In
a year in which Freedom, the anarchist newspaper and perhaps the oldest
left-wing paper in England, died of shame having been on the its death-bed for
about a decade under a variety of weak editors.
Freedom, it is noted, never reported on any of the attacks on Northern
Voices and even allowed itself in its dying moment, to be bullied by
the superannuated boss of A.fed the cockney Nick Heath. The anarchists had been condemn at a another
meeting of the Greater Manchester County Association of TUCs (GMCA TUCs) for
their behaviour on a May Day march. It
is getting difficult to defend anarchists these days at trade union meetings
such among the Manchester blacklisted electricians, simply because they behave
badly in a way which lacks an English sense of humour, and there was hearty
laughter at the electrician's branch when it was learned that the pretext for
the attack on Northern Voices and the theft of the trade union pamphlets was
provoke after NV13 carried an obituary on the late Bob Miller describing him
as a 'skedaddler': many of the blacklisted lads read Northern
Voices and their branch has been affiliated to Tameside TUC for
years. Yet, few would bother to read
much of the other publications on the left.
At
last night's meeting the Socialist Party and Linda Taaffe came under attack
when it was suggested that the branch affiliate to the National Shop Steward's
Network (NSSN). This was agreed, but
Colin Trousdale pointed out that the NSSN had never had to same clout since the
split when the syndicalists and other independent socialists left, and Colin
said that the biggest loss had been the departure of Dave Chapple as the Chair
of the NSSN. Dave Chapple, who is a
libertarian socialist, would never call himself an 'anarchist' simply because of the kind of corny behaviour already
described at the Anarchist Bookfair, where the organisers refused to intervene
and challenge A.fed., the electricians expressed disbelief about this. The Socialist Party was criticised for
divisiveness, but Colin claimed that the real culprit who caused the split in
the NSSN was Peter Taaffe. It was said
that the split in the NSSN was caused by the Socialist Party who wanted their
own 'sovereign'
anti-cuts body separate from that of the SWP and others. The supporters of the NSSN were asked how
many cuts had been prevented by the NSSN since it set up its own anti-cuts
organisation, and answer came there none.
It was even suggested that Nick Clegg and Vince Cable may have in truth
modified more of the cuts than the NSSN and the Socialist Party put together.
Dave
Chapple and the paper Trade Union Solidarity are organising a conference on the
'Future of Working Class Education' in August.
The
electrician's branch discussed the bankrolling of the Labour Party by Unite and
Len McClusky. One member said that the
Labour Party could not be saved, and this funding was a waste of the member's
money. What is interesting in all this
is how nothing ever changes the unions throw money down the political drain of
the Labour Party, the English anarchists live up to their standard barn-pot
caricature, and English trotskyists still seek solutions to the problems of the world through eternal
point-scoring and splits.
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