How do we deal with these casualties?
In 2002 Amrit Bhandari was walking through the centre of Chester when two women asked him for money. He refused, but the beggars persisted and one threatened to accuse the 72-year-old of rape if he didn’t hand something over. They never assaulted him, but Mr Bhandari was so panicked by the harrassment that he suffered a heart attack. Rather than try to help the man they had literally frightened to death, the girls took his briefcase and wallet, and fled.
One of the girls sentenced for the manslaughter of Amrit Bhandri was Sarah Campbell. Sarah’s short life was one filled with horrors few of us can imagine; sexually abused throughout her childhood and raped at 15, she became clinically depressed, sought escape through drugs and, by the age of 16, was enslaved by an addiction to heroin. Just one day into her three year sentence, Sarah swallowed a lethal quantity of prescription drugs. She was eighteen years old.
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An EDM to support striking workers
Jon Cruddas MP has tabled an Early Day Motion as follows:
That this House notes that global companies based in Europe are free under EU law to tender for British building and service contracts and to hire their own direct labour force; further notes that such posted workers in the UK have to be paid only the statutory minimum wage, which has the effect of undermining union negotiated collective agreements which are not recognised as `universally applicable’ in the UK;
So much for racism and the BNP at Lindsey
Fantastic news, which I’ve only picked up this morning via the comments section of Phil’s A Very Public Sociologist site. The BNP, whose website is spouting a lot of crap about how their councillors are being called in, in preference to the union of the wildcat strikers, were actually turned away from the picket lines. The video below gives more information.
Now that’s how to institute a no-platform policy: from below.
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Making silly comparisons between Israel-Palestine and Sri Lanka
Suddenly, certain people are interested in the Sri Lankan conflict. That’s not because they’re generally interested in highlighting human rights abuses by the SL government or the LTTE’s brutality, but because it offers a cheap shot as a comparison with the outrage the Gaza invasion to the relative silence over SL. Apparently it illustrates how evil the “anti-imperialist left” is.
This is the point made by David T on Harry’s Place, who usually hates making comparisons because it implies “moral equivalence” but has made an exception here for the required cheap shot.
So why might the outrage in Britain over Gaza be higher profile than the conflict in Sri Lanka?
How about this:
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Top Stories and Blog Review – 4th February
Nationwide
Workers reject plea to return during talks
Jacqui Smith faces questions on MI5 torture collusion
Fuel bill help ‘not effective enough’
Carol Thatcher dropped for ‘golliwog’ gaffe\
International
3 million trapped in despair in Darfur’s camps
Porn interrupts Super Bowl TV coverage
Postman who wants to deliver the end of capitalism
Iran launches satellite in a challenge for Obama
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Aaron
First, cabalamat predicts that Obama will win in 2012. His prediction is based mainly on the idea that Republicans are idiots, which seems fair enough to me.
Next, Jim pads up and goes out to bat for Socialist Unity.
Jennie’s in the know re. the latest Wikio stats.
No Right Turn wonders if you’re aware that it may soon be illegal to take a photo of a policeman in this country? Punishable by a fine and up to ten years in the clink. Think about it.
Philosopher’s Tree on why we should ban those evil cluster-bombs. He’s right. We should.
Btw. The utterly glorious Sadie never fails to make me giggle.
Mark Pack has news that Labour MSP Charlie Gordon is alleged to have fiddled his expenses. This isn’t the first time Gordon has been in the shit. Iain Dale would like you throw a hissy-fit. But Dale’s not holding his breath, so I don’t see why you’d bother.
Speaking of Dale, watch this. Via. teh Monkey. Heh.
Hagley Road to Ladywood has some linky-love for those covering the “Wild-Cat” strikes, including our Unity, who as always, is shining a light into the darkness and finding rats!
Finally, Fancy winning a trip to Washington? Me too.
Do we need a different approach to criminals?
It’s an interesting piece of ancient philosophy that a criminal has broken the rules of society and therefore does not deserve to receive the benefits from society. In our world this philosophy has completely disappeared.
For us, we are all equal in the eyes of the law and the law is equal in all our eyes. A mass murderer in prison serving a life term has equal access to law, medicine and the protection of the police, as any other member of society, regardless of his conviction.
But should left-liberals think about re-evaluating this approach?
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Is George Osborne turning socialist?
George Osborne must already be feeling a bit sidelined since Ken Clarke made his comeback. But even he must be surprised at how little attention has been paid to his speech this week, with Conservatives proposing a “new banking settlement”. Is Osborne leading the new “Red Tories” strategy that Sunder Katwala has extensively remarked on here?
Hmmm. Let’s see. In brief, he says:
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Why the BNP is right wing (and fascist)
Iain Dale and John Redwood represent the not-so-stupid face of the Stupid Party; the Thatcherite blogger and the Thatcherite former cabinet minister are clearly very intelligent blokes. Yet both display an uncharacteristic degree of political illiteracy today, founded on wilful misconstrual of what can be included under the general heading of ‘rightwing politics’.
Iain – yes, we are on first name terms – has authored a post under the headline ‘Why the BNP is Left Wing (and Fascist)’. His reasoning runs like this:
But the fact remains that BNP beliefs DO have more in common with Socialism than with Conservatism – centralised command control, trade tariffs, state owned businesses … I could go on. I struggle to think of a single issue which joins the BNP and mainstream conservatism. The Nazis were called National Socialists for a reason. Fascism is invariably described as a creed of the right. It isn’t. As with the BNP, fascism has far more in common with the left, at least in political theoretical terms.
That the word ‘Nazi’ is an abbreviation of National Socialist is frequently trumpeted by rightists as conclusive proof that Hitler was some kind of crypto-communist. But what’s in a name? Let’s give the matter a moment’s reflection.
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Enough’s Enough campaign
The independent campaign group Enough’s Enough yesterday took out a full page advert in The Times newpaper to highlight a new campaign for more lobbying transparency. It is part of the ‘Alliance for Lobbying Transparency’ coalition, which also includes Spinwatch, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Unlock Democracy.
In early January the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee published a report calling for tighter rules on how lobbyists operate and called for a mandatory register of lobbying activity so we can keep a closer eye on how lobbyists operate. Unlock Democracy gave evidence to the Select Committee in the preparation of the report.
You can help the campaign by:
1. Write to your MP and ask them to sign EDM 563: Register of Lobbyists.
2. Join the new Facebook pressure group.
3. Invite your friends to do the same.
(Full ad beneath the fold) continue reading… »
Top Stories and Blog Review – 3rd February
Nationwide
Stand up for workers, Labour MPs tell Brown
Foreign labour strikes spread to Sellafield
BNP attempt to infiltrate wildcat strike
Icy Britain braced for second blast of snow
International
Obama has begun discreet talks with Iran, Syria
North Korea ‘ready to test long range missile’
Shoe thrown at Chinese Prime Minister
China puts joblessness for migrants at 20 million
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Kate Belgrave
At last – interesting times for the trade union movement, and the lefties in and around it. How should unions respond to the refinery and power station strikes? More to the point – can they respond… and will Labour-affiliated unions even want to?
A few from the last few days:
Excellent as ever, Dave Osler looks for parallels between the refinery strikes with workers’ reactions to Enoch Powell’s 1968 Rivers of Blood speech – and finds none. Recommended.
Jon Rogers doesn’t see xenophobia in the refinery strikes -he sees the latest chapter in the long story of the battle to protect workers’ terms and conditions. He argues that a better slogan for our lost leader Gordon would be “British jobs on British terms and conditions” or – better still – “all jobs on good terms and conditions.”
Stroppyblog makes the point – very eloquently – that socialism and trade unionism should aim to encourage the refinery strikers towards international solidarity, ‘rather than the dead-end of nationalism.’ Hear hear.
Over at the Tomb, Mr Lenin argues – partly with himself – that unions might harbour racists. He’s heard that a ‘British jobs for British workers’ protest has been planned by trade unionists for next week. Drop us a line in the comments here if you’ve heard about that – and don’t miss the comments thread at the Tomb for a pointed commentary on Labour affiliated unions.
My interest is the official status of the strikes – are they union-driven, or are workers organising them? Will the recession see people organising independently of unions – taking matters into their own hands? Are people finally sick of the indifferent support of Labour affiliated unions?
Good old Letters writes to William Hague and takes him to task for driving Tory voters to UKIP with his ‘free movement for workers within the EU’ comments on Andrew Marr. Go Letters!
Stumbling and Mumbling makes the point of the year so far: why are people picking on foreign workers when they should be abusing bankers? Man after my own heart there. And was Marx right? – capitalism turns us on each other, not the real culprits.
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