Opinion: On the burning and banning of books

Freedom of speech and expression is something we take for granted not only in this country but across the western world for granted. It is rare indeed that books are banned by the authorities and the development of the internet has led to more and more people having both the access to (potentially) mass media and actually taking up the opportunity.

There are a huge number of blogs and websites across the World Wide Web in which not just paid media journalists but the ordinary person with access to a computer can now express themselves about whatever issues they please. These of course range from the mainstream to the extreme and frankly the downright weird, though the latter is of course a very subjective view of some, possibly a lot of internet content.

The internet is of course a relatively recent development, for most of modern history publishing has always relied on the printed word. Newspapers, books magazines and of course the pamphleteers have been the main source of news and more importantly opinion.

The burning of books in our times are very much associated with the Nazi's who built bonfires of literature that didn't fit in their evil and twisted world view. Especially those that were Jewish or Communist.

Censorship of course still exists, as do libel laws. The former seemingly aims at violent and sexual content of films and TV programmes (enter Mary Whitehouse)  but on occasion due to the needs of state security. Assange and Snowden come to mind. Whether these people were right or wrong to release sensitive documentation is a matter for debate. Personally I accept there are limits when such information could be of assistance to terrorists and their ilk because simply put, lives are at stake.

However the big censors of our age are religious in origin. To a certain extent the Mary Whitehouse phenomenon was Christian based, but relied more on moral pressure, public campaigning and lobbying. Not all Christians agreed with her and she undermined her campaign by going too far for most normal people in her condemnation of the Tom & Jerrycartoons and complaining about naked manikins in shop windows.

Today's attempt at censorship comes from another religious quarter, that of Islam and in particular Islamism. Probably most people's first encounter with this was the burning of Salman Rushdie's book the Satanic Verses. The sight of books being burnt on the streets of Britain horrified the vast majority of people in this country. For purely political reasons this book became a cause celebre in the Muslim world and led to the infamous Fatwa against Rushdie by the Ayatollahs of Iran.

I only purchased this book because of the furore it caused, as no doubt did thousands of other people. My opinion? Pretentious shite for the chattering classes, that would have sunk into obscurity if not for the fuss. Rushdie made a mint for a book that I wouldn't recommend to anyone, not because its' "blasphemous" (I'm an atheist) simply put, its just rubbish.

The rest of course is history. But it hasn't ended there. There was a big fuss over the novel about Mohammed's youngest wife, Aisha which led to death threats as did the cartoons for the Danish newspaper (only one of which was actually funny). But one has to question the mentality and the real reason these extremists are afraid of satire or criticism in any shape or form.

These people are afraid. Not of "God" but that (heaven forbid) ordinary mortals in the Muslim world would start questioning their beliefs. These attacks on free speech are the result of the fear that these men (in the main) will lose their power over the masses and will be exposed for the charlatans that they are.

Even now the pernicious influence of Islamism undermines not just free speech, but human rights and even life itself. Their attempt to murder a child (Malala) has backfired. Her recent book is now banned in private schools in Pakistan as "un-Islamic". In other words a threat to their prevailing order.

Muslims should be asking themselves why these men are so afraid, and why a young child needs to be murdered by these so called men of god. The answer to me is obvious. Islamism is political not religious and is about power. Human rights and justice are non-existent to these medievalists.

Problem is these rednecks won't go away until Islam itself has a reformation and gets dragged into the twenty-first century. Believe what you will, but learn tolerance is a prime virtue. If mere words from those who do not choose to think like you are such a threat perhaps the one true religion isn't what it seems to be.

The future must be secular if the fear and killing is to stop. Respect is not a one way street.

Comrades in denial

All is far from well on the far left at the moment. The two "big" stories from the fringes tonight are:

Backtracking by Jerry Hicks

The front page article on the Sunday Times yesterday about the decision of Jerry Hicks to go to the Trade Union Certification has had wider ramifications than comrade Hicks and his cronies expected. The story was (unsurprisingly) picked up by Conservative Home who opined:

The defeated challenger, Jerry Hicks, claims almost 160,000 people were balloted despite not being members of the union. Some ballot papers were sent to people who had died.

Ordinarily, such complaints might seem like sour grapes. But given Len’s defence of dodgy practices in Falkirk and the fact that figures involved in the Falkirk and Grangemouth scandals were helping to run his campaign it’s understandable that Hicks is concerned.

As he asks,

“Was Falkirk an aberration or a modus operandi?”

As the investigations pile up, looking into seemingly every aspect of Unite’s politicking, perhaps we will soon find out.

This has of course caused some consternation of the left.  Anne Field writing on Shiraz Socialist says:

If there is hard evidence of vote-rigging in this year’s Unite general secretary elections, Hicks is perfectly entitled to raise it. Socialists would defend him for doing so, even if the right-wing media were to exploit such a complaint for its own ends.

But that is not the case here.

Hicks is endorsing gutter-level accusations about vote-rigging by Unite in Falkirk Labour Party in order to try to lend some credibility to allegations about vote-rigging in the Unite general secretary elections.

The Sunday Times picks up on these allegations. In three articles on five pages it attacks Unite and its links to the Labour Party. Hicks’ response is not to condemn the witch-hunt but to say: “Hey look, they’re talking about me!”

So how has Hicks reacted? Initially he wrote:

The Sunday Times [0/11/2013] Front page article  Union boss Len McCluskey 'elected by phantoms' carries my complaint to the Certification Officer regarding possible irregularities during the election for Unites General Secretary last April. 

You may remember the Guardian and Private Eye have also covered this issue. The media are responding to our press release of the 9th September [reprinted below]. The complaint also includes the conduct [of certain officials] of during the election. Which was the 'dirtiest' of all the election I have ever stood in.

Today however he seems a little concerned about the adverse reaction this has caused and decides to try and worm out of his actions:

"Following my complaint to the certification officer regarding irregularities in the Unite General Secretary election campaign, I issued a press release.

 
The Guardian and Private Eye were the first to cover the issue. Today the Sunday Times has.

I am well aware that Murdoch and his papers are no friend of the labour movement and will have their own agenda. 

I am writing this to draw attention to the Sunday Times linking the substance of my complaint with the issues at Falkirk.

I myself do not link my complaint with any matters of Falkirk, Unite and the Labour Party.

I am opposed to any attempt use my complaint in any witch hunt against my union." 

Bit late for that "comrade" Hicks. The games up. Ross Harper (also writing at Shiraz Socialist) sums up:

The next time Hicks throws his hat into the ring in another general secretary election, Unite members should remember this scurrilous fiasco.

A "Mexican stand off" in the SWP?

The Socialist Workers Party continues to tear itself apart at aggregates around the country. Somewhat outnumbered the remains of the opposition is losing badly having thus far managed to get just 18 delegates (out of 200) to what many suspect will be the swansong of the party in December.

Meanwhile a document has appeared (somewhat hidden on the Internet) which contains some laughable formulations from people like Paul H(olborow) and Ian B(irchill).  Here's a taster:

As a result of the crisis in the organisation, we now face a debate over party structure, 
party democracy and the role of leadership in the organisation. Debates on our 
understanding of Leninism, with claims and counter claims as to what constitutes the 
‘real’ IS tradition, have become central precisely because they touch on this question. 

You can read the rest of their drivel here: http://toast-hosting.co.uk/FACING-FUTURE-BATTLES%20TOGETHER.pdf

No hope for these people either.

The shame of private schools in Pakistan

The Independent reports:

The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which says it represents more than 152,000 institutions across the country, has decided that allowing pupils to read the book, I am Malala, would have a "negative" effect on them. The federation also said it believed the book was not entirely respectful of Islam.

The book will not be included in the schools' curriculum, nor will it be stocked in school libraries. Pakistan's most elite schools belong to the federation. The government does not plan to teach it in state schools, though it is not banned.

"The federation thought we should review the book, and having reviewed it we came to the decision that the book was not suitable for our children, particularly not our students," said the federation's president, Mirza Kashif. "Pakistan is an ideological country. That ideology is based on Islam.... In this book are many comments that are contrary to our ideology."

The International News adds a comment by one so-called teacher:

Kashif maintained that there are almost 700,000 teachers teaching tens of hundreds of thousands of students in private schools of Pakistan and the federation has directed all of them to update the children not to follow Malala after her book in which ‘Satanic Verses’ has been referred to as freedom of expression while the entire Muslim ummah has a different view on it.

Despite the obvious and well documented evidence that the Taliban themselves set out to kill Malala, the Belfast Telegraph reports:

Malala has become an international hero for opposing the Taliban and standing up for girls' education. But conspiracy theories have flourished in Pakistan that her shooting was staged to create a hero for the West.

Truth is the Islamists are bullies, cowards and murderers who need to be opposed.

If Pakistans so-called "private educators" are not up to the task, then the parents should show some mettle and take their kids out of these medieval institutions now.

The world needs to follow Malala's example and stand up and be counted!

Far from United

The continuing crisis around Len McClusky's roll in both the Labour Party and within his own union took a particularly strange twist today. The front page headline of The Sunday Times read Union boss "elected by phantoms" (£) and told the tale of uber-militant Jerry Hick's (somewhat belated) decision to go to the Trade Union Certification Officer to complain that "almost 160,000 of those balloted (in the recent General Secretary election) were not members. Hicks is reported by the paper as claiming that:

...the election was unlawful because it included people who had left the union were included in the ballot. Hicks said dead former members were among those sent voting papers.

Hicks then goes on to link the Falkirk Labour Party with his complaint. He tells The Sunday Times:

"Was Falkirk an aberration or a modus operandi? There are serious questions that need to be answered about these tens of thousands of non-members of the the union who were sent ballot papers".

Of course Hicks is seeking to overturn the recent election result which he lost by 80,000 votes to McCluskey's 144,000. A further election is indeed a possibility as the solicitor he has obtained, Jody Atkinson, was behind the successful move to force a re-run of of the General Secretary election in the building union Ucatt.

Hicks (an unemployed member of Unite) of course is one of those demagogic activists that pretends he's speaking to thousands no matter how small an audience he addresses. A former member of the Socialist Workers Party ,who was surprisingly backed by the SWP (who were then unceremoniously kicked out of the Unite Left group) he is less interested in representing Unite members and their actual interests, rather he promotes the far-left.

Hicks has garnered support from the breakaway International Socialist Network who write:

Hicks stood on a clearly radical platform, calling for rank and file militancy, democratisation of the union, and socialist politics. Given that McCluskey, who gained 144,570 votes, was the incumbent, and had the whole weight of the bureaucracy behind him, this was an impressive result. His campaign clearly tapped into a mood among many Unite members. This campaign built on the result of Hicks’s previous campaign in 2010, out of which the Grassroots Left was launched. Following the substantial vote gained this year, activists involved in the campaign aim to launch a new rank and file organisation in an attempt to build upon these gains, Unite Fight Back, which is now called Grassroots Rank and File.

Of cousre this is typical fare for the Trot left. Unions exist for their benefit, for use by their supporters to overthrow capitalism, blah, blah. This is clearly outlined:

....socialists need to argue that, whether they claim left wing credentials or not, the full-time officials and bureaucrats in Unite’s leadership are never going to create the mass action needed for the fight against the Tories. What is needed is a democratic, rank and file-led union. This would be a fighting union, not just in its rhetoric, but in its actions. The idea behind Unite Grassroots Rank and File is to provide an organisational focus for this aim, and all socialists should support it.

The ISN continue:

Socialists are involved in similar organisations in PCS, UCU, NUT, Unison and others. This approach is often described as the “broad left” strategy, where socialist organisations and militants unite with those on the left of the trade union bureaucracy in the hope of pulling them towards more militant action, and uniting against the right of the union. 

Of course this is not unique. Such formations do exist in other unions and in the PCS the Left Unity group have succeeded in actually making the union weaker and more irrelevant to it's members through an overtly political strategy than either it or any of the predecessor unions have ever been. The far-left is a disaster for PCS members and would be for Unite members if Hicks and his allies get their way.

It is highly unlikely that there was any actual attempt by McCluskey or any of his supporters to benefit from poor membership records. These are notoriously difficult to keep up to date in any large union. Rather Hicks and his allies are seeking to capitalise on the obvious fallout from Falkirk and make another bid for power.

Saturday Sectariana

Anarchy in the London General Election?

It's not often that anarchists come to my attention nor do I have a particular axe to grind with them, except for the idiots I saw tooling up and then wrecking the TUC pensions march a couple of years back. For the most part I see anarchism and it's variants a simply naive and unworkable.

That said, I was bemused to see that the organisation Class War has been/is being registered as a political party to a view of standing at least eight candidates, perhaps four or more others  at the next general election in 2015. Ian Bone explains their strategy:

There’ll be a high profile contest against IDS in Chingford but we’re keen to get candidates against Zac Goldsmith, Vince Cable, Chuka Unmuna, Simon Hughes, Theresa Villiers, Malcolm Rifkind….but there are 73 seats in London so whatever suits.

We will be having a meeting in mid- January for all candidates, might be candidates and anyone who’d like to support our campaign…………website, fund raising, rabble rousing, street brawling, heckling, scheming.

We are currently registering Class war as a political party so the name and skull will appear on the ballot paper.

There's more too. Mr Bone has gone and.....

The implications of having a fixed five year term for general elections have not been thought through – this being the first time on Thursday May 7th 2015.They present opportunities for small parties which did not exist previously – mainly that you can plan ahead without being caught on the hop by a sudden announcement. But for the truly inventive mind other opportunities present themselves. Yesterday I completed the process of booking Trafalgar Square for a CLASS WAR rally on the Saturday before the election. The staff were completely unaware of the significance of the date.

And they say anarchists can't organise. Go figure.

The slogan they have come up with is:

‘BY THE BRICK AND THE BALLOT’ VOTE CLASS WAR 2015

At least the election might be a bit more entertaining. Less of the bricks though please.

Meanwhile back in Coyoacan

With the virtual demise of the scandal ridden Socialist Workers Party and the perennial problem of the Socialist Party being a pack of boring bureaucrats, the other trotskyist sects are looking around for political marriages, of convenience for now. The home of sectariana the Weekly Worker has devoted a major article in it's latest edition to what it calls Swamp things get together.

As previously reported on Howie's Corner there has been talk over the past few months about a regroupment of various trots in the Socialist Resistance, International Socialist Network and Anti Capitalist Initiative grouplets. They have have a combined membership of less than 500, but according to the Weekly Worker there have been developments.  At a recent ISN conference a minor faction fight between Richard Seymour and Paris Thompson saw a narrow rejection of a merger with SR but:

While a merger with SR was rejected, a wider, broader regroupment project was agreed. This will include not only SR and the likes of Workers Power, but the anti-cuts campaign, Plan C, the Industrial Workers of the World and the Anarchist Federation - which seems speculative, to say the least. 

Some of that statement seems a little incongruous. Our anarchist observer Ian Bone tells us straight:

That’ll be news to most of them…………..

One of his correspondents adds a little more meat to the bone (so to speak):

The IWW don’t do politics, of any kind, with any party or group.

Wishful thinking on someone's part.

Mind you some of the younger members might pledge all sorts, they love to be helpful.

Oh well, dreams are easily dashed comrades.

Meanwhile confusion reigns amongst these various groups:

At the moment it appears that the Anti-Capitalist Initiative is shedding members - the prospect of a merger with the ISN, and more importantly with Socialist Resistance, has caused many autonomist-leaning activists to bolt. The ACI’s nominal leadership, as well as members of the ISN, are heavily integrated with Socialist Resistance now and, from what I have seen, it looks impossible to separate the groups politically.

The Weekly Worker goes on to give some frankly laughable advice:

They also need to reject the method of groups like Workers Power, which demands public support from its members for every dot and comma of its programme. This inevitably causes splits, and the disintegration of the left into hundreds of tiny fragments.

I always thought that was the fun of being on the far left, but still...

This leads nicely to an examination of one persons meanderings through the far left, albeit in Ireland and France. It's a lengthy piece so here's a snippet before I give you the link.

I should say that it isn’t just the forms of activitism – leaflets, protests and papers - that make the far-left stand out culturally, it is the peculiar way in which they deploy them. During elections, one can find all sorts of people distributing political literature without any negative impact upon their social standing. The far left, however, generally considers elections to be a sham and therefore tends to eschew this great normalising avenue of popular political engagement, leaving them fighting for spaces with the Hare Krishnas on the pavements and doorsteps at random times when nobody considered normal or sane is doing so. The content of their message also plays a part in fortifying their negative image. They tend to advocate abstract theoretical solutions, obscure ‘isms’, to a broad public audience and use historical reference points – Petrograd 1917, Kronstadt 1921, Catalonia 1936 - and language – proletariat, bourgeois, surplus value - that the public is not familiar with. By contrast, Irish Republicans use some of the same methods of activism as the far left, but their cultural reference points – Easter 1916, the Treaty of 1921 – are part of the Irish primary schooling curriculum and almost everybody is broadly familiar with their significance and the language they use. The net result is that the far left ends up looking weird on every front – handing out weird material, using weird words, in weird places, alongside other weird people.

The full article is here: http://www.chekov.org/blog/very-untrendy-left

SWP come under fire in PCS union

The following e-mail was sent out to PCS members in the Marine Management Branch by Hubert Gieschen. Members were being asked to vote for nominations without being given any information about the candidates.

Thank you for advising branch members of these proposed nominations. I find it necessary though to advise of my strong opposition to the nomination of Keith Crane for any post in PCS.

I have known Keith for many years and he is a thoroughly nice person. That said he is also a member of a thoroughly anti-democratic party, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) that has covered up rape allegations.

Please see the link to a Guardian article of 22 March 2013 referring to the abysmal manner in which the SWP treated a rape allegation by an SWP member against a leading SWP official Disgusting!

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/22/swp-cover-up-rape-complaint

Would you find a BNP , member acceptable? If like me you say no, then why accept an SWP member?

The SWP still dreams of a violent revolution. Their hero is a man called Leo Trotsky who in the early 1920 totally destroyed the Russian trade unions. As a trade unionist and PCS member I am ashamed that my union has anything to do with that SWP.

If Keith Crane ends up being the only candidate for the vacant Assistant Group Secretary post he would be elected unopposed. In general elections the SWP would attract less than 1% of the vote. Why should these people represent us members when their policies are anti-democratic? Wherever Marxist-Leninists like Keith Crane have taken over a country they have made opposition illegal.

Please also note, going by recent election results whenever Keith Crane competed for a post on the Efra group he was beaten. That indicates to me that PCS members in the Era group have no confidence in him. I believe it is due to his SWP membership.

It is embarrassing enough that our General secretary Mark Serwotka has sympathies for the SWP. I do not think our very own MMO branch should make the same mistake.

Please vote against the nomination of any SWP member, such as Keith Crane, for any post in PCS.

Sound advice Hubert!

Taliban pick child assassin as leader

The whole world was shocked and disgusted by the attempt of supporters of the Taliban to assassinate fourteen year old Malala Yousafzai on her way to school in the small town of Mingora, Pakistan last October.  Her "crime"? Wanting an education for both herself and her fellow young women.

She survived the attack and now lives in Birmingham and continues to be an inspiration for girls and women world wide to better themselves through education.

The sight of a child being hunted down by murderous religious fundamentalists (or bigots to give them their real name) cannot but appal any civilised person no matter what their race, religion or creed. It is simply unacceptable on every moral level. Of that there can be dispute.

Except there are those who continue to pursue such barbarism.  The "man" (and I use the term loosely in this case) who ordered this crime against humanity has been chosen as the new leader of the Taliban death cult. CBS News reports:

Mullah Fazlullah has just been chosen as the new leader of the Tehreek-i-Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban Movement, according to a Pakistani official. This follows the death of Hakimullah Mehsud, the previous leader, who, with a $5 million bounty on this head, was killed last week in a U.S. drone strike.

"The Taliban have elected Mullah Fazlullah as their new leader," said a Pakistani intelligence official based in the northern city of Peshawar who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

The Independent continues:

The new commander led the Taliban’s iron-fisted domination of Pakistan’s Swat Valley between 2007-2009, when girls’ schools were closed and destroyed and suspected informants flogged and beheaded in the street.

The former tourist haven was eventually recaptured following failed negotiations and then a bloody operation by the army. Fazlullah was forced across the border into eastern Afghanistan where he has set up base, from which he has conducted repeated attacks. Recent reports said his fighters were active in the Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Kunar.

A former chair-lift operator, Fazlullah became known as Radio Mullah after he started delivering illegal, fiery radio sermons, broadcast via FM radio in the Swat Valley. Sometimes he would announce his fatwas and orders for executions over the air waves.

He is held responsible for attacks on both soft and high-profile targets, including the killing of Maj Gen Sanaullah Khan Niazi in September, struck by a roadside bomb close to the Afghan border.

Among Fazlullah’s darkest deeds was his order for the assassination attempt on the schoolgirl activist, Malala Yousafzai, who had written an anonymous blog on the BBC website about life in the valley under Taliban rule. Later, she became an outspoken campaigner for girls’ education.

“We had no intentions to kill her but were forced when she would not stop speaking against us,” a Taliban spokesman said last year after two men were recruited to find and kill her.

Forced? Who are they trying to kid. The Taliban kill and maim in the name of their twisted version of Islam any and all that dare speak out.

Malala was just a child. What so-called religion can justify assassinating children?

Now listen to Malala speak at the United Nations and remember what we all need to stand up for, as well as against