Out with 2010 in with 2011

Well, it’s nearly the end of a another year. In some ways, 2010 has been one spectacularly weird year…. general election which brought about the ConDem coalition who are, on a huge scale, destroying the welfare state and the public sector. These austerity cuts will have massive consequences for generations. But there has been a start of a fightback from student demos, occupations, strikes and protests targeting corporate capitalist tax cheats.Also we have seen the levels of police brutality and horrific violence aided and abetted by a biased media. When the ruling class feel under threat they use the police for their own means along with offering paramilitary solution after paramilitary solution, which is an attack on liberal democracy. So may 2011 bring forth a united fightback campaign resisting this hideous class war slash-fest orchestrated by the Bullingdon elite.

On a more personal level, this year has been mixed, some magnificent some depressing. This year marked the death of my parents that impacted on me more than I could ever imagine that led me to be in a state of denial, deep frustration, anger (mainly at myself), loss and so on. Now it’s just deep depression and anxiety and feeling I am stuck in a hole with no way out, also I have become a bit of a recluse, not relating much with the outside world so feel more frustrated as feeling I am not involved in the struggle, try best as I can to go to protests and demos (armed with camera) usually dragged my partner with me as I feel happier if someone’s with me as can’t do much by myself when it comes to the outside world.

Brussels

Another stressful time earlier this year was giving evidence against Sgt Smellie in court. Glad I did my duty even though the verdict was not much of a surprise.

The glorious times included coming third in the EWL photo competition which meant I travelled to Brussels to receive my prize and I sold a photograph to a magazine. Hurrah!

I have also met some wonderful comrades who I value personally and politically via Twitter, FB and in the comments box of my blog. Some I have met in person some I chat to via cyberspace. During my worst periods that kinda communication has been so valued and appreciated, more than anyone can realise. So thank-you for that.

Here’s to 2011 ….. the struggle and resistance continues!

Happy New Year to you all!

Hierarchy of oppression delusion

Tommy Sheridan argued in 2006 argued that at the heart of the SSP (Scottish Socialist Party) should be class and  not a “gender-obsessed discussion group”.It didn’t come as a surprise reading that as there is this common belief throughout some of the left that every other form of oppression is subordinate to class.It doesn’t help in the least when you start to argue that one form of oppression outweighs another.  Oppression is oppression, it can take different forms, whether overt or subtle, and the intersection between other forms of oppression.

I have also heard similar arguments on the Left that at the apex of oppression is class. Class trumps all forms of oppression. No, it doesn’t. Politically, we have to reject this idea of a hierarchy of oppression as it presents a situation that can only be described as divisive.

My own political belief is that you use a class analysis to explain oppression, but that class isn’t a ‘superior’ form of oppression that garners any more solidarity than confronting and fighting other forms of oppression. If you feel that sexism isn’t being taken seriously then you must challenge that along with trying to make the invisible visible but not at the expense of downplaying another form of oppression.

If there is anything about “class” that makes it different from class, race, gender, sexuality and disability. It is not not that oppression arising purely from class has a privileged call for a response. It is that the class has a duty to respond to and fight all forms of oppression. Not to do so would be to open ourselves up to nothing more than divide and rule.

 

Blacking up aint funny it’s racist

I saw the latest “comedy” by David Walliams and Matt Lucas advertised in the Radio Times, “Come Fly With Me”… The article introduced us to the cast of characters….and boy, what an array of racist stereotypes. It also shows Walliams and Lucas ‘blacked up’… Why do supposed comics feel the need to ‘black up’? It aint funny, never was and never will be as it is offensive and racist. I saw a trailer for the series and again the viewer was introduced to many of the racist stereotypes. There’s been a trend in past number of years for ‘blacking up’ which exposes a lack of political understanding and shows ignorance about why this is racist. The Black and White Minstrels Show was consigned to the racist dustbin of history so why do some think it’s OK for ‘blacking up’ to be resurrected? It was offensive then as it is now.

So why does the BBC believe this is an acceptable form of comedy where characters are based on racist stereotypes (from Matt Lucas ‘blacking up’ to play “Precious Little” to both Walliams and Lucas playing Japanese schoolgirls…..). But then the BBC had no problems with offensive and racist stereotypes in the 2nd episode of Sherlock Holmes.

It seems to me that the politics of understanding oppression has fallen by the political wayside… “jokes” about, for example, disability and domestic violence are just the current crop of crass crap masquerading as “humour”. I am shocked when I see comedians and other supposed entertainers ‘black up’. Don’t they understand the political message they are conveying? Or don’t they care because it is all harmless fun. Harmless fun at the expense of people experiencing oppression in this society.

Yeah, what a laugh!

See as well this article

Dedicated to Jayaben Desai

“I will no longer take it. I want my freedom”
(Jayaben Desai to management as she led women workers on strike)

I first heard Jayaban Desai speak at the 30th anniversary of the Grunwick strike organised by Brent Trades Union Council. Jayaben stood firm and show immense courage along with the postal workers and other rank and file members. As the majority of the platform were white male trade unionists it was damn good to see them (along with the audience ) give her a standing ovation.

Strikers spent 14 weeks on a picket line to end up being betrayed and sold out by the trade union bureaucracy. Strike organiser, Jayaben Desai and other women activists went on hunger strike outside TUC House in protest at the way the TUC was selling them out while rank and file activists were supporting their struggle.This strike brought to the forefront of the labour movement issues around racism, migrant workers and sexism. Issues which nobody had really considered before.

Grunwick was a defeat and a betrayal by the very people who should have been supporting these women. The TUC and APEX (now part of the GMB) sold these women out and the trade union movement overall. The TUC was definitely on its knees. But what came out was the heroism of women like Jayaban Desai and other strikers who showed defiance and courage and stood firm against these attacks but also rank and file trade unionists who showed solidarity with these women unlike the bureaucracy who were itching to sell them out.

Jayaben Desai said of the Grunwick strike, “It was what I had to do, and I hope that you would do the same.”

I was really very said to hear that Jayaben had died on the 23 December, she had been ill for several months. The funeral will be on 31^st December, 11.00 am at Golders Green crematorium.

Guardian obituary here.

Political structures and collective leadership

I was reading Laurie Penny’s article on the structure of left leadership. Firstly, when she writes, parliamentary politics has sold the young out, and whatever bargain-basement price tag mainstream parties slap on their membership, they aren’t buying it any more. Historically, parliamentary politics have sold the working class out but you cannot ignore the expression of political representation. It’s the centre piece of politics coupled with the fact you can’t ignore the role of the trade unions or the labour movement overall. This may all seem “old style” politics but you still need them.

Secondly, the Lib-Dems never ever (past or present) represented the last hope that parliamentary democracy might have something to offer the young. The Lib-Dems are a bourgeois party whose class interests have obviously nothing to do with the working class. A vote for Clegg was indeed a vote for Cameron (and some of us had the political foresight to explain the foolhardiness and wrongheadedness of voting for this traitorous bunch… wasn’t it bleeding obvious they would sell us all out??!!).

Indeed, what I do agree with Laurie wholeheartedly is this, the young people of Britain do not need leaders, and the new wave of activists has no interest in the ideological bureaucracy of the old left. You don’t need self-styled leaders that create a cult of leadership; undemocratic, corrupt, lack of transparency and accountability. Do we need that? Nope!

What we do need is collective leadership. You do need to develop new structures. Twitter and Facebook cannot on their own create the political legitimacy and effectiveness that proper political organsition can. Organisaton does not equate to either the SWP or to Labourism in either old or new variants. In fact not to pay attention to how you organise surrenders ground to either/both the old style democratic-centralism or the corrupt party machine of the LP. You need the kinds of organisations that can act as political transmission belts: the most obvious current example being the LRC (Labour representation Committee). We need organisations that can quickly provide political and pracitical support to strikes and other forms of resistance as well as challenging the LP establishment in more traditional forms of politics. You have to fight on all fronts.

Merry Xmas to one and all…..

Gender, class, sexism and Tommy Sheridan

So Tommy Sheridan faces jail after being found guilty of perjury.

The 46-year-old, who served in the Scottish parliament for two terms, was found guilty by a majority verdict of committing perjury when he won his £200,000 libel against the News of the World in 2006, after a trial that lasted nearly 12 weeks.

Sheridan was told by Lord Bracadale, the presiding judge, that he was free until his sentencing hearing in just over four weeks. The judge said: “You have been convicted of the serious offence of perjury and must return on 26 January expecting to begin a jail sentence.”

The statement from the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) argues:

Six years ago, as leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, he proposed to sue a tabloid newspaper over stories he knew to be true and demanded that our party went along with his lies. All his closest friends and political allies of 20 years urged him not to take such a reckless course of action.

He will now be dealt with by the judge. We have no desire for vengeance.

And that’s central, Sheridan didn’t have to take the Murdoch press to court, he could have argued that it was none of the tabloid’s business but he chose to pursue it through the courts. Sheridan expected comrades to go along with this charade. Why Sheridan was desperate to uphold the hetero nuclear family man is utterly strange for a Socialist especially as it means embracing bourgeois ideas of the family. Why take that reckless chance? And to expect comrades to follow that line. This has inevitably created a poisonous and fractious atmosphere. I always had great admiration for the SSP, for its dynamism and activism, central to the party was the support for liberation politics. But this appalling chapter also exposes vitriol and a nasty veneer of misogyny. I have seen it constantly reiterated over the past couple of years that it was the “feminists’ who brought down Sheridan (Still being argued about those “sectarian feminists… who lure leftie men to their doom by witchery and spells don’cha know!). Even Sheridan himself in 2006 argued that at the heart of the SSP should be class and  not a gender-obsessed discussion group. This post isn’t a debate on the hierarchy of oppression (that deserves a post in itself) but what it exposes is Sheridan’s lumpen ideas on oppression coupled with the vile and shocking treatment of women witnesses in the 2006 trial.

Sheridan case also illustrates an obsession, an obsession the Left has creating heroes usually male ones (etymological origins  from Greek mythology and demigod). This is a stark warning, stop building up these men as self-styled demigods, paragons of virtue, along with constructing the cult of the leader status.  It has also thrown up issues around democracy, accountability and transparency. As the SSP statement maintains:

We now draw a line under this sorry saga and move on. The Scottish Socialist Party has been tested to the limit over the past six years and has proven it is a party of principles and integrity.In this time of savage attacks by the rich against the poor, Scotland more than ever needs a strong left wing socialist party that can be trusted.

Many people are arguing that this case represents a choice between Murdoch and Sheridan, bourgeoise versus class fighter. No, it doesn’t. Comrades cannot be expected to go to court and lie based on  some misguided loyalty in defending one man’s pursuit in maintaining a family man facade? Seriously, it aint something to perjure yourself for neither is it principled, nor clever. So I have a lot of respect for the integrity of those comrades who didn’t go along with it but told the truth. At the crux of the matter is the truth not Murdoch v. Sheridan as that’s a distraction. At the end of the day, Sheridan brought a dynamic organisation down and used it for its own ends, not in the least based on the interests of the class but his own personal fiefdom. Where’s the principles and integrity in that?

Sheridan betrayed the class and brought himself down, nobody else.

Solidarity greetings

Thanks for all the kind words, really touched and appreciated. Comradeship and solidarity to you all! Picture is of my birthday cup cake with candle.

Bah humbug!!

Tis my birthday tomorrow.

Then it’s Xmas. Great. Not. Been a bit of a crap year, still not back on track have become a recluse as going outside is kinda hard, certainly social situations are daunting and panic inducing. I am turning into my dead agoraphobic valium popping mother. My confidence has nose-dived along with self-esteem plummeting to the depths of doom. Depression and gloom, how I embrace these lost friends. Or something like that. I am still on antibiotics due to sinus problems and Citalopram. I really didn’t think the death of my parents would turn my life and psyche inside out. I knew it would jolt me but never did I imagine at this level and the distress and depression it brought out. Kinda incapable of doing basic tasks including work. Things I took in my stride such as working 9/5 5 days a week to activism as very hard to do now. I have had low periods many many times but never at this level, I didn’t think I could reach this low again but once again I feel I am standing at the precipice not sure whether I can stop myself falling. There are other external things that are stressing me and making me feel like I am a failure and useless. Also for some months I denied I was feeling bad just ignored the danger signs and when I crashed I truly crashed. Panic stricken scared emotional mess loss of appetite and misery.

Holiday reading.....

And the strange thing is with my experiences of mental distress going back years and years I still ignore the signs and deny the distress (bit of a contradiction for me). I can’t sometimes face up to the realities of depression and anxiety. On a general point it makes me, once again, realise just how bloody crap and unenlightened this society is when it comes to mental distress.

Hope the new year improves, and that I can overcome this depressive state (I also berate myself with the, “why aren’t I over this”…). And that I can get back into my routine of life. At least what has cheered me is the continued fight back against the austerity cuts. I don’t what the new year holds but we are all in it together….

Oh well, bah humbug, am such a moaning miserablist!

Revolutionary seasonal greetings to everyone and Vive Le Résistance 2011!!

Boy, can I sleep at the moment....

“We are peaceful why aren’t you”!

Musab Younis, 22, from Manchester, who is currently reading international relations at Wadham College, says he started shooting the video not long after the result of the tuition fees vote was announced to the crowd gathered outside parliament.

“A lot of people were trying to leave the kettle and the police were trying to move in, trying to push people further into Parliament Square,” he said.

Younis estimates that around 1,000 people were being held next to Westminster tube station, around 20 metres from the bridge, when police began moving in from both sides, crushing those in the crowd.

“We were hemmed in by a wall on one side, vans and horses on another side, and two lines of police moving in on us,” he said.

“I don’t know [if] I’ve ever been in a situation where I’ve been so crushed before. The police didn’t care whether you had any space to move, and if they had to trample you to move forward, then they would.”

See the video Musab took on his mobile (via the Guardian) regarding the protest against tuition fees on the 9 December. It was taken after the tuition fees vote was announced. It’s a shocking video, protesters being hemmed in and crushed while cops shove them forcefully backwards. There was nowhere to go. I am amazed nobody died. (the protester who shouts in the video,”You’re going to fucking kill someone tonight.” is very very apt).

The cops earlier in the day were sending protesters to the Whitehall kettle (around Westminster tube station) telling us that people were being allowed to leave. Not so! Theresa May restated this rubbish when she said:

The police were allowing people out of that kettling in Parliament Square. If you look at the numbers of people left in Parliament Square in the evening, given the number that started, it’s quite clear that people were being allowed to leave.

Bullshit!

People couldn’t get out! I remember going to the Whitehall exit there was a build-up as cops were sending people there, desperate to get out. Protesters walking back telling people that there’s no exit. So the cops were sending us to a very confined area, where people were trapped and crushed in the process experiencing unrelenting police brutality and violence along with cops using horses as a kind of weapon.It was very claustrophobic as there was nowhere to escape to. I stood around Great George St kettle as there was space and yet there was a build-up of protesters by that police line, cops dressed in their paramilitary riot gear spoiling for a fight. There was no safety, you were exposed to the agents of the state and their collective form of punishment for us having the audacity to protest.

This is not what democracy looks like.