Pigs, Plebs and Tory scum

If you are a Tory government facing talk from trade union leaders of mass co-ordinated strike action - possibly even a general strike - in the coming months, then it might be a good idea to at least try and make sure you have the police on your side - they after all are going to be the people you might be using to help break strikes, maintain 'law and order' etc in the near future.  Unfortunately for Cameron, the unconditional support of the police has been rather difficult to rely on recently amidst his plans to cut their numbers and raid their pensions - and the police have even organised marches in protest.  Given this context, the words of Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell to the police guarding Downing Street - 'Best you learn your fucking place ... You don’t run this fucking government ... You're fucking plebs' - not only epitomised the disgusting ingrained ruling class elitism of Cameron's government - and was not only particularly insulting to the police in question given the recent deaths of two cops in Manchester - but critically also appallingly bad strategy and tactics in the wider class war the Tories are currently waging on behalf of the rich against, er, us plebs.  The fact that Mitchell's rant was leaked to the Sun tells you much about the bad tensions between the rank and file of the police and the Tories currently (though the current corruption exposed by the phone-hacking scandal reminds us of the pre-existing close connections between News International and the London Met Police...)

Yet the fact that Mitchell was not immediately arrested by the police officers in question for using 'foul and abusive language' also highlights the class nature of the law and the role of the police in society.  The whole incident reminded me of a time I was arrested almost a decade ago 'for using foul and abusive language' during the Iraq war while taking part in an anti-war protest.    A group of anti-war activists had got up early and were now lying down in a 'die in' outside the local BBC (in protest at their craven pro-war stance) in a fairly main road, blocking rush hour traffic.   I was not actually involved in the 'die in' but was handing out leaflets nearby and joining in the chants of 'BBC - Propaganda TV'.  Eventually a series of police riot vans showed up and about forty or so police leapt out of them.  No doubt annoyed at having had their leisurely morning cooked breakfasts rudely interupted by reports of this protest, the police were not in a particularly good mood and started indiscriminately arresting protesters lying down in the road, with all the characteristic politeness and gentility one has come to associate with the British police (1429 deaths in police custody from 1990-2011).   Together with another anti-war activist I began remonstrating with the police from the sidelines along the lines of 'Well done', 'What heroes you guys are', 'What a great democracy we are living in' etc.

This line of sarcastic commentary did not earn me the warmth of the police as they were going about arresting those involved in the 'die-in' and dragging them into police vans, and one massive police officer came up to me and told me to leave the area.  I say told me to leave the area, essentially he started pushing me back - indeed nearly pushing me over.  Though I did not argue at all and was slowly moving back, I was clearly not going back fast enough for the cop who then nearly shoved me over backwards.  I remember saying something like 'What the f**k are you doing - I am moving back okay?' at which point he said 'If you swear at me again I will arrest you under Section 5 of the Public Order Act [or something along those lines]'.  I was sceptical that nearly pushing someone over backwards and then threatening to arrest them for accidentally swearing was really fair - and so said 'What the f**k?' again - at which point I was promptly arrested by the cop for using 'foul and abusive language in a public area'.  I was not ultimately charged - the police statement about what I allegedly had said was so manifestly self-evidently bullshit that I think they realised it was best not to pursue it in a court of law - but the point remains - the police are there to protect the interests of the rich and powerful - which is why even when a rich millionaire Tory like Mitchell openly acts like the absolute arrogant tosser he is there is no talk of him facing any kind of criminal charge.    It seems a timely moment nonetheless to plug the following event:

Defend the Right to Protest 2012 National Conference

 AUSTERITY, INJUSTICE & THE POWER OF PROTEST 
Sunday 14th October, 2012, 11:30am – 5:30pm, University of London Union, Malet Street. 

Across the world people are resisting austerity. They also have to confront violent tactics by the police and the draconian use of the law.

In Britain students demonstrating against fees were subject to kettling and mounted horse charges. In Quebec the authorities responded to an all out strike with emergency laws.

Governments are attempting to undermine effective protest at a time of unprecedented cuts. Faced with public sector strikes, Coalition ministers threatened to introduce more hard line anti-trade union laws. Such attacks also take place against a wider context of injustice and clampdown involving stop and search, police racism and deaths in custody. They include the use of protester “ASBOs”, pre-crime arrests and other infringements of civil liberties as seen around the Royal Wedding and the Olympics.

This conference will take place as people prepare for an autumn of struggle: the TUC march against austerity, the NUS education demonstration and strikes in the private and public sector. It will examine the nature of the current attacks on protest, what laws and tactics are being employed and why. It will look at how protest movements have confronted these challenges in the past and discuss the future of resistance here and internationally. Practical workshops will also inform people of their rights and how to run a defence campaign.

Who’s Speaking?

DARCUS HOWE, OWEN JONES, NINA POWER, MARCIA AND SAM RIGG [SEAN RIGG JUSTICE & CHANGE CAMPAIGN], JANET ALDER [JUSTICE FOR CHRISTOPHER ALDER], JOHN MCDONNELL, TONY BENN, ALFIE MEADOWS [INJURED STUDENT PROTESTER], MATT FOOT [CAMPAIGNING LAWYER] KEN FERO [FILM MAKER/DIRECTOR OF 'INJUSTICE'], NICK WRACK [SOCIALIST LAWYER]. UNJUM MIRZA [RMT]. DANNIE GRUFFERTY [NUS VP], DEBORAH COLES [INQUEST], FAHIM ALAM [ACQUITTED AFTER POST-RIOT ARREST], SUSAN MATTHEWS [MOTHER OF DEFENDANT], ESTELLE DU BOULAY [NEWHAM MONITORING PROJECT], JOHN TIPPLE [POLL TAX DEFENDANT], JELENA TIMOTIJEVIC [UCU NEC], MAGGIE MITCHELL [MOTHER OF IMPRISONED STUDENT PROTESTER], NADINE EL-ENANY [EGYPTIAN ACTIVIST], JENNIFER HILLIARD [MOTHER OF ACQUITTED STUDENT],  SARA TOMLINSON [NUT], HANNAH DEE [CHAIR OF DEFEND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST],  JUSTICE FOR BOLTON, OCCUPY, UKUNCUT, A MINER ACQUITTED FROM ORGREAVES… JULES CAREY [SOLICITOR TO IAN TOMLINSON'S FAMILY], MARK SERWOTKA [PCS GENERAL SECRETARY], GARETH PEIRCE, plus many more...

The Strange Case of George Galloway

Firstly, I am not sure how many readers I still have left as I have so neglected this blog of late, but for those who still remain apologies - I feel I owe you something.  Obviously, there is much one could talk about - the world crisis - the ongoing processes of revolution and counter-revolution in the Middle East and North Africa, and the current anger of millions of people against the Tories means it looks as though we are in for a distinctly hot autumn" in Britain, and there are many upcoming conferences and demonstrations in Britain I really should remind people about - not least the demonstration on October 20 in London that could just possibly turn out to be the biggest demonstration in British trade union history and if so could then give enough confidence to people to lead to, just possibly, the first General Strike in British history since 1926.   But I am instead sadly going to briefly blog about George Galloway, the MP of the small left-wing party - Respect - that seems to be in the process of imploding so soon after its recent dramatic success in Bradford West earlier this year - and for reasons oddly directly related to Galloway himself.  I say sadly, as what looks like it could be the beginning of the end for Respect is not something to be welcomed by anyone who wants to see a credible democratic socialist alternative to the austerity politics of cuts and privatisation of the mainstream political parties in Britain.

It is too soon to really pass any kind of judgment on Galloway himself - the future is unknown and perhaps in the future this current moment will come to be seen as one of the many downs in a careers that has been full of ups and downs - or perhaps when political historians of the British left come to look back at this particular moment, it will register merely a footnote.  Lets hope so.  But at the moment, it seems to me that Galloway is currently bearing some eerily strange resemblances to another independent socialist MP 100 years ago - Victor Grayson, who was elected against all the odds to parliament to represent a seat in Yorkshire - Colne Valley in 1907.  

Lenin described Grayson as 'a very fiery socialist but one not strong in principles [esp on imperialism] and given to phrasemongering,' but as Brian Pearce noted, Grayson's 'name became for a few years an inspiring symbol to advanced workers... His election threw the official leaders of Labour into consternation. But in a comparatively short time, he eliminated himself from the political scene owing to personal weaknesses.'  His biography - entitled The Strange Case of Victor Grayson - was written by Reg Groves, a pioneering British Trotskyist.

There are important differences between Grayson and Galloway (Grayson was politically weak on imperialism and his personal weaknesses included alcoholism -whereas Galloway is generally strong on imperialism and famously a teetotaler), but it seems here that a personal weakness of Galloway - in this case his sexism which recently manifested itself with respect to the Assange case (forcing Respect leader Salma Yaqoob to resign from the organisation and Respect's parliamentary candidate in Manchester, Kate Hudson, to resign as candidate for Respect) looks like it has been the undoing of his party and may well ultimately come to cost him his own political career - particularly because he seems so unapologetic and unrepentant about what he has said on the matter of Assange.  Of course sexism is not just a 'personal weakness' as such but rather also reflective of the limitations of Galloway's political make up (famously an odd, heady mix whose main ingredients include Third Worldism with a strong strain of Pan-Arabism combined with Old Labourism with a dash of Stalinism, where 'working class' tends to be identified with masculine, 'macho' connotations).  Anyway, the apparent current implosion of Respect is a sad moment for socialists in Britain - but the coming looming struggles ahead mean that the potentialities and possibilities for forging a new left and a genuine socialist alternative from below remain.  Hopefully the great majority of Respect members and former Respect members will still feel able to be part of that broader political project - a project which has to be against not only racism and imperialism, but also sexism and other forms of oppression.