A Man Righteous Among the Nations

By Les May

YOU have probably never heard of Dutch schoolteacher Johan van Hulst.  I certainly had not until I read an obituary of him in the Washington Post.  Along with two colleagues he is credited with saving the lives of some 600 Jewish children who would otherwise have been sent to the death camps.  All this under the nose of the SS and knowing that if he were found out he too would be killed. That is what anti-Semitism really means.   It is part of the experience of many of our continental neighbours whose countries were occupied by the Nazis.  It is not part of our experience and it puts the ‘anti-Semitism’, which some would have us believe is rampant in the Labour party, into some kind of perspective. It also gives the lie to those people who claim the ‘The Holocaust’ was a hoax.

Both Stalin and Hitler despised Jewish people because they did not have a state of their own. Stalin deported them, Hitler murdered them.  With a history like this it is unsurprising that anyone who self identifies as Jewish will feel a close affinity with the state of Israel, the one country that is not going to deport them or murder them.

But identifying with a country is a two edged sword. It thrusts upon you a moral responsibility for that country’s actions.  On 17 March 2003 the late Robin Cook received a standing ovation from the House of Commons for his resignation speech after leaving the Cabinet in protest at the Iraq war.  Thousands of people took to the streets to voice their objections to the war.  They were people who wanted to tell Blair, and the world, ‘you do not go to war in my name’.

So the distinction between gratuitous anti-semitism and thought through anti-Zionism may begin to look a bit hazy at times.   Nonetheless the distinction is real.  Gratuitous anti-semitism on social media should not be made an excuse for not questioning the policies of the state of Israel, either by individuals or the press.   Nor should it be made an excuse for the press seeking to interfere in the internal structures of the Labour party.

It cannot have escaped notice that if Corbyn accedes to the demand that Christine Shawcroft should be suspended from the party and removed from the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), it will shift the balance of power between the pro- and anti-Corbyn forces.  So whilst it is not difficult to find a few dozen examples of gratuitous anti-Semitism coming from some members of the Labour party, it is also a story being whipped up mostly by MPs who have always objected to Corbyn leading the party and a press which thinks the same.

How many of the people who are so vocal about this would be willing to act like Johan van Hulst did?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/johan-van-hulst-dutch-schoolteacher-who-saved-hundreds-of-jewish-children-during-holocaust-dies-at-107/2018/03/28/cdbd44c2-31ca-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html

On Roger-the-Dodger's Official Website

ROGER Pearce, the former editor of Freedom the anarchist newspaper, has degrees in Theology from Durham University and Law from London University.   He is also a barrister-at-law. Married with three adult children, he has homes in London and Miami and, until 2012, was European Security Director of a high profile global company.

The former Commander of Special Branch at New Scotland Yard, Roger Pearce was responsible for surveillance and undercover operations against terrorists and extremists, the close protection of government ministers and visiting VIPs, and other highly sensitive assignments.

He was also Director of Intelligence, charged with heading covert operations against serious and organised criminals.

After leaving the Yard he was appointed Counter-Terrorism Adviser to the Foreign Office, where he worked with government and intelligence experts worldwide in the campaign against Al Qaeda.

In Agent of the State, The Extremist, Javelin and future titles the author draws upon his knowledge and first hand experience of a career in national security at every level.

Roger's novels have been translated into Dutch under the titles Explosief and Extremist by Luitingh and Russian by Centrepolygraph.

******

Councillors who Snuggled-up to a Super Stipend

Editor Northern Voices:  ON Monday the 19 March 2018 the 

Rochdale Online website reported that in Rochdale the 

Councillor's allowances will 'top one million' pounds.

Helpfully, Carl Faulkner, the Independent candidate for

Spotland and Falinge, exposed how the Rochdale councillors

had shared out their generous stipend pay among themselves.

 Among the opposition, only the Lib Dem councillors 
Andy Kelly and Irene Davidson voted against the rises 
and refused the increase, meanwhile on the Labour 
side councillors Andy Bell, Malcolm Borriss, 
Chris Furlong and Billy Sheerin also refused the increase.
Of the 60 Rochdale councillors, according to Rochdale
Online, all the others including the Tories took the
extra State stipend either in part or in full.

Below Carl Faulkner gives his views on the way the Rochdale 
municipal establishment handled the issue of their own stipend:

NO MANDATE TO UP COUNCILLOR'S ALLOWANCES !
by Carl Faulkner

NOT a single councillor was press-ganged into becoming a councillor.  It is an entirely voluntary position.  Not a single councillor has ever stated that if elected, they will be wanting increased allowances.  

If the allowances were not sufficient, then they should have not stood or alternatively, stepped down – there would not have been any shortage of people willing to take their place.

The way in which the rise in allowances was brought about was indicative of the self-serving way in which councillors and senior council officers often act.  The public were given one week’s notice; the rise itself was timed to come into effect in a year that there were no elections.  

It was a cynical, deliberate act to exclude public opinion from the process.  But it was entirely consistent with the arrogant and underhanded way in which the public (and press) are deliberately excluded from major decisions of public concern.

But should we be surprised?   It is councillors who decide on the appointment of the Chief Executive.  It is the Chief Executive, at a time of his choosing,  who hand picks the panel who then recommended the extortionate rises.  The favour returned.

******

Blacklist Campaign & Police Involvement

LAST Wednesday with the walkout of the Spycops inquiry in a show of no confidence in Judge Mitting.  The Blacklist Support Group took that décision in solidarity with others families including the Lawrence’s and other groups being represented within these proceedings.

Our collective message was clear - We are done with stonewalling and whitewashes. 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/campaigners-stage-walkout-of-secretive-police-spying-inquiry

https://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2018/03/23/spycops-victims-walkout-police-inquiry

https://leftfootforward.org/2018/03/government-must-restore-credibility-of-spy-cops-inquiry/

Last Friday - The Met Police finally officially confirmed that Special Branch and other police were involved in the Blacklisting of construction workers.  The following disclosures have now been widely reported in the worlds news. Blacklisted workers appeared and our supporters appeared on TV and radio throughout the day.  This has been 6 years going back to 2012 since we first raised it through our QC Imran Khan through the IPCC. 

Blacklist Support Group would like to have it placed on record our appreciation for all the activists, lawyers, investigative journalists, researchers, trade unionists and politicians who have worked alongside us and whose efforts have finally forced the Met Police to make these admissions. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43507728

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-trade-unions-latest-special-branch-blacklist-support-group-ipcc-construction-industry-a8270036.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/23/officers-likely-to-have-passed-personal-files-to-blacklisters-says-met

https://www.union-news.co.uk/met-police-admit-spying-on-trade-unionists-for-blacklisting-bosses/

https://evolvepolitics.com/of-course-the-met-police-colluded-with-blacklisters-how-else-did-i-appear-on-their-list/

After the revelations about police collusion in blacklisting,  Unite the Union are now considering opening new legal proceedings against the Met Police.  Watch this space 

http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/police-blacklisting-admission-could-lead-to-fresh-legal-action/

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unite-poised-take-legal-action-against-met-over-blacklisting

With the above in mind, we ask supporters to highlight the Met Police admission to their local elected Police Commissioner, many of whom are Labour politicians and run our Police Forces.  We suggest that our supporters send letters using the text below as a standard template making amendments as you see fit:  

Blacklist Support Group open letter to our Police Commissioner’s over police collusion and spying. 

The Blacklist Support Group notes the recent and most shocking disclosures and statement of the Metropolitan Police regarding the undercover policing scandal.  It is with huge dismay that it has taken 6 years for the Metropolitan Police to admit that police supplied information to the unlawful construction blacklist.  And only then after our legal representatives complained to the IPCC back in 2012. 

Our attention must now turn to the solutions.  Aside from any legal action against these political policing units, we call upon Police Commissioners to now come out in full support of those who suffered as a consequence of these clandestine anti-democratic operations. 
 
We therefore ask the Police Commissioners to go on record and condemn the actions of the undercover police units spying on trade unions unreservedly and call for these covert political policing units that spy on legal democratic political campaigns should be disbanded immediately. 

Roy Bentham co-Secretary of the BSG added:

'This culture of impunity has to end.  As someone who seen it as a Hillsborough survivor it’s appalling it still appears to be rife within our police forces.  As Labour politicians, our commissioners also have a duty to serve the people who voted them in.  A statement on denouncing these black ops is surely the bare minimum and we need promises of transparency going forward as that is the only way to win our trust back as ordinary working class citizens'

Freedom Press now participant in Spy-Cop Inquiry

 Police plant edited the anarchist newspaper Freedom
by Brian Bamford

Spy-cop Roger Pearce aka Roger Thorley

ON the 20th, March 2018 Sir John Mitting Chairman, Undercover Policing Inquiry, designated Freedom Press as a core participant in Category K of the purpose of the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

The 'person' categorised as 'Friends of Freedom Press' ('Freedom Press') did previously apply to Sir Christopher Pitchford, when he was the previous Chairman of the same Inquiry in October 2015, Pitchford then stated that he would keep under review the application of any person to be designated as a core participant who was not then so designated by him.

He at that time, declined to designate them because, on the information which he then had, it was unlikely that they were relying on a direct and significant role in the subject matter of the Inquiry

On the 23 January 2018, Saunders Solicitors Limited again wrote to the Inquiry to ask whether Sir John Mitting would now entertain a fresh application for core participant status by Freedom Press. 

Having considered this new request last week, Sir John decided: 

' I will designate Freedom Press as a core participant in Category K.  I do so on the basis of material which Sir Christopher [Pitchford] would not have taken into account when making his original ruling: Operation Herne interview notes, which suggest that HN85 became editor of Freedom Press in Whitechapel and in that capacity wrote virulent anti-police articles.  Accordingly, Freedom Press did play a direct and significant role in the subject matter of the Inquiry and it is appropriate that they should be designated as a core participant.' 

Exclusive report on 'Spychief infiltration'

 On the 24th, March, the Freedom website carried an unsigned article which it described as an 'exclusive' entitled 'The Met spy chief who infiltrated Freedom Press'.   In this post the Freedom Press author wrote:
'Earlier this week it was disclosed that Freedom Press would now be considered a core participant in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, following official confirmation that Pearce had operated as “Roger Thorley,” a former writer for Freedom in the 1970s and ’80s.'

The writer, who may well himself be a solicitor, says that after a comprehensive investigation of the Freedom archives and consultation with old comrades it is revealed that 'Freedom can confirm that Pearce, writing under the moniker R.T, penned a series of articles over the course of the period 1980-81 and then joined a fact-finding mission to Belfast, before disappearing from sight.'

Special Branch man becomes Freedom 'editor'

This weekend I spoke to several present and former members of the 'Friends of Freedom Press' (F. of F.P.), and they all say they didn't know Roger Thorley in the early 1980s.  I haven't as yet spoken to the present secretary of F. of F.P., Stephen Sorba, who may well have been around, but I was writing for Freedom in the late 1979s and early 1980s, when I believe my friend the carpenter Peter Turner was still associated with the paper.  Barry Woodling has just told me that he's seen reports and articles written by me in March 1980, after I had reported for the old Syndicalist Workers Federation (SWF) on the V Congress of the CNT (National Confederation of Labour) in Madrid, which took place in December 1979.



What is so noticeably about the old issues of Freedom edited by the police spy and future head of Special Branch, Roger Thorley/Pearce*, is that it is clear the quality of Freedom has declined immensely since the 1980s.  The analysis of the last signed article of Roger-the-Dodger suggests he is so insightful about the situation in northern Ireland, that it can only produce nostalgia in those of us knew the old Freedom.  The current production, whether on the website or in the occasional hard copies of Freedom, are so full of cookbook thinking, cliques and childish slogans as to reduce one to tears.



The author of Freedom's socalled exclusive report writing this Saturday says:
'What can be confirmed is that when inquiry head Mitting defined Pearce’s writing as “virulently anti-police” he wasn’t exaggerating — and it was specifically in favour of the IRA. In one article, Prisoners of Politics (Vol 41, No. 22, Nov 8th 1980) the editors debate “R.T” over his demand that IRA detainees should have political prisoner status, noting that “all prisoners are political”.'



Meanwhile, the undercover policemen seem to have had a beano engaged in what my Dad use to call 'Bobbies Jobs'; employed in cushy numbers reporting on the activities and miscellaneous tittle-tattle of anarchists and trade unionists.  But with a job like that of Roger Pearce, drafting columns and perhaps editorials for Freedom in the late 1970s or early 1980s, it must have given him a glorious opportunity to hone his skills in spy craft; even with London Greenpeace it has been said that Bobby Lambert actually wrote the leaflet on McDonald's that ultimately led to the famous libel case..  I suppose that the conscientious policeman in his determination to do a decent job, will actually get a thrill out of writing and polishing up articles using anarchist analytical tools.  Both Roger-the-Dodger Pearce and Bobby Lambert seem to have been street-wise engaging in their workman-like operations, and moreover to have had a good deal more talent than many of the anarchists that they were spying on.

*   According to the website 'powerbase' which does public interest investigatuons -  Roger Pearce was appointed Director of Intelligence (SO11) on 2 November 1998 and held it until 4 March 2003.^[13] In 1999, Pearce was appointed head of Special Branch (SO12) and held both posts concurrently until his retirement in 2003.^[5][4][14] In this latter role he also had oversight of the Covert Operations unit SO10.^[15]. As Head of Special Branch he was:^[16] ... responsible for surveillance and undercover operations against terrorists and extremists, the close protection of government ministers and visiting VIPs, and other highly sensitive assignments... 

 

https://freedomnews.org.uk/roger-pearce-infiltrated-freedom-press/

******

Police admit role in construction blacklist scandal

 sent by Trevor Hoyle (Rochdale)

THE Metropolitan Police has confirmed undercover Special Branch officers supplied information to the construction industry blacklist.

Blacklisted workers have fought tirelessly to expose wrongdoing photo

The admission follows a campaign by blacklisted workers to prove they were spied on by the police.

It comes in a letter sent by Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Richard Martin in response to a complaint made by the Blacklist Support Group to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The letter states: “Allegation: Police, including Special Branches, supplied information that appeared on the Blacklist, funded by the country’s major construction firms, The Consulting Association and/or other agencies, in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. 

“The Report concludes that, on the balance of probabilities, the allegation that the police or Special Branches supplied information is ‘Proven’. 

The letter goes on to explain: “Sections of the policing community throughout the UK had both overt and covert contact with external organization, including the Economic League” 

It also conformed an “improper flow of information from Special Branch to external organisations, which ultimately appeared on the Blacklist”.

The blacklist scandal has seen more than £75m in compensation paid to workers by major contractors.

Allegations of police collusion in blacklisting were first made back in 2012 but the claims were strenuously denied by the authorities.

MP John McDonnell said: “It is now abundantly clear that various arms of the state including the Police colluded in the blacklisting process.

“This is one of the hidden scandals of the abuse of civil liberties in our country that needs to be recognised fully and addressed. The people involved need to be brought to book.” 

Dave Smith, secretary of the Blacklist Support Group said: “When we first talked about police collusion in blacklisting, people thought we were conspiracy theorists.

“We were told, ‘things like that don’t happen here’. With this admission from the Met Police, our quest for the truth has been vindicated.”

“The police are supposed to detect crime, instead they infiltrated trade unions and provided intelligence to an unlawful corporate conspiracy.”

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail, said: “This is a major breakthrough the police have finally been forced to admit what we already knew that they were knowingly and actively involved in the blacklisting of construction workers.”

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2018/03/23/police-admit-role-in-construction-blacklist-scandal/

Dave Smith, the excellent representative for his union members, was interviewed (fairly) by Sarah Montague on Radio 4 this morning. I will put the link up later. 

******

Death of Anna Campbell of Bristol IWW

 NORTHERN VOICES wishes to note the tragic death of the Bristol IWW member Anna Campbell,  a 26 year-old plumber formerly from Lewes, East Sussex, who was killed by a Turkish air strike along with 100 other Y.P.J. volunteers on the 15th March.

We publish below the statement from her Bristol Branch

***

IWW BRISTOL BRANCH STATEMENT:

It is with great sadness that we learn of the passing of Fellow Worker Anna Campbell, killed by Turkish forces while fighting alongside Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in the defence of Afrin.
 
Anna was a dedicated feminist, social justice and environmental campaigner known to members for her activism around the student occupation movement, ecological and community outreach projects in Bristol and Sheffield.  She was a key organiser in the IWW’s IWOC group, also being involved with the Empty Cages Collective, Smash IPP and Bristol ABC.

Anna travelled to Syria last May to participate in the grassroots feminist and socialist revolution that continues to grow in Rojava (the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Syria). Anna spent her first months in the country fighting in Deir ez-Zor, Isis’s last major stronghold. However when Turkey launched an assault on the city of Afrin in late January. Anna insisted that she be redeployed there. She gave her commanders an ultimatum, ‘Either I will go home and abandon the life as a revolutionary or you send me to Afrin. But I would never leave the revolution, so I will go to Afrin’.

A spokesperson from the YPJ said of Anna (who took the nom de guerre ‘Helîn’ in Rojava): “comrade Helîn will always be a symbol as a pioneering internationalist woman.  We will live up to her hope and beliefs. We will forever pursue her aim to struggle for women, for oppressed communities.”

Our thoughts and condolences are with Anna’s family, friends and comrades at this time.
Rest in Power Fellow Worker.

***

Ersatz Anarchists and Fake 'FREEDOM'

by Chris Draper

THERE’s a lot of fake “Anarchy” about these days.  Authoritarians wrapped in the black flag proclaim the pseudo-science of Marx whilst practicing the politics of Trotsky and Lenin.  Their “class-struggle” rhetoric replaces the rejection of authority that properly defines Anarchism.

Kapital' Idea Vicar!

THE rot first set-in at 'Freedom', the movement’s erstwhile newspaper, with the bizarre appointment of a Marxist editor who found Jesus and was reborn as a Vicar.  

Closing the paper down in 2014 with the triumphant declaration, 'Kropotkin Might Have Started it but We Fucking Finished It!'  the ersatz 'anarchists' refused to vacate the building and now run the premises as rentiers issuing occasional press statements like their 6 March 2018 celebration of the violent suppression of free-speech. 

 

'Freedom’s' response to my reasoned critique betrays an utter absence of anarchist values.  In place of a thoughtful, cogent, closely-argued libertarian response all Northern Voices received from 'Zofia Brom' of 'Freedom' was a random string of abusive invective;

• ‘I couldn’t care less what you think’…
• ‘can not (sic) be arsed to read Northern Voices’
• ‘nobody cares what your shitty blog has to say’………etc.

Essential Anarchism

Regrettably this behaviour is all too common. Free-speech, truth and reason are essential ingredients of anarchism.  Other varieties of socialism accept 'means-to-an-end' politics; Marxism-Leninism-Trotskyism demands party-discipline, subservience and uniformity whilst Labourism eschews principles in pursuit of popularity. 

For Anarchism 'the personal is political', to build an anarchist society you need citizens with a libertarian psychology. Communists might imagine they can smash capitalism and mechanically rearrange the pieces to re-engineer citizens in a chillingly instrumental fashion but anarchism’s bottom-up approach demands patience and humanity. 

Old-school anarchists Colin Ward and Gustav Landauer remind us:  

 'The state is not something which can be destroyed by a revolution but is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently.'

Ignoring, insulting, censoring, no-platforming and even physically assaulting critics reinforces the sort of authoritarian relationships anarchists oppose and ultimately strengthens the state.  Rather than expound on the sociopathy of ersatz anarchists I prefer to articulate a positive alternative. 

To offer a practical guide to 'everyday anarchy in action', originally compiled by A K Brown and, incidentally, published in 'Freedom' in the years before the authoritarians took over.  Of course, there’s more to Anarchism than just these eight bullet points but if you’re uncomfortable adopting them you’d probably be more comfy under the duvet with the Commissars.

 

Everyday Anarchy

1.  Say what you honestly think, not what some theory says you ought to think.  If the evidence of your eyes contradicts your theory (and I include anarchist theory under this), ditch the theory, don’t go blind.

2.  Don’t join organisations whose ideals you don’t share simply because they are bigger than you. Campaign openly and honestly whenever you can and if you can’t form your own organisations and have to join someone else’s (eg a union at work), don’t try to take it over unless the majority agree with you and you want to help. Argue for your ideas instead.

3.  Never ask for something you don’t really want in order to take 'workers' through the experience. Campaign for things which are worth winning (and preferably which may be won soon).

4.  If you are in an organisation, don’t be scared to disagree with each other in public and to accept varieties of opinions. You don’t have to split every time you disagree over what’s happening in Nicaragua.

5.  Respect the rights of minorities. Listen to what others have to say and try to avoid imposing the majority will on them until there’s no alternative.

6.  Participate in campaigns and actions when you want to, not when others make you feel guilty. This will lower your political activity in the short term but enable you to be active for much longer and be more effective (you will sound like you mean what you say not like you would rather be at home).

7.   Accept that no one organisation has a monopoly of the truth. Just because other people belong to other organisations doesn’t make everything they say wrong.

8.   Trust people who are putting forward sensible ideas now (they are the only leaders we need). Never trust anyone calling themselves a leader and thus assuming the right to have all their ideas treated as if they were all good ones.

Christopher Draper (March 2018)

******

'NO SHAME!' Cuts for us, rises for them!

'You ought to be ashamed of yourselves' - Cuts to vital local services but 52% pay rise for Labour’s 'Strategic Communications Director'

PRESS STATEMENT FROM Liberal Democrats
Office of John Leech

MANCHESTER Council's Strategic Communications Director is set to receive a staggering pay rise of nearly 29% just 18 months after an 18% pay rise.

John Leech has hit out at Manchester City Council today as it awarded its chief spin doctor another staggering pay rise just 18 months after an above-inflation pay rise.

Just 18 months ago the Labour Council waved through pay rises of up to 60% for 11 posts, including the Head of Strategic Communications which saw a healthy 18% pay rise.

Now it is being regraded and re-designated to become the Director of Strategic Communications with another pay rise of up to an eye-watering 29%.

This means, in just over a year, Manchester Labour have hiked the post's pay by up to 52% at a time when vital services are cut.

In a heated statement, the city's sole opposition member, John Leech, told the town hall:

"This council has let countless staff go, told other staff that they have to make do with a 1% pay increase and claimed to local residents it cannot fund vital local services.

"But the grim reality is, when this Council wants to, it can find enough money for almost anything - not least of course when it comes to awarding the person responsible for making the Council look good a stomach-turning pay rise of up to 52%.

"For a council that claims poverty and blames Government cuts every single time I suggest taking on vulnerable refugee children or tackling the homeless crisis, the ability to find money for vanity projects and endless pay rises for top bosses is beyond impressive.

"You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves."

Ends

Catalonia: Release all political prisoners immediately!

FOR the last four months, repression has been unleashed in Catalonia. 
 

Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, officials of democratic associations, were thrown in jail more than three months ago; Oriol Junqueras, who was nevertheless elected as a member of the autonomous Parliament on 21 December, is still being detained.

The deposed President and three other ministerial advisers of his government are still in exile in Brussels, under threat of being thrown in jail if they set foot on Spanish soil; hundreds of mayors, teachers, other workers and activists have been summoned to court and charged with rebellion and sedition, in other words charged with organising a violent uprising against the Spanish State. Catalan autonomy has been suspended under Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, and it is Rajoy who is governing, from Madrid with his ministers.

What is their “crime”? The Spanish monarchy and its government are punishing them for organising the vote through which the Catalan people freely declared themselves in favour of the Catalan Republic on 1 October 2017.

This brutal repression by the Rajoy government and the monarchy, which began with the huge police violence against people who were voting on 1 October, has the unconditional support of the European Commission, the governments of the leading countries of the European Union (Macron, Merkel, May, etc.), as well as the Trump administration.

On 28 January, the monarchy, the government and – following their diktats – the Constitutional Court went a step further in restricting rights, in violation of their own laws and legal precedents, by forbidding the majority of the autonomous Parliament elected on 21 October to appoint the President of their choice, in the person of Carles Puigdemont.

We are activists of all political tendencies of the democratic and labour movement from the Spanish State and all over Europe. Together with all the workers of Europe, we have seen the vast majority of the Catalan people peacefully and courageously mobilise for the Republic, and we have seen the State respond with police brutality, legal prosecutions and the suppression of their rights. We cannot remain impassive! We unconditionally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Catalan people for their rights to be respected!

We defend their right to freely decide their own future, to rid themselves of the monarchy and the institutions of the 1978 Constitution, which guarantee the continuity of Francoism.

We defend their right to constitute their own Republic, just as we defend the right of all the peoples of the Spanish State to constitute their own Republics and – if they so wish – to freely form their own union of Republics.

We, activists of the labour and democratic movement from the Spanish State and throughout Europe, call for united action throughout Europe for the following:

Release all the political prisoners immediately!

Cancel all the legal prosecutions!

Freedom for the Catalan people to choose their own representatives!

Hands off the Catalan Republic!

First endorsers

BELARUS

Youri Glouchakov,  « Razam » Social Movement

BRITAIN

Mike Arnott, Secretary Dundee Trades Council - personal capacity  ; Mike Calvert, Deputy Secretary Islington Unison - personal capacity  ; Jane Doolan, Secretary Islington Unison, Unison NEC - personal capacity   ;  Paul Filby, Secretary Merseyside Trades Council - personal capacity  ; Steve Hedley, RMT Assistant General Secretary - personal capacity  ; John Hendy, QC - personal capacity  ; Ian Hodson, National President BFAWU - personal capacity  , Michael Loughlin, Christ Church University Canterbury - personal capacity   ; Henry Mott, UNITE Southwark - personal capacity  ; Nick Phillips, UNITE - personal capacity  ; Nat Queen, University of Birmingham, UCU - personal capacity  ; John Sweeney, trade unionist - personal capacity  

BELGIUM

Salah Azaam, trade unionist  ; Toni Bernardi, Retired Metalworker ; Michèle Corin, SP activist Verviers ; Gaëtan Coucke, trade unionist education ; Sarah De Laet, teacher , trade union representative ; Roberto Giarrocco, trade union representative Public services ; José Hardy, trade union representative Public Service Governmental sector ; Serge Monsieur, president CGSP ALR Vivaqua (pers cap ) ; Laura Moraga Moral, Teacher trade unionist ; Jan Smidt, labour activist ; Claire Thomas, Teacher trade union representative CGSP .

CZECH REPUBLIC

Petr Schnur, CMF, České mírové fórum (Czech Peace Forum)

FRANCE

Gilles Barthes, psychiatrist (76) ; Jean-Michel Boulmé, POID activist (01) ; Cécile Brandely, lawyer , member Lawyers of France trade union (31) ; Oscar Caballero-Ramirez, trade unionist metal industry (17) ; Patricia Cestor, trade unionist national education (92) ; Jacques Châtillon, freethinker (22) ; Katel Corduant, trade unionist (75) ; Christian Delannoy, General Practitioner (59) ; Jean-Michel Delaye, trade unionist , town councillor Brumath (67) ; Laurent Denil (95) ; Claire Dujardin, lawyer , member Lawyers of France trade union (31) ; Stephen Duval, lawyer (69) ; Patrick Farbiaz, Social ecology (75) ; Dominique Ferré, contributor to La Tribune des travailleurs (94) ; Jean-Christophe Giraud, lawyer (69) ; Daniel Gluckstein, POID National Secretary ,International Workers Committee ( IWC ) co-coordinator (93) ; Basile Gonzales, child psychiatrist (76) ; Thomas Gonzales, lawyer (34) ; Nicolas Griffon, General Practitioner (76) ; Pierre Herranz, retiree labour activist , (17) ; Michèle Kauffer, trade unionist (91) ; Christel Keiser, town councillor , POID National Secretary (93) ; Marc Lagier, clinician (37) ; Francis Lopera, trade unionist ArcelorMittal (57) ; Maria José Malheiros, trade unionist (75) ; Alexia Muller, trade unionist (75) ; François Préneau, retiree, trade unionist , member of Ensemble (44) ; Grégoire Privolt, teacher trade unionist (69) ; Jean Pierre Richaudeau, Initiative pour le socialisme ( Initiative for socialism ) (74) ; Paul Robel, General Practitioner (56) ; Olivier Roux, teacher trade unionist (2A) ; Gérard Schivardi, Mayor of Mailhac (11) ; Arsène Schmitt, border zone trade unionist (57) ; Robert Schmitz, trade unionist (75) ; Henri Sick, trade unionist (75) ; Sarah Taconet, General Practitioner (95) ; Marinette Veyssière, trade unionist (79) ; Katia Vidal, trade unionist (66).

Germany

Sidonie Kellerer, trade unionist GEW ; Peter Kreutler, vice-president Düsseldorf SPD Workers Commission (AfA), trade unionist ver.di, trade union representatives committee ; Norbert Müller, SPD, trade unionist ver.di; Peter Saalmüller, SPD, trade unionist ver.di; Heimgard Schüller, trade unionist IG BAU;

Klaus Schüller, SPD Workers Commission (AfA) NEC , trade unionist EVG, Member of the International Workers Committee follow up Committee (IWC ) ; Anna Helena Schuster, shop steward ver.di ; Heinz Werner Schuster, Chair Düsseldorf SPD Workers Commission (AfA), ver.di representative

GREECE

Dimitrios Balaskas, agricultural worker , Nafplio ; Andreas Guhl, editor “Ergatika Nea”, LAE Argolide member  ; Maryse Le Lohé, LAE Papagos-Cholargos member Athens ; Sotiria Lioni, Nafplio ; Eleni Pierropoulou, member Popular Unity (LAE), Papagos-Cholargos, Athens.

HUNGARY

Tamàs Krausz, historian (pers cap ) ; Tamàs Gàspàr Miklos, philosopher, visiting professor, Central European University, Budapest, pers cap ; Judit Morva, activist, Le Monde Diplomatique Hungarian edition (pers cap ) ; Judit Somi, labour activist , contributor to Munkàs Hirlap

IRELAND

Ciaran Campbell, Mandate Trade Union - personal capacity  ; John Douglas, Mandate General Secretary - personal capacity  ; Brian Forbes, Mandate Trade Union - personal capacity  .

ITALY

Bruno Boggio, retiree, political activist ; Luigi Brandellero, worker , Tribuna Libera Editorial board ; Alessandra Cigna, teacher , trade union activist  ; Ugo Croce, self employed , Political Movement for the Repeal  ; Luis Cabases, journalist ; Felice Fazzolari, teacher , Political Movement for the Repeal; Kristian Goglio, teacher , trade unionist  ; Dario Granaglia, worker , trade unionist  ; Monica Grilli, teacher , trade union representative ; Gianni Guglieri, worker , trade unionist  ; Antonio Landro, teacher , trade unionist ; Aldo Mangano, student  ; Andrea Monasterolo, worker , trade unionist  ; Maria Jesus Lopez Montalban, Chair « Amics de Catalunya a Italia » Association  ; Alberto Pian, teacher trade union activist ; Betty Raineri, teacher , trade union activist ; Lorenzo Varaldo, Headmaster , Political Movement for the Repeal; Vanna Ventre, teacher , "Tribuna Libera" editorial board ;

PORTUGAL

Jorge Fonseca de Almeida, « economist ; Jaime Pereira, retiree ; Rui Rodrigues, University Professor ; José Júlio Santana Henriques, trade unionist, retiree ; Lia Santos, teacher e SPGL/CGTP ; Jorge Torres, Saica workers commission , CITE/CGTP trade union rep ; Adriano Zilhão, economist.

ROMANIA

Contantin Cretan, former political prisoner jailed because of his trade union activity.

RUSSIA

Mark Vassilev, historian.

SERBIA

Jaćim Milunović, labour activist .

SPANISH STATE

Miguel Angel Aragoneses Garcia, representative LAB trade union committee (Euzkadi-Basque Country ) ; Lurdes Barba, theater director (Catalonia) ; Patxi Fernández Álvarez, retiree, UGT trade unionist (Euzkadi- Basque Country) ; Eduard Gonzalo, pro-independence militant (Catalonia) ; Jordi Rabella Foz (Catalonia); José Luis Vinatea, deliverer , UGT trade unionist (Euzkadi- Basque Country) ; Felipe Zorita, retired rail worker , UGT trade unionist (Euzkadi- Basque Country)

SWITZERLAND

Michel Zimmermann, Member Geneva Socialist Party , Town Councillor Versoix ; Dogan Fennibay, trade unionist UNIA.

TURKEY

Yasar Avci, Retired Workers Union; Sevim Kacmaz, precarious labour  ; IKP member  ; Sadi Ozansü, Chair Workers Fraternity Party (IKP) ; Furkan Safak, IKP member  ; Birsen Yesilkanat, Health Workers Union .

MASS WALK-OUT AT MITTING INQUIRY

VICTIMS of undercover police units and their lawyers staged a mass walk out during today's hearing of the undercover policing public inquiry calling for the removal of Sir John Mitting as the new judge in charge of the inquiry.  Sir John Mitting has told the inquiry, that victims will be be met with a 'wall of silence' in key parts of the inquiry and is granting anonymity to almost every police officer - so the public inquiry will be held mainly in secret.  This will not be justice. We are not prepared to participate in a process in which the victims are merely window dressing. 

Below and attached is the full transcript of the submission made by Phillipa Kaufman QC, representing over 200 of the 'non-state, non police core participants' in the inquiry including Doreen and Neville Lawrence, women activist who were deceived into relationships with undercover officers, anti-racist campaigners and trade unions. 

Blacklisted workers and the Blacklist support Group have been granted 'core participant status' in the inquiry because of undercover police infiltration of trade unions and were part of the walk out. 

******

Blacklist Support Group Statement for Undercover Policing Public Inquiry hearing on Wed 21st March 2018:

'Blacklisted workers who have been kept under surveillance by political policing units were always skeptical about whether the British state investigating itself would truly provide justice.  But under John Mitting, the public inquiry has descended into a good old fashioned establishment cover-up.

'Mitting was put in charge to carry out a job of work on us - and he's doing it.  Time and again he gives the police the benefit of the doubt, to the detriment of those whose lives have been torn apart by this human rights scandal.

'Tinkering around the edges isn't going to change things.  We have no confidence in Mitting.  He must go and needs to be replaced with a panel of experts who have have at least some degree of empathy with the victims and are prepared to question the accounts of undercover police officers who have been trained to lie.'

Dave Smith: core participant in 
'union strand' of public inquiry (21/3/18).

******

Scot Labour Boss to crack down on blacklisting

based on information supplied by Joe Bailey.

SCOTTISH Labour leader Richard Leonard claims he will crackdown on outsourcing and blacklisting.  In a speech to the Scottish Labour conference as the party’s leader in Scotland, he condemned firms that exploited and blacklisted workers. 
 
'Our strategy will ensure that we stop once and for all giving millions of pounds of public money in subsidies to exploitative tax-avoiding companies like Amazon down the road in Dunfermline,' he said. 
 
'And that we stop awarding billions of pounds of public procurement contracts to companies which don’t pay a living wage, which use zero-hours contracts and which blacklist workers. So, we meet in Dundee and we applaud the redevelopment of the waterfront, but we condemn the use of a blacklisting company to do it.' 
 
Construction giants BAM and Sir Robert McAlpine have harvested major contracts out of the redevelopment, which includes a new branch of the V&A museum.  Both were backers of the undercover blacklisting organisation the Consulting Association, which was exposed in 2009 for running an illegal blacklist of trade union activists, often targeted for their workplace safety activities.

The  announcement of the victory of Leonard last November, was considered at the time another  triumph for Jeremy Corbyn.  It is believed the Unite union played a significant role in this.

This week saw yet another Corbyn prefered candidate appointed as Labour's general secretary when Jennie Formby, an official from the Unite union.  She defeated Christine Blower, former general secretary of the National Union of Teachers.

Jim Pickard in the Financial Times today described the Ms. Formby triumph thus:
'Ms. Formby's victory ..... demonstrated how comfortable Mr. Corbyn is with Unite, Britain's largest union, controlling many posts in his operation.'

Madam Formby is seen by some as a bit of a brute in the office and some of the staff have been quick to throw in the towel in as soon as it was known she'd got the job.

It also seems that Momentum  has some misgivings about the dominant influence of Unite.  Momentum wants a wider reflection of views within the party than the union base.

******

Germaine Greer on 'Bad Faith' & 'career rapees'

An anthropological approach to rape in society

by Brian Bamford

YESTERDAY Germaine Greer argued on Radio Four's 'TODAY' program that we need to look at how the rape narrative is tackled and defined in society, and what this tells us about the treatment of women today.  She said, among other things, when asked to define her stance on #MeToo, Ms Greer declared: ‘I don’t actually think it’s gone too far, I don’t think its got anywhere at all.'

She then added:  ‘What we need is to sort out the law regarding rape and to sort out our concept of what it is.
‘It’s pointless now bringing up this stuff when [for] most of it no action can be taken.
‘Why wait 20 years?’

She of course neglected to concern herself here with the treatment of men or boys in society.

 Cambridge House & the abuse of boys

And yet, I live in Rochdale where it was at Cambridge House in November 2012, that the issue of the exploitation and abuse of boys by Cyril Smith in the 1960s was initially reported on this NV Blog and simultaneously on the Westminster Politics Home website.  A few hours later Simon Danczuk made his speech in the House of Commons (an earlier story about this in 1979 in Rochdale's Alternative Paper [RAP] had been squashed by a threat of legal action by Cyril Smith's solicitor).

Rape & Jean-Paul Sartre on  'Bad Faith'

Ms. Greer told listeners to Radio Four that #MeToo doesn’t work:  ‘I don’t actually think it’s gone too far, I don’t think its got anywhere at all.
‘What we need is to sort out the law regarding rape and to sort out our concept of what it is.’

To understand this better perhaps we should consider the nature of bad faith and exploitative behaviour in human relationships generally.  Ms. Greer talks about women who 'open their legs' to gain career advantages from Harvey Weinstein

In the North it was in the 1970s and 80s, and may still be, a common practice for women to hang around in  pubs using their charms in order to get men to buy them free drinks, and one (perhaps I should say second generation feminist) use to complain to me about these working-class women who boasted about it as she thought it was 'disgusting' and anti-feminist.  When I went working in London I worked with men in the sugar refinery in Hammersmith who used to chat-up women in clubs and when the women went to the toilet they would tell me how they would empty their handbags. 

Dealing with bad faith in a way which seems to relate to what Ms. Greer has said, the French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre. gave an example of a young girl on a first date:
'The young woman’s date compliments her on her physical appearance, but she ignores the obvious sexual connotations of his compliment and chooses instead to direct the compliment at herself as a conscious human being. He then takes her hand, but she neither takes it nor rejects it. Instead, she lets her hand rest indifferently in his so as to buy time and delay having to make a choice about accepting or rejecting his advances. Whereas she chooses to treat his compliment as being unrelated to her body, she chooses to treat her hand (which is a part of her body) as an object, thereby acknowledging her freedom to make choices.'

 The #MeToo Mob in Hollywood want to argue that they had no choices and had to succumb to Weinstein's wilds and that they had no power of agency. 

Another example of bad faith that Sartre gives is that of a young woman on a first date.  The young woman’s date compliments her on her physical appearance, but she ignores the obvious sexual connotations of his compliment and chooses instead to direct the compliment at herself as a conscious human being.  He then takes her hand, but she neither takes it nor rejects it.  Instead, she lets her hand rest indifferently in his so as to buy time and delay having to make a choice about accepting or rejecting his advances.  Whereas she chooses to treat his compliment as being unrelated to her body, she chooses to treat her hand (which is a part of her body) as an object, thereby acknowledging her freedom to make choices.

For Sartre, people may pretend to themselves that they do not have the freedom to make choices, but they cannot pretend to themselves that they are not themselves, that is, conscious human beings who actually have little or nothing to do with their pragmatic concerns, social roles, and value systems.

 Germaine Greer's anthropological analysis & the initiation of 'Donkey Dick'!

Germaine Greer's approach to what she calls 'career rapees' is it seems to me anthropological, while Sartre's is philosophical.

I mentioned Rochdale, and the historic case I knew about of the teenagers abused by Cyril Smith at Cambridge House, using spanking practices and 'false medicals'.  I could have dealt with the historic practices of the initiation ceremonies which took place in the factories in the North West of England in the 1950s and 60s, when I was an apprentice electrician.  Last month we had Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tueday, and it was at that time common for young apprentices to get their balls blacked or greased, or both.  De-bagging's of lads were often indulged in on the shopfloor on the pretext that it was an ancient custom of an 'iniation ceremony', in the 1950s it was argued that this should be done when lads reached 18-years when the lads became 'improvers', perhaps owing to the advent of the Welfare State, lads were becoming too big at 21 on completion of their apprenticeship when they officially 'came out of their time'.  One lad at Tweedale & Smalley where I worked, gained the title 'Donkey Dick' and seemed to enjoy the title as well as the exploits and High Jinks.

However an outsider may view these escapades, and when I did try to protest I was made to feel like a wet blanket,

How do we consider these initiation practices?  Are they to be represented as the abuse and exploitation of young people and apprentices by tradesmen?  Or are we to see it as an ancient custom perhaps handed down to us from the times of the rural village? Perhaps even Harvey Weinstein and those who engaged with him thought they we involved in some ancient ritual or initiation ceremony.

 Jean-Paul Sartre on Bad Faith | Outre monde:

www.https://outre-monde.com/2011/03/29/jean-paul-sartre-on-bad-faith/ 
******

NOAM CHOMSKY ON FREE SPEECH

“Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.”

― Noam Chomsky

ZOFIA BROM, SIMON SAUNDERS, AND FREEDOM PRESS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE! 

Up to a million children to lose free school meals in England under Government plans!

THE political party that snatched away free milk off school kids, is now planning to take the food out of their very mouths, to save money. Up to a million children could now lose their free school meals if the Tory Government gets its way. Currently, all families receiving Universal Credit can claim free school meals. But under new rules for Universal Credit that come into effect on  1 April, children in Year 3 and above, on Universal Credit in England, will now not normally be eligible if their parents earn more than £7,400 in a year. 

The Children's Society has warned that the plans will create a 'cliff-edge' where many families would be better off taking a pay cut, even though Government claims that Universal Credit, will make work pay. However, Labour have pointed out that while up to a million youngsters in England could be denied free school meals under Government proposals, Theresa May's alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - which keeps her government in power - has led to the Government protecting Northern Ireland from the free school meals cut. Under the proposed changes, the same threshold for Northern Ireland families to be eligible, is double that of England at £14,000.

Last Tuesday, MPs voted down a Labour bid stop 1.1 million children missing out on free school meals. MPs voted 312-254 against an attempt by Labour to block Government changes to Universal Credit rules. 

The controversy over ending free school meals for poor children, has led to calls for food and booze subsidies for MPs to be ended forthwith. While the average UK wage is £26,000 a year, MPs receive £74,000 per years plus subsidies. The food and booze subsidies, cost the British taxpayer more than £6million a year. 

I, Zofia!

 Zofia Brom, Freedom Press & the Interpretive Community

IN January, the journalist and social anthropologist Gillian Tett in the Financial Times magazine supplement (5/01/2018), grappled with what she considered to be a possible metaphor for the triumph of Donald Trump encompassed in the story of Tonya Harding's rise and fall in the 1990s as an American ice skating champion now illustrated in the film 'I, Tonya'.

Gillian Tett explains the background story to the film 'I, Tonya': 
'Harding grew up in a world of poverty, instability and alleged mistreatment by her mother. It is hardly surprising if this bred anger and resentment.  But if she found it tough to conform to the culture of elite skating, officials found her tough to accept too.  “I never apologised for growing up poor or being a redneck” .'

Or so Margot Robbie, the actress who plays Harding, tells the camera at one point in 'I, Tonya'.

Tonya was the daughter of a single-parent mother who herself worked as a waitress.  

When I read the responses of the Tonya Harding, I can't help but think of Zofia Brom on the Freedom Collective and the author of the article 'London Antifa shuts down alt-right talk' (Mar. 6th).

One website reported the Antifa attack, which Zofia Brom FREEDOM PRESS article glorifies, on the contributors to a debate at King's College:
'Antifa agitators shut down an event at the King's College in London featuring Ayn Rand Institute President Yaron Brook and anti-political-correctness You Tube personality Carl Benjamin (a.k.a. Sargon of Akkad).'

Ms. Brom, who seems to be a novice writer on the revolving door of the Freedom Press website, and has written on feminist and gender topics under the initials 'ZB'.  

There are distinct differences between Tonya and Zofia.  Tonya was a hugely talented skater who was among the contenders for an Olympic medal at the 1994 Winter games in Lillehammer.  Zofia, on the other hand, is not a very remarkable writer and her comments on Chris Draper's article 'Free Speech and Cheap Bigots' show a certain sloppiness with regard to spelling and grammar.

For example Zofia wrote a comment on Thursday, 15 March 2018 at 10:51:00 GMT:
'Glad people read Freedom: I for once [sic] can not be arsed to read Northern Voices, even when they land in my inbox.  But, congratulations to NV for proving that me [sic] nick- naming them "leftist The Sun" [sic] was correct.' 

To which on Thursday, 15 March 2018 at 20:14:00 GMT, (I) bammy said: 'Bless you Zofia; I hope nobody blacklists you!' 

Then 21-minutes later on Thursday, 15 March 2018 at 20:35 GMT, Zofia Brom said:  'Brian the reason why people find you annoying (to say the least) is that you are a troll [sic] and a cop grass, plus you harras [sic] and doxx [sic] people online. I wouldn't call it blacklisting.' 

What is interesting here is the vocabulary used by Ms. Brom words like 'troll'; 'cop grass': 'harras'; and 'doxx' all seem to belong to a special interpretative community which excludes some and includes the chosen ones like Zofia.

Ms. Brom wants to say nobody at Freedom want to look at our Blog, and yet she not only reads one of my comments but responds if not with the speed of Zeus at least within 21-minutes to a comment of mine.

Because she is so smothered in these utterances of her own 'interpretive community'* she is  perhaps  unaware that she is writing sublime gobbledygook, as when she writes:   'congratulations to NV for proving that me nick- naming them "leftist The Sun" was correct.'

All I can interpret about this utterance is that she is describing Northern Voices as a 'leftist The Sun'.  Which I take to mean that she finds our prose annoyingly accessible.

It seems that at last we have arrived with Zofia and company at a linguistic lexicon so slender it bears comparison with George Orwell's Newspeak dictionary.**

*     A term pertaining to Stanley Fish's reader-oriented theory of literature (see Reader-response criticism ).  Interpretive communities consist of a group of “informed readers” (Fish) who possess both linguistic competence by having internalized the syntactic and semantic knowledge required for reading, and L itinerary competence by being familiar with our literary conventions.  By way of introducing the concept of interpretive communities, Fish argues that the informed reader's interpretive perceptions and aesthetic judgements are not idiosyncratic but socially constructed; they depend heavily on the assumptions shared by the social group or groups to which the reader belongs.  Interpretive communities adopt particular kinds of reading strategies which will, in due course, determine the entire reading process, the stylistic peculiarities of a literary Text as well as the experience of assimilating them.  If Fish's categories were to be taken seriously, reader-response criticism would cease to be riddled with questions concerning either the mode of existence of the literary work or the Aesthetics of perception (the active and creative process a reader engages in when reading a text): both would collapse into a set of assumptions and conventions shared among a socially defined community of readers. 1981a : “  Stanley Fish and the righting of the reader ”. 1980

**  Nineteen Eighty-Four, the fictional language Newspeak attempts to eliminate personal thought by restricting the expressiveness of the English language.