Truth, Reason & Liberty

PCS leadership forces continued reductive pensions strategy on Annual Delegate Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sun, 27 May 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Last week, I was in Brighton as a delegate to the PCS Annual Delegate Conference. I intend to write a number of posts about various different aspects of the event. I will start with the centre-piece of Conference - the debate on the pensions dispute, and what actually came out of it.

We always knew what would be said of it. The union reported on Tuesday that delegates "will be looking to steer the union through a period of unprecedented attacks" and "step up [the] pension campaign." Once the debate had been done, the Socialist Worker told us how the "defiant" PCS had called for "more united pensions strikes," and the Morning Star that we "threw down the gauntlet to the Con-Dem government."

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka addresses delegates to Conference - picture copyright Pete Grubb

In reality, the motion that passed was simply a re-affirmation of the same reductive strategy that I have previously outlined as marking a managing down of the dispute. The union still offers up fighting talk, as it has to for a membership who are under attack and rightly worried about their future. But there is no genuine block of rank-and-file militants demanding an effective fightback, and so action matching the rhetoric can safely be somewhat lacking without upsetting anybody but the ultra-leftists (that being everyone who's neither a scab, a moderate or a cheerleader for the current leadership).

Hence what passed on that first morning of national conference. There were eight motions in general debate, the National Executive Committee's at the head of the pile (unsurprisingly, despite the standing orders committee supposedly being a body independent of the NEC) and all after it falling if it passed. Passing being almost a formality, given a number of factors - from the order to the general secretary being the one moving the motion.

Urging conference to support the motion, Mark Serwotka said that "we are clear on the NEC that we cannot win on our own" because "even though we would rather move faster and quicker you have to accept that other unions make decisions and we have to work with them." Which underlines my own view that they are now fighting to manage expectations. Hence the key instruction in the motion being "to argue for further national industrial [action] on pensions at the end of June with as many unions as possible and to take final decisions once the position of other unions becomes clear [my emphasis]."

This gives two get out clauses. The first being that they are simply arguing for industrial action rather than taking the initiative and calling it, so of course if it doesn't happen they have simply not won the argument. The second being that the position of other unions is their foil - as when March 28 never happened, they can simply turn around and blame it on someone else that they do nothing.

The other instructions are even more wet. They call on the TUC to demand that the government enter central negotiations, again something which if it doesn't happen doesn't fall on their shoulders. A number of instructions simply reaffirm the need for "joint campaigning" and "coordination" without adding anything except an extra bullet point. "Community campaigns, protests and peaceful civil disobedience" get an honorary mention, whilst we'll try and get lots of people to the TUC's October 20 exercise in letting off steam.

"PCS Groups and Branches [...] taking industrial action" is declared "an essential part of our programme of action." However, at a campaign briefing in the PCS North West Regional Office a while back, I actually challenged NEC member Paula Brown on this. I pointed out that the disputes provoking such action were already happening and action around them separate to the national campaign - in essence, allowing PCS to declare it had a "programme of action" whilst offering absolutely nothing new. She effectively conceded this point, only arguing that there was "nothing wrong with that" since all the disputes should be linked. Not actually a point I was disagreeing with.

So, in essence, the motion gives the NEC a mandate to carry on with pretty much the same reductive strategy as before with periodic one day protest strikes, adding only that it can use other unions as a foil for inaction. Or, as Serwotka put it, "not potentially going it alone and being defeated."

This isn't to say that other motions in the debate necessarily provided an effective alternative to this. Some of them were extremely limited, from a motion to "name the day" for the next strike to one that simply said "find other forms" of action "instead of spasmodic 1 day strikes." One motion called for PCS to take out members in HM Revenue & Customs indefinitely with a levy of other members, though its intention of limiting "the government's ability to collect revenue" was somewhat ill-thought out given that most tax is taken automatically through Pay as You Earn.

The main effective rival to the winning motions was one which called for "national, regional and paid selective action" and "seek[ing] to take action with as many unions as possible" whilst being willing to "go it alone" if necessary. This motion and the NEC motion effectively underlined the difference of strategy between the Independent Left and the ruling Left Unity faction. Neither necessarily contains enough to win, but the former (perhaps mostly because it doesn't hold power) is willing to recognise the pitfalls of the existing strategy even whilst the latter winds us down to a managed defeat and remains baffled by the possibility that it as the "fighting left leadership" could face criticism from the left.

The debate took a number of turns, with as many opposition speakers as supporting ones. Safe to say, however, nobody took the position that the NEC strategy was too militant or radical - which is apt when it was neither of those things in any sense of the word. However, the problem outlined above of nobody offering an alternative strategy which didn't come with its own pitfalls, was what won it rather than the NEC motion offering the perfect strategy.

It is almost certainly true that action with less unions in this dispute will be less effective. That was always going to be the case after building up to a strike as big as that on November 30. But this doesn't mean that all action should be suspended if there is no "coalition" of unions - after all, if a strike by one union marks a significant downturn in the dispute from what went before, what is it when absolutely no unions take strike action? Rather, the question at hand becomes one of going beyond one day strikes, of being more imaginative with industrial action, and of utilising other forms of direct action alongside them such as occupations, economic blockades, et al.

But that only brings us back to the glaring point that there is no effective rank-and-file movement in this dispute. If we want to see one, it will have to be built from scratch and such a process will be painstakingly slow. The union tops, meanwhile, have an interest in keeping their strategies limited and reductive for a number of reasons. This goes for the IL faction if they were in power as much as LU, since their strategy removes the limitations imposed by an opposition to going it alone but not those that are inherent in the union as a legal entity which needs to maintain its own existence.

This all makes the situation sound rather bleak, but for the simple reason that it is. The PCS NEC is pursuing a reductive strategy that will ultimately end in managed defeat and this needs to be recognised. But there is no magic formula that will change this or secure victory. The vital ingredient for such - a militant, self-organised rank-and-file pushing to control its own struggles - remains non-existent in the public sector.

Why October 20 must be hijacked

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:48:00 +0000

The Trades Union Congress has called for a national demonstration against austerity on 20 October. You'll have to forgive me if I don't quite hail the revolution yet. Or even, as Right to Work do, start spouting that "massive demonstrations in October can help finish [the Tories] off." At best, this is an exercise in letting off steam.

Part of the radical workers bloc on the TUC March For The Alternative, March 26 2011

The TUC has been the driving force in demobilising the trade unions. First by making the case effectively that the fight against austerity and broad attacks on our class should be reduced to an industrial dispute over pensions, then by leading a significant contingent of that dispute to make a deal once they'd given workers a huge one-day protest strike as a bit of a show. With the last, and most "militant," section of that fight also winding down to managed defeat, it's safe to say that they stamped on every spark of resistance they could in the official labour movement.

Dave Prentis, in leading the call for a demo, was particularly cynical. Calling for "the biggest demonstration in our Labour movement’s history," he says that we need "to show the government that there is a real alternative." But the best way to do that is through direct action, and particularly industrial action, which he was one of the first to back out of.

After well over half a million people took to the streets of London on March 26 2011, the government blithely announced that it would change nothing. They were right - because the state and capital are not moved by protest, but only by effective exercising of class power. This is why, on the fear that "if we don't give them reform, they'll give us revolution," we got the welfare state. It's also why, with an A to B march here, a one-day strike there and some candle-lit vigils in-between, they feel safe to roll it all back.

Effective resistance to austerity will not come via the TUC or any of its affiliated unions - even the "awkward squad." It will come only through the working class, in the workplace and out of it, organising for ourselves and taking direct action independent of these rusting hierarchies. Whether the people in those hierarchies are "left" or "right," they will still defuse workers' anger into A to B marches and limited protest actions, whilst seeking to place themselves into the discussion on the degree to which our class is screwed over. That is their structural role within capitalism, and that is why every last one of Adam Ford's public sector strike predictions came true.

Our aim, without concession and without apology, should be to cause economic damage. To flex our muscles and tell the ruling class: as long as your cuts are inevitable, this country will be ungovernable. That was the case this time last year, and all that has changed now is that the trade unions are well into their routine of letting off workers' steam to ensure that doesn't happen. October 20 will be just another case in point on that.

This is why the march must be hijacked. Rather than letting the TUC have their stale and passive march from one end of London to the other, where a bunch of bureaucrats and Labour Party apologists will waffle at people for the rest of the day, there needs to be a huge and visible bloc of anarchists, militants and radical workers.

Not only that, but this bloc needs to steer as much of the march as possible away from speakers corner and towards areas where they can cause significant economic disruption. On March 26 2011, Oxford Street and Fortnum and Mason were effectively shut down and the day's trade lost as a result of UK Uncut and the radical workers bloc. When we see the next national demonstration, something similar needs to happen - perhaps with the breakaway bloc meeting up with a picket against workfare rather than one against tax evasion.

The student demonstrations, at the height of the class anger the unions are working to demobilise

Such an action will not bring down the government. It will not bring about revolution. But it will be an effective expression of class struggle which actually impacts on those we are fighting, whilst sidelining and stealing the headlines from those working to demobilise us.

No doubt, as ever, the media will flap about violent anarchists planning to hijack a peaceful protests. They will pull out every absurd stereotype and red scare bogeyman they can, and the liberals will wring their hands and beg for clemency. Just this once. Can't we leave it alone, so that they can have an unblemished, peaceful protest?

The answer should be no. Politics is not PR, and we are fighting a war against a class enemy intent on rolling back everything we've won. If a huge mobilisation in central London isn't hijacked for effective, militant direct action, then the movement is in far more dire straits than we thought.

Fascists botch attack on Bootle picket line

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:41:00 +0000

On Thursday May 10, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers took strike action around the country. Amongst these was my own workplace, with one of the largest and liveliest picket lines at least in Bootle. It was also the scene of a brief clash with fascists intent on disrupting proceedings.

On the whole, the strike was an astounding success. From a building of 1500 people, well over 1400 took part in the strike. Whilst most picket lines were on from 7 til 11 at the latest, we stayed on til 5.30 due to the evening shift in our building. Across the course of the day, around 40 PCS members and supporters took part in the picket, with a solid block of 25 people for most of the morning.

Around 3pm, we got word that Paul James/Walsh - booted out of the army for robbing houses and until recently second-in-command of the Combined Ex Forces would be leading a bunch of fascists down to visit us. Their target, predictably enough, was me. They had been threatening revenge ever since Liverpool Antifascists picketed Quiggins Attique and kept Peter Tierney closed until two in the afternoon. Now, with me stood outside work on strike action, they apparently saw their chance.

About half an hour later, we spotted them moving down Stanley Road towards the picket. There were six of them - the only unknown being a lad with a rottweiler. As they reached us, they all started shouting my name and gobbing off about supporting paedophiles. Paul Walsh was the first to step forward, whisky on his breath and white marks around his flaring nostrils, and start screaming that I was scum.

The initial confrontation lasted about a minute, if that. The pickets gave as good as they got, holding their ground in a block whilst the fascists jumped around screaming, trying to single people out. Particularly noteworthy is that whilst they're quick to gob off about being "real men" and the "smell of testosterone" (whilst the enemy are just "effeminate feminists"), it was the women of the group who were the most vocal and the first to get in their faces. Their macho bullshit wasn't intimidating anybody, least of all those whom they expected to be seen and not heard.

Before anything really kicked off, the police intervened. They had perhaps also gotten wind of what to expect, as a van had been present for much of the afternoon by the building, and it wasn't long before one officer on foot became half a dozen, plus two vans.

Walsh was taken to one side, complaining that he was being reprimanded for calling people paedo supporters whilst we were allowed to call him Nazi scum. Because, obviously, an utterly false allegation against anti-fascists is just the same as an observation about a goon who associates with the openly fascist National Front. Sure enough, he was nicked and taken to the police station under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.

Meanwhile, with the police separating the groups, a stand off emerged between the small band of fash and the now-swollen ranks of trade unionists. Whilst senior management from the building came out, bewildered, to see what was going on, police tried to disperse those supporting the picket. One officer in particular was very aggressive, to the point that I had to shout over him to say that the fascists were at the picket line because of me and, since they'd tried to attack, they were the ones who had to fuck off.

After a while, this was the case and the fascists disappeared having achieved little to nothing. Whilst Peter Tierney had been stuck inside Quiggins for four hours as a result of the Liverpool Antifascists picket, we had held our ground when attacked by fascists. Coked up and ready for a brawl, they were able only to hurl idiotic abuse and make dicks of themselves before disappearing.

Today was personal in the sense that it was targeted at me. But it is also not the first time that the far-right in Liverpool have made their anti-working class agenda clear. On the day of the last big pensions strike, they attempted to heckled the march through Liverpool with cries of "communists out," and once more given short shrift. Today, whatever the reasons given, they proved that they have no qualms whatsoever with attacking trade union picket lines.

It needs to be emphasised, over and again, that the threat of the far-right is a physical one that needs to be tackled head on. This isn't the job of "specialist" anti-fascists, but of everyone who wants to ensure that workers' organisations and the left have the space to organise openly. Well done to all who stood their ground today.

Guilty verdict in Rochdale grooming trial

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:08:00 +0000

NB: This post has been updated slightly to reflect subsequent developments.

Nine men have been found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court of operating a child sex ring in Rochdale. The verdict sees all of the offenders jailed, and will hopefully offer some closure to the victims and their families. There is no doubt at all that these were truly horrendous crimes, made worse after police cock-ups allowed them to go undetected for two years.

The trial is the same one which saw a mob of 100 fascists demonstrating outside the courts and rioting against Asian-owned businesses in Rochdale. For the far-right, the case has been proof of a so-called epidemic of Muslim grooming gangs terrorising white girls because they view them as easy meat. It also inspired conspiracy theories about a "news blackout" as a result of political correctness, and "cultural Marxist" complicity in "racist" sexual attacks on whites. Thus, any opposition to the British National Party, North West Infidels or others exploiting the case was portrayed as "supporting" paedophiles.

However, there can be little doubt that the far-right was exploiting the case. To see their attempts to whip up hysteria over the issue, you need only look at the "Labour 25." The website was set up by Liverpool BNP (now National Front) members as a way to associate the Labour Party with child abuse, contains blatantly doctored pictures, distortions, and outright lies. Not to mention that 0.015% of the Labour Party's total membership being convicted of paedophilia is about consistent with the percentage of paedophiles in the country as a whole. It's not at all like, as the far-right's rhetoric implies, there is a large and organised bloc of child sex offenders within the party doing their utmost to push pro-paedophilia legislation.

The fascists' willingness to brand anybody as a paedophile for virtually any reason underlines that their motives are purely reactionary. They have not been at the courts to support the victims, and indeed their violent antics during the protests nearly wrecked the whole case. As those who suffered at the hands of these men relived their harrowing ordeal, the knobheads outside the court wanted only to wave flags and piss about.

Since the verdict, there has been further evidence of far-right attempts to wreck the trial, with BNP leader Nick Griffin tweeting leaked jury deliberations and the North West Infidels revealing the name of one man whose identity was subject to reporting restrictions. This is due to him being charged in other, ongoing cases which may now be prejudiced as a result of his name being leaked.

That doesn't mean there aren't serious questions to be answered. Not the least of which should be why the police convinced victims as far back as 2008 not to press charges. This allowed the crimes to continue for a further two years, only lengthening the ordeal and suffering. There will now be an independent investigation into why this happened, and rightly so.

Rather than any kind of cultural Marxist plot to cover up the crimes of Muslims, however, this fits in with how sexual offences are dealt with generally. With a 6% conviction rate, rape cases as a whole are dealt with poorly - and up to two thirds do not go beyond the investigation stage. This betrays not some politically correct agenda, but rather a horrendous attitude to sex crimes which makes it difficult for victims to seek - let alone get - justice.

The question of race and/or religion is a lot harder to pin down. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of The Ramadhan Foundation, says that "they think that white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused without a second thought; it is this sort of behaviour that is bringing shame on our community." Whereas Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood of Greater Manchester Police believes that this was simply a case of "adults preying on vulnerable young children" and "it just happens that in this particular area and time, the demographics were that these were Asian men."

There is a strong case for both positions being true. Certainly, the statistics back up Heywood's position, and we're faced with an "outgroup homogenity bias," whereby "if a white man commits a rape, he’s just a rapist but if a Pakistani does so, he’s a Pakistani rapist." This (perhaps with Muslim exchanged for Pakistani) is where the far-right is coming from, and I have no doubt that their claims of the predators being "racist" is ridiculous.

That being the case, then, how can Shafiq also be right about a problem in the Muslim community? The answer, I'd posit, lies with multiculturalism. Specifically, in that the form of multi-racial society promoted by the state for the past decade.

As Brighton Solidarity Federation once put it;

[M]oney is parcelled out to different imaginary, homogenous ‘communities’ on a racial basis, under the control of ‘community leaders’ – who supposedly represent this entire community and repay this with votes. This corrupts the great lived experience many of us have with multiculturalism, into something repellent – official state ‘multiculturalism’ which explicitly divides people on the basis of race, and gives out money and favours on the basis of a series of different ‘communities’ who need representing.

As a result, this view that "white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused without a second thought" is a convenient one for sexually repressed males looking for an outlet within a culture where socially conservative community leaders frown upon far more healthy expressions of sexuality. At the same time, because this phenomenon happens in areas where "communities" are segregated rather than where people mix freely regardless of race and religion, it is equally true to say that "it just happens that in this particular area and time, the demographics were that these were Asian men."

The ethno-nationalism of the far-right isn't the answer to this, but only the other side of the same coin. In both cases the working class is divided against itself on the basis of arbitrary differences, only what are inadvertent effects of multiculturalism are the intent of fascism. Nazi sexual violence against Jewish women during the holocaust being a case in point. To move away from this kind of phenomenon, we need to move away from trying to package people into "communities."

This won't stop crimes such as the abuse of children. Ultimately, the actions of individuals have to be dealt with as such, and the vile acts committed by the men in this case fall on their heads alone. That they face some form of justice for this has to be a welcome result.

Solidarity with the state's monopoly of violence?

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:08:00 +0000

On May 10, I will be one of several hundred thousand public sector workers on strike over pensions. At the same time, in London, the Police Federation will be marching against cuts to policing. As every time there is talk of police marching, striking or in any way protesting, liberals and leftists have put out calls for solidarity and support.

I've explained before why the police will not be getting my solidarity and I have no sympathy for the devil. Others have made similar points in various blogs and articles, and so there's no need to labour the point here. Ultimately, as we saw with the police's actions in Wisconsin last February, the way to bring police into any kind of broader working class movement is "not appealing to "good cops" to show mercy, but by encouraging mutiny in state ranks and asking those in uniform to remember where they come from."

However, Pierce Penniless makes a couple of good points that need to be underlined when it is argued that the police share our interests because they are "against cuts;"

(iv) We defend against cuts because they involve dismantling things like the NHS and welfare services, not because the organs of the state are inviolable goods.

(v) Hence this tautologous argument that anti-cuts activists ought to oppose cuts because they are anti-cuts activists elides the reasons that people oppose cuts. This elision is significant.

(vi) The arguments put by serving police officers as to why they shouldn’t be cut largely involve their subsequent inability to afford water cannon, tasers, routine arming, &c. They also often extend to their need to exist to keep scum (etc) ‘off the street’. This is not benign civil work: it is racist, it victimises the poor, the inconvenient and the vulnerable. Any argument that we attain a moral victory by defending their working conditions and thus enable them to further fulfill their structural role seems to me rather weak.

The Police Federation's own propaganda (pdf) underlines this. The image before us is a line of riot police blocking a road, presumably less able to do their job because their numbers are cut. If you choose to support or join their march, that is what you are standing in solidarity with.

Remember that. Every baton swung at the head of a protester just for being in the way. Every horse charge to keep the crowds in line. Every kettle because people wanted to cover their faces. Every taser that kills or paralyses somebody. Every stop and search of youth simply for being youth. Every Ian Tomlinson, Jean Charles de Menezes, Smiley Culture or Mark Duggan.

It's on your head as well as theirs. Because you marched to defend it.

Action against workfare continues in Liverpool

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sun, 06 May 2012 08:51:00 +0000

Saturday 5 May saw joint action against workfare by Liverpool Solidarity Federation and UK Uncut Liverpool. We held pickets at both Holland and Barrett stores as well as at WH Smith and distributed over 1,000 leaflets to the public.

When we arrived at the first Holland and Barrett, the security guard instantly shut the doors on us, fearing an occupation of the shop. Instead, we lined up outside with banners, signs and flags and began distributing leaflets. As well as announcing why we were there over a megaphone, we spoke to members of the public who were curious what we were doing and were largely receptive.

There were one or two people who were hostile to the picket, but they were in the minority. We also had a visit from a security guard who had tried to get pictures of everyone's faces at the last event, but he soon left after being followed around with a camera.

We weren't as succesful as hoped when asking people not to use the store, though most did stop and take a leaflet before crossing the picket. However, a fair few people did turn away, whilst one older woman went in aftertalking to us specifically to give the manager a piece of her mind!

After about an hour and a half, we packed up and moved on to WH Smith. At this point, we had picked up a number of extra people as a result of activists turning up late and a couple of members of the public deciding to join in. This meant that things were a lot more lively by the time we reached Smiths, allowing for a simultaneous picket and occupation.

Here, many more people turned away when asked, whilst others made a point of saying that they were only going in to use the Post Office upstairs. A number of youths decided to hang around and find out what was going on, engaging particularly with the younger UK Uncut activists. Again, most of the public was receptive to our message and received leaflets gratefully. We stayed at this picket for about an hour before deciding to move on to the final target.

At the last Holland and Barrett, we set up as before and began handing leaflets out to the public. However, after a short while the manager of the store came out to tell us that they didn't participate in the scheme. During a conversation, it turned out that whilst the chain as a whole still did, he had refused to accept any more placements in his store. The one placement who had been there now had a permanent job, whilst the regional manager had been told unequivocally that if she wanted workfare there she would need to get another manager.

Following this he allowed us to leave some leaflets in his store and was seen handing them to customers asking what the commotion outside was about. We had conversations with a number of them who shared our (and the manager's) opposition to the scheme, whilst handing out the last of our literature. Finally, we wrapped up the picket and drew the day to a close.

The day was a success, given how many people we turned away from the store, as well as how many people we spoke to about getting involved with the campaign. Successive actions in the city centre are part of the Liverpool local's strategy to fight workfare, alongside branching out action into local areas outside the centre. However, it also underlined that these kind of actions have a lot more dynamism with larger numbers and that we can't be complacent about getting them every time.

No doubt there will be other lessons to learn along the way. But either way, we will continue to pile on the pressure against workfare providers. The same threat as before remains: if you exploit us, we will shut you down. As many times as it takes.

Far-right embarrass themselves at the polls - and at the count

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:41:00 +0000

The far-right failed miserably at yesterday's elections. This was a nationwide trend, with the BNP losing all of the seats it contested, but it was particularly heartening to see on Merseyside. Given all the commotion they've been causing recently, it remains the case that the people of Liverpool resoundingly reject the politics of hate.

National Front members including Peter Tierney, Liam Pinkham, Stephen Dumont and Gary Lucas try to unveil an "Anti Zionist League" banner during the election count

Not that this message is likely to sink in with the boneheads. At last night's election count, they yet again made a holy show of themselves and underlined exactly why most people have no time for them.

A large number of National Front supporters were present in Picton Sports Centre whilst ballots were counted, and spent the whole time acting like thuggish dickheads. Despite all being in their best court suits, it didn't take long before a fight nearly kicked off. Through the night, they attempted to intimidate a number of people, ranging from supporters of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition to Liberal Councillor Steve Radford and a young woman with the Conservatives.

When the Mayoral election was declared for Labour's Joe Anderson, they really threw their dummies out the pram. As ever, everyone they didn't like got called a paedophile, and rather than discrediting anybody else it simply made them look absurd.

It's worth remembering that these infantile morons offer themselves as the saviours of our nation. All I can say is that if the day comes that they're the best hope for anything, then it's a fair bet that salvation isn't coming. Thankfully, however, the vast majority of people rejected all they have to offer and they were trounced at the polls.

Mayoral Election

In the contest to be Liverpool's first directly elected mayor, it was always pretty much guaranteed that Joe Anderson would win. With the backing from the local media, being the incumbent council leader, and people's instinctive fear of the Tory government (even though he's making the cuts in Liverpool), he had every advantage.

For the fascists, the result pretty much proved the point of those nationalists who argue for appearing more "respectable" to the mainstream. On the basis of numbers of activists, the National Front - who gained virtually all active members of Liverpool BNP - should have done the best. Yet they were dead last, a brand associated with racial violence and whose candidate is a raving lunatic with a conviction for ABH winning over just 566 votes.

The BNP fared a little better, since they have spent over a decade trying to shed the Nazi image. However, their legacy still haunts them and even with the resurgence of the NF they remain the party that springs to mind when talking of fascists. Only the English Democrats managed to scrape out of the bottom three, a combination of the party having no Nazi legacy (and managing to play down defections from the BNP) and of candidate Paul Rimmer talking to the press about football rather than Zionist plots.

Council Elections

The bad results for the far-right extended into the individual wards where their candidates stood.

For the BNP, the only two wards up for grabs were Wavertree and Belle Vale. In the latter, Christopher Beatson polled 134 votes, 3.88%, which might not be too bad for an unknown whose party haven't previously stood in the ward. In Wavertree, Mike Whitby got a pathetic 45 votes, the 1.16% polling indicating that being a better known face didn't do him any favours. Nor, perhaps, did BNP leafleters being told to shove off by anti-racist residents.

Over the water, Nazi-saluting candidate Joe Killen got just 60 votes.

It was the British Freedom Party who replaced the BNP in wards they had previously stood. In Everton, Jacqueline Stafford got 1.7% of the vote compared to Denis Leary's 4.2% in 2011. Peter Stafford Snr got 1.51% of the vote in Fazakerley, against 4.7% in 2010. Peter Squire got 2.77% in Norris Green with 78 votes, whereas John Edgar got 6.4%/312 in 2010.

In Clubmoor, Andrew Harvey apparently had only 26 people who liked him and got just 0.78% of the votes. This was massively down on Peter Squire's 6.33% of the vote in 2010. Peter Stafford had just 17 people (0.6%) of County voting for him, compared to 222 (4.5%) in 2010.

The National Front's only candidate on Merseyside (outside the mayoral race) was Peter Tierney's brother Andrew. Standing in Stockbridge Ward for Knowsley Council, he came 2nd place - though this becomes less impressive when you consider that he did so with just 71 votes. This gave him 5% of the vote against the winner's 92%, and the Liberal Democrat's appaling showing will have more to do with his own party's failures than the NF's success.

The English Democrats on the rise

The English Democrats are ones to watch, though. In Riverside, Neil Kenny polled 3.15%. In Warbreck, 216 votes for Steve McEllenborough put him in third place with 6.15% of the vote - an impressive climb on Lee Walton's 1.4% in 2011. In Croxteth, Lee Walton polled 3.10% - up on the 1.5% Paul Rimmer and Steve McEllenborough got between them in the 2010 by-election. In Old swan, Steve Greenhalgh got 3.10% with 111 votes. This is up on Steve McEllenborough's 1.4% in 2011.

In all of these results, there could be other factors for growth such as the absence of UKIP, but it confirms the English Democrats' place as the only fascist party whose vote isn't falling. Paul Rimmer's standing in the mayoral race will have helped in this regard, as will the fact that the former BNPers haven't brought overt racial politics with them when defecting.

The struggle in the streets

Electoral intervention will always be an important part of anti-fascist activity. Not so much telling people who to vote for (or whether to vote) but getting out the message that the fascists offer no solutions to the problems of the working class. That will remain the case until the day they give up on achieving power through the ballot box altogether.

But a significant section of the far-right has come to the conclusion that this is secondary. The shift back to "march and grow" tactics has become more acute with the rise of the Infidels and the re-emergence of the NF. The main threat that they pose isn't that they'll gain power, but that they'll pose a physical danger to the left and the organised working class. This demands a response from anti-fascists and - whilst groups like Hope not Hate wave bye bye to the BNP - militants must say hello to the new reality.

The fascists' appealing show at the polls is a welcome result indeed. But it cannot be cause for complacency. They are not going to disappear because there is no election to contest, and we cannot rest on our laurels whilst they continue to organise.

A most abysmal May Day

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:55:00 +0000

May 1st is International Workers Day. It started in honour of the Haymarket Martyrs - the anarchists framed and murdered by the state whilst fighting for the 8 hour day. This year, it was a day for inspirational struggle against austerity and oppression around the globe. Except in Liverpool, it seems, where what actually happened was beyond abysmal.

Photo credit: David J Colbran

Firstly, it should be noted that May Day in Liverpool is often shit and I am judging this one against an already incredibly low standard. The formula is pretty much the same every year - Merseyside Trades Council organise an A to B march, nodding obediently as the police give them the route that will cause next to no disruption, invite a bunch of useless bureaucrats to give droning speeches, then fail to publicise the event at all so that hardly anyone turns up.

There have been attempts to break out of this formula in the past. The anarchist-organised Merseyside May Day Festival in 2010 was very successful. There was a full day of festivities for people to enjoy, even as the organisers of the TUC march reneged on their promise to lead workers to the festival and instead decided to beg for votes for Labour councillor and now-chief-cuts-maker Joe Anderson. However, the sheer amount of time and effort that organising the event required, combined with the limited resources of the organisers meant that it hasn't been repeated.

Last year, a number of activists from UK Uncut called for people to breakaway at the end of the march in order to take direct action. This led to Socialist Party members demanding to know where they were in the 80s and trying to get them arrested, as well as Socialist Workers Party members denouncing the whole thing as "factionalist." As ever, the young and angry - looking to actually do something rather than pontificate about it - were marginalised.

This year, that didn't happen. There have been enough fights with officialdom over the past twelve months that most of those who have become active since the crisis erupted know which side their bread is buttered, to the point that the anarchists aren't always the most cynical about the officials at the moment. The Trots and the union tops aren't so much marginalising the radical end of the movement any more as occasionally showing up to embarrass us - whilst we continue to get on with taking direct action at every opportunity. Which is why, if there is an event at the start of May in Liverpool which epitomises the spirit of International Workers Day it will be the direct action against workfare by Solidarity Federation and UK Uncut this Saturday.

Of course, the official movement does realise this to a degree, and does try to harness that militancy for its own ends. But most militants don't like being put in a harness, and it isn't hard to see that even direct action takes on a totally different meaning with the bureaucracy in charge. A case in point being last Saturday's workfare walk of shame - absent nearly all anarchists because we were busy with anti-fascist activity, it lasted a grand sum of an hour and a half, visited just three shops (with the police warned which in advance) and failed to stop trade in any of them.

Returning to the May Day march, the turnout might have topped a hundred. However, most of this number was not down to any effective building on the part of the TUC but because I had set up a Facebook event through the Liverpool Solfed page. The biggest contingent on the march were anarchists, anti-fascists and other radicals, whilst the trade unions were notable by their absence.

The march was due to kick off at Derby Square at 5pm, but was re-directed to the Town Hall on police orders thanks to the fascist shenanigans earlier in the day. Not to mention Merseyside TUC's puppet-like compliance with the police. There, we were told that a Section 60 AA was in force, and all of the youth were ordered to remove their masks. This was beyond ridiculous, of course, but no doubt down to the trouble caused by the far-right being used as an excuse for the police to throw their weight around more generally.

As the march began, the Irish Republican group Cairde na hÉireann joined the anarchists and anti-fascists in a bloc at the front. It wasn't difficult to dominate the body of the march given its small size. The TUC did try to assert control by sticking their banner in front of ours, but it was clear who had the power when they had to halt because most of the marchers had rushed to the aid of a young activist being confronted by police. As soon as they let him go, with a threat to arrest him if his mask went back up, a "cheer for our young people" drowned out the police before we left them behind. The march continued once its anarchist bulk was back in place.

The march itself was dull as arseholes. Bar a brief jaunt through the main bus station, it went nowhere visible. Radical chants quickly died out, whilst the bureaucrats at the front were pretty much chanting to themselves. When we reached the rally point, most people milled about wondering what to do, eventually choosing between the pub and home. Next to nobody actually bothered to listed to Tony Mulhearn drone on about the 1980s, and the only positive was that the platform was one speaker short.

There is a desperate need for a radical alternative to the TUC march to be organised next year. It is nothing short of an embarrasment, especially given all of the militant action being taken in the city and around the world at present. Not to mention that May Day exists in honour of anarchists, and to let it curdle in the hands of the useless eaters of the labour movement is almost a sin.

This year, I urge everyone in Liverpool to come along to the action against workfare on Saturday. It will be the closest we'll get to a real May Day event. Next year, if we are not able to offer up an alternative to this dreary ritual, then we must be honest about what it really is - and bring a crucifix.

Peter Tierney nicked AGAIN after Infidels demonstration at Liverpool Crown Court

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Today's Liverpool Echo leads with the news that National Front mayoral candidate Peter Tierney has been arrested and charged with a public order offence. This follows a demonstration by around thirty National Front / North West Infidels members outside Liverpool Crown Court.

The demonstration was related to the trial of those accused of being part of a paedophile ring in Rochdale. The jury retired to consider the evidence yesterday and the verdict is due tomorrow. The case has been a focus of attention for fascists in the North West mainly because of the ethnicity and (presumed) religion of the suspects. The official reasoning for this being that there is an official blackout on sex crimes by Asians and/or Muslims, which they are fighting against - which seems spurious given that there has been plenty of coverage in the media both of this case and of the supposed phenomenon of "Muslim paedophile gangs."

Nonetheless, the case inspired a 100-strong demonstration following national mobilisations from the British National Party, English Defence League, Combined Ex Forces and Infidels of Britain back in February. During this, the suspects in the case were attacked by the fascists after being caught posing outside the courts. Nothing to shed tears over there, though the same can't be said of the subsequent rioting in Rochdale.

As is often the case with cases of child abuse, there was little difficulty in whipping up hysteria which risked hurting plenty of innocent people alongside the guilty. It has emerged that the shops targeted in the night of violence had nothing to do with the court case. The one with a possible connection now has a new owner, whilst others were hit in the rampage simply for being nearby and Asian-owned. Yet the fascists continued to point the finger and stir things up, for the simple reason that this is an easy rallying call for them and facts are easily lost in the heat of a riot.

Aware of this volatile combination, it appears that yesterday Merseyside Police were taking no chances. They were enforcing a Section 27 dispersal order, which gave them the powers to arrest people for not sticking to a designated protest zone, alongside a Section 60 AA which said that face coverings had to be removed under police orders.

As a result, National Front (formerly BNP) members Peter and Andrew Tierney, Phil Marriott and Karen Otty were all arrested and charged with breaching the order. 16 year old army cadet Stephen Dumont received a youth reprimand whilst a 22 year old man from Wallasey - presumably Liam Pinkham since it's very rare he has a demo where he doesn't get nicked - was given a caution.

What exactly they intended to do at the court besides cause trouble isn't known. Having already attacked the suspects and threatened their solicitors - risking the case being thrown out - it seems the Infidels have now lost focus. Their signs yesterday declared "British Jobs for British Workers" and "End Social Housing Shame" - nothing at all to do with the horrific crimes on trial in the court where they were protesting. Which only underlines that this case is political capital for them rather than about any kind of real support for the victims.

The Infidels have vowed to return to the court tomorrow, for when the jury gives its verdict. Given what has already happened, and the public call out on Facebook, it will be interesting to see how the police handle them. More importantly, it will be good to see the end of this case and hopefully - despite the fascists' wrecking tactics - justice done for the victims of these horrible crimes.

Liverpool Antifascists picket Quiggins Attique

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:19:00 +0000

Today was the Infidels of Britain's nationwide day of "direct action." In Liverpool, we were promised that the Scouse Infidels would be "busy bodies," and they even had a special National Front "Vote Quiggins" banner for the occasion. In reality, Liverpool Antifascists got the drop on the far-right, who were nowhere to be seen in the city when it came to it.

In the morning, around 20 anti-fascists headed to Quiggins Attique on Aigburth Road. This is of course the shop owned by NF mayoral candidate Peter Tierney. We arrived at about 10am, with the shop due to open at 10.30, to unfurl our banner in front of the shop and begin handing out leaflets. The leaflets were about the mayoral elections generally and all three fascist candidates, but we did have posters (PDF) which underlined Tierney's standing as a convicted, violent thug, and pointed out to those who took our leaflets exactly what the man was capable of.

Whilst we were there, the response we received from the public was almost universally positive. People took our leaflets, stopped to talk to us about fascism and offer us their thanks and support. The only exceptions were one racist old man who said he would vote for Tierney "if he'll send the coloureds back," and the man who lived above the shop.

He came out with a big dog on a leash and whirling a chain. He was clearly in the mood for a confrontation, though wide-eyed and clearly put out when nobody backed away from him. He accused us of kicking a door in, which was self-evidently false as no doors in the area had been kicked in, before declaring that he wasn't part of anything. He quickly belied that, however, when he tried to threaten a female anti-fascist who gave him short shrift before he disappeared.

Throughout all this, Tierney remained inside the shop. He had been seen entering by the first comrades on the scene, and it was noted that he appeared to recognise at least one of them. After that, we heard nothing from him and the shutters remained down long after the scheduled opening time.

Our picket continued until midday, with leaflets dropped through letterboxes on the neighbouring streets as well as distributed to largely receptive passers-by. We then called it a day and packed up, to head into town with the expectation that the Infidels - who had failed to show in support of the man they'd had a banner made for - would be turning up at some point for their big day out.

Our scouts report that Tierney's shop remained closed for well over an hour after the picket ended, only finally being seen open at 2pm. The wild-eyed upstairs neighbour, "nothing to do with all that," was stood outside with his dog and his chain.

In the City Centre, we met up with anti-fascists who had been taking part in action under another banner. In Childwall, a fifty-strong counter demonstration against anti-abortion zealots was running concurrently with the picket. This, too, was highly successful and everyone was on a high when we reached town. However, the afternoon would be a chilled out one since it emerged that the Infidels had been bussed out to support a demo elsewhere in the North West.

Today underlines, yet again, that there is a world of difference between where the fascists are and where they think they are. The Infidels are the most radical of the active nationalist groups right now, having adopted anarchist tactics such as occupations and banner drops. They have also given a new lease of life to the National Front, formerly dead on its feet and not worth mentioning. But their "big" turnouts still require bussing loads of people in from across the country and - without a populist cause to exploit like paedophiles or "the IRA" - even that is often inadequate.

Not that anti-fascists should be complacent. February 18 happened because we dropped the ball, and subsequent victories were down to actively mobilising people and raising awareness of the physical threat the far-right potentially pose. As the struggle against fascism goes on, we need to keep mobilising people and getting feet on the street otherwise this trend will not continue.

Today was an unqualified victory, and all who took part should be proud. The task now is to continue to build our numbers, and a movement capable of waging effective direct action against the fascists time and time again. As Antifa once said,"we have already shown on numerous occasions that a relatively small number of dedicated antifascists can score decisive victories. Most of our actions and activities go unreported, but the fascists know and fear us. Imagine what a difference it would make if there were thousands of us."

Stand up for choice this Saturday!

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:26:00 +0000

On Saturday 28 April, anti-abortion group The Society For Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) are holding vigils around the country. This nationwide action marks a significant escalation in anti-abortion activism, which has risen to prominence recently with US-style abortion clinic protests. With women's services already under attack from austerity, this movement needs to be opposed.

SPUC is a right-wing, reactionary, religious fundamentalist organisation. This can be seen even in the fact that, despite being a supposedly single-issue organisation, it has launched a "campaign to uphold real marriage." Although it tries to tie this in by claiming that "unborn children are much safer within marriage than outside marriage," a spurious claim at best, the focus of this campaign is same sex marriage and underlines the group's broader politics.

Returning to their anti-abortion stance, SPUC are one of a number of groups seeking to "educate" the public on abortion. But, as the Guardian recently revealed, they are actively peddling misinformation, including the nonsense that abortion causes cancer. All the more disturbing when you consider that the target of this propaganda campaign is schoolchildren.

I am absolutely and unrepentantly pro-choice. There is to my mind no rational reason to deny women complete autonomy over their own bodies and their own reproductive organs. When they don't, the consequences are horrendous - with over 70 thousand maternal deaths and 5 million disabilities per year (PDF), globally, as a result of unsafe, illegal abortions. Meanwhile legal abortion, performed by trained medical personnel is one of the world's safest procedures (PDF). Making it illegal won't make it go away, and if the anti-abortion campaigners really are "pro-life," they may want to consider the fatal consequences of the laws they seek to impose.

The real answer to abortion is greater access to proper education about sex and contraception. As I noted a few years back, this not only improves sexual health but also results in considerably less unwanted pregnancies. But, again, we suffers a problem of definitions. Just as "pro-life" laws are resulting in thousands of deaths worldwide, so the education and contraception that would prevent abortion are opposed by the "anti-abortion" lobby.

According to SPUC;

Contraception does not reduce the number of abortions. Countries in the western world have freely available contraception as well as widespread abortion. Ms Jean Malcolm, director of a Brook Advisory Centre, told the Edinburgh and Lothian Post: "It's partly because of a greater availability of contraception that there are more pregnancies. I suppose it's almost inevitable." (11 January 1992)

Contraception may also result in an anti-child mentality, such that unplanned babies are regarded merely as the undesirable results of contraceptive failure.

So, I guess, we should all just get to making babies in heterosexual marriages then...

I've written before about how "God's culture warriors are also the state's foot soldiers." It is no coincidence that we're seeing US-style anti-abortion protests at a time when abortion services, and other health services, are under threat as part of the austerity agenda. Joseph Kay discusses this as well in "bodies as a site of class struggle."

Which brings us back to SPUC's vigils. In themselves, they are relatively harmless - no different than the God botherers in any City Centre who most people ignore and gangs of kids take the piss out of. Except that they're helping the government justify policy which is extremely detrimental to women, and outside abortion clinics they're getting in the face of and harassing women who already have enough to deal with without some zealot telling them they're going to go to hell (and get cancer) as a result.

That's why a number of these vigils will be met with opposition, and that number will hopefully grow before Saturday comes around. Especially in places (like Liverpool) where the anti-choice movement is rearing its head for the first time, its message needs to be drowned out in defence of reproductive autonomy.

Here are the details of counter-protests organised so far. If there's one near you, go along. If there's not, but there will be a vigil that needs countering, organise it yourself!

Bath: 10.30am, Bath Abbey

Brighton: 10.30, Preston Park

Liverpool: 10.45am, Childwall Health Centre

Edinburgh: 11am, Lothian Road/Lauriston Place

Sheffield: 10.30am Vulcan Road

Cardiff: 11am, location to be confirmed

Newcastle: 11am, Tyne Bridge

Oxford: 12pm, Cornmarket (there's no SPUC demo in Oxford, but it's a good day to do some pro-choice leafletting anyway!)

Stevenage

To add your event to the list email Abortion Rights with the details or contact them on Twitter – they're happy to spread the word!

Liverpool Antifascists clash with National Front and the Infidels

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:06:00 +0000

Last night, as a result of pressure from students and the threat of a disruptive anti-fascist demonstration, Liverpool University cancelled today's mayoral debate. It was to feature the National Front, BNP and English Democrats, and stopping it was decisively a victory. Liverpool Antifascists held a rally today to underline this point.

Upon hearing that the debate was definitely cancelled, Unite Against Fascism called off their own demonstration set for today. This was undoubtedly the reason that far less people turned up than would have otherwise, but there was little to be done about that. For LiverAF, our concerns were simple: that fascists would likely still be in town looking to cause trouble, and that the absence of anti-fascists would only give them more confidence - even after their candidates in the elections had been denied a platform.

Outside the Liverpool Guild of Students, there was an extremely short rally whereby a LiverAF speaker explained why we hold a no platform position, and leaflets about the mayoral election were handed out. Then we got the news that we had expected: around twenty fascists were in town and headed our way.

Knowing that they would be looking to cause affray, we quickly decided that we didn't want to present a static target and ought to confront them head on. We headed away from the Guild, with a couple of nervous police liason officers following us at a distance, in the direction they had been spotted. Sure enough, once we reached the Metropolitan Cathedral, there were cries of "there they are," as the boneheads came storming out of a side street.

Liam Pinkham and Joe Killen - BNP candidate for Tranmere and Birkenhead - led the charge. They threw a milkshake in our general direction, whilst Pinkham and Killen both went for me. They held my arms down and, as near as I can tell, gave me a group hug. There were a couple of punches thrown, and I actually felt the one that touched my neck. "Touched" being the operative word.

The love-in lasted seconds, though I was vaguely aware of other scuffles close by, before they were pushed back and the police stepped in to drag them over the road. Needless to say, we followed and the police pushed them back further. Soon after, perhaps realising the stupidity of trying to assault someone in view of CCTV and police, they disappeared back into the crowd. There were a few local faces in there, but most were National Front members bussed in from around the region. They had an NF banner with David Lane's fourteen words on it, a union flag and a George's Cross. One NF woman also sported an absolutely darling union flag mini top hat!

With the police now planted between the opposing sides, the result was a really loud and aggressive slanging match. This lasted for a while before a police van blocked the two groups from each other's sight and silence descended over the confrontation. The fascists broke it by crossing the road and moving forward so we once more faced each other, but the police soon blocked this and shoved them back to where they stood.

Anti-fascists then took the initiative, continually crossing the road to break police lines and move forward so that the cops had to force the fascists back to keep us apart. Eventually, they were forced to herd them away altogether whilst we kept pushing forward. They retaliated for this by nicking a comrade for a public order offence, leading to a stand off with the police. We marked our territory by declaring that we weren't leaving until he was released, which caused them to hesitate. However, eventually one officer accused us of blackmail and the van drove off.

We then decided to march away from the police, and regroup at St Anne's Police station in support of our arrested comrade. I imagine the sight of twenty odd anti-fascists in the foyer wasn't too welcome, and after delaying as long as possible they were released without charge.

What today underlines is that we are returning to the politics of physical force on the streets. The far-right have given up on any attempts at "respectability," and are in this for violent confrontation with the left and the organised working class. Against that, we need to always be willing to confront them and to take direct action against fascism.

All in all, today wasn't a good day for the fascists. Around the country, members of the Infidels have been picked off by anti-terror police. In Liverpool, their candidates' star turn was shut down. And when they took to the streets, matching our numbers only by bussing people in, Liverpool Antifascists met them head on and saw them forced off the streets. Well done to all anti-fascists involved today, and let's hope that more are willing to get stuck in next time around.

More reports on today's events can be read on libcom.org and One Solution Revolution.

Cynical reflections ahead of the next public sector strike

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:38:00 +0000

After the non-starter that was 28 March, it now looks like we will see two big strikes in the next two months. The teachers unions NUT and NASUWT have started the ball rolling for an as-yet-unspecified date in June, whilst more immediately a number of unions are set to strike on 10 May.

The Unite health sector was the first to announce the 10 May date. As ever, the rhetoric is far more charged and bellicose than the actual fight. Despite the headline, this doesn't "step up" the dispute except with the proviso that doing nothing since November 30 was a step down and so they are returning to where they were. Workers are clearly itching for a fight, with a 94% vote for action, but despite talking tough this is just the second day of action for Unite members in over a year since pension attacks were announced.

PCS members at a rally in Bootle during industrial action last June

My own union, PCS, is little different. Again, the press release speaks of a "programme of ongoing action," but it remains to be seen what form this will take. Especially as the same rhetoric has been bandied about in a year where all we've had are two one day strikes, months apart. If the "co-ordinated, targeted industrial action in employer groups and sectors" does emerge, then it remains to be seen how effective this will be - especially as the previous reticence of the ruling Left Unity faction to adopt such tactics boils down to their botching them previously. I personally remain to be convinced until something other than another single day protest strike actually happens.

It goes without saying that I'm more than a little cynical on what can now be achieved in the pensions fight. As I've said on innumerable occasions, periodic one day strikes will not make the government budge. It is pressing ahead with austerity so rapidly and viciously quite simply because it feels strong enough to get away with it. To convince them otherwise, workers need to exercise serious disruptive power as a class. What we've seen so far simply isn't that.

Of course, a number of factors have led to us seeing far more militancy than we might have. In the main, this has been rank-and-file pressure - workers realising the scale of the attacks they are facing and, quite rightly, demanding something be done against that. This has been helped considerably by the strength of the grassroots movements outside of the trade unions - from the students movement and UK Uncut to the ongoing workfare campaign - creating a climate where the working class was regaining confidence in itself. The IWW's Cleaners Branch and Solfed's victory against Office Angels demonstrated what impact such forms of organisation could have industrially.

However, this has been tempered by the fact that within the mainstream unions there has been no similar rank-and-file empowerment. The Sparks are a vital exception, and to be sure there are those of us trying to kick start similar initiatives. But as a general rule, though there is certainly discontent with how the unions are plodding along, there is no real organisation to give it tangible form.

That is the long-running task of militants in the workplace, to build the networks and committees that get such rank-and-file organisation off the ground. However, for most shop stewards and lay activists, it'll mainly be a case of overcoming a general sense of defeatism and making the case for the next one day strike rather than drawing people into a rank-and-file group empowered to push beyond those limitations. Such is the benefit to union officials of managed defeat; not only does it ensure their position at the top table selling industrial peace, it makes it that much harder for control of the struggle to be wrested from their grasp.

I'll still be on the picket line when strike day comes, and I'll still be arguing passionately for workers to lead our own fight. But, ultimately, real militancy against austerity will come from outside the unions and - short of something bloody spectacular - the pensions dispute will end in defeat at the hands of our class enemies. Those in government and those at the top of the unions.

Passé? Why Sarah Malm is an idiot

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:32:00 +0000

A "passé" picket line at Shorfields, Liverpool

Writing for the Independent, journalism student Sarah Malm asks "how would you classify a group of people that take hostages to make themselves heard?" The answer, it appears, is "workers' unions." Thus begins one of the most appealing pieces of crap ever to pass itself off as political commentary.

Malm takes issue with the NUT and NASUWT in particular, over news that both have voted in favour of further coordinated strike action, starting with a one-day strike in June. Given their reasons for not going out on March 28, PCS are likely to follow suit - meaning that Malm presumably also has an issue with workers such as myself. Though, admittedly, strikes by civil servants give less opportunity to shriek "won't someone think of the children!"

So, what's the problem with the strike, then? "It is a selfish, disgraceful and, quite frankly, passé behaviour which has no place in a market economy, especially not one four years into a recession." In particular for parents, "strikes prevent hardworking people from putting food on their tables, they confine them to their homes and, yes, hold economic growth and opportunities hostage for all of us."

Just think of all those poor parents having to take a day off work or having to arrange care because their kids won't be in school. I mean, it's not like they're going to be given plenty of notice about it, is it? Or most employers will recognise the potential of the strike to affect their own workforce and make arrangements accordingly. Or there's such a thing as the right to time off when you need to look after a dependant. What do you mean this has happened twice in the past year alone and the world didn't end as a result of it?

Malm continues in much the same vein. What about "small business owners with no one to pile their workload on?" Because, obviously, the right of those who own capital (even a small amount) to exploit wage labour for profit is far more important than the right of those who have nothing to sell but their labour to withdraw it when their employer is taking the piss. You know how in your "six years working entry-level jobs" you had pretty shit conditions, "unlike you union workers"? That's cause you and your fellow workers weren't organised. Combining, exercising our labour power and - yes - "hold[ing] economic growth and opportunities hostage" is the reason why we have decent pay and conditions to defend in the first place.

It's also the reason that the working class more broadly has everything from the minimum wage to maternity leave. It's the reason that employers' disciplinary procedures are no longer part of criminal law. It's a reason that the government has such a long list when it looks at rolling back the gains made by the working class.

But it wasn't just our willingness to "stomp your feet," as you have it. It was the basic principle of support and solidarity for each other as a class. The teachers are actually a pretty good example of how an injury to one is an injury to all, because a driving motive behind pension reform is greater privatisation. In education, that means academies and free schools - which are bad for the kids who have to go to them and the parents with nowhere else to take them.

The parents of Shorefields School, in the Dingle, could understand that. That's why, when the teachers went on strike, parents and pupils joined the picket line in support of their "elfish, disgraceful and, quite frankly, passé behaviour." The levels of public support for the teachers strike - and, especially in cities like Liverpool, for pretty much every industrial action - show that they're far from alone in being able to grasp that basic principle of working class solidarity.

Malm clearly doesn't, though. Instead, she pours scorn and ridicule on those who dare to stand up for themselves against attacks from the bosses. She is almost as bad as a scab, and indeed will probably become one if pay and conditions in her own job come under attack. That is what's really "disgraceful, selfish and, quite frankly, passé."

Anti-fascist demonstration – Thursday 19 April

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:34:00 +0000

UPDATE: Since this was first posted, the Liverpool Guild of Students have refused to host the debates due to the presence of fascists on the platform. Liverpool University has confirmed the new venue for the debate as the Sherrington Building on Ashton Street. Liverpool Antifascists' demonstration has moved accordingly. Map here.

Reposted from Liverpool Antifascists

On Thursday 19th April, Mountford Hall is playing host to a live debate amongst all of the prospective candidates for Liverpool’s first directly elected mayor. This includes the three fascist candidates for the British National Party, English Democrats and National Front.

Liverpool Antifascists are calling for a demonstration at this event as a show of the city’s opposition to the divisive politics of racism and fascism.

There can be no doubt that Liverpool is suffering at the hands of the present government, wilfully enabled by the City Council. From austerity to workfare, class warfare is being waged against us on nearly every front, and Liverpool Antifascists is proud to say its members are fully involved in the various struggles against these policies.

However, the far-right have no answer to these attacks. Instead, they offer us division – telling us that different sections of the working class are to blame because of their ethnicity, religion or country of origin. Whilst the people of Liverpool wage a real fightback with strikes, pickets and demonstrations, all they can do is wave flags and point to scapegoats. National Front candidate Peter Tierney even wants us to whitewash this city’s history and heritage by abolishing the Slavery Museum!

We know where this kind of politics leads. The Liverpool Irish community saw it in February when a parade into the City Centre was turned back by a mob of fascists shouting “IRA scum.” In the City Centre, ethnic minority Big Issue sellers have been attacked with spray paint by racist thugs. In Childwall, only yesterday, a sign saying Welcome to Gatacre was graffitied with the slogan “n*ggers not wanted.” If the far-right get a foothold in these elections, such hate will only escalate.

Liverpool Antifascists call on all anti-racists and anti-fascists to join us outside the mayoral debates. Bring banners, flags and signs. Make your voice heard, and show the world that fascism is not welcome in this city.

Anti-fascist Demonstration at the Liverpool Mayoral Debates

Thursday 19 April, 5pm-8pm

Mountford Hall, Liverpool Guild of Students, 160 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, L3 5TR

RSVP on Facebook here.

Anarcho-blogging roundup #12

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Via Deviant Art

This latest roundup is in honour, more than anything else, of the fact that I've reduced my blogging output quite dramatically so far this year. This is due simply to the fact that my previous output was unsustainable without abandoning life to sit on the internet. As such, it's worth pointing readers around the blogosphere towards those talking about the things I'm not.

Fellow Scouse anarcho Anna has been writing some cracking stuff of late - in particular her post on manarchism, which deserves to be read by pretty much every male activist out there. Her latest piece, on the word cunt, is also worthy of a gander.

Cautiously Pessimistic talks about the 89% - those outside and ignored by the unions, the role of "socialists" in trade union bureaucracies and the recent PCS climbdown, and smears against anarchists. Adam Ford has been quite prolific, and has blogs on NHS defeatism, the budget, Occupy Oakland, the NHS risk register, Game occupations in Ireland and the anniversary of the Falklands war.

The Trial By Fire has posted a really interesting video of Kristian Williams from Occupy Wall Street talking about the idea that the police are part of "the 99%." The Vast Minority covers rising tensions between OWS and police here. 1solutionrevolution tells us why they continue to cover their face at demonstrations. And, to round of the subject of the police and attitudes towards them, it is worth noting as the police look set to march against cuts in Britain that the Phoenix Class War Council have adopted the slogan "defend Arizona workers, abolish the police unions."

Stavvers is someone I don't read quite enough of. Nor do you, if you don't know who I'm on about. See her posts on Samantha Brick, a recent pro-choice demonstration and abstinence education for a quick sample of work. On the subject of abortion, Joseph Kay has an interesting piece on bodies as a site of class struggle. This also (shameless plug klaxon) prompted me to look at the rise of the culture wars in Britain.

Freedom in the 21st covers the death of Trayvon Martin and the re-election of George Galloway. Nat at Forty Shades of Grey attempts to answer whether sex work would exist in a capitalist society as well as looking at rape and the Twitter hashtag #Ididnotreport (trigger warning).

Johnny Void continues to be the best source for the struggles of the unemployed. As well as reports from the Solfed day of action against workfare, he offers excellent in-depth analysis of the Work Programme, a lengthy piece on the big brother state and Universal Credit, and details of the new Youth Contract. Finally, if you want to know where all this is headed, read ‘Bout to explode: a day in the life of a precarious worker by Juan Conatz.

Liverpool BNP collapses after National Front defection

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:50:00 +0000

It was interesting to see, as the candidates in the Liverpool Mayoral Elections were announced, that there would be three fascist candidates standing. Liverpool organiser Mike Whitby is the British National Party candidate and ex-BNP man Paul Rimmer is standing for the English Democrats. But the surprise candidate is Peter Tierney...for the National Front.

Tierney has, for the past few years, been a stalwart of Liverpool BNP. Hailed as a "super-activist" in the past, perhaps for his bank account as much as his actions on the ground, he has been visible at virtually every BNP activity. He demonstrated his credentials by viciously attacking an anti-fascist protester in 2009 and he was more than willing to get his hands dirty for Nick Griffin during the splits in the party in 2010. Throw in the harassment of Asian shopkeepers and you have the portrait of a dedicated fascist lunatic.

He was rewarded with considerable support off Griffin, even when he went off the deep end. A key example being his arrest for harrassing Labour Party members about paedophilia. In short, no matter what he did, he remained a darling of the party and could count on support from the top table.

Something clearly went wrong, however, as he has now thrown his lot in with the all-but-dead and more openly neo-Nazi National Front. Rumours are that a spat with Mike Whitby is at the heart of this, with one nationalist blog even going so far as to declare Whitby a secret Labour Party activist. But it has also been noted that some in the party have been forging closer links with the North West Infidels - both Tierneys, Gary Lucas and Andrew Leary all being present at their farce of a demo in Bolton.

All appear to have defected to the NF alongside Peter. His brother Andrew - with his own record of assault and racist hi-jinks - is standing as NF in the local elections for Stockbridge Ward, whilst Lucas and Leary appear content to not put their head above the parapet just yet. But with all of the big names gone from the local BNP, the only other candidate alongside Whitby is complete unknown Chris Beatson.

Elsewhere, the British Freedom Party and the English democrats are both exploiting the gap left by the BNP. Each is offering up 5 candidates, virtually all former BNP members. The question is whether they will be able to exploit this gap without the "brand recognition" that the party they split from had. This is an open question and one that most likely won't be answered until the results are in. It's a safe bet, however, that the Tierneys using the NF brand will be a spectacular flop and proof that in some cases brand recognition is definitely not a good thing.

Both the mayoral and local council elections will undoubtedly prove a busy time for anti-fascists. However, both the complete disintegration of the BNP and the fact that their offshoots remain largely obscure work in our favour. The next month should prove to be quite interesting.

Alerta! Alerta! – anti-fascist benefit gig

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:49:00 +0000

Reposted from Liverpool Antifascists

On Saturday 21 April, the Next to Nowhere social centre plays host to an anti-fascist benefit gig. Come down and bring your friends for a fun, hectic night of Indie, Punk and Grime.

Doors at 6.45pm
Sam Talley 7.00-7.30pm
Reaper 7.45-8.15pm
The Visitors 8.30-9.00pm
The Probes 9.15-22.00pm

Entrance £3. All proceed go to the social centre and to Liverpool Antifascists.

You can RSVP on Facebook here.

Map here.

Anti-workfare pickets target Asda and Holland & Barrett

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation were joined on pickets by other activists today as part of the Solfed national day of action against workfare. We took the action out into Wavertree for the main portion of the day, before returning to the City Centre as the afternoon wound down.

Assembling at 1pm outside the Asda on Smithdown Road, we were immediately met by police. They had "heard there was something going on either here or by the clock tower," alluding to the current and former meet up points mentioned on the internet. However, they seemed quite content to let us go about our business, and we headed to the store entrance to begin picketing.

Immediately, our presence drew store management, who claimed we were causing an obstruction and were keen to remove us from their premises. We held our ground for about twenty minutes, the hostility of security and management encouraging sympathy from a fair amount of shoppers. Many people were grateful to take our leaflets and offered their support for the action and the wider campaign. However, eventually the police intervened and we were forced to move away.

The entrance on the public highway received much less traffic, since the one at the back was used by those who drove in, but we were still able to cause a stir. We distributed around 600 leaflets and talked to members of the public who remained largely receptive to the cause.

After about two hours outside Asda, we called a halt to the picket and made our way into the City Centre. There, we targeted both outlets of Holland & Barrett, who were the focus of most of today's pickets around the country. We were able to convince a number of people not to shop in the store and drive the point home that companies using unpaid labour to undermine jobs and conditions would not be tolerated.

Today's action was a success. But, ultimately, it was just the beginning. Despite a number of high profile drop outs, workfare remains a serious factor in the ongoing attacks on the working class and this day of action has to mark the start of a sustained campaign. We will be back - in the City Centre, in Wavertree, and in other areas. Not just picketing, but organising - so that until workfare goes away, the opposition to it doesn't either.

A copy of the general anti-workfare leaflet can be downloaded as a PDF here.

A copy of the Holland & Barrett anti-workfare leaflet can be downloaded as PDF here.

A poor show for the NWI in Bolton

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:46:00 +0000

Today, the North West Infidels went to Bolton. There was a month of hype and build up, especially after the events in Liverpool on February 18, and in the past week threats and tough talk were bandied about on the internet. But ultimately, the demo fell flat on its face.

Having been first with the call out for opposition on the 24th, Liverpool Antifascists bussed 50 people to Bolton for around 11am. Away from the town centre, we met up with a car load of anti-fascists from Brighton. Other militants were already in the centre from Portsmouth and the midlands, as well as a local group from Manchester.

At this point, there was a heavy police presence at the train station and all the fash who came in, perhaps around 20, were holed up in a pub under the watchful eye of the cops. They were clearly watching out for people entering via other avenues as well, as no sooner had the coach parked up than an unmarked car produced two uniformed officers, asking questions. However, after being told twice that we were from an anti-cuts group liasing with comrades in Bolton for future protests, they were then happy to tell us which areas to avoid if we wanted to go into town for a pint and not bump into the far right!

Having thanked the cops for their concern and seen them on their way, we moved in the general direction of where the fascists were being herded, splintering into smaller groups to avoid being surrounded by police.

We were close to the town hall when a van pulled up, and the Liverpool "Scouse Nationalists," BNP, NWI and CXF - about ten, all told - piled out. Producing a large union flag branded "Combined Ex Forces" and placards, they marched into the market square chanting "Muslim bombers off our streets." They were very quickly met with police horses and two, including fan favourite Liam Pinkham, were lifted.

Whilst our scouts continued to watch this spectacle close up, the larger group headed into the main shopping area. There, we were able to meet up with a couple of groups of Asian lads who wanted to get involved, and regroup with our comrades from Manchester and Portsmouth. We also happened upon a small contingent of anti-fascists from Sheffield who had come up on the back of our call out.

Meanwhile, Bolton Unite Against Fascism marched through the town centre to their static demonstration. They were penned in by barricades and kept separate from the opposition, but contrary to earlier reports the two protests were set up in sight of one another.

As UAF marched into their pen, they were heckled by fascists in the pub, who chanted "EDL, EDL" and "get a wash." However, once the full compliment of around 100 militant anti-fascists took over the road, they were nowhere to be seen. Bar one woman who was jeered at as she tried to film us and a toothless goon who was laughed back into the pub when he started shouting that we were paedophiles.

Eventually, the NWI demo which numbered at about 20 was herded away by police. UAF then marched in the opposite direction, calling for those gathered on the streets to join them. The militants declined, however, instead preparing to make our way to the train station to head off the fascists.

We were prevented from taking the direct route by a hastily assembled police road block, and so moved as a block through the town centre and down various back streets to get there. When we arrived, the two police present hastily called for backup and soon several vans arrived on the scene. They didn't move on us there, but it was clear that they wanted to prevent us heading back into town and when we moved away from the station we were kettled by police whose numbers clearly matched ours.

Two anti-fascists were attacked as the kettle was formed, but the one who was arrested was released without charge before the kettle was lifted. At this point, local Asian youth had those fascists who weren't part of the demonstration cornered in a pub, and whilst we weren't getting back into town it was clear that there was no urgent need to. So we got our coach home, and ended the day with a well deserved, cold pint.

We had heard before the day began that there were going to be flash demos in Hyde and Heywood whilst the Bolton demo went on. However, even accounting for these (which were themselves small and met with local opposition) the turnout today by the Infidels was utterly abysmal. UAF outnumbered their opposition, and militant anti-fascists outnumbered both groups combined.

Today served well for linking up with other anti-fascist groups around the country, and our thanks go to comrades from Manchester, Sheffield, the Midlands, Brighton and Portsmouth for mobilising on the day. Not only did it mark an impressive showing against the NWI's dismal turnout, it shows the potential of a real mass movement of militant anti-fascists. The task now is to build and grow that movement.

Have a read of other blogs on the day by Magic Zebras, Anarcho-bastard and Working Class Self Organisation.

Managing down the pensions struggle

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:39:00 +0000

On Monday, the National Executive Committee of the Public and Commercial Services union voted not to call a national strike on 28 March. This, despite a ballot that specifically named that date and endless rhetoric around "M28," naturally left many feeling deflated. But the consequences of this decision are far broader than that.

Before I go any further, I'd like to lay my cards on the table. This won't be a secret to regular readers, but I'm a member of PCS and a lay rep in my office. I do a low paid clerical job in the civil service and I've absolutely busted my balls organising around the pensions issue, often despite a significant clique of reps in my branch whose ambitions don't tally up with members' interests. In other words, I am not writing this as an outsider observing the struggle, but as an active participant in it.

I make this point because, in the past two days, I have seen various snipes at those of us who disagree with the PCS NEC decision. I am, it seems, a "sectarian" whose criticism is "destructive" and something that should be left to the Tories. Twitter and Facebook are full of people vociferously shouting down the critics, all of whom appear to be members of the Socialist Party and (on the rare occasion that they are actually members of PCS) of the ruling Left Unity faction. And, to be quite frank, being called sectarian by them as they cosy up to officialdom is really beginning to fucking grate.

Returning to the main issue of March 28, the PCS decision was informed by the fact that "the NUT executive had voted not to proceed with the one day national strike on March 28 as previously discussed." The teachers union are striking on the day, but only in London. This "may provide a platform for a decision on national action at the end of April," but until then PCS "must now work tirelessly to build the alliance of unions willing to take the serious national action we need to defend pensions."

All well and good, but there are too many ifs and maybes. The PCS executive insists that it is looking at a "clear and unambiguous strategy" of "joint national strike action with other unions in the civil service and education sectors; joint national, regional and local protests; lobbying of Ministers, MPs and other politicians; and coordinated targeted industrial action in some sectors." However, when grilled by lay reps at a pensions briefing in the North West ahead of the recent ballot, PCS Vice President Paula Brown was forced to admit that no details of this had been discussed and the old favourite of a one day strike was still the only concrete action PCS had ready.

On top of such a lacking and reductive strategy, even if the union lives up to its own hype, there's the delay. Joint action was first mooted for February. Then 1 March. Then 15 March. Finally, 28 March seemed to be concrete. Now it's the end of April. Maybe. In the meantime, members are seeing the government press ahead with its attacks whilst the unions offer next to no opposition. Because 3 days of strike action in a little over a year, even if they're really big, are never going to defeat austerity.

Don't believe me? Ask the Greeks.

The answer to this point is always one about "the will of the membership" and how we "must take the members with us." In other words, the nonsense of a radical or militant officialdom held back by conservative or apathetic members. But that idea is demonstrably untrue.

I'm a member myself. I work in an office with 1,000 other members and I speak to them - both individually and in union meeting settings. I know that the appetite for a real fight is there, because the people who declare that we need more than a one day strike, like going out for a week, aren't socialists or anarchists. The people who actively started talking about wildcat action at members meetings aren't far left militants waiting for revolution. They're not even reps. They're ordinary workers and union members who can see themselves getting screwed over, who want to do something about it, and who more often than not are sold only passivity by the trade union leadership.

You can see it in the wider working class, too. The trade union movement lumbers on, bolstered somewhat by the escalating struggle. But any pretence of militancy is thrown into stark contrast by the students in 2010, by UK Uncut, by the Sparks, and most recently by the incredible anti-workfare movement. A growing minority of people - often new to struggle - are punching above their weight and giving the working class what they haven't seen in a long while: victories. The unions continue to punch below their weight and to win only the concessions that take the most moderate out of the game.

It is in this context that the PCS position needs to be seen. Sure, by the standards of the official union movement as a whole, they're "militant." But this isn't the level of militancy that can win struggles - indeed, it can't be by the nature of the trade union structures. Rather, in most government departments and nationally PCS members have been sold out on various issues by the Left Unity leadership. I've documented the sickness absence and privatisation disputes in the Revenue & Customs group, for example, whilst nationally the union already conceded a two-tier pension scheme several years back under a Labour government. Far from being a "fighting left leadership" (is there such a beast?) they are simply more hard-nosed than some of their compatriots within the same structures and facing the same interests and pressures.

What we are seeing with the decision to postpone the strike is not exactly a "sell out," as some have termed it. More, it is the latest increment in a gradual winding down of the struggle.

When it began, the PCS ballot mandate was for jobs and pay as well as pensions, with "fair pensions for all" being the answer to the attempt to play up a public/private divide. Over time, pay and jobs disappeared from the rhetoric. In the recent ballot, we weren't even fighting for fair pensions for all, just "concessions." Now, the date that is actually mentioned on the ballot paper is set to simply pass us by.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is undoubtedly that the capitulation of Unison et al knocked the wind out of a lot of people's sails. As a result, this will have dampened the rank-and-file pressure that forced strikes over the issue in the first place, giving the leadership some breathing room. Add to this that the thunder and enthusiasm has been stolen by the more vibrant and exciting struggles led on the ground, like workfare and the Sparks as cited above. All of which will have meant that N30 was a peak in this fight that has now passed.

But this was not an unpredictable occurrence. The fact that Unison dragged its heels so long told everyone that they would always be the most reticent to strike and the first to capitulate. That could have been planned for. And if action is only effective if "coordinated," in a "coalition," where was this sectional and targeted action going to come from? The unions and the left have been good at picking up buzz words to sound militant, but it is clear that they have no appetite to actually fight and win.

If more coordinated action does take place, it will only be after a hard fought battle within the unions. Even then, it will be after the first pension contribution increases have been imposed and enthusiasm will dampen further. We then face the prospect of a "deal" that can be sold as a win but isn't, somewhere down the line, and an open door to privatisation, job losses and attacks on workers' conditions across the board. In short, not only a defeat in this dispute, but a crushing defeat for the working class over a whole raft of issues relating to austerity.

There is no easy answer to this, of course. A rank-and-file movement like the Sparks simply doesn't exist amongst public sector workers, and whatever strategies we come up with will not be implemented by the leadership. Though of course we should try to build that rank-and-file movement, and re-apply the pressure to force the union tops that very short distance they will actually budge to the left. The fight goes ever on.

Whatever happens, this incident serves as yet another example of why talk of "left leadership" is a red herring. The spectrum of left to right is very narrow, and on opposite ends of it the union structure still has its own interests as the keeper of industrial peace. Putting all our energy into propping up one end of it for supposedly being "left" or "more militant" only takes us away from what we really need to start scoring victories - the confidence to take control of our own struggles at a rank-and-file level.

Alternative Futures Pay Cuts – Demonstration 30/3/12 at Lion Court

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000

The following is re-posted from the Carer's Talk blog, run by class struggle anarchists in social care. For background to the dispute, see the previous entries here and here.

Support workers facing pay cuts at the hands of Alternative Futures Group need your solidarity. On Friday the 30th of March a Unison branch AGM will be held at AFG’s head office, Lion Court (in Kings Business Centre, Prescott, L34 1BN), AFG support workers are calling for a demonstration against pay cuts outside the building from 1pm till 3pm.

If you can’t make the demonstration, please consider calling or e-mailing Alternative Futures Group during the demonstration and letting them know that you oppose the pay cuts they are imposing on us.

Contact details for head office are:

Tel 0151 489 5501

Fax 0151 481 4818

Email: mail@alternativefuturesgroup.org.uk

Neil Campbell (Chief executive of AFG): Neil.campbell@alternativefuturesgroup.org.uk

Gill Dolan (Director of Operations): Gill.dolan@alternativefuturesgroup.org.uk

You may want to ask why Alternative Futures Group is cutting the pay of its lowest paid employees while continuing to pay Chief Executive Neil Campbell over ten times the wage of a support worker (in excess of £140,000 per year) in salary and an undisclosed sum in bonuses, why AFG’s Human Resources department have been making repeated threats of dismissal against support workers who speak out against the company or why a charity that, according its own accounts, ended the last financial year with a budget surplus of £15 million now claims to be at risk of going bankrupt if it doesn’t cut £5.1 million from it’s budget.

Facebook event for this demonstration

Thuggery and machine guns at the Save Our NHS demo

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:12:00 +0000

You might not know that yesterday there was a demonstration in London against the privatisation of the NHS. If you don't know that, you definitely won't know about the heavy-handed police tactics deployed against it. It appears that a media blackout has been enacted on the repression of peaceful protest.

Thankfully, whilst the mainstream media is studiously ignoring it, Twitter provided those of us who weren't there with regular updates. Full reports can now also be found on Latent Existence, Storify, Kate Belgrave, and Beyond Clicktivism (update: Staavers also has a report on the day). There are also photosets from Heard in London and MELPRESSMAN MELPRESSMAN on Demotix. None of these have the same audience as the BBC, Sky et al, of course, but they do have an audience and so what happened yesterday did not go unnoticed.

The story is one that will be wearily familiar to veterans of countless demonstrations in recent years. Several hundred people had gathered peacefully to protest, and soon enough the police decided that they were a threat. Throughout the day, there were reports of several kettles, protesters being knocked down by police and even officers armed with sub machine guns patrolling the streets.

The Metropolitan Police have always been something of a benchmark for police brutality and skullduggery in Britain. From killing Ian Tomlinson, Jean Charles de Menezes, Smiley Culture, Mark Duggan et al, to attacking peaceful occupiers on March 26 and igniting the riots in Tottenham, they have always stood ahead of the crowd. But their example is spreading, and examples as diverse as Greater Manchester police attacking youths on bikes during the riots and Merseyside police sending two horses against a five man picket show that all concern for appearances has gone out of the window.

The examples are innumerable. Some merely add a threatening presence whilst others break out in violence, but it is ever clearer that the police and the state are acting on the presumption that the act of protest itself is a threat. Not breakaway marches or property damage, but the simple act of standing in public and saying "I don't like what is happening."

Nor can this be seen as an aberration or a perversion of democracy. It is a very deliberate escalation, to match the increased frequency of protests and the growing anger at government policy, in much the same way that riot police no longer being used to smash picket lines simply marks out how much less threatening industrial action is when contained by the anti-strike laws. Whilst the trade union movement is stuck in a reductive pattern of one day strikes and liberals still insist against all evidence that lobbying and vigils work, a growing minority of militants have been taking direct action and scoring victories. With each victory, their example spreads and protest itself becomes a danger to the status quo.

The point, underlined over and over again, is that the police are not on our side and can never be trusted. Anybody who tries to persuade people otherwise only puts them in danger. When we're on the streets, the cops will be too. So the only answer is to stay together, stay mobile, stay safe - and don't let your guard down around the bastards for even a second.

Direct action against Allied Irish Bank and Daniel Silverman Solicitors

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:27:00 +0000

As part of the international week of action against Ryanair, on Friday 16 March Liverpool Solidarity Federation members joined John Foley of the Ryanair Don't Care Campaign for pickets in the City Centre. The targets of our action were a bank and a solicitors who are complicit in the budget airline's recruitment scamming.

The Allied Irish Bank formerly provided 3500€ loans to probationary cabin crew for their training with Ryanair, though they stopped this practice in 2010 under pressure from the Ryanair Don't Care campaign. More recently, however, it has come to light that they are still sending threatening letters to terminated staff, warning them to pay up outstanding fees (for training they did not finish!) or face bankruptcy.

When we arrived at the branch in the commercial district, we found the bank manager and his staffstanding around drinking beer. There were collective groans at the sight of us, bearing banners and placards, though they allowed John to present them with a demand letter and condemn their practices before we headed out for the picket.

Outside, we put placards and flags on display and handed out leaflets to the public whilst John got on the megaphone to condemn the bank. By and large, the public were receptive to the message - with many expressing their disgust at Ryanair and support of our picket, whilst others came over to have their picture taken with the man who had handcuffed himself to the goalposts in the Everton match.

One of the AIB suits didn't take it as well as her colleagues, however, and told us that we were on private property (we were in fact on the public highway) before rushing to call the police. This led to the absurd spectacle of a Police Community Support Officer accompanied by two mounted officers coming along to see what we were up to. Though they insisted that we move away from the door, and tried to take our details (we refused), they largely accepted that this was a peaceful picket and let us carry on.

Having sustained it for about an hour, we ended the picket soon after the police left and took a break for lunch.

Having eaten, we then headed over to the docks and Daniel Silverman Solicitors. The solicitors are also guilty of sending threatening letters to terminated Ryanair staff, demanding payment or bankruptcy, and they had to be told that this was unacceptable.

We gained entrance to the office building they were located in when staff from other businesses in there exited for a smoke, and quickly made our way up to the second floor. As soon as John entered the Daniel Silverman offices, a manager appeared and declared that she would speak to him outside, indicating that she knew who he was and didn't want her staff to be aware.

John refused to leave and insisted on handing her the demand letter in front of everyone. This led to a brief confrontation were two men tried to force John out the door, but he left of his own accord having said his piece and handed over the letter.

All in all, it was a succesful day, with two companies complicit in the Ryanair scam having gotten the message that people are prepared to oppose them and take direct action to that effect. But the week is not over yet, and tomorrow we will be picketing Liverpool John Lennon airport as part of the continuing protest.

Day of action against workfare - Liverpool

noreply@blogger.com (Phil Dickens) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:13:00 +0000

Reposted from Solidarity Federation

The International Workers Association has called days of action against austerity, exploitation, and oppression on 29, 30 and 31 March. As part of this, on Saturday 31 March, Solidarity Federation locals will be taking action against workfare.

Following on from the succesful day of action initiated by Liverpool Uncut on 3 March, our aim is to spread the action beyond the City Centre and get claimants and local communities more involved.

Our action will take place in Wavertree, at a target to be announced on the day. There, as last time, we intend to engage staff directly and encourage them to organise against their employer's use of workfare as well as encouraging the public not to give their business to the target.

We encourage everyone to come along and take part, and make the point that as long as workfare persists so will direct action against providers.

Meet by the Picton Clock Tower, at the junction of Childwall Road, Church Road North and the High Street in Wavertree (map) from 1pm. Bring home-made signs, flags and banners.

Useful links:

SF workfare campaign page

Boycott Workfare

Liverpool SF on Twitter

Facebook event here.