BBC suddenly cares about the working class

I was intrigued when watching BBC2 the other day to see a trailer involving a white man being drawn on in a variety of languages by a variety of hands to the music of Billy Bragg's version of 'Jerusalem'. My interest turned to horror as I realised it was advertising a series of programmes entitled 'White' with the tagline: 'is the white working class becoming invisible?'

The implication is unmistakable: Britain is becoming swamped by dark-skinned people to the detriment of others. And why specifically the working class? There are chilling echoes here of Margaret Hodge's two recent bouts of racism in which she said white working class people in Barking in east London would vote BNP because they felt ignored. Actually, people in Barking voted BNP because either (a) they are extremely racist, or (b) because they are sick of New Labour privatising the NHS, education and so on; wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers' money killing innocent people in the middle east; and refusing to build council houses. The link between the two is being fuelled by the BNP, New Labour and now, it seems, the BBC.

Why the sudden concern for the white working class now? The BBC have never shown any concern before. During the miners' strike in 1984 the BBC colluded with the government to make an incident where mounted police charged picketing miners look as though the miners had started it.

This series of programmes is being shown at a time when reactionaries in our society are trying to argue multiculturalism hasn't worked, that muslims are all evil and maybe racism isn't that bad after all. It is pandering to the government's agenda and it stinks. This is simple old fashioned divide and rule tactics. The government is trying to divide the working class at a time when the economy is going into recession, Gordon Brown is trying to enforce a 2% wage freeze on the public sector and billions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being used to prop up an ailing bank.

It is the working class that is being ignored regardless of their skin colour, ethnicity or religion and this is a blatant attempt to stir up racism to shift the focus away from class issues onto race issues. This is deplorable and should be condemned by all working class people.

We need to continue to build the left in Britain to fight against all forms of racism as well as the attacks on working people and the war.

BNP Split

So it seems there is a split in the British National Party after "senior members" have attacked Griffin's "leadership". Perhaps the pressure of being hounded at every step by Unite Against Fascism is taking its toll on the fascists. The following is from the BBC. The best bit is where Griffin is described as "behaving like a dictator". Clearly these admirers of Hitler and Mussolini have a pretty tenuous grasp on history.

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BNP divided after leadership row
By James Hardy BBC News political correspondent

Open rebellion is being threatened against the leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, from dozens of senior activists. The party has retaliated by expelling two senior members, who it accuses of plotting a coup. BNP officials Sadie Graham and Kenny Smith were kicked out after they were critical of Mr Griffin's style. They have now set up a rival faction, supported by up to 60 senior members. The BNP leadership denies it is split. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7152657.stm

World Against War - International Peace Conference

More than 1000 activists from five continents gathered in London today for an International Peace Conference organised by the Stop the War Coalition in Britain. Speakers from Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon joined anti-war activists from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Poland, South Korea and, of course, Britain.

Highlights included Hassan Juma from the Iraqi Oil Workers' Union talking about his members' continuing struggle against the attempted privatisation of the Iraqi oil industry. Ibrahim Mousawi, the editor of al-Intiqab, the Hezbollah publication talked about his tour of Ireland, including a meeting with the Irish government and the subsequent refusal by the same Irish government of his visa application on the grounds that he is now considered a 'security risk'.

Hamaden Sabahy, the Egyptian MP spoke movingly about the struggle against Mubarak and told the conference our aim should be not just to stop this war or that war but to stop US imperialism altogether. John Rees, introducing the Cairo Conference, spoke about how for many activists around the world, war and globalisation are two sides of the same coin. Various speakers pointed out that we have many reasons to be hopeful. The US is losing morally and economically as well as militarily.

Khaled Hadadah, the General Secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party spoke about the unity his party and Hezbollah were able to maintain in the face of Israeli aggression in the summer of 2006 and subsequently. He said "the key question is not whether you are an Islamist or not but whether you support the 'war on terror' or whether you resist it". He went on to say that sadly there are still those on the left in Lebanon that refuse to work with 'Islamists' and end up in a position where they effectively support imperialism. Oli Rahman, Tower Hamlets Respect Councillor echoed these remarks in talking about the unity between the left and muslims in Britain. He said "I am a socialist and I am a Muslim. I am proud to be a part of this anti-war movement. I call on all my Muslim brothers and sisters that are not already part of the Stop the War Coalition to get involved because some non-Muslims have done more for your people than you have".

During the conference news was received that Turkish troops massed on the border with Iraq had carried out incursions into that country. Speakers pointed out that 100,000 troops were thought to be involved. This is a huge mobilisation when compared to the 170,000 troops that were involved in the original US-led attack on the country in 2003. The conference backed a hastily prepared resolution condemning Turkish intervention in Iraq.

The conference also backed a resolution declaring its 'opposition to the "endless war" prosecuted by the US government' and demanded 'an immediate end to the illegal military occupation of Iraq...a halt to the preparations for an attack against Iran...a withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan...justice for the Palestinian people, and an end to Israeli aggression throughout the Middle East.'

Finally, the conference pledged to support a call for co-ordinated international demonstrations on the fifth anniverary of the invasion of Iraq next March.

Campaigning against the privatisation of children's centres

More than sixty parents, children, trade unionists and supporters held a protest and lobby of councillors outside Haringey Civic Centre in Wood Green last Monday night. They were protesting against the decision of Haringey Council Cabinet to privatise five council-run children's centres in the borough. The decision was nodded through by the Cabinet back in July on the basis that there had been consultation with 'stakeholders'. There had not. Parents are angry that their concerns are not being taken seriously. Liz Santry, councillor for Children & Young People's Services has refused to rule out that staff may lose their jobs or that charges may be introduced for services that are currently free. When charges were introduced for after school clubs they started off at £1; now some are as much as £18.

The protest was addressed by speakers from Unison in Haringey, Haringey NUT and the campaign group Parents Against Privatisation. The mood was positive given that the council cabinet have already back-tracked once from their original position that private companies might be approached. Now they are saying they will only consider 'voluntary organisations'. However, most parents and staff see little difference. They have also conceeded that there has been no meaningful consultation. Now they say they will hold a consultation 'if and when a decision to 'outsource' is made'. Of course as parents rightly point out, by then it will be too late.

Campaigners will meet again soon to plan a lobby of the next council meeting where this issue will be discussed.

The ABC of anti-imperialism

Reports of the death of the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) are very much premature. In my local town we organsed a very successful 'die-in' and there were similar events throughout the country on Saturday and last Thursday on university campuses.

An older Iranian man came up to me as we were setting up and asked why we don't say more about how terrible Ahmedinajad is. This is the same line that was put by the CPGB, the AWL and Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI) at the StW Conference a few weeks ago. I explained to him that it was the primary aim of the StWC to prevent any attack on Iran. At a time when the warmongers in America, Britain, France and elsewhere are creating false claims about Iran trying to build nuclear weapons (contrary to the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)) and unfounded and ultra-hypocritical claims about intervention in Iraq, it is the job of anti-war campaigners to highlight the disastrous consequences any attack would have for the people of Iran as well as for the democracy, students' and women's movements there. To get sucked into discussing the rights and wrongs of the Iranian regime would only give ammunition to the warmongers. That is not to be an apologist for the regime. It is the ABC of anti-imperialism.

When an imperialist country is threatening to attack a less powerful country, anti-imperialists everywhere must focus all their energies on preventing the imperialist country from starting a war by aiming all their political firepower on the imperialist country. This is to recognise the difference in their respective capacities to exploit and oppress people around the world. This is particularly true if you happen to be living in either an imperialist country or a nation that supports an imperialist power. To criticise both the imperialist country and the country they are threatening equally is to re-enforce the inbuilt inequality in the situation and thus to favour the imperialist power. It is always in the interests of anti-imperialists to see the imperialist power defeated. Any defeat for any imperialist power is a blow against imperialism in general.

Thus the defeat of the Israeli Army (IDF) by Hezbollah last year should be seen as a victory for anti-imperialism regardless of any criticisms you may have of Hezbollah. Many of us gave Hezbollah unconditional, but not uncritical, support.

Criticism of the Iranian regime is fine, but things do not occur in isolation or in the abstract. Any criticism must be considered in the light of how it will fit in to the current debate on how to resolve the 'Iranian' question.

Respect Annual Conference 2007

The Respect Annual Conference took place on 17 November. Over ninety people on the list of observers were asked not to attend as there were too many people for the hall. I was one of them, although I did manage to get in for a little in the afternoon. Which is why I have not posted about it before. You could do no better than to read the post on Lenin's Tomb:

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2007/11/respect-very-live.html

I have watched the videos of both the Respect Annual Conference and the Respect Renewal rally. Galloway spoke for over half an hour. He started by saying he didn't want to just bash the SWP. Then he spent the rest of his speech doing just that. In between he said how great he, Salma Yaqoob, Linda Smith and Ken Loach are. He seemed to miss the point that parties, like movements are built by activists not just a few 'great' leaders. I guess that explains why he idolises Castro and Chavez. He also criticised those that have characterised the split as 'left-right'. He wilfully misunderstood the concept arguing he is not right-wing. No-one has accused him of being right-wing. You can be on the right of an argument in a left-wing organisation in just the same way as you can be on the left-wing of the Tory Party. Lenin (the real one, not Lenin's Tomb) once described himself as being on the far right of an argument in the international about working with reformists, but no-one would accuse Lenin of being right-wing. (Actually lots of people would accuse Lenin of being right-wing, but no one on the left).

John Rees, Mark Serwotka and others, by contrast, gave a political analysis of the present situation and the way forward and there was considerable discussion of the situation in the unions, the war, Gordon Brown and next year's GLA elections. A new National Council was elected, as was the Chair (Oli Rahman), National Secretary (John Rees) and National Organiser (Elaine Graham-Leigh). There seemed to be a general feeling that we could now move on, that the mood of the conference was more explicitly anti-capitalist than previously and that people felt inspired, re-invigorated after the damage of the last few months and determined to throw everything into next year's GLA elections.

George Galloway MP - Respect Meeting at Marxism 2007

You only have to watch the first one and a half minutes to see what a dramatic u-turn Galloway has done since July. Incredible.