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

Support The Jones Family - Sat 10 May 12 Noon - Stoke Newington Common

My day at the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival last month was not entirely wasted, as I was given a flyer advertising Saturday's "Don't Evict the Jones family" event in Stoke Newington.

Ricky Jones is the residential caretaker at Hackney's William Patten Primary School. Despite holding this post for 10 years, William Patten School and the Learning Trust have suddenly decided they don't need a residential caretaker at all - and will thus evict Ricky, his wife and 3 children.

Saturday's demonstration assembles at Stoke Newington Common, and will walk on to Clissold Park. E mails of protest can also be sent to the school itself - admin@williapatten.hackney.scho.uk

Good luck Ricky!

It Was Not Us - It Was All His Fault

I know it is cruel to mock the Socialist Workers Party, and I really should not do it as much as I actually do.

However (and that's a big however) I can't resist repeating this little cracker from the 21st April issue of London Student. It comes courtesy of walking stereotype Jennifer Jones, a 21 year old student at Goldsmiths College, who stood for the Left List in Lewisham and Greenwich.

"The Respect split was essentially George Galloway departing and taking a few councillors with him. I'm glad of the split in some ways as Galloway was always the negative aspect of Respect and the element people would criticise".

Jennifer - you really need to get out more if you think the only thing wrong with Respect was the gorgeous one - who it should be added, your party would have defended to the death just 12 months ago.

For the record, Miss Jones received 2045 votes, which was 1.39%.

The Falun Gong Debate Continues.......

Hello to readers from China visiting this blog, where it seems a lot of hits are coming from at the moment.

In January and March I reported that the Chinese cult Falun Gong has been rearing its ugly head in London. My comments have been reproduced on this Chinese website .

More importantly, the critical comments I made about both Falun Gong and the Chinese government have been reproduced, which is good to see.

Anyway, if you are reading this in Beijing, I hope all that smog clears in time for the Olympics!

There's No Fool Like A Group Of Old Fools

As Boris Johnson's victory over Ken Livingstone sinks in, we can no doubt expect great wailing and whining from those who saw Livingstone as some sort of North London version of Che Guevera.

Socialists can display a remarkable facility to self-delusion, something never better demonstrated than attitudes towards not-so Red Ken. It is hard to keep a straight face reading, with hindsight the editorial from the April 2008 Labour Briefing magazine:

"Socialists have expressed other concerns about Livingstone: a strike-breaking approach to the transport unions, support for the Metropolitan Police over the Menezes shooting, links to the Muslim cleric al-Qaradawi, his uncritical courting of the City - none of which should be minimised".

So far so good. Except for the fact that Labour Briefing then decided to ignore all of the above points, and call for an all-out push for Ken!

There was a time when the principles of trades union solidarity were sacrosanct not just throughout the working class, but on the left - any possibility of voting for Livingstone should have ended with his call on tube workers to scab during a dispute. Whilst it is no surprise Labour Briefing (and most of Livingstone's supporters) cannot see the dangerous waters his 'rainbow alliance' politics sailed into, 'red' Ken should have been seen for what he is many, many years ago.

Instead, so far have the likes of Labour Briefing fallen, they saw things in Livingstone that were never there. The only thing that really matters to Ken Livingstone is - Ken Livingstone.

Goodbye Ken - and good riddance.

Con.....fidence

Watching Boris Johnson's first press conferences as London Mayor, I was struck by the value of his public school education.

It gives people like Johnson, and for that matter Tony Blair and David Cameron the most important thing of all - confidence.

All three appear in control because that is what they were brought up to be from the age of at least five - in control. And that means in control of people like you and me. That control also requires the support of people who did not go to Eton - the first words Johnson spoke after the results were announced were to thank the Metropolitan Police.

Many people watching would have wondered why this was necessary - they were not told that specialist police squads had earlier cleared the area around City Hall of Anarchists protesting about the pisspoor nature of the Mayoral candidates. There were three arrests.

This process - of toffs and lackeys - will continue until the end of time - unless we do something about it.

Happy May Day

And no, I will not be voting today.

Has London ever had such a poor choice in a major election?

A crook (Livingstone) a Toff (Johnson) an Oxford educated cop (Paddick) and a Fascist (Barnbrook). The Greens are too middle class to really make an impact in much of London, whilst the decline of the Independent Working Class Association means they are not even standing a candidate this time round in the mayoral elections, and they seem to have little going on elsewhere. Lindsay German heads the inappropriately named 'Left List' - a terrible misnomer for a group of 'Socialists' who only a few months ago were sucking up to some of the more unpleasant Muslim figures in the East End, and I can't even be bothered going further down the political food chain.

Given the paucity of choice on offer, Anarchists can hardly argue they have been 'squeezed out' of the picture this time round. Lets see how tomorrow evenings demonstration at City Hall goes (6pm!) but in the meantime, here's a graphic that perhaps sums up how so many people feel.

Free Festivals Are Not So Free Anymore

Yesterday saw the Love Music Hate Racism festival at Victoria Park.

Changes
Thirty years on from the important Rock Against Racism carnival, things are rather different now. The east end has changed totally since 1978. Racial violence in Tower Hamlets today is more likely to be Bengali on Somali or brown on white. Bengali figures dominate politics in the borough, in all 3 main parties - something unthinkable 30 years ago. As if that were not enough, there is also Respect, a party whose MP has already declared his intention to stand aside for a 'local candidate' at the next election - I somewhat doubt he means a white working class woman.
Labour barely bothers canvassing in many working class areas in Hackney, Tower Hamlets or Newham, although the rapidly expanding middle class areas in each borough is visited with enthusiasm at each election.

Fronting
In 1978 Rock Against Racism organisers ignored the fact that the National Front were mobilising at Brick Lane, refusing to tell activists what was happening a couple of miles away in case it 'distracted from the day'. At least the The SWP has not changed!
Although the Anti-Nazi league logo was being used on placards, the Socialist Workers Party's current anti-fascist front group is actually Unite Against Fascism, the ANL has come and gone three times (by my calculations) since 1978! Each change has been a hierarchical, from the top down decision enforced upon the 'membership'. The numbers lost and disillusioned by such nonsense must run into the thousands.

Summertime - And The Living Is Easy?
One of the biggest changes though, was apparent when you entered Victoria Park. The highlight of London's summers was always its free events - the festivals and Carnivals in parks and fields across the capital. Here was an opportunity to eat, drink and be merry with friends in the sunshine, with very little in the way of rules and regulation.

No such luck yesterday. Whilst it may not have cost you anything to get in, the Carnival was far from free. Firstly you had to queue up to be funnelled through a gated entry system, with compulsory bag search. The sort of things you get all the time in Victoria Park - bikes, cans of beer and dogs, were naturally not allowed through.
I had a roll of gaffer tape I had absent-mindedly left in my bag confiscated, on the grounds it could be used as an offensive weapon (a decision that seemed to be taken entirely on the say-so of the steward. No lists were available of what could or could not be taken into the Park) Anyone with soft drinks was forced to take the lid off the bottle, apparently so they could not be thrown at the artists. Needless to say an on-site security presence was still required. Why? In case anyone should throw anything at the artists!

Tempting as it is to blame all this on the SWP/UAF, I suspect that would not be fair in this instance. No doubt every summer festival and carnival will be the same, a regulated, money driven closed arena - a depressing state of affairs.
Those who attended the 1978 Rock Against Racism carnival would not have stood for it. The question is - why do we?

Hiding Behind The War

The Camden New Journal and its stablemate the Islington Tribune are two of the best local papers in London.

A shame then to see the 24th April issue of the New Journal lapse into the sort of auto-leftism that does 'the left' no good at all. Check out columnist John Gulliver discussing Kurdish Iraq:

"There are at least two "honour killings" each day in the region; a hospital reported that over the past few years it has seen several thousand women burned to death in 'suicides'; in British controlled Basra scores of women have been killed this year for not veiling - all sure signs of a society brutalised by the war".

Gulliver based his comments on the views of a New Zealand medic, Dr Sandra Phelps. The conclusion appears to be that violence against women in Iraq is out of control under 'our occupation'.

I am sure Iraqi has been utterly brutalised by the UK/US invasion. But much of the violence Gulliver and Phelps discuss is not in reaction to the occupation, or even in reaction to the new 'Iraqi' government. It is instead the result of long repressed Islamist forces being given free reign.

I fail to see how it is Britain's faults if women are murdered in Basra for not wearing the veil - the people to blame for such dastardly crimes are the people who commit them - Iraqis (or foreign Jihadi's) acting in the name of a particularly vile strand of Islam.

We are in danger of sleepwalking into a sort of reverse Basil Fawlty here - where instead of "don't mention the war", we constantly talk about the Iraq war, and assign faults to it that are simply not accurate.

John Gulliver should know better.

Teaching A Generation of Potential Informers

This is probably the most depressing thing I have heard all year.

A friend who has just completed his teacher training to be a Junior School teacher, observed a teacher in the classroom attempting to restore order. Having told the children to be quiet, she demanded "Put your hand up if the boy or girl next to you was talking".

Many of the children then did just that, reporting their friends for talking.

I know memories of schooldays are selective, but I'm sure the rule that you never told on another boy or girl was virtually absolute.

Thirty years on we seem to be teaching children with the aim of creating a very different kind of society............

Debating the Brights and Secularism

Over on the Philosophy Dog website there has recently been an article by Meg Lee Chin about The Brights.

The gist of the article is that The Brights rejection of religion is as bad, in practice, as the conduct of those who do believe. Indeed they are portrayed as a secular cult. Below is my response:

Having looked at the Brights website, I may have to review my original opinion that they are not a cult.
They certainly seem to have worked hard to create a website that reminds me of religion at its very worst, right down to the dreadful fixed smiles, trimmed beards and Californian address. Dear oh dear!

Onward Christian Soldiers?
I think it is wrong to say secularists are always going round saying religion is to blame for war. Indeed in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is religious people (mostly Muslims) who wrongly claim the Americans are involved in a war against Islam. They are actually involved in a war for oil and geo-political power, little different to 1999 when the US was defending Muslims in Kosovo against the Christian Serbs.

The major wars of the twentieth century were not caused by religion, but they did show how facile religion is. In 1914 the soldiers of every European nation were waved off to war by their religious leaders, and all prayed to the same God to help them. Didn't do much good did it?

Time To Raise The Banner
If the Brights are a part of a growing interest in secularism, they will have contributed to a trend that is long overdue. Since roughly 1970 the world has seen a huge Islamist resurgence, with devestating effects on the status of women, trades unions, socialists and non-Muslims in countless countries. In the UK we have been fortunate to live in a society that has been relatively untouched by this. We may not be so lucky in the future.

Whilst Europe has largely avoided the sort of hideous Christian revivalism rampant in the US, Africa has not. The spread of AIDS has been facilitated by the reactionary views of the Catholic church, as well as quack idigenous beliefs. The very future of some countries is imperilled as a result. Returning to the US, I don't see how anyone can oppose George W Bush without noting the dubious religious elements that surround him, or for that matter avoid concerns that Obama will ultimately be de-railed by his religious affiliations.

If the Brights raise the flag to attack religion, they will have done our society a considerable service. The fact is religious belief IS irrational - as it cannot be proved any of it is valid, how can it be anything else? We should say so rather than pandering to competing religious interest groups. Whilst it is probably too late now for the UK to take a leaf of France and Turkey in establishing a clearly secular state, there is much to be said for declaring that religion is a private matter only.

But What Can We Do
One of the difficulties governments have when looking to legislate in this field (as you will have to, if opposing religions prosper) is that it is extremely hard to do, especially as most major religions deliver voting lobbies to politicians.
The big religions - like any corporation - try to keep the smaller fish out of the market place. But how do you, in legalistic terms, create laws that apply control to Scientologists and Jehovahs Witnesses, but don't interfere with the Church of England or the Methodists (to take two examples)?
All mainstream religions are simply successful cults - who can doubt the possibility that in 50 years Scientology will be bigger than some isolated Christian splinter groups? That at least will be poetic justice - a religion whose founder was actually CONVICTED of fraud makes a nice change.

No matter how irritating the Brights may get, they are unlikely to be as dictatorial as most religions have been. Up until very recently your religion was usually foisted upon you - as KRS One once put it to black America - if your slave master was not a Christian, you would not be a Christian.

According to you Meg "The question of whether or not there is a God is inherently an unfair question".

The question instead should be "What have we done to deserve God's followers, and how do we ensure they cause as little disruption to everyone's pursuit of life and happiness".......