Spain is nice at this time of year

Slow on the uptake for the second time recently, how did I miss reports of Nick Griffin’s recent trip to Spain?

It’s already been picked up in several places though these reports have focused on the fact that a rival fascist mob turned up at the Democracia Naciona Party event Griffin was attending, tried to force entry and were arrested.

I think it’s more relevant to look at exactly sort of event he was attending was.

Now many Brits take regular trips to Spain but Griffin seems to be taking tips from no guide book I’ve ever read.

The clue that Nick is not your average holiday maker and is in fact the country’s most prominent fascist can be seen through seen with his choice of destination. Deciding to skip the Costa del Sol, he instead opted for a commeration of the former Spanish dictator Franco and José Antonio, founder of Spain’s fascist movement La Falange:

The MEP and British national Party leader was a special guest at the meeting held by the Spanish far-Right National Democracy Party at a central Madrid hotel on Saturday…

Police were on high alert in the capital on Saturday as demonstrators marched through the streets to commemorate the death of Gen Franco, who died on November 20 1975.

Several hundred supporters of the regime gathered in Calle Genova, the birthplace of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange party, before taking buses to the Valle de los Caidos, Valley of the Fallen, where both he and Gen Franco are buried.

This year, for the first time since the death of the dictator, who ruled the country with an iron-fist for 36 years, there was no mass held at the mausoleum in the hills to the west of Madrid to mark his death.

Spain’s fascists traditionally gather at the vast basilica, which took 19 years to build using forced labour by Republican prisoners, to pay homage to the late dictator on the Saturday following the date of his death.

The man is a political schizophrenic. In Britain he’s a nice, modern, non-racist nationalist. Abroad, he’s happy to travel to attend commerations for dead fascists and dictators. 

I wonder if any of his new Asian friends made the trip with him. No? How strange.

He’s lucky the British press are so crap and haven’t picked up on it yet.

Update: In a bizarre post on the main BNP site, the group who attacked last Saturday’s Democracia Naciona Party meeting are described as:

a fascist group closely aligned to the English Defence League“.

The Movimiento Patriótico Socialista are apparently an unrepentant neo-Nazi group and hate the Democracia Naciona Party for seeking to emulate the example of Le Pen and others (that is, moving away from the historic symbols and positions of the extreme right).

In contrast, the English Defence League are so desperate to appear non-racist that they burn swastikas, claim to be multi-racial and group the BNP under the label ‘extremists’.

How likely is it that these two groups have close links? Total silliness.

Housing shortages and immigration

A couple of brief reports have caught my eye in the last week that demonstrate pretty clearly the link between two contentious political issues, housing shortages and immigration.

In Cumbria it’s pretty obvious that there is a real shortage of social housing and affordable housing. The waiting list for homes in Cumbria was 12,900 in 2008, about four years.

Long waiting lists for housing are common all across the country and there are a variety of groups (from oddball political groupings to think tanks to national newspapers) who seek to draw a link between this fact and immigration.

However, Cumbria has experienced next to no immigration in recent decades. In fact, the population of the county fell between 1991 and 2001 (the most recent year for which I could find statistics). Despite this there remain thousands of people waiting for housing. How is possible?

Primarily for the two following key reasons: In the past 30 years around half of Cumbria’s social housing stock has been sold off and not replaced while four thousand empty homes remain in the hands of private landlords:

More than 4,000 “ghost houses” are being left to rot by private landlords across Cumbria – but just one council is using powers to bring them back into force.

Empty dwelling management orders (EDMOs) are designed to kick out a landlord refusing to co-operate with attempts to bring a property back into use.

Two properties have been refurbished in Carlisle in that way – and just 27 nationally. No other Cumbrian council has used the powers. Carlisle City Council attempted to use the powers a further two times but homes were sold before action was completed.

Latest figures show there are 1,180 privately-owned empty homes in Allerdale, 1,488 in Carlisle, 1,310 in Copeland and 379 in Eden.

In addition to the above, the other report which caught my eye this week is from Manchester and is even more clear cut as is made clear in this report for the excellent Mule magazine:

Official statistics show an estimated 13,000 homes are currently unoccupied in Manchester. Meanwhile, the waiting list published in June details more than 23,000 people waiting to be re-housed – an increase of 1,768 in 12 months….

The amount of empty housing in the area can be partly attributed to the private ownership of these properties, with owners waiting for another boom in the housing market. With Manchester’s Labour council still suffering from the legacy of the Thatcher years and the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme, large numbers of council houses were sold off but not replaced. Many rich landlords snapped up a vast amount of affordable social housing, and the baton of providing new housing stock passed over to the private sector. Unfortunately for those who languish at the bottom of the waiting list, the private sector makes more money out of the richer tenants and buyers than the poorer ones.

23,000 people waiting to be re-housed and 13,000 empty homes. What’s the obvious solution here?

That’s right, stop immigration immediately and start deporting people. Then, erm, there will be enough houses for people in Manchester.

People blaming a national trend, the housing shortage, on immigration have to account for a similar shortage of housing in areas which have experienced virtually no immigration. They won’t do this though because people who make arguments like that aren’t interested in the housing crisis, or if they are they are very badly informed, they are interested in making cheap political points and stirring up hostility to migrants.

This would be bad enough on it’s own but it neglects the important point that a focus on blaming immigration for housing shortages lets the obvious culprit off the hook and ignores the obvious solution. There is a housing shortage because of the total neglect of housing by successive governments. This is something which is unlikely to change after next year’s General Election and a tightening up of immigration laws, far more likely to happen, will do nothing to ease the crisis.

Update: Shelter have set up a website where you can report empty properties.

Washed out

The scenes over the last 48 hours in Cumbria have been unbelievable.

We’re no strangers to bad weather but the rain over the last couple of days has been unreal. I don’t see what sort of preparation there could have been for an event like this. Large areas of the county are still underwater and at least three towns have been badly damaged by surging flood waters.

When the flood waters finally recede I imagine they could do with a few volunteers to help with the clean up but anyone from further afield wanting to help should consider sending a donation to the Mountain Rescue. They’re funded almost entirely by donations from the public and have done an amazing job throughout this disaster.

Update: The Cumbria Community Foundation has set up a flood recovery fund.

For anyone local:

The Sheep & Wool Centre and Cockermouth School have enough clothing and towels. Please take them to the Cock and Bull pub or the Save the Children shop in Cockermouth instead. Volunteers are still needed at the Sheep & Wool Centre to dish out food and drink at meal times though.

In the Whitehaven area there are collection boxes for the flood appeal in the following places: Wilkinsons, Cleator Moor Co-op, Richardson’s, Tescos, Morrisons, Crosby’s, WH Smiths, Burton’s, Whitehaven News, CBC, Weatherspoons, The Waverly and St. Nichola’s church.

In Maryport, the Settlement on High Street in asking for people to bring clothes, blankets, anything people might find useful in times like these on Monday November 23rd between 9 and 4:30.

Updates on road closures and public transport available here.

Data protection for slower learners

Don’t know how I missed this: David Irving’s emails hacked and posted on Wikileaks.

What is it with far right nutters and a total inability to protect their data?

Anti-fascist hackers have got access to the Holocaust denying ‘historian’ David Irving’s emails and posted his email archives and customer list along with a list of attendees for three of his planned meetings in the US.

Many of the details listed are of the usual suspects, the small number of people who still have time for a sad failed historian like veteran Holocaust denier Michelle Renouf and fascist printer Tony Hancock, though there is one email address of particular interest:

specialprojects@bnp.org.uk

Whose email address is this? No less a person than the next MP for Barking Richard Barnbrook!

Now how did a nice guy like that end up in David Irving’s contact database? I can’t think what they would have to talk about.

Meanwhile David Irving remains defiant and Focal Point Publications now displays the following message:

APOLOGIES for our absence! The traditional enemies destroyed our websites on November 13th, costing us thousands of dollars.

But they did not silence us! David Irving’s US speaking tour has gone ahead as planned, despite this brief interruption. Still left: Niagara Falls, Indianapolis, Chicago: ASK FOR DETAILS

As you can see, we’re now back online with improved security. Please be patient as we work on putting the main website back together. By the way: we can assure you that no credit card information was compromised in the attack.

Any guesses as to who David Irving considers his ‘traditional enemies’ to be? Unfortunately the section on his website listing his ‘traditional enemies’ is currently down due to a technical problem.

Anyway, as Irving says, apart from this brief interruption the tour has been going well so far.

This was a waste of money then

Given this bit of news.

More great financial decisions like this please!

Update:

More unintentionally hilarious stuff, this time from Richard Barnbrook’s blog (I wonder when they told him he wasn’t allowed to stand there?):

When I become Barking’s next MP, having defeated Labour’s longstanding and ineffective Margaret Hodge, (who won’t even condescend to come and live with us in the constituency)….

It’s not just at election time that our representatives should be seen on the streets! They should be there for us, day by day, week by week, listening to us, identifying with us, living amongst us, sharing our concerns, and representing our views on the issues that really matter to us.

I, Richard Barnbrook am going to be Barking’s next MP! I’m the candidate for the British National Party, which is the only Party that has the guts to tell it like it is. But even more than that, I’m an individual who cares; a real, ordinary person who lives in Barking and who’s a part of Barking. What’s more, I have a vision for Barking and the people that live here. With your help, I am going to do my very best to make that vision a reality!

Notice how he criticises the vile Margaret Hodge for not living in the constituency, remind where Nick Griffin lives again?

Advert break

A regular reader has an event some readers may be interested in:

Poles Apart is about when me and my mate Mark went to Poland last year to get a job, in an effort to single-handedly reverse the immigration trend.

 

We spent 2 weeks as immigrants and ate a lot of lard, we came home and made a show about our adventures that includes traditional Polish dance, moustaches, jokes about Russians and Poland’s leading avant-garde theatre co-operative re-enacting the Gdansk iron ore factory strike of 1963. It may also feature “BNP the sit-com…” and a piss take of the English Defence League (I’m thinking balaclavas and tracksuits) as well as a taking apart of tabloid myths.

 

It’s on at the RichMix on Bethnal Green Road as part of their immigration season on the 27th and 28th November at 7:30pm sharp and I think they are providing quality Polish vodka for the audience and some sausage.

 

More info on Poles Apart is here.

 

More info on the Richmix is here.

Socialism 2009

It must be that time of year again. Last weekend saw one of my rare trips down to London (malfunctioning public transport plus expensive pints does not make this one of my top UK destinations) for the Socialist Party’s annual event Socialism 2009.

Unfortunately, I can’t provide you with a comprehensive report this year as I was only down for the Sunday. If your are looking for reports and impressions, Phil’s got a round up and there’s now a full report on the main site.

Still, I got to a couple of sessions and the final rally.

Unsurprisingly, the first session I went along to was “How to defeat the BNP?” (it’s a bit of a hobby). In previous year’s attendance at the Sunday morning sessions has tended to be a little thin on the ground after people have enjoyed a few refreshment’s the previous night but there was a decent turnout.

We first heard from a lad from the Socialist Party in Northern Ireland about the series of racist attacks which had taken place against Roma people earlier this year, the total disinterest of this police and how they’d organised a campaign to defend people having their windows bricked in as they eat their dinner. Engaging stuff and the work they’ve been doing is commendable but it’s (thankfully!) a very different political situation to the one we face here.

Dave Reid from Socialist Party Wales then gave a brief overview of the Socialist Party’s approach to tackling the far right which regular readers of this blog will be familiar with. He stressed the need for a political alternative and the necessity of propaganda which demonstrated the utter, utter failure of the BNP to act in the interests of the people they see as their core constituency (the white working-class).

All good stuff and I hoped we talk about this in more detail. However, I made the first contribution from the floor to pick up on something he’d said about No Platform, a less concise version of the argument I put forward here. The next person to speak opined that No Platform was working just fine and what needed was more of it and so the discussion ended up focusing primarily on this issue for the rest of the session. Should have kept my mouth shut!

The first session was a bit of a wasted opportunity so I did keep quiet during the afternoon session: “Lessons of Lindsey: what the construction workers’ struggle is really about”. Having written so much on this site during the strikes this was a cracking opportunity to hear first hand what had happened from some of the strikers. Keith Gibson, a member of the strike committee, spoke along with Bill Mullins, Industrial Organiser for the Socialist Party and veteran of the strikes in the car industry during the 70’s and 80’s.

Keith spoke on the difficulties that have long plagued attempts at organising in the construction industry. When jobs only last a few months before the workforce disperses to other sites around the country it’s hard to take long-term action about specific greivances. Balloting the entire workforce, then waiting for a cooling off period before an official strike can be launched means that the site can be built before a strike can take place.

This is what made the dispute at Lindsey so significant, strikes there sparked a walkout at sites nationwide in solidarity. They were successful as well. A concerted attempt by management was defeated in two big waves of wildcat strikes and this has important implications for what will happen in the sector in the future.

Anyway, it’s a shame I wasn’t there for the whole weekend. Left-wing groups are famed for inflating attendance numbers at meetings and marches but I think there is good evidence this was the most successful Socialism weekend yet. The fact we’ve moved the final rally from a room at the University of London union, to a lecture theatre to the Friend’s Meeting House opposite Euston Station.

It’s difficult to relate the experiences of what it’s like being at rally so I won’t bore you with my attempts though I will pick up on one point made at the rally.

Over the course of the weekend we apparently managed to raise £25 grand. However, there’s a General Election coming up next year and along with plans to stand in a number of parliamentary seats four Socialist Party councillors are up for re-election.

Socialist Party members reading this will already have heard this and I don’t expect any of my regular readers from the BNP to put their hands in their pocket (though I’ve they’ve temporarily taken leave of their senses…) but what we’ve already raised isn’t enough. You can see what I’m getting at.

What do you get for your money? Nothing, we get it.

Seriously though, I know a fair few of my readers are independent minded socialists or from other radical political traditions (the three groups of people I’ve mentioned above cover, I think, about 90% of my readership).

I don’t expect you to suspend the political criticisms you have of our politics or our approach or ignore any mistakes you think we’ve made in the past or are likely to make again in the future. Whatever criticisms people have, individuals from the sensible left can appreciate that we are one of the few socialist organisations who talk about things which ordinary working-class people actually care about and have put down roots in a small number of areas round the country following years of patient, consistent political work.

If we can’t defend our council seats after years of serious grassroots community work there and poll a crap vote in the General Election the future doesn’t look bright for any of us.

1000 people listening intently, count ‘em.

English Defence League try to ruin Christmas

Not content with annoying shoppers in city centres across the country the English Defence League are now doing their best to spoil Christmas for people in Leeds:

A Christmas tree which was put up in Leeds city centre two weeks ago has been felled amid safety fears about a demonstration planned for the weekend.

The tree, which cost taxpayers £2,000, went up in City Square on 18 October.

However, the council and police agreed it could pose a risk to the public during a planned march by the English Defence League on Saturday.

Surprised commuters looked on as workmen used a chainsaw to cut down the 30ft tree early on Thursday morning.

Next week: The EDL decide to tackle Islam in Britain by going round telling small children that Father Christmas isn’t real.

Side issues – debating ‘No Platform’

Contemporary anti-fascism as a 1970’s re-enactment society: people debating the importance of No Platform.

Just like the hysteria over a certain recent appearance on Question Time, I don’t think the debate over No Platform (currently in progress on a number of left-wing blogs) matters very much anymore. The spread of the internet largely renders the idea of No Platform redundant, particularly given the popularity of the BNP website. Only a prolonged feat of technical wizardry could do anything about this.

Worth re-posting here is Paul Stott’s comment on Socialist Unity:

I think you will find that organisations and political currents that actually tried to put No Platform into practice (as opposed to waving lollipops at people or calling on the state to ban the BNP) have for some time been pointing out that the BNP have side-stepped no platform. Sadly it is no longer relevant as a strategy to defeat the BNP.

Their decade long electoral strategy, voter base and use of the internet ensure that.

Never mind the problem of supposed revolutionaries and progressives asking the state/police/CPS to act on their behalf. Hilariously in last weeks Socialist Worker Chris Bambery was arguing “we can’t rely on the liberal elite to defeat the BNP” – who the bloody hell had much of the left been appealing to the past few weeks but the BBC – the definition of the liberal elite in this country!

The final problem with No Platform is of course the brand of multi-culturalism that the state and local government introduced in the 1980s, and has seeped into the consciousness of much of the left. Having talked for a generation of ‘the black community’, the ‘Muslim community’ etc (regardless of the million and one divisions that make such concepts a nonsense) the state and the left is now reacting with horror when someone stands up and says “I represent the white community”. You’ve made your bed – lie in it.

Class politics instead anyone?

Questions that won’t be asked on Question Time

Phil, of A Very Public Sociologist fame, has posted up some cracking questions on Socialist Unity that should be asked of Nick Griffin now he’s going to appear on Question Time:

1. Why has the BNP consistently (Stoke, Burnley Pendle) voted for above-inflation increases in council taxation, despite its claims against council tax increases and property-based council tax in general?

2. Why did Broxbourne BNP vote to block free bus passes for pensioners against their pledge that “pensioners should get free bus passes”?

3. Why did Halifax BNP councillors in abstain from voting to block the closure of a primary school in Mixenden despite election literature promising to defend all primary schools in the area.

4. Why did BNP in Kirklees agree to council service cuts in Sep 2009 declaring “a lot of the silly posts can disappear. I’ve always advocated that you get rid of 25% of council staff and no-one would notice. We won’t be able to guarantee early retirement and gold-plated pensions.”?

5. You, Griffin, have expelled certain BNP members for their political actions (including ex-Conservative BNP councillor Geoff Wallace in Halifax for supporting greenbelt housing) but not those who have implemented these above actions which harm the majority whose interests you claim to further. Why is there this discrepancy?

6. Why did you oppose the firefighters’ strike of 2002-2003, asserting that firefighters should not have the right to withdraw their labour to renegotiate terms and conditions of work? You declared firefighters “must be placed on the same level as military personnel and police officers and … forego their ambiguous position of using strike action”. Do you still agree with it?

7. Why did Stoke BNP exonerate chief executive Wayne Nutbeen for closing (in 2005) Royal Doulton’s last factories. Nutbeen’s explanation was the “company isn’t owned by Stoke-on-Trent. It is owned by the shareholders. The board has to ensure it does right by them”.

8. Why has Stoke BNP agreed to budgets (2004, 2005, 2007) that cut social spending including Citizen’s Advice Bureaus, old people’s services?

9. Which aspects of the “national good” in “Oriental countries” would you emulate in Britain first – a 2000% increase in work-related suicides, mass dismissals of workers for attending anti-government meetings or homeless nomad families working in low-wage sectors? (Your manifesto (2009) claimed “Oriental countries such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore have managed their economies to combine private enterprise competition with the national good, and these are the models the BNP would emulate.”)

Unfortunately they won’t be asked because I imagine the audience and other panellists will come out with killer lines that he’s heard hundreds of times before such as ‘didn’t you write articles denying the Holocaust’, ‘what do you think of David Copeland isn’t he a bad man’, etc.

Predictably the debate about Nick Griffin on Question Time that has the whole political establishment getting their knickers in a twist has polarised over the question of whether he should be allowed or banned with gratuitious references to WWII on one side vs. misquotes from Voltaire on the other. There’s been little in the way of a debate about how a party which 10 years ago had a similar social status to people like Ian Huntley is in a position to be invited onto Question Time.

The BNP present themselves as the radical opposition to mainstream political parties and the champions of their chosen constituency, the white working-class. Therefore, an important part of undermining their support is illustrating their consistent failure to act in the interests of their chosen constituency not simply calling them Nazis. In the current circumstances of the BNP posing as a respectable, but radical, alternative to the three main parties anti-fascists appearing unwilling or unable to answer their arguments is dangerous.

I imagine this is a lesson which will be lost on the thousands of people who will gather outside the BBC studios to chant ‘Narrssttiii scum off our streets’ for a few hours.