Unite Election & Jerry Hicks

From Jerry Hicks Unite election result & update: Please forward to all your contacts: Facebook / tweet / blog and stuff. Ta!

With more votes than can fill Wembley stadium: We did not win but are now the left in Unite. 

So what’s next for us? Let’s meet: Discuss & Decide.

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone who did so much during the election campaign. From the nominations, to leafleting, to voting and to all the many inventive things between. Click to view Video clip http://youtu.be/x0zR-s9PS2Y  for a post election thank you. 

All that effort meant that an ordinary member of the biggest union in the UK and Ireland was able to stand, challenge the establishment and get nearly 80,000 votes, almost 40%, voting for a more democratic union, for a more positive fight against the cuts and job losses. We also stand on the side of the 1.4 million who feel nothing for the business as usual ‘renewed mandate’ and turned their back on the election. 

An historic vote for a ‘Rank & File’ grassroots candidate, made all the more remarkable when taking into consideration what was waged against us. We kept true to our policies, beliefs and politics with our dignity intact, while their campaign spiralled into the gutter.

Contrast and compare campaigns: 

We spent about £4,000 [from donations], produced some 75,000 leaflets, relied upon public transport, and the generosity of often complete strangers to offer a bed/couch for the night, [to whom I am indebted], as we travelled around the country meeting members. From bus drivers, to high street banks, from health workers to refuse collectors - every sector and almost every region [running out of time before we could get to Ireland].

The union establishment spent up to 100 times the amount of money we did, produced maybe one million leaflets, sent out letters to close on 500,000 members and had hundreds of paid officials promoting and supporting their boss, McCluskey.

Internal union communications went into overdrive during the election period with texts, letters and e mails direct to members, and press releases, trying to package up ‘what a good General Secretary' Len McCluskey was supposed to be. 

Shamefully, and more sinister than the use of the union machine, was the ‘red baiting’ - aimed at courting and doubtless securing the right wing vote, notably in Len McCluskey’s election address to 1.5 million members and combined with the unsolicited emails, texts, phone calls and letters to our members’ homes that were full of innuendo, lies and scaremongering. Topping the list of shame was the barrel scraping ‘libellous’ tweet/s. We shall be making formal complaints about the abuses. I will let you know how that goes.

What’s next is up to us

Looking to what’s next, I predict three things.

One that Unite will funnel up to £10 million into the coffers of the Labour Party upfront and unconditional, between now and the General Election in 2015, or that Labour will break any promises they do make in exchange for our members cash.

Two, Len McCluskey, having so readily ceded to Labour’s request to change our election timetable, will from here on in move closer to the right in both rhetoric and deed.

And three, more and more members and reps will become dissatisfied with the lack of any real fight or properly coordinated resistance.

Far from being disillusioned by this, it will open up more space for us to occupy [and you know I agree with occupations!]. Continuing to offer an alternative will attract many, many more like minded people as us. 

Post - election supporter’s rallies [So far] 

Birmingham Saturday 20th April from 12pm to 4pm: The Comfort Inn, 37 Station Street, Birmingham B5 4DY. 

London Saturday 27th April from 12pm to 4pm (venue to be confirmed). 

Please Contact me about organising a post election rally in your own Region /Town/City/. 

Jerry Hicks Tel: 07817827912 or email jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk

Ps: Our victory was assured when we successfully challenged the ‘unopposed re-election’.

And everyone knows that had we been given anywhere near equal access to members, had we had region hustings so members to hear and see both candidates head to head, we would have won the lection. Why else would McCluskey hide from us and refuse to debate?!

We did win a poll:  On the ‘Union news candidates profile video’ http://youtu.be/FZexz0AjZPk  More hits on ours! 

Keep on keeping on and expect the unexpected.   I am sure we can spring a few more surprises. 

Regards & solidarity,

Jerry.

The Spirit of 45 – what next?

[This is a leaflet given out at a showing of Spirit of 45 at the Picture Palace, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire on 11 April 2013]

KEN Loach has said that he wants his film to kickstart a conversation which gets beyond opposition to the current government’s punitive policies, and as Mark Steele recently said beyond 'yelling at the telly, or if you’re really dedicated, the radio as well.'

We have to continue opposing the policies of the government but at the same time we have to look at what the spirit of co-operation and consensus means 70 years later. How should it change our approach to housing, welfare, health, education etc? What is our vision? 

This is a call to all those millions of people in Britain who face an impoverished and uncertain year as their wages, jobs, conditions and welfare provision come under renewed attack by the government. 

The People’s Assembly is being driven by a coalition of unions representing millions of workers in both the private and public sector; activists in the Labour and Green Parties; campaigners for disabled people, and for tax justice; and people who are just stranded, without a political home.

With some 80 per cent of austerity measures still to come, and with the government lengthening the time they expect cuts to last, we are calling a People’s Assembly Against Austerity to bring together campaigns against cuts and privatisation with trade unionists in a movement for social justice. The Assembly will provide a national forum for anti-austerity views which, while increasingly popular, are barely represented in Parliament.

The aim of the People’s Assembly, which Ken Loach is supporting, is to unite all opponents of policies being inflicted on this country. On 22 June there will be a 3,500-strong meeting at Westminster Central Hall, but in the meantime people will be touring the country, encouraging local groups to be set up in every town and city. 

For more information go to www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk

[The following is intended for local people in the Hebden Bridge and surrounding areas, though I suppose all views are welcome]

If you have thoughts about the film or how the Spirit of 45 can be revived, go to www.hebdenbridge.co.uk  where there is a discussion forum. 

Len McCluskey re-elected as general secretary of Unite

Len McCluskey Speaks:

I’m deeply honoured that members have once again put their faith in me to lead their union.

We are living in extraordinary times with workers facing unprecedented attacks on their living standards and their rights at work. Thanks to this government of millionaires, work is becoming less secure and austerity threatens the social fabric of our great nation.

Now more than ever working people need a union which will stand up for them. Unite is that union, a modern progressive union fighting for ordinary people and strengthening your voice at work, in parliament and in our communities.

From construction and the London buses, to the food industry and car manufacturing, Unite members have shown what can be achieved when working people stand together with the backing of a modern union.

And in the NHS, our membership is growing as workers seek a strong voice to defend what we as a people have built, paid for and value.

Unified and freed from the distraction of an internal election in 2015, I pledge to focus my energies on the fighting for members and defeating this Tory-led government.
Yours in solidarity, 

Len McCluskey:  Unite general secretary

The full election results are as follows:

Len McCluskey 144,570 votes

Jerry Hicks 79,819 votes

Number of ballot papers found to be invalid 1,412

Total number of valid votes cast 224,389

Turnout 15.2 per cent

Stockholm Protest Against Skanska Blacklisters

BLACKLIST Support Group supported by the GMB union held a protest at the Skanska AGM in Stockholm yesterday, to expose the role of the Swedish construction giant in the Consulting Association blacklist scandal and calling for a public apology, compensation and jobs for blacklisted workers.

Blacklisted workers Roy Bentham (carpenter from Liverpool), Graham Bowker (electrician from Manchester) and Dave Smith (engineer from London) and Justin Bowden (GMB National Officer) held talks with union leaders from Byggnads (building workers) and Elektrikerna (electricians) who represent workers in Skanska.

The BSG / GMB delegation also held a two hour private meeting with senior analysts from Ethix, a company that supplies information on ethical investment to institutional investors such as major corporate pension funds.

Johan Lindholm, General Secretary of Byggnads and senior union leaders from the German construction unions joined the protest. Dietmar Schafers from the German union Ig Bau union and Building and Woodworkers International described the blacklist files as 'identical to those kept by the Stasi'.

The story ran as front page lead articles in the Swedish press and across the radio news broadcasts.
http://www.byggnadsarbetaren.se/Documents/svartlistning.pdf

http://www.byggnadsarbetaren.se/2013/04/svartlistade-arbetare-i-sverige/

http://www.byggnadsarbetaren.se/2013/04/manifestation-pa-skanskastamman/

http://arbetaren.se/artiklar/byggarbetare-svartlistades-av-skanska/

Bristol Anarchist Bookfair

AS part of the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair (now the biggest event on the left in Bristol) on Saturday 20th April, Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) will be running the Radical History Zone (RHZ) at the Hydra Bookshop (34 Old Market St, Bristol, BS2 0EZ). This is a series of talks/presentations/discussions and performances covering radical history.
The events and times in the RHZ are as follows: 

Hydra Bookshop: Saturday 20th April 

12.00pm-1.00pm: British armed forces’ strikes and mutinies in 1918-19: a radical history project for the anniversary of World War I ... (Roger Ball/Bristol Radical History Group)

1.00pm-2.00pm: Three minutes to midnight: the women’s anti-nuclear protest at Greenham Common ...
(Elaine Titcombe)

2.00pm-3.00pm: Running down Whitehall with a black flag: memories of anarchism in the 1960′s ...
(Di Parkin/Bristol Radical History Group)

3.00pm-4.00pm: Poor Man’s Heaven: the Land of Cokaygne and other utopian visions ...
(Omasius Gorgut/Past Tense Publications)

4.00pm-5.00pm: Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Race, Class and Gender in the 60′s U.S.  ... (Roger Ball/BRHG) 

5.00pm onwards: ‘Libres’: Songs of the Spanish Revolution  .... (Pilar Lopez)

Full details of these events and the bookfair can be found at: 

http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/radical-history-zone-programme-for-the-bristol-anarchist-bookfair-2013/
or http://www.brh.org.uk/site/events/

Bristol Radical History Group will also have (along with many other publishers) a bookstall at the main site on the first floor (Trinity Arts centre, Trinity Road, Bristol BS2 0NW)

Looking forward to seeing some or all of you there. 
Cheers,
Bristol Radical History Group 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (The real story behind it)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

["The Witch is dead" from the Wizard of Oz is now at No. 2 in the charts according to Trevor Hoyle, but the Official Charts Company said on Thursday morning that 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' was on course to reach number four, up from 10 the previous day.]

THE Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published in Chicago in 1900. Its author, L. Frank Baum, was the editor of a South Dakota newspaper and a supporter of William Jennings Bryan who stood three times, unsuccessfully, as a U.S. Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party.

The particular concern of both Baum and Bryan was the nature of the money supply then prevalent in the United States, and in the Mid-Western States in particular.

In America during the 1890s, as in Britain, there had been a severe depression. Many businesses had gone bankrupt, farmers forced to sell up, factories closed and workers made unemployed. True, some farms in the Mid-West were suffering from drought, but most were still capable of growing food; the businesses and factories were still capable of providing the things that people needed; the workers still wanted to work to provide those things, and people would still want the goods and services produced if they had the money to buy them.

The money in the USA then, as now, was entirely created by the private banking system. The pretence existed then that money was based on gold. (Even now some people still think that it is!) The major banks, based on the East and West coasts, could vary the amount of money in circulation, lending more to encourage commercial activity, then fore-closing on loans to put people out of business, enabling the banks to acquire their businesses cheaply.

Baum and Bryan wanted money to be based on silver, not gold, as silver was more readily available in the Mid-West, where it was mined. Such a money supply could not be manipulated by the banks. So the story of the Wizard of Oz starts with a cyclone in the form of imagined electoral success for Bryan...

Dorothy, a sort of proverbial �Everywoman�, lands on the Wicked Witch of the East (the East-coast bankers), killing her, so freeing the Munchkins, the down-trodden poor, but the Wicked Witch of the West (the West-coast bankers) remains loose.

To deal with her and to get back to Kansas (normality), the Good Witch of the North, representing the electorate of the North (this is less than 40 years after the civil war), tells Dorothy to seek out the Wizard of Oz (�oz� being short for ounce, the means of weighing both gold and silver). She also gives her a pair of silver slippers (as they were in the book - they became ruby ones in the film). Only these silver slippers will enable her to remain safe on the yellow-brick road, representing the bankers� gold standard, as she heads towards the Emerald City, representing Washington DC.

On her journey, Dorothy encounters a Scarecrow, representing the farmers, who do not have the wit to understand how they can end up losing their farms to the banks, even though they work hard to grow the food to feed a hungry nation. If only they could think it through!

Next, she encounters a Tin Woodsman, representing the industrial workers, rusted as solid as the factories of the 1890s depression, and who have lost the sense of compassion and co-operation to work together to help each other during hard times. Also, a spell cast upon him by the Wicked Witch of the East meant that every time he swung his axe, he chopped off a bit of himself - he downsized!

Then the growing party encounters a Cowardly Lion, representing the politicians. These have the power, through the power of Congress and the Constitution, to confront the Wicked Witches, representing the banks, but they lack the courage to do so.

Dorothy is able to motivate these three potent forces and leads them all towards the Emerald City, whence �greenbacks� had once come, and an encounter with the omnipotent and wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The Wizard of Oz is initially quite majestic and apparently awesome, but he turns out to be a little man without the power that people assume he possesses. He does, of course, represent the President of the United States. With the Wizard�s illusion of power shattered, he is replaced by the Scarecrow who would �be another Lincoln�.

The Wicked Witch of the West, fearful for her own power, then attempts to destroy Dorothy but is herself dissolved in a bucket of water, as rain relieves the Mid-West drought, saves the farmers� livelihoods and prevents repossession by the banks.

The Good Witch of the South, representing the Southern electorate, tells Dorothy that her silver slippers, silver-based money, are so powerful that anything she wishes for is possible, even without the help of the Wizard. Dorothy wishes to go home. There all is now well, because the land has a stable and abundant money supply.

More here: http://www.moneyreformparty.org.uk/money/about_money/wizard_of_oz.php

Thatcher, Society & the Market

WHAT THATCHER SAID ABOUT SOCIETY:

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, talking to Women's Own magazine, October 31 1987:

'I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. "I have a problem, I'll get a grant." "I'm homeless, the government must house me." They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.'

ON Monday's PM program on Radio Four, Baroness Gillian Shephard, in a confrontation with the former Labour MP, Clare Short, denied that Margaret Thatcher had ever said, 'There is no such thing as society!'. The next day on the same program the full quote in which she said it twice was read out: she said 'There is no such thing as society... there are individuals and families!' Essentially, she was claiming 'society' is an 'abstract' concept, and therefore individuals and their families must take responsibility for their own destinies and plight and not blame things that happen onto 'society'.

Significantly in another interview Thatcher challenges the interviewer who uses the term 'the market theory'. She said that 'the market is not a theory' but a reality, and that historically there has always been 'a market'. So there we have it, for her society is an 'abstraction' and the market is 'real'.

The 19th Century French sociologist Emile Durkheim considered society to be somehow more than the sum of its constituent parts: that is more than a random collection of individuals and their families. His view, and that of other social thinkers such as Marx, Weber, Talcott Parsons, Harold Garfinkel, up until the present, is to consider that society is not abstract but acts upon individuals and influences their destinies: in Durkheim's case he even tries to show that such apparently individual acts as suicide are socially construed. This belief in the importance of the social construct is apparent even in the works of novelists such as Dickens and Balzac. Margaret Thatcher, on the other hand, wants to argue that it is 'the market' not 'society', that is the main motor driving the human race even if the destiny is a sociological abyss.

Left wing writers like the play-write Bertold Brecht admitted that capitalism and the market were economically dynamic and creative, but often socially destructive in a devastating way. Yesterday, in the International Herald Tribune, AC Grayling wrote:
'The curious feature of Thatcher's legacy is that although she struck an axe-blow deep into the heart of Britain, it is society, not the political sphere, that remains deeply divided by a widening gap between rich and poor.'

Mr. Grayling adds:
'the country's politics have almost ceased to be ideological, as ... (a)ll the main British political parties now strive for the center ground, and the differences between them are about managerial style, not questions of principle.'

AC Grayling sums-up the legacy of Thatcherism thus:
'She began the deregulation of banking that led ultimately to Britain's contribution to the global financial crisis of 2008. She reversed the trend of greater social integration and diminishing of the wealth gap that characterized Britain in the three decades after 1945. Post-war convergences in class and wealth disappeared and former divisions resurfaced as consumerism and social incivility followed quickly on her brusque reorganization of British society.'

And now, we are left with the debris of Thatcherism: the secular all embracing religion of consumerism, welfare dependency, Mick Philpotts, and a sharp division between owner-occupiers and those young people who fail to get on the housing ladder. The market cannot be ignored but all societies find it necessary to place some form of moral side-constraints on economic exchange in the market place, either through village customs; traditional practices; an appeal to some form of religious authority; or laws and statutory regulations.

Manchester Royal Exchange: 'Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE AND WEST YORKSHIRE PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP

MANCHESTER’s Royal Exchange Theatre today (Thursday 11 April) announced it will be joining forces with West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds to present a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical theatre classic SWEENEY TODD – The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street as part of its new Autumn Winter Season.

This project marks the beginning of a creative partnership between the two organisations. The show will open in Leeds from Thursday 26 September to Saturday 26 October before being re-worked for the Royal Exchange from Friday 1 November to Saturday 30 November.

It will be directed by the WYP’s newly appointed artistic director James Brining and marks his first production for West Yorkshire Playhouse since joining the theatre in September 2012. Originally staged in Dundee in 2010, Brining will revisit his TMA Award-Winning production for two very different and iconic theatre stages.

In this spine-chilling contemporary version of a musical-theatre classic, Brining explores obsession and revenge set against the backdrop of a world where the poor and powerless are increasingly disenfranchised by the power-wielding rich.

Packed with Sondheim’s characteristic wit and dark humour, SWEENEY TODD is a heart-poundingly entertaining musical thriller about a man driven mad by injustice. Widely acknowledged as Stephen Sondheim’s musical masterpiece, SWEENEY TODD is a razor sharp tale of vengeance and true love - featuring some of the finest music ever written for the theatre.

Royal Exchange Theatre Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom said:
'SWEENEY TODD is the start of a collaborative relationship that will bring fantastic work to our space for our audiences to experience. The partnership will also allow our work to cross the Pennines and reach new audiences in 2014.'

James Brining said: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating for the first time with the Royal Exchange. In what is an exciting time of change for both theatres this new partnership provides a whole range of opportunities for working together in the future. The chance to restage Sweeney Todd for such an iconic and exciting theatre space is one I’m particularly looking forward to.

Further details of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s new Autumn /Winter 2013 – 14 Season will be announced later this month and public booking will open at the beginning of May.

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE AND WEST YORKSHIRE PLAYHOUSE PRESENT: 

SWEENEY TODD

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

A Musical Thriller

Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Book by HUGH WHEELER
From an Adaptation by CHRISTOPER BOND
Directed by James Brining 
Originally Directed by HAROLD PRINCE
Original orchestrations by JONATHAN TUNICK 

Originally produced by on Broadway by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer, Mary Lea Johnson, Martin Richards and in association with Dean and Judy Manos.

Presented by arrangement with JOSEF WEINBERGER LIMITED on behalf of MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL of New York 

West Yorkshire Playhouse

Playhouse Square, Quarry Hill, Leeds

Thursday 26 September – Saturday 26 October 

The Royal Exchange Theatre,

St Ann’s Square, Manchester

Friday 1 November – Saturday 30 November

Press Night: Tuesday 5 November

For further information please contact:
JOHN GOODFELLOW (Press & Communications Manager, Royal Exchange Theatre) on 0161 615 6783 / john.goodfellow@royalexchange.co.uk.
OR
PAULA RABBITT (Head of Press, West Yorkshire Playhouse) on 0113 213 7273 / paula.rabbitt@wyp.org.uk

MP's Claim £3,750 each in Tribute to Thatcher

IN the week they took hundreds of pounds from people in severe poverty, MPs and Lords claim up to £3,750 each to return from their luxury holidays to spout off in honour of Margaret Thatcher. Meantime the media are busy classifying any potential protest or expression of opinion at the taxpayer funded funeral jamboree as 'potential terrorism'.

Whether protest at the funeral is tasteful or not is a fair question. But there is no question it is perfectly lawful. There is virtually no understanding of the very notion of civil liberty in the mainstream media.

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/04/crass/#comments

Staff had wages and hours cut due to firm using free dole labour!

The following briefing was recently sent to NV blog from the campaign group 'Boycott Workfare'.

"Two weeks ago, it emerged that Homebase was taking on tens of workfare placements in their Haringey store: 750 hours of unpaid work in just one week in just one of Homebase’s 342 shops.

A week later, a Homebase poster was leaked: it showed managers boasting about how they have been able to cut the wages bill with workfare.http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/workfare-why-did-so-many-labour-mps-accept-this-brutal-unforgivable-attack-on-vulnerable-people-8542193.html Then a staff member told us what it had meant for staff: overtime cut for everyone and some people’s hours reduced cut from 48 down to 8.

People’s response has been immense, with loads of online pressure, people pledging to shop elsewhere, and pop-up demos outside their shops. It’s obviously having an impact.

On Easter weekend, Homebase took their Facebook Page down at least three times because of the scale of response from the public. Since then they have deleted literally hundreds of comments.

Yesterday, Homebase posted a new statement, saying “While we review our local arrangements, we have decided to make no further commitment to the Job Centre work experience programme.” But that still leaves tens of workfare placements in their Haringey store and possibly elsewhere too.

Step up the pressure for every single person working in Homebase to be paid.

A week of action has been called against Homebase, culminating in protests, leafleting and pickets at their stores this weekend. Why not print some leaflets and visit a store near you? We’ll post a template flyer here very soon, and let us know if you need help covering printing costs!

So far actions have been called in: London on Saturday, London on Sunday, Bristol.

Let us know what you plan and we’ll add it to the list!

Online:

On Facebook (if they bring their page back again): facebook.com/homebase

On Twitter:

By email: order.enquiries@homebase.co.uk or info@homebase.co.uk orenquiries@homebase.co.uk

By phone: 0845 077 8888 or 0845 601 6911

Or contact the company they are owned by: The Home Retail Group.

A clever project has been set up for people to write or send parcels to workfare users’ Freepost addresses. More info here.

…and if you’re in Liverpool, there’s a whole week of workfare fun planned next week.

Homebase has boasted about workfare reducing paid work. We can’t let them get away with it. After all, “If you exploit us, we will shut you down.”

Mrs England, Mr Rochdale & Master Nobody!

Lady Thatcher, Sir Cyril Smith & Bob Miller: 

Tributes in a Time of Turmoil

TODAY tributes will be paid to Lady Thatcher by the great and the good, and Dave Whelan, the Wigan Athletic chairman, has even said that Thatcher, who died on Monday at the age of 87, was 'owed' a minute's silence at Wembley ahead of the FA Cup semi-finals, and he also said that he would be in favour of players wearing black armbands out of respect.  The Premier League and the Football League have said that they will not be requiring clubs to hold a minute's silence, though it remains possible that individual sides could request one. It is understood that the FA has no plans to hold a minute's silence ahead of either of this weekend's FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.

There was no minute's silence before the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on Monday night, but Mr. Whelan claimed he could not understand why parts of the population, especially in the North of England, did not want to mark her death and said Manchester United's decision was 'very disrespectful'.


Tributes and obituraries are a tricky things to tackle as Northern Voices' (printed edition) found out last year, when it published one after the death of the Oldham schoolmaster, Bob Miller, an almost unknown anarchist who died almost two years ago.  Unlike Lady Thatcher and Sir Cyril Smith, Bob Miller was not what we or anyone else might call a public figure in so far as he didn't do anything very much in public affairs, and it was this very fact that he kept his head down all of his life that got NV into so much trouble when we drew attention to the fact.  None-the-less, the obituary has had a painful polarising impact on some in what passes for the English 'anarchist movement', in the same way that the death of Lady Thatcher is having now on the nation. 

The death of Lady Thatcher and the mixed reactions to it, have been like a play by Bertold Brecht and it is polarising society in an extraordinarily melodramatic way even as I write these words.  It may be sobering now to read the tributes issued at the time of the death of Sir Cyril Smith, another formidable figure, in the Rochdale Observer in 2010.  Today, Sir Cyril is  described as the disgraced former Rochdale MP and Rochdale Council have removed the blue plaque dedicated to him on Rochdale Town Hall.  In the end it will not be these trite tributes or obituaries that will matter but the biographies, and  memoirs dedicated to them in the years to come.

Tributes to Sir Cyril Smith in September 2010:

Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood, leader of the Liberals from 1976 until 1988:
'Cyril was first and foremost Mr Rochdale. His by-election picked up the Liberal Party from the disastrous 1970 election, when we had only six seats, and started our recovery.

'His was also our first breakthrough in the industrial north of England. He served diligently as MP, chief whip and president of the National Liberal Club.'

Jimmy Cricket, comedian and long-time friend of Sir Cyril:
'Cyril was a giant who loomed over the political landscape of Rochdale for over two decades.

'He was synonymous with the town, like the Co-op and Gracie Fields, and you would be hard put to find many people here, even today, whose lives haven't been touched by him.'

Norman Smith, Sir Cyril’s brother:
'Cyril was larger than life in so many ways and he was so very kind to so many people in Rochdale. During his time as a politician, he meant so much to so many people in the town who could go to him with lots of problems and he worked to resolve their concerns.

'He was involved in the life of Rochdale for so many years, and in so many organisations and charities. He was the best brother one could have and I couldn't have had a better brother. His family are obviously upset.'

Nick Clegg, deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader:
'Cyril Smith was a larger-than-life character and one of the most recognisable and likable politicians of his day.

'I am deeply saddened to hear the news of his death today, and offer my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

'Everybody in Rochdale knew him not only as their MP but also as a friend.

'He was a true Liberal, dedicated to his constituency, always showing great passion and determination.

'Cyril was a colourful politician who kept the flame of Liberalism alive when the party was much smaller than it is today.

'Rochdale and Britain have sadly lost one of their great MPs, and I think we can safely say there will never be an MP quite like Cyril Smith again.'

Simon Danczuk, Rochdale Labour MP:
'Sir Cyril was a towering figure who cast a large shadow over the political landscape in Rochdale. His influence was felt everywhere. I could not but admire the fact that as a member of what was then a very small party he managed to win five elections in Rochdale as a Liberal. I think this would be very hard to achieve today. Remember when Cyril won the seat there were only a handful of Liberal MPs.

'Sir Cyril was one of the first politicians of the TV age to use his personality and charisma to enormous effect. In that respect he was ahead of his time.'

Paul Rowen, former Lib Dem MP:
'I have known Sir Cyril since his first election victory in 1972. He has been a truly amazing ambassador for our town and a true inspiration to me personally. During my years as Rochdale MP he was a great source of advice and help and he remained active within the party up until only a few months ago due to his illness. He will be sadly missed by thousands of people, not only in Rochdale, but across the country.

'He was a towering figure for our party and led us through difficult times.'

Councillor Dale Mulgrew, Sir Cyril's Godson:
'Throughout his life many people, including myself, were touched by his great warmth and generous nature.

'But he wasn't afraid of speaking his mind. Over the years I often came to expect the firm guidance that he provided, which was often comforted by a memorable anecdote delivered with his characteristic charisma.

'Cyril, I and Rochdale will miss you.'

Councillor Irene Davidson, Lib Dem leader of Rochdale Council:
'When I first came to politics more than 20 years ago, Sir Cyril was the first person to take me under his wing and for all the time I have been a councillor he has been a great support. He was Mr Politics, and not just for Liberal Democrats. He simply was politics for Rochdale. Politics will never be the same without him and the Lib Dems will never be the same because we have lost such and important piece of jigsaw. He will be missed, not just in Rochdale but across the country. He lived, breathed and sweated politics and he is going to be very sadly missed.'

Councillor Ashley Dearnley, Conservative deputy leader of Rochdale Council:
'Sir Cyril really was Mr Rochdale. Whenever you went anywhere and mentioned Rochdale, everyone always asked about Cyril. He was a great advocate of the borough. He had a great deal of common sense. His views were not party political, but about what was best for the people of Rochdale. I had a lot of time and respect for him. He will be remembered as Mr Rochdale.'

William Roache, Coronation Street actor and friend:
'He was a lovely, fair-minded and good man. He was one of the first people who crossed party boundaries. He was a warm and friendly guy who always seemed to get right to the heart of the matter with incredible common sense.'

Sir Menzies Campbell, former Lib Dem leader:
'Cyril Smith was a one-off in British politics, instantly recognisable, with robust, enthusiastic commitment to his views.

'You only had to walk down the street with Cyril to realise how popular he was. His individualism was occasionally at odds with the party leadership, but his heart and soul were always with the party.'

Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood, leader of the Liberals from 1976 until 1988:
'Cyril was first and foremost Mr Rochdale. His by-election picked up the Liberal Party from the disastrous 1970 election, when we had only six seats, and started our recovery.

'His was also our first breakthrough in the industrial north of England. He served diligently as MP, chief whip and president of the National Liberal Club.

'He was always a warm-hearted colleague.'

John Spiller, Cyril Smith’s election agent in the 1972 by-election and Secretary General of the Liberal Party from 1983 to 1986:
'Cyril Smith's famous victory at the Rochdale By-election in 1972 ushered in a whole series of stunning election performances by the Liberal Party at that time.

'Cyril was a tough and formidable campaigner, a prime example of that very unique brand of northern politician with a no nonsense approach.

'His down to earth style, at times controversial endeared him to grass root liberal activist up and down the country.

'Cyril was also a kind and compassionate man.

'Early in his own life he had experienced very real and personal tough times. It was no surprise that over many years, and without fanfare, he would give practical and unstinting assistance to numerous families in Rochdale who were facing difficulties or problems.

'As Cyril's agent when he was first elected in 1972, I was in a privileged position to observe his many attributes. He was a leading politician of his time. He will be remembered with fondness and great affection, not only by the people of Rochdale who he served so magnificently but also thousands of liberals throughout the country.'

Sue McGuire, North West Liberal Democrat chairman:
'Our first thoughts are with Sir Cyril's family at this sad time. The people of Rochdale have lost a formidable champion today and the Liberal Democrats have lost someone who has been an outstanding influence on the party locally, regionally and nationally for over 40 years.'

Chris Davies, North West Liberal Democrat Euro-MP:
'Although he was never a European enthusiast he campaigned for me in 1999. I spent happy days travelling across the North West with Cyril, his brother Norman, and his former agent Rodney Stott. The car we used had been strengthened to bear their formidable collective weight and I was like the filling in a sandwich. Cyril wore his heart on his sleeve and was passionate about two things, Rochdale and politics. He could be a formidable foe, and the most loyal of friends. I have had experience of both.'

Councillor Jean Ashworth:
'We owe so much to him because he put Rochdale on the map and was a very genuine and positive person. He never held anything back, he said it as it was, and it's a very, very sad day for Rochdale. He will never be forgotten.'

Alan Taylor, former Rochdale council leader and Cyril's election agent from 1973 to 1978:
'Cyril Smith had a public side and a private side and those who were privileged knew the private Cyril. He could make anyone feel special. He was wonderful.'

Maureen Cooper, who succeeded Sir Cyril as the chairman of the Rochdale Childer, which he founded 41 years ago to help vulnerable children:
'Cyril was always very active up to the last few years.

'Even when he was in the House of Commons, he would still raise money for us by giving talks.

'He was a very generous and loyal friend, and very caring of those who were less fortunate.

'I'm sure that he would wish that the Rochdale Childer continue in the way he intended it to.'

Jimmy Cricket, comedian and long-time friend of Sir Cyril:
'Cyril was a giant who loomed over the political landscape of Rochdale for over two decades.

'He was synonymous with the town, like the Co-op and Gracie Fields, and you would be hard put to find many people here, even today, whose lives haven't been touched by him.

'Through his selfless dedication to helping others my own son, Dale Mulgrew, was inspired to enter politics.

"Though no longer with us, he will be for ever in the hearts and minds of the people of Rochdale.'

Vivien Coburn, his personal assistant from 1975 until his retirement in 1992:
'I applied for the job as his personal assistant through the Rochdale Observer and I thought ‘this is the job for me’. Cyril was great to work for and he was always very thoughtful and considerate. We became good friends and he always asked about my family. He was still asking about them when I went to visit him in hospital recently.'

The Rev Gillian Peel of Rochdale Unitarian Church, of which Sir Cyril was a lifelong member:
'It was with great sadness that we received the news that Sir Cyril Smith had passed away. Cyril has been a lifelong member of Rochdale Unitarian Church. He has always supported the church and was immensely proud of his Unitarian roots. As a youngster he was in the Unitarian Young People's League and he went on to become a Sunday School Superintendent, a role he only relinquished when he became an MP in 1972. Cyril was the chairman of the Trustees of the church until ill health forced him to resign, although he remained a member of the trustees. Cyril was a tireless worker on behalf of Rochdale Unitarian Church since being a young boy.

'He will be sadly missed by the members of the church and our sympathy goes to his brother Norman and Norman's wife, Shirley, at this sad time.'
_________________________________________________________


The next issueof the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale with a blow-by-blow account of the rise and fall of Sir Cyril Smith written by John Walker one of the former editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper, it can be obtained as follows:

Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.

Tel.: 0161 793 5122.

email: northernvoices@hotmail.com

Craig Murray on Thatcher

BY chance I knew Margaret Thatcher rather better than a junior civil servant might have been expected to, not least from giving her some maritime briefings during the First Gulf War. On another occasion Denis and I once got absolutely blind drunk in Lagos – I had been given him to look after for the day, and the itinerary started with the Guinness brewery and went on to the United Distillers bottling plant, before lunch at the golf club. I had to reunite him with his spouse for the State Banquet and quite literally fell out of the car. Happy days.

I can say I was on first name terms with her – she always called me by my first name. Except unfortunately she thought that was Peter. I recall she came out to Poland when I was in the Embassy there and I was embarrassed because she knew me, and thus greeted me more warmly than my Embassy superiors. The problem was lessened by her continuing to call me Peter very loudly, even after I corrected her twice.

In person she was frightfully sharp, she really was. If you gave her a briefing, she had an uncanny ability to seize on the one point where you did not have sufficient information. She also had that indescribable charisma – you really could feel when she entered a room in a way I have never experienced with anybody else, not Mandela or Walesa, for example. You may be surprised to hear that in person I found her quite likeable.

Yet she was a terrible, terrible disaster to this country. The utter devastation of heavy industry, the writing off of countless billions worth of tooling and equipment, the near total loss of the world’s greatest concentrated manufacturing skills base, the horrible political division of society and tearing of the bonds within our community. She was a complete, utter disaster.

Let me give one anecdote to which I can personally attest. In leaving office she became a “consultant” to US tobacco giant Phillip Morris. She immediately used her influence on behalf of Phillip Morris to persuade the FCO to lobby the Polish government to reduce the size of health warnings on Polish cigarette packets. Poland was applying to join the EU, and the Polish health warnings were larger than the EU stipulated size.

I was the official on whose desk the instruction landed to lobby for lower health warnings. I refused to do it. My then Ambassador, Michael Llewellyn Smith (for whom I had and have great respect) came up with the brilliant diplomatic solution of throwing the instruction in the bin, but telling London we had done it.

So as you drown in a sea of praise for Thatcher, remember this. She was prepared to promote lung cancer, for cash.

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/04/margaret-thatcher/ 

Thatcher & the Trade Unions

WHAT is the legacy of Thatcher? The defeat of the British trade unions in the 1980s? She said of herself the 'One doesn't win by being against things, one wins by being for something!' In the end Margaret Thatcher was a conviction politician with a vision, her enemies in 1979 didn't have a vision but essentially they wanted to preserve the status quo, and she left them reacting to her agenda.

Today, so far as the the British left and the trade unions are concerned little has changed, they prevail as hopeless reactionaries jumping around like grass-hoppers to the tune of HM Government. The Ken Loach film 'The Spirit of 45' is a memento to our hopeless political impotence on the left as a progressive force: leaving us with a simpering nostalgia for a bygone age and a hankering for the clapped-out concept of nationalisation.

The thing is that Thatcher had a vision and a strategy, and she worked to bring them about and to successfully enforce them against the unions. Her enemies, like Scargill, were clever tacticians but imbued with a short-sightedness, sectarianism and parochialism. At that time the trade unions were rooted in a deep conservatism which gave them a degree of power without responsibility. The trade unions leaders then were the smug shufflers of expediency in the workplace, who merely wanted the right to veto management and government, and feared the burden of full-blown workers' control of the workplace.

So it was that the British trade unions and their leaders were marginalised. From once being a major voice in a land in which they were treated to beer and sandwiches by the great and the good at Number Ten, and from a time when the Financial Times had a full page daily dedicated to labour disputes, they suddenly shrank in size both numerically and in terms of political influence until they were, like the Church of England in secular society, just another voice among the babble of commentators. Thus, the labouring masses may be allowed a word via the Secretary of the TUC, just as the voice of God has his say at the discussion table as interpreted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, before moving on quickly to Simon Jenkins or some other political pundit on Radio Four. 

So it was that under Thatcherism, the TUC and the whole of the British trade union movement became a busted flush, totally discredited because by that time it's leaders had no radical mission or progressive project to fulfil beyond protecting their own fossilised fiefdoms and narrow, backward-looking ideas. The thing is the Thatcher and Nicholas Ridley knew what they were doing and they knew what they wanted, their enemies on the left and in the unions didn't. It is still hard to believe that the British left has yet understood this failure, or realised the need for a more radical vision. 

Are people of low intelligence drawn to conservative ideologies and beliefs?

In January 2012,  a Canadian study was published in the journal 'Psychological Science', which stated that 'low intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies' that promote coherence and order. It was argued that children of low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults, because such things as open mindedness, flexibility and trust in other people, require 'certain cognitive abilities'.

This Canadian study was referred to by George Monbiot in his Guardian column the following month. While conceding that not all conservatives are stupid, he argues that conservative strategists on both sides of the Atlantic, have created a 'fantasy-based' ideology that appeals to the 'low-information' voter. He argues that the conservatives have built an alternative knowledge system that appeals to the basest and stupidest of impulses and have found that "it does them no harm in the polls." For example, climate change is dismissed as an "eco-fascist-communist-anarchist conspiracy" or the deficit is explained away has being caused by the greed of the poor. He also says: "conservative strategists have discovered that there is no pool so shallow that several million people won't drown it" and then quotes the former U.S Republican strategist Mike Lofgren, who said: "the crack-pot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital centre today."

One person who knows about the value of appealing to voters baser and stupidest impulses, is the Chancellor George Osborne. At times he makes Dr. Goebbels look positively decent. This Tory buffoon has stooped so low that he even tried to make political capital out of the deaths of the six, Philpott children, by linking their deaths to the issue of welfare reform, as did that vile and odious newspaper the Daily (Malice) Mail.

As Shadow Chancellor, Osborne was thought by many to have been out of his depth. Vince Cable said of him: "I never rated George's understanding of financial matters, but he is a political operator of some substance." Although Osborne's austerity plan has increased the financial deficit by 30% since the election, has pushed up unemployment, slashed the amount taken in tax, increased the benefits bill and seen the economy stagnate, his excuse for this collapse in growth, is to blame the previous Labour government, the euro-crisis, bad weather, Royal weddings and the British people for taking too many bank holidays. His economic plan has been described as "all shock and no therapy". Even the 'Spectator' magazine, announced a competition - a bottle of Pol Roger champagne to whoever could explain Osborne's growth strategy. Of the 27 EU Finance Ministers, Osborne was the only one to vote against a cap on bankers bonuses that would have set a limit of a year's salary on bonuses and double that if shareholders approved it. The proposal was supported by the European Central Bank and the E.U. Commission.

With the Cameron government there is misinformation on a massive scale. In his "every penny matters" speech given to a captive audience of supermarket staff at the Morrisons distribution centre near Sittingbourne in Kent, Osborne referred to people on benefits and asked whether it was right that some people should be receiving more than £26,000 a year in benefits. As usual, he omitted to mention that those people receiving anything like this amount, represented less than 1% of people on benefits who were living in high-cost temporary accommodation in London. On a previous occasion, he claimed that there were families taking £100,000 a year in housing benefit but omitted to mention that this applied to only five families in Britain. In 2011, government ministers also briefed that 1,360 people had been off work for a decade with diarrhoea when in fact, they had severe bowel disease and cancer. Similarly, of the 120,000 'persistently anti-social families' which were identified by the government, it emerged later that the figures were actually a measure of deprivation not behaviour.

Yet this campaign of vilification has successfully disguised the fall in living standards for millions of others through benefit cuts. Only one-in-eight who are on housing benefit, are not in work. Indeed, 93% of new housing benefit claims are from people who have a job. Far from targeting 'shirkers', the 3 year benefit and tax credit cap doesn't mainly target the unemployed. More than 60% of those who will lose out, are in work.

In January, the TUC published a survey that found that 41% of people surveyed believed that the entire welfare budget went to unemployed people, when in fact it is only 3%. Most if it, does in fact go on pensions. Despite having one of the least generous unemployment benefit systems in Europe, opinion polls suggest that many people think the government pays out too much in benefits. Far from soaring ahead of wages, unemployment benefit has fallen to 11% of average earnings compared to 22% in 1979. As the Guardian columnist Seamus Milne, wrote earlier this year:

"Central to the sharp increase in social security costs over the past generation have been rising joblessness and stagnating wages. Since 1980, unemployment has averaged more than three times the post-war rate, while the proportion of those in low-paid jobs has doubled to over 20%. Welfare has become a prop for the failure of neo-liberal capitalism to deliver jobs or decent wages."

Although two-faced Labour have criticised aspects of the governments welfare reform programme while in opposition, they laid the foundations for much of it, when they were in office. Labour also allowed the government to introduce retrospective legislation that prevented unemployed people who had been unlawfully sanctioned, from claiming the money back.

What government ministers are skilled at doing, along with the journalist hacks working for the Tory press, is diverting public anger that might be directed at the government, the bosses, the bankers and their bonuses, in order to get the 'plebs' to mobilise against their own interests. The Cameron government seek to turn the low-paid against the unemployed as they have done with private sector workers against public sector workers. They talk about the 'Big Society' while playing one group off against another. Their agenda is the billionaires agenda - less tax for the rich, less help for the poor, no cap on bankers bonuses, less regulation for business, less spending by the state. Despite having no mandate from the electorate or a proper majority, what this government aims to do, is to privatise what remains of public provision  and to hive it off to their big business friends whose incomes will be sustained by public contracts and captive markets - a kind of socialism for the rich and private enterprise for the rest of us. But what would you expect from the party that defends established privilege.

Baroness Thatcher Dies: All Good Things Come To An End!

IT was all smiles from the gaffer in our electric department at Holcroft Castings & Forgings, the morning that Thatcher and the Tories won the election in 1979.  As things turned out it was a turning point for British trade unionism from which they have never recovered.  We learn that despite the protests of some on the left that there will be a ceremonial funeral with military honours at St. Paul's Cathedral.  Now where did I put that bottle of Champagne?

Evolution, Stress & the Limits of Individualism

Some underlying problems in Chris Draper's theory

Through Nature, red in tooth and claw

With ravin, shrieked against his creed...

Are God and Nature then at strife

That Nature lends such evil dreams?

So careful of the type she seems,

So careless of the single life;

Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, LV-LV1

IN the Financial Times, sometime last year, Harry Eyres in his 'Slow Lane' column made a comparison between Castro's Cuba (see my review earlier this month on this Blog of Chris Draper's article in Anarchist Voices entitled 'Surviving Political Hypocrisy in Hard Times') and our own UK version of neo-liberalism; Mr. Eyres writes:
'If Castro's Cuba has been an exercise in stress-reduction, then the extreme versions of neo-liberalism unleashed over the western world, starting in the US and Britain in the early 1980s, could be seen as experiments in the maximisation of stress, both on people and the environment.'

Mr. Eyres explains further:
'Neo-liberals believe, in theory at least, in an unfettered market, with the minimum of regulation and of protections for workers and the environment, both viewed as resources to be exploited.'

Which system is best and which will survive?

Charles Darwin & the 'Escalator Fallacy'

The neo-liberals can, and often do, invoke evolution on their side, and the sociobiologist M.T. Ghiselin in 'The Economy of Nature & the Evolution of Sex' (1974) writes:
'The evolution of society fits the Darwin paradigm in its most individualistic form. The economy of nature is competitive from beginning to end. Understand that economy, and how it works, and the underlying reasons for social phenomena are manifest. They are the means by which one organism gains some advantage to the detriment of another.'

In fact, it seems that Darwin distrusted the idea of 'evolution' as an 'escalator' with life proceeding steadily upwards from lifeless matter through plants and animals to man: this he regarded as vacuous and avoided the term; conversely the concept was promoted by Herbert Spencer (quoted approvingly by Chris Draper in an essay on this NV Blog), who first coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest', that was given currency by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck at the beginning of the 19th century. Of Lamarck, Mary Midgley writes of what she describes as a 'Panglossian distortion' or 'Escalator Fallacy', in which she argues:  'It is the idea that evolution is a steady, linear upward movement, a single inexorable process of improvement, leading (as a disciple of Herbert Spencer's put it) "from gas to genius" and beyond into some superhuman spiritual stratosphere.'  Midgley claims Darwin was not convinced by this or what she calls a 'cosmic insurance policy to bail out the human race'.

And yet, this crude view has now been transformed into the 'Social Darwinist' idea, put forward by people like Ghiselin, that life has been scientifically proved to be essentially competitive, and in some respects exposing social feelings, altruism and mutual aid as more or less humbug and illusion. As a philosopher, Mary Midgley (see 'Evolution as a Religion' [1985]) claims this view of Ghiselin has often been shown to be nonsense:
'since many very successful species of social animals, including our own, have evolved these traits, have survived by them and continue to live by them their unreality cannot be the message of evolutionary theory.'  Yet, Ms. Midgley writes: 'because of of its strongly dramatic force, as well as its various political uses, this notion (survival of the fittest) persists through repeated attempts to correct it...'  Darwin saw no reason to put forward a law guaranteeing the continuation of any changes he noted, but Spencer hatched a bold picture of an 'evolution escalator' that has prevailed over Darwin's more complicated concept.  In the 19th century Spencer, with only a sparse acquaintance with biology, promoted the notion of the 'survival of the fittest' as a social ideal having the result in the United States of outselling every philosopher in his day.  Yet, it is not just Joe Public that is hooked on Spencer's oversimplified evolutionary escalator but also, Mary Midgley argues, it is often popular among scientists who ought to know its limitations.

Millionaires & Hitler's Table-Talk

Out of Spencer's seductive melodramatic concept of evolution in the United States and Europe came its political populisers, and Ms. Midgley quotes from one of Spencer's American disciples: 
'The millionaires are a product of natural selection, acting on the whole body of men to pick out those who can meet the requirement of certain work to be done... It is because they are thus selected that wealth - both their own and that entrusted to them - aggregates under their hands... They may fairly be regarded as the naturally selected agents of society for certain work. They get higher wages and live in luxury, but the bargain is a good one for society.' (William Sumner, The Challenge of Facts [1887])

Then Mary Midgley gives us a European example from Hitler's Table-Talk:
'If we did not respect the law of nature, imposing our will by the right of the stronger, a day would come when wild animals would again devour us - then the insects would eat the wild animals, and finally nothing would exist except microbes... By means of the struggle the elites are continually renewed. The law of selection justifies this incessant struggle by allowing survival of the fittest. Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature.' (Hugh Trevor Roper [ed] Hitler's Table-Talk [1963])

Mary Midgley insists that Darwin resisted this kind of thing, and in his The Descent of Man tried to show the difference between 'the kind of qualities which make it possible for a social group to survive over many generations, and those that might keep a single individual afloat for his lifetime.'

Cookbook Ideas Are No Answer!

Of Cuba, Harry Eyres in the FT writes:
'The political and economic regime of Fidel and now Raúl Castro's Cuba might have its severe limitations and its longueurs (not least the leader's own speeches, broadcast at interminable length on state television and quoted in the turgid official newspaper Granma) but it was designed to minimise certain kinds of stress, at least for those who were not vocal critics of the revolution.'

Of course we should be careful what we wish for here, as this kind stress reduction can equally apply to other dictatorships such as that of General Franco's Spain in the 1960s: in 1964, I was in the mountain town of Ronda just as the Franco régime was celebrating '25 años de Paz' ('25-years of Peace').  It is too early to say which political model, the Castro's Cuban/ Franco's 'stress reduction model' or the hectic US/ UK 'neo-liberal model', will triumph in the years to come but Mr. Draper, in so far as his article in Anarchist Voices represents a challenge to cookbook politics and stale thinking of the British left, is justified in making us aware of the dilemmas that confront us.  

Ucatt Defamation Threat Over Blacklist!

BLACKLISTED electrician, Steve Acheson is reported to have received of letter from a firm of solicitors representing the construction trade union Ucatt.  The communication is thought to have claimed that Mr. Acheson uttered defamatory comments regarding a regional officer employed by Ucatt, and, it is claimed, that Acheson had said at a public meeting that this Ucatt trade union official had met with the then chief administrator and boss of the now defunct Consulting Association (an agency that kept blacklisting data), Ian Kerr, and others, sometime in 2009.   Mr Acheson has also recently made allegations in an interview with the BBC about historic links between full-time paid officers in certain British trade unions and the Consulting Association.

There is evidence in the blacklist files that were exposed in a raid of Mr. Kerr's office by the Information Commissioner in 2009, that some British full-time trade union officers were communicating with the Consulting Association and providing useful intelligence about trade union activists in the building trade to Mr. Kerr, who died last year.  But the names of the union bosses concerned were retracted from the documentation.  A recent investigation by Unite the Union, carried out by Gail Cartmail failed to come up with any specific names of union bosses that were collabourating with Mr. Kerr, although whistle-blower, Alan Wainwright, always claimed that there was involvement by some trade union officials.  Mr. Wainwright further claimed that he had tried unsuccessfully to get Derek Simpson, then General Secretary of Amicus, to take this matter up, but that Mr. Simpson had failed to reply to his letters.

Northern Voices believes that Steve Acheson may now have documentary proof of the involvement specific trade union officers in the blacklist in the construction industry.  There is no evidence, so far as we know, that if there were trade union officers providing information to the Consulting Association, that they were paid for their services.

Bad Behaviour: Mick Philpott & John B. Watson

YESTERDAY just as I was digesting the sentence of 15-years awarded to Mick Philpott for the manslaughter of his children when I was put off my dinner by a program on Radio Four dedicated to the American psychologist, John B. Watson, considered the father of behaviourism.  Mick Philpott is today being derided as a monster for killing his kids in a reckless act in which he tried to get control over his former mistress.  His defence solicitor claimed he was a 'good father' and Ann Widdercome MP, the former Prisons Minister who knew Philpott briefly, had to admit that the kids were well looked after.

The program on Watson on Radio Four, revealed he went on to prove his theory in a series of experiments involving a subject named 'Little Albert B', which would send today's ethics committees into the stratosphere!  Albert B, an orphan left in a hospital since birth, was recruited for this study at the age of nine months.  First, Watson established whether he had any innate fears by exposing him to different stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, a dog, masks, cotton wool. Albert showed interest in all of these, reaching to touch them; he displayed no fear, so they were deemed neutral stimuli. Watson's aim was to generalise fear in the young child, so that neutral stimuli could engender a response of fear.

During this experiment on 'Little Albert' he conducted an affair with his student-assistant Rosalie Rayner.  And, it was in October 1920 that Johns Hopkins University asked Watson to leave his faculty position because of publicity surrounding the affair he was having with this graduate student-assistant Rosalie.  Watson's affair had become front-page news, during the consequent divorce proceedings, in the Baltimore newspapers.

After he got himself sacked J.B. Watson used his skills to sell deodorants to the American public by convincing them that they smelled.  Then to continue to test his experiments on children he started on his own youngsters.  One son, together with his new wife and assistant Rosalie, he subjected to a 'jealousy test' in which he left the lad for three months deprived of all contact with the family, then he and his wife paid a visit in which they kissed, 'made love', and then staged a fake fight in front of the three-year-old until, overwhelmed and confused, the child was provoked to attack and strike the father.  Later in the program we learned, not surprisingly, that the lad in later life twice tried to commit suicide.  The last time successfully.  According to one of Watson's grandaughter speaking on last night's program there had been in total three suicides in the family.

In the end I must confess to wondering which was the worse father?  The angry, passionate and controlling Mick Philpott, who is shown in today's newspapers giving the V-sign, or the cold calculating distinguished psychologist considered the father of behaviourism.  

Alleged Safety Breaches made at Tribunal

Crossrail safety under fire in blacklisting test case

LONDON's Crossrail project and its contractors have been accused in court of a string of serious safety breaches by a worker who claims to have been blacklisted while working on the £15bn project.

In an Employment Tribunal claim obtained by Building, electrician Frank Morris alleges tunnelling workers, including himself, were sidelined or dismissed for raising significant safety issues on the scheme - Europe’s largest construction project. 

Morris alleges this culminated in the dismissal last September of himself and 26 other workers employed by Electrical Installations Services (EIS), a labour subcontractor of Crossrail’s western tunnels contractor BFK - a joint venture comprising Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial and Kier.

The news comes as the Unite union - which is funding Morris’ legal action - launched a lobbying campaign against Crossrail, accusing it of neglecting workers’ rights and failing to properly investigate links between itself and now defunct blacklisting firm The Consulting Association. 

Morris’ claim, which has been lodged at the Central London Employment Tribunal, is against EIS, BFK and Crossrail Ltd, and alleges that the Unite shop steward was blacklisted on the project. The claim alleges that Morris was removed from his current duties and told to work in a cabin in which he was isolated from other workers after he told BFK in July that one of Crossrail’s tunnel boring machines had been overloaded with more than 20 workers on board - above 'what was normally considered safe'.

In addition, Morris was told by a BFK manager that he would not be allowed to investigate safety matters in future, the claim states.  

The claim also alleges that fellow EIS worker Gary Garget was removed from site last August and later dismissed by BFK after he took pictures of and complained about 'a serious safety issue, in which scaffolding equipment had been dropped onto high voltage cable'.

Observers believe Morris’ tribunal is a test case because it uses anti-blacklisting legislation introduced in 2010 to target firms that are not the claimant’s employer. 

In its defence documents, Crossrail says it was not Morris’ employer and “denies that it unfairly dismissed the claimant, whether as alleged or at all”. It also says Morris had failed to submit his claim in the three months following his dismissal as required.

BFK declined to comment, referring all inquiries to Crossrail. According to Morris’ claim, Electrical Installations Services has now gone into liquidation. 

A spokesperson for the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) said it has investigated a number of Crossrail safety incidents including the collapse of a hopper in Paddington last October and a cable strike incident in Holborn in December. 

The spokesperson said the HSE 'will continue to work with the client to ensure that health and safety standards are maintained to a high standard.'

A Crossrail spokesperson said Morris was 'wrong to claim that he was laid off or removed from a Crossrail site for raising safety concerns.' The spokesperson said Morris was made redundant by EIS 'as the work EIS were carrying out to commission the first two tunnel boring machines at Westbourne Park had completed with tunnelling under way.'

The case continues. 

http://www.building.co.uk/news/crossrail-safety-under-fire-in-blacklisting-test-case/5052742.article

George Osbourne Parks Badly, Condemns Mick Philpott, & Plays a Blinder

IT is a few years since I last bumped into George Osbourne and his family, shortly before he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, relaxing in the gardens of Dunham Massey owned by the National Trust: Dunham Massey is described as 'one of the North's great gardens'. Set amidst a magnificent deer park it is a grand Georgian house with a history of salacious scandal attaching to its former owners: the 7th Earl of Stamford married Catherine Cocks, a bare-back circus rider, and the 2nd Earl of Warrington, according to the National Trust handbook, was 'so enamoured with his wife that that he wrote anonymously on the desirability of divorce!'

Now, Osborne seems to have come down in the world and on Wednesday he is reported to have been photographed while his chauffeur parked the car carrying him back from a 'regional tour' in a disabled parking zone in a service station off the M4, as he nipped out to buy a burger. Yesterday, using a broad brush approach Mr. Osborne derided Mick Philpott who had just received a life sentence for manslaughter, and by extension he used this to castigate other folk on benefits, who might also be living unorthodox lifestyles.

While doing his darnedest to create a housing bubble with his latest budget, and inflicting cuts on the nation Mr. Osborne has recently declared that 'We are not anarchists!' Indeed, yet judging by his attitude to parking restrictions he may well be being too modest. After all, like the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, anarchist authorities as distinguished as Peter Good and Martin Gilbert have both recently had occasion to drawn attention to people on benefits.

Everything changes and everything remains the same; the Tories talk like anarchists and the anarchists like Tories, just as in Animal Farm the men become pigs and the pigs become men.

Angry Art on Spanish Crisis

'Work is Dictatorship'

WHEN the most radical thing around in English art at the moment seems to be the film 'The Spirit of 45' (reviewed and criticised on this Blog this month, as nostalgic nonesense by Barry Woodling), in Spain a few artists are trying to challenge the nature of the crisis besetting the economy. Julio Falagán, an artist who has recently created several works targeting the financial crisis and the influence of money on society, has complained about the lack of focus of many Spanish artists on the social aspects of what's happening. Señor Falagán said:
'Artists have the power of communication, and I believe a duty to use it at a time like this, but I'm amazed by how few other artists are really trying to say something about this crisis.'

Julio Falagán claimed that the content of a recent arts fair in Galicia in the North West of Spain had only around ten out of one hundred artists on show that presented any concept of the social or crisis related their content. He accuses the Spanish art world of 'navel-gazing' in a crisis.

Isabel Coixet, an award-winning film director from Catalonia in the North East of Spain has worked abroad but filmed her latest film, 'Yesterday Never Ends' in her native land. She made this film after a friend who lost his job, was consequently evicted from his home and spent five months sleeping in his car.  Isabel said she 'wanted to say something about this terrible moment for Spain.'  The film is set in 2017, in a Spain that is in a bad way after its third economic bailout: the morning television news reports make it clear that Spain has descended into an anarchic society, in which statues and other white elephant projects built during the boom years in Spain become targets for terrorist attacks. The two main characters in the film fall out and then meet up again years later, their breakup had been largely occasioned by the death of their child who had died of meningitis because he couldn't be treated in time, because spending cuts left the emergency services short-staffed the day he fell ill. Isabel said of the film:
'I know this can be seen as an apocalyptic landscape, but for me it is the paradigm of the real and daily situation that we already have here, because Spain is crumbling.'

Meanwhile, when Miguel Ángel Ochoa got himself laid-off from his job he got himself on a short-term contract through a Madrid employment agency to take-part in a performance by Santiago Sierra, a major Spanish artist. The job involved sitting at a table in an art gallery writing repeatedly in notebooks eight hours a day for 12 days the sentence 'Work is Dictatorship' until he had blisters on his fingers. For this Miguel Ochoa and the other writers got the minimum wage of 50 euros (£47) a day. Ivorypress is selling the 'Work is Dictatorship' notebooks for 24 euros (£22) each. Señor Sierra's 'Work is Dictatorship' project is part of his crusade against social injustice, especially in the labour market. He explained: 'To give up your body, time and intelligence so that someone else becomes rich is a very bad deal and forms the basis of dictatorship.'

Santiago Sierra said that art aimed at the crisis didn't have 'the visibility of others who prefer less troublesome themes.' The trouble is 'in Spain, the major art collectors happen to be the state and the banks, which is a major reason to dissuade critical thinking,' he said.

Surviving Political Hypocrisy in Hard Times!

Chris Draper in 'Anarchist Voices' Calls for More Cuts 

IN his editorial for the Autumn/ Winter edition of 'Anarchist Voices: A Journal of EVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM', Johnathan Simcock writes about possible alternatives to current conventional politics but claims that this is more likely to be found in the pages of small publications such as Peace News, The Land, Positive News and though the internet, than in the mass media. He accepts that '... many have been sidetracked ... into automatically supporting the protests against Conservative/ LibDem government cuts to welfare state services', and he encourages us to read a leading article in AV by Chris Draper, challenging the position of the conventional left and some anarchists on the recent government cuts. 

As an antidote to standardised left-wing thinking Mr Draper's article 'Don't Vote for Christmas' is well worth reading. It starts by asking

'Question: How many anarchists does it take to change a light bulb?'

'Answer: None, because they claim it's the State's responsibility until after the revolution!' 

'An absurd joke perhaps but it's a bizarre reality when all across England anarchists are taking to the streets to oppose government cutbacks! Anarchism is defined by a core belief that government in any form is the enemy of the people, a veiled conspiracy of powerful interests operating to exploit and control. I response to Jefferson's observation that “the best government is that which governs least” Thoreau joyfully asserted, “That government is best which governs not at all”!' 

Chris Draper points out that while 'Socialists recognise the State's similarity to Frankenstein's monster but think they can replace Doctor F. and retrain his monster to be kind and caring... Anarchists know the State can never be reformed (and) at best it promotes passivity, engendering in its citizens unending demands for “something to be done”.' Then '(i)n responding the State reaches ever deeper into the lives and conciousness of its citizens.' 

Mr. Draper addresses the proportion of Britain's annual income spent by the State:
'Government currently spends around 47% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and that even if Cameron's “vicious” programme of cuts continues until 2017 UK State spending will then dip just below 40% of GDP (it was 38.1% in 1964-5).' Too high for Draper's taste, but he asks what level 'would satisfy those ardent defenders of State spending, perhaps Cuba's 78.1%, or maybe Zimbabwe's 97.8%?' 

Comrade Draper then gives us a real life illustration, which may explain why many English anarchists inconsistently end up calling for more State aid:  a Tory acquaintance of his had moaned about the previous Labour régime and he had said 'Well, at least you didn't vote for them!', but 'I did!,' she said because she had, according to Draper, got herself 'one of those imaginatively titled non-jobs in local government created by Tony Blair's administration so she felt she owed him a favour.'  Many anarchists, like many if not most trade unionists these days are employed in the public sector, as teachers and civil servants. Many of them like the Tory lady described by Chris Draper are pragmatic, prudent, and full of rich self-centred insight as to their best interest. 

We mustn't expect the average English anarchist to be too self-sacrificing in his political commitment, they're only human like any other English politician, and when examined closely, we will find hypocrisy, inconsistency and caution.  People like the poet Shelley, Buenaventura Durruti and even the blacklisted electrician, Steve Acheson, are remarkably rare in England.

ANARCHIST VOICES: £1.25 (+ 50p pp) from J.Simcock, 47, High Street, Belper, Derby DE56 1GF. 

Greater Manchester Police Adopt 'Hate Crime'

Twenty-year-old goth Sophie Lancaster was kicked and stamped on by youths in a Bacup park

GREATER Manchester Police (GMP) have become the first force in the UK to treat the recording of attacks on members of subcultures, such as goths and emos, as hate crimes offences. Previously hate crimes were only registered for offences against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity. GMP has worked with a charity set up following the murder of 20-year-old 'Goth' lass Sophie Lancaster in 2007. 

On 24 August 2007, Sophie Lancaster was brutally attacked in Stubbeylee park in Bacup, Lancashire, along with her boyfriend Robert Maltby, because of the way they were dressed.  She was kicked and stamped on as she cradled her badly beaten boyfriend.  Mr Maltby made a partial recovery from his injuries, Ms Lancaster slipped into a coma after the attack and died later in hospital.  Last year, Northern Voices'* published an interview with Sophie's mother Sylvia Lancaster, and last September The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester put on a play related to the incident entitled 'Black Roses'.

Today Sylvia Lancaster, who helped set up the foundation and who has fought to make attacks on sub-cultures like the Goths a 'Hate Crime' said: 'It is a very proud day for me personally and the rest of the team.  It is a validation of the work we have undertaken in the past five years and hopefully other forces will follow GMP's lead.  A big thank you to Greater Manchester Police and all our supporters.'   Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said:  'People who wish to express their alternative sub-culture identity freely should not have to tolerate hate crime.'  The Manchester police said the change would enable officers to give more support to victims of anti-punk or anti-Goth crime.  But it won't necessarily mean tougher sentences.

The ex-director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, said he had reservations about changing the legal definition of a hate crime.  He said:  'People's racial origins, their religion, their sexual orientation, people's dignity in the face of disability - these have been lines in the sand with the law saying, look, these are crimes that threaten social cohesion as a whole and therefore national life.  I'm a little cautious about watering down this concept.' 

Ryan Herbert and Brendan Harris, both from Bacup, were jailed for life in 2008 for Miss Lancaster's murder and for causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby.   When sentencing them, Judge Anthony Russell QC said:  'This was a hate crime against these completely harmless people targeted because their appearance was different to yours.' 

The Goths emerged as a youth subculture in the 1980s and the term was initially used to describe a form of music.  Since then it has come to cover literature, art and fashion, with its exponents often dressing in dark clothing.
_________________________________________________________

There are still a few copies of the printed version of NORTHERN VOICES No.13*, available for sale with the Sylvia Lancaster interview, it can be obtained as follows:  
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
 
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.

email: northernvoices@hotmail.com

Manchester Royal Exchange: A DOLL’S HOUSE

Cush Jumbo Stars in Royal Exchange Revival of Ibsen Classic: 

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

An adaptation by Bryony Lavery

Directed by Greg Hersov

Designed by Helen Goddard

The Royal Exchange Theatre,

St Ann’s Square, Manchester

Wednesday 1 May – Saturday 1 June

OLIVER Award nominated actress Cush Jumbo is set to star in a major revival of Henrik Ibsen’s  A DOLL’S HOUSE at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre from Wednesday 1 May to Saturday 1 June.

She has just been nominated in this year’s Olivier Awards as ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’ for playing Mark Antony in the Donmar Warehouse’s all female production of JULIUS CAESAR. Previous Royal Exchange credits also include PYGMALION and AS YOU LIKE IT - for which she won the 2012 Ian Charleson Award. 

This new production sees her play Nora, a young wife and mother who is married to Torvald, recently promoted to a high level position in banking. Life seems content and settled until their marriage is threatened when a terrible secret from Nora’s past comes back to haunt her and she begins to question their world.

Henrik Ibsen’s ground-breaking play is widely regarded as a landmark of the modern stage. A story of domestic revolution, female empowerment and the journey towards self-liberation it queries aspirations, success and what it means to raise a happy family. The play is still as charged, intense and provocative as it was 130 years ago. 

Cush is reunited for this production with Royal Artistic Director Greg Hersov who also directed her in PYGMALION and AS YOU LIKE IT. His other Royal Exchange credits include LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN, TWO, ZACK, WIDOWERS’ HOUSES and HAY FEVER.

The cast also includes Tessa Bell-Briggs as Anne-Marie; Amy Cameron as Helene; Jamie De Courcey as Dr Rank; Kelly Hotten as Mrs Linde; David Sturzaker as Helmer and Jack Tarlton as Krogstad. 

The creative team is completed by Helen Goddard (design), Richard Howell (lighting) and Emma Laxton (sound). 

Di Canio, Football, Fascism & meaningless words

GEORGE Orwell in a section on 'meaningless words' from his essay 'Politics & the English Language', written in 1946 for Horizon, wrote:
'The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies “something not desirable”.'

In the same essay he maintains:
'The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another.'

What follows from this is that a word like 'democracy' is a praise-worthy word, while 'fascism' is a foul-mouthed word. Today, all manner of régimes would want to embrace the title 'democracy', while few nation states, political parties or individuals would embrace 'fascism' as a label. That's what makes the Italian footballer, Paulo Di Canio's statement in 2005 that 'I am a fascist, not a racist' so remarkable, at least to an Englishman. Does it mean that Italians are more honest in their political language or braver or more brash than the English? Di Canio has 'Dux', the Latin for Il Duce, another name for Benito Mussolini, tattooed on his right arm, and is said to have a lot of books about Mussolini on his bookshelves, and in his autobiography he is said to have described Il Duce as 'a very principled individual'. Oh yes, and in 2005 he gave two straight-arm salutes to fans at Lazio, the football club where he was playing at the time.

The appointment of Di Canio to coach Sunderland has certainly upset some folk, and the Blairite MP and former Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has resigned on Sunday as vice-chairman of Sunderland football club in protest against Di Canio's politics and Durham Miners' Association is about to ask for its Wearmouth miner's banner back from the Stadium of Light. Orwell, in writing about political language, was concerned about people using words such as democracy 'in a consciously dishonest way'. Yesterday, Michael Walker writing a column in the Daily Mail wrote:
'Sentences (in Di Canio's autobiography [2000]) such as: “Perhaps it's because I am right wing, I fascinated by Benito Mussolini”, left Miliband no alternative but to resign from Sunderland's board on Sunday night.' It seems that 'it's a big stride, even for a politician ... though the New Labour man was comfortable with a venture capitalist (Ellis Short, a hedge-fund dealer from Texas) in control of the club'.

Is Di Canio's politics grounds for sacking him? 

This week, co-incidentally, it is 75-years since on March 31st, 1938, the McNaboe-Davaney anti-Communist bill was vetoed by Governor Herbert H. Lehman. That bill, if enacted, would have barred from teaching and civil service positions in New York State all persons advocating the forcible overthrow of organised government, all adherents to Communism or criminal anarchism. If you strive for consistency, believe in liberty and don't enjoy a twisted logic; if like Northern Voices, you've fought against blacklists in the building trade since 2003; or more recently censorship of small publications like NV; and restraints on free speech generally, then it is hard to see how it is legitimate to sack even a bloke like Di Canio because of his politics.