Quite rightly there is national uproar when the victims of knife crime are innocent. However, when the victim is involved in a gang or caught up in violence it is a different story.

The press demonises them, and their families are further victimised, humiliated and treated with disrespect.

…

Statistics about exclusions, violence and black deaths belie human tragedies, and Leon is yet another tragic victim that can all too easily be forgotten.

However, both his life and his death emphasise the drastic and urgent need for more preventative, innovative and timely measures to be developed for all young people who have been excluded from school or who are subject to anti-social behaviour measures.

We should not fall for the myths of poor parenting, absent fathers, family breakdown or demonise our youth like the media often does.

Instead we must try to understand the complex reality of young people’s struggles and provide them with proactive support and an earned second chance. That is their right!

I leave Stalybridge tomorrow after a short and unproductive stay, moving back to Manchester for another new start at another call centre the day after.  But first, I thought I’d share a local folk remedy for dealing with pay freezes and economic crises:

The first general strike (1842) originated in this area. It began as a movement of resistance to the imposition of wage cuts in the mills and was also known as the ‘Plug Riots’. It spread to involve nearly half a million workers throughout Britain and represented the biggest single exercise of working class strength in nineteenth century Britain.

It most certainly did…

At the root of the strike were the swingeing wage cuts that accompanied a downturn in trade, at a time when the economy had been in desperate straits for a full five years. But the strike grew into something far more than that as workers took up the political demands espoused by Chartism, leading to confrontation not just with employers but with the state…

the mill and factory workers of the North West were politically aware and quite able to make the link between demands demands for better wages and the need for the Charter.

The focus of activity in late July and early August was in South East Lancashire, where local Chartists played a leading role in organising mass meetings to oppose wage cuts and make the case for the Charter. This was an important stage in building support for collective action later. These leaders succeeded in uniting workers who were more hesitant in their opposition to the employers behind the more militant factories and mills, and created a base for a widespread strike.

August 7 was a crucial day: two mass meetings of workers from Ashton and Staleybridge were held on Mottram Moor, and support was given for a “Grand National Turn-Out” to begin the next day. Support for the Charter was incorporated into the resolutions passed. The next day, workers left their factories and began to move from workplace to workplace, “turning out” other workers to join them. The derogatory name often given to these events - the “plug plot” - derives from this time; as the workers closed down a factory they would frequently remove the boiler plug to prevent it restarting. The movement spread rapidly, not only in Manchester but in the towns around it. At Preston, Burnley, Blackburn, Chorley, Todmorden, Bacup, Stockport, Macclesfield, Leek, Congleton, Oldham, Glossop, Dukinfield, Wigan, Bolton, St Helens and in the mining villages, work ceased.

As the strike went on, the workers took control. Factories were permitted to operate only with the permission of “committees of public safety” that now began to co-ordinate action. These committees gave permission, for example, for work to be completed so that goods would not spoil or for humanitarian reasons. In one case, permission was granted to keep water pumps operating without which coal mines would have flooded.

The authorities were powerless: troops were drafted in from London and the South East - but even in the capital they had to run the gauntlet of strike supporters and were compelled to fix bayonets and march with police escorts to the trains that would carry them north.

One solution…!

Marx on religion:

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless circumstances. It is the opium of the people.

Not, you’ll notice, ”religion’s bad, mmmkay, we should probably ban it“, the proposition in support of which the last sentence, taken out of context, is usually quoted, be it through ignorance or charlatanism.

Marx was an atheist, yes, and believed that in a rational, human society, most people would ultimately turn away from religion of their own free will.  But to Marx, the enemy was not religion itself, but a world which makes religion necessary.  This is precisely the opposite of the Richard Dawkinsian obsession with blaming all the world’s real, material problems on the irrational ideas in some people’s heads.

Similarly, we contrast the intolerant attitudes of Stalin, Mao and Christopher Hitchens with those of Lenin and the Old Bolsheviks, who saw as inherently progressive the struggle against religious persecution - and in particlar, as it happens, the persecution of Muslims in Central Asia - and once called upon his comrades “vigorously to counteract the division of the workers in the struggle into atheists and Christians, vigorously to oppose any such division“.

Lenin opposed state interference in people’s religion, not because he supported religion per se, but precisely because:

The combating of religion cannot be confined to abstract ideological preaching, and it must not be reduced to such preaching. It must be linked up with the concrete practice of the class movement, which aims at eliminating the social roots of religion.

Those elements of the contemporary British left who stand with Muslims - even if we don’t necessarily share their views - against their oppressors are frequently accused of selling out our principles, of being shamelessly opportunistic, of leaving our Marxism at the doors of the mosque.

But if Marx were here today, he wouldn’t be flicking through the Qu’ran for excuses to ostracise and isolate the people whose beliefs he found “backward”.  He would be trying to expose the secular/religious dichotomy for what it is: a sham, a scheme to distract from the real (as opposed to the philosophical) causes of our problems and an attempt to pit us against each other instead of against the system.

You can tell it’s mid-July from the fierce chill wind on the picket lines this morning.  Oh well.  I’ve been talking to some of the strikers on behalf of Socialist Worker; the hurried synthesis of phoned-in reports from many comrades around the country into a coherent set of articles being, by necessity, a bit of a Mostly Harmless affair from the point fo view of the contributors, I thought I’d put my own experiences straight up here.  (Update: my reports - with a photo - made it into this article, only available, alas, in the online edition)

First we went to a council office in Gorton.  Unison steward Phil Moth said they’d had a very good response to the picket line.  This was borne out by the honking of supportive horns from virtually every other car or van that drove past, and hte near-emptiness of the car park.  One first-time striker said she was shocked by the level of hostility they received from some of the non-unionised workers; another steward commented that those scabbing were almost all at the higher end of the pay scale.  Several of the workers that did come in expressed an interest in joining the union - membership has apparently been surging in the run-up to the strike.  One visitor to the offices - a member of NAHT - said he wasn’t about to cross the picket line, and turned right around to leave, boosting the morale of the picketers considerably.

Generally the strike had been well organised, on the part of Unison at least, with union stewards from workplaces that had been shut down coming to support pickets at weaker workplaces.  Less impressive was Unison’s unwillingness to promote the rally tomorrow (12 noon at the peace gardens), but this hostility didn’t filter down to the picket lines.  Most of the people we spoke to hadn’t been aware of the rally, but were now intending to come.

In front of Longsight library was a collection of very lively picket lines - library workers, school workers and social workers - numbering about 20 people in total.

Rachelle Whittle, a teaching assistant with a placard saying “We teach your kids, help us feed ours!” told me that there was a real feeling of anger among her colleagues at the way they had been treated.  Their real pay was being cut not just by inflation - although that was a real concern - but by the extra workload they’ve been forced to take on.  TAs have to cover for teachers while the latter are sick or busy with other duties, to the extent that some now teach more often than they work as TAs, with the result of what picketer Hannah Cutts described as “chronic additional hours”.  Extra unpaid hours are being phased in, adding up to 9 hours per week for some workers, and the school offers TAs no help with childcare, even as they work to care for others’ children.  These childcare expenses form a major part cost of living increase for school workers whose wages are already low.

Although the pay and treatment received by the TAs and other staff is poor compared to teachers, there is a good deal of solidarity between the two workforces.  The teachers were apparently organising a collection to support those striking today, returning a favour done by the others for the teachers’ strike in April.  The public passing by were also very supportive; Unison steward Eddie Hughes explained that they “understand that the people who work in their schools are very badly paid, and so they support our strikes”.

The message from social workers, too, was that inflation was not the only problem.  “It’s about resources as well as wages”, Jim Hall told me, “We have to go out trying to find support for people who are struggling with their situation, and there’s just none out there.  We’re working in crisis mode; it’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong, and then it will be the ordinary social workers who take the blame”.   Linda Marie Winfield, who had been frustrated that at how long it took to get this kind of militancy, pointed out the hypocrisy of MPs who can get second homes on expenses trying to cut the pay of those who do the real work on the ground.

Overall, the atmosphere was both very positive and very angry.  The pay freeze had been the last straw for many workers, who’d already seen years of funding cuts and workload increases.  There was no sectional “economism” or “workerism” either; the workers striking this week are mainly those who dedicate their lives to helping others anyway, and it’s been made harder and harder for them to do that properly.  Social workers are not just striking for social workers, but the chance to do proper social work, a defiance of the logic of privatisation and a defence of public services.

Opinions were mixed as to whether the strikes would ultimately succeed (the government has already said no but there is talk of another two-day strike in August, and of joint action later with the workers who walked out in April), but even the pessimists were refusing to take it lying down.  I think the recent victory by the Shell tanker drivers shows just what can be acheived; the money is there, and it’s just a matter of taking it.

It’s ironic.  A paradox, if you will.  Term has ended, a job has yet to be found, my better half is still far away and for financial reasons (as well as to babysit the cat) I’ve rereated from the epicentre of my political activity to my Dad’s house.  I should have more time than ever to write about the exciting new topics that Marxism set my off thinking about.  But, for exactly those same reasons, I’m less inclined than ever to do so.  Got a bit of a sulk on, to be honest.  Then I saw this:

There is an enormous pressure on our already stretched Forces and how many servicemen and women will be available is a serious consideration. It won’t be the case of bringing troops back home, but they are a long way from deciding on the finer details.

Available for what?, I hear you ask (if you haven’t already clicked through to investigate, or abandoned me for another, more welcoming blog).  I’m not talking about Gordon Brown’s war on Nigeria - hands down, I didn’t see that coming - but the eagerly-awaited demise of Margaret Thatcher.  She’s to get a state funeral, apparently, the first non-royal since Wnston Churchill to be so honoured.

Some are getting quite offended by this debasement of such a noble institution.  State funerals are meant for anti-semitic colonialist psychopaths who invoke the army against striking workers and dream of ethnically cleansing the Iraqi countryside through the liberal use of poison gas those who can combine war heroics with a sharp wit and the potential for immortalisation through a cute zoomorphic advertising campaign, not on a monster like this one.  (Imagine it: looking for the best deal on children’s milk?  Challenge Thatcher.  She’ll say ‘Aaaaawww, No!’).  To me this outrage is odd; if you knew nothing about Thatcher, and had no other grounds for hating her, surely her imminent deification by the Westminster regime would be a clue to the fact that she wasn’t exactly one of the goodies?

It is a bit out-of-the-blue, though; she’s not dead yet or anything.  All I can see it as is a provocation, as a calculated insult.  Are you mad about the 10p tax band?  Here’s a statue of Mrs Poll Tax.  Concerned by the creeping privatisation of public services?  Let’s take a moment to honour the woman whose dream it all started out as.  Gearing up to go on strike against the government’s pay freeze?  Here’s a militaristic parade in the memory of she who smashed you to smithereens last time around!  I know they all worship her but still, are they really so out of touch that they don’t know how this will go down with the rest of us?  I think not; I think that’s the whole point.

Anyway, let’s hope that the shortage of troops for her entourage is no Daily hateMail hyperbole.  And let’s, in good enemy-within-ly spirit (in a stirring display of un-British values) start organising a battalion of ex-miners and the rest, to fill the breach and send the Iron Lady off in the style she deserves:

(click here for the Elton John version, which is actually rather good)

All this reminds me of a spin-off blog I came close to launching one rainy afternoon, called “Is Maggie Thatcher Dead Yet?“  Each entry would start with “Maggie Thatcher’s not dead yet, but…”.  It would be politically-jokey place for links to news stories that I wanted to post without necessarily writing a detailed commentary about.

Well, no, let’s not.  Fire-from-the-skies isn’t gonna help anyone over there, and the last thing British politcs need is a righteous foreign policy crusade behind which we could unite as a nation.  Imperialist wars are never the answer to the threat of fascism.  But if“Let’s bomb something!” has to be the answer, I think the fascists’ return to power in Italy is a far more pertinent question than a nuclear energy programme in Iran.

I honestly can’t believe it hasn’t happened sooner, but Rupert Murdoch’s bully boys are trying to sue (and effectively close down) Media Lens.  They don’t really have a case to answer, and so I’m not too worried, but really:

the steps we have suggested are pitiful in their timidity. We have always seen media activism as a small, energising contribution intended to inspire much wider, much more profound, political organisation and activism.

What we have done to Iraq is not a video game; it is not a Hollywood invention. We really have destroyed an entire nation and brought misery to millions. About that, this whole country should not be writing a few emails; it should be in uproar.

I’m off, back next week.  Maybe see you there?

Update: I’m back.

Marxism 2008 opening rally - picture by 3arabawy

The festival was amazing, one of the most intense times of my life, and one of the most exhilirating.  Never before have I seen so many people in one place to discuss and link up the struggles against capitalism, exploitation and oppression.  I missed the headline meeting, with David Hilliard formerly of the Black Panther party, on account of the enormous queue, as well as some of the other big names like Tariq Ali and Tony Benn (although I did make sure to see Eamonn McCann give a witty and animated account to a packed auditorium about his battles with the Raytheon corporation), but then some of the smallest meetings I went to were also some of the most fun, with some really good debate going on.  I got a good mix of theoretical debates and reports from around the world, really sharpening my understanding of what’s going on in the world and what we can do about it.

I met some of my favourite bloggers in person, Richard “Lenin” Seymour and Hossam “3arabawy” el Hamalawy.  Well, I didn’t actually get to introduce myself to Hossam (if you’re reading this, rafik, I was the handsome lad in the third row, with the five day shadow and the lime green t-shirt) because I was waylaid by a couple of young camarades from the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire for a chat about the situation in France and the challenges involved in building a broader movement.  There were a lot of LCR about, as well as campaigners and socialists from more countries accross the world than I could possibly keep track of (although the speaker from the Nigerian trade union movement was thwarted by racist visa laws), and from just down the road, where the London underground cleaners are striking for better pay and conditions.

One thing that really came home to me was how events in different countries linked up to one another.  When so many Zimbabwean refugees are being exploited by South African capital, and so much of South Africa’s markets are in Zimbabwe, how can we possibly talk about Mugabe without also talking about Mbeki. 

I arguably participated a little over-enthusiastically, speaking up (or trying to) at virtually every meeting I went to, although in a few of these, especially by the last day, I was really well received.  I can also see why it might have been a bit too intense for some people still testing the waters of political activity - I can see the value of putting on a bit more in the way of arty-creative workshops and exhibitions and that during the day for people who need a bit of a break, maybe a “which meeting should I go to?” guide to help people make the most of their Marxism - but those constructive criticisms aside, almost everyone I talked to - from seasoned old Bolsheviks to inquisitive newbies - shared the “buzz” of being part of something that could really change the world.

I gather from what older comrades are telling me that this was also one of the biggest, youngest, and most diverse Marxisms in terms of the participants; the cliché of the Left as mainly old, white and male is really hard for activists of my generation to relate to, and what a positive development that is too.  Anyway, I’m very glad now to be back where there’s a real bed and a less-than-14-hour day, but at the same time I already can’t wait for next year, and for building on what I’ve learned in the meantime.

Happy 60th Birthday to the state of Israel

Believe it or not, the man whose 90th birthday seems to merit his own personal mini-Live 8* was once a self-described terrorist.  Alas, my copy of The Long Walk To Freedom is in a box in (I think) London, so I can’t find you a direct quote, but Nelson Mandela certainly used that word in describing some of the activities of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation, MK for short), the ANC’s armed wing which he was instrumental in setting up.  I don’t use the word perjoratively - it’s pretty much standard for any armed resistance/liberation movement to be labelled in this way - but it’s worth remembering how far he once was from the establishment Santa Claus, the universally revered old man whose back we can all come together in slapping.

Actually, the Madiba isn’t so much a 21st Century Santa Claus, but the last survivor of the three patron saints of the 20th Century, along with the Mahatma and MLK.  All three have been transformed from thorns deep in the sides of racist Western imperialism into heroes that it is happy to celebrate.  John McCain now publicly regrets opposing the creation of a Martin Luther King day (although Dick Cheney is probably openly-evil enough not to bother with such crocodile tears over his opposition to solidarity with Nelson Mandela).  And why?  What do these heroes represent?  Well, we all know the answer to that, don’t we; Gordon Brown gave us a clue in his tribute to the birthday boy.

Nelson Mandela is remarkable, apparently, not for fighting against apartheid and winning, but for doing so with a complete lack of bitterness, or something along those lines.  Martin Luther King, of course, was a hero, more than anything, for not being Malcolm X.  And as for Gandhi… well I think I’ve made my feelings on that subject pretty clear.  These saints - or at least, the media caricatures thereof - represent the anger of the oppressed, moderated.  The urge to fight one’s oppressors turned into the urge to express one’s innate moral superiority over one’s oppressors through one’s strict adherence to one’s dearly held principle of non-violence.  Their deification represents a concession, a tactical retreat from the argument that the black and the brown should know their place to the formulation that victory is not overthrowing the system, but making your peace with it.

This representation, I should add, is not always fair.  Gandhi did very much make a career out of taking credit for the revolution that he was holding back, but I wouldn’t be quite so harsh on Martin Luther King.  He started out as a bit of a soft liberal preacher, and a preachy one at that, but he was one radicalised by the struggle.  By the time he was assassinated, demonstrations of moral superiority were the last thing on his mind.  He was more interested in organised working class action in Memphis, or in resistance to imperialism in Vietnam; issues which he saw as far from seperate in a struggle that, by this point, was less about Black people than about poor people.

Nelson Mandela, meanwhile, is best remembered for stoically going to prison in defence of Black people’s right to vote, but in fact he - and his many comrades - were fighting for considerably more than that:

The People Shall Share in the Country’s Wealth!

• The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
• The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
• All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the wellbeing of the people;
• All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.

The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It!

• Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
• The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
• Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
• All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
• People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.