I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

A Brief Return To Blogging: On UKIP and Hope Not Hate

There have been no posts on here, or the 9/11 Cultwatch blog for a while. The combination of teaching at three Universities, security work, childcare responsibilities and trying to complete my PhD has rather restricted my travel into the world of blogging. Laurie Penny once said the Internet was a real place where she does her work - I have to contend that it because I am doing work in the real world that I am now so rarely on the Internet. 

Over on the Notes From the Borderland site my friend and colleague Larry O'Hara has written a considerable article on 'anti-fascist' organisation Hope Not Hate and their 'public consultation' on whether to campaign against the UK Independence Party. It says much about the nature of HnH's approach to politics that although a majority (67%) of respondents voted for a campaign against UKIP, leader Nick Lowles has decided to instead 'monitor' UKIP. This decision was taken even though as far back as 1996 Lowles was writing to the European Movement offering to run a Searchlight campaign against UKIP! 

UKIP have called some of the big issues of the past decade correctly. They are correct on the European Union, and have been proved correct on the Euro. I think UKIP are wrong on the issue gay marriage, but that is hardly an issue that effects the price of fish. More importantly Nigel Farage correctly identifies what for me is the core issue of British politics today - its dominance by what is in effect a political class, with its own interests and terminology, and little or no contact or empathy with the mass of the population.
It is not enough to simply identify Bullingdon Club Tories as the biggest section of this - think of Ed Miliband attending the same junior school as Boris Johnson in North London, or the endless succession of policy wonks and think tank theorists dominating Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and Green. On one level the House of Commons has never been more diverse - more women, younger MPs, more black and Asian MPs than ever before, but scrath below the surface and this 'diversity' is a sham. The two Labour candidates in Norwich North and Norwich South in the next election are classic examples of this - one young and mixed race, the other young and female. Their CVs though are a checklist of the elements that comprise our political class - a  journalist and former Vice President of the useless National Union of Students, and a policy wonk for the Fabian Society who is a Councillor in Islington - it is all so predictable. So samey, so fake and so elitist. The days of a candidate emerging such as Ian Gibson, a scientist orginally from the West of Scotland, are long gone. 

For the Conservatives to win the next election, they will need to sink UKIP well below the 10-13% they are currently polling. Equally UKIP are likely to chip into Labour's vote in the north and midlands. Traditionally however in general elections the media focus on the big two (or three) parties sinks the candidates from smaller parties. Will that happen again in 2015? Hope Not Hate, led by significant figures in the Progress faction of the Labour Party and part funded by the Coalition's Department for Communities and Local Government, will no doubt attempt to play a role in ensuring that happens. What HnH does will not be decided by those who contribute to on-line polls or discussion forums - such decisions will instead be taken behind closed doors. By Nick Lowles, Ruth Smeeth and Anthony Painter. For vested interests. 

Which is really where we came in. With the political class. 

Health Poverty Action on FGM - A Large Dollop of Red Herring

The Evening Standard's letters page came up trumps last night with this cracker on the subject of female genital mutilation:

It will take more than £35 million from the UK to end Female Genital Mutilation. Thousands of poor women worldwide earn their living from carrying it out and ending it will involve creating new roles for them and huge change to their societies.
Leadership at the community level must be the driving forc, and this needs to be backed up by culturally appropriate health and education services. David Cameron would make a better contribution towards ending FGM if he commited to ensuring large companies do not dodge taxes and exploit poor countries.

Martin Drewery, Health Poverty Action.

Just read that second sentence again. Then imagine someone writing "Thousands of poor people worldwide earn their living robbing old ladies. Ending mugging will involve creating new roles for them and huge change to their societies".  The logic is the same.

For a charity supposedly concerned with health, Health Poverty Action make no mention of the health effects of FGM - which can range from death to long term physical, psychological and sexual problems. As so often with charities, Health Poverty Action seems less concerned with setting out facts than with establishing a broader political agenda.

FGM has been around a long time, and is ingrained in some countries in Africa and the Middle East. That is unlikely to be an issue readily tackled by the British Prime Minister. Curiously Martin Drewery makes no mention of the historical British failures to address FGM in this country (something the Prime Minister could have done something about) but does instead raise the need for David Cameron to ensure large companies do not dodge taxes and exploit developing countries.

On one level, I agree. But how David Camerson can prevent a German based multi-national exploiting the tax system in Egypt is unclear. Indeed the problem in many developing nations is not simply that the multi-nationals pay little or no tax, it is that these nations ruling classes have never paid any taxes, and refuse to do so (See Owen Bennett Jones' classic book on Pakistan for an example of a country where no one has ever been convicted of tax evasion).

FGM continues because there are particular cultural (and, although less clearly) religious justifications that are made for it. I accept it is easier (sorry, more culturally appropriate) for Martin Drewery to talk about big companies not paying their taxes, than it is to address these cultural issues.

But what is easy, is not always correct. His letter reads like a very sharp spoof of a comedian mocking a left wing activist. It discredits the charity sector.

Politicians, Soap Operas and The Kitchen Sink

Clearing some old papers recently, I came across this little gem from The Times of 4 June 1998:

"Caught in the act

Frank Field. the Minister for Welfare Reform, is to appeal to makers of television soap operas and of "kitchen sink" movies to show benefit fraudsters being caught and prosecuted. Mr Field said he wanted to promote an anti-fraud culture".

Frank Field watches over an Eastenders script meeting at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.

On Events At City University

The Steampunk Shariah website has published an article condemning the alleged interference of the authorities at City University in London, with the Friday prayers held by the University Islamic Society. You can read the artcle here:

My response is 'awaiting moderation' - in case it is not published, here it is below:

A few things are missing from this piece, whether by accident or design. The first is the local history of City ISOC. Its past racist comments to a Sikh student journalist who had investigated its extremism is perhaps the worst example, but its long term dispute with the University has to be considered relevant. Here is a libertarian socialist analysis from 2010 on some of the issues raised by City ISOCs past conduct:

Many Universities are now moving towards the creation of multi-faith spaces, to be shared by all religious societies on campus, and/or are encouraging religious groups to make use of local religious buildings off site. I would hazard a guess if City ISOC did this, few local mosques would stand for the sort of nonsense they have got up to in the past. Either way, I am not the only person to observe how willing some religions are to share space in this way, and how reluctant ISOCs are. Universities will increasingly make the decision for them.

I do not much care for Marine Le Pen, but comparing a one-off appearance at the Cambridge Union with the broader treatment of University ISOCs is a tad cheeky. Universities are more concerned, not with occasional debates, but the responsibility they have to regular users of their premises. Put simply, use their facilities on a regular basis, obey their rules. That is what City ISOC is struggling with.

Finally there is the much broader issue, which you mention solely in relation to fascist terrorists. Do you really want me to list all the serving or former ISOC members convicted of terrorist offences in the past twenty years? Or the numbers involved in actual or attempted suicide bombings?

We are talking about over a score of individuals, something that outstrips the examples of far-right terrorism in this country. 

Who Was Behind The Attack on Freedom Press?

Freedom Bookshop at 84b Whitechapel High Street re-opens today after the arson attack against it in the early hours of Friday morning. You can find more details on the Freedom website, donations at this time are obviously particualarly welcome.

The last time Freedom was attacked - in 1993 - it was by the fascist Combat 18 group, so speculation inevitably falls on this being an attack by the far--right. Interestingly, shortly before this attack, Britain First was circulating details to supporters of the launch of a new co-ordinating organisation for 'patriotic' street protest, to be called the English National Resistance. This was hyped as bringing together the English Defence League, Britain First, the English Democrats and South East Alliance.

The announcement stated: 

"The 'English National Resistance'  will confront, demonstrate and protest nationwide against the politically correct enemies of our country."

And the ENR comes complete with a fancy crest

The declaration continued:

Among the historical problems that the 'English National Resistance' is resolved to address is the chronic lack of discipline at demonstrations, the lack of ideology and direction, a weak hierarchical structure and the elimination of outside influences and agendas.

These problems will be solved once and for all by the'English National Resistance'.

The 'English National Resistance' will also take the form of an 'association', whereby existing street protest groups can join the new cooperative organisation and take a seat on the governing council, and several groups have already taken this step and joined forces.

The 'English National Resistance' will build a new disciplined organisation that mobilises patriotic activists against any attack on our culture, rights and heritage.

This is an exciting new dawn for patriotic politics, and we need the unbridled support of all of our supporters to make this a success.

Unfortunately for the ENR, their first planned demonstration - at Abu Qatada's home in north London on Saturday 2 February -  was postponed after a High Court injunction was taken out by Mr Qatada's  ever busy legal team. Whether the ENR took their frustrations out by attacking Freedom books instead is not yet known, but entirely possible. 

Other suspects emerge. The first is some sort of secret state chicanery. The work Freedom does brings it significant enemies in London's police force, in the national public order intelligence units and of course amongst those spooks even deeper in the shadows. When Freedom was attacked in 1993 the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, known for its close links to the security services and habit of smearing Anarchists, suggested other Anarchists were responsible. So far, Searchlight has remained silent, although journalist Brian Whelan, closely associated with Searchlight splinter Hope Not Hate, has been at Freedom interviewing staff. 

A second possibility is an attack by Islamist elements. Local Muslim youths have attacked squats in Whitechapel before (which it seems they idiotically believed were associated with the EDL) and two youths were jailed for a mob attack on the Blind Beggar pub just down the road earlier this year. Again the 'we thought they was the EDL' defence was given.  We have also seen 'Muslim Patrols' on the streets in Tower Hamlets by a small number of fundamentalists, several of whom have since been arrested. 

The third possibility - the least likely - is perhaps less political - someone wants Freedom out, in an area of high property values, as they want that building. 

All of the above explanations now are possible, but unproven. The important thing now is to get behind Freedom, to donate books and to donate money. Attacking Freedom shall not pass.

 

The Socialist Workers Party As Perfect Democracy?

I missed Judith Orr, the editor of the SWP's Socialist Review, who was at the University of East Anglia on 17 January to speak to the Feminist Society.

Given the storm over rape allegations and the SWP's response to them, the meeting's timing was apt. The UEA's student paper, Concrete, gives an account of the meeting here. I was particularly drawn to Orr's reported comments on the SWP and accountability:

"Orr maintained that the SWP were "more accountable than any other organisation", being entirely intolerant of sexism, racism, homophobia, or any other hateful prejudices within the party.
The decision to go through the party's disputes committee, which Orr noted was elected yearly to ensure fair representation, was entirely the decision of the victim and expressed sadness on behalf of both parties involved that the matter, which was meant to be "utterly confidential", had come out against their wishes."

Judith Orr's description of SWP internal democracy will produce a wry smile from anyone active in left wing politics over the last few decades, or indeed anyone who has been in the SWP. Elections in the party have traditionally meant voting for a slate of candidates, with no opportunity to cast votes outside of that, and a system of powerful regional organisers and full time staff advising members on how to vote.
That is perhaps what you would expect in a Trotskyist organisation, which models itself on the successful seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in 1917. That worked for Lenin, but hardly fits with 21st century demands for accountability and bottom up organising.

The SWP's current crisis is rooted in more than the poor treatment of a rape victim - it is rooted in its own ideology.

Islamophobia and Anarchism: A Very Particular Call For Articles

I must admit my hopes are not high for this.

The publication concerned, Dysopia, recently published a special issue on anti-Semitism. It managed not to dwell on groups like the Muslim Brotherhood (and its various European offshoots), Hamas, or some of the violence faced by European Jewish communities, which increasingly comes from Muslim, rather than white fascist actors. The Toulouse murders in 2012, and the would be jihadists in Manchester convicted of targetting Jews in the city, being only two examples. 

The call for articles below is extremely carefully worded, I suspect because Dysophia's editors have a very clear idea in mind exactly what articles they want - and what they should say- and exactly what they should not. Still here goes:

Dysophia, an independent anarchist zine, is planning a follow on from its successful look at antisemitism by exploring issues around Islam and anti-Muslim racism from an anarchist perspective. We are aware that, as UK-based activists, much is missing from the wider discussion and more nuanced analysis is needed.

In particular, we would like to explore how anarchists in the 'West' (that is, Christian-dominated societies) can:

* show solidarity with those experiencing anti-Muslim racism;
* show solidarity with comrades who live in places where Islam is a dominant ideology; and 
* approach the challenges thrown up by Islamic fundamentalism without playing into current imperialist / racist tendencies that demonize Muslim communities in the West and underscore current imperialist warmongering.

We hope that this publication will open up critical discussion that can take the anarchist movement forward. Thus, we are soliciting articles from anarchists living in societies where Islam is a dominant force, which discuss all or some of the following issues:

i) how they relate to Islam itself and how the culture of their societym affects and shapes their approaches to anarchism;

ii) how they perceive Islamophobia and related racisms in the 'West';

iii) how anarchists in the 'West' can show solidarity with comrades in Muslim-majority countries (including, for example, during Western states' interventions in and portrayals of the 'Arab spring');

iv) how anarchists living in the West can demonstrate solidarity with Muslim communities here, while sustaining anti-discrimination politics such as that around gender, sexuality, etc. (for example, how could we respond to protests against sharia law, right wing focusing on fundamentalist elements of religion as an attack on all, demonisation of Muslim populations, cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammed).

v) how the 'War on Terror' has affected their political activity;

vi) anarchist perspectives on class, gender and sexuality in the context of Islam.

Secondly, we would like to hear from anarchists who identify as having a Muslim background who live in the West and would like to communicate their experiences and politics around islamophobia. We are also interested in hearing from anarchists who cultural identification is
Western, but feel they have a perspective they would like to contribute.

Finally, we are interested in hearing accounts from anarchist groups in Muslim-majority countries so that others can learn about their activities, as often those in the West do not get to hear about them. If there are enough of these, we will turn them into a separate publication.

Article size can be up three thousand words, and we are looking for pieces that are accessible to everyone rather than not jargon-heavy academic tracts. Images gratefully received. We will be publishing in English, though if you have writings in another language, or will struggle with English please get in contact first as we may be able to sort out translations. We will protect anonymity whenever requested and have secure forms of communication if desired, including pgp / gpg. We would like to get submissions in by 31st March if possible.

If you have any questions then do not hesitate to ask. Please feel free to forward on.

Dysophia editors (D O'D, SR)
dysophia@riseup.net
http://dysophia.wordpress.com

There are not many certainities in life, but I rather suspect my 2010  "British Islamism: Towards an Anarchist Response" is not the type of thing they are looking for.

 

Spooks? A Cheeky Little Dig From The Telegraph

All of today's newspapers have full coverage of the Algerian hostage crisis, where Jihadists held workers captive in an attempt to free Aaafia Siddiqui and the 'Blind Sheikh' Omar Abdul-Rahman from jail in the United States.

Picking through it, I was rather tickled  by this line in the Sunday Telegraph's coverage, courtsey of Robert Mendick, Patrick Sawer and Patrick Hennessy:

"Offical sources told Algeria's El Watan newspaper, a journal known for its close contact with the country's secret services, that the terrorists had tried to set fire to the gas facility's installations on Friday night after their demands - including safe passage and the release of al-Qaeda terrorists in the US - remained unmet."

I have never read El Watan, but wonder if its journalists may amuse themselves in future by writing something along the lines of  "British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, whose defence correspondent Con Coughlin is known for his close links to the country's external security service MI6...."

The Consequences of a Three Minute Culture?

Students think I'm an old git when I tell them to read books, rather than web articles or YouTube clips. 

I'm not really sure anyone really knows the long term effects on our brains of the immediacy of information, the range of formats it is available in, or the short timescale of so much of it. A further suggestion of the dangers posed by what I refer to as the three minute culture, comes from Sir Alex Ferguson's press conference at Old Trafford on Friday 11 January:

"Perhaps the most remarkable of the United manager's observations was that players no longer have the powers of concentration to sit down and watch a full 90-minute match video. "Going back 20 years, we gave them a full video of the game" he said. "We don't do that now because the concentration of players watching a full game is not there. But if you condense it into various aspects of our opponents then it works and that's what we do".

Quoted in Ian Herbert's "Ferguson: It's A Long Road For Liverpool", The Independent 12 January 2013.

The Rapier Thrust of Student Politics

As students return to University following the Christmas holidays, those at the University of East Anglia can be assured that their student union is at the cutting edge of political relevance in these hard times:

"The Union of UEA Students has passed policy to introduce gender neutral toilets in Union House in order to accomodate for those who do not identify within the male-female gender binary."

Concrete, UEA's Student Newspaper, Issue 276, Tuesday 4 December.

The article goes on to state that the budget for this is not confirmed. That is perhaps not surprising - the UEA Students Union has a deficit of £132,000, although this is expected to fall to £114,500 over the course of the academic year.  

There's a whole world outside of your University campus boys and girls - and it looks very, very different to the one some of you are cocooned in.

Giving Ex-Offenders A Chance

I was very impressed with the quote below from John Timpson, Chairman of  high street chain Timpson, in the business section of yesterday's Telegraph:

"....our biggest achievement is the way James and his team have employed people from prison in a way that works brilliantly both for them and our business - 8% of current Timpson colleagues joined us from prison. One week during November all the customer compliments I received were praising service given in shops run by ex-offenders.
My big disappointment is that so few companies have followed our example. Greggs the Bakers is the only other business to embrace the concept with real zeal." 

Well done Timpson's! There is more on their work in this field here. 

40 Years On - Time To Leave

Forty years ago today, the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community. That decision was reinforced by the 1975 referendum. 

A generation later, the EEC has morphed, first into the European Community, then to become the European Union, something far removed from the free trade area with a few political conferences, that our parents voted either Yes or No to.
The EU has a President (who we can't vote for) a Foreign Minister (Baroness Ashton, who again we can't vote for) and an intelligence agency (who we know less about than our own secretive security agencies). No doubt in time the EU will have its own police force and army. It sets laws that take precedence over those created by the House of Commons. 

All this costs us billions of pounds per year (the actual estimates vary). Forty years on - it is time to remove this additional tier of government and civil servants from our backs, and to leave the European Union. 

Donations To The Woodcraft Folk

Following James May's funeral last week, his family have asked for any donations to go to the Woodcraft Folk, an organisation James was involved with both as a child and as a parent.

A special web page has been set up to allow people to do this. If you can't face the sales, and would prefer to do something more positive with your money, why not give a donation?

 

I Hope Andrew Mitchell Rips The Police Federation To Shreds

Back in 1999, when Hackney resident Harry Stanley was shot dead by the police for carrying a table leg, a black friend of mine commented "They've got away with it so much, they've started doing it to white people".

By 2012, it seems the police had got away with fabricating evidence so much, they were doing it to the Chief Whip. And as with the Stanley case, the police were also leaking supposedly priviliged material to tame journalists, who were willing to reproduce, unquestioningly, the police 'side'. 

It seems they may have picked on the wrong man.

I don't see the Leveson Inquiry doing much about the police's long term 'spinning' of and in the media. Actually, manipulation is probably a better word than spin. Andrew Mitchell might. Go for it Mr Mitchell. 

Funeral Eulogy For James May

There was a huge turnout at Luton Cemetary this afternoon for James, with people present from so many different segments of his life. James' relatives spoke of him as a person, and we entered and left to some of his favourite music. 

James' family asked me to do an oration, which follows:

I know many of you will have read the political obituary I wrote on of James, so I want to say a few things more  but hopefully avoid repeating what I said there.

I knew James for twenty years. I never shared his taste in music – I am not sure many people did, although if you scratched under the surface his musical tastes were a lot more diverse than the punk represented by his tartan bondage trousers. I did share much of James’ politics, and we worked together on a range of campaigns, leaflets, and publications pretty much continuously for the sixteen years from 1992 to 2008.

In one way, James was not really cut out for contemporary politics. A political life – even on what might be called the radical fringe – requires compromise. It needs coalition building, warm words and a desire to avoid conflict. That was not, usually, James.

James was very lucky to have the upbringing he did. I say that because James had an appreciation of what actually matters in politics – ideas. It is ideas that matter. A conversation with James was not a trivial journey through the latest episode of X Factor or Pop Idol. It was not a conversation about the latest £50 million footballer with an unpronounceable name. It was a conversation about ideas, and how they might be applied to change our lives for the better.

It is amazing how rare that actually is today. So much of our discourse is either trivial, or looking for people to blame for our problems. James was a notch above that – and that was why, even when our own political activities had run aground in organisational terms, James still had plenty to say. He still had ideas. And that was why he was always worth listening to.

There are lots of memories I could share of James, and it is important that in time I do – with Lilith and Harry, and hopefully with a wider audience. The time James was grabbed by the police at a demonstration about hospital closures in 1993, only to be de-arrested by three nurses in uniform. He rather enjoyed the experience. His time in Class War could only go downhill after that.

One of the strongest memories I have is of us hunt sabbing in Essex. After a successful day getting in the way of posh people, we returned to our mini bus to eat our sandwiches.

It had been such a good day, it did not seem possible for anything to go wrong. And then James produced probably the one item from his plastic bag that could cause consternation to a group of animal rights activists more than anything else. A Pork pie. And then a second pork pie. And then a third. All washed down, as ever, with Coca Cola. I don’t think we ever got invited out with Essex Hunt saboteurs again, but James did not care.

He liked what he liked, and he did what he wanted to do. And that is important for all of us. That to me was James, and we are all diminished by his loss. 

I was pleased to see many of the producers of the Weekly Worker present, some of whom James had known pretty much all his life. John Bridge has written an obituary of James on page three in the current issue of the Weekly Worker, which you can read on-line here. 

Islamo-Anarchism Anyone?

Here is the red and black flag, flying in the shell of the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Alexandria, during the ongoing rebellion against President Morsi assuming dictatorial powers.

 

James May – A Political Obituary

I worked politically with James for nearly twenty years – from 1992 until last year, when James was attempting to put together some form of autobiography. I want to cover some of the things James did in that time, the actions he was involved in and the beliefs he had. I do this not just to record James’ life, but because many of those issues remain important.

James joined Class War in 1992 from an unlikely political route – via The Leninist. They were a small splinter from the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), who had attempted to keep the Communist flame alive whilst much of the CPB was trying to maintain their positions in the trade union hierarchy, heading for think tanks or what would become new Labour. James had been brought up in a Communist family and had been a member of the Communist League as a child – this gave him a particular political education that would see him take ideas seriously, no matter how marginal they may appear. He took the Leninist’s successor, the Weekly Worker, for as long as I knew him.

In The Class War

Class War in the early 1990s, and the London left and anarchist scenes in general, were busy places to be. James would travel to London from Luton for paper sales, meetings, demonstrations, gigs and piss-ups. He was invariably late “Sorry mate, ticket inspectors on the line” would be a familiar excuse. James would also be let down by a succession of dilapidated second hand cars which would be parked in side streets in Camden, invariably full of mounds of what to everyone else appeared to be rubbish. Somewhere in there would be a stereo or if he was lucky a functioning car radio, playing which ever punk bands had his favour.

It was around this time James earned the nickname ‘Captain Bollocks’ in Class War. He would invariably denounce any idea he disagreed with as ‘bollocks’ his volume rising a notch higher than his already ringing tones. Such absolute positions certainly rubbed people up the wrong way – at a Class War conference in Leeds in 1993 James was chairing when he was asked to read an amendment to a proposal. He did, before adding “I think it’s a load of bollocks myself” – the members from Yorkshire were mutinous and he was soon back in the ranks on the conference floor. I am not sure he ever chaired a meeting again?
Politically this was an era of left groups searching – unsuccessfully – for the ‘next poll tax’ and the big demonstrations against the first wave of support for the BNP. James always had reservations about anti-fascism - primarily on the grounds that we needed to get our own shit together before worrying about anyone else – but that did not stop him getting stuck in. It was ironic that James should die so soon after the SWP’s Julie Waterson – both were treated in the same hospital after the Welling march against the BNP in 1993. Both had been hit from behind by police officer’s truncheons. In the Good Mixer in Camden the next day James showed off his bloodied great coat, but was appalled at how he had seen Waterson behave in the hospital – ranting about the police and threatening to sue Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon. To James you took such events on the chin – if the enemy landed one on you, you got one back the next time.  

A staple of James politics in this period was a real distaste for what had subsumed class politics on the left – political correctness, animal rights and what Class War used to call the ‘Nalgo-tocracy’ – that privileged group of urban middle class professionals who read The Guardian, who professed to hate the Tories and all they stood for, but were doing very nicely thank-you-very much working in local government, the civil service or left leaning professions like social work. Again his directness on these issues did him few favours, even though the new Labour era was to show that capitalism could take on board many of these ‘revolutionary’ issues and continue being, well, capitalism.
By 1995-96, whilst London Class War was thriving, the rest of the organisation was pretty much down in the dumps. Ian Bone and Tim Scargill were long gone, and those who had agitated so hard for their removal had proven to be empty vessels themselves. Class War launched a strategy review, which quickly spiralled out of the control of the active members in London. I had many intense phone calls from James in this period (to call them conversations would be generous) he was dead set against any review “If you don’t like Class War, leave Class War” he would shout, Paisley-like at my poor eardrums. James would have made a great Orangeman.
I still believed the stated objective – uniting all the UK’s Anarchists into a new organisation – was worth working towards. When we discovered Leeds Class War  (James’ oldest foes) and some ex-members had been meeting in secret in London, the game was up – Class War split. James was right, when so many others, myself included, had been wrong. James was soon in full ‘we are the masters now’ mode, and if I remember rightly it was James’ idea to have the Spice Girls on the cover of the first issue of Class War edited in London – but with Posh Spice blacked out. Get rid of the Posh – that was his politics in a nutshell.

On The Telly

In this period James began doing nibbles of media work. We spent a day in Carlisle with Border TV (James insisted on finding Hadrian’s Wall to check if it could still be used if necessary) Tara Palmer-Tomkinson described him as a pussy cat, and he also went up against Ann Widdicombe. On another occasion James and myself spent several hours at the Anarchist Bookfair in Conway Hall being chatted up outrageously by two nubile ‘researchers’ from the Louis Theroux show. It became obvious to us that this was how Theroux sucked people in to making fools of themselves on his programme, but neither of us could bring ourselves to tell these two women to fuck off. James was always on the pull. Such media work, whilst it promoted Class War, also brought criticism, particularly from Anarchist groups who did not get asked to do such interviews. James never took such views personally, laughing out loud when one critic stated “Class War now appears to be run by a man who looks like Boris Johnson”.  I hope someone can now collate the clips of all those media experiences.

Despite his theoretical knowledge, James was not a political writer. His dyslexia made writing more than a few paragraphs difficult, and his ideas tended to be produced on crumpled pieces of lined paper, in spidery blue handwriting that I can see in front of me now. The longer that writing went on for, the less sense it made, but if pressed there was always a consistent argument present, and often a gem of an idea or a sound bite. Class War used those lines repeatedly after 1997, and I was still doing so up until a few months ago. When I asked James about the EDL he summed them up better than anyone else has done: “The problem with Tommy Robinson, is that you and me could do Tommy Robinson far better than he does Tommy Robinson.”

All Together Now?

All political careers end in failure. We surprised many by producing Class War bang on time each year for May Day and the Anarchist Bookfair. It was more coherent than expected, still comfortably outsold every other Anarchist publication, but like others before us, we proved utterly incapable of  building a large political organisation or movement. James probably sensed this earlier than most of his generation in CW – he was the only person to get involved in the Socialist Alliance, which I think he viewed as an attempt to get all the radical forces in particular towns or cities united under one banner against New Labour. In Luton he worked tirelessly to do this, but after a while the phone calls, usually complaining about the SWP, increased both in number and in volume. It didn’t work, but James tried the Socialist Alliance route and failed, whilst others did not try.

By the middle part of the last decade, James was part of a political generation on the revolutionary left that had been active for years, but had broadly known only political defeat, with the odd token victory on the way. Posting as ‘James Walsh’ on Meanwhile At The Bar (MATB), James found that generation in one place, all huddling together for warmth. Here people articulated where the left had gone wrong, usually because they had been there themselves, watching the SWP chewing up and spitting out young people, or relating their experiences of injustice when up against the party hierarchy.
James was comfortable and the odd flaming row excepted, in like minded company. Posters could agree that the left had so readily departed the battlefield of class conflict, to instead fight on grounds of race or spurious notions of ‘equality’ that all too often had no resonance outside of those who made the definitions in the first place. As the leadership of the anti-war movement (the CPB and SWP) decided that gay rights or abortion rights should not be seen as ‘shibboleths’ preventing work with Muslim communities, MATB members  low expectations of the revolutionary left were met in full. Those who would once have denounced James as ‘sexist’ for saying forbidden words like ‘cunt’ in conversation over a pint in the Dog and Bucket, were now to be found stood outside mosques, working with the British versions of Jamaat-e-Islami or the Muslim Brotherhood. And you lectured James on sexism?

A True Education

I guess it was some years after this, that things began to go wrong for James. Having been a van driver and a house husband, he surprised many by looking to become a junior school teacher. His temperament did not sit well with the educational authorities – all too often that left leaning ‘progressive’ middle class establishment that he so hated – plus he must have struggled with his dyslexia. From what I can gather, James passed the universities exams, but failed his placement, in effect closing the door to a teaching career. On education, James argued he wanted to see the whole community actually involved in schools – can you imagine what children would learn if we could tap into the experiences and knowledge of all their parents, and all the people in the community – it would knock the national curriculum for six. It has not happened, and whether Labour, Tory or Lib Dem, we are as far away from that as ever.

From 2008 I had seen less and less of James in person, although he still made the Anarchist Bookfair and his phone calls – often provoked by hearing ‘some idiot’ on Radio 5 or something he had read in the Weekly Worker – continued through until this year. The last time I saw James was when we travelled to Salford to represent what had been Class War, at the funeral of Ken Keating in Salford. By now he was working on an autobiography, even though doing so in your early 40s was, to me, absurd. The drafts he sent were often unreadable, with flashes of his old brilliance. He did not seem to grasp that the reader needed to be introduced to particular issues and individual actors – instead everything was head down, full rant mode. It was all too personal.

Driving For Socialism

It seems towards the end of his life his mental health problems were considerable, although in October I had an email that was clear and focused - I still turned to James when I wanted to know what was happening in Luton. If I had to sum James May up politically it would be to repeat Danny Thompson’s view that he wanted socialism because he believed we could do so much better than capitalism.  That used to be the dominant view of British Communists – their argument was once clear: imagine what we could achieve as a class, if we were working, not for a boss, but for each other? Somewhere along the line, be it with the Trabant or TV images of Romanian orphanages after the fall of Ceausescu, that expectation of socialism died. The moral politics of ‘equality’ and ‘anti-discrimination’ that the left had pushed in the 1980s, took over completely. But it never took over James. He still wanted that dream.

Years ago, James drove me to a Class War conference in Birmingham. He had just got a second hand Skoda, one of the few still on the roads from the time before Volkswagen took over the old Communist Skoda factory. He insisted on spiking up his Mohican, but was then faced with an insurmountable problem. The spikes, combined with his height and boots, meant he was now too tall to sit up fully in the driving seat. We drove the whole way, on the M1 and M6, with James’ head at a peculiar angle leaning to the left, his neck cricked to the side. I don’t think he stopped talking about ideas once during the whole journey. That was James, and it is impossible to think of him any other way. 

James May RIP

I know a few old Class War members still pass by this site.

I am sorry to say that I have been told today that James from Luton has committed suicide. He was 43 and leaves two children.

I am so sorry you did not make it James - thanks for all the arguments. 

Only In Hackney

If you ever wanted an example of what is going wrong in a borough that has tens of thousands of homeless people and an unemployment rate nearly twice the national average, consider this:

"Over the past few months, a mid-20th century factory, earmarked for demolition, on Tudor Road, E9 has slowly and painstakingly been transformed into a work of art by Alex Chinneck in association with Sumarria Lunn Gallery. People passing by have been doing a double take, realising that the original broken windows had been replaced with..... broken windows, albeit 312 identically smashed panes."

Spaces, issue 37 Summer 2012 - the newsletter of The Hackney Society.

I would really, really like that to be a spoof, taking the piss out of middle class artists slumming it, with too much time and too much of their parents money on their hands. But, anyone who has lived in Hackney for more than five minutes will know that it is real.  At times you realise this borough is more of a playground than a community.

 

Nick Moss Given Suspended Sentence For Illegal Immigration Advice

Some interesting characters emerge on the political fringe. 

One, who popped up in a series of organisations and currents, especially in the 1990s, was Nick Moss. Nick also used the name Nick Stone, and was based in London. He was a competent, if slightly pompous writer, who was particularly engaged in prisoner support, anti-fascism and legal issues. 

It is time for Nick to emerge out of the 'where are they now file' as he has received his second criminal conviction for illegally giving advice on immigration issues. Back in February Nick Moss recieved a four month suspended prison sentence from Westminster Magistrates Court - further details are outlined on the Home Office website.  

The current issue of Statewatch (Vol 22 no. 2/3) lists Nick Moss as a contributor, and an article in 2011, on the Statewatch website, covers one of the campaigns Nick attempted to push in the anarchist milieu, that surrounding Michael Stone. Has Nick declared the skeletons in his closet to Statewatch?

 

 

Pluto Plus Penny Provides Pap

I have just been reading the Pluto Press new books catalogue for January - June 2013, which I picked up last month at the Anarchist Bookfair in London.

Amongst their bestsellers is "Penny Red: Notes From the New Age of Dissent" by Laurie Penny. Counting the hours and minutes until pay day, I raised a wry smile at this line:

"Selected writings from a prominent voice of the new activist left. Reflections on being young, broke and angry in the 21st century".

Laurie Penny went to one of the UK's leading independent schools - Brighton College, and then to Wadham College, Oxford. She now writes opinion pieces for the New Statesman and the Independent. Lots of things could be said about her - that she is or ever has been 'broke' is not one of them. To paraphrase Ivor Bulmer-Thomas' famous quote about Harold Wilson - if Laurie Penny has ever gone without boots, it is because she is too big for them.

Why do Pluto insult potential readers with this rubbish?

Deleting Offensive Comments

I have no idea if the two comments made on this blog yesterday from someone claiming to be Terry Fitzpatrick are from him or not.

I very rarely delete posts either on this blog or the 9/11 Cultwatch site. I am however uncomfortable with people publishing telephone numbers (be they theirs' or someone else's) and unhappy at the intrusion of racist language.

To whoever is making these posts: there are plenty of things Lee Jasper should be criticised for - his race is not one of them. I will delete any similar comments in the future. 

The Red Action Archive

Digging around the other day for the source of the late Julie Waterson's quote about BNP voters being "scum off housing estates", I found myself searching in vain for Red Action material on-line.

Much of it can be found at the Red Action Archive.

With hindsight, I think Red Action were one of the most important developments on the left in my lifetime. The attempt to come to terms with being predominantly working class activists within a mostly middle class 'revolutionary' left created a similar dynamic to that which Class War experienced in the Anarchist movement. That tension produced some very, very good writing in Red Action, especially when it became a magazine - be it on Ireland, class, community and of course anti-fascism. Some of the critiques, especially of the SWP's anti-fascist front groups, or the security service links of Searchlight Magazine, landed knockout blows. 

There were problems, many of which brought about Red Action's rather stuttering demise. One of the things we always used to say in Class War was "you can take Red Action out of the SWP, but you can't take the SWP out of Red Action". Red Action fell out with virtually everyone they worked with over the years, and were never wrong on anything, ever.
This ideological arrogance (Leninism in practice?) sat uneasily with the open, 'back to our communities' approach of the Red Action initiated  Independent Working Class Association.  More generally, the long slog of community organising proved beyond the fatigue levels of activists who for the first time were going up against, not the fringe groups of the far left or fascist right, but the local machines of national political parties. Even here, the old Red Action soon surfaced, with Hackney IWCA falling out with its parent body.

Such of course is politics, and internal arguments become nastier and more amplified when the rest of the world is carrying on without you. I still read my old copies of Red Action (with the odd exception of some of those densely typed centre pages on Marx in the newspaper!) and continue to learn from them. Do check out their archive.

 

Carry On Hackney Lib Dems

A leaflet lands on my doormat from an unusual source - Hackney Liberal Democrats. 

Long strangers to my front door, they are objecting to the series of fire station closures planned by Boris Johnson. I guess that gives the Lib Dems a position of instigating cuts nationally, with their Conservative partners, but opposing cuts locally from an elected Conservative Mayor. As a policy farce goes, that is as daft as any Carry On film.

I have not blogged much on cuts. As a libertartian, I want people to depend on themselves, not the state. Working in the public sector from 1993-2005 hardly gave me a great degree of respect for it - much of the work I did was routine, depressing and pointless. It paid well, but I got a lot more out of the Employment Service, Strategic Rail Authority or the Rail Passengers Council than their users ever did. The 'bonfire of the quangos' should have happened years ago. 

Having known many people over the years who were pretending to be mentally ill, or alcoholics or depressed in order to be on the sick, I was hardly surprised by  Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reforms. In many cases those I have known on long term sick were working in cash in hand jobs where the pay was deliberately set low as the employer knew full well the individual concerned was in some way signing on. They, and their employers, have both had a good run for their money.

The problem with cuts, is they do not go on getting rid of Trident submarines but are aimed all too often at services that are essential, and cannot or will not be be cost effectively provided by the private sector. I have supported the Coastguard SOS campaign for that reason, and hope to see the Mayor's Fire Brigade cuts defeated. I just don't have much hope that the Hackney Lib Dems can be a mobilising force on the issue. 

A Memory of Julie Waterson

The Socialist Workers Party's Julie Waterson died on Friday, at the very young age of 54. 

For those of us involved in anti-fascism in the 1990s, Waterson was a permanent feature on our horizon, as she headed a series of SWP front groups and initiatives in that period. My abiding memory of her however comes from a demonstration that was starting out at Hyde Park, probably in 1994 or so.

Trevor from Class War had hit upon the idea of bringing Class War posters - I think against the Criminal Justice Bill - and stapling them over the ubiqutious SWP placards. As a few of this did this, I heard a guttural roar and saw the hefty Waterson physically throw her bulk at Trev, sending some of the placards flying. Having wrestled one, she withdrew, before turning to a comrade and pointing at me:

"Thanks for coming over, he was about to punch me, but he changed his mind when he saw you".

The thought had never entered my mind. As irritating, damaging and politically flawed* as Waterson was, I had no desire to thump her. That she was willing to invent such a claim though, is how I will remember her. And I suspect at this time many anti-fascists will have similar, equally critical thoughts. 

* Julie Waterson's most notorious comment was to blame the BNP's electoral success on 'scum off housing estates'. See the second letter in Weekly Worker 15 May 2003 on this.

Reasons Why Islamo-Anarchism Will Never Catch On

Hard to know where to start with this little gem:

 

 

 

We should punish Labour and Condem for their support of zionist barbarians by voting them out at by-elections #gazaunderattack #rotherham

— themuslimanarchist (@muslimanarchist) November 15, 2012

One wonders how long any 'Anarcho-Islamists' would have survived in any territory being run by Ahmed Jabari? Rotherham is probably considerably safer. 

Comrades: Let The BBC Sink

One thing that has already begun in the BBC crisis is the moral indignation of the left. 

Those that should know better (Dave Osler) and those that don't know any better (Owen Jones) are already in full 'defend the BBC from Murdoch' mode. 

Fuck the BBC. It is an elitist organisation run by and for people who know next to nothing of the lives of those who are legally obliged to fund it. Let the BBC, and its managers and senior presenters, sink. And lets get a few kicks in at the likes of Lord Patten as the ship goes down. 

For Remembrance Sunday

The Pogues version of  And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle. 

 

Where A Generation of Identity Politics Has Got Us

Well, you can't say the identity politics of left and right didn't bring results.

"It is depressing to think that 82  per cent of all non-whites in America voted for one political party, regardless of their age, economic status and social views."

Peter Foster, US editor of the Daily Telegraph, 8 November 2012. 

The Sun's Final Interview With Jimmy Saville

Full marks to Sun scoop Kate Jackson, who's 15 April 2011 interview with Jimmy Saville will probably not be at the top of her CV. Try this quote for size:

"Jimmy, one of seven children, says one of the perks of TOTP (Top of the Pops) was giving free tickets to his groupies. He says: "I'm so pleased they have brought back Top of the Pops because I can see all the ladies I got tickets for, who all rushed to stand by me on the programme. I think 'I wonder how she's getting on?'
"Tickets for Top of the Pops were like gold and as a single fella I would not miss the opportunity to ingratiate myself with the ladies."
A lifelong bachelor, he is still a compulsive flirt. It's harmless enough, though slightly unnerving when you're told to "walk away slowly" by a man old enough to be your grandad."

Do check the full article out on The Sun website before they take it off. The hard copy even comes with the 'Tickets for Top of the Pops' quote emboldened in red. Crazy times indeed.

When It Comes To MP's, Gerry And Nick Know How To Pick A Winner

I have been musing this afternoon on the downfall of expenses cheat Denis MacShane. 

Of all the MPs associated with the now divorced Searchlight/Hope Not Hate franchise, three of the most prominent have been Phil Woolas, Denis MacShane and Jon Cruddas. Lets look at these three in order.

Woolas breached the Representation of the People Act in the 2010 general election by making false representations about his Liberal Democrat opponent, having adopted a strategy of trying to 'get the white voters of his constituency angry'. Parliament stripped Woolas of his seat. Looking at the very dubious literature Woolas was ciculating in that campaign, it certainly seems this expert on 'extremism' was unable to tell the difference between supporters of Al-Muhajiroun - who were not active in his constituency - and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) - who were. 

Next up we have Jon Cruddas. A new Labour insider since his days of advising then Opposition Leader Tony Blair on the unions (one wonders what Cruddas told him?) Cruddas likes to style himself as an intellectual of the left, asking critical questions about race, nationality and Britishness. Unfortunately for an MP in Dagenham and Rainham - where such questions perhaps matter more than most - Mr Cruddas is more at home in the heady intellectual avenues of Notting Hill, where he provides a left alternative to the conservative Notting Hill set. Still, Cruddas does clearly understand the frustrations of those constituents struggling with the price of insuring a Chelsea tractor - Cruddas was recently banned from driving after being stopped in his Land Rover in the West End, minus insurance or an MOT. Keep saving the planet Jon!

And next we have Denis MacShane, the ex-MP for Rotherham. MacShane spent a lot of time on Twitter yesterday morning making various anti-racist statements. Whether this was motivated by his own personal beliefs, or the knowledge that he was hours away from being named and shamed as an expenses cheat (following a complaint orginally made by the fascist British National Party) only he knows. MacShane was forced out of Parliament after wrongly claiming over £7500 in expenses - why he was not prosecuted is a mystery to many. One law for them?

So - these are the three MPs who have been as close as any to Searchlight and/or Hope Not Hate. May I suggest, now the jump season is upon us, that if anyone sees either Gerry Gable or Nick Lowles announcing they have 'spotted a winner' you keep your wallet firmly in your pocket?

Did the SWP Grumble About Saudi Arabia's Treatment of Bin Laden in 1994?

I am currently reading Chris Harman's 1994 article "The Prophet and the Proletariat" published in issue 64 of the Socialist Workers Party's theoretical journal, International Socialism. 

Discussing radical Islam as a social movement, Harman sketches the position that in the 1980s the CIA and Pakistani intelligence worked with Middle Eastern states to send fighters to Afghanistan to fight to Red Army. Harman argues such fighters are now returning home to find that they were fighting, not for 'Islam' but for the USA. In Saudi Arabia:

".... the opposition now claims the support of “thousands of Afghan fighters”, disgusted by the hypocrisy of a royal family that is increasingly integrated into the world capitalist ruling class. And the royal family is now retaliating, further antagonising some of the very people it encouraged so much in the past, cutting off funds to the Algerian FIS for supporting Iraq in the second Gulf War and deporting a Saudi millionaire who has been financing Islamists in Egypt." (p.21)

Could this be the SWP's very first reference to Osama Bin Laden? Whilst it is not strictly true to say that Bin Laden was deported from Saudi Arabia in 1994, he was stripped of his Saudi citizenship and had his assets frozen that year, having left the country in 1991. Or is there another Islamist financing Saudi millionaire who got his marching orders from the Kingdom in 1994?

Jimmy Savile, Mrs Thatcher and Status

There is lots that could be said about the Jimmy Savile affair, but I want to add some comments on the role that status played in creating and maintaining his persona, and (presumably) protecting him from prosecution. 

Firstly Savile cultivated relationships with those at the top of society - politicians, the church and royalty. This brought him both Papal and Royal Knighthoods in his lifetime, and visits to the Prime Minister. Mrs Thatcher appeared three times on Jim'll Fix It  in 1976, 1983 and 1985 - an extraordinary indication of the way Savile was able to get the truly powerful to work with him. Interestingly however the claims that Savile spent Christmas with Mrs Thatcher at Chequers may be just that - claims. The exhaustive Thatcher Foundation website certainly records meetings between the two - about Stoke Mandeville and with an NSPCC official - but not weekends at Chequers. 

Savile's victims were broadly, but not exclusively, those towards the bottom of society - children in care, and those in other institutions such as Broadmoor. That pattern of offending is not unique - indeed it could probably be found amongst a small number of upper class men at any stage in the last couple of centuries. It is 'Victorian Values' personified.

Savile though had not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth - he had worked his way to the top. The addition in Savile's CV and key to his modus operandi was his understanding of that most twentieth century of concepts - celebrity.  That celebrity gave him another area in which to meet young women - the music business. It is probably outside the remit of any investigation that goes public, and not in keeping with the tone of the media's coverage, but my guess is that much of the sex Savile had in this setting would have been consensual, and lots of people would have known about this. Far more than those who had concerns about abuse. 

Savile wore his celebrity and work for charity as a cloak when awkward questions were raised. If you raise as much as £40 million for places like StoKe Mandeville - as Savile did - you change countless lives for the better. That image, combined with establishment friends, is a powerful combination. It is certainly more powerful than the status of a teenage girl abandoned in a 1970s care home on a corrupt little island like Jersey. 

 

Anarchist Bookfair Feedback

I spent yesterday at the Anarchist Bookfair in east London - the nineteenth London Anarchist bookfair I have attended in the past twenty years. 

The Anarchist Bookfair remains an inspiring event. If a martian landed on Mile End Road during it, our little green friend would see a vibrant, diverse and open movement that was determined to change the world. Whether our intergalactic visitor would be as impressed landing on Mile End Road a few days later is more questionable. 

I spent most of the day working on the Notes From the Borderland stall, selling the cuurent issue of NFB, back issues and having the opportunity to talk about NFB's research, my PhD and meeting current and former activists who come along each year to the bookfair to remind people they haven't died. Yet.

One consequence of NFB being public is that those featured in our research take the opportunity, not to discuss and debate with us, but to monitor and observe. People from both Searchlight and Hope Not Hate - neither group sympathetic to or interested in the Bookfair's ideals - flitted about during the course of the day. In the morning a young woman with ginger hair subtly took a picture of the NFB stall from the top end of the hall. When my eyes met her's - her face dropped. I do hope, for her own physical safety, that when/if this individual is deployed to monitor fascists - rather than anti-fascists like myself - she develops a more convincing persona. 

At the stall, some interesting discussions emerged. I finally got to meet Michael Ezra, who shared his obscure - but fascinating - knowledge of Gerry Healey and the Workers Revolutionary Party, whilst appearing blown away at the size of the bookfair. One of the ways the Anarchist Bookfair can be analysed is to compare it to similar events organised by others on the left - the SWP's Marxism Festival has celebrity speakers, but is now smaller and has always been lacking in diversity and genuine open debate. Attend both, and see the difference between hierarchical and horizontal approaches to politics. 

Via regular readers and subscribers, several new subject areas for the next NFB emerged, whilst the opportunity was also taken to discuss the nature and future of the English Defence League (who by the way, seem to have spent more time in pubs in Westminster yesterday rather than seriously trying to reach Waltham Forest) the Economic League and the monitoring of 'subversives' during Mrs Thatcher's Premiership. That in a way is how organisations and publications benefit from the Anarchist Bookfair - for one day of the year it least, it brings people together to openly discuss ideas. 

There were one or two grumbles. By the end of the day the building looked a litte ragged - the Gents toilets were barely functioning, and the lifts did not work. Having retrieved the boys from the creche (thank you to all the workers there) we ended up carrying the pram down the stairs, as struggling stall holders lugged boxes alongside us. I did not spot Anarchist caterers Veggies, who would have been a welcome alternative to the Starbucks Coffee in the University cafeteria.  Then again, survival is getting harder and harder for small businesses and ethical organisations like Veggies - they pay tax, Starbucks does not. 

And so, that was the 2012 Anarchist Bookfair. Here's to next year - and the hope that, at some stage, that little green man lands and decides to stay. 

2012 Anarchist Bookfair

For those of you attending this years Anarchist Bookfair at the Queen Mary University of London - come on in, the waters lovely!

I will be on the Notes From the Borderland stall today - I'll be the thin bloke - do come over and say hello. 

The Ongoing Game of Home Office Terrorist Threat Levels

Looking at the Home Office website today, and  reading several reports in the newspapers, the threat level from Northern Ireland terrorism on the mainland has been reduced to moderate. In Northern Ireland it remains severe. The threat level from what is described as 'international terrorism' is regarded as substantial - which means an attack is considered a strong possibility.

The downgrading of Northern Ireland terrorism is on one level rather odd - it is after all only a few months since we were being told the Real IRA and/or similar groups planned to attack London 2012.  And dissident Republicans have kept themselves fairly busy in N Ireland. Could it be any 'threats' to the Olympics were somewhat overstated? Sinn Fein, and parts of the Irish media, certainly think so.  Does The Guardian's Henry McDonald's Olympic eve story about Republican dissidents co-operating with each other now need to be seen in a different light?

The real paradox with 'threat levels' is however what goes unsaid. The occasional cases of far-right activists fiddling with explosives and getting themselves arrested show no sign of abating - by the law of averages one of these individuals, or possibly a small group of white supremacists - will at some stage construct and detonate a device, again, in the UK.  The Norwegian terrorist attacks conducted by Anders Breivik will have concentrated the minds of the UK Security Services and political police concerning fascist violence - yet any such thinking goes unmentionned in the Home Office threat statements. 

Similarly the term 'international terrorism' is in many ways a misnomer. If we are talking about the type of Jihadist attacks conducted on 7/7 or 21/7, referring to them as 'international' is pushing it - these were attacks constructed and carried out in Britain, by British citizens.
By a similar approach the various groups to emerge from Al-Muhajiroun in the past decade, plus Al-Muhajiroun itself, are recorded on the Home Office's list of international proscribed organisations. All despite the fact that many members of Al-Muhajiroun appear to have been born within sound of Bow Bells, and their focus is to install shariah in this country.  The Home Office though is not about to present us with a 'British Jihadist threat level' indicator on its website. 

The Home Office threat level needs to be seen for what it is - a bureacratic and PR exercise which pays lipservice to whatever 'intelligence' exists behind the scenes. We can be sure of one thing though. If there is a terrorist attack tomorrow, they will promptly raise the level again............

 

 

At Home Everywhere, and At Home Nowhere

My quote of the day comes from the Twitter account of The Free Association.

"At home nowhere (and everywhere), The Free Association is an ongoing experiment. A reading group, a writing machine, an affinity group…"

And that arguably is the core characteristic of the British middle classes. They are at home everywhere, precisely because they are at home nowhere. 

Two Paradoxes of British Counter-Terrorism

Yesterdays Telegraph had a piece on east London's Abu Basir al-Tartusi, formerly of the al-Ansar Institute in Poplar, who is currently fighting the Assad regime in Syria. You can view his website here.

Duncan Gardham's Telegraph article closed with a quote from a Scotland Yard spokesman:

"Public safety is our priority and we will seek to prosecute individuals who travel overseas in support of terrorist activity in any country. We also recognise the risk that violent extremism poses for vulnerable young people in the UK and we actively engage with communities to tackle this issue". 

It is never a good idea to make threats you cannot keep. Duncan Gardham states 'security sources' believe up to 50 Britons could be fighting in Syria. Does anyone believe the Crown Prosecution Service are going to prosecute 50 British Jihadis? Secondly consider the term 'terrorist activity' in that quote. It assumes that the Assad government is legitmate and that armed resistance to it is terrorism. Yet a succession of British allies appear to be directly supporting that armed resistance. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has named, to the United Nations, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya. He also complained about other nations assisting this rebellion - including the United States and France. We could easily add Britain to this list - £5 million was given by Foreign Secretary William Hague to Syrian rebels in August.  Given the 'non-lethal assistance' the British government is giving the rebels, can we really prosecute British Jihadists for going a stage further?

Secondly, it is amusing, although slightly disconcerting, when police officers adopt the language of social workers. The description of 'vulnerable young people' has always been one of the oddest, and most patronising parts of the Prevent counter-radicalisation strategy. Here, young British Muslims are treated literally like children, at risk from sinister older men who groom them for terrorism. Oddly enough in forty years of conflict in Northern Ireland, no one, on either the Republican or Loyalist side, ever seems to have been 'vulnerable'. We could say a lot of things about the people who were attending Abu Basir al-Tartusi's classes at Poplar's al-Ansar Institute. Vulnerable is not one of them. 

Luton Calling (Again)

For a please with a rather grim reputation, Luton appears to produce striking memoirs.

In 2008 Sarfraz  Manzoor gave us "Greetings From Bury Park: Race Religion Rock 'n'Roll" a reminder of the days when young people in Luton were, at least in his case, as likely to be influenced by Bruce Springsteen as Salafism. This weeks Camden New Journal has a delightful feature on Colin Grant's third book "Bageye at the Wheel".  A Farley Hill man, Grant focuses on his father, known as Bageye, and the Caribbean migrants of 1970s Luton. A car worker who could not afford to buy one of the Vauxhall's he made, Bageye hoped to make it make playing poker.......

One thing such local history gives us is the hope that what we have now, is not what we will always have. That is one thing I take from Manzoor, but consider this quote from Grant on 1970s Luton:

"I'd say that all the groups in Luton mostly rubbed up alongside each other without much tension, he adds. "In any event, we were taught always to take things on the chin and move on. Looking back at the relative racial harmony in the 1960s and 1970s in Luton the recent rise of the EDL there seems an enigma". 

The Most Expensive Public 'Convenience' In The Country?

The new toilets in Leicester Square charge a whopping 50 pence to enter. 

Even Network Rail don't charge that at its mainline stations. Oh - there is a Burger King and a McDonald's within walking distance, where you can use the facilities for free. Do so. 

The Art of Interrogation

BBC Radio 4 has a fascinating subject under consideration this evening - how best to extract information from the enemy.

In recent years we have had the American policy of waterboarding and the tedious philosophical question of whether torture is justified if you have the immediate task of finding a ticking bomb (instances of this, outside of James Bond films, appear rare) This programme takes a different approach.
Interrogators Without Pliers runs at 8pm on Monday 15 October and introduces us to a fascinating historical figure, Hanns Scharff, who interrogated downed pilots for the Luftwaffe. No tying up people with piano wire here however. Scharff instead looked to develop friendships whilst never appearing too interested in what he was actually looking to find out.

Interrogation it seems, is an art. Whether waterboarding is, I shall leave to others to discuss.

The Curious World Of Camden Lib Dems

What a strange mindset dominates some of the elected officials of the London Borough of Camden.

Despite all the things they could do something about (insert here the major social problem of your choice) they instead wish to make Camden the first London borough with an enforced, borough wide speed limit of 20mph.

In a test of one hours driving, a BBC journalist on this evening's London Tonight was never once able to exceed 30mph, and indeed spent most of his time at the 20mph level, simply because of the volume of traffic. On this evidence then, there is not a problem. No one is speeding.

Lib Dem Cllr Chris Naylor advises anyone against a new limit to "look at Camden High Street some time". I have - and all I see is traffic. The speed limit is pretty much irrelvant.  The Lib Dems are facing a deserved electoral wipe out at the next election. Lets hope they are not able to force too many of their more cranky ideas on Camden's residents - and London's motorists - before they do go.

 

New Media Definitions: To Savile

Savile verb:  To Savile is to publish an investigation, exposure or denunciation only after a powerful person is dead, and can neither sue nor answer back for themselves. 

The term came in to collective use in October 2012, after the ITV documentary Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile was broadcast on 3 October,  a year after the entertainer's death. 

Savil-ing as a practice however long predates this case. Perhaps the greatest Savile in history came in Moscow at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, when Khruschev denounced the crimes of Stalin. Legend has it that a voice at the back of the hall shouted to the First Secretary "and where were you when all this was going on?"

Let that stand as the approporiate respone to any Savil-ing that occurs, be it in the media or politics. 

Hackney: Where The Profits Are To Be Made

Housing has been a recurring theme of this blog, and of my tweets. The quote below comes from the financial pages of Monday's edition of the Evening Standard:

"Hackney is offering the biggest pickings for London landlords as prices rise and tenants look for cheaper homes within reach of the centre of the capital, according to figures today.
Properties in the Olympics borough have produced total returns of 13.4% since July 2011 after a 7.4% rise in prices and rental yields up to 6%, London lettings specialist Edmund Cude says".

It would be interesting to know how much of these 'returns' come from Hackney council tax payers, paying housing benefit direct to buy to let landlords.

'Inspired' by Owen Jones' Chavs..........

The October issue of Hackney Today, the Hackney Council propaganda sheet, lands on my doorstep.

It contains the usual Hackney People feature, which this month features Hackney actor Hywel John. He is behind the play Joe/Boy, a two part upcoming feature at The Last Refuge theatre in Peckham Rye. The play was commissioned in response to Owen Jones' book "Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class."

I am not sure Hywel John really gets class, which perhaps makes a play by him on the subject, whether inspired by Owen Jones or not, rather redundant. To quote from Hackney Today:

"Although admitting he went to public school himself, Hwyel adds "I'm not a massive fan of the traditional working and middle class thing, I think they are meaningless, especially in places around here where everyone is trying to get by".

I have not seen Hywel John act, but all I can hear in that quote is someone saying 'we're all in this together' in a very posh voice. Class may be meaningless to you Hwyel, as you 'struggle' to get by, but it is not to millions of other people.

Who do you think is buying those new build properties going up all around us in Hackney, Hywel? Judging by the prices in estate agents windows, they are not bought by people 'struggling to get by'. For many Hackney residents though, those properties may as well be on the moon.

How Little We Now Expect In Afghanistan

I missed today's anti-war demonstration in London, but note how little impact the Stop the War Coalition now has, despite the non-existent public support for our continued presence in Afghanistan.

That probably tells us more about the nature and approach of STWC than anything it tells us about attitudes to Britain's role in ISAF. An insight into just how low Western objectives now are in the Islamic Republic emerges via Peter Markus, late of the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUROPOL-Afg). Check this little gem out:

"Early in 2002, the international community decided to help Afghanistan rebuild its nation. Part of this nation-building project is the restructuring of the Afghan National Police and this is where EUROPOL-Afg comes in. Consisting of around 400 international police experts from 23 EU member states, EUROPOL-Afg is helping to train and remodel the Afghan National Police (ANP), turning it into a fully functioning police force that will be focused on the community and will operate with an acceptable level of corruption".

Nation building. Community policing. Acceptable levels of corruption.

There is no chance of delivering the first two. Anybody who has read a serious analysis of the corruption of the Karzai government will know that the third may be possible - if only because definitions of 'acceptable' levels of corruption are so elastic as to have no real meaning. And we expect British soldiers - and Afghans of all stripes - to carry on dying for this?

The quote above is from 'Afghanistan - The View From De Beauvoir' an article in the October 2012 newsletter of Hackney's De Beauvoir Association.

 

On The Tea Party

On the Independence Home website today there is an article by Lee Jenkins on why UKIP is not a British version of the US Tea Party.

I don't think its possible to make complete sense of the Tea Party because it is such a contrary beast, with a whole series of overlapping and sometimes contradictory concerns. It almost comes down to which Tea Party you want to discuss on which particular issue. What you can't do, is to leave out its conspiracy theory, which Jenkins does.

Do read his article, and my reply which is below:

I’m not sure its possible to discuss the Tea Party without reference to what’s been a core element of its politics – for want of a better term – its conspiracy theory.

Obama is a Muslim. Obama is, at the same time, a Communist. Obama is in hock to Israel. Obama wants to see Israel destroyed. Obama was born in Kenya. Obama was secretly married to a Pakistani Muslim man. Obama will never produce his birth certificate. Obama’s birth certificate is fake.

I could go on, but such contradictory, evidence free assertions have dominated Tea Party discourse, and have been one of the reasons why it has had such an unsettling effect across the US body politic.
The Tea Party appeals not to reason but to emotion, fear and loss. The real issues are US decline, demographic change, uncontrolled immigration, America’s inability to assert its will in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the economic crisis of working class America. Its probable there is no single answer to these questions, (and perhaps no answer at all to some of them) but what we have instead is the Tea Party attempt to make a political programme out of a blancmange of contradictory assertions.

That UKIP has (broadly) avoided being home for such elements in the UK is a positive. UKIP has avoided such characters, hasn’t it?

Ayn Rand Was Wrong-ish

In Ayn Rand's classic novel Atlas Shrugged, the productive sections of society, fed up at being held back by government and the unproductive, go on strike.

To some, this analysis explains modern life - those that can, are being held back by those that won't. And it is those who can, who are paying, via the welfare state, for those that won't.

Ayn Rand was wrong.

But perhaps not entirely. I spent three days last week working at a major exhibition in London. Each day some 3000 people came through the doors. They were all ages and ethnic backgrounds, although there was probably more women than men. Watching groups of people has always been a hobby of mine - from football crowds, to supermarkets, to the body language of police officers at a demonstration. You don't usually need to be able to hear what is being said to know what is going on - our communication remains more physical than verbal.

Watching this particular crowd I began to think it possible that our society may come to be sunk by the weight of the physically inactive on the neck of the active. There is no evidence pop will eat itself, but plenty that western consumer societies might. It is only when you see so many people in one place, and you think back to the crowds observed at public events in the 1970s, 80s or 90s, that you realise what an obese nation the British now are. And the effect of this obesity?

In a thirty minute period, I counted the following being used by people to get around:

Walking sticks, shooting sticks, strollers, wheelchairs, crutches, zimmer frames, double crutches, trolleys and mobility scooters. The venue had also paid for a team of medics to be available to tend to any health issues.

In each instance the person using the aid did not appear to be a pensioner. In some cases they were probably still in their 40s. Perhaps some of those individuals were recovering from accidents, or had suffered a past catastrophic injury. Some were no doubt born with a disability. Perhaps some had long term illnesses they had been fighting for a generation, and todays shopping trip was another example of how they were not gloing to let X defeat them. Perhaps. But the majority were simply very, very fat.

What has all this to do with Ayn Rand? Well, what happens when the grossly overweight constitute not a majority in our society, but even a significant minority? Just as there is a scientific limit beyond which population numbers cannot be sustained, there is presumeably a point at which the number of infirm people is so high we cannot care for them to the standard they have been used to? And beyond that, a point at which they cannot be cared for to a standard that maintains their dignity? Whether productive or unproductive, the obese are testing this societies sustainability in a manner it has never been tested before.

Ken Livingstone once said that if you want your children to be succesful, make sure they learn Chinese. Unless something changes, if you want your children to be rich, buy them shares in firms producing mobility scooters. Just make sure you sell your shares before the number of active people in society is overtaken by the inactive..................

The Women Tricked Into Sexual Relationships By Police Officers

Tune in to BBC radio 4 at 8pm this evening for File on 4, which examines the cases of eight women currently suing the Metropolitan Police and/or the Association of Chief Police Officers.

All eight had sexual relationships with men who were undercover police officers, infiltrating radical political movements. The length of time covered by these cases - 1987-2010 - perhaps indicates the scale of the manipulation. A BBC taster for the programme can be read here.

If you miss the show tonight, it can be caught again on the Radio 4 website, and is repeated at 5pm on Sunday 7 October.

Power, Putin, Pussy Riot and the Patriarch

It seems we can add the Russian Orthodox Church to the depressingly lengthy list of resurgent religions.

On Monday 1 October at 8pm Lucy Ash of Radio 4 will examine the power of the church, and its political and economic influence. If you want to know what Pussy Riot were fighting against - tune in.