A former "useful idiot" who had his dream broken

Well done for doing the right thing Jack, but...don't give up the day job. Hat tip Socialist Unity

SWP: Something is seriously rotten in the state of LaLa land

I think most folk know that I'm no friend of the Trotsky Revolutionary sect, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), but the latest scandal they are embroiled in is just breath taking.

One of its junior female members made a complaint of rape against a longstanding member of its Central Executive Committee.

Instead of insisting that this member should report this very serious crime to the Police, they agreed that an internal "Disputes Committee" made up largely of friends and senior colleagues of the the alleged perpetrater  should "investigate" the complaint.  To no ones surprise they found (6-1) the case against "Comrade Delta" (a well known SWP Central Committee activist and reputed to be a violent thug) was "not proven".

Check out the report in "Socialist Unity" (who broke the story), "The Independent" and "Dave Osler" blog.

While I fully accept that the Police and the Crime Prosecution Service have in the past treated some rape victims shamefully and the Jimmy Saville debacle shows that powerful men can get away with a life of crime. I cannot for a second accept that an internal "investigation" by any organisation into such serious allegations is acceptable, never mind that the investigation panel comprised of mates and colleagues of the accused. How dare they think that they are better than an independent jury of 12 of your peers.

Is this a case of history repeating itself? In the picture above is Gerry Healy, the former leader of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). Healey was eventually found to be a serial rapist and sexual abuser who for years was protected from accusations. The WRP collapsed after the discovery that its leader was a rapist and afterwards the SWP took its place as the "main" Trotsky sect in the UK.

Is there something in the essential DNA of these tiny ultra left sects and cults that make them prone to its leading men treating women as dirt? 

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

"Respect" purges dissenters

Two former National Council members of "Respect" have left the "Party" after being "purged" from their positions following criticisms of Gorgeous George over his recent comments about rape. The article explaining how and why they were purged was published today at 5.29pm on Socialist Unity and comments on the post was rapidly closed at 8.39pm.

Apparently because an administrator objected to some rather mild comments about GG as being an "anti-Galloway hate fest".... and the problem with that is???
 

..and why Jack of Kent is being censured by...Wikileaks?

Hat tip Jack of Kent. "A couple of days ago I did a long post over at the New Statesman which dealt with the legal mythology which had developed in relation to the Julian Assange extradition case.

I had thought they may be the last substantive thing I would write on the subject. However, a number of Assange’s more committed supporters continue to question my motivations in blogging about the Assange case. This being so, I thought a short (and I hope) final word would be useful.

When the relevant allegations against Assange emerged two years ago, I happened to be one of the first legal bloggers to cover the subject. Straight away it appeared to me that there was a significant due process issue. There appeared a lot of people anxious to discredit the allegations (and the complainants) without there being a proper investigation. In particular, there were many individuals who believed their take on the allegations had a higher purchase than any formal process. There were even some who were “slut-shaming” the complainants.

I thought this was very wrong. I still do.

From that basis, I began to cover the legal side of events involving Assange and Wikileaks.

In February 2011, I challenged the threat of Wikileaks of taking action against the Guardian for “malicious libels”. It seemed inappropriate to me for the organization to be making such a threat. After all, Wikileaks is supposedly about transparency and freedom of information.

And in May 2011, I revealed the Wikileaks £12 million “penalty” clause in their Non-Disclosure Agreement and indeed published the entire NDA. I showed that it – wrongly – claimed a commercial and proprietary interest in the information which had been disclosed to it. This was concerning, because – again – Wikileaks is supposedly about transparency and freedom of information.

(When Wikileaks and others contended that such an NDA was actually appropriate for their work, I even drafted an alternative NDA which had no such commercial pretensions.)

It was becoming clear that Assange – or whoever else at Wikileaks was responsible for their NDA and libel threat – had at best a misconceived notion of law. The impression was that they were making legal stuff up as they went along, and that law was ultimately something which bound others but not them.

Against this background, I blogged about the extradition case. This was not because I have a particular interest in international law, but for another simple reason. It appeared to me that there was a perhaps concerted effort by individuals with significant media power to misrepresent the applicable legal issues so that the due process of an investigation into an alleged rape and sexual assaults would be frustrated and discredited.

This just seemed wrong. And so I started – first on Twitter, and then on blogs – to challenge what were false and misleading statements about the extradition case.

However, this did not go down well, at least with Assange’s supporters.

Here I am being denounced by Wikileaks to their 1.6 million followers.


(I am now actually blocked by Wikileaks on Twitter, which I think is kind of ironic.)

But such tweeting and blogging seemed the right thing to do, and – despite the abuse – I am glad that the debate in respect of the extradition is more informed by correct statements of the law than it otherwise would be.

Most of the critics of my posts on the Assange extradition miss a simple but crucial important point.

This is not really about Assange. I have not met him, and although I regard him as a serial fantasist when it comes to the law, I have no idea whether he is guilty or not guilty of the allegations. It also matters nothing to me whether he is convicted or acquitted. Indeed, if the investigation and criminal proceedings close down by their own volition then I would not give it a second thought.

It is about due process. It is about the circumstances in which people with media or political power can seek to undermine a criminal investigation into rape and sexual assault by promoting misinformation about the law and legal process.

This matters, and an interest in confronting this misdirection provides a complete explanation for why I have followed the case in the way I have done.

The strange paradox is that I have been implicitly criticised for placing into the public domain materials and information which supporters of Wikileaks and Assange do not want to have circulated. They instead want their version of events to be adopted without query.

That said, I have always been a fan of the principle of Wikileaks. (I was especially happy when the “sacred” texts of the Scientology cult was placed by Wikileaks into the public domain.) There is an important public interest in the continuance of the Wikileaks project, but its future really should be de-coupled from the personal matters of any one individual.

The rights of Assange are important; but so is due process.

And complainants of rape and sexual abuse have rights too".

Jack of Kent

The Battle's of Matewan and Blair Mountain

Hat tip to Andy Newman at Socialist Unity for this remarkable post on 1920's bloody shoot outs between West Virgina coal miners and Company strike breakers.  The clip is from the 1987 film by John Sayles.

We have this image of a capitalist and conservative America, especially in the "West".   While I remember being astonished by Paul Mason's (BBC Newsnight Editor) book "Live Working or Die Fighting" about just how radical the Labour movement in the United States of America use to be. 

I also recall one of the authors of "The Spirit Level", Professor Richard Wilkinson at this year's UNISON conference being asked a question about what reaction they got when they visited the United States (which gets a lot of stick in their book because of its huge income inequality).  He replied that the US is such a divided society that they have always had a really positive reception on their book tours and lectures.  So there is still support out there for "radical" policies. 

Let them eat Schwarzwälderkirschtorte

This is a great fun steal from Socialist Unity. The German trade union IG Metal is responsible for this site where you click on a cake and throw it at leading German Politicos. 

You even get points for each successful hit (see left).

Click here and enjoy!

For some strange, strange reason I feel that I must send this link to Dave and Alex (and Stroppy, David, Robert and Monty...).

Torygraph and Tax Avoiders Alliance “twaddle” about unions

What a lot of old twaddle from the Torygraph and the Tax Avoiders’ Alliance about “millions” being (so called) wasted on time off for trade union stewards and safety reps to represent their members.

So every time a rep goes to a meeting with a member or sits down with management to sort out local problems - this is somehow “fund (ing) the activities of the union barons”? How silly.

So what exactly are these “Big Society” Tories clones proposing should happen instead?

a. Workers facing discipline or sickness hearings should be banned from having trade union colleague representing them?
b. safety reps should not be allowed to carry out workplace inspections or investigate accidents ?
c. organisations should not consult elected staff representatives on pay, proposed redundancies or changes to terms and conditions?

This is all politically motivated stuff and nonsense and I suppose in one way we should expect such “tic for tat” attacks on the unions due to our support for Labour. Frankly, I would have thought that they could have come out with something just a little more intelligent to have a go at us.

If you are thinking about efficiency I would suggest the Tories and their allies look into the number of HR personnel in large organisations (and wages paid to the HR directors!) compared to the facility time offered to trade union reps?

The only really sensible quote in the Torygraph article is from UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis about the role of union reps "Far from causing industrial strife, paid facility time has contributed to the lowest levels of strikes on record. In short – trade union facility time makes good business sense."

The TUC blog “Stronger unions” reports on the Tax Avoiders that “The voice of employers is also absent from the report – quite odd given that I assume that the TPA would regard itself as a friend of employers. Is this because only last year the CBI joined with the TUC and BIS to publish a report – Reps in Action – on the role of union reps and stated that it;

“Believes that modern [union] representatives have a lot to give their fellow employees and to the organisations that employ them”

The Ultra right wing “teenage scribblers” of the Torygraph and the Tax Avoiders' Alliance have (self evidently) no idea whatsoever of industrial relations in the real world.

UNISONactive and Socialist Unity have sensible posts on this as well. Caption from here

Will John McNoHoper stand?

Andy Newman from Socialist Unity is trying to spoil all my fun looking forward to the forthcoming Labour leadership elections by posting a coherent and convincing argument about exactly why John McNoHoper MP should not stand.

The argument is that John, although he is a very principled socialist is also divisive and doesn’t stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Worse, some (not all) of his supporters are so hostile and sectarian that they could damage the chances of more credible left wing candidates.

Predictably some of John's supporters are going bananas at such "analysis" in the comments field.

Hopefully - John will ignore such sensible advice and we will have some light amusement during the campaign while the grownups do the real politics.

(sorry Dave)

The Journey Watch: Labour's achievements over the last thirteen years.

Last nights Labour PPB.  Pretty good I thought.  I couldn't find it on Labour membersnet but it's on Socialist Unity!

John Gray: Socialist Unity Pin Up

Well, I suppose there is no thing like bad publicity...and it is in a good cause.

I'll update on the Notting Hill Housing Strike later.

What has the Labour Government ever done for us?

"...papers cover in detail analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on the distributional impact of thirteen years of Labour rule. The picture is stunning and represents a clear progressive redistribution from rich to poor with those earning over £100,000 paying the most".

Great graphic and very important research.    Labour supporters ought to spread the  word.

Hat tip thingy Left foot Forward and inspiration for post title from my new best friend ever Andy Newman at Socialist Unity.

About “John’s Labour blog” – surely they don’t mean...?

A couple of dare I say rather cheeky posts about this fine blog.

Firstly a review in Politics.co.uk

“This is a really nice local site - lively, informative and regularly updated. There is a real mixture of content on the site - from political commentary, to bulletin board-style announcements and national campaign videos. (so far so good)

It's not the most searingly well-written site but there's no mistaking its enthusiasm”. (Wot!)

Then the shock horror news here about the editor of Socialist Disunity - Andy Newman and his deep...dark secret:-

“...We all have guilty pleasures that we are slightly embarrassed to admit to. My dirty secret is that I regularly read John Gray’s blog”...

I actually don’t mind since Andy is one of the very few Ultra left bloggers to come across as a well rounded human being. He is probably the exception that proves the rule, despite being (IMO) a fully paid up member of the Lost Deposit Brigade.

SWP Witch-Hunting Students

Editor Andy Newman of Socialist Disunity gleefully reports here on the latest SWP cull of dissenters “co-incidentally” just before the start of their conference.

This time students at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) who were apparently associating with “anti-party” elements have been suspended.

I better warn our secretary of my local Labour Party ward to watch out whom she is seen speaking to or they could be for the chop too!

Hat-tip thingy Col. Roi.

A New Popular Front for Labour?

It is somewhat unusual to say the least for me to agree (mostly) with these similar posts on Socialist Unity and Grimmer Up North. Respective bloggers Andy Newham and Susan Press who I have crossed online swords with in the dim and distance past were unusually sharp and dismissive I thought about some of our comrades on T-h-e L-e-f-t who had turned up to the demo outside the Labour Party conference the other week and who made an absolute spectacle of themselves.

I was a CLP delegate at conference and I was going to come outside and say hello to the marchers (my fellow blogging sad sectarian Dave was suppose to be there to buy me a beer) but I was late getting into Brighton, saw the heaps of placards waiting to be picked up and couldn’t be bothered so I just hurried into the conference hall. So I missed the march which inside conference to my knowledge no one even mentioned.

I have been on mainstream demos in the past were the ultra extremists have simply high jacked it and just p***d absolutely everyone else off with mindless placard sloganism, chanting, postulating and grandstanding. I suspect they really just don’t realise how much damage they do to their creditability and that of the protest they have taken over.

While I don’t generally mind that this sort of behaviour on their own marches since it keeps them as fully paid up members of the lost deposit brigade I do think that this is just another yet own goal in the wider Labour movement. Which is a genuine bloody shame.

I think that the penny is finally beginning to drop and the prospect of a possible Tory Government led by a real right wing Eton Mafiosi is beginning to wake up those who (not Andy or Susan or course) had fallen into lazy and thoughtless anti-Labourism. IMO.

If people genuinely do not want to support the Labour Party during the next few months then I can understand and while I think they are wrong that is their choice. But those who profess to hate the Tories but won’t do anything for Labour “because they are just as bad” I have nothing but scorn. There is no alternative to Labour at this time (and I hope never) so if you support anyone else but Labour or do not vote then really you should go the whole hog and just vote Tory.

Socialist Unity "apologises" to Police

This is probably the most utterly bizarre story of the year.

CLARIFICATION AND APOLOGY

On 25 June 2008 we published a posting, by Andy Newman, entitled “J’accuse! — the Dreyfus Affair”.

This posting included a copy of a letter Mr George Galloway MP had sent to the RT Hon Jacqui Smith the Home Secretary, identifying Inspector Christopher Dreyfus as an agent provocateur at an anti-war demonstration in Parliament Square on 15 June 2008.

Mr Galloway said that he had observed Inspector Dreyfus commit various crimes, including incitement to violence, attempted assault on a police officer and several serious public order offences. He called upon the Home Secretary to conduct an inquiry into Inspector Dreyfus’ behaviour. Our posting called upon readers to comment on Mr Galloway’s letter. We made clear that Inspector Dreyfus denied the allegations.

We understand that, as a result of Mr Galloway’s letter, the matter has been comprehensively investigated by the British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police, and that their findings have been reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The investigations did not substantiate Ms Whittaker-Khan’s story or the allegations in Mr Galloway’s letter. The CPS has confirmed that there is no case to answer.

We now accept that Christopher Dreyfus was not present at the demonstration and did not engage in any of the criminal behaviour referred to in Ms Whittaker-Khan’s story or Mr Galloway’s letter.

We apologize to him for the damage caused to his reputation.

No Comments

Harry’s Place has the full details on how seriously weird this story is – I thought at the time that the alternative universe that Galloway lives in must be cracking up. To make such an accusation against a high profile Gay Police officer with a Jewish sounding name without any “proof” was just bonkers. The Police Officer denies being at the demo. The only “evidence” was a "Mail On Sunday" (for crying out loud) journalist who thought a violent protester was this Transport Police inspector she had met previously at a party in Bedford. Didn't anyone have the wit to think about how historically loaded the name "Dreyfus" is or google his full name beforehand? A secret Policeman or what!

Now Socialist Unity and I don’t usually see eye to eye on many things but I hope that they are not being sued. They have apologised and perhaps that should be the end of the matter except not to trust the "Gorgeous One" in the future.

They all learn eventually.

The Sinking SWP Ship

Last night Socialist Unity posted a confidential internal SWP pre-conference report by Party member, Neil Davidson. It is a typically Ultra left unreadable dirge.

These people take themselves so-so seriously. If they could communicate ideas on one page of A4 they may have made a lasting impression.

Instead this supposedly Trotskyite Revolutionary vanguard teamed up with a Stalinist ego maniac, Islamic fascist fundamentalists and rich anti-gay, anti-women local businessmen. A marriage of conveniences made to last? Yeah...

Now it doesn’t mean that some decent people were not sweep up in this farrago. Many of whom have now realised that they have been “had” - good and proper.

I enjoyed Davidson’s attempt to justify the SWP by posing the question “What would British society be like if the SWP had never existed? What would we see if the guardian angel of revolutionary parties could show us a United Kingdom where the ship bearing Ygael Gluckstein to these shores in 1946 had sunk with all on board?” Ygael Gluckstein was of course the SWP prophet, Tony Cliff, who I met shortly before he died. I’ll post on this weird and rather surreal meeting another time.

I’m not that sure that the obvious answer Yes you bloody fool why even ask? is actually true. Since if the SWP did not exist then no doubt another bonkers ultra left organisation would have rapidly filled the void. As Cliff’s SWP replaced the gap caused by the implosion of the rapist Healy’s WRP, which use to be the leading Trot Party beforehand.

It now appears likely that the SWP will split, not least because they need to witch-hunt someone for their failure to gain any power or to even seem like contenders. But no doubt another equally useless lot will take their place. My current “comrade at arms”, Dave Osler, as usual provides a more eloquent explanation for what is going on here.

I wasn’t born in 1946 so I couldn’t have possibly sunk Ciff’s ship. However in 2009 as you would expect, I will of course be trying to do my best to fly over the modern SWP wreck and machine gun any survivors....so I’ll leave you with these happy, happy thoughts (sorry Charlie for not being more “critically supportive”).

Thanks to Col Roi for his updates.

George Galloway: My part in his downfall

Yesterday I received a couple of jolly emails from comrades, who told me that the blog site Socialist Unity, had a post by its editor, Andy Newman, suggesting that “Dave’s Part” and “John’s Labour blog” are responsible for the current split within diss-respect!

Apparently the SWP Central committee are claiming, that one of the major reasons for the split, is that SWP members (who “had gone native” and supported George Galloway) in early September 2007, had “leaked” very sensitive information to the deputy editor of the East London Advertiser, Ted Jeory. This is why they expelled a number of long standing SWPer's and led to a complete and utter breakdown of trust between the Central Committee and the Gorgeous one

The Socialist Unity post refers to a draft article being circulated by a SWP Central Committee member, Chris Harman (who apparently who was the model for a character in a play by Tariq Ali called “Nutty Shardman... who menaces others on the left with whom he has theoretical disagreements” – yep, this figures).

“Nutty” Harman implies that the leak was by the now expelled SWP member and Respect national officer, Rob “where has the money gone” Hoverman.

If true, then of course this would have significantly contributed to the breakup. However, “Socialist Unity” is now a “born again” fervent supporter of the Gorgeous one. They claim that the pure and honest Hoverman did not leak the information; Ted Jeory got it instead from my blog and Dave Osler’s.

“Ted [the journalist who wrote the article] confirmed that he had picked up the letter on two websites, one run by sad sectarian Dave Osler and the other by right wing Tower Hamlets New Labourite John Grey (moi?). Ted had also read comment on the letter on those websites and the key paragraph five was based on what he had read there”.

I think my post that he is referring to is “Respect is cursed; moribund; weak; exhausted; amateur, mismanaged; unhealthy, irresponsible…says Galloway “ 2 September 2007
No further comment on the sources of this post.

Of course, I personally would have been very pleased to have contributed in anyway to the break up of diss-respect. I have been told that I will be awarded the Order of the “Silver Ice Pick" for some old reason?

However, the duplicitous old rogue Galloway is still a MP for now. I still think he is doomed politically. He may have got rid of the SWP and got some new “useful idiots” such as “Socialist Unity” for now. However, I think that he will just “use and abuse” them and they will eventually, just like the SWP, retire hurt licking their wounds. I know this is really political “la la” land, but just check out the posts at Socialist Unity even a few months ago about Galloway, when they all hatred him. Now (1984-ish) he is their hero.

For example... “Even were .....Galloway to have a damascene conversion, would anyone on the activist left trust them?.

It’s equally ironic and enjoyable to see Andy Newman “defending” Rob Hoverman. When in the past Andy (bravely to be fair) published this very personal retort from Rob about him.....

Andy....."You were a complete tosser the last time you flickered on to my radar and clearly nothing has changed. Now flicker off.”