupying a lecture theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University, alongside about twenty other students from Man Met, Man Uni and Salford Uni. We're occupying in solidarity with the people of Gaza, the victims of Israeli butchery. We're here for the night and the management has not let any food in; many of us haven't eaten since early in the morning, so we're very hungry! Security violence has left one woman mildly injured. Check out our website:

http://mmuoccupation.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: UNISON have fought hard for us but security personnel, at the behest of the management, are still refusing to let food into the occupation. They admit to trying to starve us out of the occupation.

Che Part One

2009-01-22T02:46:00.003Z

Che, the unconventional biopic of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, opens with grainy black and white footage of an infamous figure wreathed in smoke. It’s Che, but we don’t recognise the physical qualities of the man at first, so much as the tell-tale Cuban cigar. The camera then pans out to show Che himself; he’s played by the acclaimed Puerto Ricon actor Benicio del Toro, who bears a startling resemblance to Guevara, despite being some ten years older than the revolutionary is in the film’s earliest scenes (earliest in the chronology of Che’s life- the film itself jumps here, there and everywhere, making the opening twenty minutes more than slightly confusing).

I should get my guilty confession out of the way now: I haven’t seen The Motorcycle Diaries, so Che director Steven Soderbergh’s claim that the film is best understood as the middle part of a trilogy, with The Motorcycle Diaries as its opening film, doesn’t really work for me. I did, however, know enough about Che Guevara to grasp what was going on, which is good since Soderbergh doesn’t exactly help the audience on that front. Indeed, the film plunges straight into a post-revolution interview with an American journalist in New York: Che is seen answering questions about the revolution before the audience has so much as been introduced to Fidel Castro. It’s a little frustrating.

I’m not usually swept away by guerrilla warfare films, but Che is compelling. Even when there’s not much fighting going on, the cinematography is to die for. The jungle is every single colour of green; the individual leaves jump out at you. The film intersperses the jungle warfare and later the urban fighting, with more grainy black and white footage (it’s like watching an old film reel) of Che in New York, being interviewed by an American journalist and even addressing the United Nations. But the address to the UN should really be the film’s climax: it’s an astounding oratory performance, and an excellent condemnation of the hollowness of American exportation of “freedom” abroad that still rings true today, but it comes too early on in the movie for the audience to feel it as it should be felt. Moreover, Benicio Del Toro himself is an excellent actor, but he’s given very little to do in Che. The camera never really gets close enough to intrude on the man’s thoughts. We get plenty of evidence of Che’s charisma from his relationship with the other fighters, but very little is shown of what drives him- what makes him human.

After the interminably grim, though excellent Defiance, Che is a breath of fresh air. It has light moments (Guevara thanking an American Senator for the Bay of Pings invasion is a particular favourite) but even the heavier parts are buoyed by Del Toro’s sheer likeability and the filmmakers’ obvious passion for the subject. One of the few problems with the film is some truly bad “suspense music” that breaks the credibility in a couple of places. Otherwise, however, it’s hard to come up with a major gripe with Che- except perhaps the fact that it‘s not really a film. It’s part one of a four hour epic and should no doubt be viewed that way. If you try to understand it as a film in its own right, the ending is deeply unsatisfying. In fact it’s reminiscent of the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, which closes with Sam and Frodo staring down into Mordor and the audience left waiting anxiously for the next part. Replace Mordor with Havana and you get the gist.

I hesitated to go and see Che. I suspected it to be all style over substance, and in a sense it kind of is. It’s also fucking good. Che is not an impartial attempt at a biopic; in fact there’s no neutrality at all in this reverent portrayal of one of history’s most iconic figures.

Victory for the Atheist Advertisers

2009-01-21T15:27:00.009Z

Following my earlier post, Advertising Standards to Rule on Existence of God, is seems they have indeed made a ruling. The atheist adverts currently making the claim There's Probably No God on the side of 800 buses, do not breach advertising standards. 326 religious busybodies had complained about the advertisments (included the prejudiced morons at Christian Voice) but the ruling went against the faith brigade. Ha.

Victim of Gang Rape to be Deported Today

2009-01-20T13:19:00.004Z

The Home Office has accepted that Ms Flavia Nambi, who has been in Yarl's Wood Removal Centre since Wednesday 14 January, was a victim of brutal gang rape while in her home country of Uganda. She is currently on suicide watch and due to be deported this evening. Her only surviving family member, an aunt, lives in the UK. Please phone or write to:

1. Phil Woolas MP, Immigration Minister, Home Office Minister of State for borders and immigration, UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk

2. Jacqui Smith MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office, Fax 020 8760 3132 Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

3. European Court of Human Rights, Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 41 27 30, Tel: +33 (0) 3 88 41 20 18

4. Kenya Airways Flight KQ101 Telephone 01784 888 222

Send copies of emails sent to war@womenagainstrape.net

Die Linke Supports Zionist Slaughter

2009-01-20T00:13:00.002Z

From the World Socialist Web Site

'The chairman of the Left Party in Berlin, Klaus Lederer, has come out publicly in support of the Israeli war against Gaza. He spoke last Sunday at a demonstration that unconditionally backed the military assault on the Palestinian population.

The pro-Israel demonstration had been called by Jewish organizations in Berlin and coincided with similar events in Munich and Frankfurt. The rally in Berlin was planned in response to a number of anti-war demonstrations that had taken place in Germany one day previously. Around 40,000 had taken part in the various anti-war protests.

For their part, the pro-war demonstrations organised by those supporting the Israeli military attracted only a few thousand—in the main full-time politicians and functionaries of various organisations. Those taking part in the rallies held banners calling for solidarity with Israel, reading: "Israel has a right to defend itself!" and "We need victory!"

The official appeal for the Berlin demonstration expressly defended the brutal military assault by the Israeli army on the inhabitants of Gaza, stating, "Israel's self-defence is legitimate and not a crime!" It then justified the enormous suffering of the 1.5 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza with the cynical remark that the "terrorists of Hamas" were using "human beings as shields" and thereby made "civilian victims inevitable." Hamas had "begun this conflict" and bears "responsibility for the suffering on both sides," the appeal declared.

The appeal concluded by demanding: "The Islamist dictatorship of the terrorist organisation Hamas must be permanently terminated!" thereby implicitly backing the extermination of Hamas leaders and members by the Israeli army.

Shortly after the Israeli invasion of Gaza, German chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had proffered her unconditional support for Israel. But this was not enough for the organizers of the Berlin rally. They described Germany as an "active player in the conflict" and in particular criticised Germany's trade with Iran. According to the appeal, this meant that Germany was financing Iran and, via Iran, ultimately the Hamas movement.

Despite the hysterical tone of the appeal, all of the political parties represented in the Berlin Senate sent prominent representatives to the demonstration. Speaking on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) was the leader of the party's parliamentary fraction, Frank Henkel. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) sent its regional chairman, Markus Löning. Parliamental group leader Franziska Eichstädt-Bohlig spoke for the Green Party, while the president of the state parliament, Walter Momper, was sent by the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Representing the Left Party was its regional chairman, Klaus Lederer.

Christian Democrat Henkel and the free-marketeer Löning won applause from the crowd for their pledges of unconditional support for Israel. Löning justified his support for the savage intervention of the Israeli army with the argument: "Freedom of opinion prevails in Israel and that distinguishes Israel from all of its neighbours." He deliberately refrained from mentioning that the Israeli army has established strict censorship over the war and—in contravention of a number of legal decisions—categorically refuses to allow independent journalists to enter the war area.

The representatives of the SPD and the Greens, Momper and Eichstädt-Bohlig, also lined up fully behind Israel and repeated the chorus of claims that Hamas was responsible for the war. However, when they timidly raised the suggestion of a negotiated solution, the belligerent pro-Israel crowd responded with an outburst of catcalls and booing. In fact, the representative of the Greens was barely able to continue her contribution after she asserted that the Palestinian population should have the right to exist and declared, "Israel cannot win this war morally!"

There was a very different reception, however, for the representative of the Left Party. His speech was interrupted on several occasions by applause and cries of jubilation. He obviously struck a chord with the assembled crowd when he accused all opponents of the war on Gaza of being anti-Semitic.

He had decided to come to the demonstration, Lederer declared, because in his opinion, "The brutal and bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip and in the south of Israel should not be used by anybody in our country to foment anti-Semitism." While not mentioning any names, his message the day after widespread protests against the attack on Gaza was unmistakable: any criticism of the Israeli government and its army is anti-Semitic and must be rejected.

In fact, the opposite is the case. It is the criminal actions of the Israeli government and its claim to be acting on behalf of all Jews—and not criticism of its politics—that encourages anti-Semitism. In Israel itself and around the world many Jews look upon the Israeli onslaught on Gaza with a mixture of abhorrence and anger and reject the policies of the Israeli government.

Lederer addressed the warmongering participants at the Berlin rally as "dear friends." Like all the other speakers, he ignored the prehistory of the war—the expulsion and decades-long suppression of the Palestinians—and declared the Kassam missiles fired by Hamas to be the root cause of the war. "Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the firing of shells and rockets on populated areas of the civilian population, on [the Israeli areas] of Ashdod, Beer Sheva and Ashkelon," he said. "For me that is the starting point of any discussion in our country with respect to such demonstrations."

Lederer said nothing about the massive destruction of the populated areas in the Gaza Strip. He did not mention the desperation of the Palestinian population, which has no means to defend itself and lacks any escape route from the murderous advance of the Israeli military. Nor did he say a word about the disproportionate strength of the Israeli army, which has resulted in 100 Palestinian deaths for every Israeli fatality.

Instead Lederer wept crocodile tears over the suffering of the civilian population and held Hamas responsible. "No matter how highly developed the weapon systems used," he said, "irrespective of who leads the war, the disaster hits first and foremost the civilian population, not least because the hostage-taking of the civilian population belongs to the nature of modern war. And this is precisely the case in the asymmetrical conflict strategy, which Hamas is pursuing."

The appearance of a high-ranking functionary of the Left Party on a pro-war demonstration marks a further lurch to the right by this organisation. Since its foundation, the Left Party had—at least verbally—largely dissociated itself from the foreign policy of the federal government and had rejected the intervention by the German army in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Now in response to the Middle East conflict it has swung over to the official line of German foreign policy, in a similar manner to the Green Party 10 years ago.

A decade ago, in exchange for their seats in the federal government coalition, the Greens ditched their pacifist stance and supported the NATO war against Yugoslavia. They have since evolved into one of the most virulent supporters of German militarism.

The chairman of the federal Left Party parliamentary faction, Gregor Gysi, had set in motion the party's new course last spring when he made a memorable speech calling for a reorientation of political line with regard to Israel. He rejected the term "imperialistic" in characterising Israeli policy and called upon "the left" to acknowledge the right of existence of the state of Israel.

Lederer has now gone a step further by supporting Israel's vicious attack on the Palestinians. The fact that he does not stand alone is demonstrated by the absence of official representatives of the Left Party on the anti-war demonstrations the previous day.

Lederer is not a political nonentity. He is the chairman of the party in the only German state where the Left Party has shared government responsibility for the past eight years. In Berlin the Left Party, in coalition with the SPD, has demonstrated its loyalty to the bourgeois state and implemented social cuts far more draconian than those carried out in any other German state.

As the current economic and social crisis intensifies, the Left Party is now preparing to take up government responsibility at a federal level. To this end, it is required to adopt the fundamental pillars of German foreign policy, including unconditional support for Israel. The present war in Gaza has made it impossible for the Left Party to sit on the fence. It has to show its colours. It has now done so in the person of Klaus Lederer and his appearance on the pro-Israeli demonstration last Sunday.

"This is how we make a living" say sex workers

2009-01-19T21:02:00.005Z

Since today is the day when the Policing and Crime Bill is being discussed (one of its aims being to make buying sex a criminal offense) I thought I'd bring you another post about sex work and the dangers of this Bill.

Making it a criminal offense to purchase sex does not keep prostitutes safe. In Scotland, since clients have been criminalised, the levels of violence towards prostitutes has soared; attacks reported to one project have almost doubled from 66 in 2006 to 126 in 2007, including eight reported rapes and 55 violent assaults.

In order to justify its push to criminalise clients, the government has been repeatedly claiming that 80% of sex workers are the victims of trafficking. This figure has been widely discredited: 80% of workers in the sex industry are estimated to be foreign nationals according to research, but we must be clear that foreign is not a synonym for forced. Even the Home Office has now disowned the ludicrous figure it spent so long citing as the reason for its latest crackdown on prostitution.

Police raids on brothels are increasing. Could this have anything to do with the fact that the police get to keep 25% of assets confiscated at the time? Oh, and the fact that the rest goes to the Crown Prosecution Service and the Inland Revenue; it's a nice little money earner that, we can safely assume, has bugger all to do with improving the lives of sex workers. Making lap dancing clubs "sex encounter establishments" sounds like a nifty way to get even more raids on the go.

Under the new legislation, anyone "controlling for gain" is committing a criminal offense- but wait! No coercion needs to be proved; this means that a secretary, quite possibly a prostitute's first line of defense if something's going wrong, is now a criminal.

Finally, in the words of a sex worker:

"...Criminalisation [of men] would only serve to drive the industry further underground, leaving the women who are victims of trafficking even more vulnerable... making criminals of all men who pay for sex would result in myself and thousands of other women who choose to work in this industry becoming unemployed... This is how we make a living; it's an industry that prevents many, many women and their children from living on the breadline. If you are going to take our livelihoods from us, the consequences will be devastating.”

Link for the International Prostitutes Collective.

Convention of the Left

2009-01-18T14:52:00.003Z

Manchester Lefties are going to be experiencing a diary clash next Saturday. Should we attend the national demonstration called by Stop the War, or the Convention of the Left recall conference which has been planned for months?

Thoughts?

Defiance - film review

2009-01-17T01:57:00.006Z

It’s interesting that, in the days when the eyes of the world are fixed on Israel, a film about real-life Jewish heroism has been released in cinemas.

Defiance is the story of the Bielskis, three brothers who form a community of Jewish refugees in the woods of Belorussia during the Second World War. The eldest brother, Tuvia, is a played by Daniel Craig, whose resolutely grim onscreen presence works well in a film that is often harrowing and always uncomfortable. The Bielskis, the sons of a farmer who has just been killed by Nazi collaborators, shelter hundreds of Jews in the huge uncharted forests of Belorussia, teaching them to fight and assigning jobs to everyone. They even liberate huge swathes of Jews from a nearby ghetto, defying a Rabbi’s command that they must “wait for God”. The Bielskis are poor and uncultured- Tuvia is a petty crook, who is used to the disdain of others. He repeatedly reaffirms his own unintelligence, telling his former school teacher (one of the many refugees he saves) that he never did understand what he was talking about. As a leader, however, Tuvia quickly emerges to find the respect that was missing from his former life.

In one of the film’s most interesting twists, the middle Bielski brother, Zus, leaves the camp to fight with Red Army partisans. Unlike his elder brother, who declares that “our revenge will be our survival”, Zus is filled with bloodlust, determined to kill as many Nazis and collaborators as he can. With the Red Army, whose leadership consists of an anti Semitic whistler and a maudlin drunk, he begins to fight. In one scene, Zus’ ambush on a Nazi train is juxtaposed with a joyful wedding back at the Jewish camp; as the groom stamps on the glass, the brutal attack on the train is launched. Later on, the film makers show the Red Army denying medicine to the Bielskis when there is an outbreak of Typhus at their camp. Even worse, when the Nazis prepare for an assault on the forest that will leave the Jewish refugees massacred, the Red Army Partisans strategically retreat, leaving them all to die.

The contrast between the Bielski group and the Red Army makes for an interesting parallel. Near the beginning of the film, a man who describes himself as “an intellectual” joins the burgeoning Jewish refugee community; he is gently mocked by the Bielski brothers. But the intellectual is actually a Socialist publisher and like the rest of the Jews becomes accustomed to the hard work involved in building a village in the forest, cutting wood and constructing houses. In the community, all are equal- all receive equal amounts of food and respect. When this status quo is usurped by a fighter (also portrayed in the film as something of a misogynist) arguing that those who protect the community should get more food, he is shot. But one of the rather obvious messages of Defiance is this: the Bielski refugee community comes far closer to Communism, than Stalin’s Red Army does.

Another commendable aspect to the film is its portrayal of women’s bravery. Initially, a conversation between Zus and a young woman reveals that he does not think women need guns- when she suggests that they do, he argues that they have men for protection. Later on in the film, however, the women are taught to use guns. Many women are seen fighting heroically in defence of the refugee community, going out on dangerous food missions (the Bielski followers operate Robin of Sherwood style, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor) and even defending fleeing refugees from a Nazi onslaught. One woman is shot by the advancing soldiers- she dies with her finger pressed on the machine gun trigger, still firing at the enemy. A different sort of courage is demonstrated by another Jewish woman; raped by a Nazi guard, she responds to the subsequent pregnancy with immeasurable courage. (On a side note, if anyone wants to see a good World War Two film about female heroism - and indeed Jewish female heroism - I thought Black Book was excellent and remain extremely miffed at the moralists at The Guardian declaring it nothing but “soft porn”.)

The Bielskis, whose actions ultimately saved the lives of 1200 Jews, never asked for recognition for their bravery- at the end of the war, the youngest brother, Asael, joined the Russian Army and was killed fighting. The elder two brothers left for America, and lived out the rest of their days quietly, working as truckers. This makes watching the film, which in many ways resembles a more typical Hollywood “hero” story, quite a guilty experience. But then, if it conquers the still commonly-held misconception that the Jews walked passively into the death camps, this can only be a good thing. Defiance might not be the greatest film ever made; but of all the World War Two films that seem to be very much in vogue right now, this is probably the story that deserves to be told the most.

Decriminalise Prostitution!

2009-01-14T12:27:00.011Z

Statement from the Safety First Coalition:

A Question of Consent

Tuesday 3rd February 6pm, Committee Room 6, House of Commons

While government feminists and religious fundamentalists equate prostitution with rape and claim most sex workers have been trafficked, rapists continue to get away with it – the
conviction rate for reported rape in England and Wales is a shocking 6%. But a growing international movement for women’s safety is demanding the decriminalization of sex work. In England it has defeated government attempts to “rehabilitate” sex workers and is opposing proposals to raid brothels and criminalize clients. In San Francisco 41% voted for decriminalization in the last elections.

SPEAKERS from the Safety First Coalition, Women Against Rape, the International Prostitutes Collective, and from GUYANA, INDIA, PERU, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO.

Dear Friends,

We have already sent you information about this meeting on 3 February which is part of an International Gathering organised by the Global Women’s Strike and the International Women Count Network.

Rape and Prostitution – a Question of Consent, which we are helping co-ordinate, will bring together opposition to anti-prostitution measures in the Policing and Crime Bill (PCB) which is coming up for Second Reading in Parliament on 19 January. We will have the added advantage of international speakers who can enlighten us about the situation in other countries, including the US PROStitutes Collective which was recently involved in an impressive ballot campaign on decriminalisation.

The Cross Party Committee which looks in detail at the legislation following the Second Reading is likely to be sitting by the time of our meeting. We want to be prepared in order to be as effective as possible.

All proposed measures would drive prostitution further underground and sex workers into even more danger. They include:

o criminalisation of paying for sexual services of a “controlled” prostitute

o criminalisation of kerb crawling as a first offence through removal of persistence

o enabling police to close premises at 24 hours notice

o introduction of compulsory “rehabilitation” under threat of imprisonment – similar to proposals thrown out a year ago

o tightening (and increasing the cost) of licensing of lap dance clubs.

But the truth is beginning to emerge. Figures we have always questioned – that 80% of women working in the sex industry are “trafficked” and assumed to be “controlled” are being discredited. On 9 January, Radio Four, More Or Less programme resoundingly exposed that there is no evidence to support these figures. By the end of the programme MP Fiona Mactaggart was forced to admit that most women are not trafficked, and the Home Office that they do not endorse or use the figure that 80 % of prostitutes are controlled by others.

Listen Again http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gdz3t/More_or_Less_09_01_2009/

We shall have information at that meeting about writing to the Select Committee as well as to your own MP and networks. When proposals for compulsory rehabilitation were thrown out of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill in the Lords this time last year, it was very much as a result of the flood of opposition MPs and Peers received.

We need your help both in terms of time and skills as well as financially to defeat this latest repression. Please let us know if you can help in any way. We’ll contact you again nearer the time with details of speakers.

Yours for Safety First,

Niki Adams and Cari Mitchell

SWP Conference

2009-01-12T19:29:00.002Z

John Rees, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham are no longer Central Committee members. Anyone got any news?

Update: by 'Anonymous'.

'Basically, we were set to vote on the Sunday between two CC slates: one, the existing CC (proposed by the CC 'majority'), or two, the existing CC minus John Rees (proposed by the CC 'minority'). That morning, Lindsey got up and announced that her and Chris Nineham were resigning from the CC, and withdrawing their alternative slate (therefore effectively also removing Rees). There was then only one slate put forward for the CC election: the existing CC minus Rees, German and Nineham.

What happens next depends on whether John Rees is happy to quietly walk off into the sunset... hmmmm. It also creates a situation where the resigned 'minority' still control Stop the War.'

Mancs protest at sickening pro-Israel rally

2009-01-11T19:41:00.005Z

About 250 protesters turned out in Manchester today, determined to counter the pro-Israel rally taking place in St Alberts square. The Zionists, around a quarter of them children, outnumbered us 2 to 1. In a bout of sickening hypocrisy, the words 'End Hamas Terror' were written on most of their placards. The pro-Israel protesters were forced to conduct their rally behind barriers and were heavily protected by their own security, as well as the police. The banner for Manchester Labour Students could be witnessed at the demonstration, and Manchester University's General Secretary could be seen laughing alongside many of the other Zionists standing up for their right to support the murder of innocent Gazans. Standing amidst the Zionists, some moron waved a red flag.

9 anarchists, including members of the Anarchist Federation and Manchester No Borders, held a separate demonstration (a counter-counter demo, if you get my drift). Members of the Anarchist Federation have argued against attending what they reckon are "nationalist protests".

We say "Free Palestine": they say "?!?!?"

150,000 demonstrate against Israeli atrocities

2009-01-10T23:34:00.012Z

As Gaza officials claimed that 800 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's bloodbath, 150,000 people demonstrated in London today, in an act of protest bigger than we've seen in years. The police used violence against the protesters, baton charging us at the first entrance to the Israeli embassy and then escalating their violence at the second, leaving tens of protesters crushed in the crowd, and some badly wounded. Placards and bottles were hurled at the police, and shoes were thrown over the gates to the embassy. The burning of an American flag was met with cheers. Many protesters responded bravely to brutal police attacks; one Muslim woman pushed her way towards the police, shouting "Why do the girls have to move to the back while the boys stay at the front?"

Police say the actions of the many, were ruined by the actions of the few. We can only agree. The actions of us, the many, were certainly tainted by the horrendous brutality of the police, the few.

Sadly, the speakers addressing the rallies at the beginning and end of the demonstration could have been used to compile a Who's who in celebrity culture? and there were few left-wingers on the platform. Plenty of empty rhetoric was heard, but remarkably little content. This factor was not enough, however, to mar a brilliant demonstration.

In another bout of treachery, the SWP and Stop the War has refused to back the counter demonstrations taking place tomorrow, as Zionists assemble in Trafalgar Square, London and St Albert's Square, Manchester at 11AM. They argue that there is no need to demonstrate again after today's success; in doing so, they refuse to counter the distribution of racist propaganda lies. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, as well as most other groups on the Left, are supporting the counter demos.

There's a very good post at the Commune here.

Free Publicity for Permanant Revolution!

2009-01-09T23:07:00.003Z

In today's Guardian:

"The Marxists are ecstatic. Eric Hobsbawm has returned from the
ideological grave to declare "the greatest crisis of capitalism since
the 1930s" and the dramatic equivalent of the fall of the Soviet
Union, hardly a precedent he should recall. The website
permanentrevolution.com is awash in glee. "So much for marginal
utility theory and neoconservatism," cries Bill Jefferies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/09/simon-jenkins-recession

Advertising Standards to rule on existence of God

2009-01-08T23:35:00.009Z

It cost them £140,000 to pay for some good old atheist propaganda on the sides of buses and even then the slogan they chose was crap. There's probably no god, reads the advertisement currently adorning the side of 800 buses, now stop worrying and enjoy life. It employs about as much scientific merit as the latest Boswelox(tm) filled anti-ageing cream; after all, how many hardcore believers are going to be persuaded of the merits of atheism after reading the terminally indecisive statement There's probably no god on the side of a bus?

But my own personal gripes aside, the advert - backed by the British Humanist Association and Richard Dawkins - does make a welcome change from the interminable religious propaganda usually found on the sides of buses. It has not been universally popular, however. One religious group, Christian Voice, has even lodged an official complaint about the atheist adverts, arguing that the claim there probably isn't a god, breaks advertising rules on substantiation and truthfulness.

Christian Voice is an organisation comprised entirely of right-wing bigots (you know, the ones who picket Gay Pride marches with "Homosexuality is an abomination" placards, and in their loving Christian way cheerfully inform anyone less bigoted than themselves that they're walking a one-way path to Hellfire and brimstone). Christian Voice claim there is plenty of evidence supporting god's existence but hardly any on the other side. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will have to decide.

The Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association has responded with defiance: "I am sure that Stephen Green [head of Christian Voice] really does think there is a great deal of evidence for a God (though presumably only the one that he believes in), but I pity the ASA if they are going to be expected to rule on the probability of God's existence."

Street Party When Thatcher Dies

2009-01-07T15:21:00.006Z

Street Party When Thatcher Dies, a facebook group belonging to me and Chris S, has been removed by facebook. I was alerted with the following message: ‘ The group "Street Party When Thatcher Dies" has been removed because it violated our Terms of Use. Among other things, groups that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed.’ In other words, some Tory Prince/Princess got a teensy bit upset at the defamation of a woman who screwed over the working class. My heart bleeds.

I think there are groups on facebook that are more hateful, threatening and obscene than Street Party When Thatcher Dies (do we honestly the think the bitch is going to care when we dance on her grave?) Take this group for example: ‘BNP IS NOT RACIST (KICK OUT MUSLIMS THAT R RACISTS)’. The description of this particular groups says it intends to raise awareness of the ‘third world savages’ marching through England. Fairly hateful, threatening and obscene, and yet perfectly fine by facebook standards.

Incidentally, Street Party When Thatcher Dies had over 30,000 members. So we could have one hell of a party.

When will the lights go out in Gaza?

2009-01-06T20:23:00.003Z

Israel has not replenished Gaza’s power station with fuel since it launched its latest attack eleven days ago. The constant air strikes have badly damaged power lines. In Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, the electricity cut out three days ago and the hospital has been running on generators. The generators are designed to serve as an emergency back up; now they are in use all the time. And if they break, as it is feared they might, seventy people hooked up to lifesaving devices will be killed.

Anecdote from an Anarchist Friend

2009-01-05T00:00:00.006Z

One of my anarchist friends was chatting to one of those "liberal" types the other day. He mentioned his support for no platforming the BNP. The liberal responded with outrage, arguing my friend's belief in No Platform made him "no better than a Nazi".

Right- because Hitler's really nasty stroke was inflicting No Platform on the Jews.

The United Nations

2009-01-02T00:11:00.003Z

In the Preface to the 1888 edition of the Communist Manifesto, Engels outlined the difference between Socialists and Communists: ‘Socialism was, on the Continent at least, "respectable"; communism was the very opposite. And as our notion, from the very beginning, was that "the emancipation of the workers must be the act of the working class itself," there could be no doubt as to which of the two names we must take.’ Today, Socialism is still a relatively respectably ideology, at least compared with Communism. All of this makes the level of “respectability” to which many Communist organisations sink quite astounding.

The Communist Party of Britain has responded to the Gaza crisis with a demand that ‘the United Nations and individual states impose economic, political and military sanctions on the state of Israel until its government declares a commitment to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority on the basis of UN resolutions’. This is ridiculous- Communists do not appeal to the United Nations, international law or state mechanisms to act in the interests of ordinary people.

International law is not governed by the will of the oppressed; it belongs to the oppressors, and acts exclusively in their interests.

Communists do not determine the illegality or legality of a war according to the ruling of the United Nations, nor do we call on UN “peace keeping” troops to bring more weapons into war zones. We hold no illusions in UN resolutions, and understand that UN-approved sanctions invariably hurt the poorest the hardest. We are not deluded enough to see the United Nations as a force for good, or an arbiter of justice.

What have the Palestinians got to complain about?

2009-01-01T22:40:00.005Z

To portray this as a conflict between equals requires some imagination, writes Mark Steel...

'When you read the statements from Israeli and US politicians, and try to match them with the pictures of devastation, there seems to be only one explanation. They must have one of those conditions, called something like "Visual Carnage Responsibility Back To Front Upside Down Massacre Disorder".

For example, Condoleezza Rice, having observed that more than 300 Gazans were dead, said: "We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence. We strongly condemn the attacks on Israel and hold Hamas responsible."

Someone should ask her to comment on teenage knife-crime, to see if she'd say: "I strongly condemn the people who've been stabbed, and until they abandon their practice of wandering around clutching their sides and bleeding, there is no hope for peace."' Full article

From Hackney to Qatar

2008-12-31T17:43:00.004Z

This blog has covered the story of Adrian Swain, NUT rep and Permanent Revolution Supporter, who was fired from his London school for wearing trainers. Adrian's plight has received a lot of media attention, appearing in the East London Advertiser, the Guardian and on BBC news. It was even covered by the Daily Mail. But today it got altogether stranger, when Adrian appeared in Quatar's bestseller, the Gulf Times.

Perhaps Socialist Worker would consider giving Adrian a mention sometime soon?

Death in Gaza

2008-12-29T21:06:00.005Z

Israeli settlers, the Fendels, present the viewpoint of pro-war Zionists on the BBC website: ‘What's been happening in Gaza is fantastic,’ says Mrs Fendel. Ignoring the deaths of over 300 Palestinians, including tens of children, she adds ‘I feel very bad about the man killed in Netivot.’ On her and her husband’s political views, she says, ‘we usually like to vote for someone quite right wing.’ Her husband places roughly the same value on all human life, that is to say, all Israeli Jewish life: ‘Whenever human life is taken, it's tragic,’ he begins, 'but when we're talking about murderers who are trying to kill us, it's a big relief.’

Medics in the Gaza City’s Ash-Shefa medical compound have confirmed that the majority of those killed by Israel’s bombs have been civilians; this contradicts Israel’s claims that the majority of those killed have been Hamas security forces. On the news tonight, a mother could be seen weeping over the bodies of her five sons, all under the age of seventeen. It is hardly surprising that small children have been amongst the victims- the attacks began just as school children were walking home.

These latest Israeli atrocities have nothing to do with ending the rocket attacks from Hamas, as Israel is claiming: a country does not seek conflict resolution by massacring hundreds of innocents, or respond to largely ineffective rockets and mortars with state-of-the-art murder.

Israel’s bombs, delivered not only though air strikes but also with bombardments from ships, have decimated numerous areas of Gaza. Hospitals are overwhelmed, unable to cope with hundreds of patients, many of them maimed and severely injured, after months of Israel withholding life-saving medical equipment. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has spoken about the Gaza massacre, saying ‘no one is immune’ and arguing that the months of economic strangulation inflicted on Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants have been a ‘show of restraint’.

In response to the bloodthirsty attacks on Gaza, Syria has withdrawn from peace talks with Israel. Hezbollah, however, has not responded with any show of force, instead calling for Arabs and Muslims across the world to rise up. In cities everywhere, there have been protests at Israel’s aggression and in Israeli universities, including Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, there have been protests, some attended by leftist students waving red flags.

We are nearing the end of Israel’s sixtieth year of existence- the tragic irony being that a nation founded on the blood of the Palestinian people is, six decades on, still killing and destroying.

Save the rainforests (from the gays)

2008-12-23T17:41:00.008Z

For the benefit of the Pope, allow me to present a brief comparison between the dangers posed by a) homosexuality and b) the environment in these days of climate change

a) Homosexuality can cause offence to a number of a) religious bigots b) stupid bigots and c) general bigots

b) Climate Change, on the other hand, will cause huge epidemics as some diseases (such as Cholera) spread into previously inhospitable areas, untold death and destruction from flooding, the melting of the ice caps (where do you think the Polar Bears are going to live, Mr Pope?) and rising sea levels as a result. It could result in the extinction of many species of wildlife that fail to adapt. It will be a serious global threat to humanity as we all struggle to adapt. The world’s poorest, as always, will be hit the hardest.

Blog Wars! The SWP split on Socialist Unity

2008-12-23T00:37:00.001Z

I've been checking Socialist Unity a lot lately: at first, it was the SWP's (and Respect's) lies over the anti fascist demonstration in Liverpool... but then something altogether juicier came along.

The possibility of a split in the Socialist Workers Party. Now that's something you don't see everyday.

First, there was Neil Davidson, with a charming submission to the pre-conference bulletin calling for more democracy in the SWP. So far, so good. Sadly, however, the opening of the report is a tad sycophantic; take the following problems Davidson lists with France: "a fascist leader with enough support to stand as a Presidential candidate, anti-war demonstrations in which Muslims and the Left march separately, and a set of legal restrictions on Muslims extending to prohibitions on wearing the hijab by female school students." None of these would exist, Davidson believes, if only France had an organisation more like the SWP. Errrr, right. But beyond the self-congratulation, however, the whole thing is pretty damn accurate. Davidson wants the SWP to face some inconvenient facts: it's not growing. It's shrinking. The party, which many people join, has an inability to retain members. And such delusions as claiming a further "2000 unregistered members" do not really help:

"A blood transfusion may keep a patient alive [Davidson writes] but if they are simultaneously haemorrhaging the procedure simply postpones death rather than restores health. Each wave of recruits has left embedded new layers of comrades, but many more have passed through our ranks. Had we had retained even half of the socialists who did so over the last thirty years we would now have an organisation several tens of thousands strong..."

Second to enter the arena was John Rees, recently nominated Enemy Number One by a large section of the SWP CC. Rees chastised the rest of the CC for not keeping to Cliff's method- exaggerating to overcome the natural "inertia" of ordinary party members. I wouldn't want to speculate on how many people have actually trawled through Rees' 8000+ words of self-important tripe, but like all of the recent SWP leaks, it's worth checking out for the comments. For some reason, SWP members don't seem to like anything that permits unsupervised communication between the party members and the rest of us wreckers, saboteurs and plebs.

Next up was John Molyneux. He rebukes the CC's "united front against dissidents" strategy, which has kept CC disputes faraway from the eyes and ears of SWP members, but ensured that SWP members who dare to speak out are not encouraged to do so again. Rather more observant than other senior SWPers, Molyneux observes the disparity between the decline in the party that the membership has been seeing for a long period of time (whether they admit it or not) and what the leadership has been claiming. For my part, I am reminded of SWP student organiser Andy Cunningham's own claims that Manchester's student population was experiencing "high levels of Bolshevisation"... That was a couple of months before the entire Student Respect branch was smashed. It is also reminiscent of former Swappie Mark Steel's forlorn observations before he left the party; that constantly being told there are 10,000 committed party members when there clearly bloody isn't, is "patently absurd".

And then along came Chris Harman- his response to Davidson is thankfully shorter than that of Rees. Self-important, yes, but mercifully rather brief (by pontificating old man standards): "If we do not deal with the causes of the feeling of malaise in the party, we will be unable to rise to the challenge of the new phase of capitalist crisis that opened up since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in mid September. And we cannot come to terms with the problems without widespread discussion".

Far more interesting than Harman's actual article, however, is the shock of some "Socialists" at Harman's newfound distaste for the Muslim Brotherhood and friends. As organisations go, they're a teensy bit nasty, you see.

Next to enter the faction fight par excellence was everyone's favourite leftist toff, Alex Callinicos, who really lays into John Rees. Take the following example of bitchiness (and remember: it sounds even better if you read it aloud in your best English Aristocrat accent): "John makes the mystifying statement that ‘There is no theoretical agreement on the CC about the likely depth and length of the recession.’ What’s puzzling about this is that John has said or written nothing of any substance about the crisis since the financial markets froze in the summer of 2007. Of course, in fairness, he has had other preoccupations, but it’s still news that he has any distinctive theoretical position". Saucer of milk, Alex?

But once again, the comments are even better than the actual document posted. 'Ray', an SWP luvvie supremo, actually says - with no trace of irony, I might add - that "the rest of the left, apart from the SWP, is in such a good state that it’s having to form united fronts of reformists and revolutionaries just to kick start some sort of redevelopment". United fronts of reformists and revolutionaries. We can only thank God the SWP wouldn't sink so low.

And then, last but determinedly not least, appeared Lindsey German's own take on the whole matter. Obviously, since the nomination of John Rees to the position of Scapegoat in Chief, German is quite literally sleeping with the enemy. So she's got a lot of defending to do. Oh, and in the process of it, she's gone a bit racist: "...if I had been elected to the London Assembly in 2004 (as I very nearly was) then the balance of forces in Respect would have been very different. If white socialists had been elected in 2006 in Newham and Tower Hamlets (as they very nearly were) then the balance of forces and level of politics in those areas would have been raised. If Gordon Brown had not flirted with calling an election in autumn 2007 then maybe Galloway would not have attacked so rapidly..." Has German confused the Socialist Workers Party with the Socialist Whites Party? Who knows.

So that's the lot. The Weekly Worker, in typically understated form, went for the "Mother Of All Splits" as its headline. Is it going to be the mother of all splits? Nah. It's more like a small flock of seagulls squabbling over the remains of a bag of chips.

SWP Gross Misconduct!

2008-12-19T23:31:00.003Z

Taken from Serge's Fist

If you think the war inside the SWP is interesting to watch unfold over on Socialist Unity and in the pages of the Weekly Worker, what you probably have not read is the dismissal of Adrian Swain, a teacher, long time union militant and member of the Permanent Revolution group. The comrade was dismissed for ‘gross misconduct’, which usually covers sexual assault, physical assault etc. But Adrian’s only "crime" was to wear trainers to school. It probably had more to do with him being a trade union militant in one of the best organised schools in London.

What was the SWP’s role in all of this? They refused to back Adrian against the management and smashed the attempt to forge a united campaign against his victimisation.

The SWP should make a u-turn and fully back Adrian; imagine if comrades refused to back an SWP member against from victimisation. Accusations of sectarianism would be rife.

Adrian is now looking at no job, no severance pay and a mark on his record which will make it hard for him to get work.

For further reading go to:

Adrian Swain sacked for daring to defy imposed dress code! here

NUT rep victimised over dress code challenge here

Bush on the Iraqi journalist who threw the shoes- "I don't know what his beef is"

2008-12-15T19:18:00.008Z

Really?

Report of Hands Off the People of Iran AGM

2008-12-14T18:51:00.005Z

On Saturday December 13th, Hopi’s Annual General Meeting was attended by over sixty comrades, making it a little smaller than last year (quite possibly the result of either the dying down of controversy in the year since Hopi’s expulsion from Stop the War, or the worst weather ever witnessed in London) but nevertheless it was a vibrant day of discussion, with many comrades contributing to the debate.

I chaired the first half of the day, hopefully not too badly. Mark Fischer (Chair of Hopi steering committee) opened the day with a concise account of Hopi’s activity over the last year. The AGM then moved on to a section of debate around the political situation, war and imperialism. The next speaker scheduled, Torab Saleth from Workers Left Unity Iran, arrived late. While waiting for him to arrive, Yassamine Mather, Hopi's secretary, gave a brief account of the current situation in Iran- of a population ravaged by sanctions, poverty and inflation, before Torab arrived, drenched by the rain and out of breath. He spoke for about half an hour, talking at length about the way many of the groups offering solidarity with Iranian workers do not offer genuine solidarity: how solidarity must be combined with anti imperialism.

This served as the introduction to the first motion of the day, submitted and supported by the majority of Hopi's steering committee. It talked about the continuing threat of war with Iran, the importance of fighting against sanctions and the necessity of seeking re-affiliation to Stop the War. It, alongside all of the day's motions, can be seen here. An amendment to motion 1, submitted by Permanent Revolution, argued that the immediate threat of war had been lessened by US intelligence reports stating that Iran is not close to the development of nuclear weapons, the election of Obama to the Presidency and the deteriorating military situation in Afghanistan. In light of this, Permanent Revolution argued, campaigning against sanctions and for solidarity with progressive movements in Iran, should become a more important part of Hopi’s work. This amendment fell with only six votes in favour. The original motion passed with four abstentions.

The second motion of the morning, submitted by Mike Martin from Sheffield, talked about the dissipation of the British anti war movement, and argued that Hopi should take on ‘political responsibility’ for building it. Comrades arguing against the motion, felt that Hopi should not be billing itself as an alternative to Stop the War, however bankrupt the leadership of this organisation might be. Motion 2 fell with only one vote in favour.

After a delicious lunch raising money for the charity Workers Fund Iran, Student for Freedom and Equality, Behrouz Karimizadeh (released in April from an Iranian prison) spoke about the history of the Iranian students’ movement and the current repression faced by students in Iran. He then answered questions from the floor on the relationship between Iranian students and workers (a close one, Behrouz answered) amongst other things. Slides commemorating student and worker demonstrations were shown on a screen. In the following section, on Trade Unions, Dave Vincent from the PCS spoke about the arguments anti war activists should be taking to trade unionists. A related motion, submitted by Manchester Hopi and moved by Chris Strafford (CPGB), passed unanimously; the motion called for Hopi to involve itself, wherever possible, in solidarity campaigns with Iranian workers- but to ensure that this is done on the basis of our own principled politics.

The next section, on Sanctions, saw the launch of Hopi’s “Smash the Sanctions” campaign. The campaign was originally idea, and supported thoroughly by Manchester branch, although I never got to move Motion 4, written by myself and calling for such a campaign. Instead, John McDonnell had that honour. PR’s Stuart King then spoke, further emphasising the task of Hopi in the present period. Although several comrades spoke from the floor about the difficulties of persuading sections of the anti war movement of the necessity of opposing the sanctions on Iran, Motion 4 passed unanimously. I feel this represents a good step forward for Hopi, since the subject of sanctions on Iran is being largely ignored by other sections of the anti war movement, including Stop the War.

Next came Motion 5, moved my myself and signed by eleven individual members of Hopi. The aim of Motion 5 was to bridge the gap between the steering committee and the Hopi membership, by making it easier for members and supporters to attend steering meetings. The most controversial parts of the motion called for meetings of the committee to be advertised a month in advance, giving Hopi members who wish to attend time to make the necessary travel and childcare arrangements (I admit this is flawed- obviously emergency meetings, perhaps arising from a sudden event such as an attack on Iran, cannot be advertised so far in advance) and for two meetings a year to be held outside of London. The latter point was opposed by a number of Comrades intent upon arguing that London is the centre of the political world! Despite this, the motion passed by a large margin. A similar motion, submitted by my comrade Stuart King and contradicting Motion 5 in several places, was subsequently withdrawn.

This was followed by the election of the new steering committee: Yassamine Mather (CPGB), Mark Fischer (CPGB), Stuart King (PR), MarshaJane Thompson (LRC), Torab Saleth (Workers Left Unity), Jim Jepps (Green Party), Ben Lewis (CS and CPGB), Israeli socialist Moshe Machover, David Broder (The Commune), Tina Becker (CPGB), Charlie Pottins (Jewish Socialists Group) and myself (PR). With the financial report unavailable, this was the last event of the very busy day. Anne McShane from Hopi Ireland did an excellent job chairing the second half of it and directing Comrades towards the post-AGM drinks and nibbles (sadly missed by myself and other comrades who had to dash off to Manchester).

All in all, Hopi’s second conference was a successful one; I hope it marks the start of an equally successful year!

Manchester rejects congestion charge!

2008-12-12T15:07:00.004Z

Plans to introduce a congestion charge in Manchester have been smashed after 79& of voters (that's all ten boroughs in question) voted NO!

Plane Stupid or Plain Stupid?

2008-12-08T22:35:00.004Z

Over 50 campaigners from Plane Stupid, a group that uses direct action to raise awareness of the expansion of the aviation industry and the impact this has on Climate Change, broke the perimeter fence at Stanstead Airport this morning and occupied a runway. 39 campaigners, most of them in their early twenties, were arrested. For more information, check out their website.

My verdict on the action? A bunch of hippies with no sense of class struggle or class consciousness, and no mass movement to vindicate their actions, have pissed a hell of a lot of people off. Is all press good press? I don't believe so. One woman whose flight was delayed, even missed her father's funeral because of the stunt.

Where Direct Action is used as a substitution for a mass movement rooted in the working class, it is counterproductive. Where it harms the working class - as I suspect it did today - it demeans us. Expecting polluting industries, whether coal power stations or commercial aviation, to be shut down by Capitalists is ridiculous; the only vehicle capable of preventing a global climate catastrophe is the working class. Socialists acknowledge this: Plane Stupid activists, many of whom otherwise eschew political struggle in favour of "lifestyle"-type choices, do not acknowledge this. And in seeking to reconcile carbon cutbacks with the Capitalist system, they offer no solution to the working class.

How will history remember the actions of Plane Stupid? I'd say that's pretty obvious- it won't.

Dido and the IRA

2008-12-08T14:47:00.006Z

Gregory Campbell, MP for East Londonderry, has criticised singer Dido for her use of song lyrics associated with the IRA. The lyrics, taken from a song by the folk band Barleycorn, are "Armoured cars and tanks and guns/ Came to take away our sons/ But every man must stand behind/ The men behind the wire." Campbell has argued that the lyrics are about murderers and terrorists. Hmmm. I'm not convinced. In fact, in the case of Dido (and the IRA) versus Campbell (and a bunch of Unionist bastards) I'm inclined to come down on the side of Dido. I might even download the record. It's called 'Let's do the things we normally do' and it's on the album 'Safe Trip Home'.

Some info on Gregory Campbell- he voted consistently in favour of the Iraq war (so he's a fine one to speak about murderers). He has also voted for 42 days detention and for Trident renewal, but against LGBT equality. Sounds like a nice guy.

4000 Radical Students Protest in Tehran

2008-12-07T18:18:00.004Z

Today more than 4000 students protested at Tehran University. Their chants included "Ahmadi-Pinochet, Iran will not become Chile!", "Death to the dictator", "Free all political prisoners!", "University is the last barricade", "Students die but will not be humiliated" and "Mr. President, the student movement will stand until the end!" A large number of students from other universities and colleges in the capital, including Polytechnic (Amirkabir), Indusial University, Abbaspour, Science and Technology and Rajai joined the protest.

Israel willing to go it alone?

2008-12-06T22:53:00.004Z

From The Telegraph-

"Defence sources told the Jerusalem Post they were considering going it alone in a strike on Iran.

Conventional military thinking states that Israel would need America's backing if only to allow Israeli warplanes to reach Iran by overflying Iraq, where the airspace is controlled by the United States Air Force.

But the paper said Israeli planners had come up with ideas that did not require support from the United States.

This comes after Ehud Olmert, the outgoing Israeli prime minister, failed to persuade President George W Bush to support an Israeli air attack in the last few months of his presidency.

It is always better to co-ordinate,'' a source, described by the Jerusalme Post as a top Defense Ministry official, said.

"But we are also preparing options that do not include co-ordination.''

Israeli officials have said it would be difficult, but not impossible, to launch a strike against Iran without clear support from America.

One option would be to use Israeli submarines firing cruise missiles from off the Iranian coast in the Gulf.

Another might be to use Israel's close links with Turkey to persuade Ankara to allow Israeli attack aircraft, air refuelling jets and pilot rescue helicopters to use Turkish airstrips.

"There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation,'' the Jerusalem Post said.

In September, an article in 'Defense News' said America had recently agreed to supply an improved early warning radar system to Israel precisely because this sent a signal to Iran about Washington's close military links with Israel.

"First, we want to put Iran on notice that we're bolstering our capabilities throughout the region, and especially in Israel,'' the article said.

"But just as important, we're telling the Israelis, 'Calm down, behave.

We're doing all we can to stand by your side and strengthen defences, because at this time, we don't want you rushing into the military option.'" In a related article at about the same time, TIME magazine raised the possibility that through the deployment of the radar, America wants to keep an eye on Israeli airspace, so that the US is not surprised if and when the IAF is sent to bomb Iran, a scenario Washington wants to avoid.

Last week, Iran's nuclear chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh revealed that the country was operating more than 5,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz and would continue to install centrifuges and enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel for the country's future nuclear power plants.

"At this point, more than 5,000 centrifuges are operating in Natanz," said Aghazadeh, who is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

This represents a significant increase from the 4,000 Iran had said were up and running in August at the plant.

The Islamic republic has said it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that will ultimately involve 54,000 centrifuges."

by Tim Butcher (Jerusalem)

Defend Koos Couvée!

2008-12-03T20:13:00.006Z

A statement from Koos Couvée, a University of Sussex student who is being victimised for his involvement in an protest against military recruitment on campus, can be found here

I urge all to support him in his struggle.

SWP lies about Liverpool

2008-12-03T13:00:00.008Z

There's a big fat lie in this week's Socialist Worker:

"On hearing the police claims many protesters assumed that they had won and dispersed.

Others, including UAF speakers, argued that they should not trust the police’s assurances and should instead march down to where the fascists had been due to meet."

I'm sorry- is this taking the piss? Everyone at the demonstration knows why it dispersed; UAF failed to send out scouts. Instead, it accepted the police's word that the fascists were gone. The day was declared a "victory" before it had even begun. By the time scouts from other organisations reported that the fascists were assembling down the road, it was too late. Two thirds of protesters had already gone home.

Cops defend the fascists - Weyman Bennett defends the cops

2008-11-30T15:27:00.007Z

I was going to blog about this yesterday, but decided against it. I was too angry at the sheer treachery committed by UAF leaders, in particular Weyman Bennett, to post anything remotely objective. But a day later, I'm still angry. Bennett's past actions have been shameful - insisting that the UAF banner went at the front of the hijacked demonstration against the Red, White and Blue festival and getting the police to help enforce this decision, springs to mind - but yesterday was reprehensible.

Bennett's tally of crimes included listening to police instructions to bring the protest to a close at around 11AM after they informed him that the fascists had gone home (they hadn't- they were assembling down the street in huge numbers, ready to leaflet Christmas shoppers); attempting to break up the anti fascist demonstration that mobilised once it became clear that the BNP were out in force down the road, by bringing a line of police reinforcements with him, barging to the front of the protest and informing everyone that we would have to move further away from the fascists to the other - quiet - end of the street (he was heckled and drowned out by chanting... rightly so) and leaving large sections of protesters, predominantly youth, to be attacked by the police. Is this the man we want as the leader of the anti fascist movement?

No.

He is not my leader; if you find cooperating with - and for that matter, utilising - police repression against anti fascists unacceptable, I dare say he is not your leader either. If, on the other hand, you like treachery, disingenuity and complete and utter sectarianism, perhaps he is? Yesterday, Weyman Bennett was shouted down, heckled and silenced by a young and vibrant anti fascist movement. Let's hope this is not the last time. After all, a weak anti fascist leadership (with no sense of class consciousness whatsoever) is the greatest weapon in the hands of fascist scum. Weyman Bennett, shame on you.

Here's what Permanent Revolution has to say:

"Around 250 anti-fascist protestors arrived in Liverpool on Saturday 29 November, to protest against a national BNP leafleting. This followed from the arrest of 12 fascists last week who were charged with distributing literature designed to incite racial hatred. The Nazis, determined to defend their right to incite assaults against innocent black people, organised a mass protest including their leader Griffin.

Griffin had nothing to fear from the state. On the morning of the demo it was announced that the Attorney General had overruled the Merseyside police and considered that the fascists racist propaganda was legitimate, and through the course of the day the cops worked hard to defend the fascists.

The gathering was solid and impressive – the majority locals with good labour movement representation – so that by 11.00am, the time that the Nazi fascist scum had announced their intention to leaflet, the forces were there to confront them. Unfortunately, those forces were then disbanded by leading SWP member and UAF worthy, Weyman Bennett, who, on the word of the police, announced that the fascists were not turning up, that we had won a “victory” and that people could go home content.

And they duly did, so that by around 11.30am when around 100 BNP fascists showed up on Church Street the demonstration had been reduced to around 50-100. Those of us remaining managed to work our way through the police cordon to confront the fascists. A determined crowd quickly gathered, separated by an overwhelming police presence. But with lively chanting and determination as well as conversations with passers by our numbers rapidly swelled as locals, disgusted that the racist filth should attempt to gain a platform in such a find city as Liverpool, joined the demo.

However, following a closely choreographed routine, the police had decided to move us on. And Weyman Bennett, acting as their representative inside the anti-fascist movement, told us that we would have to retreat away from the fascists back down Church Street, but that he had managed to negotiate “five more minutes” of chanting.

The crowd fortunately had rather more determination and no one moved as Bennett led a small gaggle of officials and other bureaucrats away from the protest. The police, however, then obliged where Bennett had failed and pushed us away from the Nazi rabble.

Weyman Bennett has a history of working for the authorities inside the anti-fascist movement. He did the same thing in Derby earlier this year. The events of the weekend demonstrate that the state will not suppress the Nazi scum and that it is for us to do so. This weekend we had the numbers but we did not have the organisation. Let’s not let Weyman Bennett and the officials of UAF mislead us again."

Link to Permanent Revolution

Iranian Trade Unionist to be Hanged Today

2008-11-26T15:25:00.002Z

There has been news circulating that jailed Iranian teacher union activist, Farzad Kamangar, may be hanged within the next few hours. According to the Education International, he has been taken from his cell in Tehran's Evin prison in preparation for execution. The guards have told him he is about to be executed and they are making fun of him, calling him a martyr.

Farzad's "crime" was to belong to the Teacher's Union of Kurdistan.

For more information and to learn what you can do, see here. Act urgently; tonight might be too late.

Don't shoot!

2008-11-24T21:10:00.006Z

Stun guns - or tasers - deliver a 50,000 volt electric shock at their target, rendering the person temporarily disabled. In America, they have been widely misused by trigger-happy cops, resulting in numerous deaths. In Britain, 10,000 more guns are going to be brought onto our streets and issued to regular front line police. And can you guess who's going to suffer? I can.

Protesters.

Peace protesters, anti fascists and climate change activists will be faced with these potentially lethal weapons, in the hands of the police who line our demonstrations and encircle our protests... Let's hope we don't have heart defects.

For a future free from transphobia

2008-11-20T18:24:00.005Z

Today is the ninth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. The day commemorates all those whose deaths have been caused by anti trans hatred. The first day was marked by a candlelit vigil in San Francisco, a year after the 1998 murder of Rita Hester. Since then the Day of Remembrance has gone global.