Following up stories around the web

A number of posts around the web caught my attention over the past couple of days. Two of these very much related to what has being going on in the PCS union where the members only Face book page has been used by the Socialist Party to promote it's Trade Union & Socialist Coalition project in the recent elections. It didn't do very well at all as we all know.

Neither did their NO2EU slate that disappeared without trace so to speak.

Whilst I've published some posts on the far lefts interventions in the local elections, there were others who had a good look at the claims of the Socialist Party who wrote on their website:

The central mood was a desire to kick all the 'establishment' parties or, as one Ukip voter put it, to "scare the government", with the EU acting as a catch-all for a generalised anger. Six in ten Ukip supporters described their vote as a general protest because they were "unhappy with all established political parties at the moment".

It has not been reported in the capitalist press, but an important minority of workers expressed their anger by voting for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). In the biggest left-of-Labour stand since the war, 561 no-cuts candidates stood in the local and other elections. They received over 65,000 votes.

Over at All That Is Solid, Phil BC analyses their claims:

Their treatment of TUSC's results are exercises in self-deception. It's fodder to keep the troops marching, to demonstrate to them that the campaign was worth it and that real successes were made. Sure, TUSC was squeezed by UKIP mania and there was a media blackout but 68,000 votes represent a real echo among the class. Etcetera, etcetera. More importantly, however, the SP desperately need to keep the RMT on board. With a crunch election coming in 2015, whoever wins September's ballot, the new boss will be under pressure to back Labour next May, a pressure made all the stronger when there are clear, discernible differences between it and Dave's hapless, vicious Tories. Talking up TUSC's "achievements" and the absence of any kind of open, critical reflection has to be seen in this context. The SP and its eternal general secretary knows as well as I that if the RMT goes, not only will the TUSC project be sunk but it will have a profoundly demoralising impact on a whole layer of party activists.

That also will impact on their nefarious activities in the PCS union where the Socialist Party Grandees got shafted in their desire to get PCS taken over by the Unite union. Their usually passive left-wing supporters rebelled and without any "mainstream" opposition the friction between SPEW and the rest of the left is certain to grow.

Although the PCS Face book pages attract few actual members (and few activists it would seem with just a little over 600 registered to view) the SP have resorted to promoting one of their other projects, the National Shop Stewards Movement (NSSN), though that is likely to stir little interest even with the prospect of a cross public sector strike being mooted for July 10th. The lead article from admin has managed just one "like". Go figure.

A second article that is worth taking a look at (especially in the light of the issue being subject to a ban by the powers that be in PCS) is a report on the Sharia Watch website which reminds readers that:

There is no equality under shariah law; non-Muslims are second class citizens and judgement will always be given to the ‘believer’. For it is not about ‘justice’ or ‘right and wrong’ it is about the furtherance of Islam, and it is supremely important that the West understands that it is doing no favours to anyone in tolerating shariah law.

Given the on-going campaign to free Meriam in Sudan the so-called left needs to re-examine its orientation on such matters.

However that would require the comrades to grow up and think as individuals which would be difficult given that Marxism has become too much of a religion in itself within the various sects acting in His name.

That would be the holy trinity of Marx/Engels/Lenin and the rest of their pantheon by the way.

Meanwhile, Andrew Gilligan has produced a detailed analysis of what has been happening in Tower Hamlets in his Daily Telegraph blog,following Richard "Race Play" Seymours so-called defence in the ever declining Guardian news paper:

I’ve been marvelling at last week’s Guardian article by Richard Seymour and Ashok Kumar defending Lutfur Rahman, the extremist-linked mayor of Tower Hamlets. Ashok is the man who celebrated Rahman’s election victory under the headline: “The last outpost of the Raj falls.” There are also interesting things online about Richard which open, shall we say, new windows into his views on racism. With friends like these, etc, etc.

Even by the standards of the Guardian’s reporting of Tower Hamlets – most unlikely to win another Pulitzer! – this is an amazingly dishonest piece. Its 950 words contain by my count at least 18 separate falsehoods, many of them copied directly from council press releases and Rahman leaflets (see above.)

It’s worth going through the claims from the leaflet (and – where different – the article) to deconstruct some of the things we’ll be hearing endlessly from Rahman and his defenders in the weeks ahead. “Judge me by my record,” he keeps saying. Not, presumably, his and his supporters'cronyism, favouritism, passing of valuable council assets to his friends,links with extremism, bullying, intimidation, unscrupulousness and general political sleaze but his many alleged policy accomplishments to help the people of Tower Hamlets.

Even some of his opponents half-buy the line that Rahman’s success is due as much to his populist policies as to vote-buying, ethnic bloc favouritism and so on. See what you think once you’ve read this.

Full article: here.

Talking about Islamism you also might be interested in this article by Jim Denham at Shiraz Socialist:The Guardian prepares itself for "Trojan Horse" Ofsted humiliation