A Question of Degrees? by Rachel Whittaker

Image: copyright Alice Light

This is the text of the talk given by Rachel Whittaker at the Bolton NAN last December. Reflecting on her own experiences of the education system, Rachel argues that the problem with education goes far beyond the currently contested issues of fees.

Maybe I’m not the right person to be standing here giving this talk today. I’m no longer a student and the very fact that I’m discussing this in a cosy meeting room instead of getting my ass into gear to make it to at least one of today’s protests might damage my arguments somewhat. On the other hand, my general experiences as an activist and, for the last three years, as student have given me some insight into the general state of higher education and I believe that this issue goes much deeper than tuition fees.

I’m happy when I hear student activists making it clear that they are seeking to forge links with other groups opposing the slash and burn policies of the Con-Dem coalition but I think some important aspects are being overlooked in their own campaign, which, as education is surely at the heart of any fledgling revolutionary movement, have a major impact elsewhere.

I attended the University of Wolverhampton, which, according to the Times Education Supplement is (as of 2009) the only university in Britain where the majority of undergraduates come from working class homes and where 1 in 5 students are from areas with low participation in higher education. Its research record, however, shows that research is mainly applied and largely serves the needs of business and industry.

In fact, the university likes nothing more than to brag about its connections with business and throws various large numbers into the mix in terms of the funding this has achieved. And yet, in 2009/2010 it sought and achieved 150 voluntary redundancies from amongst support staff, cut a large number of study modules and moved to a more prescribed system of study where, in some cases, the student was offered no choice of subjects whatsoever. In some of my subject modules, the library contained one copy of the set text for an entire class.

In terms of its actual performance, the university is more difficult to pin down. I found most of the lecturers to be approachable, generally in the students’ corner and in some cases, genuinely inspirational, but the wider system of hierarchies and bureaucracy seemed to operate as it wished with no recourse to anyone, students or lecturing and support staff. In more official terms, the university reports high approval levels in student satisfaction surveys and it was highly commended for its academic quality and standards by the QAA after an official inspection in April 2009. By contrast, it was ranked 102nd out of 114 institutions in The Times Good University Guide 2010 and, perhaps to its credit, no longer participates in private league tables, believing them to disadvantage universities of its type.

I did meet a number of open-minded lecturers who encouraged me to plough my own furrow in terms of my studies but others made me feel like a kind of lovable maverick to be patronisingly indulged. “Oooh, we had another anarchist once” was the eager response from one lecturer but he was decidedly less enthused when my participation in class discussions was not the kind of participation that his traditionally Marxist view of education allowed for. I didn’t fare much better amongst my fellow students and whilst I was hardly expecting a hotbed of anarchism, the university’s infamous ‘hard left’ presence in the 1980s being almost entirely rooted in the Militant Tendency and other Trot manifestations, I wasn’t expecting this either: “You’re always talking about capitalism, I don’t even know what it is”. Hardly any of the students I encountered envisaged their university experience as one of freedom and learning for its own sake, most having their eyes set on achieving entry into the job market at a slightly higher level than their non-degree wielding contemporaries or simply avoiding the job market in the short term.

When you couple this with an academic structure that prompts a second-year history degree student to complain: “On no, not the French Revolution AGAIN, I just don’t understand why it’s so important” and I tell you that a majority of MY fellow students treated lectures as a chance to sit and whisper excitedly about their latest mobile phone, you might ask what kind of students have actually been taking to the streets over tuition fees? If the idea of paying to be educated actually meets least resistance in universities where a majority of students are least equipped to pay, perhaps Nick Clegg is right and the protests really will put working class people from going to university.

I worked part-time while I was at university and even with my partner working, I still had to take on student debt to the tune of £15,000 and compared to what might come, I can probably feel that I ‘got off lightly’. I don’t intend to ever pay it back because I don’t intend to ever earn enough money to do so, in fact, I didn’t go to university to improve my career prospects or even because I felt that I needed a degree to prove myself - but because it was supposed to be an opportunity for expanding my mind, learning and engaging with others in an open and nurturing environment. Perhaps I would have been better served trying to achieve this in my everyday life via collective projects with fellow anarchists but the supposed access to resources promised and in some cases actually provided by the university environment proved seductive nonetheless.

Of course, there are more institutions to consider here than the University of Wolverhampton and some will certainly nurture a more radical environment than I have experienced. On the other hand, it is also to be noted that many such institutions will have attracted students precisely because they have this reputation. Preaching to the converted, either at an institutional level or via high-brow libertarian ghettos like the Anarchist Studies Network doesn’t address the wider system taking hold at Wolverhampton and elsewhere, whereby the student is merely another capitalist commodity and is expected to be grateful for being shaped into such.

A fellow student of mine had been promised a management position at Asda if she got a degree, they didn’t care in what, just as long as she got a degree. Nor was her faith in this as something to be grateful for shaken by some of the reasonably vigorous critiques of capitalism, corporations and big business that cropped up during our three-year course. In fact, she was one of many who dutifully avoided ‘thinking outside the box’ to produce a degree according to Simon Schama and Andrew Marr and here it is evident that even when individual lecturers provide students with alternative viewpoints, they either fear to take them up because it will jeopardise their future plans, or they see them as abstract and difficult concepts best left to others.

Back in October, some business leader or another was asked on Radio 4’s Today Programme if he thought that those businesses who insist that job applicants be educated to degree level should be the ones providing the funding demanded of students. His reply was that business gives enough by providing the jobs in the first place, an argument of debatable validity in any case. Ultimately, though, the corporate world is not just providing jobs they are controlling the university system with sponsorship, apprenticeships and other investment in their own interests thinly disguised as philanthropy. Students are the asked to pay for the privilege of being brainwashed.

Even where my lecturers did provide alternative points of view, the university itself was complicit in tacitly discrediting them and although much is made of the university achieving benchmarks of ‘compassionate capitalism’ like fair trade status, this actually equated to a few varieties of tea, coffee and snacks in the various canteens, all completely lost in the mass presence of Coca Cola and other corporate giants. Students aren’t even provided with free drinking water and despite my persistent badgering in this regard, the overall response was that in terms of cost, popularity and fringe benefits for the university, Coca Cola wins hand down.

When you add this to corporations like Asda demanding any kind of degree for their management training, it’s clear that this is a symbiotic system between business, government and finance which encourages the early establishment of debt on the basis of a brighter future that doesn’t actually exist. Your so-called ‘better job’ is ostensibly to fund a mortgage and other consumption-driven debts, and with old-age no longer a time of rest and reflection after a lifetime of wage slaving, this system, whether under Labour, the Tories or the Coalition, will never be one of cradle-to-grave care, it will always be about cradle-to-crave servitude.

Some might argue that I am ignoring the potential for wider student radicalisation thrown up by the recent tuition fees debate but why should it always be the lot of radicals that they must wait for times of widespread social disaster to gain a hearing, let alone widespread support. If we don’t do something to break this cycle, we are becoming just as much part of the ‘boom and bust’ mentality as the capitalists and surely this starts with demanding education that is not only free in monetary terms but free from the kind of sinister social grooming employed by capitalist and Marxist alike.

It is easy to confuse long-term radical solutions with militant knee-jerk reactions and the danger here is that ‘right to work’ and ‘right to study’ protests in the coming months and years will remain couched in what is ultimately the right to achieve access to the limited perqs of capitalism. Even in setting themselves up as the vanguard of resistance to tuition fees, the NUS has taken a moderate line, promising to fight the issue at the ballot box and, as we have seen, labelling any deviation from the kind of protest that files through the streets chanting slogans as ‘despicable’.

I think we need to focus not on the left/right divide in education, or even elitism vs. equality, but on the difference between authoritarian and libertarian education. Let’s face it, as anarchists, we’re never going to be flavour of the month in any curriculum, left or right, and whilst bonfires in Parliament Square might express intent, they don’t say much about the alternatives we have to offer. In this room alone, there’s probably hundreds of years of collective experience and knowledge in areas more diverse than a three-year degree course could ever hope to cover and perhaps the really subversive thing to do here is to actually share our knowledge rather than just claiming to be the enlightened few. Of course, we’ll still have to fight eventually, governments and vanguards are even less likely to let anarchists go un-demonised and unmolested if they are street speakers, independent publishers and ‘plebs colleges’ promoting anarchy in the truest sense of the word.

I’ve heard the recent student protests described as a revival of the left and Ian Bone tells me that they’ll be a revolution by Christmas or, at least, by the time of the royal nuptials next April. Meanwhile, I expect the Socialist Worker Party are thinking all their Christmases have come at once, fond as they are finding impressionable and outraged youth in their collective stocking. But let’s not get caught up in assuming that a majority recognise us as different from the SWP, who thought it pertinent to censor the main thrust of their protest banners, obscuring the rallying cry of ‘Fuck Fees’ with strategically placed asterisks. I’m not sure if setting fires and smashing windows achieves anything more but it certainly sets out our stall as those who don’t want to be told what to do, how to learn and what to pay for it by anyone, let alone how we should protest if we don’t like it.

As Lenny Bruce would surely remind us, if you take away the right to say fuck, you take away the right to say fuck the government.

Northern Voices 12 - Out now

Spying in the North & beyond:
Northern Voices 12 kicks-off with a topical story on state sponsored snooping. Derek Pattison looks at the well-paid agencies that spend their time infiltrating peaceful protest groups and compiling data on innocent folk. Recent reports in The Guardian newspaper say this includes joining the Clown Army, collecting data on innocent folk, as well as leading Climate Camp demos; these seemingly stop-at-nothing spies even sleep with the enemy in the cause of surveillance. According to this report protesters were held overnight at Oldham Police Station and a member of the Manchester Anarchist Federation was ‘quizzed’ by the police in 2009: yet despite repeated requests by NV this robust anarchist has relentlessly refused to talk to us about this.

Kiddie fiddling in Rochdale:
NV12 features a survey of the political life of the controversial northern politician from Rochdale, Cyril Smith, in which a former editor of RAP (Rochdale Alternative Paper) disputes a report in the Rochdale Observer last September, quoting Cyril’s brother saying that the allegations of Cyril's improper treatment of boys in his care in the 1960s had been ‘disproved'. NV12 also covers Sir Cyril Smith's relations with the local asbestos trade and contacts a solicitor involved in the notorious Stefan Kiszko case. Sir Cyril Smith died on the 3rd, September 2010; there were many tributes but some criticisms.

Manchester Matador Interview:
Former butcher’s boy Frank Evans went from a Salford slum to make his name in the bullrings of Spain and Latin America. Now in his late 60’s, he talks to Northern Voices about the place of bullfighting in Spanish life and the attitude of Spaniards to him as a northern English lad; he considers his future and that of bullfighting in the current credit crisis in Spain.

Reports on Council finances in Salford; Tesco’s corporate connivance in Tameside – is this more shades of Pathfinder & ‘renewal of the North’ with Tesco Towns; plus Salford Spy and Tameside Eye.

A Bit on the Side:
Art reports with an exclusive interview with Burnley artist, Liam Spencer, about the work of the Lancashire impressionist - 'winkling out gems from unlikely sources' - now showing at Rochdale’s Touchstone Gallery, and a retrospective review of last year's Picasso Peace & Freedom Exhibition at the Liverpool Tate. Chris Draper – NV’s lad in the back row - gives us his ‘Six o’the Best’ Northern films and he offers a controversial review of Howard Brenton’s newly adapted play of Robert Tressell’s book ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ at the Liverpool Everyman. Also a review of the latest volume of Geordie pitman Dave Douglass’s autobiography.

Price £1.50 [£2.00 post included] cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' obtainable from c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.

And on sale at a large number of newsagents in Greater Manchester, Rochdale, Tameside, Salford, Swinton, Eccles, Burnley and bookshops in other areas such as News From Nowhere in Liverpool, Bob's Bookshop in Oldham and Bookcase in Hebden Bridge, as well as The Cornerhouse and People's History Museum in Manchester. Northern Voices is also on sale in Glossop at Bay Tree Books, George Street Books and The Oakwood public house.

JOHN TAYLOR THE 'BIG BROTHER' OF TAMESIDE COUNCIL!

Dukinfield councillor John Taylor (pictured above), the Deputy Labour Leader of Tameside Council in Greater Manchester, loves to vent his spleen in his weekly letter to his local rag the Tameside Reporter. So numerous are his letters that many local people have nicknamed the paper the 'Taylor Times'.

This former welder and keen Manchester City fan known locally as 'Wag' Taylor (an epithet he acquired owing to his rare attendance at school), dislikes the Human Rights Act(brought in by New Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw),benefit cheats, fireworks,and illegal immigrants. He also is in favour of national identity cards and is a huge fan of the deviant performance artist Ms. Vicky Leyton, better known as 'Sticky Vicky' the vaginal magician.

Several years ago after returning from holiday in Benidorm, councillor Taylor, (the then Chair of Tameside Social Services) took up his pen and doggedly wrote to the 'Taylor Times' (sorry the Tameside Reporter) and said:

"I was on holiday last week in Spain, in a place called Benidorm, where they have a famous local act, a lady called Vicky Leyton, known as 'Sticky Vicky'. She would go down a bomb in Staly Vegas" aka Stalybridge.(see Northern voices 7).

More recently councillor Taylor has turned his mind to more weightier matters such as dog fouling and dog control orders as well as alleygating. He has become something of a hate figure among some local dog owners who recently organised a demonstration in a local park, in opposition to the restrictions placed on dogs and their owners such as the requirement to have maximum lead length of two metres.

Although a Labour councillor, councillor Taylor`s political views would not be out of place in the columns of the Daily Malice, sorry, the Daily Mail. Like the Daily Mail, he also detests the Human Rights Act. Last December (2010) he wrote in the Reporter: "The human rights act is an act that protects criminals and terrorists. We do not need this act in Great Britain." Last February (2010) he was pictured in the same paper proudly displaying his newly purchased ID card. He told the paper:

"From what I understand, people who come to this country, whether they are immigrants or asylum seekers - have to have one of these ID cards - and so they should. If people come to this country and don`t get an ID card I would want to know why...People always bring up the Big Brother stuff but I don't have a problem with that, it is there to look after you...ID cards, CCTV and surveillance are all making things safer - It`s just part of everyday life...Get used to it."

Amazingly,despite his right-wing reactionary views and his penchant for banning things, two years ago, councillor Taylor, claimed that he`d received death threats after being posted on the fascist website 'Redwatch'. Some people have suggested that politically he has far more in common with those on the far right than he realises.

James Pinkerton obituary

From Freedom #6315 (27th July 2002)

One of the most brilliant anarchist intellectuals in the north of England died in March. James Pinkerton, secretary of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation (SWF) until 1963, had been involved in anarchism when he came out of the army not long after the Second World War.  He'd stumbled on some anarchist speakers at London's Speakers' Corner while on a visit to the opera.  After that, he and his friend Jack McPhearson set up the Dukinfield Anarchist Group north of Manchester.

Although they were both opera lovers and played musical instruments - Jack was an excellent pianist and Jim played the cello - they were unimpressed by English middle class pretensions.  Ken Hawkes, the leading figure in the SWF, called them 'the musical anarchists'.

Both lived in council houses up to the end of their lives and both considered it best to belong to the working class.  When, in recent times, a friend of Jim's who'd become middle class said 'there's nowt better than being working class', Jim said he understood perfectly how he felt. 'The English middle class live in a no-man's land', he said.  There was a paradox, of course.  Here was a man living in a council house, playing the cello and deafening the neighbours with his treasured collection of records, which he blasted out daily from powerful speakers, his pantry full of the best Burgundy and clarets and a library of books to rival the contents of the Hay-on-Wye literary festival.  Many's the day he'd insist on playing Caruso, Nelly Melba, Alfredo Kraus or a Zarzuela from Spain, before we went down to the Trades Council meeting in Ashton town centre.

This paradox of the English social classes in the north was brought home to us when Jim was on his deathbed and unable to talk.   A Manchester book dealer, who'd befriended Jim in his later years, left his business card with a neighbour. For an anarchist this would be unseemly.  But a business card has a certain magic it would take a Balzac to explain.

The book dealer was given the key and, while creaming off the first editions, noticed letters written by Brian Bamford from Franco's Spain.  It looks like the main body of anarchist archive material went to the tip with Jim's prize collection of records, simply because English working class people don't understand these things.

Competing with the bourgeoisie

Brian remembers that in the 1960s his mother was donkey-stoning the doorstep when an anarchist friend turned up and, because of that and his middle class accent, she took an instant dislike to him. Even when Jim was best man at Brian's wedding, he said he felt uncomfortable with Brian's father and left early.  Brian reckons his father thought Jim was leading him astray, sending him to Spain to fight the Franco regime.

Stuart Christie said that, at the time of his trial in Madrid, his mother turned up and bumped into fellow anarchist prisoner Fernando Carballo.  'I introduced my mother to Fernando, who was handcuffed to my wrist.  I could not help but feel that she believed he was the evil monster who had lured her boy into this mess'.

It was the same at Jim's funeral.  His relatives were polite, but there was an air of distrust about the anarchist contingent, the healthy distrust all English people have for politicians of all kinds.  The irony of it all would have tickled Jim.

Once, when asked at a wine tasting if he was 'in the trade', Jim responded typically.  'No', he said. 'I'm that rare thing, a working class wine drinker'.  And even in his drinking, he had a contempt for the English middle classes, saying he was reluctant to buy his wine from supermarkets 'because the middle class have a cut-off price of about £9 a bottle'.

That was about ten years ago, but as he poured a glass for Brian in the 1960s he said, 'you know, we're not aping the bourgeoisie, we're competing with them'.  Anyone who could wean former Dukinfield refuse collector and Trades Council anarchist Derek Pattison from beer and savoury ducks to fine wines, pheasant, partridge and wood pigeon must be quite remarkable.

Despite his love of the English working class, on one occasion Brian mentioned that Vernon Richards, former editor of Freedom and another music lover, was Italian. Jim replied that he would most liked to have been a member of the Italian middle class.  That was the class he most envied, and this comment was obviously associated with his passion for Verdi and Italian opera. When he was lying on his deathbed,  Derek and Brian went with Harold Sculthorpe to put headphones on Jim to play him Verdi and Puccini.

Politically he identified with the Spaniards and the Anarchist Federation of Britain, which later became the SWF.   At the time of the split within the British anarchist movement, he sided with them against the then Freedom Press Group.  His feeling, as we understood it, was that Freedom Press was too remote and aloof from ordinary people.

He thought that Freedom in the 1960s had a good position on civil liberties and that, under Vernon Richards's editorship, it was 'a good bedside read'.  But he felt it lacked a grasp of the economic and social conditions of everyday life.  For him, it was never a paper that could become part of a movement as the Spanish anarchist papers had become.

He admired the Spanish anarchists politically and socially, even if he was drawn to the Italians culturally.  In June last year, after we'd had some Spaniards from the CGT round to his house, he remarked that 'we English are like shrivelled-up prunes compared to the Spaniards'.  He clearly took a dim view of the English anarchist movement.

Jim resigned as national secretary of the SWF in 1963, at a time when the peace movement was in ferment. Many young people were joining the anarchist movement, and some had gone into the SWF. While he was happy to see the numbers increase, he said that not many of the newcomers were workers.

In the 1950s he'd translated the SWF pamphlet Communist Terror in Bulgaria from French and, with Jack McPhearson from Dukinfield and Julian Pilling from Burnley, had gone on to reproduce Direct Action as a propaganda sheet on a flat-bed duplicator.  He'd been treasurer of Northern Industrial Action, a group of libertarians including anarcho-syndicalists from the SWF, people from the old Solidarity Group, the Independent Labour Party and miscellaneous anarchists.  This group, formed in Manchester around 1962, was the North's answer to the National Rank and File Movement. He attended meetings of the reformed Manchester Anarchist Group from 1964, as well as the 1965 SWF conference. He also wrote for Freedom on the anarchist movement in Manchester.

Adviser to apprentices

He was an adviser to the engineering apprentices in Rochdale when they put out their paper, Progress, in 1960.  This was in the wake of the national apprentices' strike for improvements in wages and conditions in May that year.  He also assisted with the production of Industrial Youth (IY), which came out during the engineering apprentices' strikes of 1964 and 1965. This paper was supported by the Manchester Apprentice Wages & Conditions Committee during the dispute, and continued as a publication for apprentices until late 1966.

Jim was named at the time by the Economic League, an organisation of bosses' informers, as someone implicated in the apprentice's paper.  One employer circularised the Economic League's findings to its apprentices, warning them of anarchist involvement.

In 1970, Jim attended the trials that followed the Arrow Mill strike at Rochdale, where the police had been brought in to break up a sit-down strike of Asian workers.  An anarchist had been arrested for actions that took place on the premises during the dispute.  After the strike and the trials, he backed the Campaign for Shop Stewards in Textiles in Oldham, Shaw and Rochdale, which had Asian and anarchist involvement. It was during this campaign that he first met then mill operative Bob Lees.

Later in the 1970s, he was involved with the North West Workers' Alliance which used to meet in Oldham.  This was an anarcho-syndicalist body which was associated with the SWF.  A copytaker on several newspapers in Manchester, he was an active trade unionist in NATSOPA and SOGAT and Father of the Chapel on the Daily Herald and the Sunday People.

Most people outside the North West won't have heard of Jimmy Pinkerton. That's because he was never a prolific writer or regular public speaker. He despised oratory.  He was really a Socrates of the north of England, who stimulated those with whom he came into contact.  Not just with wine and music, but with his intellectual rigour and the breadth of his ideas.

He'd left school at 14 and was near enough self-taught but we, who've done our stints on the treadmills of the universities, have seldom found anyone to compare for clarity of vision and thought with Jimmy Pinkerton.

When he attended the Marseilles Conference of the AIT as an SWF delegate in the late 1950s, he later said the French delegates had considered him an 'opportunist'. He spoke fluent French and was always determined to discover practical solutions for the presentation of an anarchist programme.

He'd often upset people, such as when he supported the 1999 NATO action in Kosovo. He considered the action necessary to stop Serbian ethnic cleansing, and quoted the historical example of the Roman legion that had done a detour to put down a case of child sacrifice in the empire.  'Sometimes', he said, 'the big battalions do the decent thing'.

He was critical of Chomsky's line over the Balkan conflict, which he saw as worn-out anti-Americanism. Many of our discussions in recent years centred on Chomsky, following the criticisms of Chomsky's linguistics and philosophy in a recently published journal, Chomsky and his Critics.

Jim was puzzled by Chomsky's hostility to the late novels of George Orwell, and he said some of Chomsky's comments were 'intelligent'.  He took the view that Chomsky was jealous of Orwell because he was a creative writer and a novelist, while Chomsky - for all his brilliance was simply a 'functional writer'.

With Jim Pinkerton's loss, there will be a gap in the lives of so many of us who looked to him for intellectual stimulation, moral guidance and friendship. A couple of years ago, referring to his regular talks with some of the northern anarchists, he told us 'you lads keep me going'. Jim was the father of northern anarchism and we are his children.

Brian Bamford, Bob Lees and Derek Pattison

A shorter obituary by Brian Bamford for the Guardian, can be read here.

NORTHERN ANARCHIST NETWORK: Colin Ward, Luddites, students & the new syndicalists

ABOUT 25 attended the NAN last December for a meeting at the Bolton Socialist Club which discussed the place of the anarchists in the current economic crisis. Richard Holland provided us with an outline of the 'hidden history' of the Luddite movement in the North.  It was argued that to the conventional left the Luddites presented a bit of a challenge as being something 'not quite Kosher' and not so acceptable as the Chartists, who could be safely categorised as a logical historical step towards 'respectable' historical institutions such as the Labour Party.  The NAN agreed to work for a celebration of Luddism in 2012.

In her contribution on the student struggles, Rachel Whittaker disputed that tuition fees were the most significant problem, claiming that the current ideology of the corporate emphasis on career, vocational studies and business management, is the real issue degrading education in modern times. The growth of private colleges run by companies may be an example of this.

Keir from Edinburgh described the situation of the labour movement since the Coalition government began its program of cuts in public services. Keir is one of the voices of the new syndicalists within the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), who are emerging as the realisation grows that British party politics is basically a bag of wind.  The 'syndicalists' are now perhaps the fastest growing section of the NSSN, which is itself now facing a power grab by the Socialist Party; certainly the syndicalists probably have the most members of the NSSN national steering committee after the Socialist Party.

Dave Goodway addressed another alternative to party politics by looking at the relevance of the ideas of Colin Ward, who died earlier in 2010. Colin Ward's ideas, he said, are rooted in a few books which he made the most of, and can perhaps be best summed up in a proposition expressed in 1910 by Gustav Landauer that stated: 'The state is not something which can be destroyed by a revolution but is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently'.  Given the banal political recipes put forward thus far by the conventional British left and others to deal with the economic crisis, it is surely vital that someone on the libertarian left comes up with a better agenda for social change.  By throwing together this eclectic mix of speakers, the NAN may have made a step towards developing a much needed alternative analysis.

UK Uncut close Vodafone in Manchester Arndale Centre today

The future of the National Shop Steward Network: a statement from NSSN Officers and Steering Committee members

"We are drawing attention to the disastrous outcome of the Steering Committee of the National Shop Stewards’ Network (NSSN) meeting on Saturday 4th December.

The majority in the meeting, who were Socialist Party (SP) members, voted through a series of decisions despite the opposition of absolutely everyone else, of various political affiliations and none.

The meeting decided to propose that the anti-cuts conference being organised by the NSSN on January 22nd should set up an “NSSN All-Britain Anti-Cuts campaign” and the election of a committee at the conference, which would be separate from the existing NSSN structures. As supporters of the NSSN, we are aware that the NSSN and its supporters are already working, locally, regionally and nationally in opposition to the government’s attacks on our public services and jobs. The NSSN has an immense task in helping to build for effective action which can begin to beat back these attacks, although it is noteworthy that the original proposal put forward by the Socialist Party omitted any mention of the NSSN working to organise industrial action against the public sector attacks.

However, to agree that the NSSN has an important contribution to make to the anti-cuts movement is a long way from agreeing to the need for it to launch yet another national anti-cuts campaign. At a time when there is pressure for anti-cuts campaigns to work together – witness the protocol agreed between the Coalition Of Resistance and the Right To Work campaign; the forum on December 5th organised by Right To Work on working together; and the pending meeting called by the Trade Union Coordinating Group on December 14th – the creation of yet another group can only be seen as counterproductive. That the NSSN participated in the forum on December 5th and intend to take part in the meeting on December 14th stands in stark contrast to this move.

Attempts by non-SP officers of the Network to remove the most contentious aspects in advance of the Steering Committee meeting were unsuccessful. The proposals were the subject of a lengthy heated debate. Attempts to delete contentious parts of these proposals were defeated by the SP majority, with no wider support. Attempts to make positive proposals to work constructively with other anti-cuts organisations were defeated in the same way. The only real progress was the removal of a proposal that the NSSN should support anti-cuts candidates in local elections in May, a proposal which would have immediately wrecked the non-party and cross-party nature of the NSSN.

Launching a further national anti-cuts campaign, while obstructing cooperation with other organisations, would be a retrograde step, as well as changing the nature and direction of the NSSN. If the NSSN becomes controlled by one political party which is unwilling to work constructively with any other shop stewards in the network, we would see no point in further participation. Confirmation that this is the way the the SP intends to proceed seems to be borne out by events since the meeting of the Steering Committee – the secretary has unilaterally announced that only SP members will represent the NSSN at 2 forthcoming meetings discussing left/anti-cuts cooperation, with not even a pretence at consultation with non-SP officers .

We therefore urge the Socialist Party to pull back."

NB: A personal request from Dave Chapple, NSSN Chair: "We are circulating this statement throughout the trade union movement, especially activists in NSSN affiliated or supportive unions, to which, ultimately, the NSSN should be responsible. Please discuss it at your trade union branch or other union meetings. We need messages of support for this statement, but would also welcome questions and comments, sent to the address below. NSSN Officers and steering committee members listed are willing to attend trade union meetings to put our case, so please consider inviting us.

Finally, friends, our London conference on 22nd January gives us a chance to return the NSSN to a sensible consensus-based policy: please do your best to attend: a substantial turnout of mainstream trades union activists can ensure that the NSSN has a future: the Socialist Party alternative, as the 'trade union wing' of a small left group, has no future at all."

Dave Chapple, CWU, Chair, NSSN Steering Committee;
Jane Bassett, NUT, vice-Chair, NSSN Steering Committee;
Bob Archer, NUT, NSSN Website/Press Officer;
George Binette, Unison, NSSN treasurer;
Ray Morell, Unite, NSSN National Organiser;
Becca Kirkpatrick, Unison, NSSN Affiliations/Fund-raising Officer

plus the following members of the NSSN Steering Committee:

Brian Bamford, Unite;
Andy Reid, PCS;
Stuart Melvin, USDAW;
Glyn Harries, Unison
Ian Allinson, Unite,
Gerry Downing, Unite,
Jeremy Drinkall,Unison;
Helen Steel, Unison
Pete Firmin, CWU,
Steve Ballard, NUT
Paul Turnbull, CWU

UK Uncut 'Pay Day' this Saturday, 18th December, all over the North

The latest Day of Action called by the Tax Avoidance highlighting outfit UK Uncut takes place on Saturday 18th December, in cities all over the UK, including the North of England.

Saturday's targets are once again Vodafone and the Arcadia Group. The list of actions has grown massively to 51 towns and cities since the last Day of Action, and they are all listed on this page of UK Uncut's website, and we'll round up those in the North of England below:

Durham - Target unspecified. Starts at 1 p.m. in the Marketplace.

Halifax - Target unspecified. Meet outside Halifax Bus Station at 1.30 p.m.

Kendal - Targeting Topshop & Vodafone, taking place between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. outside those stores.

Leeds - Targeting Topshop & Vodafone. Meet at 12 p.m. in front of Topshop on Briggate.

Liverpool - Target is secret! Meet under the big screen outside Clayton Square Shopping Centre (opposite Radio City Tower)  at 12.30 p.m. You are requested to bring a sleeping bag!

Newcastle - Meet at the Monument at 1 p.m. Targets are "companies that dodge tax and support attacks on education and other public services".

Manchester - Target is unspecified, but likely to be Arcadia group stores where mass disruption is the plan. Meet at Piccadilly Gardens next to the statue at 11 a.m. Interested parties are requested to bring horns, buckets, vuvuzelas, whistles etc, with the plan being to make a lot of noise.

Middlesbrough - Target is Topshop. Meet at the MIMA Art Gallery (next to the big bottle and the town hall) at 12 p.m.

Preston - Target unspecified. Meet outside Fishergate Centre at 2 p.m.

Sheffield - Target is Boots. Gathering at 11am on Fargate for a theatre performance against tax avoidance with leaflets highlighting Boots tax avoidance.

Many of the above events have relevant facebook pages - see the links for each city above.

JOBLESS NORTHERNERS SHOULD PICK FRUIT - SAYS TORY BUFFOON!

They just can`t help putting their foot in their mouths these Tory inbreds from down south. Earlier this year David (Lord) Young was forced to apologise and resign after telling the British public that they`d never had it so good. Last month, another Tory buffoon Howard Emerson Flight, the former MP for Arundel and Southdowns, hit the headlines when he said that government cuts in child benefit would discourage the middle-classes from breeding but would encourage 'breeding' amongst the poor. Flight is the author of 'All you need to know about exchange rates'.

This week, the leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, David Shakespeare, (pictured above) who is the leader of the Local Government Association`s Conservative group, announced that he had a novel idea for getting unemployed northerners back to work. He`s suggested that unemployed northerners should go south to pick fruit like Eastern European immigrants and he believes that if unemployment goes up: "the north may replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards...and that may be a good thing."

Greater Manchester MP`s have reacted angrily to his comments and say Shakespeare is 'out of touch' and like most Tories, is too south-east focused. Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Manchester Central said:

"on one level , I can dismiss him as stupid or bigoted, but on another level it is really worrying. That he represents a nation-wide organisation is just astonishing. He clearly is a buffoon. Any Tory - indeed any politician - who holds that opinion isn't fit to hold public office."

Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, said: "At a time when they are talking about job cuts no one should be making flippant comments about unemployment."

Graham Stringer, the MP for Blackley, said: "What the north needs is the kind of investment the south has benefitted from for years - we need the level of attention it has had."

Northerners who fancy a job in a cherry orchard down south and who wish to respond to David Shakespeare`s comments can contact him at: dshakespeare@buckscc.gov.uk

NO FUTURE

The sorry sight of Prince Charles' 'Chasmobile' outside the Royal Variety Performance tonight. Window broken, covered with paint. Students know how to party!

Student occupation of Roscoe Lecture Theatre, Manchester University

For the last 10 days, there has been an occupation of the lecture theatre in the Roscoe Building at the University of Manchester by students protesting at proposed tuition fee rises and education cuts. The presence of the Socialist Workers Student Student is very obvious, but their tactics are scarcely winning over many students. The main problem is that the occupation is transient, and for long periods normal lectures take place in the lecture theatre.

There have, however, been some interesting alternative lectures on the Diggers, Levellers, Mary Wollstonecraft etc, resulting in an exchange of ideas and libertarian and anarchist ideas are gaining some traction. I have participated in the last 5 days of the occupation as a community activist and NSSN supporter and have distributed literature on anarcho-syndicalism which has been well received. Friends of Seisdedos have also made a donation to the fighting fund.

Finally a number of leaflets promoting the NAN in Bolton as well as The OK Cafe have been circulated. The OK cafe is an autonomous space in the squatted Lord Nelson pub on the corner of Great Ancoats Street and Newton Street: Contact mcrokcafe@gmail.com, or go to okcafe.wordpress.com

JOHNNY CLARKE - SALFORD`S BARD

A blast from the past. An old aquaintance of mine from Salford, Johnny Clarke, the so-called punk poet aka the Salford Bard. Back in the 70`s he did regular performances in the upstairs room of the Black Lion pub in Salford near to Salford central bus station off Chapel Street. That was in the days before he was famous - before he did the sugar puffs add along with the honey monster. Although the pub no longer stands, Johnny Clarke, went on to big and better things appearing on such programmes as the Old Grey Whistle test. A favourite poem of mine was the one I remember him doing at the Black Lion, about Risley remand centre which started thus: 'Risley, Risley, Ree, they put you up for free...'I`ve looked for this poem but alas have been unable to find it. The last time I spoke to Johnny Clarke was outside the Free Trade Hall in the 1980s when I went to see Arthur Scargill at a miners rally. My mate asked Johnny Clarke, what he thought of Scargill and he replied in his inimitable style, "He`s a popular icon."

'My name's “HUNT”, not “CUNT”!'

James Naughtie delivers a spoonerism before breakfast



'AFTER the NEWS', announced the normally sober broadcaster, James Naughtie, 'we are going to be talking to Jeremy Cunt ...er Jeremy Hunt! - the Culture Secretary about the art of Broadband'. That was just before the Today News on Radio 4 at 8am this morning, and within minutes the emails were flooding into Broadcasting House with one from a psycho-linguist who said David Cameron was to blame for appointing a man with the name of 'Hunt'. As if that was not enough, it was a live broadcast and Mr Naughtie had to go on to valiantly, between chuckles, to struggle to introduce the 8am News while all the time desperately pretending he had a frog in his throat. Chris Draper tackled this spooneristic problem with Yorkshire Curd Tart in the last issue of Northern Voices. Today's incident didn't quite descend into the giggles that accompanied the Brian Johnson cricket commentary that included the 'leg over' term, but it has led to widespread comment throughout the day on Radio 4. However, an hour later Andrew Marr referred to the James Naughtie incident on Start The Week on Radio 4, during a discussion on Freudian slips, and blurted out 'Jeremy C***' before gasping with laughter.



Dr Mike Page, a reader in psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, has said it was a classic Spoonerism — the verbal blunder named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), renowned for such slips while warden of New College, Oxford. Dr Page said: 'Studies show that where two words share the same vowel sound this will promote the exchange of the preceding consonant ... like saying queer old dean' instead of dear old queen'.

Dr Page did not think the slips revealed that BBC presenters hold the Culture Secretary, who has ordered the corporation to cut spending, in low esteem.

'Freud's theory of para-praxes is that an unconscious or concealed view may emerge inadvertently in a verbal error, but Naughtie was almost certainly a spoonerism. Marr fell victim to the white bear effect': the more he tried not to think of the word, the more he primed his brain to say it.'

Blacklisted Electrician Steve Acheson in Court for Trespass

Steve Acheson, blacklisted electrician, is in court in Runcorn at 2pm, Tuesday 7th December, at the Runcorn County Court, Halton Lea, Runcorn Cheshire. Warrington Trades Council is lobbying the hearing in solidarity with Steve. Please attend if you can.

It would appear to be a preliminary hearing for trespass by the power company who run Fiddlers Ferry power station, Scottish & Southern Electricity, as they object to Steve protesting outside their gates against his dismissal - nearly 2 years ago now. Steve's dismissal was connected with the use of an illegal blacklist by construction employers against union activists.

The case will turn on the finer points of the English law of trespass. There is one legal case (Harrison v. Duke of Rutland, 1893) which seems to say that the only right on a public right of way is to "pass and repass", however thankfully there is more recent case law (Hirst and Agu v. Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, 1987) which seems to establish a right to use a right of way for any purpose so long as it is "reasonable and lawful."

As Steve's protest is peaceful, and commits no criminal damage and takes place on the public highway, not on land belonging to SSE, it is difficult to see how they will win the case. It is likely to turn on what a judge deems "reasonable" in the circumstances.

Andy Ford (the contact phone number is 0774 241 7862; if anyone needs further details),
Campaigns Officer
Warrington and District Trades Council

UK Uncut 'Day of Action' called for tomorrow, all across the North of England

The latest Day of Action called by the Tax Avoidance highlighting outfit UK Uncut takes place tomorrow, Saturday 4th December, in cities all over the UK, including the North of England.

The campaign originally sprung from the revelations in Private Eye that Vodafone had avoided £6 billion of tax with the collusion of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, £6 billion being the same amount that the ConDem government are trying to cut out of the public sector. As a result, UK Uncut held a day of action to shut down Vodafone stores all over the UK.

Tomorrow is the turn of the Arcadia Group, the high street clothing retail group, owned by the billionaire Sir Philip Green. Green was recently asked by David Cameron to audit government spending a procurement, and is another well-known tax avoider, whose companies are registered in his wife Cristina's name, Cristina being a resident of Monaco. Arcadia owns stores such as Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, and Wallis.

Actions for the UK are listed on this page of UK Uncut's website, and we'll round up those in the North of England below:

Leeds - Meet at 12 p.m. in front of Topshop on Briggate.

Liverpool - Targeting Topshop. Meet under the big screen outside Clayton Square Shopping Centre (opposite Radio City Tower)  at 11a.m.

Manchester - Targeting Topshop, Boots & Barclays: Scroogey Santas, a protest against the corporations behind the cuts. Meet at Piccadilly Gardens at the Fountains at 3p.m. for a moving demo with music (Xmas theme).

Sheffield - Targeting Burton, Topshop, HSBC, Vodafone, Boots, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Barclays and Lloyds. Most of these can be found on The Moor and Fargate. 10 a.m. start outside the Town Hall.

York - Targeting HSBC, Vodafone, Boots, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Barclays & Lloyds TSB. Ghost (Tax) Tour - A magical mystery tour of missing millions, starting at 1p.m. at the fountain in Parliament Street.

BREAKING NEWS - WOOLAS LOSES HIGH COURT APPEAL!

At noon today it was announced on the BBC2 news programme Daily Politics that Phil Woolas the disgraced former MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, has lost his appeal in the High Court against the decision of the Election Court (the first of its type in 99 years) which sat earlier this year in Uppermill, Saddleworth, to remove him from office for 'illegal practices' i.e.making false statements and deliberately telling lies against his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins,during the general election campaign this year.

According to today's Independent, the three High Court judges dismissed the least serious charge on which Woolas was convicted that he'd claimed that Watkins had broken a pledge to live in the constituency. They nevertheless upheld the two most serious charges against Woolas that he`d falsely claimed that his opponent had sought to win the votes of 'Asian extremists' who had advocated violence and that Watkins had refused to condemn the threats of violence.

As the NV blog has previously reported, Woolas's legal position appears hopeless. Although he said he had 'no regrets' about his conduct, he has been banned from standing for public office for 3 years and now faces the prospects of a criminal investigation which could result in a jail sentence. During the general election campaign, Woolas, a former immigration minister, tried to win votes in his constituency by getting "white folk angry." After the High Court judgement Woolas said: "It is the end of the road - I am out."

Building Trade Union, Community & Political Resistance to Austerity Cuts

SPEAKER: Alex Gordon (President, National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT))

6.00 p. m. , Thursday 9 December 2010

The Main Lecture Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Aytoun Street (2 minutes from Piccadilly Railway Station)

The RMT has been prominent among British trade unions calling for ‘generalised action’ to oppose public spending cuts by EU and UK governments and in defence of jobs, living standards and public services. The RMT has urged trade unions to hold a sustained campaign of coordinated strikes across both the public and private sectors, combined with forging direct action alliances with community groups and campaigns, with the aim of mounting the biggest show of united working class resistance to government policies since the success of the anti-poll tax movement.

In the wake of recent strikes on London Underground, Fire Service and BBC, as well as student protests in response to the new austerity measures, Alex Gordon explains why the government’s ideological-driven cuts are not necessary and puts the case for European-style mass protests to turn them back.

Manchester Industrial Relations Society
Secretary: Professor Ralph Darlington, Salford Business School

University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT. 0161 295 5456 r.r.darlington@salford.ac.uk website: www.business.salford.ac.uk/mirs

---

Ian Bone on Alex Gordon:

Well congratulations to my old drinking pal in the much lamented FOX in Easton in Bristol ALEX GORDON on being elected President of the RMT. Alex was once a member of DAM the anarcho-syndicalist organisation and hang out with the fearsomely anti-fascist ELDAM ( we could certainly do with their return now!). How much of his syndicalist politics he retains is unclear and many anarchists will not forgive his behaviour at the ESF social forum at Alexandra Palace. However I wish Alex luck in forging a fighting union with Comrade Crow. As I forecast in my last Freedom column Alex will be the first syndicalist to hold a major union office since the days of Tom Mann and AJ Cooke. If he lives up to them or Noah Ablett we might start getting somewhere.

'White Folk': just another clan or ethnic category?

LAST week, three High Court judges reserved judgement when considering Labour MP Phil Woolas's bid to seek a judicial review to challenge an earlier decision of an election court on the 5th November to declare void his election to the Seat of Oldham East & Saddleworth at last May's General Election. A judgement may be expected this week. An earlier Court had said he could not seek a judicial review in the High Court and ought to go the the Court of Appeal. Mr Woolas's legal team have argued that the election court is an inferior court and that its decisions could be subject to judicial review in the High Court.

Since November 5th, 2010 Phil Woolas is no longer the MP for Oldham East & Saddleworth. This weekend Northern Voices spoke to some of Mr Woolas's white constituents in an area called Derker in Oldham, that has suffered from a scheme called the Pathfinder under the previous Labour Government: the controversial Housing Market Renewal Initiative Pathfinder has left massive areas of dereliction in our northern heartlands. Surprisingly, considering what the Labour Government did to them, one woman told me that she thought it was 'disgusting' what Elwyn Watkins the Liberal Democrat had done in taking the case to Court to seek redress.

What are we to make of this? After all, Joe Fitzpatrick, the Labour Party agent for Mr Woolas, in the run up to the general Election had said in an email to a colleague that 'If we don't get the white folk angry, he's gone' and 'We need to do an article ... to explain to the white community how the Asians will take him (Phil Woolas) out.'

Why should the 'white folk' readily tolerate being treated thus? Why should the 'white folk' accept being treated as an ethnic category to be cynically stirred up?

Perhaps the 'white folk' despise a bad loser more than a dirty campaigner. One possibility is that folk just don't like being exposed as being fools, but my source suggested that while there may have been lies in the leaflets of Phil Woolas she told me there were lies in the literature of the Lib Dems. Yet there is just a possibility that my contact believes or wants to believe in what Woolas said about 'Watkins being in the pocket of Islamic extremists' or words to that effect. What perhaps rests behind this is suggested by what the Labour Agent, Mr Fitzpatrick, also said in his email: '... and Musad ( a Lib Dem councillor) his stitched up his clan and the Bengalis'. This suggests something of the wheeling and dealing that goes on in the marketing of clans in these northern towns and in this fixing process 'the white folk' or the white working classes become yet another ethnic category to be traduced, deceived or just 'stitched up'.

Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) Bolton Conference, December 2010 - Updated Agenda

NAN Conference at Bolton Socialist Club, Wood Street, off Bradshaw Gate: Saturday 11th, December 2010, starting at 11.00am:

THEME: DO THE ANARCHISTS HAVE AN ANSWER TO THE ECONOMIC CRISIS?

Updated Agenda

11.00 a.m. Richard Holland on "Luddites 200: preparing for the Bicentenary"

11.30 a.m. Dave Goodway on "Colin Ward's seed beneath the snow and the 'Big Society' "

1 p.m.  LUNCH: loads of cafes, bakers & food in the Club as well

2.00 p.m. - 2.45 p.m. Rachel Whitaker on "A Question of Degrees: Why Tuition Fees Aren't the Only Problem", followed by

2.45 p.m. - 4.00 p.m. Keir (Edinburgh) & Dave Douglass (South Shields) invited, from the National Shop Stewards Network to talk on the cuts & the place of anarcho-syndicalism & the general strike in our time.

We'll also fit group reports into the agenda at some point!

Harvesting the bodies of Sellafield workers by Dave Chapple

ORGANS and bones were illegally harvested from the bodies of dead nuclear industry workers at Sellafield without their consent over a period of 30 years, an inquiry found last Tuesday. The relatives of 64 staff, many of whom only discovered their loved ones had been stripped of livers, tongues and even legs decades after they were buried, said the inquiry's findings proved the existence of an "old boys' club" among pathologists, coroners and scientists around Sellafield prior to 1992 which prioritised the needs of the nuclear industry above those of grieving family members.

Your can find more information in the following publications:

Independent 17th Nov 2010
Guardian 17th Nov 2010
Telegraph 17th Nov 2010
Times 17th Nov 2010
Carlisle News and Star 16th Nov 2010
Whitehaven News 16th Nov 2010

The full documents published today are available from theredferninquiry.co.uk

See also DECC Press Release 16th Nov 2010

Fitwatch website taken down by order of Police

Northern Voices is proud to express solidarity with Fitwatch and publish their last website posting below in full.

The article contained advice to any students worried about their legal situation following the occupation or the Tory Party HQ during the NUS demonstration in London last week. The Fitwatch website was yesterday taken down by the hosting company on the 'order' of a Will Hodgeson, who is Acting Detective Inspector of the Met (CO11 Public Order Branch). No legal authority was given, but Justhost.com acted like the proverbial Pavlov's Dog and complied with Police repression. 

Fitwatch is a site dedicated to the identification, monitoring and surveillance of Police 'Forward Intelligence Teams' (FIT) that take pictures and video of all and sundry on any demonstration you care to mention. An archive of the site has been erected at this site. Fitwatch itself is expected to be back online with an offshore host very soon.

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.
There are an encouraging number of initiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .

This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.

51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.

Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:

If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.

If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

DON'T panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.

DON'T hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.

DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.

DON'T assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.

DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.

DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.

DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.

DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.

DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.

DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal.

Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.

The Big Society (or a Bullingdon Club Conception of ‘Anarchism’) by Laurens Otter

Recently, a young Muslim woman was tried for attempted murder; she had violently attacked an MP who ardently supported the invasion of Iraq (knowing it to be illegal under International Law) and, not understanding why he had not been punished in any way for sanctioning the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, she took matters into her own hands.

No doubt her methods were not the most well chosen but anyone who examines her motives and general inspiration must see how closely they match the ‘Big Society’ ideal as preached by the Government.

Curiously, however, the Prime Minister did not dispatch the Attorney General (nor even members of his department) to the court to plead the woman’s case - to point out that she was a volunteer, acting to redress an unpunished crime in the public interest. Indeed, whilst the Attorney General might have argued in court that, in a country that has (at popular demand) abolished the death penalty, this woman should have confined herself to some lesser sanction, there can be no argument that she was acting in the spirit of the Big Society as it has thus far been outlined.

One may deduce, of course, that there is an unstated premise of the Cameron Big Society theory, i.e. that only such ‘voluntary acts’ and ‘local initiatives’ that support the Establishment and reinforce the existing class structure (or which meliorate the evils it creates without inconveniencing the elite) are to be applauded. In fact, one only has to look at the general context of the theory to see that it can only be advocated by Tories on the basis of such a premise.

If it were not so, unofficial strikes against injustice would be applauded. The Government would be giving grants to the students now protesting against their policies. And the peace movement, who have for years opposed war with only the resources available via their own pockets or appeals, would not be in such a position. Do the military hold a coffee morning every time they need a new tank? If Cameron meant his Big Society - without that unspoken Tory premise - he would have already moved to redress this disparity.

So, the Big Society cannot mean volunteering and local initiatives in order to attain a society of liberty and equality. Despite all the talk of decentralisation, there is to be a highly centralised decision-making process to determine what does and does not constitute good local initiatives and, as the criteria will never be spelled out, they cannot be debated, so the elite will decide with no popular discussion of any real sincerity.

The published arguments for the Big Society might have been purloined from anarchism but the arguments are used to cover Bullingdon Club elitist prejudices and those who know anything of the actions of this club’s membership may doubt whether a failure to support the Muslim woman was even based of any particular dislike of her methods.

WE`RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER!

George Osborne the Con-Dem Chancellor of the Exchequer repeatedly tells us that 'we`re all in it together'. But when it comes to Britain`s MP`s it seems to be a case of don`t do as we do, but do as we say.

Osborne is one of eighteen multi-millionaires in the Con-Dem cabinet. Despite the so-called financial crisis, last month, the Daily Telegraph revealed how 40 party activists including David Cameron attended an 'election thank you' dinner hosted by the outgoing party treasurer, Michael Spencer. According to the Telegraph, the dinner guests 'quaffed heroic quantities' of Chateau Petrus costing £1,000 per bottle. As Spencer is estimated to be worth £630 million, the costs incurred are like spare change in his back pocket. Spencer has donated £3.8 million to the Conservative Party. According to the Daily Mirror('FATCATS UNITED' 22/12/10), the "tycoon controversially sold £45 million of shares in his broking firm ICAP, weeks before they fell in value."

This week it was reported in the press that the (dis)honourable MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, Phil Woolas, who was recently stripped of his seat and banned from holding office for three years by an election court, is to receive a £40,000 'winding-up allowance' and an annual pension of £30,000 after being an MP for just thirteen years. Parliament's lavish pension scheme, is regarded as one of the most generous in Britain.

Following his suspension by the Labour Party, a number of MP`s have rallied around Woolas and have suggested that he`s been treated harshly. They have branded deputy Labour leader, Harriet Harman, a disgrace for saying that Woolas had no future in the Labour Party. Many seem to think that he`s been 'hung out to dry' and that making false statements and telling lies about a political opponent is par for the course and the stuff of politics.

David Winnick, the Labour MP for Walsall North, said:

"It`s not acceptable to most of us to say that Phil`s time in the Labour Party is finished forever. We see a colleague who fought a very tight marginal, he may have gone over the top, but that`s no reason to say his political career is over for good."

Although Woolas`s legal position appears hopeless, he`s nonetheless pursuing all sorts of legal avenues to try and restore his battered reputation. His appeal for a judicial review was recently thrown out and he faces Labour Party disciplinary action.

Despite the feelings of some Labour MP`s, public opinion appears to be against Woolas. A recent Yougov poll showed that 71% of respondents felt that the courts were right to rule against Woolas whereas only 7% felt it was the wrong decision.

Woolas recently stated that his supporters and financial backers included Gordon Brown and Cherie Blair. One serious criticism levelled against Woolas, is that during his election campaign he inflamed racial tensions in Oldham in the run-up to the General Election in a desperate bid to discredit his opponent in order to retain his seat.

Thick as thieves these MPs

OLDHAM MP MICHAEL MEACHER STICKS UP FOR WOOLAS:

(Northern Voices understands Michael Meacher - here seen cavorting with bikini-clad young women and a shark (below), Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, shares an office with Phil Woolas, the disqualified Oldham East Labour MP found guilty last Friday of lying about his Lib Dem opponent, Elwyn Watkins, at the General Election in May. Hence, it may well be that the current dodgy predicament of Mr Woolas may have a knock-on effect on the office running costs for Mr Meacher and that his concern for the plight of the staff may not be totally disinterested. Our readers must judge for themselves on the wisdom of Mr Meacher's remarks [extracted from Meacher's blog] below on behalf of his colleague Mr Woolas.)

'Of course MPs should tell the truth. It is not for me to determine whether or not my colleague Phil Woolas did so now that the court has reached its decision. I do however believe that he has been treated harshly, and that some of his traducers should take a wider look at this whole question of truth-telling because it could open up other embarrassing revelations. It has always been a good principle: let him who is innocent cast the first stone. I don’t of course have details of any other specific case, but it would certainly be surprising if among the other 649 MPs there was not a single instance where a Member had not strayed beyond the limits of truth and honesty in portraying a political opponent in an election.

'This is unlikely to be an isolated case – indeed the only reason why this case came to light in the first place is that Elwyn Watkins, the LibDem candidate, had the resources to bring it. He works for an Arab sheikh in the Middle East, so money was no object. Indeed, in the course of the one-week election court proceedings it appears that Watkins himself admitted that he had spent some £200,000 on the election, which is 7 times above the maximum permitted limit.

'Nor have Phil Woolas’ employees been treated fairly when they themselves cannot in any way be held responsible. They have been told by IPSA that their employment contracts terminated at 11am on Friday when the court gave its judgement. That would seem illegal by excluding the statutory period of notice, and it also means they will no longer be available for completing the constituency caseload even up till the judicial review in a fortnight, let alone till the by-election. Worse still, IPSA are now demanding that Phil Woolas pay back all his office expenses and staff expenses since the election in May, which could amount to some £70,000. This is gratuitously punitive and unfair when the money was used in good faith and for the benefit of the constituency, not the MP himself.

'But there are deeper questions about truth-telling raised by this episode. What about those MPs, including some on the Front-Bench of all three parties, who flipped the designation of their homes saying that first one house and then another was their second home when they knew that one or other statement wasn’t true? The cost the taxpayer in some cases tens of thousands of pounds, yet have never been brought to book. What about Nick Clegg (and he’s far from the only one) who solemnly declared he would abolish tuition fees and then voted to treble them? Or is it all right to lie to the electorate to win votes so long as you don’t lie about your political opponent to win votes? How about a right of recall for those MPs who deceive the electorate by their dishonesty?'

WOOLAS SUSPENDED BY LABOUR PARTY!

THE disgraced Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, Phil Woolas,(pictured left above) has been suspended by the Labour Party following damning criticism by two High Court judges that he had made false statements and was 'guilty of illegal practices' under election law.

Yesterday at the Uppermill Civic Hall, Saddleworth, the election court declared the election result void and ordered a by-election. Woolas won the seat at the last General Election by the narrowest of majorities(103). Elwyn Watkins, his Lib Dem rival, accused Woolas of mud slinging and of telling deliberate lies in his election material in order to win the election. He then took legal action against Woolas which led to the historic election court being set up in Uppermill earlier this year.

In his election material Woolas had alleged that Elwyn Watkins (LIbDem) had tried to win the votes of Muslims who advocated violence and had refused to condemn the extremists in his own constituency who had threatened him with violence.  The two High Court judges, Mr. Justice Nigel Teare and Mr. Justice Griffith Williams, said that this clearly amounted to an attack on his opponents 'personal character or conduct' and they added that Woolas had: 'no reasonable grounds for believing them to be true and did not believe them to be true.'

Another allegation made by Woolas, which was also found to be untrue by the election court, was the false claim that Watkins had broken a pledge to live in the constituency. Woolas was nevertheless cleared of knowingly making a false statement that Mr. Watkins' election campaign costs were likely to be in excess of £200,000, the legal limit.

After the judge`s ruling yesterday, Woolas, was ordered to pay Mr. Watkins the sum of £5,000 and was also ordered to pay his rival`s legal costs. He was also barred from holding public office for three years.  Speaking to the Manchester Evening News (M.E.N.) Mr. Watkins said that people who deliberately lie about their opponents: 'have no part to play in democracy' and he added:

"What Mr. Woolas decided was that he would do anything to keep his seat and his position of power. To my mind in a democracy that is just not acceptable."

After the ruling Woolas announced that he would be seeking a judicial review and would be making no further comment.  The Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman responded by condemning Woolas and stated that the Labour Party would not be supporting his appeal. Effectively his political career is now finished.

During the expenses scandal, Woolas came under a barrage of criticism for his expenses claims.  One of his claims for MP`s expenses included items of women`s clothing, women`s shoes, nail varnish, tampons and nappies.  As MP`s expenses claims are supposedly for personal use it is unclear why these claims were made.

When Woolas was asked whether his claim for precisely £210.31 indicated that he had put the shoes and nail varnish on expenses, he replied: 'I take your point and I understand the extrapolation.'

When challenged by the press about these outrageous claims, Woolas, responded by threatening legal action (see N.V. mag issue 11).

Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) Bolton Conference, December 2010

NAN Conference at Bolton Socialist Club, Wood Street, off Bradshaw Gate: Saturday 11th, December 2010, starting at 11.00am:

THEME: DO THE ANARCHISTS HAVE AN ANSWER TO THE ECONOMIC CRISIS?

Provisional Agenda

Kicking off at 11 a.m., we have Kier from the NSSN Syndicalists to talk about the cuts and the place of anarcho-syndicalism and the general strike in our time. Comrade Douglass has been invited.

After a lunch break at 1 p.m., we'll have group reports from around the North (& beyond) at 2p.m.

From 2.30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m., there's a Colin Ward-esque theme "The Seed Beneath the Snow or the Weed Beneath the Snow" - is there to be more State, or less?

We have invited other contributors, so the agenda may be amended at a later date.