Hawarden Park Walk: Gladstone, Dad, Airbus, Bagpipes, Ken Taylor and Bilberry Woods walk...

Off message but a post from a lovely 5 mile Easter walk in North Wales (pathfinder guide walk  5 "North Wales, Snowdon and Offa's Dyke"). 

I was brought up only a couple of miles away in Buckley, but have not been back to this area since, so it was more than a little emotional to visit places I could remember from my youth. Hawarden has the remains of a Welsh/Norman Castle and also the more modern home of  19th Century, British Prime Minister, William Gladstone. As a child I used to go conker picking in Hawarden Park.

A close school friend of mine, Ken Taylor, had a family small farm holding somewhere nearby. But I could not for the life of me remember exactly where? I suspect we walked past it.

Much of the early part of the walk is dominated by the sight of massive Airbus (aircraft manufacturer) factory in Broughton. My father, another John Gray, used to work in the factory in the 1950s and was also an active trade unionist (Assistant branch secretary of the Electricians union - now part of Unite) and a local Labour Councillor.

Seeing the size of the factory and knowing its huge importance to the local economy, you can understand the concerns that many have over its survival if things go wrong over Brexit.

Halfway thorough the walk amongst decayed World War 2 shelters, to our amazement, we could could hear someone playing the bagpipes in the middle of nowhere.  Our path took us away from the bagpipe player, so we were not able to find him (or her).

The latter part of the walk was more rural and isolated. Bilberry wood with its bluebells was lovely.
Due to the spring foliage we could not see much of either the old or new castle, so will return again another time. Hopefully, sometime very soon. 

Communists, Masons & War: Forest Gate South Labour doorknock 18.3.17 with Lyn Brown MP

Picture collage from last Saturday in Forest Gate South ward,West Ham CLP, London. Our MP, Lyn Brown (with her Labour attack dog Cara), local councillors and party activists out knocking doors and talking to residents about Council services and national issues.

We also gave out leaflets on the Labour party campaigns about "Education not Segregation" and "Our NHS is underfunded".

I had an interesting conversation with some students from India whose home state Kerala, (and also in West Bengal state), is controlled by the Marxist Communist Party of India. They were not supporters but recognised that in their state they have the highest levels of literacy, women to men ratios and life expectancy in India.

While door knocking we had a discussion with long serving members on how in the 1970s the Freemasons in Newham Council (Councillors and Council officers - used to have a lodge in East Ham Town Hall) were kicked out of the local party and the Council for alleged corrupt practices.

After the canvass Cllr John Whitworth, Cllr Anam Islam and I went to see the excellent "Far from the Western Front" First World War Exhibition in the Minhaj-Ul-Quran mosque in Romford Road which is due to finish tomorrow. 

A Modest Proposal on Cults, Trots, Socialist Unity, the Great Day and LaLa-ism

Since this is the season of goodwill to all I checked out the Socialist Unity website to see the latest brother and sisterhood back stabbing, infighting, petty point scoring, abuse and general hatred. I was not disappointed. The reader comments are just amazing.

While the SWP are busy as usual ritually expelling “traitors” in advance of their annual conference, I was surprised at the post by SU editor Andy Newman  “THE “ALLIANCE FOR WORKERS LIBERTY” – THE DYNAMICS OF A MALIGNANT CULT

I must admit to wondering why Andy has picked on the AWL? Who in my perhaps limited contact so far, have not appeared to be as narrow and dogmatic as the other various Heinz 57 Trotskyite/Anarchist sects?  However, I think that this is actually all just a bit of a red herring (no pun intended).

Since surely all of the “ultra left” are by definition going to be in some form of a cult since they all profess to be “revolutionaries”.  If you think the world is so horrible you need revolutionary change, then you are going to have to have some sort of tight discipline and control to try and bring it about?

The real problem is not that they are “cults” or that they are “revolutionaries”.  Good luck to them if that is what they believe (dare I say, it’s a free country!). The real problem is that they think that by their actions they can bring about “the Revolution” in this country sometime soon.

How on earth can anyone honestly think there any practical likelihood of there being any sort of a revolution in this country?

Now, I want radical change in our society. But all my adult life I have seen articles and posters advertising meetings that proclaim the “great day of the revolution” is just around the corner. What complete and utter rubbish.

The idea that if the unions were just more militant, organised more demos, occupied some phone box and took more strike action, then the masses would come to their senses and storm Buckingham Place is just fantasy and indulgent politics. There was more chance of the Mayan prophesies happening.

Since 2007 there has been an open goal due to the economic crisis and there is not the slightest interest whatsoever in revolutionary class politics. 

This is not about the “politics”. I am a fully paid up believer in reformism, parliamentary democracy, rule of law, equality in all aspects, strong trade unions and a genuine mixed economy. Yet I will work with anyone who may completely disagree with me in the long run but will sees the sense in unity to bring about common and achievable immediate goals.

There cannot in my view be any unity with those who think that their primary purpose is to bring about something (the Great Day) that is silly, ridiculous and laughable. Everything they do is driven by this obsession. So we cannot trust them nor their many and competing “Fronts”. We also cannot work with those who will do what they are told by their central committees regardless of what they believe in or were elected to do.   

My father believed that communism in this country was inevitable, but he thought it would not happen in his lifetime nor for many generations. In the meanwhile he would support the Labour Party and work with others such as the Communist Party of the time, in the interests of working class people.  While they and others may believe in revolution, they are realistic about the prospects and will not sell out the interests of working people to satisfy nonsensical dogma.

So my New Year 2012 Modest Proposal is - we can have a socialist unity of sorts.  But not with LaLa-ism