there is nothing between us but a river of blood

the Bizarre Socialist unity Blog is at it again; from defending the Butchers of Tianamen Square and delighting in the murderous antics of Islamists, to ignoring repression and maligning human rights campaigners who dare to criticise any so-called 'anti-imperialist' dictatorship, and even wallowing in the bigotry of all and every religious bigot on Earth (except, of course Jews!), that arch crony of Galloway and apologist for dictators and thugs the world over, Andy Newman has been driven to distraction by a few Anarchists heckling and chucking the odd egg at Brendan Barber during a trot infested 'anti cuts' meeting, and has launched a witchhunting attack on anarchists who refuse to kowtow slavishly to the 'leaders' of the Tuc and 'bland labour.

The comments that follow his blog are racing into meltdown as all the bile of the stalinotrots against anarchists comes pouring out. Swappies and counterfirers, respecters and labourists all finding at last a point to unite over- hatred of Anarchism!
Long I have argued against the old lie that somehow despite our differences we are on the same side, taking different paths to the same essential promised land, that leninists are comrades too, if misguided.
They are not. They are our implacable enemies, who whenever they gain even the slightest taste of power turn their guns immediately upon those who refuse to put the struggle for liberty and human dignity under the iron grip of their party dictatorship.

addendum: In the midst of this witchhunting language against anarchists Newman includes details of how one may sign up as a steward with the TUC, clearly in order to 'deal' with us 'enemies of the working class'; it will be nice to know that alongside the pigs attempting to attack demonstrators will be the orange vested wannabe Stasi. Trotskyists are cops in waiting


James has done a sterling job of painstakingly attempting to reply to each of the nasty lies in the post point by point his comments are below

Well no doubt your take this down for being long. But I’ll reply on behave of the anarchist movement- I have no authority to do so, except myself.

I’m an enemy of the Labour party and Brendan Barber anyone who conflates that to being an enemy of the labour movement is the real enemy of the labour movement.

If Andy had wanted to have a decent critique of the Anarchists at Goldsmiths, I’d have started by poring cold water on the use of WRP slogan of calling for a general strike at the moment. It’s silly fantasy stuff. Or maybe he could could have tried defending the legalism of the trade unions- good job that such legalism isn’t respected in the middle east or Wisconsin. Some folk may think that the workers movement should be as sedate as a country club or nice cucumber sandwiches at Labour central office or number 10, I think that is a load of bourgeois values that should be dumped into the dustbin of history. Seems like you want TUC to a bunch of cops for ‘middle England’ respectability. Respectability will get you nowhere when the rich can be making money. As the torrent of individualist abuse on the comments prove the anarchists at was political and how does a little fracas at a meeting weaken the campaign? Tying your self to legalism and respectability is what fundamentally weakens any campaign against the establishment. But then again, the labour party are part of the establishment and so Brendan Barber and far too many in the trade union movement want to join him at that table or better called trough.

As to the infantile comments.
Point 2. OK lets talk substance abuse. We could talk about how about 50% of local trade union officials seem to be alcoholic gin soaked billy no mates, who use their position to hide from work and their ‘co-workers’ that their meant to represent. It just seems to be about having an office so they can recover before going back to their binge drinking. We could talk about the disgraceful behaviour at a friends union conference when drunken delegates abuse the catering staff. Anyway in my town we always left the glue sniffing to the lumpen proletariat and members of the SWP. Though the SWP have moved on to being just alcoholics now.

Point 3- Throwing stuff and booing is as near as a debate as is allowed at such rallies. Such speeches are no different than the bullshit of a stage managed rally the Americans get stereo typed for, but this country is no different except for less dancing girls. It showed commendable politics that they showed respect to the survivor of Hiroshima. As far as remember the feelings of the 150K audience was- why are these boring bastards droning on. Someone pushed in front of you at a bugger van (at least they weren’t veggies)- get over it, that is nothing to the rudeness and condescension that people like you talk at the public.

Point 4- is that disgraced Porter of the NUS talking? Lol- the misbehaviour was the greatest thing about that demo- it’s not like they where as cool as the French or Greeks, they know how to protest- the meek inherent nothing.

The Jarrow March was rightfully condemned by the CPGB at the time as cap in hand nonsense that achieved fuck all. A real march was the sort that burnt Luton town hall to the ground. That sentence he wrote says everything about the loyalist disingenuous rewriting of history that the labour party is all about.

Point 7- Neil Kinnock there is a real enemy of the Labour movement and the working class- now doing very well as part of the establishment gravy train. The miners had the right idea- except hanging may be too good for him.
So this prick has read a book about the Durruti Column, what a wanker. I could go on about the nonsense I’ve faced when selling class war from certain trots or how certain trots didn’t want to discuss there parties position on religious schools etc when I was on the anti state popes visit to London march, no doubt that will be counted as anarchist harassment as well.

Point 8. Some prick who doesn’t like people smoking and/or drinking. Your tea totalism is no threat to the state Mr Daily Mail. Where’s your great counter organisation of revolutionary over throw, lol.
You’d go down with out even a scuffle.

Point 9. No debate allowed. This poster wants to violently impose no debate as well. Copper of the movement, go buy yourself a brown shirt.

Point 10. Where is this ‘broad based movement’. You seem to want us to just follow the TUC like where their dumb soldiers (being lead to the slaughter). I want a movement like the anti poll tax campaign and miner support groups. As do all the ‘anarchists’ I know.

Point 12. Shall we have a look at the class background of the Labour Party- like Ed for starters. I think we should. Most of your sort stink of BO in my experience.

Point 14. As point 12. I can tell you Class War was when I was a member far less middle class than the Labour party or any other Left group. We could discuss the history of under cover cops in the trade union movement , it is thought that something like 1/3 of the NUM central committee was reporting to police during the miners strike.

Point 17- all ready covered- meek shit. How the labour Party always wants to disarm resistance.

Point 18- just to confirm that what they are mainly doing in Luton. I’ll give the GMB tops have tried doing a little outside that box, but the local official are bloody spineless useless non entities. The local PCS official has been good and one of the rail unions official has at least tried to some extent – that’s out of a town of 250,000.

point 20. Where is your credible alternative policy? Labour implementing 2/3 of the cuts the Tories propose? I have an alternative policy, it’s called socialism and full employment.

Point 21. What are you on? You ain’t going to do any fighting ever! And I bet you never have. Your a support of the Labour Party the loyal opposition that believes in caving in to the bosses law. What a craven two faced bastard.

Point 22- Very weak and not what you said at the time. Also point 14 called people coppers.

Point 26- My God! Something sensible. I could debate the finer points.

Point 28- we’re quite aware of your attitude- that’s why you won’t even be waking up in the morning come the revolution.

Point 29. Another labour Party dick. Notice how the Labour Party supports don’t even want to mention the history of the poll Tax, the miners strike, 1926 and militant marches against unemployment.

Point 30- clearly doesn’t understand what a flash mob is.

Point 31. I was a member of CW from about 93 to about 2007. I can say he’s talking shit for that period. How about some evidence- that wasn’t even credible hearsay. I do know a certain Union official in Norwich behaving like a nark and some evidence of a trot doing so in Luton. The whole relationship of Luton UAF and the police is very unhealthy. I do not know Ian very well but this sounds complete bollocks.

Point 32. Coalition of resistance is Counter-Fire not the SWP. Nice to see such well informed contributors to this blog. Lol.

Point 38. A ‘work makes you free’ merchant writes. Off to the Gulag comrades.

Point 40. Well it’s a rather self fulling definition of the importance of the TUC. Most union members are badly organised if at all, not surprising when the union tells you that membership is all about legal cover and cheap insurance. If the unions where organised they wouldn’t have need 6 months to organise a demonstration.

The last sentence is a moderately good point. But I’d think that’s one of those at Goldsmiths main criticisms. To a certain extent I agree with the unions that we should have been keeping our power dry and use the time to organise. I can say that Anarchists have been doing far more work , proportionally towards using that time to get organised and put over the message. The only ’socialist’ group who seems to have put any real effort in has been Counter Fire the rest have just been posing round the edges.

Point 41. Vote Labour- haha- that really saved us from the depression. It was a Communist front ( and all the better for that) that is usually called leadership which is something you don’t really offer.

Point 42- great point – I wish I was as concise. So do most others.

Point 44. Your point? South Africa- it is meet the new boss same as the old boss- unless your one of the tops. Which may tell where your coming from.

I always hate going to London specially when I’m going to droned at my some boring bastards. Maybe you should organise some legal and TV cover against the police if you feel people are afraid.

Point 45. I agree partly. I don’t think the unions are stopping the class fighting back. But there structure has disarmed the people .

Point 48. I agree- it’s a bit of a misnomer of a title. Unless you think socialist unity is about shooting anarchists, druggies and the work shy come the counter revolution.

Point 51. Aunt sally.

Point 52. labour mythologising again- Just repeating just makes you more wrong but does clearly show your role in trying to rewrite a pro loyalist history of Britain which is just make believe bullshit.

Point 52- What a patronising dick. That wasn’t a ‘working class’ view point. That was the view point of a labour party supporting pub bore.

Point 55- The Greeks have a real Communist Party- lucky sods! Not the meek yellow trud that claims to be in that tradition in this country.

Point 57/59. 2 million??- lol. Seems point 59 and most of those from the it’s ilk seem to believe in the propaganda value of a non deed.

Point 63. Socialists? Social workers with Gulags?
Point 67. She stood against independent workers control and for the control of the loyal opposition. Like most of the posters hear who miss call themselves socialist. Your party has just been in power for 13 years- and they where horrible. That’s being very over polite.

Point 70. What have the TUC done against the Bankers, I know what the Labour Party did- it gave them a bundle of cash hot of the presses. Anarchists have been active in the campaigns against the Banks and Tax avoidance of the rich something which I Think Bone’s blog often referees to. Your talking out the back of your head.

Point 72. I agree. Of course it’s a little more complex but still true. My old man was a leading trade unionist and half the time plus, he was sorting out the poor management of the bosses and doing their job for them. I guess you could say he was making the world a more human place but it certainly wasn’t revolutionary.

Point 74/77. Unity mongering is just another way of saying shut up your not allowed to criticise the ‘leadership’. Leadership just seems to mean who can get on the BBC and has bundles of cash. Both show that speakers at meetings they like are not about debate or even argument but for a few sound bites on TV and we are no more than non-payed extras.

Point 78. Now has a problem with white boys- fuck off you pinko social worker.

Point 80- let’s look nice for the BBC & daily Mail- get real- twat.

Point 79/83. Think that was some other tit from the EdL not Robinson. Coming from supporters of UAF who have offered to the liberal police against racism – I guess that’s where the Edl learned such talk. It’s the likes of these two posters who are offering to smash a real left of the street- but first they want to silence dissenting voices by not letting them speak and then they moan when they get heckled and call for a Stalinist policing of left criticism.
Yeah we’ve seen your sort before- wasn’t pretty was it and still isn’t with your sort of guy in charge in Libya.

I am sure that comrades may wish to discuss some of the finer points of cmde Newman's opinion in person, If they should see him at the march 26th demo

World leaders condemn Gaddafi...

cock

There are no shortcuts

There is a bit of an internet flutter at the moment amongst activists. Inspired by the example of the Arab revolutionary movements and determined that opposition to the cuts will not become yet another succession of A to B processions to listen to Tony Benn, there is a campaign to stay on in Hyde park to act as a focus for resistance.
I think that, laudable as it sounds, this is actually a really wrong headed attempt at short cutting the long process of building the anti condem movement.
The focus of public protest in Egypt and other arab/north african rebellions on the holding of public space reflects the reality of state repression in those nations; holding these central squares was simultaniusly a direct challenge to the state, a point of attraction for other protesters, a safe place for demonstraters to gather in the glare of international press, providing protection for demonstrators throuth strength of numbers.
None of these criteria apply here:
Hyde park is not a central hub, protesters gathering and remaining there are not a direct challenge to the police and state- they can be easily ignored until the pressures of climate, hunger and economics disperse all but the most committed.
It is not as if this has not been tried before:

Brian Haw has occupied parliament square for the past 7 years, at times accompanied by quite large numbers of people, at no time has he been more than a mere, somewhat embarressing, irritant.
Like the poll tax protests, the only way in which to defeat the cuts agenda is to make the rich fear, make continuing their strategy too risky in the face of mass direct action, bring the spectre of the Mob to the leafy boulevards of the Bourgeoisie.

Pope takes Mass...

some bears in a wood.


....The latest research from the Bureau details for the first time the full extent of Square Mile donations given to the Tories. It reveals that the percentage of donations from companies and individuals connected to the financial services industry has now reached more than half.

Last year City money made up 50.8% of all Conservative Party donations, a leap from 25% five years previously, when Cameron and Osborne took over the helm.

The City has donated a total of £42.76m since 2005. Last year City money accounted for £11.4m, compared with £2.75m when Cameron took over.

The revelation comes as the Chancellor’s move to increase a levy on banks was criticised for being inadequate....

children: a lifestyle choice?

On ITV this morning the odious Katie Hopkins railed against parents who complained at the rapid increase in chilodcare costs- "Children are an investment for your future, one makes a choice, one can have an Austin Martin or a baby, one can't always have both."

Let it be clear, I love my children dearly. But nobody ever told me 19 years ago that there was a choice.

From The streets of Petrograd to the squares of Cairo

In his History of the Russian revolution Leon Trotsky described the how in February 1917, when the police were unable to cope with rising wave of protests, the cossacks were called onto the streets, Trotsky described how when the protesters approached the army lines rather than charge them down the soldiers allowed the demonstrators to squeeze under the bellies of the cavalry horses and continue on their protests.
on the BBC the Egyptian army can now be seen in Cairo, their tanks and armoured cars forming a wall blocking off Liberation Square; and the soldiers allowing the demonstrators to slip between the wheels and tracks of them.
The revolution continues!
Updates
Paul makes some telling points of caution about the events in Egypt on his blog, in the face of some severe provocation from his resident troll.
whilst James on facebook rants at the hypocrisy of a left gaining hard ons at the heroics of people struggling far away whilst neglecting the bread and butter struggles of the working class here

"I'm fucking piss off with shitheads who just expect or hope for something to happen. Go and wank off - watching Gaza or Eygpt andd then moan about why nothing happens here. Shit doesn't happen unless some people make it happen- you fucking bozo's might as well be watching Britains got talent- the news to you is just another soap opera. Society of spectale."

absolutely spot on.
a friend on facebook asked me to explain what is the cause of these north african rebellions?

"I think that each nation has different reasons for the revolts, one might even say that each individual taking part has their own reasons!, however, it is clear that there are some common factors that cut across the entire region-
firstly t...he depth of the economic crisis, we are used to thinking trather parochially about the banking crisis, as if it only exists within the advanced western world; the truth is far from this, for millions across the world this latest squeeze on lending and downturn in the world economy mean a massive rise in food and fuel prices that mean hunger and penury are real prospects.
secondly the inability of the increasingly elderly and distant dictatorships of the region to understand and respond to the needs and organisation ability of a young and angry population.
thirdly nothing succeeds like success! the victory of the protests in Tunisia have inspired people across the region to believe that its is not only possible to protest but to protest and WIN!
We have become used to seeing the middle east as filled with men in beards do unspeakable things in the name of a 'peaceful' god; the joy of these protests is that what motivates them are the same as what motivates and angers us here- what has happened there is just as likely in Western Europe. The forces of reaction, whjether the stalwarts of the old regime or the bigots of the Muslim Brotherhood are completely sidelined by a youth who see through their bull."

Gaza Youth Manifesto

I may be the last anarchist to reproduce this, but it deserves repeating.


Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in; we are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom. We are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the rest of the world.

There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this energy into something that can challenge the status quo and give us some kind of hope. The final drop that made our hearts tremble with frustration and hopelessness happened 30th November, when Hamas’ officers came to Sharek Youth Forum, a leading youth organization (www.sharek.ps) with their guns, lies and aggressiveness, throwing everybody outside, incarcerating some and prohibiting Sharek from working. A few days later, demonstrators in front of Sharek were beaten and some incarcerated. We are really living a nightmare inside a nightmare. It is difficult to find words for the pressure we are under. We barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very effectively bombed the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and even more lives and dreams. They did not get rid of Hamas, as they intended, but they sure scared us forever and distributed post traumatic stress syndrome to everybody, as there was nowhere to run.

We are youth with heavy hearts. We carry in ourselves a heaviness so immense that it makes it difficult to us to enjoy the sunset. How to enjoy it when dark clouds paint the horizon and bleak memories run past our eyes every time we close them? We smile in order to hide the pain. We laugh in order to forget the war. We hope in order not to commit suicide here and now. During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to erase us from the face of the earth. During the last years Hamas has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behaviour and aspirations. We are a generation of young people used to face missiles, carrying what seems to be a impossible mission of living a normal and healthy life, and only barely tolerated by a massive organization that has spread in our society as a malicious cancer disease, causing mayhem and effectively killing all living cells, thoughts and dreams on its way as well as paralyzing people with its terror regime. Not to mention the prison we live in, a prison sustained by a so-called democratic country.

History is repeating itself in its most cruel way and nobody seems to care. We are scared. Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed. We are afraid of living, because every single step we take has to be considered and well-thought, there are limitations everywhere, we cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want, sometimes we even cant think what we want because the occupation has occupied our brains and hearts so terrible that it hurts and it makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and rage!

We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want!

We want three things. We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask? We are a peace movement consistent of young people in Gaza and supporters elsewhere that will not rest until the truth about Gaza is known by everybody in this whole world and in such a degree that no more silent consent or loud indifference will be accepted.

This is the Gazan youth’s manifesto for change!

We will start by destroying the occupation that surrounds ourselves, we will break free from this mental incarceration and regain our dignity and self respect. We will carry our heads high even though we will face resistance. We will work day and night in order to change these miserable conditions we are living under. We will build dreams where we meet walls.

We only hope that you – yes, you reading this statement right now! – can support us. In order to find out how, please write on our wall or contact us directly: freegazayouth@hotmail.com

We want to be free, we want to live, we want peace.

FREE GAZA YOUTH!

see gaza youth break out on facebook

the origins of Mosley's Anti Semitism

In both popular consciousness and memory by far the most dramatic and defining feature of Britain’s Fascist movement of the 1930s was the series of deliberately provocative marches which the BUF attempted to mount through the heart of Britain’s largest Jewish community in London’s East End. The image of Mosley in his black shirt, accompanied by ranks of paramilitary storm troops with marching bands, and a virulent anti Semitic invective which, for historians and political analysts’ of the immediate post war period, placed him in direct affinity with the fascist dictators of Europe, a potential Quisling, and directly associated to the horrors of Hitler’s Holocaust.
Since the late 1970s many historians have followed a narrative which was set by Skidelsky and also by Mosley himself; which argued that Mosley’s original conception of Fascism was not racist at all but modelled on the example set by Mussolini’s Italy and was thus free of Anti Semitism, and that Mosley had Anti Semitism enforced upon him in response to, according to Mosley and Skidelsky, the organised hostility of the Jews themselves towards Mosley and the BUF. Fascist anti Semitism was therefore made inevitable as a defensive measure. Historians with far less sympathy with Mosley than Skidelsky, have also continued to respect the Mosley/ Skidelsky narrative; Lebzelter agrees with Mosley’s old comrade John Strachey that “his (Mosley’s) Jew Hatred was 100% insincere”(1) and that Mosley became a prisoner of the logic of the ideology that he adopted(2). Mandle argued that Anti Semitism became essential for Mosley, as an explanation of, and excuse for, his own ineptitude: By no means could Mosley made mistakes, there was always someone else to blame; in 1930 the timorous and ignorance of the Labour leadership, in 1932 the ‘old gang’ at the heart of the British political system. By 1934, with Fascism’s forward march faltering after Olympia and Rothermere’s enthusiasm rapidly cooling he could not admit that he had “misjudged the possibilities of fascism in England and had bungled his campaign. Rather than blame himself, he acted in his customary fashion by conflating a minor opponent into a major cause of failure.”(3). Even Dorril, who provides much evidence for the presence of anti Semitism in the New Party and early BUF, suggests that Mosley increased his anti Semitism to pander for Nazi support(4)

Whether it was a result of the weight of Jewish antipathy towards the BUF, or the need to reinvigorate a faltering movement, or as a sop to attract funding from Nazi Germany all these explanations share a common failing, in that they relieve Mosley from being the instigator of his actions and instead make him passively reacting to circumstances beyond his control.
This essay will attempt to challenge the use of this narrative, which in accepting a chronology dictated by Mosley, has the effect, even when used by historians hostile to Mosley and ascribing motivations which he would not accept, of relieving Mosley of full responsibility for his actions.

Mosley’s adoption of fascism in 1931 made him a late comer to the ideology: By 1931 Fascism was a mature creature, it’s character was well defined both ideologically; in the writings of Sorel and Malaparte, and Hitler and Spengler, and practically; in the Corporate State of Mussolini, which had been in power for a decade, and in Germany, where Hitler’s National Socialists were the largest party in the Reichstag and controlled large swathes of local and regional government, and where Hitler was preparing to challenge Hindenburg for Reichspräsident. Fascist movements were growing in influence throughout Europe, and Anti Semitism was a common platform for all of them. Even Italian fascism, so often cited as an exception (most commonly with a note about the membership of the Fascisti of the chief Rabbi of Rome) was a deeply racist ideology, with, as Giorgio Fabre has shown, a distinctly Anti Semitic wing(5) (among which was Mussolini) .

Historians have tended to accept Mosley’s assertion that he gained most inspiration from the practical application of the Italian experiment, however during the months leading up to the formation of the British Union of Fascists Mosley and his confidents spent as much among the Hitlerites as they did as guests of Il Duce.

Mosley late adoption of fascism meant of course that he was not even the first to adopt Fascism in Britain; the earlier incarnations of British Fascism, the British Fascists and especially the Imperial Fascist League, were intensely anti Semitic.
Given the international character of fascism and how Fascism had been presented domestically, in Britain in 1932, for someone to declare themselves a Fascist was to unavoidably be associated with a political anti Semitism,
Mosley did nothing to prevent or discourage Anti Semitism within the NUPA, nor the BUF, on the 27th April 1932 he chaired a meeting at its HQ where Arnold Leese was invited to speak on ‘The blindness of British Politics under the Jewish Money power’. Nor did he impede the recruitment of open anti Semites into the NUPA nor the new union; From its formation ,the New Party had attracted significant recruits from both the BF and the IFL who provided the fledgling Fascists with a continuity of a fascism which placed the Jewish Question at the heart of its politics. When Mosley formed the BUF he approached the other fascist group inviting them to absorb themselves into the Union without qualification, Mosley is happy to accept into his, allegedly non anti Semitic, Union of Fascists the pathological Jew haters of the Imperial Fascist League.

Mosley’s BUF was therefore imbued with Anti Semitism as a fundamental part of its ideology from its foundation. The decision not to openly declare the BUF so, was a political one, derived from the necessity of courting, and maintaining the support of those, like Rothermere, who were willing to support Fascist methods, but would baulk at a nakedly anti Semitic BUF.
In this period the reports and articles in Action point designed to create a case for the adoption of an openly anti Jewish position- in publishing the Jewish names of those arrested protesting against fascist meetings, whilst repeatedly asserting that the BUF has no interest in attacking the Jews, they sought to present the Fascists as victims rather than perpetrators of violence, and thus to justify an aggressive anti Semitic polity once Mosley considered the time right.
This also explained Mosley’s “Rational Anti Semitism”, and his rejection of the strident Jew hatred of Arnold Leese, Mosley adopted the historic empiricism of the British Politician to anti Semitism: He was no blind accepter of foreign ideology, it was his own experience that informed his attitude toward Jews; no matter that Mosley’s version of anti Semitism included every facet of the modern anti Jewish conspiracy theory, Jewish financiers controlling governments and media in concert with Jewish communists, he did so whilst still claiming that he did not oppose Jews as Jews but instead for their actions and was therefore not an anti Semite.

From our vantage point as historians we look back at Mosley’s relationship with anti Semitism through the prism of the Nazis and the Holocaust and it is inevitable that we see it as being a movement which is derived from the political/ Volkische Right. However anti Semitism was a hatred that was not peculiar to the political right and neither was it a German import. It was in fact a common feature within English socialism(6) and especially amongst the Fabian and ILP intellectuals with whom Mosley had mixed with whilst a member of the Independent Labour Party.
Many, especially middle and upper class, individuals were attracted to socialism as a remedy to the damage that they saw modern industrial capitalism was doing to Society and Nation. They considered socialism to be a moral renewing crusade, in which under the enlightened leadership of the socialist intelligencia both the worker and the boss would benefit through working together for the good of society and nation.

Rejecting the rhetoric of class war at the heart of Marxism as being divisive and destructive, they sought to find an opposition to capitalism which would mean the reinvigoration of the nation without the risk of the class war and revolution. And by finding a common cause with the good, patriotic and socially concerned capitalist boss the crimes of capitalism become not the impersonal and uncontrollable results of an anarchic economic system but instead a conspiracy of evil men, bad bosses, with an international rather than a national loyalty. Jews, as the personification of, non productive, financial capitalism, were considered the natural enemy of socialism. The young Fabian, Beatrice Potter, wrote;"The love of profit distinct from other forms of money earning" is "the strongest impelling motive of the Jewish race" and that working class Jews, "Have neither the desire nor the capacity for labour combination".(7)
The SDF leaderships opposition to the Boer war was based upon it’s belief that that conflict was instigated by “Jew financial cliques and their hangers- on"(8) and supported by a “Jew-jingo press”(9)
One of the foremost theoreticians of Imperialism in the British socialist movement was John Hobson, whose major work was to form the basis for Lenin’s Imperialism: the highest stage of Capitalism who also blamed Jewish finance capital for the Boer war “leaving their economic fangs in the carcasses of their prey. They fastened on the Rand … as they are prepared to fasten upon any other spot on the globe”(10)
Within the left was a conviction of the immense power of Jewish money power Justice, the paper of the SDF claimed that "Jew moneylenders now control every Foreign Office in Europe"(11) that the press and the government were pawns of Jewish power: "Our leading statesmen do not care to offend the great banking houses or money kings"(12)

Long before the distribution of the Tsarist forgery of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion the British Left had in place all the essential features of modern anti- Semitic conspiracy theory.

Alongside such anti capitalist anti Semitism was the embracing by the left of the necessity of eugenics, Of the need to regenerate the human stock which Industrial capitalism had enfeebled. The arrival of many hundreds of thousands of east European Jewish refugees in the last years of the 19th century were an immediate threat to the maintenance of a sturdy race. Blatchford’s Clarion could declare that Jewish immigrants were: "a poison injected into the national veins", they were the "unsavoury children of the ghetto", their numbers were "appalling" and their attitudes "unclean"(13) while Bruce Glasier of the I.L.P. argued in Labour Leader that: "Neither the principle of the brotherhood of man nor the principle of social equality implies that brother nations or brother men may crowd upon us in such numbers as to abuse our hospitality, overturn our institutions or violate our customs.(14)

At the heart of anti Capitalist anti Semitism was the link between Jews and usury. In the medieval world Jews were both persecuted and valued; The early Catholic church had deemed usury, the charging of interest for lending money, a sin and banned Christians from doing it, Jews, free from such injunctions, became highly prized by the nobility, who were increasingly in need of converting their landed wealth into cash. The Jews were prevented by statute from most professions in order to ensure that they maintained their role as financiers. So valuable were the Jews that they were declared the personal property of the King, who heavily taxed the incomes that they gained through loan interest from the nobility:
“The system was one of Grandiose simplicity. The Jews despoiled the lords and the king fleeced the Jews. But in order to fleece them it was necessary to keep them there. That is why the king protected the Jews and encouraged their ventures with all the means in the royal power.
But while the King, in his capacity as representative of the state, was interested in protecting the Jews, we must not forget that he was, at the same time, a great lord and consequently one of their great debtors”(15)

Jews lived in constant threat that the servicing of the loans forced from them would become too onerous and their royal patrons decided to do away with them, pocket their wealth, and destroy their ledgers, which happened in England in 1290.
The rising cost for the nobility of the later Middle ages of maintaining a courtly presence resulted in ever greater need for cash which led to the increasing practise of nobles of pawning their tax revenues; thus was the image of the avaricious and greedy Jew added to the demonology of the ordinary peasant and burgher of the medieval world, who previously had only known the Jew as the ‘Killers of Christ’. The greater distance from the land of the aristocracy, increasingly absent from their domains attending court in the Capital, transferred popular discontent off the shoulders of the nobility and onto those representatives of power whom the peasant might actually come into contact and conflict with, the Tax collector, the Jew.

It is an impossible task to truly assess what spurred Mosley to adopt anti Semitism without attempting the type of cod psychology that a historian should try to avoid, however, it isn‘t pushing the psychobabble too far to see that someone with as clear and firm a sense of his destiny to lead as Mosley could only have been thwarted by a most dastardly and powerful conspiracy; what is clear is that Mosley did so far earlier than the present, generally accepted, chronology has accepted was the case. It is also appears clear that Mosley was sincere in his adoption of anti Semitism, and remained an anti Semite until his death(16). Mosley adopted anti Semitism when he took on Fascism, and then found that the Jew hatred that the BUF espoused gained them a constituency in the East End. It was not an attempt to shore up or enlarge the following of a movement that had run out of steam, but an essential core of the ideology which he had chosen to follow.
Fascism found in the Jew an enemy that was both easily to defeat in the detail and also never truly defeatable, the conspiracy theory was infinitely adaptable, and did not even need the presence of actual Jews to maintain it.
notes
1.Strachey, J. Cited by Lebzelter, G. Political Anti Semitism in England 1918-1939 Oxford 1978 p.104
2. Ibid. p.104
3. Mandle, W.F. Anti Semitism and the British union of Fascists Michigan 1968 p. 34
4 Dorril, S. Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism London 2007 p. 341
5. Fabre, G. Mussolini and the Jews on the Eve of the March on Rome in Zimmerman, J. D. (Ed.) Jews in Italy Under Fascist and Nazi Rule 1922-45 Cambridge 2005 pp.55-70
6. Cohen, S. That’s funny you don’t look anti Semitic: an anti racist analysis of left anti Semitism. London 1984 online version at http://www.engageonline.org.uk/ressources/funny/contents.html last accessed on 15/03/10
7. Potter, B. cited in Cohen. 1984.
8. Crick, M. the history of the social democratic federation Edinburgh 1994 p.159
9. Crick 1994 p.159
10. Hirschfield, C. The Anglo-Boer War and the Issue of Jewish Culpability in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 619-631
11. Cohen 1984
12. Ben Tillett quoted in Cohen 1984.
13. Cohen 1984
14. Cohen 1984
15. Leon, Abram, The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation New York 1986 p. 157.
16. Dorril p.642

Bibliography

Cohen, S. That’s funny you don’t look anti Semitic: an anti racist analysis of left anti Semitism. London 1984 online version at http://www.engageonline.org.uk/ressources/funny/contents.html last accessed on 15/03/10
Crick, M. the history of the social democratic federation Edinburgh 1994
Dorril, S. Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism London 2007
Holmes, C. Anti- Semitism in British society 1876-1939 London 1979
Hirschfield, C. The Anglo-Boer War and the Issue of Jewish Culpability in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 619-631
Lebzelter, G. Political Anti Semitism in England 1918-1939 Oxford 1978
Leon, Abram, The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation New York
Linehan, Thomas, P. British Fascism 1918-39: Parties ideology and culture Manchester 2000
Mandle, W.F. Anti Semitism and the British union of Fascists Michigan 1968
Zimmerman, J. D. (Ed.) Jews in Italy Under Fascist and Nazi Rule 1922-45 Cambridge 2005

No shit, Sherlock!

at the insistence of Simon I believe that it should be mentioned that I am no longer a member of the Labour Party.
I have previously explained why I joined in the first place; Labour's defeat in the election wiped out that reason, however I did not leave, reasoning that there were grounds to believe that opposition to the condems might be found from within Labour; that proved to be an illusion.

I had thought about a grandstanding letter of resignation, as if my actions or beliefs would have the slightest influence over 'Bland and the hard hitting parliamentary opposition that he leads(?) so well(?).
instead I simply allowed my membership lapse and got on with the business of opposing the Condemmers.
There was no actual "right, thats enough I'm out!" moment, in fact the total absence of anything at all from the Labour party throughout the summer and autumn in terms of oppostion was the largest factor in my decision. Once the autumn came and the local council cuts were being announced our local party's response was: a fully worked out proposal for an alternative agenda of cuts.
the failure of Labour to do anything but condemn the student protests was unsurprising, but their alibiing of Liberals (in the hope of enticing some across to their ranks) as prisoners of the conservatives rather than as the enthusiastic instigators of the cuts agenda stinks of cynical helplessness.
The student protesters, and especially the EMA kids, have done more in a few weeks to break the Coalition than 'Bland Labour has in 9 months.

scaring the horses

OH! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!--Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!
When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,
When most intent on making of herself
A prime Enchantress--to assist the work,
Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,
The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
(As at some moment might not be unfelt
Among the bowers of paradise itself)
The budding rose above the rose full blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!
They who had fed their childhood upon dreams,
The playfellows of fancy, who had made
All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength
Their ministers,--who in lordly wise had stirred
Among the grandest objects of the sense,
And dealt with whatsoever they found there
As if they had within some lurking right
To wield it;--they, too, who, of gentle mood,
Had watched all gentle motions, and to these
Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more mild,
And in the region of their peaceful selves;--
Now was it that both found, the meek and lofty
Did both find, helpers to their heart's desire,
And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish;
Were called upon to exercise their skill,
Not in Utopia, subterranean fields,
Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where!
But in the very world, which is the world
Of all of us,--the place where in the end
We find our happiness, or not at all!

Muriel Morris is our friend, is our friend.. she makes sarnies

hats off to Muriel Morris, who has single handed put off the streets and into the kharzi 50 of Birmingham police's finest porkies.
as the PA reports:

A pensioner whose sandwiches poisoned 47 police officers has been given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to obey a one-month night-time curfew.


Food safety officials said 70-year-old Muriel Morris received a four-month jail term, suspended for a year, and was ordered to pay £16,482.70p in costs.

Birmingham City Council, which prosecuted Morris for four breaches of food hygiene law, launched an investigation into the poisoning outbreak after nine officers were taken to hospital during an English Defence League demonstration near New Street station in July 2009.

The city's magistrates' court heard that tests conducted on the sandwiches established they had been provided by Morris, of Dorrington Green, Great Barr, Birmingham.

Morris pleaded guilty to four offences relating to the Meal Machine cafe in Nechells, which she no longer runs.

An investigation by the council's food safety team established that officers were given sandwiches provided by Meal Machine at three briefings during the EDL protest and a counter-demonstration.

A West Midlands Police spokesman confirmed that 47 officers experienced the effects of sickness, with several requiring hospital treatment for dehydration.

"Contingency planning measures were implemented to ensure that normal policing business could continue as the protest came to an end," the spokesman said.

Commenting on the prosecution, Neil Eustace, chairman of Birmingham's Public Protection Committee, said officers had been left extremely ill by the serious offences.

"Environmental health officers were rightly appalled by the lack of regard for the health of customers shown by Ms Morris and moved quickly to shut the premises," he said.

nice one. And Bon Appetit!
thanks to mrs redstar who still doesn't trust Tuna

Fitwatch 1 MET 0

Fitwatch is back, better and secure from arbitary state repression
check it out here: http://www.fitwatch.org.uk/

Lifeform to wed lifeform

I genuinley believed that I had matured, that long gone were the days when I proudly wore my 'Noddy marries big ears' badge and laughed at the 'Parasite marries Scrounger' headlines; after all, decades have passed, William actually seems to be doing a job ( although having Granny as his boss probably means never having to worry about being late in on a Monday).
Kate Middleton even comes into the supermarket that I work at (My mate is always pointing her out to me though up to now I didn't know who she was.).
However it is now less than 8 hours since the engagement was announced, and I realise that we are facing another 8 FUCKING MONTHS OF THIS SHIT!!!
Bring on the Guillotine

Stop the Internet repression- defend Fitwatch

This is the piece which led to the Fitwatch website being suspended – please circulate spartacus style (lifted from jonnyvoid and available everywhere;-))

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.
There are an encouraging number of intiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .
This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.

51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.

Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:

If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.

If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.
DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.
DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.
DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.
DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.
DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.
DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.
DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.
DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.
DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal. Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.

This post is also available on google at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qv4goBQOpDYJ:www.fitwatch.org.uk/+fitwatch&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

Honouring the dead, pissing on the living

Yesterday we went up to Brock Barracks to take part in the Remembrance Service.
Among the local military and civic groups laying wreaths at the monument were two shady types in dark suits:
Rob Wilson MP and Alok Sharma MP- the Conservative MPs for Reading East and West Respectively.
Whilst they made show of paying their respects for the dead of Britains wars, they and the Government they support are pissing on the living.
The Government has announced that rises in Army pensions; which includes payments to widows and those maimed will now on be linked to the Consumer Price Index, rather than the Retail Price Index that had previously been the case.
By not including housing costs in the calculations: "The Forces Pensions Society calculates that the change, which affects forces pensions and annual Guaranteed Income Payments, means a 34-year-old wife of a staff sergeant killed in Afghanistan, for example, would be almost £750,000 worse off over the course of her lifetime.

A corporal who lost both legs in a bomb blast would miss out on about £500,000 in pension and benefit-related payments"
the Government responds by declaring that MoD pensioners should not be treated differently from the rest of the public sector.
This must be a great comfort when having ones limbs blown off by a IUD in Helmond.

We have no demands to make of NUS president Aaron Porter except to FOAD. Behold your future executioners.

A guest post from Capt. Bollocks
The demonstration against the government cuts to education and the raising of the cap on student fees jointly organised by the NUS and lecturer’s unions (UCU) on November 10th lead news reports that day and many following days.

The demonstration was officially a response just to the attacks on higher learning in England and Wales. It has gained a wider significance as the attacks on the students (and their parents) have been seen as the rolling back on the state providing for the needs of all its citizens. Initially the organisers expected about 8000 to attend which would have a good turnout for what the NUS have organised for about 20 years. Due to zeitgeist (spirit of the times) the demonstration obtained far larger numbers despite the NUS’s inability to organise a piss up in a brewery.
An occupation of the Tory party central offices in Millbank had been planned by London Anarchist students and successfully executed. The march had finished 10 minutes from the conservative party offices. Word went round amongst some of the demonstrators to make their way to the Tory and Lib-Dem offices while most people where heading that way to get transport. The students outside the building then had to make a conscious effort to choose to remain there. The crowd had not been co-opted by the Anarchists. If anyone was co-opted, it was the Anarchists being co-opted by the students. The crowd rallied to call. While maybe not quite the storming of the Winter Palace it was still a great inspiration to those who are sick of us living on our knees. (little joke here- you should get on your knees for someone you love- and certainly do not love our government and bosses).
SUBSERVIENT
The NUS condemned the action of the demonstrators as soon as they happened. They condemned the action not just because of its lawlessness and but also because of their subservient nature. The leadership of the NUS does not want wider links to be made to other government cuts. They think university students should be considered a special case. They see themselves and other students as middle class people who can appeal to government’s shared middle class identity. They are out of kilter with a vast number of students who have working class identities.
What would the NUS leadership consider a success in the campaign against proposed government changes? The government to look at the figurers again, so as to make some minor adjustments. Better still for the NUS would be the new system of fee’s only being payable for new students. Just like many a trade union allows new workers to be employed on contracts that give the new workers poorer conditions or ruminations. The history of the NUS is about as woeful as can be imagined. Many of the people attending the demonstration are youngsters from pre-university age. Does the NUS seek to organise the future users? Of course not. Their interests may conflict with those of present students. The NUS wants to see its members as individuals with atomised interests not part of a wider society. This seems more than a bit cheeky as they want wider society to pay for their education. The wider working class doesn’t mind paying for education if it is provided reasonably broadly and working class kids a chance to improve themselves.
The last thing that appears to be on the mind of NUS leadership is defending the students arrested on that day, those students are representative of those who wish to rise up against the government attacks on our standards of living. The only interests the NUS leadership represent is their own, they have been shown to hold their membership in content and seem to have little regard for them when facing the adversity of having a criminal record.
Motions
The leadership of NUS is only interested of appearing to go through the motions, god forbid anyone take protest seriously. Their middle class sensibility views militant action as uncouth. Mr Porter has proposed more lobbying and regards the behaviour on the 10th November as something that will undermine his ability to have a quite discussion over a glass of port with Tory ministers. Any concessions will still turn university fees into a massive milestone to any working class and many class middle people who attempt to go to university.

The BBC made the ridiculous accusation to the student’s president of University of London of having no right to be at the demonstration as she is not a student, not a charge the BBC have levelled at Aaron Porter. This line of questioning was only directed at those who supported unlawful actions. The BBC and leading newspapers partially the Sun, Mail and Telegraph have been at pains to give the impression that it was not students who were motivated for confrontation but the usual suspects. The witch hunt which has been called for by the likes of Boris Johnson has had energetic support from such reactionary toilet paper producers. The campaign to grass working class heroes has not met with complete success as many bogus identifications have been sent to the narks of our establishment. We can expect no impartiality from the likes of these lickspittles.
naivete
The most disappointing aspect of the day for partisans of the working class has been the amount of arrests. While much pluck was shown by the young, there was a far degree of naivety was on display.
It is a time for the lessons of past to passed onto a new generation.
*It was depressing to see Tory party workers photographing and filming protestors who had failed to masked-up. It was always found back in the nineties effective to explain calmly that we and our friends did not give permission to have photo’s taken; And that not respecting our wishes would at a minimum lead to a broken camera. The BBC seemed to think they deserved special licence – we explained this was not the case.
*Hoods came into fashion as CCTV came into fashion.
*Just like the Police we chose to dress the same as one another.
*Those folk who stand around, they also give good service to the cause, not everybody is the sort who can get ‘stuck in’. But they need to hide the combative folk and not give sucker to the grasses who only seek respectability.

Rebellion and defiance will never be respectable for such folk, they accept the ruling class ideology usually through having an uncritical nature.

Most NUS branches are no more than drinking clubs for frat boy and girl boorish sports team member’s and a training ground for those who see a role for themselves in middle management. Many SU’s even ban the discussion of politics at their meeting. While almost all the leaders of NUS see themselves as our potential ruling class. One year Jack Straw is enjoying a big joint as NUS president and then in government he is criminalising huge swaths of the population and dumping them in prison. There has been a move by the NUS leadership to keep parents out of the campaign against the government cuts, such professionals are trying to keep people out that will have knowledge of how such organisations are run, so they can maintain their control and manage protest for their own careerist ends.
Demonstrators need to be careful not to up the ante in unwise fashion. We also have a duty of care to the wider public. That is why we could claim with pride when the police accused May Day demonstrators of endangering the public that no workers got hurt when shops got done over on the May Day events. While we can show how the police brutality not only ups the ante but kills people going home from work and going to work on the tube. The lad who through the fire extinguisher from the roof was being rather silly and his comrades should have prevented him from doing it. The crowd did call on the occupiers to stop throwing things and they did stop. This shows how the occupiers where not about acting wily-nilly without regard to the concerns of those who showed solidarity with their actions.
Revolutionaries should not let themselves me held back by the passive but they should show due regard to those they seek to appeal to. This is also one of the important reasons that protestors who wish to be combative need to have friends around them that they can trust, in a crisis only the people than have a personal bond will generally look out for you while there is chaos around them. This is best way of preventing yourself from doing anything silly, getting arrested or badly hurt.

*Then there are the silly little bits of know how- like kicking the windows in at the corners not the middle.
*Having clothing that does not mark you out but can be turned into a disguise later is handy.
* Or how the police when trying to ‘kettle’ a demonstration walk into people’s body space so they instinctively move back, people need to show the self awareness and resist this behaviour of the police.
* A police shield can be a two-way tool- and is a very amusing way of giving someone a bad day.
Fruit Cakes and Ketamine
What I would have loved to have seen is a five day rave with every fruit cake in London out of head on ketamine or poison of choice all in the way of the police like a sea of zombies, so the police could not give the Tories back the building. As Jasper Carrot pointed out many years ago- they all used to hang around with the lefties because they had the best grass.
Students will not learn such lesson from their lecturers. Universities and schools are to teach you how to be a productive exploitable unit with just enough thinking power to make more profits for the ruling class. It is not to teach you how to over throw the masters. That does not mean we cannot take lessons and reapply them to a different agenda. Students you will not read the answers you need in the sort of academic books that university consider suitable to for referencing, unless your studying riot control maybe...
Your Lecturers are not qualified to teach you to protest.
When those who critise the ‘violence’ and to be honest there was very little, the reply is, far more is deserved for the Tory party and the police. We will always attempt to get away with what we can if we see it as not counter-productive to our cause. It is generally the nature of British people not to make a fuss and a scene. The government will keep pushing back our privileges and that is all our ‘rights’ are if we are unprepared to defend them.
When the TUC say we need to be more like France or Greece all they mean is safe meaningless demos and strikes that go through the motions. What distinguishes those combative proud working classes from us in the UK is that they know it means occupations and not letting the police push you around with a wave of their hand or stick.
Let’s face it being prepared to stand up for ourselves collectively and refusing to be pushed around is the only language they will only ever listen to. Bullies and thieves do not back down after some meek pleading. The meek will inherit nothing. They will drive us to soup kitchens and begging if they the government can get away with it.

redemanding the impossible!

over the past year or so I have somewhat drifted into the realms of respectability and possiblism, allowing my distaste for Trotskyism and dispair at the collapse of the Left to lead me into accepting in some measure the political perspectives of Reformism (even, as I am sure comrades will be sure of constantly reminding me for years to come, taking up a Labour Party Card in the run up to the last election).
However, fickle creature that I am, it does not take much to bring me back to sanity, one afternoon of inspired direct action from the kids has me reembracing the old black flag and spurning the tempations(?) of 'Bland Labour (To be truthful, I voted for Balls, both for the slogan opportunities, and as he appeared the only one who actually seemed to understand the need to Oppose the bastards).
I think that a major cause of my slide into despair has been my 'addiction' to two of the more baleful sites available on the interweb- socialist unity blog and harrys place. SU blog was formed by a group of former SWP members who came together in the socialist alliance, all have fled except for Andy Newman and the site has become the repository for every shite aspect of 'the left'; in the name of Anti Imperialism, the SU has cheerleaded the actions of the Iranian Govt., the chinese govt.,and even the Russian federation for fucks sake! Obsessed with 'islamophobia' and Anti Zionism to the point of holding the fascists of Hamas and Hesbollah as examplars the SU represents everything that stinks about the left in Britain.
Harrys place was the nemesis of SU blog; originally a clearly social democratic blog which placed itself centrally in the left and stood against the madness of the left's Islamophilia and sucking up to the 'resistance', and had a rather dodgy readership. Now the lefties have all moved on and the dodgy readers have taken over-
since the election the blog has become an openly tory site- attacking strikers and protesters and defending tory scum.

from now on I will bash myself around the head with my copy of Bakunin's "Hair Tips and Beard Styles for Beginners" everytime I am tempted to click on those links

the kids are alright

Make the tory/lib Cunts fear!
Yesterdays domonstration was fantastic and have the lie to those who would write off todays young people as unpolitical and apathetic. the university and FE students who demolished the tory HQ instinctively understood the only way to stop the coalitions campaign of cuts and attacks on our class- make them Understand that every cut every criminalisation of the poor will be met by class anger and mass resistance, and that very single one of them will be held personally responsible for the consequences of their policies!

TORY HQ RIOT : REPORT FROM CLASS WAR STUDENTS

as a layabout post graduate I was variously otherwise employed yesterday and so once again missed out on a decent demonstration and so I have ripped the following shamelessly from Ian Bones blog:
TORY HQ RIOT : REPORT FROM CLASS WAR STUDENTS
I’ll be putting my own account of the day up later but in the meantime here’s a report from Leeds Class War students:

‘Was good to see you on the demo today, thought i’d share some thoughts for you to use in a write up tomorrow. First and controversially i want to give credit where it is due to the student members not only of the SWP but also of the other “trot” student groups. I’m not one to usually say this as the SWP are a hundred times more annoying to deal with in the small pond of the university than they are in the real world. But these comrades, and I today have no difficulty calling them comrades, actually followed their words with deeds and got stuck in with the rest of us, paper sales forgotten. Today these people acted like class conscious students and not like the pawns of their political cliques and I only hope they can keep it up.

Secondly and to some equaly controversially, i am pleased to say that the anarchos and libertarians were completely out done by our “non-political” fellow students. I don’t want to sound all wanky and go on about Temporary Autonomous Zones but something did seem to happen when that glass broke, it seemed that peoples inhibitions smashed with it. We all suddenly came to realise that the police were not only out numbered but out manoeuvred and out gunned. Students baring placard with slogans like “I only popped out for a pint of milk” were in no time at all happily breaking them over the heads of the nearest copper. And the first chant that these silverspooned students began after the doors went down and people got inside: “burn it down!-burn it down!- burn it down!” We realised that we not only controlled the entire building but also the square in front of it and the road it was on, the police were kettled in by us! Fires started to appear as people began stripping the card board from their placards in order to pass the wooden sticks to the front line burning the resulting piles. As the smoke rose so did the song (which leeds class war students did have the honour of singing first at the millbank) sing along with me: “build a bonfire, build a bonfire but the tories on the top! Put the libdems/coppers/bosses in the middle and we’ll burn the bloody lot!”. The samba band was met by a huge cheer, seriously, and believe me comrades there is nothing better than fighting against a police line with a tribal drum beat at you back.
Throwing shit at copper quickly became a student game, the scoring as follows: 10 points if you throw something and you hit a cop 20 points if you take a swing at one 50points if your blow/object hurts 100 points for blood/hospitalisation with bonus points awarded for the stealing of trunchions shields and helmets. We were a bit unsure of what to do with the truncions and helmets one we had them not finding them very effective against the cops body armour so these too became projectiles.
At the climax it started to snow. Students from the roof had located large foam fire extinguishers and set them off from the top of the building, dubstep blaring from the bike sound sytems and chants and songs rippling across the crowd the violence against the building and the coppers seemed to become part of the dance, quite litterally in some cases, students would dance in the buffer zone infront of the police only to finish their set with a well aimed kick punch of lugie to the face of a cobble stone through a window. as soon at the fire extinguisers were empty these too became weapons hurled down from the roof on the heads of the coppers forcing them to retreat under the awning of the building allowing the students to tighten their corden around them.

Bouncing along to a samba beat with an in time rendition of “lets go fucking mental” I felt that this could really be the beginning of something big, hopefully now the anarchist movement and in particular our elders and betters, and all those who still beleive that you can’t be working class and go to uni will give the students the support they deserve AND stop treating them as a seperate class in society, use us! We are workers, in fact we are paying huge sums of money to be trained in to better workers we’re angry and have litle to lose.

Leeds Class war students favourite chant: “we ‘ate tories and we ‘ate tories, we ‘ate tories and we ‘ate tories, we ‘ate tories and we ‘ate tories, we are the tory [clap] haters!

It helped that the anarchist students were fairly on it: smashing down the cctv cameras and sending the fit team off with a bleeding head very early on in the proceedings, but all in all I’m happy to announce we were outclassed by the ingenuity and fighting spirit of students who had never been on a demo before.

at current count there were 32 arrests, not bad on a demo of 45,000, (and we lay-about students managed to hospitalise 5 coppers at the last count.) THIS IS IMPORTANT COMRADES, THOSE ARRESTED WILL BE FACING SERIOUS CHARGES AND MANY FOR MANY OF THEM THIS WILL BE THERE FIRST DEMO AND POSSIBLY FIRST ARREST, FIND OUT FROM YOUR LOCAL UNI WHAT SOLIDARITY ACTIONS ARE GOING ON (leeds comrades look out for the new and imroved leeds class war blog) AND OFFER WHAT EVER SUPPORT YOU CAN, IF WE WANT THIS SORT OF STUFF TO CONTINUE AND ESSCULATE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THEY’LL BE LOOKED AFTER.

I’ll leave the last words to my fellow students, chanting in unison against the terrified and out numbered metropolitan police: “You ain’t seen nothing yet, b-b-b-baby you just ain’t seen nothing yet”….

Support those arrested: http://nov10.wordpress.com/