&
SOLIDARITY STATEMENT from 'NEW OFFENSIVE'
Editorial note on background to 'New Offensive'
Constructive Dismissal at the Anarchist HQ:
'Murder in the Central Committee' (Asesinato en el Comité Central) is a novel by the Catalan novelist and Marxist writer Manuel Vázquez Montalban, who wrote the book in 1981. The plot of the book is about how during a meeting in Madrid of the Central Committee of Spain’s Communist Party a crime is committed when there is a brief power failure. The lights are back on a few seconds later, but in that short span of time the Secretary General, Fernando Garrido, is killed, stabbed in the chest. (1)
Who stabbed Dave Douglass?
ON the day of the Glorious Twelfth of August this year a stabbing was enacted at the meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press Directors at Angel Alley in Whitechapel in London's East End; the stabbing was announced when Steve Sorba told the Freedom Friend's directorate meeting that the highly respected former miner Dave Douglass had embarrassed his fellow Director colleagues by favouring a booklet which questions some of the stranger aspects of gender politics and their censorious brethren; describe as 'Cocks in Frocks' in the contentious booklet.*
THE statement below from 'NEW OFFENSIVE' comes from one of the author of the controversial booklet 'Shit Wigs & Steriods'. A recent consequence of this publication has been that the former public schoolboy Simon Saunders employed by Freedom had urged the Friends of Freedom Company Secretary, Steve Sorba, to ban a formerly appointed Friend of Freedom director, the highly respected ex-miner Dave Douglass from South Shields. The reasoning for this effective constructive dismissal and no-platforming of Dave Douglass was that he had been accused of commenting sympathetically on this booklet. In a panicky email issued on the eve of the weekend before the meeting of the Freedom Friends directors, Secretary Sorba was to declare to his fellow directors in an e-mail: 'It has been brought to my attention that Dave Douglass has made public comments supporting a pamphlet which is fundementally transphobic (and in places homophobic as well).' **
Dave Douglass told Secretary Sorba that nothing he had ever said was 'transphobic' or 'homophobic'!
Yet as Secretary Soba insisted that he had 'embarrassed the "committee"', Dave Douglass agreed to take the bullet as he didn't want to be on a committee that was 'embarrased' by him in such a way. In other words just as in Vázquez Montalban's noir detective novel Spanish Communist Party's Secretary General, Fernando Garrido, is killed, stabbed in the chest so Dave Douglass wasn't stabbed in the back, but he was stabbed in the chest by Secretary Sorba acting at the behest of posh public schoolboy Simon Saunders, a Morning Star hack using his smart phone weapon he sometimes uses for blacklisting folk. ***
Northern Voices believes that Freedom should adopt an approach which encourages free debate and we avoid a party-line in our columns. How can an organisation that claims to be anarchist possibly uphold a postion that seeks to avoid drama and controversy? Clearly Secretary Sorba is a businessman, a manager and a Director, but has not understood anything about anarchism. Moreover, Secretary Sorba is short-sighted if he believes that he can have a quiet life by disposing of Dave Douglass in this way: does he not realise that by seeking to avoid complicated issues like this merely allows them to fester. Dave Douglass is merely the canary in the coal mine for Secretary Sorba, Simon Saunders and Freedom Press. We judge this by considering the statement of support for Northern Voices below; it states that those who are those who are attacking Dave Douglass, Helen Steel**** and those who support free speech will 'wipe the floor' with the enemies of liberty and free discussion.
After the debacle that led to the closing of the London bookfair when Helen Steel was surrounded, bullied and intimidated for defending free speech, Freedom hesitated before finally adopting a stand supporting the 'Cocks in Frocks. It seems now that they backed the wrong horse.
** (https://tinyurl.com/y3msflq6
)
***northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com › 2016/07 › pensioner-attacked-at-anarc...
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Solidarity Statement for Northern Voices from 'New Offensive':
I WANT TO STATE that the New Offensive Booklet: ‘Shit Wigs and Steroids’ is a series of short articles and it contains considerable references to more in-depth discussions around the subject of Transgender. These articles are by Women, Lesbians and Gay activists, victims of male violence and many other critical thinkers on the subject of gender politics. The gang of us who put it together are not connected with Northern Voices, so seeing the same tactics used on some of us used on yourselves, shows patterns of censorship that are in no way acceptable, fair, just or logical.
We are proud to have done this booklet and to see the positive
impact it is having. Our use of language, is the language that we use.
We are not conservative in our approach, nor approach issues touching us
as working class people with the privilege of objective viewpoints.
Class privileges? we are exempt of!
We had proof readers and discussions covering all aspects of the
booklet (yes there are a few spelling errors in spite of our abilities).
We are engaged with many people in this discussion, both in England
and amongst other European working class radicals and anarchists. We
are very pleased to state we are in this (as always) for the long game.
We hope to force people out of their self identified
‘safe spaces’. We will name and confront them if they have played roles
in trying to shut down or discredit working class activists, or
bullying them into silence.
Those of us who put the booklet together and stand proudly by it
are not lightweights intellectually. We are seeing it picked up by all
kinds of people that are open to discussion. We understand Simon
Saunders declared the booklet ‘homophobic’, considering
it is in defence of lesbian and gay identity, we do expect an
explanation of such absurd claims. We are proud to stand our ground. As
working class people.
Basically we don’t give a fuck if you find our ‘crude’ language
demeaning, abrasive, provocative, or threatening. At ‘New Offensive' we
still have a sense of humour, irony and determination to straighten out
some bullshit.
We hope any future attention our publication gets will actually
focus on the blacklisting of activists, the right to self defence, and
the rejection of authoritarian and bogus ideologies etc.
'Door policies' to publiseed events simply seem to protect a minority
of people from ridicule, scrutiny and the harsh criticism of their Thatcherite indulgent identity politics.
One point that is clear is that anyone looking seriously at gender
politics, has to include prisons; Suicide rates; sexual
abuse; health and inequalities; class bias; and the enviromental brutalisation
of the working classes. To see gender politics, just
being reduced to nothing in the hands of the likes of Pablo, Steve
Moss, Simon Saunders (public school boy) is beyond cringeworthy. To look
at Transgender as an issue without looking at 'De-Transitioning'; drug
dependancy; the erasing of Lesbian and Gay
identity; health issues; etc. etc. is irresponsible.
So rather than being supporters of the issues surrounding gender
and sexual politics, this group of wannabe gate-keepers, are silencing
the issues on the very subjects they claim to be the champions
of. Thankfully the discussion does exist outside
of their declared safe spaces. The discussion is now in full flow without
them!!
From us at 'New Offensive' it is time to call out these sponging
bastards . When Rob Ray (Simon Saunders) comes to terms with the wider discussions around Transgender, he might also take a look at his
own class privilege and the way he is using that as a weapon to
demonise, control and shut down working class anarchists. So quite
simply, Solidarity with you at Northern Voices, we are proud
to see you take this stuff seriously. Shit Wigs and Steroids is us
documenting the absurdity of the situation for the wider working class
movement and for sincere discussion amongst class struggle anarchists .
(1) Murder in the Central Committee (Spanish: Asesinato en el Comité Central) is a 1982 Spanish thriller film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Patxi Andión and Victoria Abril.[1] The plot follows a private detective, an ex-communist and former CIA agent, who travels from Barcelona to Madrid to discover the identity of the assassin of the leader of the Spanish Communist Party who was stabbed during a blackout while presiding over a meeting of the party's Central Committee. The film is a thriller with ironic political overtones.
The script was written by director Vicente Aranda. It was based on a book of the same name by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, one of a series of novels that featured the character of a hard-boiled detective called Pepe Carvalho. It was adapted for the screen the year after its publication.[2] Asesinato en el Comité Central was Aranda’s first work shot in Madrid instead of his native Barcelona. The film received a cold commercial response.[3]
'Murder in the Central Committee' (1981) has Pepe leaving his beloved Barcelona to investigate the murder of the General Secretary of the PCP and is a profound -- and often hilarious -- commentary on the changing face of post Cold War Europe.
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