Robert Harris on Boris Johnson

IN an interview over Lunch with the FT soon after General Election the writer, confident of Tony Blair, and political pundit, the classist Robert Harris, told Frederick Studeman that 'Every triumph has to be paid for,' he said, with an eye to his researches on classical Rome, believing Johnson will now have to deliver on his promises.  He added that Labour could be 'in quite a strong place in 2024 because the Tories won't have their two great advantages - "get Brexit done" and Jeremy Corbyn'.

There is a recognition however that it will be necessary to reorient the Labour party, and that would not be easy.

Meanwhile, Harris muses:  'One of the things I did learn from writing the Cicero books is the obvious one:  that in every great victory lie the seeds of subsequent defeat.'

His classical interpretation of the prime minister is that Johnson has a 'great man' view of power.   Harris says:  'He's, let's say, flexible in his approach.  I don't think he is guided.'

So expect some surprising twists and turns, the ditching of past policies and allies.  If Johnson wants to hold on to his newly won northern territories, then he can't have a hard, recession-inducing Brexit.

Boris is likened in the inerview to the Roman politician Publius Clodius Pulcher (died 52 B.C.) who was one of the leading demagogues in the 1st century B.C.  As tribune, he wielded nearly as much power as Julius Caesar or Pompey.

Harris says:  'One of the things that I did learn from writing the Cicero books is the obvious one: that in every great victory lie the seeds of subsequent defeat.'

Johnson will now have to deliver, according to Harris; adding 'Politics is just relentless.... nothing ever ends.  You get Brexit and then there'll be an NHS winter crisis.' 

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On Being Gutted by Tory Turkey's Xmas Vote

And  Gracious in Defeat!

'Let me be gracious in defeat,' comedian MARK STEEL WROTE ON TWITTER after the exit poll:                     'All the people celebrating now are the most entitled, embittered, sneering nasty selfish racist foul fuckwits.  I'd still rather be with the decent people, however gutted they are , than with you for a second.'

In a more restrained demeanour Dave Smith of the Labour leaning BLACKLIST SUPPORT GROUP, wrote on Facebook:

13 December at 03:37

'This is an awful result for the entire labour movement.
'Whatever people's thoughts on Corbyn or Brexit; the Labour manifesto commitments on workers rights, NHS & public services, renationalisation of rail & utilities, house building and the climate were supported by the majority of the population. All these things are now at risk from a rightwing Johnson government.
'For blacklisted construction workers, our hope for a public inquiry into the Consulting Association scandal now appears to be off the agenda for the next few years at the very least. Blacklist Support Group would like to put on record our thanks to John McDonnell and all those who fought our corner and made both blacklisting and the spycops scandal mainstream political issues.

'But working people should never rely on Westminster politicians to solve our problems for us. The trade union movement is going nowhere. We fought back against other Tory leaders in the past and we'll do it again. We need to stay strong; but we're also allowed to feel gutted.'

Jay McKenna Acting Regional Secretary for the TUC in the North West wrote more soberly:
'Last week was undoubtedly a disappointment for the labour movement and underlines the scale of the challenge we face... And there will be more. More action but more listening about what people want and need from us.'   

To get over being 'gutted' there is even some talk of Jeremy Corbyn becoming like Tony Wegdwood Benn, the son of William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate, a 'National Treasure'*.

* 
Corbyn attended Castle House School, an independent preparatory school near Newport, Shropshire, before, at age 11, becoming a day student at the Adams' Grammar School in the town.

*****************

The Data Death Ship for anti-Brexit team

ACCORDING to the Xmas issue of Private Eye both Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson had 'hard data telling them they would go down to an epic defeat if they gave prime minister Boris Johnson the election he craved.' 

What followed was what we now know to be a disaster.  

 Naomi Smith, cheif executive of the pro-European campaign group Best for Britain, commissioned a highly expensive 'multi-level poll' of British political attitudes. In June's Peterborough by-election it it prediction of Labour's vote share was only 0.6% off the actual result.  Private Eye claimed the Best for Britain researchers had considered what would happen if the Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage, had decided to help the Tories. In the 2017 general election, Ukip didn't stand in hundereds of constituencies with pro-Brexit MPs. 

Best for Britain took their findings to the Lib Dem's cheif executive Nick Harvey, and Rhiannon Leaman, Swin's cheif of staff.  They continued to disbelieve the figures until the 28th, October when they voted to overturn the provision of the Fixed Term Parliament Act and give Johnson his election. 

The Best for Britian then tried Labour's James Frith, Anne Turley and other Labour backbench MPs were more receptive.  They were, according to Private Eye, aware that many of their voters hated Corbyn.  Private Eye added:  'They also knew they were just a handful of Commons votes from securing a second Brexit referendum.'

But Corbyn ordered Labour MPs to back an election saying:  'This is a once in-a-generationh chance to build a country for the many, not the few.'  'Bring it on' cried his sidekick Laura   Pidcock.  Swinson,and Turvey lost their seats. and Johson won his predicted majority.

******************

LABOUR LOSING ELECTIONS: Six in a Row

THE STATISTICAL SPIRIT: Can they count to six?

FREELANCE journalist, Elenor Penny wrote in the Independent on the 14th, December:  'This new politics, embodied by Jeremy Corbyn, has lost it first electoral showdown.  But the circumstances of its defeat should embolden us... Losing this battle was always an option.  Losing the war is unthinkable.'

Yet, surely this 'electoral showdown' is now no less than the sixth attempt that, according to Private Eye, that Corbyn has lost out?  If we count last May's European elections, in which the Labour Party came third, and the four sets of local elections under his leadership, it was the sixth contest in which he had floundered and come to nowt.

*********

First meeting of the Northern Anarchist Alliance

ACTIVISTS FROM SOUTH SHEILDS and Sunderland in the North East to Llandudno in North Wales, across to Cumbria in the North West down to Sheffield in Yorkshire and Macclesfield in the Peak District, Telford in Shropshire, as well as Manchester and Salford came together on Saturday the 14th, December to give support for the founding of a new Northern Alliance of Anarchists at the Town Hall Tavern in Manchester.  The original initiative had been rooted in the approach of new group New Offensive, with backing from elements of the old Northern Anarchist Network [NAN]*, but has since been boosted by the support of women associated with the Manchester Feminist Network and the 'MAKE MORE NOISE' network, which made a remarkable debut leafleting at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair at the Manchester People's History Museum on the previous Saturday (7th, Dec.).

Initially the Northern Anarchist Alliance had been conceived by a few veterans of militant struggle who found themselves in general agreement about the slide of left wing politics in this country into an intellectual and moral ghetto.  Now there is a coming together of distinct forces with roots in libertarian politics, and the trade unions, as well as from a number of social causes concerned about issues of freedom of speech and expression, feminism, and climate issues.  People who are determined to found their politics in the spirit of common decency, openness to debate, and keen to build a culture of ideas based on rigorous empirical analysis rather vulgar dogma.

Discussion at this first Northern Anarchist Alliance event focused on the experiences of the participants in past struggles like the campaigns against asbestos; Olgreave; the Miner's Strikes; Blacklisting in the British building trade; the peace movement; feminism; gender politics; extinction rebellion; bookfairs.  

Practical matters were discussed; such as establishing a  Bank Account and a P.O. Box for better communication.  It was considered vital that we should be in a position to bulk purchase and review literature. 

Consideration was given as to how we should approach bookfairs in future.   It was thought that we ought to question the policy of future bookfair organisers to their ideas on open presentation; free expression; feminism; and openness to debate and controversial ideas.  What about a stall for free expression, or una 'Lucha de contrarios' in the spirit of classical anarchism?  Or a 'DOWN WITH CENSORSHIP CAMPAIGN' drawing on Orwell and Chomsky?

Again the trans-gender row flared up.  We were urged to read the booklet 'Shit, Wigs & Steroids' reviewed on this Blog as 'Bookfairs & Bullshit'.  It details the problems northern anarchists and others have had in recent years at bookfairs,

The event had been publicised as featuring three speakers two, Dave Douglass and Brian Bamford, being formerly associated with the Anarchist newspaper Freedom; in Bamford's case as an editor and with Douglass, until recently as a director on Friends of Freedom Press. Yet, although questions were raised about divisions in Liverpool at the News from Nowhere Bookshop about the distribution of critical literature such as the 'Shit, Wigs & Steroids' booklet, there was little mention of Freedom Press at this event.

We had a working lunch in the Tavern and the food was well received and the ale was very good, as was the service.  Some debate was had about the nature of the Newcastle Bookfair, but it was not thought that it was being based on the spirit of classical anarchism.

The Manchester Bookfair at the Manchester People's History Museum [7/12/2019], had been considered a vast improvement on many of the  bookfairs in the city in recent years: see the N.V. reviews.  This may have been owing to the influence of PM Press which may well have acted as a go-between guarantor to reassure the People's History Museum management that there would be no 'hanky panky' owing to previous history of discrimination by the old local stand-by organising group.   However, it would be very wrong for people associated with the NAN to now pull the ladder up simply because they have gained entry to this event.  The NAN which in the past has been banned ought to show solidarity with other persecuted groups because they above all having criticised others for playing Pontius Pilate in the past, should now stick-up for others.

It was agreed that the next gathering of the NORTHERN ALLIANCE would be in the Springtime of 2020.

 Again the Trans-gender row flared up again.

We were recommended to read “Shit Wigs and Steroids: Book Fairs and Bullshit”. It details the problems northern anarchists and our supporters have had at book fairs. Also it covers the Trans-gender row, both complex subjects but written in a very concise style. Send for your free copy to <brandonacab@hotmail.com>. 

*  http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/p/northern-anarchist-network.html

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What’s a ‘Real’ Woman?

by Les May

IN recent days the ‘Twitterati’ have been busy tearing into each other about this question after an author of books for children ‘tweated’ a comment on the subject.

As anyone who reads NV will know I am a critic of the ‘Cocks in Frocks’ brigade who expect to declare they are ‘trans-gender’ and insist that everyone else accept it without question. But, as I have made clear previously, I am happy to treat any ‘trans-sexual’ person who has had gender reassignment surgery and the hormone treatment entailed, as a woman. For me the bottom line is whether they have shown the level of commitment to being a woman which is needed if they are required to lose their wedding tackle.

Is a trans-sexual woman a ‘real’ woman? Take a blood sample, send it to a cytologist, and he or she will tell you it came from someone with a Y chromosome, indicating the person was born a male. So as a biologist I must answer ‘No’ to this question. But that does not mean I cannot choose to treat the person as a woman both legally and socially, ‘real’ or not. I choose to do so because such a person would pass the ‘duck test’. (If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.) In this I differ from people like the author Germaine Greer and some of my friends.

This is a situation for which there is already at least one precedent.

Between 1965 and 1967 someone I have known all my life adopted three small children, all under 4 months of age. Three times he stood in court whilst the judge made it very clear that from the moment the Adoption Order was made he was responsible for every aspect of that child’s welfare and well being.

Is he the ‘real’ father? A DNA test would show that he is not related to any of the children, nor they to each other. So as a biologist I must answer ‘No’ to this question. (He simply says he’s their Dad.)

From the moment the adoption order was made he was treated by the state, and the organs of the state, as that child’s father. Legally that is what he now was and still is. The child acquired a new identity, its birth certificate was changed and it took his surname.

Not only is he considered for all legal purposes as the children’s father, socially he passes the ‘duck test’. For 50+ years his family and his friends have accepted that he is the children’s ‘father’, not withstanding the DNA evidence to the contrary. His children and grandchildren accept it too.

So what has this got to do with trans-sexual people? A Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) is the legal equivalent of an ‘Adoption Order’. Discriminate against people with a GRC and, to be consistent, you should declare your willingness to discriminate against people who adopt children and the children themselves.

But there is a wider lesson to be learned here. Some children are ‘difficult’ to place for adoption, wrong age, wrong abilities, wrong colour, spring to mind. Demands for amendment of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to allow ‘self certification’ centre around the stringency of the procedure and the time it takes. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever suggested that adoption law be changed to allow the procedure to be made less stringent and permit potential parents to ‘self certify’. This would no doubt make placing ‘difficult’ children much easier. It won’t happen because we recognise the potential for abuse of the system. The fear is that changes to the GRA would lead to similar abuses of the system.

If you are an adoptive parent and anything I have written above about ‘real’ parents has made you a little uncomfortable, that was not my intention. There’s more to being a mum or dad than sharing a few thousand base pairs of DNA. Families are made not born.

**************** 

Dispiriting election redraws political map of UK

'This is an awful result', said Dave Smith 

of the Blacklist Support Group

by Brian Bamford

 
LAST SATURDAY the Financial Times leader writer began an editorial thus:
'A dispiriting election has produced a seismic outcome.  Britain's political landscape has been redrawn as it was by Tony Blair's New Labour victory in 1997, or Margaret Thatcher's win in 1979.  The Conservative landslide is a vindication of Boris Johnson's strategy of going all-out for a new Brexit deal and building his campaign around delivering it....  Yet the result, combined with the Scottish National party's surge in Scotland and nationalist gains in Northern Ireland, will strain the integrity of the UK.'

At the same time in an e-mail written immediately following the election Dave Smith secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, which has been consistently loyal to the Labour Party wrote:
'This is an awful result for the entire labour movement.

'Whatever people's thoughts on Corbyn or Brexit; the Labour manifesto commitments on workers rights, NHS & public services, renationalisation of rail & utilities, house building and the climate were supported by the majority of the population.  All these things are now at risk from a right wing Johnson government.'

Yet prior to the election in another e-mail he had wisely warned us:  'working people should never place dewy eyed trust in politicians, lawyers or union leaders to solve our problems for us; continuing to build a movement remains essential.' 

But what really happened under the Attlee Labour Government of 1945?

MILITARY BLACKLEGS & the 1945 LABOUR GOVERNMENT 

Dave Smith does well to remind us that we should not 'place dewey eyed trust in politicians' etc.   for within six days of the Labour Government taking office in 1945, it sent conscript troops into the Surrey Docks, London, to break a ten-week-old strike against a wage-cut....

Yet in a Labour amendment to the Military Training Bill, in Hansard on May 12th, 1939, this same Labour Party had declared:
'No conscript should be required to take duty in aid of the civil power in connection with a trade dispute, or to perform, in consequence of a trade dispute, any civil or industrial duty customarily performed by a civilian.'

Surely there is some inconsistency here?

THE GREAT ILLUSION 

In 1959, on the Aldermaston CND march, some trade union critics, who described themselves as 'syndicalists', not unlike Dave Smith of the Blacklist Support Group today, claimed at that time:  'we believe many sincere but starry-eyed Labour supporters have already half-forgotten the events during those six years in which every Socialist principle was betrayed by the politicians... [and that] It is no service to the working class for the truth to be hidden, however embarrassing and unpalatable it may be for some people.'  (How Labour Governed 1945-1951 - DIRECT ACTION PAMPHLET:  Publications Committee, SWF).

 THE LABOUR PROGRAM in 1945

Like Len McCluskey said last week about the panicky policy incontinence of the current Labour Party, the 1945 Labour Government, with a vast majority, had an economic programme based on two principles - 'a give-away programme and state control of economic functions'.

Dave Smith in his generally depressing Tweet continues to argue in this gloomy vain:

'For blacklisted construction workers, our hope for a public inquiry into the Consulting Association scandal now appears to be off the agenda for the next few years at the very least.' 

Bro. Smith was here pinning his faith on Page 48 of the Labour Manifesto:

'We will establish public inquiries into historical injustices including blacklisting and Orgreave, and ensure the second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry has the confidence of all those affected, especially the bereaved families and survivors.'*

When I last spoke personally to Dave Smith in 2015, at a Blacklist Support Group conference on  'Bullying, blacklisting and whistleblowing' at a two-day event at the University of Greenwich, I expressed my concerns and doubts about his hopes about getting a future Labour Government to solve the problem of blacklisting etc. by creating a distinguished public inquires.  Since 1979, when the alternative newspaper RAP had first exposed Cyril Smith, I long had the experience of seeking public inquires owing to the work I had put in to get something done about child abuse in Rochdale and beyond.  Sadly, by the time the inquiry will finally get to publish its report many of the alleged victims will be beyond help.

The Blacklist & the Consulting Association

Tameside Trade Union Council in Greater Manchester, has been involved with what later became known as the 'BOYS ON THE BLACKLIST' during the Daf dispute in Manchester's Piccadilly in 2003.  That was well before it had been finally confirmed that the blacklist actually existed in 2009** by subsequent events in which the Information Commissioner raided an office of the Consulting Association in Droitwitch, Cheshire.

As the Financial Times leader above indicates the political landscape of the UK  has changed substantially.  But it is not the end of history which some may claim.  The nationalist issues both in Scotland and Northern Ireland, as the FT editor suggests, may still come back to haunt the Tory Government.

Dave Smith is right in his blunt response to be 'gutted' by the outcome!  It is a slap in the face for what passes for the British left.  But we at Northern Voices have always been clear that we have historically even less faith in politicians than Dave Smith has ever had.  George Orwell told the poet Stephen Spender that he always avoided going to cocktail parties to mix with literary folk for fear it may interfere with his own critical judgement of their literary work.  

Could it be that being based and rooted in London that Dave Smith and some of the Blacklist Support Group, may well have become too close to the some of the Labour politicians down there and that it could have clouded their judgement?

In the years since the late naughties that I have known them; Dave Smith and the Blacklist Support Group, have always struck me as one of the most decent phenomena on the British left in this country bar none, aside perhaps from my own personal friends among the Boys on the Blacklist in the North of England, and I don't think that those associated with my own political persuasion among the English anarchists are a patch on them.  Other parts of the British left, especially including the British anarchists, who have presented us with the politics of a shabby little shocker.  Although I believe that Dave Smith and the Blacklist Support Group are wholly committed to fairness and common decency they will be well aware that the Labour party, when in Government, has failed to make serious in-roads towards the abolition of British blacklisting. 

Despite what Dave Smith declares about us placing our faith 'dewey eyed trust in politicians'; I fear that these honourable activists may suffer from being too trusting of people inside the Westminster bubble.      

****************

*  Page 48 of the Labour Manifesto:

"We will establish public inquiries into historical injustices including blacklisting and Orgreave, and ensure the second phase of the Grenfell Inquiry has the confidence of all those affected, especially the bereaved families and survivors. We will also consider a public inquiry in the case of Zane Gbangbola.

We will require judicial warrants for undercover operations and retain the Mitting Inquiry into undercover policing.

We will release all papers on the Shrewsbury 24 trials and 37 Cammell Laird shipyard workers and introduce a Public Accountability Bill".

The Blacklist Support Group are proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder on shared platforms for more than 10 years with campaigners fighting for justice for Orgreave, Grenfell, Zane Gbangbola, victims of undercover political policing, the Shrewsbury Pickets and Cammell Laird ship workers. We have demanded and fought for a public inquiry for over a decade - its is our campaigning that has led to this manifesto commitment.  We therefore whole heartedly support this pledge towards getting the truth we, and other working class miscarriages of justice, deserve.  But working people should never place dewy eyed trust in politicians, lawyers or union leaders to solve our problems for us; continuing to build a movement remains essential.  

Full manifesto available to view here: https://labour.org.uk/manifesto/

**  'During 2008/09 the Iinformation Commisioner's Office carried out an investigation into employment blacklisting in the construction industry.  As part of that investigation, the ICO seized information from a company called The Consulting Association.  Some of the information we seized amounted to a 'blacklist' of individuals who were considered to pose a risk to their employers if employed within the construction industry.'

***  
Following the blacklisting scandal the Labour Government came forward with regulations. These regulations are so weak that they will not deter blacklisting. The only recourse for someone who has been blacklisted still remains taking a case to an employment tribunal and financial loss has to be proved. UCATT has constantly argued for the regulations to be strengthened. They necessary changes are:

• Make blacklisting a criminal offence
• When a blacklist is discovered all those on it are automatically told.
• An automatic right to compensation for everyone blacklisted.
• For the regulations to be widened from the narrow confines of “trade union activities” to the wider “activities associated with trade unions”. Ensuring trade unionists can’t be blacklisted for taking unofficial industrial action, such as a ban on voluntary overtime.

Turley wins £75,000 in damages against UNITE and Skwawkbox.

The Dartford Warbler - Anna Turley

The former Labour MP for Redcar, Anna Turley, has won her High Court libel case against Unite the Union and Stephen Walker, who runs the 'Skwawkbox' blog. Mr Justice Nicklin, who presided over the High Court trial in London last month, ruled in her favour on Thursday, awarding Turley, £75,000 in damages plus costs.

Ms Turley, who originates from Dartford, Kent,  claimed in court that Unite had misused her private information and had issued a public statement in 2017, giving the impression that she was dishonest in her application to join the union. 

The Unite statement had said that Turley had wanted to join the union so she could vote against Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and undermine Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, without the union knowing she was an MP. Unite and Mr Walker had fought the case insisting that Ms Turley was not fit to be an MP and that the article - published on Skwawkbox- was true or justified in the public interest.

Turley who lost her parliamentary seat of Redcar in the general election, had been seeking £100,000 in damages, told the court: 

"My reputation for integrity and honesty are of the utmost importance to me."

A Unite spokeswoman said the union was "very disappointed" with the decision. Lawyers said Unite and Mr Walker wanted to appeal. 

Manchester Anarchist Bookfair Review 2019

 by Christopher Draper

AFTER years of uncomradely bans and exclusions that led to the organisers themselves being banished from this favoured venue it is good to see the Bookfair back at Manchester’s Pumphouse Museum.  Saturday December 7th’s 2019’s fair was efficiently organised with a good range of books, associated literature as well as music, tee-shirts, badges etc on offer.  Admission was free and with a café on site a good time was had by all, or nearly all (more of that later).


Six hour-long talks were advertised:  “Anarchism and Education”; “An Introduction to IWW”;  “What is the Anarchist Party?”; “Marie Louise Berneri’s - Journey Through Utopia”;  “The Government of No One” and “Chav Solidarity” respectively.


Having practiced anarchist education within and without the state system for 50 years I was especially interested in the first talk.  The speaker, Dr. Nick Stevenson, a sociology lecturer at Nottingham University, promised to discuss “more humanistic alternatives” but confined most of his speech to elucidating the ideas of Ivan Illich.  He seemed a nice bloke but this was woefully inadequate as even a basic introduction to “Anarchism and Education”.  Nick seemed blissfully unaware of the numerous practical anarchist educational initiatives that have taken place in Britain since Louis Michel founded her “International School” in London in 1891.  Instead of ivory-towered philosophising about Illich we would have been much better occupied analysing the rise and fall of the dozens of living and breathing free schools that flourished all over Britain in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, never mind the continuing libertarian education on offer at Summerhill.  When I met Nick afterwards he spoke movingly of how his own children had suffered at the hands of the state system and it struck me that this would have provided a better starting point for discussion of real life anarchist alternatives, past, present and future.


My fears of abstract philosophising only increased after attending Dr. Matthew S Adams, Loughborough University lecturer’s talk on Utopias and then Dr. Ruth Kinna’s (another Loughborough lecturer) talk about her book, “The Government of No One”.  I wasn’t reassured when I googled Mr Adams and discovered he’s just published a “Handbook of Anarchism” (Palgrave-MacMillan 2019) that costs £199.99!


Unfortunately the “International Workers of the World” couldn’t even manage to organise themselves so their talk never happened and consequently for the second hour the valuable discussion space remained empty and unused.  I took the opportunity to walk around the hall and chat to stallholders. Despite my lack of affection for Marxism I found the “International Brigade” stallholder most comradely and appreciated our discussion about the decline of politicised working class culture and the collapse of the Clarion movement.   I similarly enjoyed comradely conversations at the Hunt Sabs, PM Press, and West Yorkshire Communist Anarchist stalls and was particularly impressed by the latter’s newsletter that wittily describes Hebden Bridge as, “A nice little drug-town with an unwelcome tourist problem.” 


I’d only half completed my circuit of stallholders by 12.30 so missed “The Anarchist Party’s” talk but as I later learned they advocate voting Labour it’s just as well I didn’t attend.  Unfortunately I had to leave before the last talk to catch a train back to Wales so can’t comment on the “Chavs” although that might well have proved the most useful event of the day (perhaps someone could enlighten us?).

Overall the Bookfair was a great achievement by the organisers. In today’s political climate it’s easier to sit back and do nothing, they dared to bring anarchism back into a venue that is precious but fraught with problems (more of that in a forthcoming article).  They had to steer a difficult course between providing lively debate but avoiding the destructive antagonisms that have so blighted recent anarchist bookfairs.  Unfortunately I learned afterwards that even this event wasn’t free from censorship.  When a group of women from “Make More Noise” attempted to distribute leaflets on gender politics they were asked to leave on the basis that only approved stallholders could distribute literature (there’s more of this on Twitter).  Apparently there was no consequent violence or blacklisting but neither was this an entirely satisfactory conclusion.  Couldn’t the leaflets have been left on a stallholders table or perhaps a table provided for non-stallholders to leave “non-authorised” leaflets?

The organisers must be congratulated but anarchism requires more than sycophancy and the “Freedom” website regrettably treated the “Make More Noise” women and their Twitter supporters with contempt.  My main concern is that the predominance of academic philosophising in the discussion space (3 out of the 5 talks delivered). In the 1960’s Feminism was a revolutionary, libertarian movement (I was there when Germaine Greer spoke at the Warwick University occupation in 1970!) but it spawned “Women’s Studies”, provided safe academic careers, was increasingly commodified and now “Women’s Hour” compiles an annual list “Women’s Powerlist”!  Is anarchism going the same way, with ever more academic chiefs and fewer activist Indians? We mustn’t let professors define our politics or encourage the emergence of an academic “Priest-Class”.  These ivory-towered experts share their musings in the journal “Philosophical Studies” (available at the Bookfair), but how many working class activists are going to read it, let alone write for it, at £14 an issue?   I’m not anti-intellectual but Kropotkin, Russell and Chomsky were also activists and theory must surely be constantly refreshed and informed by struggle to be useful. Anarchist theory and anarchist activism cannot flourish if conducted by separate groups with the former leading the latter – we are not Marxists.


The problem is wider than the Bookfair and I don’t doubt that the academics and the organisers are all nice people but that doesn’t preclude constructive criticism.  I would suggest two modifications for next years Manchester Bookfair.  Firstly no more than one philosophical talk with five more practical workshops led by everyday, down-to-earth anarchists and secondly an open-to-all “Free Speech” stall including material that may well shock and offend, perhaps supported by a “Free Speech” workshop?

For Peace, Love & Anarchy……………………Christopher Draper, Llandudno

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Anarchist Book Fair returns to History Museum

 by Barry Woodling

THE Manchester and Salford  Anarchist Book fair returned to the People's History Museum on Saturday the 7th, Dec.    It passed off without public incident unlike previous Anarchist  Book fairs in London, Liverpool and especially Manchester, which on the last few occasions were marred by serious disturbances.  There was none of this last Saturday, and supporters of the NAN, who were once banned and blacklisted, participated fully in the workshops at this event.

There were the usual wide array of stalls including PM Press, Freedom Press, independent book sellers, as well as Anarchist organisations such as Anarchist Communists, Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation.    A number of Campaign groups also had stalls.

The workshops had a distinct Anarchist Studies emphasis.....Matthew Adams presented a paper reviewing a book written by Marie Louise Berneri entitled 'Journey through Utopia'.   The talk contained biographical material and also mentioned the liberal critique of utopianism associated with the works of Berlin, Popper and Arendt.   

The other workshop - I attended was presented by Ruth Kinna of Loughborough University and Anarchist Studies.  Promoting her own recently published book:  'The Government of No One'.

She referred to two key historical moments related to anarchism, namely the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Haymarket trial of anarchists in the following decade.    Her talk encompassed five broad headings:  

1) culture, 2) Education, 3) Activism, 4) Social arrangements  eg utopias and experiments, and 5) Prospects.    She focused on anarchism as a philosophy which opposed all forms of domination including class, power relations, patriarchy and law.

My overall impression was that the book fair was relatively successful in terms of attendance and organisation and this augurs well for the future after a sustained period of conflict which damaged previous book fairs although issues of freedom of speech still have to be resolved.*

Northern Voices has tried hard at the time of publication to contact the organisers of this bookfair for a comment, but we have been unable to get a response or to even find out who were responsible for the event.  However, quite separately someone who knows something about the intricacies of last Saturday's event has defended the organisers challenging the critics by saying:
'You’ve all been involved in organising events before.  And you’re all patently aware of how the organisers ALWAYS get the blame for everything.  The London Bookfair collective got so much abuse after 2017.'

********************* 

*  Barry has here reported honestly on the Bookfair as we all understood and appreciated it last Saturday night.  However, on Sunday Northern Voices became aware of an incident of which neither Barry Woodling nor anyone associated with NV or the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) knew anything about, and we feel we must in fairness produce the link from 'MAKE MORE NOISE' for readers to consider:

https://twitter.com/MakeMoreNoise2/status/1203319566472040448?s=08

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Len McCluskey slams Corbyn's 'London mindset'!

THE Unite union leader Len McCluskey, while he trained his fire on Remain-backing members of the Shadow Cabinet, as well as centrist MPs who 'hankered after the New Labour past', the Unite general secretary claimed Labour needed 'a new leader early in the near future" who could "understand the communities that gave birth to the Labour movement.'
 
The comments - in a piece for HuffPost UK - are highly significant as Unite is Labour's biggest financial backer and the general secretary has previously been a staunch ally of Mr Corbyn.
It comes after Labour lost 60 seats in its worst election performance since 1935.

Mr Corbyn has vowed to quit after a 'period of reflection', and earlier on Friday said:  'The responsible thing to do is not to walk away from the whole thing, and I will not do that.'

Mr McCluskey reserved the majority of his criticism for senior Labour figires who had advocated for a pro-Remain position and led the party into a 'slow-motion collapse into the arms of the People’s Vote movement'.

He said:  It is pretty obvious where the essential reason for Thursday’s hugely disappointing result can be found.
'When our losses are concentrated in former coalfield constituencies and other post-industrial communities that voted heavily "Leave" in the 2016 referendum, and yet we happily retain our position in London more-or-less unscathed, it is staring us in the face.

'Others will try to make a different case, either because they have volubly hankered after the New Labour past throughout the years of Corbyn’s leadership of the party, or because they lack the honesty to accept the consequences of their advocacy of keeping Britain in the EU at any political price.'

But he also acknowledged 'mistakes' made by the party's leadership throughout its campaign, including what he called an 'incontinent rush of policies which appeared to offer everything to everyone immediately'.
 
Taking direct aim at the Labour leader, Mr McCluskey - who has previously backed the party's handling of anti-Jewish abuse - said Mr Corbyn's 'failure to apologise for anti-Semitism in the party when pressed to do so' had capped 'years of mishandling of this question'.

While he said Labour's Brexit position, backed at its party conference earlier this year, was 'the right and honourable one' he said it had been 'fatally undermined from the outset by leading members of the shadow cabinet rushing to the TV cameras' to promise to back Remain in a future referendum.

The Unite chief said:  'Both Labour’s target seats, and the ones most at risk in the north and the Midlands, were preponderantly in Leave-voting areas with very small Liberal Democrat and Green votes.  Put bluntly, there were far more coalfield seats to lose than there were Canterburys to win.

'As it is, a year of worrying about and placating exclusively Remain voters has produced the backlash which some of us predicted.  Better by far that we had stuck with some updated variation of the 2017 Brexit position, rather than its negation.'

Urging the party to 'rebuild, reflect on what went wrong and inevitably elect a new leader early in the near future', Mr McCluskey said:  'Corbyn has borne the brunt of one of the most sustained and unpleasant character assassinations in political history and done so with dignity.
'But alas some of the mud stuck and his leadership became an issue on the doorstep.'

And, in a thinly-veiled dig at Mr Corbyn, he said:  'The next leader needs to understand the communities that gave birth to the Labour movement, and realise that the whole country is not very like Labour London.
'As important as it is, too often, Labour addresses the metropolitan wing of its electoral coalition in terms of values – openness, tolerance, human rights – and the "traditional" working-class wing simply in terms of a material offer, as if their constituencies did not have their own values of solidarity and community.  That must change.'

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Tories take Monkey Town in the North!

 This is the story of a small, south-east Lancashire town called Heywood.   A place that is also rather affectionately (or disparagingly) known as 'Monkey Town’.

Old Heywood postcard.

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LAST NIGHT the Tory Party beat the Labour Party's incumbent, Liz McInnes, for the Heywood & Middleton constituency in Greater Manchester  to become the constituency’s first ever Tory MP, on a disastrous night for Labour nationally. 

The Tory victor, Mr Clarkson, agreed that national issues like Brexit likely contributed to his victory.

He said:  'It was a combination of factors. No result is about just one thing,

'Brexit was  an issue on the doorstep, but also people didn’t like Jeremy Corbyn - they didn’t want him to be Prime Minister - and that put a lot of people off voting Labour. A lot of people stayed at home.'

The former MP Liz McInnes, who had been MP for the constituency since 2014, remained at the count until the very end, putting on a brave face following the results, which saw the Conservatives receive 20,453 votes.  Ms McInnes came second with 19,790 votes.

The seat has, up until now, always been held by Labour.

This year, 47,641 ballots were issued, and 153 votes were rejected.  The new MP, Mr Clarkson was elected with a majority vote of just 663 votes, in one of the lowest turnouts in recent years.

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New Alliance of Northern Anarchists Meeting

New Alliance of Northern Anarchists

Meeting for Free Debate: against Censorship & Blacklists.
Noam Chomsky:  ‘Free speech is an achievement and a right’.

On Sat. 14th, Dec. 2019.
At the Town Hall Tavern
20, Tib Lane, Manchester M2 4JA, England
EVENT
Starts at 12 Noon & ends at 5p.m.
Food available Pie & Mash & vegan options.

Speakers include:
Dave Douglass, retired miner, and former Friend &
Director of Freedom Press

Brian Bamford, Joint Editor of the Northern Voices Blog,
  a former Northern Editor of Freedom & the editor of
 a series of essays entitled ‘Chomsky & his critics’.

Brandon, "New Offensive Collective"
Which has recently published ‘Shit Wigs and Steroids’,
a counter punch to identity politics
*

The purpose of this meeting is to bring together those
libertarians who wish to uphold liberty of expression.

Contact e-mail:  northernvoices@hotmail.com

Blogspot: 

Tuesday, 10 December 2019

 www.northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com
e-mail:  northernvoices@hotmail.com
 
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Johnson Hides in Fridge To Avoid TV Interview

Johnson Hides in Fridge To Avoid TV Interview

The opinion polls strongly suggest that this Thursday, the turkeys will be voting for Christmas, and will elect Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party, with a majority. Ominously,  the following day will be Friday the 13th.

The Conservatives have now been in office for nearly a decade. Throughout this period, economic growth has been anaemic, real incomes have been largely stagnant, and people on lower incomes and benefits have borne the brunt of government imposed austerity. Almost half of all working adults in the UK, don't earn enough to pay income tax which starts at £12,500. Yet, despite this, slightly more working class people (DE voters) are expected to vote for the Conservatives tomorrow, than middle class people, (AB voters).

According to the opinion polls, the Conservatives have a ten to fifteen point lead over Labour.Why Labour should be failing to attract so many working-class voters is perplexing as is the question, as to why so many, vote against their own direct interests. 

Labour, are offering the electorate a - 5% pay rise for public sector workers; free dental checks; free hospital parking; free tuition fees; free broadband; free prescriptions; free personal care for the elderly; a £10 minimum wage for all those over 16; compensation for WASPI women; a 32-hour working week over a decade and the nationalisation of rail, mail, water, and energy.  

Although Boris Johnson is the bookies and pollsters favourite to win, he's regarded as something of a joke, rather like the uncouth and lecherous, Sir Les Patterson character, made famous by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries. For many English voters, this seems to be what makes him so attractive  - he's a jester, a comedian, who will deliver a Brexit that is likely to make them all poorer. 

Johnson was laughed at by a television audience when he was asked about trust and he declines to say how many children, he has fathered. His comments are often regarded as incendiary and offensive and he's inclined to put his foot in his mouth. The strategy of his campaign team has been to avoid scrutiny at all cost and to keep interviews and contact with the public to a minimum (see video). Johnson recently commented, that he had been off the booze during the campaign, and was spending his spare time doing quadratic equations and reading pre-Socratic philosophy.

John Major, the former Conservative prime minister is urging people not to vote Conservative on Thursday, because he believes Boris Johnson will be a disaster for Britain as will Brexit, and the former Conservative minister, Michael Heseltine, is out campaigning for the Liberal Democrats. 

Manchester ranks worst for child homelessness

  outside of London

One in 47 children in Manchester is in need of temporary accommodation, according to new figures released by Shelter.

An astonishing 2,725 children in Manchester were in need of temporary accommodation in 2019, ranking the city highest outside of London for child homelessness.

The number of children in temporary accommodation across the North West was up an astonishing 385% – the highest anywhere in the UK.

An estimated 6,523 children were made homeless in the North West last year, meaning 18 children became homeless every single day, or one child being made homeless every 18 minutes.

The Liberal Democrats have warned that both national and local government are condemning a generation of children to the streets.

Labour's Homeless Tax and Hardship Sanction

Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Manchester John Leech said:

“While Westminster is obsessed with pushing through a damaging Brexit, problems in Manchester are accelerating at a UK-high rate, and children in Manchester are paying the price.

"But it is the Tories’ complete lack of interest in tackling the national homeless crisis which is aptly coupled with Labour’s appalling Homeless Tax and Hardship Sanction which hit those already struggling even harder.

“This doesn't just highlight the gross incompetence and lack of priorities from local and national government, nor is it just a complete embarrassment, but it exposes the devastating, critical and consistent failure of a system that simply doesn’t care.

"The Lib Dems have a clear plan to end this crisis. Lib Dems will end wasteful spending, invest more money than ever before into preventing homelessness, tackling the cause, guarantee at least 100,000 social homes every year, scrap the Homeless Tax and finally put an end to the greatest injustice of our lifetime.

"Only the Lib Dems will stop Brexit and build a brighter future where children in Manchester and beyond will always have a roof over their heads and a council with their best interests at heart, no matter what"

ENDS.

Are the Tories afflicted with foot and mouth disease?

Stanley Johnson -'Bumbling, Blue-Blooded, Buffoon'

Two days ago in an article in the Guardian newspaper, the journalist Arwa Mahdawi, referred to a BBC interview with Stanley Johnson where he was told by the interviewer Joanna Gosling that a viewer had called his son Boris, "Pinocchio."  This was obviously meant to allude to the prime ministers reputation for mendacity and dissembling. Johnson le père, suddenly quipped: "Pinocchio? That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn't necessarily have... They couldn't spell Pinocchio if they tried."

In her article, Mahdawi says: "Johnson stated explicitly what has always been obvious: the Tory party thinks the British public are bunch of idiots." She said that she was amazed at how little anger there has been from the British public towards the comments of this "bumbling, blue-blooded, buffoon," and suggested that Americans would never have been so blasé about this if he had called the U.S. electorate illiterate. Mahdawi wrote:

"We still show ridiculous reverence towards the monarchy and embarrassing deference to aristocrats and old Etonians who rule us."

Mahdawi said that Stanley Johnson had made a serious error with his comments in that he strayed from the populist playbook, which says that you must always pretend it is the 'liberal elite' who always look down on ordinary people and adds: "You should try to conceal your disgust of the great unwashed if you want to get their vote."

It is notable how often the Tories have let the mask slip in showing their disdain and disgust for the great British public. A former Bullingdon Club member, Boris Johnson, often used the term 'oiks' when referring to the working-class and mocked the 16% "of our species" with an IQ below 85? Jacob Reese-Mogg mocked the Grenfell Tower victims, who he said, lacked common sense. Michael Gove, stated that people were driven to food-banks because they couldn't manage their finances. Similarly, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Hasting and Rye, Sally-Ann Hart, recently told voters that disabled people should be paid less because "they don't understand money.

Both Boris Johnson and his father Stanley, are remarkably gaffe prone, and that is why the prime minister is reluctant to give television interviews and to subject himself to scrutiny by formidable interviewers such as Andrew Neil. Both father and son have a tendency to put their foot in their mouth and are rather too loose with the lip. Yet, I suspect that most British politicians, have a rather low opinion of the intellectual abilities and political judgement of the British public and perhaps see their job, as "curbing the instincts of the mob."

In an unpublished memoir that he wrote in the late 1990s, Sir Gordon Reece, a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, explained how in 1975 he approached the task of persuading more people to vote Conservative. Reece seemed to think that only dullard's voted Tory. He confessed that he'd told Margaret Thatcher that the type of people who were likely to vote for her, were not to be found among the readers of broadsheet newspapers and the watchers of serious political programmes and the longer, night-time news bulletins, nor were they much interested in politics. He told her:

"The people we had to reach would read the Mirror, increasingly the Sun, the Express, the Mail, the People, the News of the World. They would watch Coronation Street, Jimmy Savile, Top of the Pops and listened to Jimmy Young on the wireless. And any aspiring prime minister had better go to them, and not expect them to come to her." (Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher - The Authorized Biography, Volume 1).

I think that one of the things that has become apparent since the referendum in June 2016, on whether Britain left or remained in the E.U., is that the issue of social class, is no longer a reliable indicator of voter intention when choosing which party a person might vote for. Some argue that age, education, and region, are now the main dividing lines in British politics. For example, it is known that some 70% of voters whose educational attainment is only GCSE or lower, voted to leave the E.U. while 68% of voters with a degree, voted to remain in the E.U. The over- 65s were more than twice as likely as under-25s, to have voted to leave the European Union and every region of the country except Scotland, Northern Ireland and London, voted to leave.

There will be more fires like Grenfell,

 and lives will be lost

 Forwarded to NV by Joe Bailey

Sandra Ruiz

Warnings before the tragedy were ignored. Two years on, a lack of action means thousands still live in towers with combustible cladding

• Sandra Ruiz is a member of the Grenfell United action group

Tue 3 Dec 2019 18.00 GMT Last modified on Tue 3 Dec 2019 18.20 GMT

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Zionism & the State of Israel

  by Martin Gilbert

Israeli citizen humiliating refugees in Tel Aviv

I WAS brought up in a fairly pious Jewish family.  It might be assumed that all Jews are Zionists. Not so.
 

The idea of a State of Israel, known as Zionism arose around the 

1880’s-1890’s. Pre 1914 Palestine had Jewish settlements inspired 

by a range of political ideas. 

There were socialists, communists and anarchists.  The right wing 

Jewish Chronicle tagged those activists as not being proper Jews.  

A stance that paper holds to-day.  Below, some historical detail is offered.

Post 1918, following the end of the Ottoman empire Palestine 

became part of the middle east “carve-up” by French, British and 

other powers. 

Oil interests also grabbed a slice.  We now have two contestants. 

One, totally bent on Israel’s destruction because the Palestinian 

people are controlled by opportunists and fundamentalists.  

They do not represent the constituents they claim. Israel too has its 

share of fundamentalists and opportunists holding power.  

But they have a 21^st century sophistication, quite lacking in the 

Palestinians. 

Both peoples want to get on with life, having a peace that is not imposed by militarism.

After 1945 in Europe, there were many people displaced by the war. Jews were a significant number. 

The Zionist propaganda at that time claimed “a land without people for a people without land”. 

It ignored the Palestinians.  

Following various events they were confined to an increasingly small area.  

It has been known as Gaza or the Jordan Valley.  It’s ground water and other water resources have been much reduced by the best irrigation engineers in the world: the Israelis.  Another reason why the so called “two state solution” is impossible.

Over the decades much international opinion has condemned Israeli colonialism in their treatment of the Palestinians.  Ever increasing settlements by Israel continue to complicate the situation and make it worse.  But too often such international opinion has been toothless.  Any criticism of Israel has been attacked by the right as anti semitic.

Recently, Donald Trump said that Israel should take over the Jordan valley.  He is supported by the Christian right. 

They believe that Jews should have the same geopolitical borders 

they had in Biblical times. 

But some Jews in America, the U.K. and Israel have said Trump considerably adds to the problems.  Consistently, the magazine 

Jewish Socialist have given detailed reports, supporting that opinion.

Under South Africa’s apartheid system Black Africans had to have passes to work in white areas.  Also, they were forced to live in specific areas called Bantustans.

The so called “two state solution” is no answer.  At best the 

Palestinian state would only be like a Bantustan: still controlled by 

fundamentalists. 

A distant idea is that all Palestinians should be integrated into Israel and areas that have have been stolen from them.

Recent statements by the Chief Rabbi add to the confusion and miss information.  He gives the impression that “the Jewish

community” is of one, monolithic structure, just one opinion.      

It’s rather like an Arch Bishop claiming to speak for all Christians. Lessons can be drawn from the struggle against apartheid.  

Truth and reconciliation groups have made much progress.  South

Africa still has serious problems but there is no perfect answer.

martin gilbert, November 2019

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