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IN 1959, I went to the branch meeting of my local Rochdale ETU branch one Friday night to try to raise the issue of the boycott of South African goods with the elctricians there. I was a 19-year-old apprentice at the time and the TUC, the Labour Party and the Liberal Party had all declared their backing for this international campaign which had been called for in November 1959 by the Movement for Colonial Freedom.
As a young man I was surprised first by the lack of interest of the ETU branch officers, and remember the ETU was then regarded as a militant communist trade union, who despite my protests didn't see any point in my request that the branch should discuss the international boycott campaign. They were too busy collecting the members subscription as they were queuing-up to pay before going out on the razzle as it was Friday night. As I tried to interest a West Indian electrician the chairman, who had become tired of my appeals for support, asked the assembled members if anyone was anxious to discuss the topic of the boycott of South African goods? The silence was deafening! Even the one black man present didn't show any interest.
It took many more years of international struggle before South Africa obtained anything approaching freedom and aparthied was removed.
Yet according to Kader Asmal: ‘If any event galvanised the Boycott Movement into action it was Chief Albert Luthuli’s plea for sanctions”¦’ Luthuli’s statement reads: ‘I appeal to all governments throughout the world, to people everywhere, to all organisations and institutions in every land and at every level to act now to impose such sanctions on South Africa that will bring about the vital necessary change and avert what can become the greatest African tragedy of our time.’
Apathy & Pleading Petitions
I was reminded of this disinterested apathy of these 1950's north of England trade unionists when I was recently urged to sign a petition to support the three footballers who according to the media had been racially abused for missing a penalty in last Sunday's Euro Final.
The protest petition reads:
'Three black football players have received a storm of racist abuse after England lost the final. We can't let such hatred go unchallenged -- so let's meet it with a deafening public cry of support from across the country. Add your name to the public letter below, and when we reach 100,000 names, Avaaz will publish in a major national newspaper.'
The petition pleads the case further:
'Within minutes of England losing the match, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were flooded with cruel, racist messages towards the players. Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel have since condemned the abuse -- but only after they'd originally undermined anti-racism gestures by the team earlier in the competition.'
'Let's show these three black players, and the whole country, that racism has no place here. That as ordinary citizens, we will not sit by as a small minority of people spew their hatred and ignorance. But more than that, let's show the children of this country what it truly means to be English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and BRITISH in the 21st century.'
Worthy words indeed!
'Racism' is not defined! Racial discrimination is!
My understanding is that the United Nations (UN) does not define 'racism' as such; however, it does define 'racial discrimination'. According to the 1965 UN International Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, '...the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distintion, exclusion, restriction, or prefernce base on race, colour, desent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundimental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.'[
'Racism' is clearly not defined by the UN because it is ambiguous and is often used as an ideological swear word by the liberal left in much the same way as the word 'Facist' was used in the 1930s as a term of abuse. Despite the fact that one such petition had more than a million signatures on it according to Woman's Hour today I doubt that the culture will change and I suspect that many people will find this kind od virtue signaling turns their stomachs. Even if Gareth Southgate OBE is ever such a nice bloke.
As they say
'Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same'.
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1 comment:
I agree entirely with what the writer is saying. I got the same petition in my e-mail and immediately consigned it to the trash bin. I have not seen the messages sent to these footballers and I doubt that very many of the people who have signed this petition have seen them.
Western liberal democracies are free societies where diversity of views is accepted; it’s called tolerance. To claim retrospectively that Priti Patel somehow encouraged the posting of abusive messages on Twitter or Facebook by expressing the view that ‘taking the knee’ is ‘gesture politics’ or that Boris Johnson not condemning those who boo to express dissent at the gesture is somehow doing the same, suggests that some people do not understand what the term ‘free speech’ actually means. In future are we to be free only to express points of views that the ‘mob’, or in this case authors of the petition, find acceptable? If you want to ban freedom of expression have the courage to say so and we’ll all know where we stand.
One of the hallmarks of the fascist mindset is the insistence that everyone in the state ‘speak with one voice’. But in fairness to the fascists at least they are honest enough to threaten violence against those who refuse to sing from their hymn sheet. In the West we do it by trying to get people kicked out of their job.
I’ve no problem at all with blocking people from using Twitter or Facebook if they break the code of practice of these companies. Like the NV blog they are not obligated to host everything sent to them. But I don’t think petitions signed by people who have never actually seen what is being complained of should dictate what the companies put in any such code.
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