Respect cracks / No Football, No Free Speech - By Order / Battle of IDs

Respect cracks

It’s a picture of a crack in the ground, right?

No it isn’t. Why do I have such philistines as readers?

It’s in the Tate Modern, so it’s Art.

But in fact it’s a lot more than just art. According to the leaflet issued to those who view the (sculpture?) -

“First, and most obviously, the contemplative nature of such a venue allows the gesture to resonate in its widest sense. Walking down (the artist, Salcedo) incised line, particularly if you know about her previous work, might well prompt a broader consideration of power’s divisive operations as encoded in the brutal narratives of colonialism, their unhappy aftermaths in postcolonial nations, and in the stand off between rich and poor, northern and southern hemispheres…For Salcedo, the crack reveals a ‘colonial and imperial history [that] has been disregarded, marginalised or simply obliterated… the history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity and… its untold dark side.’"

But it’s also clearly a lot more than that description. It’s not just a leftist commentary on “colonial and imperial history” for this piece of art is called no less than Shibboleth.

Yes, that’s right, the very term, one of a million words used by Respect members, that is the touchstone of how that party’s rightist critics express their disdain about the organisation - Lindsey German reportedly said that gay rights are not a shibboleth. Lindsey German, long-time socialist feminist, turns homophobe? - only in the ravings of the Labour liquidationists.

With four SWP or SWP sympathetic councillors splitting from the Respect group on Tower Hamlets council, there’s an almighty crack in Respect as well as in the Tate Modern. I think it’s only a matter of time before the two wings of that party permanently split asunder. Coincidence that Salcedo called her work, denoting a small fissure that turns into a gaping division, Shibboleth? I think not.

But the artist does seems a bit coy in commentating further on what she clearly devised her work to describe. I haven't yet read her views about John Rees, George Galloway and the other major (no, that’s not the right word) players in Respect, so let me add my view instead.

A measure of contempt should be ladled on both sides in this looming divorce.

The disdain with which the SWP treated its leftist critics, when the latter remarked upon the often reactionary nature of some of Respect’s members (such as was well reported in devastating interview after devastating interview with Respect candidates in the Weekly Worker) makes the SWP’s late discovery of the true nature of their allies beyond pitiful.

The SWP is accused of bureaucratic manoeuvrings against its foes in Respect (and to be fair, accuses them back). This charge against the Socialist Workers Party is more than credible to anyone with experience of how they work.

I thought it noteworthy that the SWP criticised the raising of a petition, amongst its members, that complains about the recent expulsion of three of their comrades for siding with the anti-SWPers, in Respect, and against their own party.

Those members (wrongly) concerned about this decision were criticised by their leaders for acting not in the culture of the party, by raising such a national petition, rather than arguing the issue at their branch meetings.

It says a lot, about the reported culture in the SWP, that aggrieved members don’t feel confident enough to follow this formally correct advice from their Central Committee. All I’ve ever heard from ex members of the SWP is that if you did do as the CC advised, you’d pretty soon find yourself consigned to outer darkness, if not beyond membership.

But worse than the SWPers are the rightward movers, including the supposed Trots (in fact, in the ‘Fourth International’ [sic] itself) who have found themselves on the side of the small businessmen and Galloway against the ostensible Marxists of the SWP. Huh?

Glyn Robbins chair of Tower Hamlets Respect writes well about a common Leftist mindset. “I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the SWP. The very fact that I feel the need to make this statement and in those words should alarm anyone who is serious about left wing politics. For as long as I’ve been involved in the labour movement (over 25 years) there has been a neurosis about the SWP that, at its most extreme, almost requires medical treatment. I am sorry to say that there are some people within our movement who are far more interested in fighting the SWP than our enemies”

A prime example of this is the recent reporting on a Left blog that the East London Advertiser has reported that the 6 Respect-SWP councillors on Tower Hamlets council are in discussion about joining in an alliance with the Liberal Democrats. It is beyond the realms of possibility that SWP members, in this or any other parallel universe, would undertake such a move.

It is completely scurrilous for any Left to repeat such garbage. When the SWP leadership tell their membership, falsely, that all other far Lefts out there are sectarian losers out to destroy their party, they sadly have now been given another piece of ammunition supporting their tainted worldview.

You can read chapter and verse, if you so desire, about the slow-burning implosion of Respect on websites like Dave’s Part (from Dave Osler). From there, you can go to lesser sites where there are hundreds of comments about the minutiae of this particular small candyfloss stall in the long running carnival fairground that is British Leftism.

There’s a strong culture of Leftist trainspotting in Britain. So on Osler’s site, there are more than three times as many comments on the SWP expelling three members than on another article about the Left and Saudi Arabia. It’s hard not to feel scorn for the over excited Lefts dedicating endless bytes to the politicking of other Left parties.

I think that, on the whole, these developments in Respect are positive. It was never going to last unless the SWP (and Socialist Outlook, etc) really did break completely with their history.

The SWP will walk away (or be pushed out) with six (?) councillors and the experience of having Lindsey German come fifth (and beating the BNP and the Greens) in the last London Mayoral election. (No I don’t think electoral strength is the be all and end all - but neither do I treat it with disdain. It’s good, not bad).

Similar in support, at least in terms electoral terms, is the Socialist Party with, I think, also about six councillors.

How about a lash up between both of them, the CPB (with the Morning Star - and the SLP), the small Trot groups (which I would loosely define as Workers Power, Permanent Revolution, AWL, etc) and any remaining ex (and it must be ‘ex’) Labour Lefts? Add in a few hundred (possibly four figures?) unaligneds (like me) who are in this general political area and we may have a goer.

Fantasy politics? Doubtless. But why should it be?

The Netherlands has the Dutch Socialist Party (which started life as a Maoist organisation), the Scots had the SSP (born from various Trot groups), the Germans have the Linkspartei (coming from ‘official’ communism and social democracy) and the Italians have the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (starting life in ‘official’ communism) (or maybe had, in terms of Leftism able to be supported). There are other such formulations in Scandinavia, eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Are we so incompetent, in Britain, that we can’t at least have the same? It’s hardly as though the Labour Party is attracting the support of Lefts that it did, in say, the 80s.

Sure, such a group wouldn’t be a perfect party. Those looking for an excuse not to join could always find one. I’d have a fair few differences with any of the above European parties myself - but I’d also join them if I lived there and argue my politics inside.

Let’s have a British (or if we must and English and Welsh) Socialist Alliance / Party / Organisation - whatever.

Or, like the Whigs, Gnostic Christianity and the Temperance movement; be prepared to fall permanently down a crack, just like in Salcedo’s work.

Update - I see that a "Solomon ("Simon") Punt" described as a "Respect supporter, Hoyland Nether (West Riding)" has signed the SWP's "An Appeal to Respect Members". This isn't me. I do wonder whether there is such a person - do people still say they live in 'West Riding'? - maybe. I live in London and I'm not called "Solomon Punt" - that's just a nom-de-plume to keep my Facebook account - or even Southpawpunch, in real life.

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No Football, No Free Speech - By Order

This week I read an article in a London council publication that was bemoaning the way that kids nowadays play football.

The writer correctly reported that it’s very rare indeed that you’ll see an informal and spontaneous game of football, as I took part in as a kid in my local park or even across my street. Just about all young players now have to take part in organised (and paid for) games - arranged and timetabled for them by businesses.

An obvious consequence of this degradation in the quality of the lives of these children is that, as reported by the article, fewer kids now play soccer outside school.

It was a good point that the council was making. They were wondering what they could do about it.

In the same publication I also read that the same council would be stepping up its activities against those engaging in unauthorised leafleting in its streets. This initiative follows on from its activities in breaking up (and having arrested) those setting up leaflet stalls (primarily Islamists) in some of its shopping areas.

Then add into this mix it’s scathing reply to me, ridiculing my concerns that I expressed in a letter to them, when its staff refused me access to leaflet one of its old people homes during an election - Any legitimate political party will issue photo ID to its members, without this and a prior appointment and approval, you will not be given access to any of these premises in line with our duty to protect those in our care.

Further infuse the council’s stated determination to stop ‘doorstep calling’ in its borough and the result is pretty much that anyone with a view to express better hope that what they want to say is in line with the view of the editor of the local rag.

That is, if they hold any hope of being able to locally disseminate their message. It’s that culture of control, compliance (and censorship) that also contributes to keeping kids indoors.

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Battle of IDs

It’s interesting when you recognise a few names, from long ago, on Facebook and note how many of them have either reinvented themselves or at least obliterated their Left past.

I’ve seen not a few former members of Militant who are now firmly ensconced as ‘petit bourgeois’ small (and even big) business types. And so are now guilty of that ‘crime’ of which they often accused me - being a ‘PB’ - and levelled at me when I was in fact an unemployed squatter.

I haven’t yet managed to find the guy in Militant to whom I, in a sarcastic manner (but that was completely beyond him), offered a (completely fictitious) job to as my dad’s chauffeur - and the tale of which mutated to me supposedly sacking his dad as my family’s (completely fictitious) butler - by the time I went along to a threatening reception at the next Greater Manchester meeting of the Labour Party Young Socialists. I hear that he’s nowadays joined the Satanists; he’s a Director of Human Resources.

There’s a few former SWPers on Facebook, who, from reading their profiles, not only no longer have a political thought in their head but little else in way of thoughts about anything else.

But it’s the alumni of the Revolutionary Communist Party that brought the most wry smile to my lips. (You remember them, the ‘Party of the Future’ as they described themselves in the 80s - including on a near inaccessible bit of flyposting that blighted for years one of the few bits of pleasant decoration, amongst the general dinghiness, of the communal areas in my council tower block).

If you look up former RCPers on Facebook, they’ll often make mention of how they met some of their Facebook Friends (and former RCP comrades). ‘We took part in this great project to reshape the world’. ‘We met whilst thinking big big thoughts’ ‘We went on a journey together.’ No one on the Left could patronise like they could.

Some of what I read in their modern incarnation as Spiked Online can give pause for thought, especially when they comment upon the ridiculousness of some aspects of modern life. They’re big on criticising risk adverse cultures and the mealy mouthed pandering to the censorship of the elites or the 'easily offended'. They can sometimes be correct.

I thought of them when I recently lost or had stolen (I’m not sure which) a wallet. I reported this at the local cop shop (God knows why). I was surprised not to receive a letter noting the ‘crime’ that I had reported but also to get lengthy advice about how I could make use of Victim Support services and counselling to contemplate the misfortune that had befallen me.

(It was a deep relationship, counsellor. I first saw her on a market stall in Hoxton. I overlooked her minor faults, such as her loose clasp, and I grew used to her leathery skin. I was devastated when she left, I haven’t yet found a worthy replacement and, in dark moments, sometimes think about her now - inside the trousers of some other bloke).

The offer to me of counselling also reminded me of one of the most cringeworthy exchanges (there were a few) that I had to witness when working in the NHS.

Mental Health Patient’s sister - She was never right after she lost Terry in the Bethnal Green tube disaster. I was with her.

Patient Care Coordination Liaison Officer (or similar Mickey Mouse title) - What was that? Terry got lost on the tube?

Patient’s sister - A lot of people died, it was in the War, dear. It was her son, he was crushed.

(On March 3 1943 at Bethnal Green Tube station, a nearby anti-aircraft battery opened up with a deafening roar. Some people, heading down to shelter from a bombing raid, slipped on the stairwell and 173 people - including 62 children - suffocated or were crushed to death in the ensuing panic.

Think of how you’re walking through where all their bodies lay, if the lift is ever out and you need to take the stairs).

PCCL (to patient) - Oh dear. That must have been a bad time for you. Did you access proper counselling? It helps to talk about these things.

Patient - The council never did nothing. They didn’t even get us a prefab after the war. I couldn’t talk to him, he was dead.

The ex RCPers don’t like ludicrous self-indulgence masquerading as social concern but then neither do I. But I don’t go from laughing at the muddy thinking (or cynical manipulations) of the caring and controlling professions to writing right-wing political manifestos for their business sponsors that favour decimating regulations and laws so as to promote their joint vision of a laissez-faire economy.