Showing posts with label David Cameron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Cameron. Show all posts

6 August 2024

To Counter the Riots & Attacks on Refugees We Need a New Anti-fascist/Anti-Racist Movement – We Can't rely on the Police or State

Stand Up to  Racism is NOT that movement – it is a recruiting vehicle for the SWP & a cosy alliance with the Trade Union Bureaucracy


Tony Greenstein's speech at Palestine solidarity rally in Liverpool 4 August 2024


Tomorrow there will be a mobilisation in Brighton against the Fascists

Last Sunday I spoke at a Palestine solidarity rally in Liverpool. There was going to be a demonstration first and then a rally but fears of fascist attacks led to the demonstration being cancelled (although there was an impromptu one after the rally).

On the previous evening the fascists had rallied outside a mosque and burnt down the Spellow Library and Community Hub library, a 'one stop shop for one of the most deprived'. This story has been repeated throughout the country.

A remarkable achievement for fascist goons in Liverpool - they burnt down a local library and advice hub

Al Jazeera Rioting in Liverpool

Unfortunately Skwawkbox’s report did not tell the whole story about what happened in Liverpool. The previous day a thousand fascists had mobilised at the Pier Head, the traditional rallying place of the Labour Movement and just six anti-fascists were present. Although they were unable to attack the mosque in Walton the fascists did considerable damage.


If anyone bears responsibility for the riots today it is the disgusting coconut Suella Braverman. The irony is that she is the child of immigrants.

Although the catalyst was the murder of 3 young girls in Southport a week ago, the months and years of demonisation of refugees and Muslims have taken their toll. Sunak and Braverman, who were so voluble about ‘hate marches’ against genocide in Palestine and who were so concerned about ‘anti-Semitism’ have had nothing to say about the violent attacks on Black and Asian people and Mosques. Their indignation about racism is reserved exclusively for Jewish supporters of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza.

If anyone bears responsibility for playing the same theme tune as Farage its Yvette Cooper - instead of changing the racist discourse she continued where Braverman left off - this is where bourgeois feminism has ended up


Those who talked about ‘swarms’ of migrants (David Cameron) and an ‘invasion’ of refugeees (Braverman) bear the responsibility for what has happened today. So does Yvette Cooper who only a week ago was proudly boasting about how she would wage war on refugees earning a crust washing cars. What a terrible crime it is to want to work!

Instead of attacking the obvious anti-Black and Islamaphobic racism of the rioters Starmer and Cooper frame what is happening in terms of thuggery and violence. 

We should not accept this . The violence and thuggery is a consequence of the politics of racism and scapegoatism and both Starmer and Cooper are equally guilty of creating the conditions in which it took place. The answer is NOT more legislation restricting the right to protest. The irony of restricting the right to protest against genocide in Gaza has been lost on these hypocrites.

As it is dozens of peace activists and protesters are in gaol, some with lengthy sentences, because direct action to prevent climate catastrophe is considered more dangerous than whipping up race hatred.

Starmer and his Zionist supporters went on about ‘anti-Semitism’ repeatedly although no Jewish synagogues were attacked nor were Jewish people. But when Mosques are attacked NOTHING IS SAID.

Cooper talked of the  ‘billions’ the asylum backlog is costing us which is a straightforward lie. Asylum seekers want to work and house themselves. It is the immigration rules that prevent this that is costing money.

Greater Manchester Police Attack Victim of  Race Attack

Scapegoating refugees is so much easier than tackling the real criminals such as Boris Johnson and Sunak who handed out billions of pounds of COVID contracts to their corrupt cronies - something the Met is refusing to investigate

What has cost us an estimated £15 billion is the COVID Contract frauds perpetrated by the last government when they established a VIP track to allow their friends and cronies, such as Baroness Mone, to secure lucrative contracts to provide Personal Protective Equipment, much of which was defective and never used.   Mone and her company Medpro was given over £200 million pounds for PPE that was unfit to use. The whole scheme was later judged illegal but the CPS and Metropolitan Police have not prosecuted anyone. Over £40 million was handed to Matt Hancock’s pub landlord, Matt Bourne, who had never before manufactured PPE.

Just imagine this corrupt pair, including Tory Peer Lady Mone, trousered over £200m & a profit of over £100m for PPE that was useless. The Met has done fuck all - however this is not newsworthy for the BBC

But the thugs and idiots who have run rampage in the last week know nothing of this because we have a ‘Labour’ government which is as much in hock to the rich and privileged as the last Tory government. Far better to attack refugees and Muslims than those who are really to blame. Starmer’s Labour has pledge to continue with austerity with Rachel Reeves removing the winter heating allowance from most pensioners.

Sussex Police actively tried their best to prevent the launch of my book on fighting fascism in Brighton - the Quakers of Friends Meeting House literally quaked, giving in to Police threats that they would provide no protection - the eventual EDL picket was barely enough to fill a phone box

Twice the Independent Police Complaints Commission upheld my complaint about Sussex Police trying to prevent an anti-fascist book launch - we should never think that the Police are neutral when it comes to racism or fascism

Sussex Police did their best to obstruct attendance at my book launch - their sympathy for the fascists was all too clear

The EDL picket of my book launch then moved to Churchill Square where they tried to attack the Palestine stall and got the shock of their lives as hundreds of shoppers turned on them - they had to seek police protection in the end - Tony Greenstein is speaking  with the megaphone

The Book that Brighton/Sussex Police tried to ban - demonstrating once again that the Police will never be our friends

The BBC have actively promoted the charlatan Farage and his racist agenda - and there are still those who call themselves anti-racists who pay the BBC licence fee

The attacks we have witnessed have political roots which have been exploited by charlatans like City money man, Nigel Farage, who the BBC have shamelessly promoted for years. We have to set our own agenda and the labour movement has been pitifully weak at doing this or combating the growth of the far-right.

The answer @FigureSpeech is not to pay the BBC Licence Fee

National Front march 1976 Bradford

I was active in the 1970’s in fighting fascism when the National Front was talked about as the third major party after having come third in the 1973 parliamentary by-election in West Bromwich with 16%, securing 18% of the vote in Leicester council elections and over 100,000 votes in the Greater London Council elections. But despite this I can't remember a fascist rally when the Left was outnumbered by the fascists. This is what is different this time around.

Oswald Moseley speaking at the Brighton Dome in 1936 - canny electricians wired up the speaker system that gave the assembled fascists a chance to listen to the Internationale!

At the EDL demonstration in London on 27 July there were approximately 15,000 fascists and just 5,000 anti-fascists.  This is something we have to reverse. Of course times have changed. 40 years ago the labour movement was strong with a closed shop in the docks, cars and mines. There were major industrial battles between the working class and the government. Today the working class is atomised and depoliticised. Production has been transferred to the Global South and what used to be referred to as the proletariat has been dispersed. Today it is doctors not dockers who go on strike.

South Yorkshire which was at the heart of the mining industry and an incredibly political working class now sees the effect of deindustrialisation as lumpen youth turn their attention to easy scapegoats such as refugees and Black people.

In sleepy Lewes the NF tried to hold an election meeting in the 1979 General Election but it was surrounded by hundreds of anti-fascist protesters

We need to make our arguments based on class not the liberal diversity agenda which ends up with the Sunaks, Bravermans and Priti Patels of this world. Yorkshire was made an industrial desert by Thatcher and neo-liberal economics. It wasn’t migrants who closed the mines and the docks but those  who own the billionaire press and their friends.

A good letter from the 5 independent MPs but where were the useless Campaign Group of MPs like Abbot and McDonnell

When the rioters say they ‘want their country back’ the obvious question is when did you ever own it? Those who own the wealth of this country don’t have a moment’s hesitation in transferring their money abroad or moving their factories to India or South Korea. Unfortunately the most basic arguments for socialism have been abandoned by a Labour Party which wraps itself in the Union Jack to hide its political bankruptcy.

What we need is to create a mass anti-fascist and anti-racist movement in Britain which can challenge the racist ideas in the heads of young white kids who, lacking any future, target vulnerable minorities. Most of those taking part in the riots are not fascists or neo-Nazis but they are easily recruitable fodder for those who are.

Thousands of anti-fascists came out to prevent an NF march in Wood Green in London

The 1970’s saw major pitched battles between fascists and anti-fascists such as that at Wood Green in April 1977 (where Corbyn earned his spurs) and at Lewisham in August 1977 where the riot police made their first appearance on the mainland. The SWP led the physical force mobilisation on the afternoon of the National Front march. In the morning Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark led a march of liberals and other worthies anxious to avoid any confrontation.

The Metropolitan Police did their best to baton their way through for the National Front as a rain of bricks and missiles landed on them from the local Black youth. After completing just one-third of the route the police gave up. That is the spirit we have to rekindle. Physical force opposition to fascist groups is based on the idea that if you allow fascists and their supporters to control the streets you will lose the battle.

Brighton Anti-Fascist Mobilisation 1981 Against NF March - The Level

In 1976 Brighton & Hove  Anti-Fascist Committee was created, based on the labour movement and a year later the Anti-Nazi League was created. It became, along with Rock Against Racism (which came into being after Eric Clapton gave his support to Enoch Powell) a mass movement. The only mass movement that the SWP has ever initiated.  

When Brighton ANL was created we had mass meetings every month in the old Resource Centre in North Road (where Brighthelm is now) of 400-500. In April 1978 the ANL and RAR organised a massive carnival in London of over 100,000 people which gathered in Trafalgar Square to march the 6 miles to Victoria Park in Brixton. Bands like the Clash and Tom Robinson played. There were a number of other carnivals. The political cultural aspect of the struggle rather than paper selling knocked the stuffing out of the white and old, stale and male National Front. NF stood for No Fun.

Brighton Anti-Fascist Mobilisation Against the NF early 80s

 After the General Election of 1979 when Thatcher came to power and the NF got a derisory 0.6% of the vote the NF took to thuggery and street violence. As Secretary of Brighton ANL at the time I helped organise the anti-fascist response which drove them from the streets of Brighton although not before there had been 3 fascist demonstrations. I record these events in my book in 2012 The Fight Against Fascism in Brighton and the South Coast.

Today’s Stand Up To Racism is a pale shadow of the ANL at its height. It is not only an SWP recruiting vehicle it has effectively become the subcontractor for the trade union bureaucracy allowing them to hive off anti-racism to SUTR whilst actually doing nothing to combat racism amongst their own members.

National Front and British Movement members give the Hitler salute at the 1981 demonstration in Brighton at which I was arrested (& acquitted)!

We urgently need to recreate a mass anti-fascist and anti-racist movement that involves both the labour movement and Black and Asian communities. At the moment Asian communities themselves are heavily split on communal lines, not only between Hindutva supporters and Muslims but between Sunni and Shi'ite.  It is worth reading an article on The Muslim Vote by Craig Murray about the Muslim vote in Blackburn where he was a Workers Party candidate.

George Galloway on the Boat People and the Royal Navy

It also means that there is a responsibility on those like George Galloway not to echo and amplify the message of the racists. If refugees stay in hotels it is because they are not allowed to work not because they wish to do so.

The far-right have established themselves all over Europe in countries where social democracy once reigned, such as Sweden and the Netherlands. We have a duty to ensure that this does not happen here and that means there is no room for left sectarianism and using anti-racism as a party building exercise. Nor is there room for the kind of communalism that Craig Murray experienced. Black is a political not a physical colour. The fact that the murderer of the girls in Southport was a Christian fundamentalist did not affect in the slightest the belief that ‘the Muslims’ were responsible.

After the fascists had attacked a lone Black man in Manchester Greater Manchester Police set upon him, leaving the fascist thugs alone

What we are also witnessing is a coming together of the Zionists and the far-right. For the fascists the best opponents of Muslims are Zionists and the Israeli state. Tommy Robinson is an open admirer of the Israeli state and its wars. Fascist symbols and the Israeli flag go together very well. Zionism has no problem with holocaust deniers. It's Palestinian supporters who are their enemies. As Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherland’s Freedom Party, which became the largest party at the 2023 elections said ‘If Jerusalem falls into the hands of the Muslims, Athens and Rome will be next.’

SUTR has consistently refused to take up the issue of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. That was why Brighton & Hove PSC disaffiliated from them locally. In Scotland they have marched for 5 years with Glasgow Friends of Israel. SUTR seems unable to understand that Israeli Apartheid is racist and worse even than its South Africa counterpart was 30 years ago.

The SWP is still cowed by ‘anti-Semitism’. Like dinosaurs, they are incapable of understanding that the patterns of racism change. Jews were once the victims of racism. Today they are mostly the supporters of racism in the form of the Israeli state.

Of course not all Jews are Zionists. Those who are anti-Zionists are not deterred by the mention of Palestine. So it is Zionist Jews that SUTR are directly appeasing. They don't understand that Zionists have no interest in fighting fascism. When the Board of Deputies organised a march against ‘anti-Semitism’ recently Tommy Robinson went along to join it.

Support for the Palestinians and opposition to Israeli Apartheid must be central to any anti-racist and anti-fascist movement today. There is no room for the participation of Zionists and supporters of Jewish Supremacy.

Joe Solo responds to HOPE not hate controversy – Not The Andrew Marr Show

That is why anti-fascists should have absolutely nothing to do with the Zionist HatenotHope group run by Nick Lowles. It is an anti-left Zionist organisation and its former Deputy Director and Company Secretary, ex-Labour MP Ruth Smeeth (now Baroness Anderson) led the false ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign.

In particular she targeted for expulsion Marc Wadsworth, the veteran Black anti-racist activist after making false allegations of anti-Semitism. She was also a member of the Jewish Labour Movement .


HnH led the attacks on Chris Williamson and even withdrew a ‘Hero Award’ from Jo Solo, a socialist musician, when they learnt that he was also a supporter of Chris Williamson, the former Labour MP.

Such was the backlash to what they had done, that they later rescinded their decision and decided after all to give him the £5,000 which he had all along intended to give to other organisations anyway. A crowdfunder for Jo had raised double that so Jo was in a good position to say ‘no thank you’.  Egg on HnH’s faces all round.

Lady Smeeth was named in a Wikileaks US Embassy Cable as a ‘strictly protect asset’.  In other words she was an intelligence asset. Lowles came from Gerry Gable’s Searchlight Magazine which was well known for trading information on fascists in exchange for handing over information on left activists and anarchists.

HnH is clearly an MI5/Mossad Intelligence Cutout and should be avoided like the plague.

Tony Greenstein

See The BBC condemns the riots and sanitises the far right in the same breath

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

30 April 2024

A Day in the Life of Tarneem

 Life at War - Part 1: Learning to live with a constant fear of death

I first met Tarneem at a Boycott Israel Network Weekend School about 2 years ago. She was a student at an old established university in England and active in Palestine solidarity work.

A few weeks she contacted me from Gaza where she had returned to a very different life. Gaza was at war and she wanted me to help in raising funds for her sick mother who needed to get to Egypt if there was any chance of her living.

In England she was a student of English and I asked her to write the article below so that people can understand the life that she, her family and thousands like her are living as Israel tries to pursue its ethnic cleansing and genocidal project.

This is her story. It is a story of a living hell that the war criminals who rule in the West – Genocide Joe Biden, David Cameron, Anthony Blinken and Rishi Sunak – are fuelling with supplies of more weapons to kill more civilians.

We learn today that Netanyahu is afraid that the International Criminal Court will issue a warrant for him and the other Judeo-Nazi War Leaders in Israel.

Biden we hear is doing his level best to put pressure on the Court’s Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan KC not to issue any because Israel doesn’t recognise the ICC. Strangely enough Biden welcomed the ICC issuing warrants against Vladimir Putin even though Russia also doesn’t recognise the court.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking and demonstrates the collapse of any pretence that international law has any meaning. Karim himself was happy to issue warrants against Putin at a moment’s notice but has done his best to delay having to take any action against Netanyahu despite the fact that children have been deliberately targeted by Israel in this war. 500 children have died in two years of war in Ukraine, 30 times that number in 6 months in Gaza. The hypocrisy of our leaders is there for all to see but their only apparent concern is for Israel’s hostages, never Palestinian hostages.

The photographs below were taken by Tarneem and depict her environment.

Enough of my observations, let Tarneem tell her story.

Tony Greenstein

Bombing has become a regular part of my life.

I was raised in Gaza. This is the place of my childhood and youth. Every corner of this city has some emotional value for me and is associated with countless memories. I returned to Gaza from the United Kingdom after earning my master’s at Durham university, in early March to see my family, and help my people. With the beginning of this war, I am trapped in this living hell. Bombing and air raids had now become a part of my daily life. I would like to say that I am used to the constant sound of bombing and the feeling of the walls shaking, but I am not. For over six months, my family and hundreds of thousands of Gazan families live in constant fear of death. Our days consists of trying to stay alive and trying to find a way out. There are explosions and aircraft flying overhead every day. The bombings are everywhere and are getting closer than ever and sound bombs are the worst. We can think of nothing else, and we can feel nothing else. The days of the week stopped to have any meaning, I can’t tell whether it is Friday or Saturday, it is all just one long nightmare. My sister tries to keep count of the days, but for me it is all a blur.

One night, we all woke up terrified “I can't take this anymore. I can't even sleep anymore without jumping at every little noise." I told my family. My brother, Ali, replied "I feel like I'm constantly on edge. It's destroying my well-being." The bombardments were very close to the house. They usually increase in intensity once the sun goes down: it's psychological warfare, at night everything is more terrifying for us. 

How could I describe my home becoming a place of fear and terror? How could I take more hours and long nights of relentless bombings, explosions, and tank shelling? I was worried for my sister – she was so stressed because of the bombings that I thought her heart would stop. Her fitness watch showed 180 heartbeats per minute, and I was so worried to see her like this.I told her it would be stupid if she were to die from fear in the midst of all this! “Look! Who’s talking?”, my sister said. Then my siblings followed up with a conversation about how I turn off all our flashlights and remove batteries every time I hear a bombing.

Sister: "Did you hear that? I think it's another bombing raid."

Brother: "Yeah, I heard it. But seriously, does Tarneem really think turning off the lights will make us invisible to the war planes?"

Sister: "Apparently so! She acts like we're playing hide and seek with bombers."

Brother: "I swear, if we turned off the lights every time we heard a bomb, we'd be sitting in the dark all night.Let's just hope Tarneem doesn't ask us to start whispering next."

Sister: "Oh, don't give her any ideas!"

We laughed, knowing deep inside that this is a mental trauma that might last forever but anything to lighten the mood in this chaos was welcomed. There is no time to deal with our PTSD, it’s never post for us, always chronic.

Not knowing how long it will last makes this nightmare even worse. I will ask for some help later as it is impossible to do it now and, to be honest, I do not have time for it at the moment. I, now, spend my time caring for my mother, she is going through a lot more, but we support each other as much as we can. My beloved mother, 66 years old, needs urgent medical treatment. She requires two CT scans yearly for her upper thigh to monitor her condition, but she hasn't been able to receive any since October 2023. Unfortunately, even if the war in Gaza were to end, the necessary medical facilities and procedures would still be lacking. To make matters worse, there is no PET scan available in Gaza either. Her condition has been worsening, and she has been experiencing excruciating pain in her leg. We have managed to obtain some painkillers and vitamins, but the lack of nutritious food and essential medicines in Gaza is putting her health at serious risk. I am extremely worried about her, and I need to get her out of here.

Another day filled with the relentless sounds of bombing and airstrikes. I lay still in bed, my niece Mary sleeping beside me. With my seasonal allergy, I couldn't help but sneeze. Little did I know, this sneeze would evoke a heart-wrenching reaction from Mary.

Instantly, Mary's hands shot to her ears, her eyes tightly shut in a futile attempt to block out the cacophony of noise. Panic surged within me as I feared I had disturbed her sleep, but her mother's calm voice reassured me otherwise. "Mary thinks your sneeze was bombing," she explained softly, her gaze filled with a mixture of sadness and resignation. "She does that every time there is bombing while she is sleeping."

The trauma inflicted by the constant barrage of explosions weighed heavily on us all, even seeping into our sleep. And for Mary, so young and innocent, the horrors of war were incomprehensible, yet painfully palpable in her instinctive reaction to the slightest disturbance.

As I lay here in the darkness, listening to the distant rumble of explosions, I can only hope and pray for a future where peace reigns and the sounds of war are nothing but a distant memory.Nevertheless, I find relief writing about my experience. The greatest source of support in these times is the messages of love and hope that I receive from people who know me and knows the reality about Gaza. Just realising that there are people who reject all the atrocities happening in Gaza makes me hopeful that things will get better one day. There is nothing more terrifying than seeing your loved ones suffering and your hometown being destroyed.

Facing the chaos of trying to come terms with a new life

Every morning in Gaza begins with uncertainty. Our so basic and so earthly human desires are our suffering and today is no different. With each passing moment, I am reminded of the harsh reality of life in a war-torn city. My mind races with the endless list of tasks that should be completed each day. One pressing dilemma is always water. Our tanks on the roof are empty, and the thought of another day without a drop of water weighs heavily on my mind. Water is needed for cooking, drinking, for a quick sponge bath and some essential laundry, which feels like some great extravagant luxury. A normal visit to the toilet must be planned, pre-planned, and precisely thought out so that one does not spend more water – it’s a constant balance between normal human urge, maintaining one’s sanity, and losing it all in a jiffy.

We need water in our tanks, but to pump it up, we need a water engine. And that engine needs fuel, which is scarce and expensive. Perhaps we can run the engine on electricity, I think to myself. But alas, electricity has been a luxury since the war began. Luckily, we have solar panels, a rare blessing in these troubled times. However, on cloudy days like today, there's not enough sunlight to power the engine. In the end, we are left with no choice but to rely on the one precious cylinder of cooking gas we have. It's a meager supply, one that we waited in line for hours to get. But in this unforgiving world, every drop of water is worth its weight in gold. This means that we’ll cook using firewood today, because we need to save the resources we have. Every day is a day of choosing your new priority. Is it water? Is it charging batteries and phones? Is it food and cooking?

As I write this, I can't help but wonder what tomorrow will bring. Will it be another day of impossible choices, another day of fighting to survive? So many close friends have been killed, will it be my turn tomorrow? Only time will tell.

Before the war I used to buy bread, now I make it. Before the war, I used to come back from work to home, and then I would relax on my bed and talk to my mum about my day, now it is not just boredom – it's anxiety, tension all the time. Before the war I used to have a group call with my international friends, now I struggle to search for a good signal daily to update them about my situation. Before the war I used to have a hot shower and sleep to release the fatigue of the day, now there is a lack of gas, lack of water, a symphony of relentless bombing and drones hovering over my head all night long.  

Every day is Gaza is a battle against food shortages, sanitation crisis, and blackouts, andon top of all this is the ever-present fear of death. It’s been half a year since this nightmare began, and the situation gets worse every day. People in Gaza die each day because of shelling, bombing and due to the lack of all basic needs – food, water, healthcare. Innocent civilians struggle through unbearable conditions and hardships every day, every hour, and every minute. Yet, amidst the chaos, there remains a glimmer of hope. And so, we press on, facing each new day with courage and determination, uncertain of what the future may hold.

Writer’s note:

You can donate to my mother’s evacuation fundraising campaign through this link:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ali-get-medical-help-for-his-mum-outside-gaza

Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)