The Bristol Blogger

Interesting article from Stephen Howe, Professor in the History and Cultures of Colonialism at the University of Bristol, in this month’s New Humanist magazine on what he calls the “general, dreadful intellectual poverty of today’s political Islamism.”

He seems to be taking issue with those, largely on the political left, who believe Islamism is “engaged in a global, world-historical struggle of the oppressed.”

Howe, however, cannot locate any coherent progressive politics in Islamism and instead finds “weary clichés about “The West” and about sexual promiscuity or about racism and Islamophobia”

The whole ideology, he believes, is built on the same kind of vague and lazy psychological and cultural explanations beloved of multiculturalists:

What is striking is the utterly marginal place given to politics, to history and ideas. Nobody – well, nobody serious, anyway – would have dreamed of “explaining” the actions of, say, IRA or Ulster Volunteer Force militants purely in terms of their psychological instabilities, sexual frustrations or warped childhoods.

No doubt many such people did have all those but it was always known that, nonetheless, their actions were motivated, and must be explicated, in political, ideological, historical terms.

For jihadists, though, crude psychologistic or reductive culturalist “explanations” seem far more often than not to be thought adequate – and most disconcertingly, that seems to go for the published self-analyses of former Islamists themselves, not just for hostile or ignorant outsiders.

Hat tip: Scoop Shachtman at Drink Soaked Trots

On the ongoing discussion on the limits of multiculturalism and the left, a lot of people are liking Kenan Malik.

Hat tip: Paul Stott at I Intend to Escape …

Today is a global day of action for Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi, two Iranian trade unionists being held in prison by the Iranian theocracy on charges of “endangering national security”.

This pair are unlikely to get the publicity afforded other less savoury Middle Eastern political activists by some sections of the so-called left who no doubt will be along soon to claim that solidarity with these imprisoned Iranian trade unionists is in fact part of a long-term Zionist/Imperialist/Neo-Conservative conspiracy to launch a nuclear attack on the peace-loving democracy of Iran.

Here’s the message of solidarity:

Thousands of workers and citizens are raising their voices today worldwide. We want Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi out of jail immediately and unconditionally. We want workers’ rights respected in Iran without any delay. Organised by the ITUC and ITF with the full support of Amnesty International, many events are taking place simultaneously around the world to back our demands.

In Wellington, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Jakarta, New Delhi, Istanbul, Basra, Amman, the West Bank, Tunis, Casablanca, Geneva, Brussels, Oslo, London and Toronto, actions are confirmed and many will visit the Iranian missions with our message, that the Iranian authorities cannot obstruct the genuine workers’ movement and jail these unionists for their activities. We regret the charges set against them. They are not a threat to the national security. Worse still, their health conditions are deteriorating.

The ILO’s Freedom of Association Committee report from June 2007 stresses that the Iranian government must take “all measures to ensure that trade unions can be formed and function without hindrance, including through the de facto recognition of the union”.

In building-up to the International Action Day, the ITF’s inspectors in many countries have boarded Iranian vessels in their respective ports with our message. LabourStart has gathered 5,000 signatures on an online petition. Earlier in January, protest by the Indonesian trade unions forced its government to postpone a Presidential visit to Iran. Concerns are being raised in the national and European parliaments. Many organisations have sent their protest letters. Since Mansour Osanloo was brutally abducted 8 months ago, worldwide protests have not stopped. On 6 March, they will culminate into a mass global demonstration but this will not be the end.

Free Osanloo now!
Free Salehi now!
Respect the workers’ rights in Iran!

Our message of solidarity with the Iranian workers is loud and clear. It will continue to resound until our objectives are achieved.

International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
International Transport Workers Federation (ITF)
Amnesty International

Herr Kommandant John Rees

Speaking alongside the right wing Islamist fanatic Ibrahim Mousawi at Friday’s Reichsmeeting of Bristol’s Stop the War Coalition was none other than John Rees.

This nasty little goatee-bearded mini-Fuhrer is actually a west country boy from Chippenham, where - in a town that returns BNP councillors - he still probably manages to be the place’s most high-profile and notorious exponent of far right wing racist violence ever.

Rees is also a leader of the creepy Marxist/Trotskyist cult, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), basically a bunch out of control social workers hyped on a weird brand of Marxism straight out of the middle years of the last century; crazed levels of anti-American sentiment and the constant glorification of terrorist violence and mass death in the Middle East.

The SWP seized control of the weak leadership of UK’s Stop the War Coalition soon after its popular height in 2003 through the use of classical entryist tactics. And since gaining this control, they have - for reasons best known to themselves - deliberately led this once hugely popular and mainstream movement down a blind alley of insane support for various ultra-violent, right wing Islamist thugs across the Middle East.

Judging by his performance on Friday, Kommandant Rees, now also a leader of Stop the War, is not a man apparently plagued with self doubt - or familiar with any other form of self awareness for that matter - and seems to have an extraordinarily high opinion of himself while having only a passing acquaintance with reality. He blithely told the gathered ranks of Bristol’s Al-Loonie We’re-Encouraging-Some-Other-Poor-Brainwashed-Fucker-To-Be-A-Martyr’s Brigade on Friday evening:

If I had been alive during the Spanish Civil War I would have fought the fascists in Spain if I had a chance to do it. I am not a pacifist. If the Nazis had invaded and I had been alive, I would have fought them

The delusionary lunatic then went on to compare himself to the French resistance and the Italian partisans of World War 2 before providing us with a fascinating insight into his favoured holiday destination - that well-known playground of the poor and downtrodden - Tuscany!

Fighting talk indeed from Herr Kommandant Rees, a man who seems to have a full-time job encouraging extremist Arab Islamist groups to fight a vicious and unwinnable war of destruction with Israel from the comfort of a platform a mere 1,000 miles away from any danger.

What a brave and committed man.

Some Hezbollah paramilitaries making that internationally recognised sign of peace and goodwill. The town in the background is Metula, in the north of Israel.

Another sign - as if it were really needed - of the collective madness of the inaccurately named national Stop the War Coalition and the lunatic tendencies overtaking many of its supporters on what was once known as “the left”.

Now it looks like the Bristol Stop the War Coalition have joined the Al-Looney Brigade too as they’ve only gone and invited Ibrahim Mousawi to speak at the Council House at an event they’re calling “World Against War” - Uncensored Voices From The Middle East.

Bristol Stop the War bill Mousawi as the editor of Al Intiqada, “a journal linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah”. This is not the whole story however. Far from being a simple Lebanese journalist visiting the UK to provide us with some objective information, in Arabic versions (pdf) of Stop the War’s publicity he is being more accurately described as the “spokesperson for Hezbollah”.

Hezbollah are of course the Lebanese Islamist paramilitary organisation which just last week was again declaring an open war on “Zionists”. They are also a bunch of unapologetic anti-semites and notorious holocaust deniers who regularly flag up their genocidal ambitions with ever more deranged calls for the violent destruction of the State of Israel.

Meanwhile their leader Hassan Nasrullah’s efforts to “stop the war” include public statements like “If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them on a world wide basis.”

The sort of comment, in fact, that many dispassionate observers might perceive as a recipe for endless war rather than a means of stopping it. But hell, what would they know?

Hezbollah are also obsessively keen on Samir Kuntar. If you don’t know who he is, Harold Evans at Comment is Free explains while also managing to recreate some of that feverish emotional intensity that underpins so much of the violence in the Middle East. An intensity that is constantly and cynically manipulated by the propagandists of violence - such as Mousawi and his supporters - on both sides of the conflict. Evans is also worth reading as he provides a brief masterclass on the simplicity of good journalism.

Mousawi is appearing at the Council House next Friday 29 February 2008 at 7.30pm. Wouldn’t it be great if at least one city in the UK could organise the kind of welcome a murderous, hate-filled scumbag like Mousawi really deserves?

News coming in that the Bristol Respect Party is in a state of advanced collapse after a Socialist Workers Party coup at a branch meeting on Wednesday.

Respect in Bristol have gained some good election results over the last couple of years. Jerry Hicks, the controversial former Amicus convenor at Rolls Royce, came second in the Lockleaze Ward in 2006 beating Labour into third place and Paulette North came third in Easton this year against a very well-funded Labour campaign and the sitting Lib Dem councillor John Kiely, a very effective campaigner.

Full report from Liam Mac Uaid of Socialist Unity.

Shiraz Socialist supplies an interesting account of yesterday’s Stop the War Coalition Annual Conference where Iranian leftists - Hands off the people of Iran (HOPI) - and any other critics of the Iranian regime were forced out of the organisation by supporters of the coalition’s chair, Stalin apologist Andrew Murray.

Murray also found a fellow apologist for tyranny to speak on behalf of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s regime - there is no homophobia in Iran because sex changes are allowed!!! - and various loudmouths to shout down any disagreement:

Zadeh’s next contention was that although there were “problems with homosexuals” that “sex changes are allowed”. This was met with a lot of heckling, myself included. It was incredibly offensive to anyone in the room who is a supporter of gay rights to hear such nonsense being spewed. Suddenly and rather loudly Zed (not sure of his first name) Martin who I believe is in the SWP but certainly Oxford Stop the War yelled at the HOPI contingent, students and SYN activists who were seated not far from him to “Shut up!” A number of people were somewhat taken aback but he then continued shouting “You stupid bloody bigots! Fuck off!”

The Blogger stopped attending Stop the War events some time ago and suggests everyone else does too.

Life long socialist Jerry Hicks, the former AEU/Amicus convenor at Rolls Royce in Bristol, who was dismissed in dubious circumstances in 2005, has quit the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), describing the Respect Party in which they are key coalition partners as “in crisis”.

Hicks, who polled 25% of the vote as a Respect candidate in the Lockleaze ward in 2006, forcing the Labour Party into third place, intends to remain a member of Respect and has issued the following statement:

To the SWP Central Committee and membership: From Jerry Hicks:

Respect is in crisis. How did we arrive at where we are now?

Was it George Galloway’s letter sent out on 23rd August 2007 to all Respect National Council members stating some observations, expressing some criticisms and making some suggestions? Or was it the hysterical reaction by the SWP leadership in the weeks that followed? Despite apocalyptical warnings and assertions of “no capitulation” in the SWP road shows that took place in September, virtually all of Galloway’s solutions were agreed but only after weeks of vile and damaging blood letting.

On receiving the letter of August 23rd there were two ways of dealing with it. We had a choice to defuse or to ignite. We, i.e. the SWP leadership, chose to do the latter and have been fanning the flames ever since.

I attended the Respect National Council meeting 22nd September 2007 where it became evident for the first time to the overwhelming majority of the council that there have been very serious and deeply disturbing problems for nearly two years.

Every end has a beginning and a number of soul searching questions need to be asked.

As the SWP is by far the single largest organisation in Respect, should it not then shoulder the greatest responsibility to ensure that Respect not only survives but grows, flourishes and prospers?

How can it be that the national Respect membership numbers only 2500 when the SWP membership is nearly 6000. Obviously fewer than a 1/3 of the SWP membership are even in Respect?

When was the last time we as individual members of the SWP took part in a campaign or union activity and identified ourselves as Respect?

When did we bring anyone - friend, family, colleague or supporter of a campaign that we are involved in to Respect events or activities?

When was the last time as an individual we recruited or even asked anyone to join Respect?

Who is responsible for allowing this when the official line is that the SWP throws its full weight behind Respect?

Why have so many SWP members not even joined Respect yet are called to go to meetings around the country to discuss Respect and are now being urged to join Respect and to get delegated to Respect conference! See email below sent out on the 17th October 2007…………….

RESPECT ANNUAL CONFERENCE
‘The Respect annual conference is going to be very important this year. We are urging comrades do the following:

You can only get delegated to Respect conference if you are a registered member. You MUST be a paid-up member by THIS FRIDAY, 19 October .Deadline for resolutions is Friday 19 October.
Deadline for the election of delegates is Sunday 4 November. Once again we are urging as many SWP members as possible to get elected to the Respect Conference. If you have any questions please contact John Rees or the SWP National Office. Martin Smith, SWP National Organiser.’

We, in the SWP also need to ask ourselves the following questions.

Did we play any part in reaching this disastrous situation or is it all due to George Galloway’s letter of August 23rd 2007? When did it all start to go wrong? Was it August 23rd or long before that?

Who or how many knew of the issues? Why was there no debate or discussion within the SWP or Respect National Council immediately problems began to arise to try to resolve the differences and thereby avoid being where we are now?

In my view the responsibility rests with the SWP leadership for this situation of crisis to have been developing over many months, even years, whilst in the SWP we were told nothing.

Is Bristol different and is this only a London thing?

Lots of people in Bristol Respect have done lots of things but we only stood for one council seat in this year’s May elections. Let’s ask ourselves why. Was it because we had grown? Was it because we did not want to stand in any other ward?

Or, was it in part because not enough people in the SWP in Bristol had either joined Respect or done one single thing to help Respect?

Whilst we might not have the upheaval of Tower Hamlets, our own Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 27th September 2007 was almost ruined by our full time SWP organiser who wanted to call all the SWP members out of the room 5 minutes before the AGM was due to start, leaving non SWP Respect members (a third of the meeting) sat there not knowing what the hell was going on.

That potential disaster was averted because I refused to let it happen, but it would have without my intervention. Who would bet that this is not happening elsewhere.

Galloway was and is a maverick, warts and all. We all knew this. I am not making excuses just stating the blindingly obvious.

The Big Brother experience was considered by many a mistake but his performance before the US Senate was unrivalled and made the name of Respect known across the globe.

To describe Galloway as right wing is farcical. To vilify him and demonise him as the enemy beggars belief.

The 27 members of the Respect National Council who are also critical of the SWP do not represent a “Galloway faction” as is being presented, nor are any of them right wing or witch hunters as we are being asked to believe. They include people like Ken Loach, Linda Smith, Victoria Brittain, Salma Yaqoob and Yvonne Ridley. They are all socialists, they are all remarkable people in their own right and they are all senior members of Respect.

I feel that our SWP leadership has created an atmosphere where an observation made is described as a criticism, where any criticism is taken as an attack which is transposed as being ‘right wing’.

Are we really supposed to believe that we were in an ‘all or nothing’, ‘them and us’ situation where everything we the SWP say must be true and that everything the ‘other side’ says must be lies. Everything we the SWP do is right but everything they do is wrong!

Frankly, as in life or politics this is ludicrous.
After having overreacted to Galloway’s letter in August, the SWP leadership rallied its membership to emergency party councils and road shows, seeking votes of endorsements predicated on half truths and contorted facts to justify their position, in a dishonest and degrading manner.

When sound judgement was needed we got poor analysis, when honesty and frankness were required we got a call for blind loyalty and expulsions.

The situation has been appallingly handled by our SWP leadership, with a series of misjudgements eventfully reaching a position of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Have we just thrown away a fantastic opportunity? Are we now dashing the hopes of millions having given others and ourselves a glimpse of what is or was possible?

Was it right that so many were ready to join the chorus of catcalls vilifying some of Respect’s brightest stars without more thoroughly questioning the denouncements.

I have seen things that I can no longer accept.
I have heard things from meetings I have been at described in a way that I don’t recognise.

No longer will these things be done in my name.

For the reasons that I have set out, as from this moment I am resigning from the SWP.

To those of you who will feel let down I offer an unreserved apology, to those who will feel disappointed I am truly sorry, to those who could not care less and who may from here on invent their own distorted version I wish you well in your world.

We all have to live with our own decisions and I know I am leaving the SWP with my integrity and honour intact and feel sure that I will be able to sleep well at night, safe in the knowledge that I did what I did for the right reasons at the right time and with the best intentions.

Jerry Hicks.

Hat tip: Socialist Unity

Not in her name, eh? The person in the photo is none other than Michele Renouf, a notorious neo-Nazi, anti-semite and supporter of David Irving.

Now, it might be hard for the Stop the War Coalition to prevent anybody who feels like it coming to a public place to protest with them (although in the past the left has easily managed to persuade fascists they are not wanted around them) but surely some of them must be concerned that Stop the War and the far right now seem to be sharing the same agenda? Since when has the far right ever wanted to march with the left?

This new shared agenda appears to involve attitudes to Israel and “Zionism”. The StWC is doing itself few favours by expelling decent, principled Iranian leftists like HOPI while welcoming with open arms the islamists and anti-semites from organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Association of Britain with extremely dubious social and political agendas.

Well done Galloway, Andrew Murray, John Rees and Phoney Benn how much further down can you drag the UK’s anti-war movement? Making anti-semitism on the left respectable again seemed like a low point but the looming possibility of the first far-left/far-right coalition in British history takes us to a whole new low indeed.

Hat tip: Harry’s Place

Spotted: at the anti-war rally last week just a few days before the protest’s organisers - the Stop the War Coalition - refused affiliation to Hands Off the People of Iran for the crime of openly opposing Iran’s holocaust denying theocratic regime.

All you have to do is use your skill and judgement to guess who this new stop the war protestor is. Here’s a further clue:

Asked whether there was any difference between Blair and Brown in power, she said that both were clearly pro-Zionist rulers, as all British Prime Ministers have been since Disraeli.

“Do you hope that this demonstration will influence Prime Minister Brown?” the reporter asked. “No - I hope that it will influence our servicemen to stay at home. Already in World War II, on both sides, we lost too many brave men and women. Otherwise we would have millions more accompanying us bravely standing firm against pro-Zionist, Biblically aggressive influence. As Bertrand Russell (founder of CND which is the co-sponsor of today’s march) said on his deathbed in 1970: ‘Every [Israeli] expansion is an exercise to discover how much more aggression the world will tolerate.’”

Answer here.

As far as I know they have been sent on no LGBT course. THey were never sent to the conference - which was a pretty stupid idea IMHO.
Councillor Tim Kent, Avon Fire & Rescue Authority member October 18 2007

Chief fire officer Kevin Pearson … confirmed that the men who were disciplined will be attending the event as part of their rehabilitation
The Guardian, October 4 2007

With Avon Fire & Rescue Authority meeting tomorrow it’s questions, questions for fire chief Pearson . . .

Oh dear. Avon Fire & Rescue boss Kevin Pearson can’t get his story straight can he? Were the Avonmouth Blue Watch fire fighters he punished recently disciplined for misusing equipment or for “homophobia” or for both?

Specifically, were these fire fighters made to attend a much talked about LGBT conference by Pearson and his equalities cronies or not? And why has he told the press they were and his elected bosses they weren’t?

Is Pearson telling a different story to our elected representatives on the local fire authority - who are meeting tomorrow to find out what the fuck Pearson and his managers have been up to - to save his own skin?

Who exactly told councillor Kent that the fire fighters weren’t punished in this way? And who told the Guardian they were? And why?

Surely civil servants who deliberately mislead politicians should be disciplined too?

Meanwhile Pearson appears to have gone totally loopy anyway and is having a succession of strange Reggie Perrin-type moments such as making increasingly paranoid and rambling calls to the BBC in Bristol about the problem of “HOMOPHOBIA!!!”. Apparently, according to Kev, it’s like everywhere . . .

Perhaps it’s time for some face-saving gardening leave for Pearson? Surely his position is untenable?

The Blogger says: PEARSON MUST GO! He’s made a laughing stock of the city; he can’t get his story straight; he’s rambling utter nonsense to the press and he’s misleading politicians!!! We don’t pay him £150k a year for this! Pearson - for god’s sake go!

If not; will our politicians give him the boot for misleading them? Or will they wimp out?

Watch this space . . .