Help the Yazidi women and girls kidnapped by ISIS

My name is Rozin, I'm a 17 year old Yazidi girl living in Coventry. I came here with my family in 2008 when it became too dangerous for us in Iraq.

More than 3,000 Yazidi women and girls have been kidnapped by ISIS in Northern Iraq. They have been raped and tortured by their captors. Last week three girls, who managed to escape, visited London and told their stories.

Now that we have heard the stories of what is happening to these girls, we must help them. There is a lot that the UK Government can do, that's why I have started this petition.

When I hear what has happened to these girls I cry. It is my worst nightmare. I know girls as young as 12 have been taken. If I was there now I would be so so scared.

Many girls have managed to escape but they are scattered in refugee camps and getting little help. They are scared and traumatised, some are pregnant. They need medical help, psychological support and rehabilitation.

Last year Angelina Jolie came to London and the UK Government held a Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Government promised to "provide greater support and protection to survivors of sexual violence, including children".

We must ask the UK Government to keep their promise.

Germany has offered some help and brought some of the girls there to recover. I am asking Home Secretary Theresa May, Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening, and Foreign Minister Philip Hammond to meet with me and the Yazidi community in the UK and prepare an action plan.

These girls may seem far away, but they need our help. Every Yazidi woman and girl living in Iraq and Syria is in danger, the entire community lives in desperation.

If no-one speaks up for them who will help them? My dream is to be a lawyer and to spend my life fighting injustice. That starts today.

Please sign my petition for the Yazidi girls.

www.change.org/p/uk-government-help-the-yazidi-women-

The penny drops

Living as we are in an age of "austerity" that hurts some of us more than others, there are those in the establishment who have begun, if only just begun to notice that something is amiss with society.

A interesting report appeared in the business section of The Times (no link £):

Big business must significantly improve its relationship with society if it wants to ward off the threat of a political "lurch to the left"

John Nelson, the chairman of Lloyds of London will tell a gathering of senior financial figures this evening that the reputation of businesses worldwide has reached a worrying low. That could trigger serious challenges to middle-of-the-road politicians and economic policy.

No sh*t Sherlock.

Just look at Greece and the disaster that became. Spain could face a similar problem and Corbyn represents the extreme of a trend in Britain that started with the scandal of the MP's expenses.

Mr Nelson apparently worries about the reaction of "the man in the street" rising up and asking "what is going on here".

Faith in politicians and big business is at an all time low. 

Economic crises always create movements from the extremes of politics, but Mr Nelson should also note it's not just a "lurch to the left" he should worry about. There is a growing xenophobia across Europe that has seen the rise of far-right neo-fascist parties (France and Hungary) and a resurgence of nationalism that could lead to the breakup of national and international stability as we see in Scotland and Catalonia.

What the "man in the street" wants is fair treatment not revolution and social upheaval.

When hard working men and women both working and middle class see their living standards drop while the ultra-rich just seem to accumulate more wealth even when they fail there is bound to be a reaction of some sort.

MP's get a 10% rise. Their low paid civil servants get 1%.

Bankers get huge bonuses even when they don't get results and taxpayers bail them out. Most tax payers can only dream of the amounts of cash going their way.

Nobody except a few recalcitrant communists begrudges wealth as such but those that rule over us do require the proverbial boot up the backside from time to time to remind the establishment that they cannot walk all over us.

People know money doesn't grow on trees but expect that those who contribute more and do more for those less well off than themselves. That's the social contract that our society relies on.

Trouble is will your colleagues listen as they devour caviar and champagne before it becomes too late?

Spoilt middle class anarchist brats

      =     

The scene of so-called "anarchists" laying siege to a cereal cafe in Shoreditch has to go down as one of the more bizarre political protests witnessed in a long time. According to them selling cereal at £3.40 a bowl is a crime against the working class.

Not that most of them know what working means.

As for class, the majority of these black clad masked individuals certainly know about that.

The majority of them come from the comfortable middle classes and think it's radical to go around swearing shouting and causing general mayhem in the name of Class War.

I have never forgiven these idiots for ruining the pensions demonstration by smashing up Piccadilly whilst the majority of us were peacefully protesting about the threat to our livelihoods.

These "anarchists" hid in our ranks, masked up as we entered Trafalgar Square and then acted in a violent way scaring many ordinary men and women on the march, some of whom had their children with them.

The only class they represent is that of an unruly fourth form with even less of an intellect.

Their protest (if you can call their behaviour that) was ostensibly about the "gentrification" of parts of London. "Social cleansing" as they put it. Whilst there is some truth in what they say this was no way to go about it. The ones most likely to be put off would be real workers.

Not that they probably ever mix with any.

There was one more sinister element to their protest.

They claimed the area was being ripped apart by "Israeli scumbag property developers".

Jews to you and me.

No truth to that at all.

Just the normal prejudices of today's anti-Semitic radicals.

Anarchists?

Strasserites more like.

Scum.

Labour Party Conference: The struggle begins

The Labour Party is currently meeting in Brighton where the first battles between the Corbynistas and the moderates will take place. I suspect this week will see just the beginning of a long period of internecine warfare inside Labour as even the left is not yet fully prepared to take control.

The Sunday Times reports that some left wing organisations are preparing to enter Labour in various forms while winding down their "public faces":

The Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL), a Marxist and Trotskyist organisation, last week asked the Electoral Commission to wind up it's electoral activities, freeing it's members to join Labour which does not permit membership of another political party.

Left Unity, a socialist party founded at the behest of the film director Ken Loach will discuss winding up as a political party in November.

 


Meanwhile the former Militant Tendency is offering "pact" in which it will not stand candidates from the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition against anti-austerity Corbynites at the next general election according to a statement made by it's leader Dave Nellist.

However the left are not going to find taking over Labour a walkover. Labour First has started organising a fight back.

Labour First

Luke Akehurst writes in an e-mail issued to supporters today:

Labour First has had an amazing start to Labour Party Conference.

There has been a very visible demonstration that there is a huge appetite for balance and a strong moderate voice within the party.

We handed out over 2000 copies of our briefing for delegates this morning.

The first test of opinion on conference floor was an attempt by the left to reject the Conference Arrangements Committee report in order to force a debate on their proposed rule changes. This was heavily defeated and in fact the CLP whose proposal about easier deselections was particularly concerning did not try to question it being ruled out.

Then this lunch time what we had thought would be a low key fringe meeting turned into a huge rally of several hundred people. It was so big we had to leave the venue we had booked and hold an impromptu open air rally in the street outside.

For a while Labour First was even a UK-wide "trending topic" on Twitter!

Speakers were Tom Watson MP, Yvette Cooper MP, Seema Malhotra MP, Rachel Reeves MP, Liam Byrne MP, Vernon Coaker MP, Ruth Smeeth MP, Conor McGinn MP, Richard Angell and myself, with Keith Dibble chairing. They were united in expressing the need for Labour to take the fight to the Tories, to reconnect with ordinary voters, for moderate voices to be proudly heard in the party and for an end to the sectarian abuse and bullying seen this summer.

This huge energy feels like we are at the start of the creation of a powerful movement that will restore Labour to common sense and electability.

We need to build on this momentum and spread our network out across the country. I hope you are ready to be part of what seems here and now at conference to be the start of something very exciting.

Join the fightback: https://labourfirst.wordpress.com/join-our-mailing-list/

The new fascism in Student Unions

In an astounding attack on free speech the Students Union at Warwick University has banned ex-Muslim and secularist Marynam Namazie from speaking.

The statement issued by the brats that run the students union states:

This is because after researching both her and her organisation, a number of flags have been raised. We have a duty of care to conduct a risk assessment for each speaker who wishes to come to campus.

There a number of articles written both by the speaker and by others about the speaker that indicate that she is highly inflammatory, and could incite hatred on campus. This is in contravention of our external speaker policy:

The President (or equivalent) of the group organising any event is responsible for the activities that take place within their events. All speakers will be made aware of their responsibility to abide by the law, the University and the Union’s various policies, including that they:

• must not incite hatred, violence or call for the breaking of the law
• are not permitted to encourage, glorify or promote any acts of terrorism including individuals, groups or organisations that support such acts
• must not spread hatred and intolerance in the community and thus aid in disrupting social and community harmony
• must seek to avoid insulting other faiths or groups, within a framework of positive debate and challenge
• are not permitted to raise or gather funds for any external organisation or cause without express permission of the trustees.

In addition to this, there are concerns that if we place conditions on her attendance (such as making it a member only event and having security in attendance, asking for a transcript of what she intends to say, recording the speech) she will refuse to abide by these terms as she did for Trinity College Dublin.

In effect this bans all debate on religion, unless you are an Islamist of course, can't prevent the religion of peace from spreading the word about throwing gays of tall mountains, treats women as men's property, killing apostates, those who insult the Prophet and those that dare leave the "perfection of Islam.

It's not just Islam(ists). On the PCS Union Face Book page one Christian took offence to the proposition there is no god and the left administrator subsequently took down the post which was about defending free speech against those who murdered the Charlie Hebdoe journalists.

The left are complicit in the new censorship along with  most of the liberal Guardianistas.

I fear for the future.

I do not believe. 

There is no god. It is my right to say so and to expose religion for the falsehood I believe it is.

So here's a little skit from Dave Allen which will probably upset some soppy po-faced lefty student type somewhere!

Stop the War Coalition's mask finally slips.

An article on the Stop the War Coalitions hatesite website makes this statement:

The only intervention likely to work in Syria just now is from Moscow.

This in an article cross-posted from the Guardian, paper of the lefty luvvies. It's written by Simon Jenkins a long time supporter of the supposed "anti-war" coalition.

This is an organisation that condemns every intervention by the West, opposes military intervention to save the Kurds, Yazadi's and other minorities including Muslims, calls for the destruction of Israel...all in the name of peace. Not.

I've often referred to these charlatans as appeasers and now will add to that the charge of "quislings".

All these stop the war types are just a Trojan Horse for Russian imperialism and Islamist expansion.

They are not peace activists in any shape or form.

Remember one of these leading comrades, a certain John Rees sat alongside the CAGE spokesmen as they called the mass murderer Jihadi John" a nice man.

They talk about "bombing being immoral" but oddly have never condemned Assad's air force in Syria or Putin's MIGs in Chechnya. and appear on Press TV, the TV station of the clerical fascist Iranian government.

No longer can they or the articles author be taken seriously when it comes to war.

Stop the War support Russian intervention.

That's it. Games up.

The changing farce of British politics

After what seems an age British politics has become both interesting, dangerous and amusing all at the same time.

Over the last week we saw Jeremy Corbyn elected as leader of the Labour Party and the Prime Minister became a laughing stock as (albeit uncorroborated) revelations were made about his student antics.

The Liberals are led by a man who takes a dim view of gays getting married and are variety of Trotskyist groups have returned to their old ways by setting up shop inside the Labour Party. They are not alone in changing their allegiances. 

It's not that long since Tim Farron claimed that "distraught" Labour MP's were ringing him about the dangers they faced from the rise of the "Corbynistas", and talk began of at least a few defecting to the Liberal Democrats.

Unlikely given that the civil war inside the Labour Party has only just started. Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyns anti-Western and pro-appeasement politics have brought him some "Liberal allies". 

First up was former Lib-Dem Peer Jenny Tonge who told the Sunday Times (no link £):

“I know that lots of Lib Dems are contemplating supporting Jeremy Corbyn, including me” 

Given some of Corbyns "unsavoury friends" Tonge would seem a natural ally.The algemeiner. describes the woman in no uncertain terms:

....a member of Britain’s House of Lords with a long record of inflammatory, often antisemitic, statements against both Israel and the British Jewish leadership..

So far just one Liberal Democrat has defected to Labour. The Richmond and Twickenham Times  reports:

A Liberal Democrat councillor has defected to Labour in support of Jeremy Corbyn, becoming Richmond's first Labour councillor in more than 13 years.

Teddington Councillor Jennifer Churchill, partner of the borough's former Lib Dem leader and fellow Councillor Stephen Knight, said new party leader Tim Farron "doesn't seem to stand for anything".

Churchill will find herself alongside some rather strange new "bedfellows" in the form of Workers Power (British Section of the Fifth International) who rant in their unreadable rag:

For a revolutionary socialist, the purpose of a programme is to meet the immediate needs of the mass of the working class, to mobilise a mass movement to resist the ruling class’s attacks on our living standards and our futures, and to link measures addressing the needs of the day with the fight for a revolution that can end capitalism and create a new socialist society. We support anything that works in that direction.

For these reasons Workers Power supports key elements of Jeremy Corbyn’s programme. We believe all socialists should join the Labour Party, defend and promote Jeremy’s progressive demands, and work to extend and deepen these policies in a revolutionary socialist direction.

Until recently the couple of dozen or so members of this tiny group were involved in Ken Loache's still born Left Unity Party, having taken over one of the Leeds branches. 

Better pickings inside Labour it would seem.

Moves have already begun to try and oust those that might oppose Corbyn. The Mail writes:

Simon Danczuk said a ‘concerted effort’ by the new leader’s far-left supporters had now begun to ‘silence’ people like him and ‘drum’ them out of the party.

It came as left-wing party members plan to issue a formal complaint to Labour’s ruling NEC about the conduct of the Rochdale MP, who has been highly critical of Mr Corbyn’s brand of politics.

An online petition calling for Mr Danczuk to have the whip withdrawn has gathered thousands of signatures.

Mr Danczuk said: ‘My advice to moderates in the party is: watch your back. Be careful, but don’t give in to these people.’

One of Mr Corbyn’s most loyal supporters, new shadow energy minister Clive Lewis, warned the ‘forces of establishment’ within Labour that they would be ‘unwise’ to oppose the new leader.

Just like the eighties when Labour was made unelectable by the same types of activists that are rallying to Corbyn now. 

To be fair Corbyn opposes mandatory reselection of MP's but as he appears to be weak and unfit to lead anything but a rabble in the street he may not be able to control the comrades on the ground.

The Press may be less than interested in the seaside outing of Farrons Lib Dems but they will be at Labour Party conference in droves to see the internecine warfare erupt as the left jockeys for position.

Can the moderates fight back?

Only time will tell, but to do so they must organise fast and hard.

Now, before it becomes too late!