News — Revolution Socialist Youth

Wanker of the Month: Bernie Ecclestone

May 1, 2012 By leon mason 2 Comments

There has been a surge in pro-democracy protests in Bahrain where people have been protesting against the ruling royal family who are responsible for widespread human rights abuses such as: torture, extra-judicial killings and the taking of political prisoners according to a recent human rights report. The protestors targeted the recent F1 Grand Prix to bring their movement into the mainstream of international news.

Bernie Ecclestone when talking about the protests said this:

“You know what they say – there is no such thing as bad publicity”

Funnily enough, Bernie was actually (attempting) to criticise the protestors, and not the government, by saying this.

That is because Bernie Ecclestone is the president of Formula One Management and he clearly doesn’t give a shit about the people of Bahrain. It’s not the first time he has made outrageous comments either, he has praised Hitler’s leadership style and is known for his sexist language.

He has previously condemned the anti-government protestors as a “few kids throwing Molotov cocktails”. Families of those kidnapped, tortured or killed by State forces will have a different opinion.

Clearly Mr Ecclestone is either incredibly ignorant or is just putting his head in the sand about the brutality that goes on Bahrain.

Then again perhaps he actually does not support the pro-democracy protestors as he himself is anti-democracy, a quote from an interview in 2009 may shed some light on this:

“(Hitler) brought a country that was bankrupt into a country that was very strong and that was really demonstrating what someone could do if they had the power”

“The trouble with politicians and democracy is they all the time have to compromise, they can’t do what they want to do because there is somebody in opposition”

All the talk about Hitler and politicians isn’t just talk though. Bernie is the 4th richest man in Britain. In 2011 his fortune was estimated at $4.2billion – a $200 million INCREASE on the previous year.

And when democracy gets in the way of his obscene fortune, he knows all about blackmailing so-called democratic governments into more suitable policies. In 1997, Labour was elected promising to end tobacco advertising in motorsports.

With Ecclestone’s fortune built on the huge sponsorship money poured into racing by Big Tobacco he was determined to derail this policy. Arranging a private meeting with Max Mosley (of Nazi Orgy fame) and Tony Blair, Ecclestone threatened to move F1 abroad at the cost of 50,000 jobs, 150,000 part-time jobs and £900 million in exports. In case the threat of job losses wasn’t enough to budge Labour, he sweetened the deal with a £1million donation to Labour in January 1997.

To top it all off Bernie is also a top level misogynist too. When discussing Indycar racer Danica Patrick, he remarked “You know I’ve got one of those wonderful ideas … women should be dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.” , earlier he also said in 2000 that women would never excel in Formula 1; it’s nice to know that the president of F1 Management is judging the racers on qualities like their racing ability and not trying to get cheap laughs out of offensive stereotypes.

Ecclestone, just like the other 77 billionaires in Britain use their wealth to skew the system in their favour. From Rupert Murdoch to Bob Diamond, a tiny minority is using the economic crisis to get their hands on ever more cash.

From blackmail to exploitation with a big dose of old-fashioned sexism in between, Bernie ticks all the boxes; he is this month’s Wanker of the Month.

Filed Under: International, News, Wanker of the Month Tagged With: 1%, Arab spring, bahrain, corruption, ecclestone, formula 1, Labour, sport

Disabled workers spark resistance to Remploy cuts

April 30, 2012 By Chris Clough Leave a Comment

Hundreds of Remploy factory workers protested in London, Sheffield, Cardiff and Edinburgh on the 20th of April against the government’s shameful attempt to throw thousands of disabled people onto the dole in their bid to destroy another pillar of the welfare state.

Disabled people often face discrimination in society, they are more likely to be unemployed and living in poverty. The need of employers to make as much profit as possible, by ruthlessly exploiting their workers, means that they will often avoid employing disabled people because of their physical or learning disabilities. Remploy was created in 1946 alongside the welfare state to try and address this injustice by providing an industry for disabled people to work in where they can learn skills, integrate in their community and produce useful goods that benefit society.

The government have decided to shut down Remploy by withdrawing the subsidy they gave towards it. This means the closure of 36 out of 54 factories by the 17th of august 2012, but probably sooner for many. This will mean 1752 workers in useful, skilled jobs will have to join millions in the dole queues – and with few bosses recruiting, they will face a serious disadvantage. The last Labour government made a similar move in 2008 shutting 28 factories. Out of those who lost jobs in the last attack only 5% are working now and out of those only 5% have found work of an equal standard. If these 36 are allowed to close it will only be a matter of time before the government ditches the remaining 18, meaning the end of Remploy.

The government’s justification is that the 36 factories are not profitable; this argument boils down to: workers in the third-world can be found cheaper and worked harder. But Remploy helps disabled people fight isolation in society and they produce goods that are used in the NHS and education, things everyone in society benefits from, it shouldn’t matter whether it makes a profit or not. Besides, there is plenty of money available; the rich in the UK have seen their wealth rise over 20% annually over the last few years while the rest of us suffer; the wealth of the rich flows from the cuts in spending and jobs suffered by the majority. The money saved by closing Remploy is a fraction of the cost to society of throwing thousands more out of work, impoverishing them and their families.

Fight to win

This fight is an all or nothing struggle, and the workers know it. The mood of the workers on the protest was one of defiance. 400 marched in Sheffield chanting and spreading their message to the sound of car horns from supporters, one placard read ‘disable the government not Remploy’. 300 packed into Sheffield town hall for a rally with GMB officials, Labour politicians and a Unite organiser from the Socialist Workers Party, unfortunately none of the speakers were disabled or Remploy workers. They all made fiery speeches about fighting back and the atmosphere was electric.

Though the rhetoric was radical the mention of real action was lacking; the labour politicians focused on punishing the government at the elections, but were forced to admit, by a well placed question, that Remploy would be long dead if it was not saved now and also that Labour wouldn’t reverse most of the cuts. The GMB bureaucrats including Paul Kenny the General Secretary focused on elections too and failed to mention strikes apart from to remind workers of the need to obey anti-union laws.

The only exception to the cautious rhetoric was the Unite organiser, Gareth, who called for militant civil disobedience and factory occupations to create a national storm, but he also didn’t mention strikes. However his speech was met with huge cheers and almost constant applause throughout. In an interview afterwards he said “Factory occupations are a necessary part of the fight-back against the Tories. During the Olympics and Jubilee the government will be scared of public disorder and so that is what we need to create”. The workers cheered every mention of a fight back, and at the end dozens stood up to say they would resist. They have proven their willingness to oppose the closures. Now they need to force their leaders to back up their militant words with real action that is capable of winning.

Remploy workers can learn from the electricians who recently beat a 35% pay cut. They did this by taking militant action and illegal strikes by organising themselves democratically at first in a conference and later in rank and file meetings. This allowed the workers themselves to decide on the action and to provide an alternative leadership to ensure that union leaders would not back down or sell out.

Remploy workers should do the same; the union leaders won’t be unemployed if the factories close and so when under pressure they can easily try and negotiate or back down from confrontation. The Remploy workers, with their backs to the wall, can’t back down – they need to organise themselves for an all out fight to win, they should call a conference of workers to decide on a strategy and then lobby the union as a whole to enact these decisions. If the unions refuse to then the conference should set up local workplace meetings to organise the action themselves.

What kind of action?

The government have made it clear that they want to shut the factories; the consultation period is a diversion to hold back the struggle why they pretend to listen to workers’ concerns. Remploy workers should go on strike as soon as possible and refuse to go back until the bosses back down. The government’s determination needs to be met by equally determined resistance.

The strike must also be across all of Remploy, even the factories that are not closing. If these workers won’t go on strike then pickets should be sent to the factories to explain to them that they will be next and win them to a national strike.

If a factory is set to close then the workers should occupy it and stop the bosses taking away the machinery to sell for scrap. They should then call for support from local communities, link up with others in struggle such as public sector workers and refuse to leave until the government guarantees the jobs and future of all the Remploy factories.

A determined fight back like this would strengthen the position of all Remploy workers and show millions that resistance is necessary and victory is possible.

You can download the leaflet we distributed at Remploy factories here.

Sign the petition against closures here

Filed Under: Action, Cuts, Disabled Rights, Liberation, News, Reports, Workers Tagged With: cuts, gmb, jobs, protest, remploy, sheffield, unite

South Manchester Law Centre win first round in council funding legal battle

April 25, 2012 By John Bowman Leave a Comment

South Manchester Law Centre’s battle for funding saw a small, but vital victory yesterday afternoon as the campaign was granted the right to pursue a judicial enquiry against Manchester City Council.

Around seventy supporters of the community-focused immigration and women’s rights charity packed out the hearing at Manchester Civil Court, filling it to the brim. The judge remarked “I’ve never had an audience like this before!”

As the verdict was read out, cheers rung out around the room, handshakes and hugs were exchanged, with the campaign now able to embark on the next legal challenge.

After thirty-five years of serving deprived areas of the city with free and high quality legal advice, the Labour Party led Manchester City Council decided to not to renew their grants, putting the centre’s future under a serious threat.

The court case yesterday was over the right to take the council to a judicial enquiry to complain over the tendering process – or lack of one – which resulted in the cuts. The council argued that the Law Centre’s treatment, whilst it may have been unfair, had no legal justification to take further action.

But the judge rejected that argument, stating that the Law Centre had strong evidence on which to go forward.

The Law Centre is now asking Manchester residents to demand that the council funds legal advice for those who need it, rather than a defence team to stop those campaigning to save their services.

If you’d like to get involved in the Law Centre, and it’s campaign to stay open, go to http://www.smlc.org.uk/

Filed Under: Cuts

Far-Right Flops in Brighton

April 22, 2012 By Dan Edwards 5 Comments

The washed-out fascists of March For England (MFE) had a disastrous time today in Brighton, spending most of their day trying to avoid abuse and debris being hurled at them by angry locals before embarrassingly having to cut their march short because of the strength of local opposition.

Despite MFE founder ‘Pompey’ Dave Smeeton’s pleas that his group are not the EDL and are not fascists, he has been on a number of EDL demo’s and the far-right group’s presence today did not go unnoticed. At various points the meatheads started chanting ‘E-E-EDL’ despite their claims that they were not the EDL. Clearly these boys and girls have no idea of how to run a successful front group.

Last year anti-fascists attempted to stop MFE by gathering at the train station were they knew the out-of-towners (ie 99% of the demonstrators) would be coming from. They were kettled by the police and MFE was able to keep on going. This year the local anti-fascists were determined not to make the same mistake again.

MFE organisers had hoped to march from the train station to the sea front, through the main commercial and tourist areas of town, and end up at Victoria Gardens. The anti-fascists’ strength ensured that they were kept to the backstreets, surrounded by a mobile fluroscent pen of police and an angry crowd determined to not let their hate be spread.

The group of about 90 fascists managed to get 100 metres out of the train station before the 500 or so counter-protestors let them know what a rough day they were in for. Antifascists repeatedly blocked the official route with their bodies and banners, causing the police to change plans and take MFE through some tiny backstreets. Further attempts to stop them were met with police horses and liquid tear-gas being sprayed indiscriminately at the crowd, leading to some injuries and eye-washing on the anti-fascists’ side.

As the police tried to clear the route for the fascists to get to Victoria Gardens, determined protestors blocked the streets with wheelie bins and barricades. After a struggle the police managed to get the far-right boneheads to Victoria Gardens, where members could only use the toilet with police escorts to protect them. They spent their time there failing to enjoy their nationalist speakers as they were drowned out by soundsystems and cries of ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ from the anti-fascists.

The police eventually lead the majority of MFE back up to the train station, where their infantile attempts to rile up the counter-demonstrators with shouts of ‘Who are ya?’ were answered with the crowd screaming back ‘ANTIFA!’

On a slightly sour note, although most local pubs decided to shut up shop rather than serve the fascists, an LGBT pub called The Marlborough decided to let around 15 of them in and took their custom and money. When anti-fascists angrily asked why a pub (an LGBT pub of all places) would let these people drink there, they were told that the management ‘didn’t want to get involved.’ A piss-poor excuse from people who should know better than taking money to fuel the far-right.

However, most of the EDL/MFE (whatever they wanna call themselves) had to get straight back on their trains, meaning that they had a day filled with grief where they were unable to march where they wanted, talk to any members of the public, or spread their message of hatred. Let’s hope they remember that next year.

Filed Under: Action, Anti-Fascism

Conscious music gives voice to the voiceless

April 19, 2012 By Sam ET and Matt Chew Leave a Comment

Matt and Sam from Manchester look at the rise of politically conscious music fuelled by mass resistance to cuts, war and capitalism.

Dealing with issues such as war, poverty, alienation, racism, oppression and the other savage symptoms of profit-over-people capitalism, a range of different artists and bands are expressing their contempt for the system we live under.

It’s not every day that such a frank and explicit protest song makes it onto the BBC Radio 1 playlist, especially one that so obviously raises the issue of class consciousness, but Plan B’s Ill Manors song and music video has proved to be a serious contribution to debates concerning social inequality, class divisions and the August Riots.

The song raises, with no apology, the issues of being young and poor in the UK. Plan B attacks the intolerance of working class kids in the media and wider society.

Ill Manors is a breath of fresh air to anyone who feels alienated by capitalism’s constant attacks on the working class; it deals with the cause of the riots, the closing down of community centres, attacks by Boris Johnson and the Tories, the Olympics and increasing police aggravation.

The song rightfully puts the blame of the riots not on those out rioting, but those who created the conditions that caused them to feel they had nothing to lose.

Plan B’s support of working class people is symptomatic of the ever-spreading discontent, especially amongst young people, and this is reflected in a resurgence in the number of musicians focusing on the inequalities of society.

Ranging from hardcore acts such as Pay No Respect (whose latest video, the anger-filled “This World Is Ours” has reached an average of 2000 hits a day) to hip-hop collective Broken Dialect (who blew up on the revolutionary scene during the student movement.)
Perhaps the biggest success story of recent times for revolutionary music has been UK electronic/post-hardcore band Enter Shikari’s latest album “A Flash Flood of Colour” which attacks the excesses of Capitalism and the effects it has on both humanity and the planet. They sum up the fundamental flaws of Capitalism with these lyrics….

“Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the primary purpose of your life, of my life and the entirety of the human race’s is just to blindingly consume to support a failing economy and a faulty system. Forever and ever until we run out of every resource and fall to the result to blowing each other up to ensure our own survival. I don’t think we’re supposed to sit by either while we continue to use a long outdated system that produces war, poverty, collusion, corruption, ruins our environment and threatens every aspect of our health and does nothing but divide and segregate us. I don’t think how much military equipment we are selling to other countries, how many hydrocarbons we’re burning, how much money is being printed and exchanged, is a good measure of how healthy our society is but I do think I can speak for everyone when I say, we’re sick of this shit.”

Musicians don’t need to quote classical philosophers to be political. When artists like Jamie T or N.W.A deal with issues like growing up in a working class area or police brutality, they are fusing class-consciousness and music.

The resurgence of class-conscious music is an international phenomenon, the long list of artists promoting revolutionary ideas and leading the fightback against bland corporately-endorsed music today include : Akala, First Blood, Flobots, Suheir Hammad, Immortal Technique, Stray From The Path, El Haqed, Born From Pain, Lowkey, Final Prayer, The King Blues, Shadia Mansour, Logic and Simon Cowell’s worst nightmare…Rage Against The Machine.

Encompassing a huge variety of genres, these artists draw on a tradition of music that speaks out against injustice and oppression. British artists such as Billy Bragg and The Clash have spoken out against inequality for decades. Artists such as Paul Robeson and Woody Guthrie fought racism and McCarthyism in the United States in the 1950’s and 1960’s and many popular musicians including The Beatles spoke out against the American invasion of Vietnam.

The artists named in this article are just some of the best from a tradition of political music that spans all countries, cultures and genres. They show that it’s possible to break out of the Top 40 ghetto and bring a message to the people. Their general lack of mainstream support by the big music corporations also shows how capitalist society has the power to control which ideas get a say and which don’t. Do your bit, spread their tunes, join the resistance!

Filed Under: Culture, News Tagged With: culture, music

Lowkey lays down the mic

April 19, 2012 By SAM ET Leave a Comment

REVOLUTION wishes to express its sadness at the decision by Lowkey, the UK-based rapper and political activist to take a hiatus from music. Lowkey has fought against the imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as being a champion to the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom, he has exposed police brutality in the UK and the extreme inequalities of capitalism both in the UK and overseas. By fusing strong ethics and political convictions with his unmistakable musical style Lowkey brought domestic and international political issues into the minds of many, both young and old. REVOLUTION thanks Lowkey for his unmatchable contribution to politics and music over the last few years and hopes that the future will see him once again turn his mic against the imperialist butchers and those who protect them.

Filed Under: Culture, International, News, Palestine, War Tagged With: culture, hip-hop, Imperialism, international, lowkey, music, palestine, rap, war

Fracking: Big Oil’s last throw of the environmental disaster dice

April 19, 2012 By Spam Smyth Leave a Comment

$fracking$ Fracking, what is it, why should we be concerned and what are the alternatives? A quick guide by Spam Smyth.

It will probably come as no surprise to many that the petroleum industry is, as ever, trying to extract yet more fossil fuels from the earth. What may surprise some is that fracking is not a new technology, it was first tested out back in 1947 in the USA. Fracking refers to a process called hydraulic fracturing where hundreds of millions of litres of fluid are pumped underground in order to release gas and oil so that it can be extracted. So other than the obvious fact that many more millions of litres of fossil fuels are set to be pumped out of the ground in the UK, what have we got to worry about?

Let’s start with the ‘fracking fluid’ used in the process, frankly the stuff is nasty. Whilst alot of what is put into the ground is water, it includes a significant proportion of other substances. Saving a lot of technical jargon the other components of the fluid are toxic, can cause cancer and have been linked to brain damage. Oh, did we mention that these fluids frequently manage to find their way into our water supplies after fracking? Oddly enough when you pump millions of gallons of water mixed with poisons underground some of it ends up in the water supply. Also the Tories don’t seem to see this as a problem, nor do they see it as a problem that fracking uses valuable water supplies in some of the driest parts of the country. I guess that’s pretty normal for them though, when it comes to getting rich quick the Tories and Big Oil overlords really aren’t too bothered about droughts and poisoned land, gets them off benefits quicker right?

Shockingly, where fracking has already been carried out in parts of the USA it has poisoned huge underground aquifers (natural water reservoirs) which the environmental agency reported as being “prohibitively expensive to repair”. Apparently you can put a price on the basic necessity of all the planet’s life.

Another fact, fracking causes earthquakes. Fortunately they aren’t very big; at worst you might find some cracked plaster in your house if you live right next door. Or at least that is what has come out of some fairly biased reports from the earthquakes that shook Blackpool after Cuadrilla Resources’ fracking attempts. The real story is that it’s actually very hard to tell what the effects of fracking are going to be on earthquakes, all the fluid being pumped underground acts like lubricant allowing different strata (geological term for layers) of rock to slip and slide against each other causing earthquakes and allowing the fracking fluid to slip far and wide.

This is only the tip of the iceberg; there are many resources about fracking online that can inform you in more depth. As for Revolution’s opinion, we call for:

An end to fracking and compensation for those affected.
Energy supplies are a common inheritence – we call for the production of energy to be nationalised and put under the control of workers and consumers, to ensure quality control and stop profiteering.
Finally we call for massive investment into renewable energy such as solar, for every pound and dollar the capitalists invest into fossil fuels we would invest in sustainable power.

Filed Under: Climate, News Tagged With: climate, environment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, oil, renewable

Kony 2012: guns, gold & imperialism

April 18, 2012 By Amy B Leave a Comment

Almost a month since going viral online, the Kony 2012 video, released by the charity Invisible Children, has caused a storm over Facebook and Twitter. The charity has been active for some eight years, campaigning for an end to the use of child soldiers in Central Africa by the Christian fundamentalist rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Largely unheard of until now, Invisible Children has provoked a storm of debate online following the release of its controversial ‘Kony 2012’ video in early March.

The 30-minute campaign video, which has gathered almost ninety million views on YouTube, promotes Kony 2012, a campaign for the arrest of the leader of the LRA, Josef Kony. The video begins by celebrating the power of social media and initially appears as though it could be a bizarre set-up by Mark Zuckerburg to promote Facebook’s new Timeline feature. The narrator, founder Jason Russell, continues to explain his personal story of meeting child victims of the LRA in Uganda and setting-up Invisible Children, incorporating his cute kid into the video, presumably for because everyone loves a cute kid. A brief explanation of the LRA is put across, made out as a simple good-guy/bad-guy story that the average American teenager can appreciate and relate to. The aim of the video is to engage the world’s youth in a struggle to ‘make famous’ the African warlord for his crimes against humanity. However, the good intentions of the campaign come into question about two-thirds of the way through the video when the aims of the organisation are made explicit- to get military intervention to stop the group. In fact, last October Barack Obama sent a hundred advisers from the US Army to support the Ugandan Army in tracking down Kony, something that went largely unnoticed by the public but was hugely celebrated by Invisible Children’s supporters.

But should this organisation really be preaching military involvement in a complex and politically unstable area of the world to impressionable viewers? Millions of young people watching this video will be impressed by its slick production, strong message and its call for a mass movement, and will undoubtedly want to get involved. Inspiring young people to change the world is fantastic, but Invisible Children are manipulating its viewers into supporting the wrong solution.

There are many reasons why supporting US military intervention in Uganda and neighbouring countries is wrong. Firstly, the Ugandan Army, which Invisible Children supports, is corrupt itself, responsible for similar atrocities as Kony’s rebel army, including rape and child abduction. Secondly, a practical matter; that trying to arrest a warlord protected by an army of child soldiers, in the name of defending children from him, is contradictory at best. The conflict this would result in is disturbing to consider. But moreover, we should oppose military intervention by imperialist countries on principle. The USA has a bloody record of destroying other countries in the name of freedom, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. By now we should have learnt that the self-appointed World Police do nothing but worsen the problems of the countries they invade. Sadly, there is no easy solution to the Kony problem. The Kony 2012 video does nothing to explain why Uganda is unstable and violent, simplifying the problem of the LRA down to something that can be solved quickly and cleanly by US guns. But as long as western countries keep African countries under crippling debt, while simultaneously getting rich by selling arms to groups just like the LRA, Uganda will always be burdened with poverty, political corruption and threat from rebel groups.

As for the Kony 2012 campaign, it looks likely to wear itself into the ground. Information has been widely shared about the expenses of Invisible Children, of which only around a third is spent on charitable programmes in Uganda. The rest is spent on promotion through films. This brings into question the motives of the founders, most of whom are aspiring film-makers. Indeed, Invisible Children has a catalogue of videos created to promote themselves, often irrelevant to the issues in Uganda. And with news coming out recently of founder Russell being found vandalising cars and masturbating in public in San Diego, (he is now recovering in hospital from ‘brief reactive psychosis’), we can expect endless jokes and memes.

It’s a shame to see a campaign that raised awareness of an important issue and encouraged people to learn about the history of Central Africa potentially go to waste, but perhaps this is a good thing, as the message of the campaign was not one to be supported. In all likelihood, the US advisers will eventually be removed as their mission is almost impossible. Until then, we should focus our energy on criticising and building practical opposition to the activities of the imperialist nations that have caused this destruction of African countries and continue to exploit them for their own wealth.

Filed Under: International, News, War Tagged With: africa, Imperialism, invisible children, kony 2012, uganda, war

Wanker of the Month: Jason Russell

April 18, 2012 By SAM ET 4 Comments

On the 5th March, millions of heartstrings across the globe were tugged by the emotive viral video, “Kony 2012.” The video was released by the so-called ‘charity’ Invisible Children to raise awareness about Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord with a list of crimes nearly as long as George Osborne’s nightly line of charlie, including brutalization, rape, torture and enforced recruitment of children into his rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army.

In an attempt to pressure the United States Government (aka Team America), Invisible Children wanted to make Joseph Kony incredibly famous, or as George Clooney helpfully explains “as famous as me” (Yes George, that does sound a tiny bit big-headed). In their minds, thousands of people wearing Kony bracelets, putting up Kony posters and writing letters to their elected representatives would persuade the ruling elites to bring Kony to justice.

Sounding wonderful so far? It’s not.

Whilst most sensible people would be happy to see Kony before the International Criminal Court (he is their most wanted fugitive) Invisible Children’s gameplan is a fantasy. Firstly, the strong support that Jason Russell and his cronies give to the Ugandan Government and military is either blind and naive, or hypocritical and self-serving; attempting to improve human rights by propping up a regime which attacks homosexuals, employs child soldiers of its own, silences the press and crushes opposition. Still sounding wonderful?

Secondly, even a brief flick through a history book of the last 70 or so years would have helped Jason Russell to realise that the American Government does not interfere in other countries purely for humanitarian reasons, and when it does invade on that pretence, it invariably makes things worse – Afghanistan and Iraq being two of the more recent examples.

Thirdly, it must obviously be nothing more than coincidence that after nearly 30 years of the Lord’s Resistance Army pillaging the region, it’s only in recent years with the discovery of oil and minerals in Uganda that the US Government has taken an interest.

So, Jason Russell, read your history next time and if you can’t be bothered to do that then turn on the news and look at the mess that humanitarian interventions and the pursuit of “justice” have caused in the past, and then perhaps don’t campaign so strongly for there to be a next time.

Lastly, when all the pressure of being a self-serving hypocrite gets too much, don’t get your knob out and start spurting your own invisible children all over California traffic!

Filed Under: International, News, War Tagged With: international, invisible children, kony 2012, uganda, Wanker

Make Bradford British: one step forward, two steps back

April 18, 2012 By Dan Edwards Leave a Comment

With its provocative (and xenophobic) title and Big-Brother-meets-Wife-Swap format, Make Bradford British was destined to be trash TV. But there were some interesting twists and turns along the way. Dan Edwards reviews C4’s latest effort at Diversity Telly.

The basic premise is pretty simple- get eight born-and-bred British people from a variety of backgrounds who all fail the British citizenship test (used to deny immigrants and refugees the right to live here) to live together as a group for a few days, and then partner them up to live each others’ lifestyles for a further couple of days. What could possibly go wrong?

Well let’s start with the biggest problems first. It portrays Bradford as highly segregated, with communities virtually at war with one another due to differences in lifestyle. I’m not denying that are racial tensions in Bradford, but it fails to point out that this is far from universal- when the thugs of the EDL tried to start a riot in Bradford, few locals joined them, and the anti-fascist turnout was incredibly racially and culturally diverse. The show also failed to look at how increasing poverty in Bradford, caused by Thatcher’s gutting of northern industries, has been manipulated by the far-right to stoke racial tension.

The programme also assumes that the way to overcome racism is simply by getting people to befriend people of different backgrounds. While greater social mixing is definitely a good thing and can help individuals overcome unfounded fears and prejudices of different ethnic groups, it overlooks the fact that racism is a problem with societies rather than individual people. When a racist says ‘I’m not racist, one of my best friends is black,’ they’re not necessarily lying to you- it’s just that they view the overall threat of the black community as different and separate to the relationship they have with one or two black people. Mixed-race landlady Audrey was an excellent example of this- though she had Asian family members she was also incredibly prejudiced and came out with a lot of phrases that wouldn’t be out of place in the worst right-wing rags.

There were some genuinely interesting aspects of this program. When the whole house had to live together, Rashid’s frequent trips to the Mosque to pray were repeatedly criticised by the rest of the house, and he was portrayed as not willing to help the collective out because he didn’t get to the shops in time to buy the ingredients to make dinner, and instead ended up getting everyone a take-away. While this intolerance was not commented upon by ‘diversity experts’ Laurie Trott and Taiba Yasseen, who acted as hosts, other instances were. Why should this guy be singled out for going to pray? Knowing that prayer would prevent him from buying the chicken, why wasn’t someone else asked to go? Why is this intolerance overlooked and legitimised?

Another moment from the same episode provided a bit more hope for anti-racists, as a discussion over the use of racist words seemed to genuinely change the housemates’ opinions. While a couple of the white members of the house and Audrey felt perfectly comfortable saying ‘paki’ when they first came in, the pain caused by racist words – permanent reminders of a colonial past and oppressive present – soon became pretty obvious and they stopped using them. The only person who didn’t feel this way was (surprise, surprise) an ex-cop. This prick aside, it was a nice moment.

Perhaps the most worrying moment in the two-part series came when Muslim woman Sabbiyah tried a day’s work in a city centre pub. While there two customers racially abused her, with a burly thick-as-shit piece of EDL-fodder insisting she should wear a mini-skirt while in ‘his’ country, while touching her legs and cornering her. This was painful viewing and has even prompted complaints from Bradford city councillors, who question why the programme-makers didn’t intervene to stop this racist and sexual harassment.

Overall I think we should be grateful that Make Bradford British showed that cultural differences don’t inevitably lead to conflict (a great moment was watching white sheet-metal worker Jacob overcome his assumption that Muslims are all terrorists and extremists), and that the idea of an all-encompassing ‘British culture’ is unrealistic and unhelpful.

But, by failing to look at the material deprivation of Bradford, or the relationships between other ethnic/cultural communities in the city, the programme ultimately helped to reinforce the prevalent idea that Britain is being torn apart by the divide between the white working-class and Asian Muslims. One step forwards, two step back.

Filed Under: Anti-Racism, Culture, Liberation, News Tagged With: Bradford, C4, culture, racism, reviews, television, tv