Time to end the Stop the War Appeasement Campaign

The barbaric murder of Alan Henning, a man who only went to the Middle East with the intention of helping people suffering from the effects of war once again focuses our minds on how truly evil these ISIS criminals really are. This comes after we have seen scenes of genocide against Christians, Kurds and others including any Muslim that doesn't share their barbarism across our TV screens, in the press and on-line.

And yet there remain those who refuse to act, led by the most ill-named organisation the far-left and its Islamist allies, the Stop the War Coalition. Whatever it was formed to do over a decade ago, the StWC has been an unsavoury cheerleader for Hamas, the Assad regime, Putin's invasion of the Ukraine and now wants to stand aside and let ISIS exterminate huge numbers of ordinary men, women and children.

All in the name of armchair "anti-imperialism".

And bizarre conspiracy theorists if this supporter is to be believed from their Face Book page:

Its all fake and staged!! We dont kno who isis are? Some isis have anerican and u.k tatoos on them! Basically u.k and u.s are goin to destroy syria to remove tha ASSAD REGIME just to please israel.. Isis is a smoke screen nothing else.

The mind boggles at this ridiculous but actually widely believed theory.

At the same time the Kurds have been staging a hunger strike in Central London for a week and have been calling for our support in the form of heavy weapons to defend Kobane, where another tragedy is unfolding.

The Guardian reports:

Kurds near Downing Street demand heavy weapons and antitank missiles from the UK government for fight against Isis.

Members of the Kurdish diaspora have been staging protests and hunger strikes around the world in support of calls by Kurdish leaders in Syria for weapons to help their forces fighting Islamic State (Isis) in the besieged border town of Kobani, where they fear a massacre if support does not arrive soon.

While Kurds have taken to the streets of European cities, those in Britain have initiated a hunger strike close to the gates of Downing Street as part of a campaign calling for the UK to provide Kurdish forces with advanced weapons......

Those taking part in the London protest include sympathisers of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organisation in many western states including the UK and has close links to the Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD), a group representing Kurds in Syria. It says that its calls for arms have been rebuffed by the United States and European nations and blames Turkey for obstructing his efforts.

What do the comrades have to say? Keith Ovenden, one of George Galloway's Lieutenants writes on the StWC website:

The only interest that Washington, London, Ankara and Israel have in the Kurds’ suffering in IS-areas is in a mountain of corpses with which to hide their own murderous policies in the region. Every time one of these global or regional powers have advanced in the area it has been at the expense of the Kurds.

Disgusting.

The StWC and their supporters should be ashamed of themselves. They simply want us to stand aside whilst a genocide takes place.

The far-left itself has a murderous tradition when in power, so it's unsurprising that since they have decided that Islamism will help them bring down capitalism that they excuse or ignore atrocities committed by these criminals and others.

There are many trade unions who finance this group through affiliations. Members in PCS, Unite and others should demand disaffiliation now!

Abhishek Phadnis and Chris Moos speech - Secularist of the Year 2014

Cross-post from the National Secular Society

Well deserved award!

A Thursday Miscellany

There's quite a lot of this going on at the moment which requires my attention so I'm a bit short of time tonight. So here's a few items that caught my attention today:

Counterfire Split: The breakaway from the Socialist Workers Party led by Lyndsey German and John Rees has it self had a breakaway. The group which is believed to have between 50 and 100 members, mainly in London has just lost 17 of them in a dispute over "internal" matters.

One wonders if the orientation towards Stalinism by the Rees/German leadership has had anything to do with it? The only "name" amongst the latest group of splitters in the amoebic world of Trotskyism is Neil Faulkner who is an archaeologist apparently.

The group had at one time set up the Firefox Cafe in Kings Cross to enable comrades to chat revolution over a cappuccino or two. However that went "base over apex" last year causing the group some considerable financial losses.

Now we await the creation of yet another trotskyist groupscule.

Why do they bother..



Moving away from politics, there's new posts over at Howie's World of Comics which may be of interest including Spragg! The Conqueror of the Human Race, Booster Gold, Superman and The House of Secrets amongst others.

Finally I was sad to hear of the unexpected death of Lynsey De Paul today who was someone I remember well from the seventies and (along with Mike Moran) managed to come second in the 1977 Eurovision song contest.

Here's that song to play us out tonight.

PCS: Crisis and censorship

The announcement that yet another group of members are set to break away from the main civil service union, PCS has certainly caused a reaction at the leadership level. When the SOCA members broke last year there was a total news blackout on PCS controlled media. Attempts to debate or discuss the situation have been firmly sat on.

On Sunday I published an article below which was then posted to the (closed) PCS members only Face Book page. I had prefaced it with the comment that this was a legitimate news story that members should be aware of. It lasted just four hours before a message was sent to me by admin saying that they "would not allow the promotion of scab unions".

How a union that is simply just being in the process of being formed can be a "scab union" is beyond me. There had been the beginnings of a debate by some of the comrades (obviously hostile) but even this was too much for the jilted PCS leadership.

In response I sent the article out on my e-mail list complaining about the censorship. Guess what. Yes, someone complained and I had a "desist" letter from DWP Group because some Trot didn't like their members hearing the news.

Tough!

One member of the National Executive Committee has informed me that "robust action" will be taken against this "silly" new union. Given what happened last year to members in SOCA we're talking suspensions and Rule 10 complaints ,which can lead to people being barred from holding union office for up to three years, effectively removing individuals permanently from PCS activity.

Given the idea of the RCTU is to form a new union anyway, such action by the NEC will probably have the opposite effect to that intended.

No mention of trying to sit down and talk by any of the comrades which a normal organisation might try and take to maintain unity. No for the comrades of the PCS leadership it's "win and take all".

No compromise.

The attitude that's led to this "split" in the first place!

There is also nowhere for reps and members to discuss the crisis. I'm told it is "inappropriate" to use the unions Face Book page and they say I've been warned about "provocative posts" before and I could be banned, Not that they want to of course.......

Of course not.

For the record any comment or post that doesn't fit in the comrades agenda is considered "trolling" or "provocative", so one thing the unions FB page isn't any good for is err..discussion.

Several of my posts have been banned. One which referred to the "superstitious nonsense of Islam" (in an atheist context) got me removed as I obviously had a "problem with Muslims".

No comrades. Religion itself is the thing I have a problem with along with the censorious Trotskyist types that run the union, the ones who demanded that a post supporting action to save the Christians and Kurds from ISIS was also taken down after some lefty harridan accused me of being a "warmonger" and "near fascist".

Charming.

The only people being kept in the dark are the members of the union who are presented only "sanitised" versions of events (if at all) from the far-left PCS leadership. I have only a limited ability to counter this on-line and by e-mail but I will not be silenced.

PCS contains members with views from across the political spectrum.

The left does not believe in free speech and open debate. If you put forward different views you get shouted down, banned and possibly disciplined. I've been here before.

I will continue to stand up for what I believe in and report and inform members of what is really going on in PCS. The far-left and their allies have wrecked PCS, it's no longer taken seriously by management, sections of the TUC or large numbers of members who have disengaged with the union.

Another pointless strike coming up will only alienate members who don't see the point of yet another protest strike when they are struggling to make end s meet.

Demonstrate yes, strike again, no.

That's why people are leaving. Even in the lefts stronghold, the DWP I have never seen such a high level of dissatisfaction with the union.

PCS is failing.

There are alternatives, some existing and some that need to be built. The time is coming when many of us will have to make a choice.

That choice might not be PCS.

And the left will be to blame for the decline of the main civil service union.

Left Unity, the Tories best friends.

Musical Interlude from Kurdistan!

A great track from Kurdistan.

Hong Kong Trade Unions fight for democracy!

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions strike for democracy!

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) - the only independent union in China - has called for workers to strike in support of the democracy movement as mass civil disobedience actions come under heavy police attack. The Swire Beverages (Coca-Cola) union and the HKCTU unions of school teachers and dockers are striking and will be joined by other member unions.

CLICK HERE TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!

Tensions have been building in Hong Kong since the August 31 government announcement that candidates for the position of Chief Executive would have to be vetted and approved by a pro-business, pro-Beijing committee.

The protests, originally organized by the students' federation and the Occupy Central coalition, have drawn increasing numbers of supporters. The mainland government has harshly condemned the protestors' demands and the "illegal" protests.

On October 28, the HKCTU declared "we cannot let the students fight alone", and called for workers to strike in support of 4 demands: the immediate release of all the arrested, an end to the suppression of peaceful assembly, replacing the "fake universal suffrage" formula with the genuine political reform workers have been demanding, and the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying.

The HKCTU has been the backbone of the democracy movement, before and following Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule. Their courageous action deserves the support of trade unions everywhere.

CLICK HERE to send a message to the Hong Kong Chief Executive in support of the democratic movement and the strikers' demands!

PCS union to face another breakaway?

Last year members in the Serious Organised Crime Agency split en-mass from the main civil service union PCS following the refusal of the unions far-left leadership to accept the agreements reached by union representatives over the subsuming of SOCA into the Police. Not only have they set up their own union, the National Crime Officers Association, the new union has increased the number of union members in the sector itself.

The whole business (see here and here) was very much hidden from the wider PCS membership, but given the number of members who left was a substantial blow to the ailing fortunes of PCS itself.

Now PCS faces a further challenge from members in the HMRC (Revenue and Customs) as disenchanted members (and others) are now seeking to form a new union.

RCTU

The Revenue & Customs Trade Union (RCTU) announces on it's new website:

This is a serious attempt to form a NEW Trade Union in HM Revenue and Customs. This is backed by a significant number of union representatives ( past and present ) and a wide range of HMRC staff many of whom are members of other Civil Service unions....

It is patently obvious that the current vehicle for union organisation and negotiation in HMRC is broken and irretrievably so. The national union of which HMRC is but a group uses HMRC staff as a virtual political football, something that can only increase when that union falls , as it will, to the larger Unite union. This is unacceptable and contrary to productive industrial relations and the current union has misused and failed to protect and promote the interests of its members most visibly displayed by the falling participation of voting in union ballots and elections and an increasing use of one day stoppages with no clear strategic endgame that is suffering declining support.

We need a mature , responsible , logical approach to industrial relations . Not one of unconstrained ideologies run by political parties ( albeit vastly different from their own real lives ) few have heard of but who actually and really exercise disproportional control of your working lives at union national and group level. Do not think for one second that we are saying it is possible to change everything , overnight or otherwise , we are not . What we know is we can and will deliver a better future for HMRC staff than what they currently face from serious unresolved strategic issues with the employer through to being used as what amounts to foot soldiers in a battle with politicians for the “enjoyment” of 19th century recidivists.

What they say about "the current union" (obviously PCS, but not spelled out for diplomatic reasons) will ring true to those who have had to put up with the "19th century recidivists" in both their own groups (like the DWP) and the National union as a whole.

PCS leaders and the far-left in the HMRC are understandably not happy according to reports I've heard, but no official statement has been released to my knowledge.

There are signs that a small number of members have been quitting PCS, some joining the pre-existing Prospect union. With the end of the "check off" system coming to many departments, there may well be more than a few more. At one National Executive Committee meeting plans were made which acknowledged the possible loss of around 10% of the membership.

If the RCTU does get off the ground PCS will find recruitment in another sector even more difficult. I understand the new union is relying on "expressions of interest" as it tries to obtain recognition from the employer. How successful this will be depend on work done in the HMRC offices themselves.

Certainly a development to watch.

Please note this article was banned by PCS from their Face Book page. Defend Free Speech!