Sunday, April 08, 2007

"Baader-Meinhof" Losing Candidate joins diss-Respect


Former Baader-Meinhof suspect Johanna Kaschke, who was one of the 64 candidates hoping to be nominated as the next Labour Party MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, has resigned to join diss-Respect/SWP. I read about this first in the East End Advertiser where she was quoted as saying that the reason was over the Council’s decision regarding its housing policy. I was going to run a post on why the Advertiser had failed to even consider that a reason for her defection could have been her utter failure to pick up any nominations (or I think any individual votes). A case of “sour grapes” rather than a conversion while on the road to Damascus?

However, this being Tower Hamlets the story developed, Dave Osler blog “Ex-punk. Ex-Trot. Unchanged attitude problem” (definitely not a New Labour Supporter) picked up that Johanna was also a former Baader-Meinhof (Also known as the “Red Army Faction”) suspect who was detained for 3 months on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities. Baader-Meinhof was a particular nasty Left wing terrorist gang who murdered many people in Germany mainly during the 1970’s (and up to late 1990’s). They were found to be partly funded and supported by the communist East German secret police, the Stasi.

German born Johanna is quite open about this (and other things) on her website. It would appear that she was released without charge and that she was given compensation by the German government for wrongful imprisonment. However, she does give the impression that she was involved in fund raising activities for the terrorists although this is unclear. To be fair, she is now firmly and openly against terrorism. Dave points out that she is a small business woman who is opposed to the minimum wage and wants more support for small businesses!

I (think) that I have met her a couple of times and she seemed quite pleasant. However, reading her “New Labour, New Britain” Parliamentary Section CV again, I now understand her declaration on it that she “managed to get through life without any convictions whatsoever”. I am a little concerned that she should describe her family as working class, and then state her father was a Chartered Accountant. It seems that she was only active in the Party since Feb 2007. I note that she does not appear to be a member of a trade union, so she should fit in well with diss-Respect/SWP

12 comments:

daggi said...

I don't think it's fair to suggest that she was involved in fundraising for terrorists, without you (as seems to be the case) having any knowledge of the groups that she organised that rock concert-benefit for, namely the Rote Hilfe and the Schwarze Hilfe, i.e. the "Red Aid" and "Black Aid". It seems more likely that the money from these groups (the Rote Hilfe still exists) went on funding legal representation for actual- and suspected terrorists, or more exactly, for those on/around the left who have/had trouble with the state, for whatever reason, and had no funds to pay for lawyers etc..

Ironically, organising this concert seems to have placed this Councillor in the eye of the West German political police at the time, and presumably, she got released - and compensation for wrongful imprisonment - partially thanks to the support of these two groups.

It reminds me a bit of the Hancock 'Blood donor' sketch when he gets his own blood back.

John Gray said...

Hi Daggi
Thanks for the local knowledge. Yes, perhaps I was being a little harsh. Still, can’t resist suggesting that she has brought things on herself for being so disRespectful to the Labour Party!

Bit unclear - she is not a Councillor in London? Was she in Germany?

Anonymous said...

I must ask you to remove the illegal RAF symbol from your posting as it is an offence to promote this illegal organisation. I shall report this to the autorities and make a claim for compensation for having my person so closely associated by yourself with this illegal organisation. A complaint has been made to Google as well, proof of this publication has been obtained in print.
Johanna Kaschke

John Gray said...

Hi (whoever you are)
By co-incidence I am planning to post soon on Johanna's latest adventures.

See you in court!

Anonymous said...

I shall definitely not only sue you over putting this RAF symbol next to my name but also Google for allowing to disply it. I would advise you to take it down and stop this libel

Anonymous said...

You leave me no choice, I am off to the High Court now to take out an injunction against you and Google if necessary to remove this content about me from your blog. It will cost you, as you refused to remove it from your own comment

Johanna Kaschke said...

Please remove this blog as I will have to sue a fellow union member and the longer its on the worst it will be for you.

Anonymous said...

I do not want you write anything about me anymore, I shall not comment about the ridiculous content of your shit blog, so just take it off. Its really ridiculous that you slate a fellow union member. you are an arshole.

John Gray said...

Hi Johanna

Okay, - I wont't blog on your defection from Respect to the CPGB since you clearly cannot handle criticism. However, this post stands. Good luck and goodbye.

Anonymous said...

Dear reader



Please accept my humble apology for bombarding you with press releases lately but this is mirroring my emotional state of shock and dismay over the untrue, recent allegations in the press that I had once been accused of being a member of the Baader-Meinhof gang and that has been blown right out of proportion by the British and German press including some online blogs.



The reason for my emotional response is that I am a simple and poor person, living partly on disability related benefits and also because of some smear campaigns I obviously lost customers, and so do not have the money to either seek legal advise before I make statements nor to employ a lawyer to defend a libel case, as unfortunately the legal system does not provide legal aid for defamation cases, meaning the poor are not protected against press smear attacks.



Therefore I spend £50 out of my own benefits trying to get a High Court judge to stop a particularly nasty blog appearing on Google, visually connecting me with Baader-Meinhof and also displaying their RAF symbol. Those who think it is funny to report in this manner are seriously misguided.



I particularly object to this gutter press reporting and cyber bullying because it is simply that, sensationalist reporting, playing on the fears of the ordinary people and reporting about things, which are completely unimportant, who would possibly want to know that I had been wrongly arrested in 1975 and gotten compensation for it, here in the UK whilst it would have been very important if Der Spiegel had reported that fact besides their unrealistic reporting about me in 1975 being sold on the Internet for 30 years.

In fact I would not even object if just this simple little fact was reported without all the guerrilla paraphernalia around it, which in fact promotes it. I object to the promotion of guerrilla warfare as it is not in the interest of the people right now. We are suffering a right-wing renaissance and any talk of guerrilla, Baader-Mainhof, Al-Qaeda only serves to fill the people with fear and to urge the governments to put in more repressive measures to prevent, freedom of movement and freedom of speech. I do not deny there is a class-struggle going on and there was one going on in Germany in the 60s and 70s but I would strongly suggest you read the explanation in Wickipedia about Baader-Meinhof, which I think is a fair one, if you want to know about it.



I consider myself a victim of cyber bullying in this matter to create a smear campaign to discredit my life and reduce it to this. I strongly object to being visually, verbally or connected in written form to Baader-Meinhof as I personally never met a single one of them and neither did the arrest warrant mention the word Baader-Meinhof, it mentioned criminal association. I was accused of being seen "near" a storage area, which contained one toy pistol and other legal items. The German justice system found it reasonable at the time to lock up ordinary citizens on flimsy suspicions such as this for 3 months in total isolation. My arrest warrant never mentioned anything about participation in a bank robbery like Der Spiegel mentions.



I want to especially express that the worst of the smear campaigns originate from a Unison Labour blog and I am especially disappointed that a Labour and Union supporter can make such smears and misguide people by wrongly informing them as I have been a strong supporter of the recent Unison campaign for council housing.

The most prolific of smear campaigns is from Private Eye who also mentions my name; want to create a connection between Baader-Meinhof and Respect. I strongly object to this gutter press sensationalism playing on people's fears, trying to create the impression that Respect is sympathetic of guerrilla warfare by using the terminology.



The ordinary citizen has enough to cope with being in fear of Al-Qaeda attacks, which I strongly oppose, they indiscriminately kill ordinary citizens anywhere anytime and so the people are rightly in fear about them but now to put them under even more fear by creating a Baader-Meinhof smear campaign about me is totally unreasonable.



I have contacted each and every publication I know of who exploits this gutter press reporting and asked them to remove all mention of Baader-Meinhof with my name, I also have written a warning that I consider prosecution of each publication mentioning me in connection with Baader-Meinhof and I am hoping to bring legal action against those who think they can earn easy money out of misguiding ordinary citizens with their Baader-Meinhof smears.



Please note, I have never ever in my life been convicted of any crime ever.

I can be a member of any left-wing political organisation as it is my democratic right to do so as a citizen.

I am a member of the GMB Union, the Respect Party, the Communist Party, I support Defend Council Housing, I support any legal people's movement, which is in the interest of the people but I totally object to the attempts to criminalise people's movements and left wing political parties, which is really what is behind the smear campaigns of the gutter press.



Yes I am aiming to pursue those people writing rubbish about me and mislead the public for compensation and I could use that money for my political work and to compensate me for the damage that has been done to my reputation by the libellous press reporting.



I can only apologise that I was unable to far to take legal action but this is due to the very bad rule that there is no legal aid for defamation, which in fact opens the floodgates for rubbish press reporting, defamation and sensationalism because the press know, that if they write about poor people they are very unlikely to press for action as lawyers are very expensive and some charge as much as £500 per hour. I tried what I could to create a counter effect to the misleading reports about me and hope to put an end to it once and for all once legal action has commenced if I find a lawyer who believes in justice and can pursue the case for me.



Thank you for reading this, which has been written as personal information and is not meant to represent any particular political party.

Johanna Kaschke
05600757181

Johanna Kaschke said...

He cheapskate, it may have escaped your non existing attention that Dave Osler has removed his blog connecting me with Baader-Meinhof, because he pays attention to his legal obligations, which is something I cannot say about you. I am asking you to remove the Baader-Meihof logo and name in connection with my name for the last time now before legal action may commence against you.

John Gray said...

Hi Johanna

Sorry about the delay in replying - I think that Dave says that he censured his post because “Although I believe the story to be both factually accurate and within the realms of fair comment, I have decided to unpublish it as a gesture of goodwill to Ms Kaschke”.

Which I think is a shame – not least since he now headlines his accusation against you as "Respect new recruit opposes minimum wage"
and has left all the comments about BM on the post (quite rightly but confusingly)

I have also allowed your right of reply. Good luck with communist party and keep up the good work with DCH. BYW – like your new web site!