Onward Christian-Zionists Marching as to War!

by Chris Draper

A FEW  weeks ago I attended a local Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) and got more than I bargained for. Advertised as an opportunity to hear a Holocaust survivor talk about his Auschwitz experience it turned out to be an artfully organised attempt to rally political support for the State of Israel.

We were directed to stand and sing Hatikvah, rallying cry of the Zionist movement sung at the first World Congress in 1897 and recently adopted as the National Anthem of Israel. We were also treated to an oratorical adulation of Israel delivered by a Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) who had just returned from a free holiday in the Promised Land. Half-way through his political paean to Israel I walked out, shouting, “What about the Palestinians?!”

Determined to discover how this cynical perversion of an humanitarian event had been orchestrated I did a bit of digging and soon discovered;

1) The organiser was a Mr Roy Thurley, North Wales representative and past UK Director of an International Zionist organisation known as Christian Friends of Israel (CFI) with its HQ in Jerusalem.

2) This event was advertised by CFI as an “Official Civic” event attended by the local MP, two local AM’s, the Mayor, Chair of the County Council and various other bigwigs.

3) The MP, Guto Bebb is a member of Friends of Israel who has enjoyed thousands of pounds worth of free Israeli hospitality whilst Darren Millar AM recently hosted the launch of Wales Friends of Israel at the Senedd in Cardiff with the support of the Israeli Embassy.

4) Llandudno Town Council granted CFI £860 to organise this event.

So the upshot is that CFI misused Council Tax to elicit support for Israel, which Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes as “An Apartheid State” to be boycotted by Christians and all other right-thinking people. It seems fair to assume that Tutu knows a bit about both Apartheid and Christianity but Mr Thurley and CFI think not. Neither do they think much of fellow Christians for a couple of years ago CFI pulled out of Llandudno CYTUN (“Churches Together”) that includes all the other main Christian congregations (Methodist, Anglican, Baptist, Coptic etc) as Mr Thurley insists only his CFI sect correctly interprets the Bible.

Mr Thurley reveals the apartheid creed of Christian Friends of Israel in a booklet available online called “Chosen Race, Chosen Place” but the title is enough to get the drift. God chose the Jews and gave them Israel, not just in some mysterious way but in the ever-lasting here-and-now and anyone who criticises the expansionist State-building of Israel is an agent of the devil!

After discovering all this I thought I’d ask the Council whether it considered Mr Thurley’s HMD constituted a proper use of Council Tax. I also talked to local Christians, Conwy Peace Group and many others about their opinions and to cut a long story short, Rev Mike Harrison, Chair of CYTUN offered to organise a less divisive, more inclusive HMD next year. On 3rd March 2017 Llandudno Councillors accepted my analysis of CFI’s abuse of Llandudno HMD and endorsed CYTUN as organiser of our 2018 HMD. To top it off, with utter consistency Councillors decided that as CFI hadn’t fulfilled their side of the bargain the Council wouldn’t hand over the £860 grant!

No-one imagines Israel is now quaking in its boots but the political advance of Christian-Zionism across the UK has been slowed. Mr Thurley is something of a “Mr Big” and through CFI’s glossy magazines, books, DVD’s, Christian television and radio, conferences and trips to Israel his initiatives are widely anticipated and copied. This sort of Christian fundamentalist politicking is big in the States but still in its infancy here. In the light of my recent experience I would urge all fair-minded folk to get involved in your local HMD as I’ve identified several more already targeted by Christian Zionists.

Shalom, Christopher Draper

Shaming Saint Michael

Christopher Draper goes shopping…
by Chris Draper

ONCE upon a time I had a holiday job working in a Nottingham supermarket.  I fondly remember one particular day I did nothing but stick individual adhesive price labels on hundreds of boxes of Cornflakes. Nowadays shops programme prices into a computerised system that ultimately prints out individual bill-receipt at the till.  This Universal Product Coding (UPC) places a legal obligation on shops to ensure that the prices displayed on shelves are identical to those applied at the till.  As price alterations are almost invariably upwards staff must assiduously replace old shelf prices otherwise all customers at that store are systematically overcharged.  Overcharging continues until a customer finally notices and insists on rectification.  When items were individually priced it was simple to see if the price displayed on the till conformed with that on the item but UPC makes it much easier for shops to get away with overcharging and of course its in their financial interest to do so and my local, Llandudno, Marks & Spencer food department is a serial offender.

Over the last year I have been overcharged in this way on at least ten occasions, most recently yesterday (8.2.2017) and on the previous occasion just two weeks ago.  I also shop locally at ASDA and ALDI, the latter never overcharge and the former very, very seldom but Llandudno Marks & Spencer with deplorable regularity.  Even if you spot an overcharge you are required to go to another part of the store to a “Customer Service Counter” this is usually unmanned and you’re expected to wait until a passing assistant stops to help.  Usually I have to find someone myself to complain to.  Then you are required to empty out your shopping until the overcharged item(s) are located.  The assistant will then disappear to find the appropriate shelf price label before belatedly returning to admit that you have indeed been overcharged.  Then the overcharge will be dismissed as an isolated incident.  You are meant to feel grateful when you eventually get back the amount you were overcharged however if you paid by card then you are first required to produce it so the sum can be credited back on your account.  All the trouble and inconvenience is suffered by the customer whilst all illicit profit accrues to Marks & Spencer who, of course, have no system in place to recompense all those shoppers who previously paid the inflated price.

On every occasion I notice an overcharge I endure this tiresome ritual.  I’ve informed M&S HQ of this practice and on each occasion, always ask to speak a manager. I’ve also requested a “customer comment book” to formally record these incidents but I’ve been told none exists and each time I’m presented with a different “acting store manager”.  Invariably they claim ignorance and insist the store does not consciously overcharge but the regularity of such incidents evidences culpability. Utterly exasperated after the previous (January 2017) overcharge I left my contact details with “Craig” and requested that the store manager offer me an explanation of this continued discreditable performance.  The manager did not have the courtesy to reply. 

I could of course confine my shopping to Asda and Aldi but I’m now determined to challenge M&S overcharging.  Sometimes the store makes a gesture to deflect criticism (on the last occasion a bottle of wine) but this is not general practice.  I have now informed “Trading Standards” of this lamentable story but in truth UK law is predictably lax although both Tesco and Sainsburys have in the past been fined for overcharging.  In Connecticut customers overcharged are legally obliged to be given the item free not merely a refund of the excess charge.  Overcharging then costs the stores money whereas, perversely, M&S Llandudno profits by not giving this matter due care and attention.

A Modest Proposal for Freedom Press

'It is hard to tell someone who is shortsighted how to get to a place.  Because you can't say “Look at that church tower ten miles away over there and go in that direction".'

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Manuscript 107 70 c: 1929)

THE modest program below sets out to sets out to provide a signpost for the forthcoming Annual & General Meeting of Friends of Freedom on the 23rd, June.  The four advocates of this modest program for change at Freedom Press are Barry Woodling; Martin Gilbert; Brian Bamford and Christopher Draper.  

In 1962, Vernon Richards for the then editors of FREEDOM addressed the readers in a Preface to a volume of Selected articles: 

'You, our readers, will, we hope, agree with Mr. Colin McInnes when he described FREEDOM as “about the only authentically polemical weekly surviving in our country” (New Statesman 7/9/62) for this very reason, and in fairness to our correspondents, comrades and sympathisers, we must mention that these Selections reflect the editorial approach of FREEDOM, an approach which on certain issues has been hotly contested, by comrades we esteem as anarchists and friends.'

Like the philosopher Wittgenstein quoted above, Vernon Richards was the son of a foreign businessman.   Both also had European origins.  The Austrian, Wittgenstein carried Tolstoy's Gospels in his pocket and Vernon Richards identified with the Italian anarchist Erico Malatesta.  James Pinkerton, a former International Secretary of the Syndicalist Worker's Federation (SWF) and a severe critic of Freedom, had to admit that Vernon Richards and Freedom's position on civil liberties was a distinguished model of radical journalism in the UK in the 1950s and 60s.

Over a year ago Chris Draper and Northern Voices* played a major role in re-establishing the Friends of Freedom Press as a functioning body and helped to install David Goodway as a new Friend.  What everyone of goodwill now wants, including the Friends of Freedom, is that some tidying up is required at 84b, Whitechappel High Street, and that the Trustees must now fulfil their obligations: the requirement under the Memorandum of Association is for the Friends to ensure that 'the anarchist journal “Freedom” ' is published properly.  For this reason we believe all the signatories to this modest program below should now be elected to the board of Freedom Press at the forthcoming AGM:

*  The publication Northern Voices was founded on the initiative of a former Friend of Freedom Press, Harold Schulthorpe, and others in 2003.

OUR FRIENDS in the NORTH      June 2016:

* For over a century FREEDOM was uniquely important in the exchange of ideas between anarchists and the wider promotion of anarchist ideas and activities
* “Friends of Freedom Press“ (FFP) exists “To assist financially the printing and publication of the anarchist journal “Freedom” (Memorandum of Association; para 3(A)1).
* Despite this unequivocal obligation to ensure FREEDOM maintains its historic role, FFP (as currently constituted) has proved ineffective
* FREEDOM’s assets currently facilitate some positive activities but these assets are legally required to be used for maintaining FREEDOM as a lively, inclusive and effective Anarchist Journal (in print or web form). The existing website and recent print offerings have proved wholly inadequate and exemplify regrettable and embarrassing indulgence. 
* Having initially been instrumental in the revival of FFP and subsequently witnessed a demonstrable lack of progress towards re-publication, “Our Friends in the North” (OFIN) now propose a slate of four well-qualified candidates committed to resurrect FREEDOM with a clearly articulated programme;

** Within 12 months, selling the 84b Whitechapel High Street property to liquidate FREEDOM assets
** The creation and maintenance of a new, professionally designed, sophisticated FREEDOM website within 6 months of liquidation  
** A Webmaster-Editor to be formally appointed on a bi-annual basis by a newly created FFP Publications Sub-Group (PSG) with an annual budget of 15K (1% of liquidation capital), to include a modest stipend
** A three-person PSG to be appointed from within, and responsible to, FFP (by secret ballot if excess volunteers)
** Furthermore, to challenge London-centricity OFIN proposes convening all future FFP meetings in Birmingham
** All future FFP agendas and minutes to be published online

If appointed, all OFIN candidates commit to working cooperatively and constructively with existing FFP members to revive the fortunes of FREEDOM.  On this basis we ask you to endorse the following;

Brian Bamford – Rochdale

Christopher Draper – Llandudno

Martin Gilbert – Ulverston

Barry Woodling - Salford 

Pricking the London Bubble

by Chris Draper

HAS there ever been a greater gap between politicos in the London bubble and the politics of real people in the real world? As a lifelong anarchist I’d be celebrating ructions in both Tory and Labour parties if it didn’t mirror a similar Anarchist disconnect. 

I was born in Warrington and have lived roughly a third of my life in the North, a third in London and a third in the Midlands. No matter how bizarre your opinions if you live in London you’ll be able to attract similarly silly believers to your soapbox. As your unrealistic ideas are echoed by new-found friends, prejudices are reinforced and soon you all start thinking it’s reality!

The further you move from London the more you find everyday life involves talking to people who don’t agree with you. In Llandudno, my partner and I are the only anarchists for miles so our ideas are constantly challenged. In London it’s easy for even the tiniest of sects to meet frequently, for members to pat each other on the back and reassure themselves of their sensible opinions. Ironically, the very fact that a multiplicity of sects exist in the capital strengthens Metropolitan arrogance that its inhabitants are the most open-minded individuals in Britain. The truth is that most of the time Londoners mix with their own kind and have little awareness of how life is lived in communities far from the capital.

Jeremy Hardy, the Guardian’s favourite comedian, considers it amusing to ridicule the assumed inbreeding of East Anglian communities. Like most metropolitans he chooses to paint East Anglian communities as static, closed and unchanging. In reality East Anglia communities have been hugely affected by the arrival of agricultural workers from Eastern Europe. Struggling to cope with inadequate social resources, depressed wages and increasing unemployment it’s no wonder local people resent such arrogant metropolitan ignorance.

The Brexit map demonstrates a marked disconnect between London and the rest of England. Whilst the London working class followed the political lead of the metropolitan elite, outside the capital those who’ve suffered most from globalisation rejected the advice of the London bubble. Predictably the losers (whether Tory, Labour or Anarchist) still refuse to admit they were wrong and put it down to poor presentation (rather than an inherently weak case) and widespread racism (ignoring EU exploitation of cheap labour).

Only fools think that CLASS is the sole political determinant. I consider AUTHORITY is THE political problem and it comes in many guises. London presents a problem that extends beyond CLASS. When I lived in the capital I was part of a collective that published the anarchist journal, “LibEd”. To offset the London effect we rotated ALL meetings between London, Leicester and Bristol. Now, as a member of a group campaigning to relaunch the anarchist journal FREEDOM we propose moving meetings of the existing Friends of Freedom Press group from London to Birmingham. 

It’s a self-serving conceit that metropolitan elites possess a monopoly on radical ideas but their arrogance is essentially authoritarian. I don’t believe any organisation campaigning for radical change should be headquartered in London, to do so reproduces political inequality, fosters elitism and further reduces the influence of the dispossessed.  

For Peace, Love & Anarchy

Christopher Draper, Llandudno