tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50280326578336090642024-02-21T09:46:34.609+00:00Solomon's MindfieldTrying to understand the world, trying to change itAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.comBlogger960125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-8591427483990183912014-11-09T16:15:00.003+00:002014-11-11T10:10:34.438+00:001984: A view of Berlin from my bedroom window and beyond <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">30 years ago, in 1984, my family moved to West Berlin with my Royal Military Police father. As the world remembers the falling of the Berlin Wall here's a few of my own memories through the eyes of a teenager. </i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and two brothers in their matching East German outfits awaiting the birth of the smallest</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the bedroom window of our garrison flat I could just about see over the dividing wall, guards with guns looking out through the windows of the watchtowers. As RMP m</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">y father did a stint as a guard at Checkpoint Charlie and was also tasked the odious job of escorting Rudolph Hess from Spandau Prison to the British Military Hospital in Charlottenburg. My youngest brother was also born in this hospital. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we had when we lived in Antrim, Northern Ireland, our military ID cards were demanded everywhere we went; the military compounds, the NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institute) where we did our local shopping, our cinemas, the special army buses, swimming pools and military hospitals. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember having a mixture of feelings about this; on the one hand it was seen as a special (read: good) thing because we were The Military, but on the other it was rather scary, with men in uniforms and guns everywhere. Only now do I realise we may have been a target for people not wanting us to occupy their territory. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Military Bases</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each occupying force had an area of Berlin: French, American, British and Russian. Each area had their own military base and services. The street signs in each area were in both German and the occupiers language, schools operated in their native language and shops filled with familiar brands and flavours. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we were also devout</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mormons my family used to hang out in the American Sector doing All-American traditions: Halloween, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanksgiving,</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Taco Bell and Burger King. Soda Floats, Reece's Pieces and Jello were available everywhere, our family had garage sales and a Big American Car. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Constant reminders of where and why you are...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in the British Sector, along with thousands of other military and diplomats children, I attended Havel School inside the grounds of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Gatow" target="_blank">RAF (Royal Air Force) Gatow</a>. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The site of a former hospital, possibly also holding prisoners, the school was austere and brutal. We were escorted in every day on the military-only buses. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Entrance to the military compound <br />my school was located in</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a rebellious teenager during breaks we used to sneak down to the 'Eintritt Verboten' basement to tell each other spooky stories and to generally be naughty. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I vividly remember the time we wandered down a long dark tunnel following a shard of light streaming through a dusty broken window, the glass strewn all over the cold concrete floor. As we approached we saw a load of Nazi symbols daubed on the dank, grey walls, the beam of light illuminating a large Swastika. Spooked we certainly were. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I suppose it makes sense now, but I really don't remember much about our history lessons. I don't remember being taught about the two preceding World Wars, I don't remember being made aware of </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">our disgusting role in the British Empire conquering whole countries and creating colonies across the world, on not one occasion do I remember any discussion of racism, oppression and imperialism. But why would they want us to question why were in Berlin in the first place? </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">War monuments at my school</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course we were taught about the atrocities of the Holocaust, accompanied by numerous trips to Concentration Camps, Hitlers Bunker, Torture Chambers, Museums and so on, and Our Glorious Victory against the Fascists was the version of history we had drilled into us. Here's another version: <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-extracts/166-timelines/7332-the-real-history-of-the-second-world-war-part-2-timeline-with-john-rees" target="_blank">The Real History of World War Two</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In other classes we used military metaphor and played army practical jokes across all subjects. In Design, Craft and Technology class I made a, rather good, clock from acrylic in the shape of Berlin. A blue layer for the West, red for the East, both laid on top of a layer of black with a gap to depict the wall. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My brother in his kit</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Encouraged to join the Armed Forces we were trained from an early age in orienteering, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">military music and marching</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and numerous other rather useful skills, especially if you were to go on and fight wars. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Berlin I joined the Air Training Cadets and spent most of my time learning how to iron my uniforms, performing marching drills, cleaning guns and other equipment. In the Grunewald we learnt the art of making fires, building tents from trees and other forest items, canoeing</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, cycling and cross-country running. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As military personnel and family we were granted extended privileges, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the significance </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">which I was kind of unaware of at the time. We had access to the Olympic Stadium where my swimming club conducted training sessions and our youth club held regular disco's in the club rooms. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were able to travel more-or-less freely from West to East Berlin, whereas most Berliners could go not go either way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we were given an exchange rate nine times that of non </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">military Germans. So whereas most people got 1:1 West/East Deutsche Mark we got 9:1. This made our family's meagre military wage go nine times further, it made us rich to the extent that we were able to eat at the 5* Hotel at Alexanderplatz. I forget it's name but I do remember having flambeed fillet steak! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to our garrison home we brought back car fulls of simple but practical wooden furniture, bold and bright crockery, cuckoo clocks, nutcrackers, clothes, crystal ornaments, bedding and tableware. We did not bring back sanitary ware and batteries...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">West and East</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems like a cliche but as soon as we crossed Checkpoint Charlie it really did feel like going from </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">full colour</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> television to </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">black and white</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. No flashing advertisements lighting up the roads and </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">no music in the streets</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, no glittering monuments celebrating war and empire only soviet statues of Lenin and Stalin. Modern German and Japanese motors were replaced by old cardboard-looking Trabant cars spewing our clouds of grey smoke, making the skies look even darker, the few shops displaying even fewer products in the windows accompanied by long queues of old women waiting for their daily bread. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We did not bring back much food for we were not allowed, we were told there wasn't enough food to go around. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sanitary wares were also prohibited for the same reason.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> And w</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">e also did not return with</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">batteries for we feared we would not be safe using them. Much like the deathtrap Trabants batteries were still cased in cardboard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The feeling, real or imagined, of being a foreigner in a hostile land was not one we had experienced before. Maybe we just had our army heads on and believed the military propaganda about the evils of the Communist East?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, my Mum and I fondly remember having a whale of a time over in East Berlin. We loved the simple clothes (Mormons always dressed in 'appropriate clothing' at all times). My brothers, as were many military kids, we dressed in matching <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=popova+designs&rlz=1C1SVEE_enGB586GB586&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=299hVOLJIoac7ga-m4GYBg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ" target="_blank">Popova-style</a> bright orange patterned pyjamas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were fascinated by the friendliness of the shop keepers, and although we didn't much speak German I remember my Mum chatting away to the women behind the market stalls. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Returning to Berlin, as I have done six times in the last ten years, there has been incredible change since the people of Germany campaigned for reunification and to bring down the wall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Streets </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that were once rather gloomy</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> in </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what was East</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Berlin are now teaming with trendy coffee shops and shopping malls. The few remnants of the east that can still be seen are probably only still there by accident. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Possibly slightly by design there are fewer McDonald's and Starbucks but only time will tell how long that will be the case.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friends and comrades over there tell of a city, indeed a country, still divided along political lines with both sides claiming a unified Germany has not necessarily made it a better place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a more political analysis see <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/17510-berlin-the-wall-that-came-down-and-the-walls-that-went-up" target="_blank">Berlin: the wall that came down and walls that went up.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No doubt my friends will tell you Ich Liebe Berlin; living there with the wall up was the most educational experience I've ever had. I don't hark back to the days of a disunited country but I will fight on for a society free from oppression and inequality. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whilst the diving wall remains in Palestine no one will be free and equal. As they say in German <i>Der Letzte Schlag Gewinnen Wir</i> (we will win the last battle).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">(Awaiting a fab picture of my brothers in their Popova Pj's from Mum!) </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-29460328137521364492014-11-03T10:49:00.000+00:002014-11-09T16:06:54.300+00:00Nick Clegg Talks to the hand and not the nation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Four years ago we did this... We hope this contributes to the bringing down of the Fib-Dem coalition.<br />
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Daily Mail report and brilliant photos<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326248/Nick-Clegg-faces-student-leaders-anger-9k-tuition-fees-cap.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #7f1d1d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> HERE</a>.</div>
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The Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/03/universities-welcome-flexbility-triple-fees" sl-processed="1" style="color: #7f1d1d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">HERE</a></div>
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Our protest was in the Financial Times, the Metro, on BBC News at 6 & 10pm then also the next day.</div>
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<a href="http://ulucampaigner.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/vigilance.jpg" sl-processed="1" style="color: #7f1d1d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-584" src="http://ulucampaigner.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/vigilance.jpg?w=300&h=225" height="225" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); border-left-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); border-right-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); border-top-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); display: inline; float: right; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px;" title="Vigilance" width="300" /></a></div>
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On Wednesday 3 November 2010, what Nick Clegg intended to be a beautiful publicity stunt turned into a PR disaster when students managed to grab the media attention. This photo I took inside 70 Whitehall demonstrates, perhaps, how scared the government are at the moment.</div>
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12 students from higher education and school students were invited to ‘discuss developing policy on the future of Higher Education Funding’ on the day that the coalition government released their report on education cuts.</div>
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He invited me and 11 other education representatives, all of whom have colleges in Lib Dem constituencies, to what I can only describe as a sham consultation.</div>
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At 12.30 he released his report into the Brown Review. We were to meet him at 1pm. This gave us no time to download, digest and analyse the content therefore making a mockery of his attempt to pass off the meeting as though he had discussed it thoroughly with us.</div>
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<a href="http://ulucampaigner.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/hands-off.jpg" sl-processed="1" style="clear: right; color: #7f1d1d; float: right; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-585" src="http://ulucampaigner.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/hands-off.jpg?w=300&h=225" height="225" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); border-left-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); border-right-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); border-top-color: rgb(127, 29, 29); display: inline; float: left; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 7px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px;" title="SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA" width="300" /></a><br />
Prior to the meeting we decided to write Hands Off Education on the palms of our hands a couple of us wore t-shirts with slogans on them underneath our regular clothes and managed to get past security with them concealed.</div>
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When Clegg invited the BBC to do a 3 minute panoramic shot of him looking cosy with students I was able to quickly remove my shirt and tie and expose the message “Remember, Remember, the 3<sup style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">rd</sup> of November: The Coalition Government Plot Blows Up Education’. His minders quickly tried to hide my striking t-shirt by surrounding me but I kept moving and waving my palm in the air.</div>
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This set the tone of the meeting, at which all students were very angry with Clegg, his bogus meeting and his defending of raising tuition fees and massive cuts to education that he and his party are supporting.</div>
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Mr Clegg, along with all his Liberal Democrat colleagues, signed a pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. This Wednesday it was confirmed that the Deputy Prime Minister<strong style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> </strong>intends to break his promise and vote for fees to be trebled to £9,000 a year, despite having proposed their abolition at the general election and<strong style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> </strong>signing a pledge to “vote against any increase in fees.”</div>
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We demanded to know why the LibDems broke their manifesto promise of removing fees. Clegg said ‘you may live in a bubble but in the real world we have no alternative; what’s YOUR alternative then?’ he asked!! What a cheek. We told him to stop allowing companies like Vodaphone to dodge taxes, to halt the 55% pay increases for the bosses, to implement a progressive tax system across society, to stop funding war and Trident.</div>
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He said ‘that is complete nonsense’!!</div>
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When he tried to justify the loans scheme that poorer students will have to take to afford the fees one of the school students asked ‘are you saying that debt is acceptable?’</div>
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Elliot from Leeds Uni brought up the fact that Muslim students may not be able to take out loans because of the interest that is associated with the loans so large swathes of people will also not be able to afford the fees.</div>
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Elliot also pointed out that since education benefits the whole of society not just the individual who receives it (an educated society is more likely to vote, to have lower infant mortality, is more healthy etc etc) and that, therefore, it should not be the individual that pays. We need to push for progressive taxation across the whole of society so that the rich pay more tax and the poor less. This is the only fair way to fund the best education system.<br />
We told him that we are committed to fighting both the cuts to education and to wider society and also against fees. We told him about the NUS & UCU demo; and we told him we will be hounding the LibDems wherever they go (like the EducCamp students in London have been doing to Vince Cable)</div>
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See you on November 10<sup style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">th</sup>. Don’t forget the Big Demo and Breakfast at ULU from 8am, banner & placard making and student press conference at 10.15 all at ULU. Ask your coach to drop you at Mallet St.</div>
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Email <a href="mailto:campaigns@ulu.lon.ac.uk" sl-processed="1" style="color: #7f1d1d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">campaigns@ulu.lon.ac.uk</a> to book your breakfast. We have over 1,200 booked in so far so make sure you let me know asap.</div>
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see: <a href="http://ulucmapaigner.wordpress.com/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #7f1d1d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="http://ulucmapaigner.wordpress.com">http://ulucampaigner.wordpress.com</a></div>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="312" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KiJpQvkrBfs?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" type="text/html" width="500"></iframe></span><span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="312" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gN5jFyWtS3s?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" type="text/html" width="500"></iframe></span><br />
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See more videos on this playlist: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=5A612FD02298763C" sl-processed="1" style="color: #7f1d1d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=5A612FD02298763C</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-6547096791043375882013-10-19T10:45:00.001+01:002014-11-09T09:59:30.600+00:00An article on the current Swp crisis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>A rather long but useful analysis via <a href="http://luna17activist.blogspot.com/" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; text-decoration: none;" title="(http://luna17activist.blogspot.com/)">Luna17</a> </i></h1>
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<i><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Luna17/~3/ewA2MU_znrw/revolutionaries-movements-and-class.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" name="1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif; font-size: 18px;">Revolutionaries, movements and class</a> </i></div>
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<i>Posted: 18 Oct 2013 01:56 PM PDT</i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Manchester, 29 September 2013. Photo: Mark Husmann</i></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The revolutionary socialist tradition is characterised by commitment to the centrality of the working class to struggles for emancipation and to building a revolutionary party as an essential component of that struggle. But, according to a new article in International Socialism journal, the pressure of events has influenced successive waves of revolutionaries to succumb to movementism, which is marked by a rejection of these core ideas. This current political trend is reportedly a rightward-deviating break from the revolutionary tradition. <o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=915&issue=140"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">'The politics of the crisis in the SWP'</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – by leading Socialist Workers Party members Alex Callinicos and Charlie Kimber – includes a defence of the SWP leadership's positions in recent internal party debates and of its handling of accusations of rape and sexual harassment against a leading member. </span></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, it is also an attempt to locate the specific debates inside the SWP over the last year among larger social and political trends. The authors' dominant idea is that the political tendency they call 'movementism' has pulled layers of revolutionaries away from the tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A </span><a href="http://www.jimjepps.net/?p=273"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">great deal</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>has been written about the specific controversies in the SWP recently. The debate prompted by the Central Committee's response to allegations against Martin Smith, former SWP national secretary, is a tremendously important one in its own right. This article is not adding to the discussion about those particular issues - there are well-informed accounts elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The SWP crisis has prompted some written commentary on wider political issues than those at the heart of the dispute. A common idea in much discussion is that what's gone wrong in the SWP has been a corrosion of democratic culture. This is true - the party's democratic culture has decayed badly. But we need to explain why that decay may have happened in relation to the organisation's actions in the outside world. Otherwise we are left with accounts of an inadequate democratic culture that can easily lapse into implying that any such attempts at building revolutionary organisation are doomed. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The long-term crisis of the SWP is not merely a crisis of democratic culture or of organisational form. It is a crisis of political strategy and orientation. This is important for anyone who wants to build more effective revolutionary organisation. We have to understand what has gone wrong in order to learn the right lessons. We mustn't throw the Leninist baby out with the SWP's dirty bathwater. The issues involved are fundamental to socialist strategy today and therefore require serious attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Leninism, left reformism and movementism<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></b></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The International Socialism article was pre-figured by </span><a href="http://revolutionarysocialism.tumblr.com/post/55515965612/m2013-alex-callinicos-on-leninism"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">a talk by Callinicos at Marxism 2013</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, which explicitly criticised Counterfire's John Rees. Callinicos claimed that Rees had abandoned fundamental tenets of Marxism by supposedly emphasising protest movements and suggesting they are equivalent to strikes. In the International Socialism article, Callinicos and Kimber extend this criticism by claiming: 'Counterfire has become little more than decorative coverage for the efforts by Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, to rebuild the Labour left.' (no reference or link is provided to support this particular claim, which in fact has no basis in reality).<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The basis for the criticisms Callinicos made in July was a remark made at the People's Assembly. This is </span><a href="http://links.org.au/node/3451"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">what John Rees said</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> in the closing session of the People's Assembly:<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Some people want to say that there is one form of protest superior to all others, that direct action is superior to marching, that strikes are better than marching, that direct action is superior to strikes. Don't be ridiculous! We need them all, we need every single one of them. We are going to need to break this government. And if we are going to break this government, we are going to need to demonstrate, to strike, to take direct action..."<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rees was moving the People's Assembly declaration in this speech, which contained a series of practical priorities including the 29 September national demonstration at Tory conference, a day of civil disobedience on 5 November and the building of local People's Assemblies alongside pledging practical solidarity with strike action against cuts. It isn't clear which of these practical initiatives Callinicos regarded as unimportant and unworthy of a mention. And in fact the course of events has been as predicted: some highly successful local and regional People's Assemblies, a mass demonstration in Manchester, strike action accompanied by big regional street protests, and a day of direct action planned for 5 November which, not by accident, is now preceded by a CWU national strike the day before. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leading UCU activist Sean Vernell appears to refute the narrow view offered by Callinicos when <strong><a href="http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=930&issue=140" target="_blank">he writes</a></strong>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Too often the debate about the street versus the workplace is a sterile one with a false polarisation between the two. Socialists welcome all and any forms of protest against any aspect of injustice or poverty... Strikes and street protests are sometimes simplistically counterposed. However, both are going to be vital in defeating the government's offensive.' </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Callinicos and Kimber argue that the trend of 'movementism' is shaped by a wider context characterised by widespread street protest coupled with low levels of strike action. Movementism and left reformism are viewed by the authors as two sides of the same coin: left reformism is focused on parliament and the Labour Party while movementism is concerned with street-based protest movements, but they are both given greater radical legitimacy by supposed ex-revolutionaries who reject revolutionary organisation and downplay the role of 'organised workers' in social change. This 'downplaying' is treated as synonymous with writing off the working class as a political actor.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></b><br /><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Movementism': the origins of a concept<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></i></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The critique of 'movementism' involves identifying three linked characteristics: giving up the project of building a revolutionary party, rejecting the agency of the working class, and a commitment to movement building as a central priority. The term was first revived in 2008/09, as a way of justifying the SWP leadership's sharp turn away from the sort of united front building (Stop the War, Respect, anti-capitalism) that had characterised the previous period. A positive project of movement-building was swiftly turned into a negative trend of 'movementism', with lots of dark mutterings about the dangers of 'liquidationism' and 'dilution' of Marxist politics. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I will return to the current debate about 'movementism' below, but first let's consider where the concept comes from. It is a creature of the downturn for working-class struggle that began in the mid-1970s. The disorientation of the revolutionary left followed the ending of the international upturn in working class struggles in around 1975 - with the defeat of the Portuguese Revolution, Italy's 'historic compromise', Britain's 'social contract', the end of mass workers' unrest and so on. The end of the upturn was accompanied by a general shift to the right and a profound weakening of rank-and-file workers' organisation. This was complemented by the marginalisation of Marxist ideas (replaced, over time, with ideas labelled 'poststructuralist', 'postmodernist' etc) and a move into the Labour Party by former revolutionaries attracted by the rise of Bennism. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One aspect of this downturn was increasing emphasis on the role played by 'social movements'. This trend was </span><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1984/xx/women.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">regarded on the revolutionary left</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> as a shift to the right because it downplayed class politics, wrote off any need for independent revolutionary organisation (deploying rhetoric about how 'Leninism' was dated, undemocratic and patriarchal), and paid little attention to trade union activity. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Criticising such 'movementism' did not mean neglecting the kind of issues that it tended to promote like gender, race and sexuality. It did mean having a distinct Marxist analysis of such issues combined with a practical approach that emphasised connections between oppressed groups and the working class movement. It also put the stress on mass activity, rather than elitist and separatist forms of action. The 'social movements' were not class-wide movements of protest but rather sectional campaigns which, though they didn't need to be, were often counterposed to a supposedly outdated class politics. </span></i></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having a critical stance towards 'movementism' was important for the revolutionary left: in a hostile climate, where there was considerable pressure from the right, it was necessary to maintain a distinctive Marxist pole and that often meant emphasising differences with others, while nonetheless working with others in joint political action. The critique of movementism was a historically specific critique that responded to a fashionable rejection of revolutionary organisation coupled with a downplaying of any emphasis on the working class as collective agent of social change. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Many SWP activists were involved in campaigning to defend abortion rights in the mid-1970s (indeed Lindsey German was a founder member of the National Abortion Campaign). The Anti Nazi League was launched in 1977 and formed a huge part of the party's activities until 1979. The SWP took the riots in Brixton and elsewhere very seriously (they were not a distraction from the 'class struggle'). The CND demonstrations of the early 1980s were important for the party, while the period also saw attempts to relate to fights over oppression. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There may have been a strong critique of 'movementism', but this was not a period of abstention from real-live movements. The critique of movementism was in fact quite precise: it was a critique of various forms of identity politics and their relationship to a drift by some from the revolutionary left into Labour Left politics. From the mid-1980s onwards the term almost completely disappeared from SWP discourse. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Building the revolutionary left in an age of mass movements<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></b></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the aftermath of the big Seattle anti-WTO protests of November/December 1999, there was a turn towards anti-capitalist organising by the SWP. This was particularly marked by mobilisations to the large-scale anti-capitalist protests in Prague, Genoa and elsewhere, participation in the World and European Social Forums, and by attempts to develop stronger networks domestically, e.g. a Globalise Resistance speaking tour in early 2001 drew turnouts that make it comparable to recent People's Assembly public rallies around the country. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i>A key element in this anti-capitalist work was an emphasis on winning trade union backing for initiatives - while more anarchist or autonomist elements in the movement tended to be dismissive of this - and articulating a resolutely anti-systemic politics against the movement's more moderate elements. Simultaneous to this growth of anti-capitalist activity, the SWP became centrally involved in important new electoral initiatives while continually endeavouring to link electoral work to broader efforts to build the left and the working class movement. </i></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>From September 2001 onwards the Stop the War Coalition gave fresh impetus to both the anti-capitalist networks and the electoral work: the former was reflected, for example, in the centrality of anti-imperialist politics to London's European Social Forum in October 2004, and the latter found expression in the emergence of Respect from the anti-war movement (in particular, but not limited to, the relationships developed with some Muslims who had not previously associated with the radical left).<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">None of this movement-building was an example of the kind of 'movementist' thinking which had previously been criticised. It reflected new opportunities which were opening up: the anti-capitalist and anti-war movements were an extremely welcome shift in our political direction and provided a vital new audience for us. The political movements of the last decade or so have been a response to three decades of a generalised ruling class re-structuring of the world, involving neoliberalism at home and, more recently, the new imperial offensive of the 'war on terror'. Callinicos and Kimber themselves provide a summary of the period which is similar to that which I have outlined, but they argue that the experience of building coalitions pulled a layer of revolutionaries away from the SWP's traditional commitment to working class self-emancipation and the accompanying need for independent revolutionary organisation.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That is indeed a real danger. No doubt there have been individual examples of it happening. But it is a grossly inaccurate characterisation of many critics of the current SWP leadership, including those of us seeking to build a new revolutionary socialist organisation in the form of Counterfire. In fact the commitment to movement building reflects, as it has done for over a decade, two core understandings: in an era of political radicalisation and protest movements, revolutionaries can most effectively build their own organisation and spread their ideas by participating centrally in the movements; and, secondly, movement-building is not an alternative to the working class, but rather a particular expression of working class resistance and organisation. Trade unions remain hugely important and need to be an arena of political action for revolutionaries, but limiting ourselves to them would be foolish. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The emergence of the anti-capitalist and anti-war movements, against a backdrop of continuing low levels of industrial struggle, meant that working class resistance followed a very different pattern to the 1960s and 1970s, the era which had been the context for the growth of the International Socialists (forerunners of the SWP). It was also very different to the downturn of the 1980s, which had largely shaped the modern SWP. It was generally political and ideological issues which provided the cutting edge for resistance. SWP founder Tony Cliff, shortly before his death in 2000, grasped the new opportunities which were opening up and urged changes in how the SWP should operate, moving away from the more routinist and propagandist approaches necessary to survive the downturn years, turning the party outwards to embrace new developments (a number of those who worked most closely with Cliff in his later years are now involved in building Counterfire or Scotland's International Socialist Group). </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i>This 'political upturn' was typically expressed in street protest, but it's important to recognise that this phenomenon was - and continues to be - reflected in the trade unions. Callinicos and Kimber make a passing reference to political trade unionism, but the SWP leadership has in fact forgotten the lessons learnt in the early years of this century. The political and ideological levels have still not been matched by a sustained rise in struggle in the workplaces. This fact has been largely ignored by the SWP leadership in the last few years, but it is something that fundamentally influences how revolutionaries ought to respond to austerity. </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Industrial action cannot be seen in isolation from the political context and from developments in the wider labour movement. This is a general truth that finds particular resonance in the present period. In the last few years the biggest street demonstrations have been organised by the trade unions; the 26 March 2011 TUC national demonstration, involving half a million people, fuelled momentum towards the co-ordinated strikes on 30 June 2011 and, on a still larger scale, 30 November 2011. Those strike days involved the biggest local anti-cuts protests many areas have seen to date, with several hundred thousand people protesting nationwide on 30 November. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The growing People's Assembly movement, the large and vibrant 29 September demo and Miliband's very hesitant leftward shift - itself a product of pressures from protests, trade unions and public opinion - have all given confidence to some trade unionists<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to go for strike action. And when strike action happens its most visible expression is often in public protest, something we have seen this week with the strikes, marches and rallies by teachers.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><strong><i>The new popular revolts</i></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i>Globally, recent years have been characterised by fresh popular revolts. There are many differences between - to take some high-profile examples – Tunisia and Egypt (at the highest level of revolution) and disparate examples ranging between Turkey, Brazil, Spain and the Occupy movement, but there are also some unifying characteristics. They have been centred on major cities and the main focus of resistance has tended to be the streets and the squares; occupations of public space and street protests have been central to the movement (though in Egypt, where popular struggle has reached higher levels than anywhere else, there has also been massive unrest outside the urban centres while strikes, throughout the country, have played an important role). </i></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Young people have played a defining role, though these have not been primarily generational movements. They have been largely movements of the working class, but that means unorganised workers, unemployed people and often students as well as trade unionists (and where trade union members have been involved it hasn't necessarily been via their union). <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>A broad mix of ideas has emerged in discussions and debates, with a lack of ideological coherence or clear political leadership. This is a result of the relative historic decline of traditional social democracy (Labour and its equivalents elsewhere), the small scale of the revolutionary left and the intellectual marginalisation of Marxist ideas. The last few years in particular have - under pressure from capitalist crisis in its different forms - seen a marked growth in such movements. However, there has also been an absence of radical political leadership to help give them direction. Egypt's predicament - with mass demonstrations followed by the military taking advantage of the lack of popular political organisation and leadership in the movement to instigate a counter-revolution - is really a vivid, large-scale version of the strengths and weaknesses in many different centres of resistance. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The last few years have reminded us that mass strikes – while still a vitally important form of class struggle - are not in fact the only kind of mass working class struggle. Chartism was a mass working class movement but it was far from being only a strike movement. The Paris Commune wasn't mainly a struggle fought in the workplaces. Many other examples can be given. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In British history, even the high points of trade union struggle - including the New Unionism in the late 1880s, the Great Unrest before World War One and the explosion of strikes in 1919-21 - were shaped and characterised by forms of action that went beyond the limits of the unions. All of those phases of mass workers' struggle were preceded and accompanied by big protest movements over political and economic questions. Mass strikes themselves have always involved marches, protests, meetings and other forms of activity – and have never been centred solely in the workplaces. The class struggle operates, as Engels noted, in the ideological, political and economic dimensions. But it also operates through different forms. Economic grievances don't only find expression in strikes. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The poll tax, as Callinicos and Kimber observe, was a mass working class movement, but one that involved no strike action. In the Arab world, rises in food prices and the growth of graduate unemployment were big factors driving the revolts which began in Tunisia in December 2010. Public transport costs lit the fuse of revolt in Brazil. More generally, it is impossible to make sense of the wave of popular revolts and revolutions since 2008 - from Occupy to the indignados, from Greece to the Arab uprisings - without registering the impact of economic crisis. Directly economic issues often become enmeshed with 'political' problems like the role of police violence or the hollowing out of democracy.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>Organised workers will be at the strategic centre of any successful revolutionary movement. This is one of the great lessons, still as relevant as ever, of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the wave of revolutionary upheavals which followed in its wake. Rebuilding trade unions - and workers 'confidence to take strike action - is a central priority. We are seeing signs of a growing spirit of resistance in the unions right now, including teachers', higher education workers' and firefighters' strikes this month and a national post workers' strike lined up for 4 November. But as well as winning arguments for strike action - and the projects of recruiting and workplace organising which are linked to such action - the process of rebuilding confidence also involves the development of wider movements of resistance.</o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i>Roots of the SWP crisis</i></span></b></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The two turning points in the SWP's longer-term decay were the </span><a href="http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=396"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Respect split of November 2007</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the economic crash of September 2008. In the wake of these developments there was a sharp turn in the party's perspectives, which was strongly opposed by a small minority of us - who at the time were still members of the SWP, and who are mostly now in Counterfire or Scotland's International Socialist Group. The Respect split and its aftermath led to a significant layer of cadre believing that a turn away from united front building, and towards a model of 'party building' familiar from the 1980s downturn, was necessary. By the time of the financial crash in autumn 2008 there was a mood for retrenchment, for strengthening a steady routine of branch meetings and paper sales at the expense of wider engagement with others in the movement. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">This mood of retrenchment was strengthened after the Crash, when the majority of the party leadership rejected arguments for coalition-building responses to the crisis and instead advocated a narrower 'party building' response. There were arguments, for example, that selling Socialist Worker at workplaces was the main way we should respond to the crisis, or that the SWP - having argued for years that a return to economic crisis was imminent - could reap the rewards of being vindicated by recruiting directly to the party in large numbers, with less need for such mediating mechanisms as united fronts. Some of us rejected the new line, but we were in a minority. The minority's arguments about strategy were underpinned by our recognition of broader changes. Here is how </span><a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/articles/analysis/16241-the-crisis-in-the-socialist-workers-party-and-the-future-of-the-left"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">a Counterfire article</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from January of this year – on the SWP crisis – expressed it: <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Underlying this conception, although not adequately formulated in Party debates at the end of the last decade, was a recognition that both the British working class had changed, and that our own forms of organisation needed to adapt with and to it. Trade unions were essential as the bedrock working class institution, but could not be the only game in town for socialists. Their recent strength has been in their contribution to movements of political protest, which include one day strikes, rather than in prolonged industrial action. None of this implies for an instant a retreat from the principle that the working class is the key agent of change in capitalist society. But as Engels noted the workers struggle exists in three registers: ideological, political and economic. In some periods the main form of struggle may be political and ideological rather than purely economic. To judge the state of the struggle simply by the level of strike action is to ignore the level of generalised, politicised anger and opposition that suffuses society today.' <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The leadership resorted to vilification and personal attacks - and increasingly to disciplinary measures including expulsions - in order to defeat the minority. Many serious problems of internal culture witnessed in recent months are nothing new. They were also characteristic of the leadership's approach to the internal debate in 2009 and early 2010:<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Suspensions and expulsions preceded conference in January 2010, again with private online discussions used as a pretext. For the first time the CC used secret caucuses of its own supporters against the minority. This was the first time too someone was instructed to stop running a website. Email accounts were hacked to gain 'evidence' for expulsions. Students who disagreed were invited to leave the party before they were expelled.' <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>A politically weak leadership, having adopted the wrong approach, could only prosper if it caricatured the arguments of its internal opponents and ultimately drive us out of the organisation. By February 2010 it had become clear that the party was not going to change direction and that disciplinary measures were becoming a permanent substitute for open, reasoned debate. We split and founded Counterfire. The SWP drifted more and more towards a kind of soft syndicalism that overstated the likelihood of sustained co-ordinated strike action and remained trapped in trade union sectionalism, while downplaying the opportunities for broader political united fronts against austerity. This led to the formation of Unite the Resistance in 2011, a trade union network that rested upon rejecting the case for a broad anti-cuts coalition (and specifically upon hostility to the Coalition of Resistance, established the previous year) and instead stressed the important but narrower terrain of several public sector unions. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Counterfire activists had already worked with a range of others to establish the Coalition of Resistance, initiated in August 2010 with a very big launch conference a few months later. This aimed to connect trade unions to other anti-cuts constituencies, addressed a very wide range of issues under the umbrella of austerity, and embraced a range of methods (not just strikes but demonstrations and campaigns). We also sustained a central role in another genuine coalition addressing a set of major issues, namely Stop the War. More recently, the Coalition of Resistance has played a big part in developing the People's Assembly - precisely the kind of big, broad anti-cuts coalition that we have argued and fought for over time. Unlike CoR and the People's Charter, the SWP's Unite the Resistance has refused to operate within the People's Assembly and carry out anti-austerity activity within its framework. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The SWP leadership's errors of political strategy led on to further problems. In the course of driving through the new strategy from late 2008 onwards, it developed a culture of intolerance which has since become more entrenched. The party apparatus of full-time workers was used to enforce the leadership's will against dissenting voices, while the leadership has encouraged factionalism among a layer of loyalist cadre. The SWP developed greater sectarianism, as it was turning away from the kind of outward-looking attempts at building coalitions that characterised much of its history. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Martin Smith, the party's national secretary until January 2011, was admired by many party activists for having spearheaded the new, post-Respect, perspective. It perhaps became difficult for anyone (in the national leadership or the wider party) to challenge his leading role, however troubling the emerging allegations about his behaviour may have been. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The current SWP crisis is thus part of something bigger and more long term; without this context it is impossible to understand how it could have happened in a party with such a strong historic record on women's liberation and fighting oppression. It is also important to grasp the political context because otherwise we are reduced to misguided revisionism about 'Leninism', searching for a narrow organisational or internal solution while ignoring the wider political context. There are many very good socialist activists in the SWP, yet they are stuck in an organisation that sadly seems to be in permanent decline. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Arguments about united front strategy<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></b></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Instead of a strategic focus on building united fronts against austerity, a combination of three things was deemed necessary by the SWP leadership from 2010 onwards: trade union work, narrow 'party fronts' (Right to Work, Unite the Resistance) and socialist propaganda about the capitalist crisis (embodied in party routines of branch meetings and paper sales). Trade union work and propaganda have very important roles, but are insufficient in themselves. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The rejection of a united front approach to the economic crisis was a serious mistake by the SWP leadership and the main issue of contention in the SWP faction fight of 2009/10 then the main cause of the successive splits which led to the formation of Counterfire in 2010 and Scotland's International Socialist Group in 2011. Some SWP members are now involved in the People's Assembly, which the party formally supports, but there is still a reluctance to fully commit to it in practice. This is reflected in the almost-total absence of references to the People's Assembly from the Callinicos and Kimber article. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>We have argued for five years that building a united front must be revolutionaries' central strategic response to the crisis. The rejection of this by SWP leaders has been justified with three main arguments. Firstly, it has been argued that the way to defeat austerity is through strike action and therefore broad coalition-building is of secondary importance compared to work through the trade unions. Secondly – and this is closely linked – the tendency of union leaders to betray workers' struggles has been regarded as a fatal flaw in any attempts to build an anti-cuts coalition that includes those very union leaders. Thirdly, the People's Assembly is viewed with distrust and suspicion, as essentially a vehicle for a resurgent left reformism which a genuinely Leninist organisation must guard against. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These arguments are wrong. We need strikes to be bigger, more numerous and more co-ordinated. But simply calling for a general strike gets us no nearer to making it a reality. A great deal of resistance to cuts has been manifested outside the workplace and socialists need to take that seriously. We cannot substitute wishful thinking for attempts to advance the actually existing struggle by outlining practical next steps. A higher level of street protest and campaigning can help encourage greater confidence to strike. Even if there is a rise in strike action we will still need a range of tactics to confront the government, not least because protests can involve large numbers of people who are not organised in trade unions.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i>It is true that trade union leaders are unreliable allies, but united fronts are often built with unreliable allies. United fronts are somewhat unstable formations and there may be times when some forces have to take action independently of other forces in the united front. That tension is both inevitable and healthy. But there is also a more concrete point here: at a time when official union structures and the union bureaucracy are strong, relative to rank and file organisation, revolutionaries must work with those union leaders who are sympathetic to a broad coalition against austerity. A degree of agreement with those leaders is essential to building the movement successfully in the grassroots, thereby increasing confidence and the potential for independent action. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i>This particular criticism of the People's Assembly is also strangely inconsistent. The SWP established Unite the Resistance explicitly on the model of the Communist Party-initiated Minority Movement in the 1920s, which involved creating a bloc with the trade union bureaucracy. So what we have here is that a united front is criticised for its links with the trade union bureaucracy by a party that is self-consciously modelling its operation on an organisation noted for that very characteristic. In practice the SWP vacillates between voluntarist actions like the storming, led by then national secretary Martin Smith, of the negotiations between British Airways and union representatives and trying (with very limited success) to develop links with some left-wing union leaders. </i></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, the charge that the People's Assembly is providing a space for resurgent left reformism is an erroneous view. Many of those involved in the movement identify with one expression or another of left reformism. With a hurricane of cuts upon us, people look for shelter to protect them. A number of factors – the low level of strike action, the small scale of the revolutionary left, the marginalisation of Marxist ideas – mean that only a small minority look to revolutionary ideas and organisation, while left reformism fares somewhat better. This is no reason to neglect coalition building. Any coalition will contain different currents and there will be some political and ideological tension. Considering the balance of forces in the movement, abstention or a lukewarm approach from revolutionaries to broad coalitions is a recipe for sectarian irrelevance.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>One symptom of the SWP's unwillingness to adopt a serious united front approach to opposing austerity is the increased recourse to shallow sloganeering. The party has repeatedly called for a general strike regardless of whether that has been plausible. It reflects a lack of a properly grounded analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the trade union struggle. The preoccupation with 'radical' position-taking, at the expense of practical strategy and tactics, also reflects the growing sectarianism: when a socialist group is not seriously working to influence events it becomes preoccupied with having the 'correct' abstract position and the defence of dogma. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tony Cliff always insisted that revolutionaries must stare reality in the face and plot a course of action based on an accurate grasp of the balance of class forces. Over-optimism would only breed demoralisation, as socialists would be unprepared for any failure to turn grand expectations into reality. The overwhelming sense of disappointed expectations after some union leaders backtracked in the pensions dispute, a retreat that started in December 2011, did much to disorient the SWP. The SWP leadership had not prepared the organisation for such a turn for the worse - and this is a factor in the party's recent troubles.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The failure to develop an anti-austerity united front has been accompanied by a retreat from active participation in an anti-war united front. The recent victory over Syria - with Cameron forced to drop plans for British participation in a new war in the Middle East - vindicated the enduring commitment to Stop the War sustained by Counterfire activists, among others. The SWP, however, long ago withdrew from serious participation in local Stop the War groups, despite the party's outstanding role in initiating and building Stop the War - nationally and locally - from 2001 onwards. Very few SWP members are now involved in Stop the War and the party hardly ever promotes its events or distributes its materials. This retreat has been an integral part of the wider retreat from the 'political upturn' perspective established in the months and years after Seattle. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has also been symptomatic of the SWP's move away from sustained commitment to united fronts as strategic priorities. Callinicos and Kimber emphasise the party's commendable role in campaigning against the bedroom tax, which is indeed an important issue, but the lack of long-term strategic commitment means a tendency to pick up and later drop issues. The same applies to questions of war: a sudden flurry of brief interest in response to specific events is no substitute for on-going practical commitment. We live in an era which requires long-term coalitions in response to austerity and war, not this sporadic and inconsistent approach.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Leninism, movements and the working class<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></b></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is falsely characterised as 'movementism' today is completely different from what was correctly referred to as 'movementism' in the radically different circumstances of the late 1970s and the 1980s. Revolutionary strategy which stresses the building of broad movements against austerity, racism and war is a strategy with class politics at its heart. It involves a commitment to using the strengths of the protest movements to reinvigorate the trade unions and, especially, to encourage confidence in workers to use strike action as well as other methods to challenge the government and employers. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>This is, indeed, a key characteristic of the People's Assembly, which emphasises a range of tactics and explicitly refers to strikes as an integral component of the fight to end austerity. This is precisely how socialists should be shaping a working class movement which also contains people who largely dismiss trade unions altogether and, conversely, people who are part of the union movement but reluctant to pursue the kind of mass co-ordinated strike action we need to win. This commitment to the People's Assembly does not for a moment mean abandoning distinctively revolutionary organisation. The building of united fronts and the building of revolutionary organisation are mutually complementary poles. The fact that people have rejected one particular organisation does not mean they have rejected revolutionary organisation altogether. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marxists in today's world need political analysis of capitalism and the working class as they really are today, a strategy that reflects actual social forces, and ways of organising that connect with current forms of resistance and organisation. The defensive repetition of dogma and abstract truths is no substitute for this. At the core of Leninism is 'principled flexibility', a combination of Marxist principle with flexibility in tactics and organisational forms. This is linked to a kind of 'open marxism'. Rather than a closed system of doctrine, theory must be constantly evolving in interaction with political reality and the lived experience of class struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Democracy is at the heart of the authentic Leninist tradition. It is essential for effective action. The centrality of democracy applies not only to our social and political struggles, but also to our own organisation. We need to recover authentic democratic centralism and recognise that the genuine Leninist commitment to internal democracy is radically different from the 'sect' form, in which an ossified dogmatic orthodoxy is seen as needing protection against challenge in democratic discussion. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is essential we reassert the need for revolutionary organisation, unfashionable as it may be. The sectarian degeneration of the SWP has, unsurprisingly but mistakenly, encouraged a backlash against the Leninist tradition. The current trend is to promote 'loose networks' and 'decentralised organisation', yet experience shows that this generates its own problems of political incoherence, fragmentation and poor democratic accountability (problems I discussed in </span><a href="http://luna17activist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-occupy-movement-and-question-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">this article</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">). </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Reasserting democratic centralism does not mean importing wholesale the practices and structures of the pre-1917 Bolshevik Party (which, in any case, changed greatly over time and varied in different places). The essence of Leninism and the particular forms it can take need to be separated out. Crucially, what democratic centralism means in reality - how it is embodied in structures, procedures, practices - can be quite different for an organisation of modest size (like today's SWP) compared to one with a genuine mass base like the Bolsheviks.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">T</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">he need for revolutionary organisation remains rooted in an understanding that real change has to be fought for through action from below. We cannot rely on either politicians or bureaucrats to change things for us, but must instead build broad, democratic coalitions of resistance. To make permanent gains and bring about radical social transformation, revolution will be necessary, in which the repressive state is replaced with a new order based on mass democratic assemblies. To this end we need an organisation of revolutionary socialists rooted in, and shaping, broader working class struggles. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We need to group together those who are consistently anti-capitalist and recognise the need for fundamental system change. This is the necessary complement to participation in broader social and political struggles. It is essential if revolutionaries want to make an impact on the world around them, rather than being reduced to either sectarian position-taking or, on the other hand, tailing more moderate elements in the broad labour movement.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><br /><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The future of the revolutionary left<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The SWP leadership has developed a narrow conception of class struggle that regardless of concrete circumstances privileges the call for strikes – despite actual strike levels being historically low –and downplays other forms of struggle, deriding them as 'movementism'. This confuses a matter of principle, the centrality of the working class as the agent of change, with strategic and tactical assessments of which actions are possible at any given moment. This leads to ultra-left propagandism in practice and crude reductionism in theory. Sean Vernell expresses a more sophisticated view when he writes:</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">'Street protests of all kinds therefore must play a significant part in any real mass movement against austerity - not only because they can, given the right conditions, give confidence to workers to take strike action but also because they play a vital role in winning the battle of ideas within the working class against arguments justifying austerity. The question for the left should not be the street or the workplace but how we can inspire people to campaign and get involved with all types of campaigns to end austerity and for a different world.'</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Paul Le Blanc </span><a href="http://links.org.au/node/3451"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">responded to Callinicos' criticism of Counterfire</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> by noting that 'a majority of today's working class finds itself outside of trade unions and participates in struggles, necessarily, through mass actions organised by social movements outside of the workplace... What is dismissed as "movementism" can be essential to the actual, real-life class struggle.'<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There have been times in the past when the SWP made initial mis-judgements about what forms of action to prioritise. In the late 1970s it was only through experience that the party realised the Rank and File Movement was going nowhere but the Right to Work Campaign had great potential, necessarily correcting its perspective (which had previously regarded the rank and file union work as paramount, while work among the unemployed was a mere adjunct). In the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 there was an initial over-estimation of potential for workers' action, with a focus on calling for secondary strike action that quickly turned out to be less important than building practical solidarity campaigns in localities. When the poll tax was introduced in Scotland the party adopted the line of calling for strike action by those responsible for collecting and administering the new tax, while ignoring the emerging non-payment campaign. Thankfully the line changed when the poll tax was introduced in England and Wales. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In all three of these cases it was initially assumed that trade union struggle, especially through strikes and with a combative rank and file, would be the central means of advancing the movement. This rested on an over-estimation of union strength in the field of strikes - and in the last example, that of the poll tax, it also rested on an under-estimation of the potential for community action. In the 1990s a number of major struggles were expressed through street protests and campaigning. This was true of the big demonstrations against pit closures, Anti Nazi League's mobilisations and the movement against the Criminal Justice Bill. Later, in spring 1999, there were protests against Nato's war in Kosovo. The late 1990s also saw some indications of the anti-capitalist movement in the making, from the big protest against third world debt outside the G7 summit in Birmingham to the Carnival Against Capital in the City of London.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The examples I cited above were understandable errors, in the context of a generally correct wider perspective, and were remedied in time. Now it is different. The entire direction has been wrong since 2008. The SWP has failed to develop an anti-cuts strategy that reflects real political forces and the forms of resistance which currently pre-dominate. It is an approach that threatens to trap it in sectarian isolation. There is little evidence of re-thinking or positive change. That is, ultimately, what could doom it to terminal decline. All of its other problems – the crackdown on democracy and the recourse to disciplinary measures, the dogmatic propagandism, the endemic factionalism, the falling membership, the chronically weak leadership etc - need to be reckoned with in that context. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Paul Le Blanc </span><a href="http://links.org.au/node/3451"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">recently argued</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> that: 'While carrying on serious socialist educational efforts, we must be involved in mass social struggles in the here-and-now, most definitely for reforms. This should not be dismissed as "movementism" or as "left-reformism"… Such initiatives as, for example, the People's Assembly should be embraced and whole-heartedly advanced. Efforts such as these are what can help to create the preconditions for a revolutionary party.'<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The revolutionary left has to be part of shaping new working class struggles. Building a mass anti-austerity movement and expanding the influence and size of the revolutionary current within it are the two main challenges we face.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of this material has been posted previously in a different form on Luna17. </span></span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php" name="fb_share" type="button">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Luna17/~4/ewA2MU_znrw?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1" /></i></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-90562814848698682442013-08-28T16:14:00.001+01:002013-08-28T16:14:12.777+01:00Fwd: NATIONAL DEMO SATURDAY: No Attack On Syria<div dir="ltr"><br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbXjw_Tsx9zIicb_bKDLahQ1Q8wauEHOfJjeHPuAX46194jJt6e2Gk4_yOJ-79jXCinFcarKbN2C3pO6I9a4YBdFSGEVGjQaGqs3bQ3v6Tlx5DdsxBJ55ng9Hrr9SB57wJc_VLe-NKWT9/s1600/bm-image-752777.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitbXjw_Tsx9zIicb_bKDLahQ1Q8wauEHOfJjeHPuAX46194jJt6e2Gk4_yOJ-79jXCinFcarKbN2C3pO6I9a4YBdFSGEVGjQaGqs3bQ3v6Tlx5DdsxBJ55ng9Hrr9SB57wJc_VLe-NKWT9/s320/bm-image-752777.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188699716468322" /></a><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <b>August 2013 | </b><b><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/" target="_blank">stopwar.org.uk</a></b><br> <br> 1) NATIONAL DEMO SATURDAY: No Attack On Syria<br> 2) Together Against War: Donate to fund our campaign to stop intervention in Syria<br> <br> <b><b> </b> </b> <hr size="2" width="100%"> <div align="center"><big><big><b>No attack on Syria</b></big><br> </big></div> <br> <div align="center"> <b>National Demonstration: Saturday 31 August, 12 noon, Embankment</b><b>, London</b><br> <br> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAoz6q02BPfqCy8evsp4REynaCw1HgO8lW9hhs9F89f_R47xtjqDpwG7gtsZCgKHvSUx9Qc9uNYlMVXQNAzYzKwG5gDjYCXObYcMjZtaLqaxeTHEgfsmQ2ExBdip0H7NatQk7Sq1DC4mUP/s1600/bm-image-756538.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAoz6q02BPfqCy8evsp4REynaCw1HgO8lW9hhs9F89f_R47xtjqDpwG7gtsZCgKHvSUx9Qc9uNYlMVXQNAzYzKwG5gDjYCXObYcMjZtaLqaxeTHEgfsmQ2ExBdip0H7NatQk7Sq1DC4mUP/s320/bm-image-756538.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188711361586978" /></a><br> </div> <br> <div align="center"><b>National Demonstration: Saturday 31 August, 12 noon, Embankment</b><b>, London</b></div> <br> <b>Urgent - no attack on Syria</b><br> <br> Britain France and the US are poised to attack Syria. Even ex-generals are warning that such an attack can have incalculable consequences. It risks terrible casualties, will intensify the desperate civil war and threatens to draw other regional powers in to the conflict. <br> <br> As Stop the War's statement on Syria points out 'It seems that the Western governments have already made up their minds about this attack before it has even been reported on by UN weapons inspectors.' This underlines the fact that the intervention, far from being humanitarian, is part of a wider project of regime change.<br> <br> While our politicians appear to have learnt nothing from the disasters of Afghanistan, Iraq most people in Britain oppose any attack. Only 9% support British troops getting involved and only 25% back missile strike. <br> <br> Protests are taking place across the country today and tomorrow - please check here for details and phone us if you want to organise something in your area.<br> <br> Make Saturday massive <br> <br> Saturday's national demonstration is crucial. We need to be a real expression of mass public opinion. Please do everything possible to attend and promote as widely as you can.<br> <br> The demonstration is now assembling at Temple Tube at midday on Saturday and marching via parliament and Downing Street to Trafalgar Square for a rally. Transport has already been organised from various towns and cities, please contact the office for more information.<br> <br> Demonstrate - No attack on Syria, this Saturday 31 August. 12 midday, Temple tube, Victoria Embankment.<br> <b><br> </b> <div align="center"><b>Donate now for emergency campaign.</b><br> <br> <b>Organising a national campaign costs a large amount of money. </b><br> <b>We have to hire PAs, print thousands of leaflets and placards and fund travel around the country. Already people have been very generous but we urgently need to raise a minimum of £5,000 to have maximum impact<br> <br> </b><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/donate" target="_blank"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUgwWWrTgsmg1dc4LG25vFYwats2ciLk5JLS4-pr-m3xw0LnZ_cqVY67T7uq85SwCQb2XmAsPyUv6wxMLB3G6rvnGvvw6uMDRJ147n8sr_45BZFYkoHM40ZN_xdkUbIL-z1D9LOj648Im/s1600/bm-image-758297.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUgwWWrTgsmg1dc4LG25vFYwats2ciLk5JLS4-pr-m3xw0LnZ_cqVY67T7uq85SwCQb2XmAsPyUv6wxMLB3G6rvnGvvw6uMDRJ147n8sr_45BZFYkoHM40ZN_xdkUbIL-z1D9LOj648Im/s320/bm-image-758297.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188718827266754" /></a></a><br> </div> <b></b><br> We are also asking all our supporters to join the Stop the War Coalition. Becoming a member allows you to participate fully in the Coalition and it increases our regular income, allowing us to employ more staff and maintain a well resourced office.<br> <br> Take action:<br> <ul> <li><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/215085785319747" target="_blank">Please share Saturday's event with your Facebook contacts</a></b></li> <li>Support our campaign by making a donation today (details below)<b><br> </b></li> </ul> <br> We need the maximum level of protests to stop them plunging us in to yet another catastrophic war.<br> <br> <div align="center"> <div align="center"><big><big><b>No attack on Syria</b></big><br> </big></div> <div align="center"> <b>National Demonstration: Saturday 31 August, 12 noon, Embankment</b><b>, London</b></div> </div> <br> The national demonstration on Saturday will gather at Embankment (near Embankment tube) and march via Parliament and Downing Street, ending in Central London for a political rally to say <b>No attack on Syria</b><b>.</b><br> <br> Please do not hesitate to contact the office on 020 7561 4830 or email <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><br> <br> <hr size="2" width="100%"><b>2) Together Against War: Donate to help fund our campaign to stop intervention in Syria</b><br> <br> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuc8Co44puuRu8akMtS3GP6HbwMOizgDmuGiQXqqXbTr_NE1jEOIcWmW7DwN00H2gF65tmDBAhSeEAyrUmanvcSBWkYoZw05z4IwbFAVGn-utg9qUOq6nGFudv9BRM313VEq54ivs8IpuZ/s1600/bm-image-759906.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuc8Co44puuRu8akMtS3GP6HbwMOizgDmuGiQXqqXbTr_NE1jEOIcWmW7DwN00H2gF65tmDBAhSeEAyrUmanvcSBWkYoZw05z4IwbFAVGn-utg9qUOq6nGFudv9BRM313VEq54ivs8IpuZ/s320/bm-image-759906.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188730513057682" /></a><br> <br> To campaign to stop an attack on Syria, Stop the War relies on donations from individuals across the UK. Please <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/donate" target="_blank">join or donate</a> to Stop the War today to help us launch the best possible campaign against military intervention.<br> <br> For over a decade Stop the War has mobilised millions against war. The movement has relied on the participation of those who marched, attended meetings and pressured the government to end their wars. Stop the War has maintained its ability to play a leading role in demanding an end to the War on Terror because of the mass membership and affiliation of the broad movement.<br> <br> <b>To increase our power to stop war we must stand together against war</b><br> <br> <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/donate/" target="_blank">Join Stop the War today</a> to ensure a revitalised movement that is ready to stop new interventions in Syria, Iran and beyond.<br> <br> Your membership of Stop the War will allow you to have your say about our work alongside a coalition of anti-war organizations, and your monthly or yearly membership fee will help us maintain and grow our vital campaigns work.<br> <br> <div align="center"><a href="http://bit.ly/11kAPpX" target="_blank"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPMfnweZJ0QdszrJO4H-v1L00hcvdR2GX695MeDJ33j8fYv0VMxSBHcKunHc1BupGCjQSS1lqzB7AQbjlxsWqLGBSzpBptj9Ygff4DsHHKqOI3dagSATH3Do4c2JIbOhJ4rPFJGWImJCS/s1600/bm-image-761441.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPMfnweZJ0QdszrJO4H-v1L00hcvdR2GX695MeDJ33j8fYv0VMxSBHcKunHc1BupGCjQSS1lqzB7AQbjlxsWqLGBSzpBptj9Ygff4DsHHKqOI3dagSATH3Do4c2JIbOhJ4rPFJGWImJCS/s320/bm-image-761441.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188731831190258" /></a></a> <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/donate" target="_blank"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUgwWWrTgsmg1dc4LG25vFYwats2ciLk5JLS4-pr-m3xw0LnZ_cqVY67T7uq85SwCQb2XmAsPyUv6wxMLB3G6rvnGvvw6uMDRJ147n8sr_45BZFYkoHM40ZN_xdkUbIL-z1D9LOj648Im/s1600/bm-image-758297.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUgwWWrTgsmg1dc4LG25vFYwats2ciLk5JLS4-pr-m3xw0LnZ_cqVY67T7uq85SwCQb2XmAsPyUv6wxMLB3G6rvnGvvw6uMDRJ147n8sr_45BZFYkoHM40ZN_xdkUbIL-z1D9LOj648Im/s320/bm-image-758297.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188718827266754" /></a></a><br> </div> Monthly contributions by members of Stop the War have allowed us to<br> <ul> <li>maintain an office to support the campaigns work of a network of local anti-war groups across the UK and respond to changing events by providing speakers for the media and public meetings<br> </li> <li>hold an an anti-war conference in February that brought together 1000 activists to assess the War on Terror 10 years after the invasion of Iraq and decide the future role of the movement in preventing new military interventions</li> <li>launch a national campaign against UAVs, or drones, after it was announced that Britain's drones in Afghanistan are controlled at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire<br> </li> <li>produce a popular anti-war web site <b><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/" target="_blank">www.stopwar.org.uk</a></b> with the best content from a wide range of journalists and anti-war activists.<br> </li> </ul> <div align="center"><a href="http://bit.ly/11kAPpX" target="_blank"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPMfnweZJ0QdszrJO4H-v1L00hcvdR2GX695MeDJ33j8fYv0VMxSBHcKunHc1BupGCjQSS1lqzB7AQbjlxsWqLGBSzpBptj9Ygff4DsHHKqOI3dagSATH3Do4c2JIbOhJ4rPFJGWImJCS/s1600/bm-image-761441.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPMfnweZJ0QdszrJO4H-v1L00hcvdR2GX695MeDJ33j8fYv0VMxSBHcKunHc1BupGCjQSS1lqzB7AQbjlxsWqLGBSzpBptj9Ygff4DsHHKqOI3dagSATH3Do4c2JIbOhJ4rPFJGWImJCS/s320/bm-image-761441.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188731831190258" /></a></a> <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/donate" target="_blank"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUgwWWrTgsmg1dc4LG25vFYwats2ciLk5JLS4-pr-m3xw0LnZ_cqVY67T7uq85SwCQb2XmAsPyUv6wxMLB3G6rvnGvvw6uMDRJ147n8sr_45BZFYkoHM40ZN_xdkUbIL-z1D9LOj648Im/s1600/bm-image-758297.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUgwWWrTgsmg1dc4LG25vFYwats2ciLk5JLS4-pr-m3xw0LnZ_cqVY67T7uq85SwCQb2XmAsPyUv6wxMLB3G6rvnGvvw6uMDRJ147n8sr_45BZFYkoHM40ZN_xdkUbIL-z1D9LOj648Im/s320/bm-image-758297.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5917188718827266754" /></a></a><br> <br> </div> <div align="center"> <div align="left"> <div align="center"><b>You can </b><b><a href="http://bit.ly/11kAPpX" target="_blank">join online</a></b><b> or by telephone on 020 7561 4830</b><b><br> </b></div> <br> </div> </div> <hr size="2" width="100%"><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"> <div align="center">Stop the War Coalition | <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a> | 020 7561 4830</div></font></span></div></div> </div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-69511183861460162892013-08-27T12:02:00.001+01:002013-08-27T12:07:37.457+01:00EMERGENCY PROTEST WEDNESDAY: No Attack On Syria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhseG-o5vLXElDGMSVlMS358HecwRrQ8lzwaqYdIlQSIwO638EqJbkW1fcD6vZ_QUFLLsYgC2o-yeWuSed90XBdjbRzdZHehHfUJ_Q28o12numBXFG48hiMVy7v8VUDxcq73JGjnaqhKHpi/s1600/bm-image-762817.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5916752803894716802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhseG-o5vLXElDGMSVlMS358HecwRrQ8lzwaqYdIlQSIwO638EqJbkW1fcD6vZ_QUFLLsYgC2o-yeWuSed90XBdjbRzdZHehHfUJ_Q28o12numBXFG48hiMVy7v8VUDxcq73JGjnaqhKHpi/s320/bm-image-762817.png" /></a><br />
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<b>August 2013 | </b><b><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/" target="_blank">stopwar.org.uk</a></b><br />
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<b>EMERGENCY PROTEST: No Attack On Syria</b><br />
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<b><b> </b> </b> <br />
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<div align="center">
<big><b>No attack on Syria</b><br /> </big></div>
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<big>Protest tomorrow 5pm, Wednesday 28 August, Downing Street, London</big><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-n2Z2Ark3zeE1cd2WOiDmm9VmqeeAT0qJ3evA5ggKl2TUZNqrSBLMqrr-AY0rm524kLc_rRsFEJ6nhC-1m_WO5YSmMw0znA0FbMOsGHc0g6JrWmv1tPiexBYuh9i9QU3XhCzFayDZxwBs/s1600/syria_protest_460-764869.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5916752809668484658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-n2Z2Ark3zeE1cd2WOiDmm9VmqeeAT0qJ3evA5ggKl2TUZNqrSBLMqrr-AY0rm524kLc_rRsFEJ6nhC-1m_WO5YSmMw0znA0FbMOsGHc0g6JrWmv1tPiexBYuh9i9QU3XhCzFayDZxwBs/s320/syria_protest_460-764869.jpg" /></a></div>
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Britain, France and the US are committing to another disastrous military intervention. Apart from the inevitable casualties, any attack on Syria can only inflame an already disastrous civil war and would risk pulling in regional powers further.<br />
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Most people in this country have learnt from the disasters of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. <a href="http://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/08/25/send-medicine-syria-not-guns-or-soldiers/" target="_blank">According to a Telegraph/YouGov poll</a> on Sunday only 9% of the British public would support troops being sent to Syria, and only 16% support sending more arms to the region. Our politicians however have learnt nothing.<br />
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<ul>
<li><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/422724327838644" target="_blank">Please share the event with your Facebook contacts</a></b></li>
</ul>
<br />
We need the maximum level of protests to stop them plunging us in to yet another catastrophic war.<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<big>Protest tomorrow 5pm, Wednesday 28 August, Downing Street, London</big></div>
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There will be a further protest at the weekend - details to come.<br />
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Please do not hesitate to contact the office on 020 7561 4830 or email <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><br />
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<span class="HOEnZb"><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></span><br />
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<span class="HOEnZb"><span style="color: #888888;">Stop the War Coalition | <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a> | 020 7561 4830</span></span></div>
<span class="HOEnZb"><span style="color: #888888;"> </span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-18744724555440620862013-05-21T11:25:00.001+01:002013-06-14T11:32:43.250+01:00You're invited to a Dangerous festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b id="invite_body_salutation_all" style="display: inline;"> <span class="customize_change" id="invite_body_salutation" style="color: #404040;"> Hello, </span> </b> <br /> <span class="customize_change" style="color: #404040; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400px; line-height: 18px; margin-top: 0;"> You are invited to the following event: </span> </div>
<a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6338455491/?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MzYxMDM0My9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMTQuc3RldGhlc2NvcGVAYmxvZ2dlci5jb20vMA%3D%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformal001&utm_term=eventpage" style="color: #cf0f25; font-size: 24px; line-height: 26px; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;"> Dangerous Ideas for Dangerous Times: an international festival </a> </div>
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<img alt="divider" height="8" src="https://ebmedia.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/marketing/emails/invites/lottering.png" width="500" /> </div>
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Event to be held at the following time, date, and location: </div>
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<tr> <td id="invite_body_logo" style="display: inline;" valign="top" width="250"><a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6338455491/?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MzYxMDM0My9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMTQuc3RldGhlc2NvcGVAYmxvZ2dlci5jb20vMA%3D%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=invitenew&utm_term=eventimage&ref=enivtefor001" target="_blank"> <img src="https://ebmedia.eventbrite.com/s3-build/images/1480143/39247146282/1/logo.jpg" style="border: 0;" width="225" /> </a> </td> <td style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" valign="top" width="250"><div class="customize_change" style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; width: 200px;">
Friday, May 31, 2013 at 1:00 PM <br /><span class="pipe">- to -</span><br /> Saturday, June 1, 2013 at 7:30 PM (BST) </div>
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<b>Firebox London</b><br />108 Cromer St<br />WC1H London Borough of Camden<br />United Kingdom<br /> <br /> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=108+Cromer+St,+London+Borough+of+Camden,+England+WC1H+United+Kingdom&hl=en" style="color: #cf0f25; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">View Map</a> </div>
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<a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6338455491/?ref=enivtefor001&invite=MzYxMDM0My9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMTQuc3RldGhlc2NvcGVAYmxvZ2dlci5jb20vMA%3D%3D&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&utm_term=attend&ref=enivtefor001" style="background-color: #95c033; background: url('https://evbdn.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/static/images/django/background/glass_light-trans.png') 0 50% repeat-x #e4e4e4; border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid #8bae42; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 14px; margin: 4px 0; padding: 12px 18px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #6b8e4a;" target="_blank"> <b style="color: white;"> Attend Event </b> </a> </div>
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<b class="customize_change" id="invite_share_event" style="color: #404040; display: inline;">Share this event:</b><br /> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdangerousideasfestival.eventbrite.com%2F%3Fref%3Desfbenivtefor001" id="invite_body_facebook_share_icon" style="display: inline; text-decoration: none;"> <img alt="Facebook" src="https://ebmedia.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/marketing/emails/invites/facebook-share.png" style="border: 0;" title="Facebook" /> </a> <a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=I%27m+attending+Dangerous+Ideas+for+Dangerous+Times%3A+an+international+festival+--+http%3A%2F%2Fdangerousideasfestival.eventbrite.com%2F%3Fref%3Destwenivtefor001" id="invite_body_twitter_share_icon" style="display: inline; text-decoration: none;"> <img alt="Twitter" src="https://ebmedia.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/marketing/emails/invites/twitter-share.png" style="border: 0;" title="Twitter" /> </a> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdangerousideasfestival.eventbrite.com%2F%3Fref%3Deslienivtefor001&title=Dangerous+Ideas+for+Dangerous+Times%3A+an+international+festival&summary=%5BMay+31%2C+2013+-+Jun+1%2C+2013%5D+-+%5BFirebox+London+-+108+Cromer+St+-+WC1H+London+Borough+of+Camden+-+United+Kingdom%5D+-+%5BDangerous+Ideas+for+Dangerous+Times+Festival%5D&source=Eventbrite" id="invite_body_linkedin_share_icon" style="display: inline; text-decoration: none;"> <img alt="LinkedIn" src="https://ebmedia.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/marketing/emails/invites/linkedin-share.png" style="border: 0;" title="LinkedIn" /> </a> </div>
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Dear friends, (apologies if you received this twice), we invite you to join us to discuss, plan and collaborate Dangerous Ideas for Dangerous Times on the weekend of 31 May - 1 June.We will be meeting in the halls and open spaces around Kings Cross to discuss radical, oppositional ideas amidst the onging economic and social crisis. Venues include: Firebox, the Camden Centre, One KX, Westminster Kingsway, Lumen Church, Holy Cross and park with marquees and more.<br /><br />Register for your two day ticket and order food if you like here at the <a href="http://dangerousideas.org.uk/" style="color: #cf0f25; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dangerous Ideas</a> website.<br /><br />Even if you can't make it (and especially if you can!) you can help by sharing this event on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A//dangerousideasfestival.eventbrite.co.uk/%3Fref%3Desfb" style="color: #cf0f25; text-decoration: none;">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=http%3A//dangerousideasfestival.eventbrite.co.uk/%3Fref%3Destw" style="color: #cf0f25; text-decoration: none;">Twitter</a>.<br /><br /> We hope you can make it!<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Dangerous Ideas for Dangerous Times Festival<br />Tariq Ali<br />Jeremy Corbyn MP<br />Clare Solomon<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-46307417930400315752013-05-20T16:49:00.001+01:002013-05-20T16:49:54.468+01:00Me at Dangerous Ideas festival<div>You coming? <br><br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQbanv1KVKFi-NCehnQlOpNJ01tCb-YSltmX4L7ZjHZxYPTmaHuF0MiHJGpHGiugU1EVlF9RIadG8luTT5OJvLM_xvxgINrXu6mYBPjVbZnvSsuJLOcp2Ha7pn9qI9qct4c35ij9foV4g/s1600/photo-794468.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeQbanv1KVKFi-NCehnQlOpNJ01tCb-YSltmX4L7ZjHZxYPTmaHuF0MiHJGpHGiugU1EVlF9RIadG8luTT5OJvLM_xvxgINrXu6mYBPjVbZnvSsuJLOcp2Ha7pn9qI9qct4c35ij9foV4g/s320/photo-794468.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5880089379600987218" /></a></div><div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><a href="Http://DangerousIdeas.org.uk">Http://DangerousIdeas.org.uk</a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-27263419389257569412013-05-12T09:19:00.001+01:002013-05-12T09:19:16.159+01:00Dangerous Ideas for Dangerous Times festival <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><table id="itemcontentlist"> <tbody><tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Luna17/~3/I_mAHRMc_JA/dangerous-ideas-for-dangerous-times.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Dangerous Ideas for Dangerous Times</a></p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6D-mrlmM6ABAty0bU7gmnkSSvBgiUu-j5-RbyUtaReVy9f-CAhUXT86SP5LxtsRvB2x8r8Oz0rJpzLEWE_tvJstfPyfmmWVdnxmaTvwTN8cstpyTPQlFuiVhGCr8JEAWAmMp6DQTmng/s1600/logo-block.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6D-mrlmM6ABAty0bU7gmnkSSvBgiUu-j5-RbyUtaReVy9f-CAhUXT86SP5LxtsRvB2x8r8Oz0rJpzLEWE_tvJstfPyfmmWVdnxmaTvwTN8cstpyTPQlFuiVhGCr8JEAWAmMp6DQTmng/s320/logo-block.png" width="319"></a></div>Dangerous Ideas for Dangerous Times is a left-wing political festival in central London.<br><br>On 31 May and 1 June it will bring together people from the forefront of global struggles: radical economists and philosophers, socialists, feminists and environmentalists, students and trade unionists. It aims to fill the halls, parks and public spaces of King's Cross with a mix of politics, film, art, music and the spoken word.<br><br>Speakers include David Harvey, Laurie Penny, Tariq Ali, Owen Jones, Nina Power, Tony Benn, Seumas Milne, Rafeef Ziada, Terry Eagleton, Lindsey German, Jeremy Corbyn, Sanum Ghafoor, Paul Le Blanc, Kate Hudson, Neil Faulkner and Danielle Obono. <br><br>Learn more about the Dangerous Ideas festival <strong><em><a href="http://dangerousideas.org.uk/" target="_blank">here</a></em></strong>. Register <strong><em><a href="http://dangerousideas.org.uk/index.php/book-tickets" target="_blank">here</a></em></strong>. <br><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php" name="fb_share" type="button">Shar</a>e</div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><blockquote type="cite"> </blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-55163326884854143392013-03-10T10:15:00.001+00:002013-03-10T15:23:50.995+00:00Firebox cafe fundraiser Kickstarted!: how you can help<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Reposted from the great <a href="http://www.leftfutures.org/2013/03/physical-space-is-the-focus-for-the-left-once-again/" target="_blank">Left Futures</a> blog: </div>
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Physical space is the focus for the left once again</h1>
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<a href="http://www.leftfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Firebox1.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #009989; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-13888" height="164" src="http://www.leftfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Firebox1-e1362837800566.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 15px 3px 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Firebox" width="240" /></a>For many, the firebombing of the Freedom Press anarchist bookshop in Whitechapel last month was shocking – not only in its vicious nature, but also in the revelation that London still had such an institution.</div>
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But as the Press struggle to get the pamphlets moving once again, the incident offers a more potent message to the new left-wing cafe and cultural space Firebox: just how difficult it is for fringe left spaces to survive, especially in the modern day.</div>
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Once London was littered with radical bookshops and community centres, but they are few and far between these days. It looked like a downward spiral to zero – until Counterfire, the political and cultural project that developed after a split from the Socialist Workers’ Party in 2010, acquired a shopfront in King’s Cross and established London’s first radical cafe in decades.</div>
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It’s gone from strength to strength, serving lattes and dissent in equal measure. This month, they are offering a 10 per cent discount for Camden council workers. The upcoming programme includes a<a href="http://fireboxlondon.net/stand-up-for-firebox-may-day-comedy-fundraiser/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #ce1836; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">May Day comedy fundraiser featuring Stuart Lee and more.</a></div>
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Yet in view of the attacks on the Freedom Press, they are <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/809251023/firebox-politics-with-your-panini" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; color: #ce1836; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">already fundraising for basic security precautions such as shutters and an alarm system</a>. Pledges from £5 upwards can get you a series of Firebox perks, from free entry to events to signed books to walking tours.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-27847857642625336292013-03-04T11:29:00.000+00:002013-03-04T13:50:56.460+00:00New Emily Wilding Davison t-shirt from Philosophy Football for IWD 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqtmBMvWSiaAm75tzc4vUYc1juAFbIJEO3_5pOAk9KPH97Hohpc7VFwS8Z55ZwMQ7aiRGvRfSEaTAYoA04p3ty4WeOk6zUecqflk1WNuGRYfmrjxmPG9APDvu5zKcS59wZQrUaVrROsvm/s1600/Continental+Grey+Dare+on+White.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqtmBMvWSiaAm75tzc4vUYc1juAFbIJEO3_5pOAk9KPH97Hohpc7VFwS8Z55ZwMQ7aiRGvRfSEaTAYoA04p3ty4WeOk6zUecqflk1WNuGRYfmrjxmPG9APDvu5zKcS59wZQrUaVrROsvm/s320/Continental+Grey+Dare+on+White.jpg" width="242" /></a><b><u>WEAR YOUR COLOURS FOR EMILY'S CENTENARY </u></b></div>
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<b><b>04.06.1913</b></b> One hundred years ago the Epsom Derby was disrupted by perhaps the most famous protest at a sporting event in history.</div>
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Britain at the time was bitterly divided. The early Trade Unions and others striking against poverty wages and appalling working conditions. The cause for Ireland's Freedom was attracting support on both sides of the Irish Sea. And from the Suffragettes a massive wave of non-violent direct action.</div>
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For these Suffragettes the Derby was absolutely a legitimate target for their protest. Horse-racing was the sport of the Establishment , Epsom a day out to celebrate tradition, one that denied women the vote. The King and Queen would be in attendance to watch the KIng's horse race for glory.</div>
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When Emily Wilding Davison ran on to the racecourse a century ago she hoped to stop the race and ensure that women's voices be heard. When the horse racing at full speed collided with her the chances of survival were virtually non-existent. she never regained consciousness and four days later she lost her battle to live. </div>
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Emily's heroic, yet fatal, action formed part of a protest movement that involved many thousands more women. From smashing every shop window in London's West End to blowing up post boxes, via disrupting Parliament's proceedings and heckling MPs at public meetings this was a campaign few could ignore. So instead imprisonment, and when the demand by the women that they be treated as political prisoners was also ignored the Suffragettes responded by going on hunger strike. Again their punishment was more repression, brutalised by force-feeding these ferociously brave women still refused to abandon their cause. </div>
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The Suffragettes were not fighting for the vote alone, but for women's liberation too. Most saw the vote as one step towards getting what they wanted. The Suffragette movement was large and strong, yet at the same time complex and multifaceted, combining those for whom hope lay in constitutional reform with others who believed in the vocabulary of revolution. Whatever their differing objectives the result of the campaign was the loosening of the ideological hold of men over women. Women gained a real sense of their equality, and began to establish a determination to put it into practice. By their actions and protests , as well as their ideas and arguments, the Suffragettes liberated themselves and all their sisters too.</div>
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In 1918 the Representation of the People Act finally awarded women the vote, but only for those over 30 years of age. In 1928, fifteen years after Emily gave her life for the cause women's parity in the vote was finally recognised when the voting age for women was reduced to 21 years, the same as for men. </div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=" http:="" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" www.philosophyfootball.com="">http://www.<wbr></wbr>philosophyfootball.com</a> have produced a set of commemorative designs featuring the colours purple, green and white. These were hugely symbolic for the Suffragette cause. Purple was for dignity, white for purity and green for hope. Militant, committed to direct acton, courageous and in the end victorious too. <i>Deeds not Words</i> and <i>Dare to be Free</i> were the twin ideals, worn as brooches, on sashes, carried as banners, that shaped the Suffragette movement. A century later we can wear them again as T-shirts. All designs available from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=" http:="" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" www.philosophyfootball.com="">http://www.<wbr></wbr>philosophyfootball.com</a></div>
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The shirts are in support of the <a emilywildingdavison.org="" href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=" http:="" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr>emilywildingdavison.org</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-59417897042514696822013-02-08T13:45:00.001+00:002013-02-08T13:45:47.326+00:00International StW Conference - advance tickets sales end 3.30pm<div><div align="center"><br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1GMyuzsHf8hKpdpDoQPwZ4clC-WQnZN3mT2JbyTjbKRpt-QSSg-jxTnPNPWhsRJgu3XHP_OVvosppeeQSXVL5gLKqOk1CGTVbDyksjo_0qYAgG6_r4yWg1NOEMZ7KdXLjfhs7gmNRNET/s1600/mime-attachment-747327.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1GMyuzsHf8hKpdpDoQPwZ4clC-WQnZN3mT2JbyTjbKRpt-QSSg-jxTnPNPWhsRJgu3XHP_OVvosppeeQSXVL5gLKqOk1CGTVbDyksjo_0qYAgG6_r4yWg1NOEMZ7KdXLjfhs7gmNRNET/s320/mime-attachment-747327.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577788666362066" /></a><br> </div> <br> <div align="center"><big>International Conference:<b><br> Confronting War Ten Years On</b></big><br> <br> <b>ADVANCE TICKETS SALES END 3.30pm</b><br> TICKETS AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR<br> <i>With more than 800 people now registered, <br> early arrivals and prepaid ticket holders will get best seating.</i><br> </div> <br> <div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfd0MWihtV6v2EB6gW33yvGn2xakguAbvbXqt2k7IPjFWuikgZYuWBhtMjgK1aNT_9o0Ru4GiC5leDJQfzi-5rgnvy8FoVaJBuBAW8e__EBsJHkD1_UsuEhiTcL1Inknbgrq0U8OYD6Ooe/s1600/mime-attachment-748844.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfd0MWihtV6v2EB6gW33yvGn2xakguAbvbXqt2k7IPjFWuikgZYuWBhtMjgK1aNT_9o0Ru4GiC5leDJQfzi-5rgnvy8FoVaJBuBAW8e__EBsJHkD1_UsuEhiTcL1Inknbgrq0U8OYD6Ooe/s320/mime-attachment-748844.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577793234606114" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDQix_HS66dD_cNcpRajihtrT3ytmea0PSWpjOKnT-oYAlXr7SD3-kbwu82lQzpEbwHijJW5quTmVaXnUsnpmcv5kT74QPduIWVQaRM_qEfiZdvOCtuNphpmPX4antzQPzXhyZpfhLA0n/s1600/mime-attachment-750035.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDQix_HS66dD_cNcpRajihtrT3ytmea0PSWpjOKnT-oYAlXr7SD3-kbwu82lQzpEbwHijJW5quTmVaXnUsnpmcv5kT74QPduIWVQaRM_qEfiZdvOCtuNphpmPX4antzQPzXhyZpfhLA0n/s320/mime-attachment-750035.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577802859484754" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Vwak-73bnNX5D5T1JgqpG_kRYN_3GFo3Ra-8gIJI3XHxRnjgDl2v4oTKwY7eswYUVVwtdhIWuWG4FHKRXAr6b9JcA_u-a17gp1I5XhSNZiqPB-ckRnYGCh-x8hzhFWmNF7mSfkGW70Qd/s1600/mime-attachment-751554.jpg"><img 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href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj8vXX9K_DoqGobWUU5g6B-LZ_O2LGeg0FsCcflAPJVSY9dN-bJua4cI9uksLffSWbBYseMzGXg_Lo9GcujVHeGb9wtxjtO_H04-0NubNT-FrFWqePPAj-WH7YWdLt_3b2bcFeSPhPdg1X/s1600/mime-attachment-767470.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj8vXX9K_DoqGobWUU5g6B-LZ_O2LGeg0FsCcflAPJVSY9dN-bJua4cI9uksLffSWbBYseMzGXg_Lo9GcujVHeGb9wtxjtO_H04-0NubNT-FrFWqePPAj-WH7YWdLt_3b2bcFeSPhPdg1X/s320/mime-attachment-767470.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577877463830370" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVHftzywg7n0N4Q8JKPZb_cv5xmiucMMnAzmx-h2hw70zC4Zvs8SPzVnEJihv9dUaXHfK2ghMFLiAUGUe9yYIjeq1hluPY2cv0zjLKsZcp07Se16LwRBIrHh-Ul4FxlSJKO2DgEVvL1xV/s1600/mime-attachment-768858.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVHftzywg7n0N4Q8JKPZb_cv5xmiucMMnAzmx-h2hw70zC4Zvs8SPzVnEJihv9dUaXHfK2ghMFLiAUGUe9yYIjeq1hluPY2cv0zjLKsZcp07Se16LwRBIrHh-Ul4FxlSJKO2DgEVvL1xV/s320/mime-attachment-768858.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577880406437362" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSQ-EC6mix2m546WiMr4C08x1bix5bKi1DJ46xzpZZHupDuGDM7zzlpGsmUvP_MyNeKfBVG0ZtLlEecdnC8BCFbRNd3H2maja_z94mAxkRJ8tiD7Cab4EfnFTYMmF4gh9eyIFQtXCP9Bj/s1600/mime-attachment-771301.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzSQ-EC6mix2m546WiMr4C08x1bix5bKi1DJ46xzpZZHupDuGDM7zzlpGsmUvP_MyNeKfBVG0ZtLlEecdnC8BCFbRNd3H2maja_z94mAxkRJ8tiD7Cab4EfnFTYMmF4gh9eyIFQtXCP9Bj/s320/mime-attachment-771301.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577891731624482" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-xmj3RmdCk2x4oZ69Osu4m7sRHiF5SnD6CIjFyoH-NivATYOTQOHu37S8t-MTEkwHr0H4TaZodnifiAgokC9VNc2hMLQ_Nb6fFR1rs0bvSrV-v3CQ3nZTSKbbw5xOfO7dAITJrSaxXxD/s1600/mime-attachment-773497.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-xmj3RmdCk2x4oZ69Osu4m7sRHiF5SnD6CIjFyoH-NivATYOTQOHu37S8t-MTEkwHr0H4TaZodnifiAgokC9VNc2hMLQ_Nb6fFR1rs0bvSrV-v3CQ3nZTSKbbw5xOfO7dAITJrSaxXxD/s320/mime-attachment-773497.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577901678244786" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsv1weHuffLec1cpgsRvzlCPKbt7KRnigSRLPAt2h0AyEF7vqBfE2lXOLka4wU2zCUtAsmHQIZDKcTB6bGE5lCFqpmx5_cfmI4fADk7KxBnjnIcSi49dr9AU4H1izLDrIjz_GaSAEFlFVd/s1600/mime-attachment-775292.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsv1weHuffLec1cpgsRvzlCPKbt7KRnigSRLPAt2h0AyEF7vqBfE2lXOLka4wU2zCUtAsmHQIZDKcTB6bGE5lCFqpmx5_cfmI4fADk7KxBnjnIcSi49dr9AU4H1izLDrIjz_GaSAEFlFVd/s320/mime-attachment-775292.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5842577910221213906" /></a><br> </div> <br> <div align="center"><b>Call 020 7561 9311 or visit <a href="http://www.tenyearson.org.uk/">tenyearson.org.uk</a> to pay<br> <br> </b> <div align="left"><b>Please note that because of the large numbers attending, we will be opening registration earlier from 9.30am so that the conference can begin promptly. We urge you to arrive as early as possible to collect your pre-paid tickets.</b><br> </div> </div> <br> <br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-55166388948360467042012-11-15T10:08:00.001+00:002012-11-15T10:08:42.146+00:00What's really happening in Gaza + Emergency protest tonight<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkpUfpd87xhDap3w9ifljw8R7THxbYZgTM0REmks8T7cLgZASgawVZnysSMhSJO26mAqNvbF8JupQoTYT0p9pj_Sk25Dn9twAojSpmCQqi0W9l6q0ciSNEslv3Cfp8wij4SuEK0ZpFcLHb/s1600/mime-attachment-722147.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkpUfpd87xhDap3w9ifljw8R7THxbYZgTM0REmks8T7cLgZASgawVZnysSMhSJO26mAqNvbF8JupQoTYT0p9pj_Sk25Dn9twAojSpmCQqi0W9l6q0ciSNEslv3Cfp8wij4SuEK0ZpFcLHb/s320/mime-attachment-722147.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5810979608862933218" /></a> </div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-left:40px"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><span><font>1b Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ </font></span></font></div> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b><br> </b>15 December 2012: <b>Action Alert</b><br> <font> </font></font> <div style="margin-left:40px"> </div> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b> </b><a href="http://stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">www.</a><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">stopwar.org.uk</a> | <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><b> | </b>020 7561 9311<br> <font><font><span><a href="http://twitter.com/stwuk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/STWuk</a> | </span><span><a href="http://facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition</a><br> </span></font></font></font> <br> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><b>What is really happening in Gaza?</b></font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> For the reality of what's going on in Gaza behind the</font><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> lies that the BBC is allowing Israel to get away with, see this article and video interview with a timeline of events: </font><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/ZLMZsQ">http://bit.ly/ZLMZsQ</a><br> <br> If you are in London, join tonight's emegency demonstration at the Israeli embassy, and urge everyone you can to be there.<br> </b> <h3><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Gaza Under Attack: Emergency Protest<br> Thursday 15 November 5.30pm<br> Israeli Embassy at 2 Palace Green, <br> London W8 4QB<br> </font></h3> <span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span class="fsl">----------------------------------------------------------------</span></span><o:p></o:p> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Helvetica;mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><br> To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to <a href="about://"><i>stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net</i></a></span><br> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br> <br> </font> </blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-57778314695398667392012-11-07T23:22:00.001+00:002012-11-07T23:22:57.818+00:00Thousands sign no Tony Blair comeback letter<blockquote type="cite"><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAXPPYQNYfWw2CXrdIPNxz0EBz9MjiQJX6G78PnpO0QwBf8Q-_F7hZGS5QnsuYBEG6-6ZDWrtrdo4gDGHqKX4d3iEDCSDagjOxhjW5jy5nM5XIURF_K2ViP1RK22KTV01KKSa94jleuU9X/s1600/mime-attachment-777819.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAXPPYQNYfWw2CXrdIPNxz0EBz9MjiQJX6G78PnpO0QwBf8Q-_F7hZGS5QnsuYBEG6-6ZDWrtrdo4gDGHqKX4d3iEDCSDagjOxhjW5jy5nM5XIURF_K2ViP1RK22KTV01KKSa94jleuU9X/s320/mime-attachment-777819.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5808215606348104322" /></a><br> 1b Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ<br> <br> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><b>Newsletter #1259</b>. 7 November 2012</font></span><br> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font> </font></span> <div style="margin-left:40px"> </div> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font> <b> </b><a href="http://stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">www.</a><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">stopwar.org.uk</a> | <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><b> | </b>020 7561 9311<br> </font></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><span><a href="http://twitter.com/stwuk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/STWuk</a> | </span><span><a href="http://facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition</a></span></font></span></font></span><br> <br> <b>1) Thousands sign no Tony Blair comeback letter</b><b><br> </b><b>2) Syria: Lindsey German replies to Guardian's Jonathan Freedland</b><b><br> </b><b>3) Obama's "mandate" for four more years of illegal wars</b><b><br> </b><b>4) Media and War Conference with John Pilger - tickets going fast</b><b><br> </b><b>5) Stop the War Anniversary Appeal prize draw</b><br> <br> -------------------------------------------------------<br> <b>1) Thousands sign no Tony Blair comeback letter</b><br> <br> A letter initiated by John Pilger, Tony Benn and others calling on University College London (UCL) to cancel an invitation for Tony Blair to speak at the launch of the university's Institute for Security & Resilience Studies - has been signed by thousands of academics, students and members of the public who are angry at what is seen as an endorsement of Blair's crimes in Iraq. <b>Add your name here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/R0rD7p">http://bit.ly/R0rD7p</a></b><b><br> </b><br> Stop the War has called a protest at UCL on the 13 November to make it clear to the university management that war criminals are not welcome in our universities. Over 300 people have joined the Facebook event to say they will be there. <b>See Facebook event here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://on.fb.me/VTrmTx">http://on.fb.me/VTrmTx</a></b><br> <br> <b>Protest Tuesday 13 November 11am</b><b><br> </b><b>War criminals out of our universities</b><b><br> </b><b>Main Entrance, University College London</b><b><br> </b><b>Gower Street London WC1E 6BT</b><br> <b>For full details see: </b><b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/R0rD7p">http://bit.ly/R0rD7p</a></b><br> <br> <b>Contact UCL Provost to complain at the invitation to Tony Blair</b><br> <b>Email:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:provost@ucl.ac.uk">provost@ucl.ac.uk</a><br> <b>Tel:</b> 020 7679 7234<br> <br> <b>Information?</b> If you are are student or academic at UCL and have more information about the meeting at which Tony Blair will make his speech, please telephone the Stop the War National Office: 020 7561 9311 or <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk">office@stopwar.org.uk</a>.<br> <br> <b>See also:</b> <b>How Tony Blair and friends help arms dealers get into bed with Britain's universities: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/VTsM0f">http://bit.ly/VTsM0f</a></b><br> <br> -------------------------------------------------------<br> <b>2) Syria: Lindsey German replies to Guardian's Jonathan Freedland</b><b><br> </b><br> Lindsey German has replied to an article by the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland in which he accused Stop the War of being silent and hypocritical on the issue of Syria. As Lindsey says, Freedland "misrepresents nearly everything to do with our policy" on Syria. And she concludes: "Perhaps he should direct his criticism at those carrying out drone attacks in Pakistan, or bombing children in Afghanistan. It is a bizarre sense of priorities that leads him to attack peace campaigners rather than warmongers." <b>Read Lindsey's full reply, which was published in the Guardian, here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/X3TE2A">http://bit.ly/T4cKRk</a></b><br> <br> The Guardian also published a letter by <b>Sami Ramadani</b> and <b>Sabah Jawad</b> supporting Lindsey's article, which you can <b>read here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/PyM4Ka">http://bit.ly/PyM4Ka</a></b><br> <br> -------------------------------------------------------<br> <b>3) Obama's 'mandate' for four more years of illegal wars?</b><b><br> </b><br> From Afghanistan to Iran, from Syria to Yemen, from Pakistan to Somalia - does Barack Obama's re-election mean he gets a "mandate" for four more years of illegal wars and an expanding secret drone program? <b>Read more here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/VSwGqc">http://bit.ly/VSwGqc</a></b><br> <br> -------------------------------------------------------<br> <b>4) Media and War Conference with John Pilger - tickets going fast</b><br> <br> Tickets for the Media and War Conference on Saturday 17 November are going fast and we recommend booking now to avoid disappointment. Entrance is free for students, £5 otherwise. Speakers include <b>John Pilger</b>, <b>Peter Oborne</b> and <b>Seumas Milne</b>, and topics include <i>Media coverage of the 'war on terror'</i>, <i>Islamophobia</i>, <i>Terrorism and War</i>, and <i>Humanitarian interventions</i>. <b>Full details of the conference are here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/OVxrBN">http://bit.ly/OVxrBN</a></b><br> <br> <b>Media and War: Challenging the Consensus</b><b><br> </b><b>Saturday 17 November, 12-5pm</b><b><br> </b><b>Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre</b><b><br> </b><b>Goldsmiths, University of London</b><b><br> </b><b>New Cross, London SE14 6NW</b><br> Full details: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/OVxrBN">http://bit.ly/OVxrBN</a><br> <br> £5 admission. Free for students with ID<br> <b>To book: </b>email <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mediaconf@stopwar.org.uk">mediaconf@stopwar.org.uk</a> or phone 020 7561 9311<br> <br> -------------------------------------------------------<br> <b>5) Anniversary appeal - prize draw at the end of November</b><br> <br> Stop the War relies on our members and supporters to fund all of our anti-war activities and maintain our small office. One of the best ways to sustain our work is by becoming a <b>Friend of Stop the War</b>, which gives you membership of Stop the War plus additional benefits. For example, if you become a Friend before the end of November you will be entered into a prize draw to win a framed poster of the historic<b> Not in Our Name concert</b> which took place in London's City Hall on 23 February 2003. It is signed by the participants, including <b>Harold Pinter</b>, <b>Adrian Mitchell</b>, <b>Harriet Walter</b>, <b>Michael Rosen</b> and <b>John Hegley</b>. It is now a valuable collectors' piece.<br> <br> <b>If you would like to make a donation to Stop the War Coalition, or becoming a member or Friend, go to: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://stopwar.org.uk/donate">http://stopwar.org.uk/donate</a></b><br> <br> ------------------------------------------------------- </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-7113482767877778702012-11-03T09:37:00.001+00:002012-11-03T09:37:16.175+00:00Tony Blair at UCL - No comeback for the war criminal<div><br></div><div><span></span></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> <br> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRX3LnhRLHbX9dyOmImpSuUv1oN0Nn8Zj9Mx4-xCFQ38pS6NRK7zbWU5hzcbL1U1MNKEbSJA3FWQG7bLKP3Sh6NYG3IbYgKHwaVD16ggD165lvCL0jC-iXRcJQ5SFh4ib0Zyp70qRNnFbr/s1600/ahfgggjc-736175.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRX3LnhRLHbX9dyOmImpSuUv1oN0Nn8Zj9Mx4-xCFQ38pS6NRK7zbWU5hzcbL1U1MNKEbSJA3FWQG7bLKP3Sh6NYG3IbYgKHwaVD16ggD165lvCL0jC-iXRcJQ5SFh4ib0Zyp70qRNnFbr/s320/ahfgggjc-736175.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5806518487452494706" /></a> <div class="gmail_quote"> <div style="margin-left:40px"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font>1b Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ </font></span></span></font></span></font></span></div> <br> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font> </font></span> <div style="margin-left:40px"> </div> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font> <b> </b><a href="http://stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">www.</a><a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">stopwar.org.uk</a> | <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><b> | </b>020 7561 9311<br> </font></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><span><a href="http://twitter.com/stwuk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/STWuk</a> | </span><span><a href="http://facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook.com/<wbr>stopthewarcoalition</a><br> </span></font></span></font></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><br> <b>Tony Blair at UCL - no comeback for the war criminal<br> </b></font></span></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><b><br> </b></font></span></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><font><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Tony Blair is back in town on the speaking circuit, this time helping to launch a new department at University College London</font></font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">. In a further attempt to </span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">extricate himself from the illegal invasion of Iraq - which resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties - Blair is now billed to speak as an </span>expert on the 'difficult issues facing markets and economies' and perhaps most bizarrely <b>one of the most 'popular politicians in recent times'.</b></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><b><br> </b></div> <div class="gmail_quote">A letter signed by John Pilger, Tony Benn and academics at London universities, including at UCL, has been sent to college management which criticises what is perceived as <b>an endorsement 'of <span style="line-height:16px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Mr Blair [who] took our country to war against Iraq in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and in doing so committed the international crime of aggression.'</span></b></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><span style="line-height:16px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br> </span></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><span style="line-height:16px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><b>Take action</b></span></div> <div class="gmail_quote"> <div class="gmail_quote"> <ul> <li><b>Add your name to the letter</b> to pressure UCL to withdraw Blair's invitation. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/R0sgh2">http://bit.ly/R0sgh2</a><br> </li> <li><b>Join our demonstration</b> on the day of Blair's visit at UCL to make sure his crimes are not forgotten. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/R0rD7p">http://bit.ly/R0rD7p</a><br> </li> <li><b>Help us spread the news of Blair's visit</b> by sharing the Facebook event with your contacts: <a href="http://bitly.com/RAfwfb" target="_blank">bitly.com/RAfwf</a></li> </ul> We will meet outside the main gates of the UCL campus on Gower Street at 11am on the 13th November.</div> </div> <div class="gmail_quote"><br> <b>The situation on the ground may change at short notice.</b> If you would like to be kept up-to-date, please e-mail your mobile telephone number to <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk" target="_blank">office@stopwar.org.uk</a> to join our texting circle. We will send out alerts on the day.<br> <br> To read more about the event Tony Blair is speaking at and UCL's Institute for Security & Resilience Studies visit <a href="http://bitly.com/TTUgBp" target="_blank">bitly.com/TTUgBp</a></div> <div class="gmail_quote"><br> </div> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font> <font>****************************</font> </font></span> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-34846594563602323052012-09-08T18:19:00.000+01:002012-09-08T18:21:27.648+01:00How to Get the Best Tips from Business Books for Free<div><br></div><div><br>Clare Solomon<div>07850 177637</div><div><br></div><div>========<br><div><div>Videos, photos & reviews of the sold out Festival of Dangerous !deas on</div><div><a href="http://www.dangerousideas.org.uk/">http://www.dangerousideas.org.uk/</a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></div><div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> Brad Smith <<a href="mailto:info@fixcourse.com">info@fixcourse.com</a>><br><b>Date:</b> 7 September 2012 18:06:23 GMT+01:00<br><b>To:</b> <<a href="mailto:claresolomon@gmail.com">claresolomon@gmail.com</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>How to Get the Best Tips from Business Books for Free</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> Brad Smith <<a href="mailto:info@fixcourse.com">info@fixcourse.com</a>><br><br></div></blockquote><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> <title>How to Get the Best Tips from Business Books for Free</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <div class="container" style="background-color: #ffffff;"> <div class="headerContainer" style="padding: 10px;background-color: #ffffff;width: 600px;"> <div class="headerText" style="font-size: 12px;font-family: Courier New;font-weight: normal;text-align: left;"> </div> </div> <div class="headerImage"><img src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/653153ae841fd11de66ad181a/images/transparent.gif" alt="" border="0" style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"></div> <div class="mainContainer" style="padding: 10px;background-color: #ffffff;width: 600px;"> <div class="mainText" style="text-align: left;font-size: 14px;font-family: Courier New;line-height: 150%;font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Hey!<br> <br> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; ">Quick favor: I want to know what I should write about / create for you. </span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; ">Will you take this quick survey?<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://fixcourse.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ce0b45e143c250d5bf81bc7aa&id=621f1f1496&e=7d62e5b1b0" target="_blank" style="color: #0000ff;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/67CFFYW</a><br> <br> I'd also like to tell you about 500 Business Books, a new collaborative project between myself and BlogcastFM. It's a free email newsletter that profiles the best insights and tips from one business book each week. <br> <br> You can sign up for free here: </span></span><a href="http://fixcourse.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ce0b45e143c250d5bf81bc7aa&id=eb663314ff&e=7d62e5b1b0" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;color: #0000ff;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">http://500businessbooks.com/</a><br> <br> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Have a great weekend!<br> <br> Sincerely,<br> Brad Smith</span></span><br> <br> <br> </div> </div> <div class="footerContainer" style="padding: 10px;border-top: 0px none #999999;width: 600px;"> <div class="footerText" style="font-size: 12px;font-family: Courier New;line-height: 100%;text-align: left;font-weight: normal;"><div class="vcard"><span class="org fn">FixCourse</span><div class="adr"><div class="street-address">4199 Campus Drive, Suite 550</div><span class="locality">Irvine</span>, <span class="region">CA</span> <span class="postal-code">92612</span></div><br><a href="http://fixcourse.us2.list-manage1.com/vcard?u=ce0b45e143c250d5bf81bc7aa&id=c2093fe91c" class="hcard-download">Add us to your address book</a></div><br> <br> <a href="http://fixcourse.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=ce0b45e143c250d5bf81bc7aa&id=c2093fe91c&e=7d62e5b1b0&c=08326b355b" style="color: #0000ff;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">Unsubscribe</a> <a href="mailto:claresolomon@gmail.com">claresolomon@gmail.com</a> from this list.<br> </div> </div> </div> <span style="padding: 0px;"></span> <img src="http://fixcourse.us2.list-manage.com/track/open.php?u=ce0b45e143c250d5bf81bc7aa&id=08326b355b&e=7d62e5b1b0" height="1" width="1"> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-86693587293231850752012-08-27T12:00:00.001+01:002012-08-27T12:00:56.756+01:00Rogues Gallery: comedy, spoken word & music@ Firebox<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Hope you can make it to this...</span><br></font></div><div><span></span><br><span>Firebox presents Rogues Gallery -</span><br><span></span><br><span>Comedy from Steve Parry and Jonnie Marbles (the one who pie'd Murdoch)</span><br><span>Spoken word from Sam Berkson, Wanda Canton</span></div><div><br><span>Plus special guests</span><br><span></span><br><span>Don't miss it!</span><br><span></span><br><span>Doors open at 6.30pm, suggested donation of £10 which includes a free drink.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Refreshments will be available throughout the evening.</span><br><span></span><br></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6k-jsZDvOFdStdv1NcFGAvxkm7KM_Zb4elc-ch1vvTi-nQdnYitLvja6gFzHGtOvDwokMXMGQzkxjWuiwVWCVb3FvQfM8VGzoY7CKF3n5s86BzrCccHvqwQFlS40hFi40VEdrG_7MqWc/s1600/Rogue+Gallery+Poster+V2-756756.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6k-jsZDvOFdStdv1NcFGAvxkm7KM_Zb4elc-ch1vvTi-nQdnYitLvja6gFzHGtOvDwokMXMGQzkxjWuiwVWCVb3FvQfM8VGzoY7CKF3n5s86BzrCccHvqwQFlS40hFi40VEdrG_7MqWc/s320/Rogue+Gallery+Poster+V2-756756.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5781306261322835570" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-58295004369430655712012-08-02T10:08:00.001+01:002012-08-02T10:08:16.594+01:00Syria: a response to the critics of the anti-war movement.<blockquote type="cite"><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Copy left to Luna 17-thanks for his well laid out argument. <br><table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"><tbody></tbody></table></span></font></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"> <hr style="border:1px solid #ccc;padding:0;margin:0"> <table id="itemcontentlist"> <tbody><tr xmlns=""> <td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"> <p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"> <a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Luna17/~3/oPhUd4RM_hg/counterfires-response-to-critics-of.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Counterfire's response to critics of the anti-war movement</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 01 Aug 2012 06:44 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjprUvT87gMO7EXePvDI8hDy5NyVilV6BNKejINl6KjKAug8D5ac2exWhd-eSG0zSSeZaXsHslsl2RVheLpvrN_2ba5qG0UV2qI7qrYvdykl-iIzVCuEjeLrSA3KTU7SgHlfnZTpYli5Q/s1600/syria_bashar_assad_burns_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjprUvT87gMO7EXePvDI8hDy5NyVilV6BNKejINl6KjKAug8D5ac2exWhd-eSG0zSSeZaXsHslsl2RVheLpvrN_2ba5qG0UV2qI7qrYvdykl-iIzVCuEjeLrSA3KTU7SgHlfnZTpYli5Q/s320/syria_bashar_assad_burns_lg.jpg" width="320"></a>Last week I posted <strong><em><a href="http://luna17activist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/syria-imperialism-and-left.html" target="_blank">my own response</a></em></strong> to those on the radical Left who under-estimate the role of external intervention in Syria (and the continuing relevance of imperialism to the Arab world more broadly). My piece was also published on Counterfire. </div><br>A major new Counterfire article, written by John Rees and posted today, develops these points in greater depth. See <strong><em><a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/theory/157-international/15938-syria-empire-and-revolution-a-reply-to-the-critics-of-the-anti-war-movement" target="_blank">'Empire and revolution: Syria and the critics of the anti-war movement'</a></em></strong>. <br><br>Two points in particular are worth stressing here. <br><br>Firstly, John's article makes it clear that differences over Syria are interconnected with deeper differences of analysis regarding imperialism and the Arab revolutions. It isn't just about Syria. The key thing is to examine accurately the impact of the Arab revolutions on the region - without exaggeration - and assess the influence of a counter-revolutionary response from the West and allied states in the Middle East. <br><br>Secondly, there are profound practical implications following the analysis. If you believe that the role of imperialism is only a secondary consideration in Syria - and that more broadly its role in the Arab world is greatly weakened - then you pay little attention to building an anti-war movement to resist foreign intervention. Instead you sit on the sidelines and merely cheerlead for the Arab revolutions, while taking rhetorical potshots at serious anti-imperialists who you think are exaggerating the problems of foreign intervention. <br><br>Alternatively, an accurate analysis of the situation demands that we mobilise to stop our own political leaders intervening in the Arab world. That is the only meaningful thing we <em>can</em> do, and must be our priority.<br><br>The new Counterfire article begins:<br><br>'Public debate has begun on whether imperial intervention has any significance in determining the course of the Syrian revolution and, by extension, the Arab revolutions as a whole.<br><br>Most informed commentators associated with the anti-war movement hold that while of course events in Syria have their own domestic dynamic there has developed a significant imperial dimension which is a threat to the continued progressive nature of the uprising. There are naturally differences of emphasis, some of them important, among this group but on this major issue the Marxist writer and activist Tariq Ali, Guardian columnist Seumus Milne, MP George Galloway, Iraqi exiles and analysts Sami Ramadani and Sabah Jawad, the Deputy President of the Stop the War Coalition Andrew Murray, the convenor of Stop the War Lindsey German and supporters of Counterfire are in broad agreement.<br><br>The opposite point of view has been expressed by Richard Seymour in a piece critical of Sami Ramadani (in the Guardian online), Simon Assaf in a debate with Sami Ramadani, and Alex Callinicos in an attack on Tariq Ali (the last two appeared in Socialist Worker).<br><br>This response to the debate does not of course claim to represent the views of those attacked: they are well able to respond to, or ignore, the articles as they see fit. This is simply an attempt to reassert the centrality of imperialism to developments in the Middle East and to provide a framework for understanding the dynamics of the Arab revolutions.'<br><br>Read it in full <strong><em><a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/theory/157-international/15938-syria-empire-and-revolution-a-reply-to-the-critics-of-the-anti-war-movement" target="_blank">HERE</a></em></strong>. <br><br><br><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php" name="fb_share" type="button">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6093114275469628673-6498520660539691811?l=luna17activist.blogspot.com" alt=""></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Luna17/~4/oPhUd4RM_hg?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tbody><tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://luna17activist.blogspot.com/">Luna17</a> <br>To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=D6AIKakomwqBBbb1s3RaYl3ESi4">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-51201231247645462012012-07-23T20:00:00.001+01:002012-07-23T20:00:45.992+01:00Tony Blair breaks cover: Join the protest 24 July<div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM069-3duoo7nO0kX-YOXIyEvAKKrJcAA8lsW_gpLYT-SpB6E5pYNyonZZVKkpCeulcXdxAhN0LSOZGqCbZFp8s5CWqHpIfIE1R2R5LedhB6-HGuTfEm-VfO-5zdAhJhMdDTH1tkSz1F1D/s1600/mime-attachment-745993.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM069-3duoo7nO0kX-YOXIyEvAKKrJcAA8lsW_gpLYT-SpB6E5pYNyonZZVKkpCeulcXdxAhN0LSOZGqCbZFp8s5CWqHpIfIE1R2R5LedhB6-HGuTfEm-VfO-5zdAhJhMdDTH1tkSz1F1D/s320/mime-attachment-745993.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5768441929314631682" /></a></span><br></font></div><div><div lang="x-western"> <b><br> URGENT BULLETIN 23 July 2012</b><br> Email: <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><br> Tel: 0207 561 9311<br> <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk">www.stopwar.org.uk</a><br> Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition">http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition</a><br> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/STWuk">https://twitter.com/STWuk</a><br> <br> <b>HOT NEWS: TONY BLAIR BREAKS COVER<br> JOIN THE PROTEST: STOP THE BLAIR COMEBACK<br> TUESDAY 24 JULY 4pm-5.30pm<br> Central Hall Westminster, London SW1H 9NH<br> </b>Nearest tube Westminster or St James's Park<b><br> See map: </b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/LJfC5T">http://bit.ly/LJfC5T</a><b><br> For full details and updates, see: </b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/MxHhIs">http://bit.ly/MxHhIs</a><br> <b><br> </b>The announcement of the venue for the latest stage in the <b>Tony Blair Comeback</b> campaign has been kept secret till just one day before the event, so fearful is the man who would be prime minister again of anti-war protesters and people attempting to make a citizen's arrest (<b>see <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/LoamA8">http://bit.ly/LoamA8</a></b>).<br> <br> Blair will be in conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who opposed the war on Iraq. They will be talking about religion in society, so there will be no shortage of sanctimony and hypocrisy on Blair's part.<br> <br> Stop the War is committed to call a protest whenever the war criminal comes out of the shadows to speak <b>as if one million Iraqis didn't die</b> as a result of the illegal war he waged with George W. Bush.<br> <br> If you live in London <b>please join the protest</b> if you can. And publicise it as widely as possible. Bring your personalised placard too, as these always make an impact with the media.<br> <br> A poll published a few days ago showed that <b>only 28% of people think a Blair comeback would benefit the country</b>, with 61% adamant -- it wouldn't. For any one who hasn't got the message as to the reasons Tony Blair is loathed by so many people in Britain, they should read Sanum Ghafoor's excellent new article: <b>Never let them bury the truth about Tony Blair. </b>See:<b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/LJhdsq">http://bit.ly/LJhdsq</a></b><br><b><br> </b></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-61810518992074571892012-07-16T18:32:00.000+01:002012-07-16T18:33:10.225+01:00What is really happening in Syria?<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><a href="http://stopwar.org.uk/"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UTIRdIpir-7x8lb3R_jfvBOnVvQyZAkbtLxFOwiLLFZhZ0k8h5ZAZZqlUUmREZ9LfAYc4kIIM_vtZTetNsD6HVopzA78muic1LF7F33GgVdnyXGb0LnYh21DoO1YSQQ8I721OCHnWXom/s1600/mime-attachment-790227.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5UTIRdIpir-7x8lb3R_jfvBOnVvQyZAkbtLxFOwiLLFZhZ0k8h5ZAZZqlUUmREZ9LfAYc4kIIM_vtZTetNsD6HVopzA78muic1LF7F33GgVdnyXGb0LnYh21DoO1YSQQ8I721OCHnWXom/s320/mime-attachment-790227.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5765821756151788770" /></a></a></span><br></div><div><div lang="x-western"> <b><br> Newletter No. 1250</b> 16.07.12<br> Email: <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk">office@stopwar.org.uk</a><br> Tel: 0207 561 9311<br> <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk">www.stopwar.org.uk</a><br> Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition">http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition</a><br> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/STWuk">https://twitter.com/STWuk</a><br> <br> <b>In this Newsletter:</b><br> <b>1) What is really happening in Syria?<br> 2) Britain's top spy beats the drums for war on Iran<br> 3) </b><b>Tony Blair's mad-hatters banquet on his comeback trail</b><b><br> 4) Become a Friend of Stop the War: Summer offer</b><b><br> </b>_____________________________________________<b><br> <br> 1) What is really happening in Syria</b><b>?<br> </b><br> US and NATO leaders are laying the groundwork for open western military intervention in Syria. It is unclear to what extent covert intervention is already taking place -- through funding, arming and advising some of the opposition groups, and by special services operations in Syria -- but Tariq Ali's view is that it is extensive. See <b>What is really happening in Syria?</b><b> </b><a href="http://bit.ly/NtXQlu">http://bit.ly/NtXQlu</a>).<br> <br> Economic sanctions are being intensified, which, as we saw in Iraq, can be the prelude to military intervention.<br> <br> The plan is to do to Syria what happened last year to Libya: to bring about regime change favourable to western economic and strategic interests. But we only need to see what has happened to Libya since the NATO war to know how disastrous this would be for the Syrian people. See <b>Human rights now worse in Libya than it was under Gaddafi: </b><a href="http://bit.ly/NHGtyp">http://bit.ly/NHGtyp</a><br> <br> Stop the War's position on Syria remains as was spelt out in<b> </b>our statement on 11 December 2011<b>:<br> <br> </b><i>Stop the War Coalition fully supports the right of the peoples in all the countries of the Middle East to determine their own future and assert democratic rights. We are therefore implacably opposed to any external intervention, especially military intervention, in Syria.</i> (<b>See full statement here:</b> <a href="http://bit.ly/xLbGV6">http://bit.ly/xLbGV6</a>)<br> _____________________________________________<br> <br> <b> 2) Britain's top spy beats the drums for war on Iran<br> <br> </b>The focus may at present be mainly on Syria, but it is Iran that is the ultimate target for the US and its allies . Economic sanctions are already imposing real hardship on the Iranian people and are about to be made far worse. See: <b>Carpet-bombing Iran's economy is war by any other name: </b><a href="http://bit.ly/OIRSvg">http://bit.ly/OIRSvg</a>)<br> <br> And now we have, Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence service giving his own version of Tony Blair's infamous claim that Iraq needed just "45 minutes" to activate its weapons of mass destruction. This time, according to Sawers, we have just two years to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons -- despite there being no evidence that Iran has any such plans.<br> <br> See: <b>How Britain's top spy is beating the drums for war on Iran</b>. <a href="http://bit.ly/OITi9b">http://bit.ly/OITi9b</a><br> _____________________________________________<br> <b><br> 3) Tony Blair's mad-hatters banquet on his comeback trail</b><br> <br> The Tony Blair rehabilitation campaign, orchestrated by fellow war criminal Alistair Campbell, is now well under way. But Blair and his acolytes are running scared of anti-war protests whenever he tries to show his face in public -- and of attempts to make a citizen's arrest for war crimes (see <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/O3rTQ2">http://bit.ly/O3rTQ2</a>). So they keep the venue secret of where he is speaking until only a a day or two before the meeting.<br> <br> Or -- as in the case of the meeting he was planning to make in Lambeth on 9 July -- the threat of a protest is enough to get the meeting cancelled.<br> <br> The main launch event of the <b>Tony Blair Comeback</b> took place last Wednesday at Arsenal football stadium in North London. Anti-war protesters formed a gauntlet through which an array of Labour MPs, celebrities and sporting personalities had to pass to shouts of "shame on you". <br> <br> Sadly, among those joining the Blair love-fest were comedians Jo Brand and Eddie Izzard -- both of whom opposed the Iraq war. <br> Once inside, guests at the £500 a ticket banquet heard Labour leader Ed Miliband say, "Thank you Tony for all you have done for the Labour Party and the country," before announcing that he was making Blair his new policy advisor on the Olympics legacy.<br> <br> It was, as Lindsey German writes, a moment <b>When reality outstripped satire at the Tony Blair mad-hatters banquet. </b>See <a href="http://bit.ly/OIWPEj">http://bit.ly/OIWPEj</a>.<br> <br> Stop the War is commited to making sure that Blair's monumental war crimes are not forgiven or forgotten. We will call protests every time he appears in public and speaks as if hundreds of thousands of Iraqis did not die due to the illegal war into which he took Britain on a raft of lies.<br> <br> The next event on the Tony Blair Comeback is on Tuesday 24 July in London, when he will be speaking on Religion and Society, sharing a platform with the Archibishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams -- who was an opponent of the Iraq war -- and the former editor of <i>The Times </i>Charles Moore -- who was not. <br> <br> Once again, we do not know yet where this event will take place. Anyone who has more details for this event, please contact Stop the War: <b>Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk">office@stopwar.org.uk</a>. Tel: 0207 561 9311<br> </b><br> <b>Stop the Tony Blair Comeback<br> Tuesday 24 July: 5.30pm - 6.45pm<br> Central London venue TBA</b><br> <b>For updates as we get them please see:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/NxXfBK">http://bit.ly/NxXfBK</a>.<br> _____________________________________________<br> <b> <br> 4) Become a Friend of Stop the War: Summer offer</b><br> <br> Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our financial appeal. Contributions from our members and supporters are our sole source of income for sustaining our small office and funding our anti-war activities, which in the coming months will see us maintaining our campaign to get all British troops out of the futile and unjustified Afghanistan war, and opposing the threats of more war in Syria and Iran, which our government is now promoting feverishly.<br> <br> We still need to raise more funds and one of the best ways to support us is by becoming a <b>Friend of Stop the War</b>. This comes with a number of benefits and during the Summer we will also add a special offier to all new <b>Friends of Stop the War</b> of a free Beats Not Bombs t-shirt.<br> <br> * To become a <b>Friend of Stop the War</b>, see: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/IjsOen">http://bit.ly/IjsOen</a><br> * To become <b>Stop the War member</b>, see: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/IjsLPu">http://bit.ly/IjsLPu</a><br> * To <b>make a donation</b>, see: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/IjsQmm">http://bit.ly/IjsQmm</a><br> _____________________________________________<br> <b><br> </b></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div lang="x-western"><br> </div> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-69482925576348189862012-07-10T12:52:00.000+01:002012-07-10T12:53:09.710+01:00Blair at Arsenal FC: Give Him the Boot!<div><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> <a href="https://twitter.com/TonyBlairWatch">https://twitter.com/TonyBlairWatch</a> on twitter</span><br></div><br><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 80, 1); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Dear Friends,</span><div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><br>We've just heard that Tony Blair is appearing at Arsenal football grounds tomorrow evening, at a dinner with Ed Milliband to promote British sport. <br><br>This is one of a number of events that he is doing this month as part of his recently announced 'comeback' tour. Last night he was due to do a fundraiser with Tessa Jowell MP. After much lobbying and the threat of a protest this event was postponed. But the war criminal is still at large. Let's give him the welcome he deserves and put a stop to the attempt to rehabilitate Blair:<br> <br>Please take 5 minutes to invite friends on facebook -<br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/184295808367309/" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/events/184295808367309/</a><br clear="all">And forward this message to your contacts. <br> <br>All the best,<br>Alistair<br><br><div> ------------------------------<br> </div> <br>Stop the War Coalition office<br> 1B <span>Waterlow</span> <span>Rd</span><br> London N19 5NJ<br> tel: 0207 561 9311<br></div> </div></div> </blockquote></div><br></div></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-71691431403498971742012-06-15T13:52:00.000+01:002012-06-15T13:52:27.607+01:00New cultural centre in central London<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Email not displaying correctly? <a class="adminText" href="http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=53a71b9aeef8ba723d12b1635&id=000dad9c16&e=[UNIQID]" style="color: white; text-decoration: none;">View it in your browser.</a></div>
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<img alt="" border="0" height="67" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/53a71b9aeef8ba723d12b1635/images/image_13288761130651328875785.jpg" style="display: block; height: 67px; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; width: 400px;" width="400" /></div>
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For more info about the project and ways to get involved including suggesting names and events go to <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/component/content/article/151-membership/15838-counterfire" style="color: maroon;">this project outline</a><img align="right" height="106" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/53a71b9aeef8ba723d12b1635/images/cromer.jpg" style="border: 3px solid; color: darkred; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; height: 106px; line-height: 24px; width: 160px;" width="160" /><br /><div>
<br />And please do discuss your ideas in the comments section.<br /><a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/donate" style="color: maroon;"><br />Here's a few ways</a> for you to donate to the project.<br /><br />We have lots to do to get it ready for a big launch at the end of September and we hope you fancy being involved one way or another.<br /><div style="background-color: transparent;">
<br />We're looking for people to come up with a design and decor package, to offer events and organising skills and much more. We especially need a good name.<br /><br />Do come to the members meeting on the 24 June to discuss and vote on all these things. Here's the <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/component/content/article/151-membership/15817-members-newsletter-8-june-2012" style="color: maroon;">previous newsletter </a>with agenda. Do register because we are starting to use a new database that will help you receive more specific communication from us, but this only works if we have the correct data for you. Thanks!<br /><br />Ok, if there's anything else, please do let me know and see you at the members meeting.<br /><br />Clare<br /><br />Ps, here's a sneak preview of the shop. I'll try to get the keys for the members meeting so we can all go along and have a look together.<br /><br /><img align="none" height="199" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/53a71b9aeef8ba723d12b1635/images/cromer_2.jpg" style="height: 199px; width: 300px;" width="300" /><br /><img align="none" height="99" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/53a71b9aeef8ba723d12b1635/images/cromer_3.jpg" style="height: 99px; width: 150px;" width="150" /><img align="none" height="99" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/53a71b9aeef8ba723d12b1635/images/cromer_4.jpg" style="height: 99px; width: 150px;" width="150" /></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><b>National Members & supporters meeting </b></span></span><br />Register <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/event/register&reset=1&id=2" style="color: maroon;">HERE</a><br /><br /><span class="sideColumnTitle" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px;">Newcastle Counterforum</span><br /><strong>Defeating the 1% - a short course in rebellion</strong><br /><br />Saturday, 16 June 2012<br />More details and to register go <a href="http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/events/15776-newcastle-counterfire" style="color: maroon;">HERE</a><br /><br /><br /><span class="sideColumnTitle" style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px;">Fantastic lineup at CoR public meeting</span><br /><br />More details<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/239033126209254/" style="color: maroon;"> HERE</a><br /><br />Tues 19th June 6.30 pm<br />Friends Meeting House<br />Euston Rd<br />London NW1Speakers include:<br />
Tony Benn<br />Len McCluskey (Unite)<br />Christine Blower (NUT)<br />Katy Clark MP<br />Owen Jones<br />Wendy Savage (Keep Our NHS Public)<br />Danielle Obono (Front De Gauche)<br />Vassilis Fouskas (Syriza)Andrew Burgin (Coalition of Resistance)<br />Salma Yaqoob (Respect)<br />Clare Solomon (co-editor of Springtime: The New Student Rebellions)<br />
Chair: Romayne Phoenix (Green Party)</div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-75386146344699673012012-05-28T00:25:00.001+01:002012-05-28T00:25:29.943+01:00War criminal Tony Blair not welcome: protest 28 May<div><blockquote type="cite"><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">STOP THE WAR COALITION</span><br></font></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>Newsletter No. 1247</span><br><span>27 May 2012</span><br><span>Email: <a href="mailto:office@stopwar.org.uk">office@stopwar.org.uk</a></span><br><span>Tel: 020 7561 9311</span><br><span>Web: <a href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk">http://www.stopwar.org.uk</a></span><br><span>Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/STWuk">http://twitter.com/STWuk</a></span><br><span>Facebook: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition">http://www.facebook.com/stopthewarcoalition</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>IN THIS NEWSLETTER:</span><br><span>1) WAR CRIMINAL TONY BLAIR NOT WELCOME: PROTEST 28 MAY</span><br><span>2) MANY THANKS FOR A NIGHT TO REMEMBER</span><br><span>3) TELL ISRAELI APARTHEID TO LEAVE THE STAGE</span><br><span>4) SHARE YOUR MEMORIES FOR THE WE ARE MANY DOCUMENTARY</span><br><span></span><br><span>********************************</span><br><span>1) GWAR CRIMINAL TONY BLAIR NOT WELCOME: PROTEST 28 MAY</span><br><span></span><br><span>GIVE TONY BLAIR A WAR CRIMINAL'S WELCOME</span><br><span>LEVESON INQUIRY INTO THE PRESS</span><br><span>MONDAY 28 MAY 9AM-10AM</span><br><span>ROYAL COURT OF JUSTICE, STRAND</span><br><span>LONDON WC2A 2LL</span><br><span>MORE DETAILS: <a href="http://bit.ly/JIZhrD">http://bit.ly/JIZhrD</a> </span><br><span></span><br><span>The announcement last Friday afternoon that Tony Blair would be appearing at</span><br><span>the Leveson Inquiry on Monday 28 May was obviously timed to minimise the time</span><br><span>to mount the kind of protest that hounds the arch war criminal wherever he</span><br><span>travels.</span><br><span></span><br><span>But he can't escape the outrage that so many feel that someone implicated in</span><br><span>the mass murder of hundreds of thousands in the Iraq war is free to roam the</span><br><span>world picking up huge cheques by selling his services to some of the most</span><br><span>unscrupulous bankers and dictatorial regimes in the world (SEE: Where is war</span><br><span>criminal Tony Blair hiding all his millions? <a href="http://bit.ly/HN1pCh">http://bit.ly/HN1pCh</a> )</span><br><span></span><br><span>Stop the War has called a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand,</span><br><span>London, from 9am to 10am, to ensure that the voice is heard of the majority in</span><br><span>this country who opposed the war in Iraq and no doubt would like to see Blair</span><br><span>behind bars for his war crimes. </span><br><span></span><br><span>Please join the protest if you can and spread the word as widely as possible.</span><br><span>If you have any placards or posters -- especially the now iconic Bliar placard</span><br><span>-- please bring those to the protest. </span><br><span></span><br><span>Or make a placard of your own to individualise your disgust at how Blair is</span><br><span>still treated with deference despite the blood on his hands.</span><br><span></span><br><span>FOR MORE DETAILS SEE: <a href="http://bit.ly/JIZhrD">http://bit.ly/JIZhrD</a> </span><br><span></span><br><span>********************************</span><br><span>2) MANY THANKS FOR A NIGHT TO REMEMBER</span><br><span></span><br><span>Everyone who was there last Friday will know what a memorable event our DON'T</span><br><span>IRAQ IRAN benefit was.</span><br><span></span><br><span>The whole event was filmed by the filmmakers who are making the feature length</span><br><span>documentary on the historic protest against the Iraq war on 15 February 2003.</span><br><span>(see below).</span><br><span></span><br><span>We will in due course be uploading performances to our YouTube channel</span><br><span>(<a href="http://bit.ly/LumAXm">http://bit.ly/LumAXm</a>). </span><br><span></span><br><span>Our thanks to all the performers is boundless for making it such a special</span><br><span>evening: Mark Rylance, Brian Eno, Tony Benn, Roy Bailey, Kika Markham, Julie</span><br><span>Felix, Tina Grace, AL Kennedy, Peter Kennard, Alberto Portugheis, Roger Lloyd</span><br><span>Pack, and the compere Chris Nineham.</span><br><span></span><br><span>And thanks to all who were in the audience for their enthusiasm and</span><br><span>appreciation on an unforgettable night.</span><br><span></span><br><span>********************************</span><br><span>3) TELL ISRAELI APARTHEID TO LEAVE THE STAGE</span><br><span></span><br><span>Join the protest against the Globe Theatre's invitation of the Israeli</span><br><span>theatre company Habima, who have regularly performed in illegal Israeli</span><br><span>settlements on stolen Palestinian land.</span><br><span></span><br><span>For the reasons the protest has been called, see: Why the cultural boycott of</span><br><span>Israel is justified: <a href="http://bit.ly/JsPTxD">http://bit.ly/JsPTxD</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>TELL ISRAELI APARTHEID TO LEAVE THE STAGE</span><br><span>MONDAY 28 MAY AND TUESDAY 29 MAY</span><br><span>6PM TO 8PM OUTSIDE THE GLOBE THEATRE</span><br><span>CORNER NEW GLOBE WALK AND BANKSIDE</span><br><span>LONDON More details: <a href="http://bit.ly/JsQkrE">http://bit.ly/JsQkrE</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign</span><br><span></span><br><span>********************************</span><br><span>4) SHARE YOUR MEMORIES FOR WE ARE MANY DOCUMENTARY</span><br><span></span><br><span>The makers of the feature length documentary, We Are Many, want to hear from</span><br><span>people who participated in the largest protest in human history on 15 February</span><br><span>2003, when the world said no the Iraq war (See We Are Many trailer:</span><br><span><a href="http://bit.ly/MQWZwT">http://bit.ly/MQWZwT</a>).</span><br><span></span><br><span>Share your memories of that momentous day on the We Are Many website:</span><br><span><a href="http://www.wearemany.tv/">http://www.wearemany.tv/</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>The filmmakers will select and film some of your stories for possible</span><br><span>inclusion in the documentary.</span><br><span></span><br><span>********************************</span><br><span>-- </span><br><span>To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank e-mail to <a href="mailto:stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net">stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net</a></span></div></blockquote></div><div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-20179932520515866262012-05-19T18:08:00.002+01:002012-05-19T18:34:09.995+01:00A revolution of revolutions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boston</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Erm, internationalists </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC0K-OYix0Sempg_bl4ThkW-4JvqXRTDaphNr6GWhv-rkUbvg_yLNthYGaD2Dvo6Nh9n2brlq24CP4DrbhPe4ZUaJ169-GoWRbhietYmnpjrq4Kpj1vBqdycU5TPCtEHqN4H5dHVQwnmuP/s1600/270911_10150301539102112_587212111_9231919_3396220_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC0K-OYix0Sempg_bl4ThkW-4JvqXRTDaphNr6GWhv-rkUbvg_yLNthYGaD2Dvo6Nh9n2brlq24CP4DrbhPe4ZUaJ169-GoWRbhietYmnpjrq4Kpj1vBqdycU5TPCtEHqN4H5dHVQwnmuP/s320/270911_10150301539102112_587212111_9231919_3396220_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glastonbury Leftfields stage</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibfNku7AoovAEA4OzpKeYZypsbNj0MDQupfDeRN3E9ROxaEADRtcll9yhDQKnJm2zZER5pd3TjFLu11LuQVHcB-84wUDT44fGrDj15AbhC2I1g4Ms2h7hw7GaBp0NYvlS6Xpd619bqoK0J/s1600/246935_534388881106_286500592_1351583_4278459_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibfNku7AoovAEA4OzpKeYZypsbNj0MDQupfDeRN3E9ROxaEADRtcll9yhDQKnJm2zZER5pd3TjFLu11LuQVHcB-84wUDT44fGrDj15AbhC2I1g4Ms2h7hw7GaBp0NYvlS6Xpd619bqoK0J/s320/246935_534388881106_286500592_1351583_4278459_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Horreya (Freedom) bar, Cairo</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYbHsPyPJgHFerbtH8UNL1Un75f0bOCYevBMyeVcFZodSih-hmdzjTUrBrMWq4bMpK3GL01UKZrfyyYj3-p2CC-5KxP8ZRJ8yLjpjWFzRJjcu1glyQQbrUotzhInVgIHKiF_91nyfkZmOn/s1600/254053_10150645687440215_750165214_19124991_1706591_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYbHsPyPJgHFerbtH8UNL1Un75f0bOCYevBMyeVcFZodSih-hmdzjTUrBrMWq4bMpK3GL01UKZrfyyYj3-p2CC-5KxP8ZRJ8yLjpjWFzRJjcu1glyQQbrUotzhInVgIHKiF_91nyfkZmOn/s320/254053_10150645687440215_750165214_19124991_1706591_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A gay Paris</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWafW15SoRFrH0UZiYHWhoPCOszHAOLQT7c0yvM0GLhYTuL2H3rjdb9HS7TsfSFKN5og9XNN7WY8dAQGkIxua-zYmhfYAzsw7SlFMt0F7Ii2IfiMTp6f7FASAgw4-tw1b5YDp3Oq4Ih_D/s1600/240201_539517023633_223201164_1262342_1180363_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWafW15SoRFrH0UZiYHWhoPCOszHAOLQT7c0yvM0GLhYTuL2H3rjdb9HS7TsfSFKN5og9XNN7WY8dAQGkIxua-zYmhfYAzsw7SlFMt0F7Ii2IfiMTp6f7FASAgw4-tw1b5YDp3Oq4Ih_D/s320/240201_539517023633_223201164_1262342_1180363_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caption competition</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3GGSKvaX-_Tp319G9HH4nZIkLwQNQcwk_Pc6ATlAohfUdYkcVHkQttOCUQirIzMDeM3AX-8-EecZQfjtqTszTGcdRYcyBPlXQuxk5Dx9V_1hBHWCxbZyxlVAXOMXDyFHJM9ugZnfqm6Q/s1600/176545_10150144741697112_587212111_8119160_3056847_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB3GGSKvaX-_Tp319G9HH4nZIkLwQNQcwk_Pc6ATlAohfUdYkcVHkQttOCUQirIzMDeM3AX-8-EecZQfjtqTszTGcdRYcyBPlXQuxk5Dx9V_1hBHWCxbZyxlVAXOMXDyFHJM9ugZnfqm6Q/s320/176545_10150144741697112_587212111_8119160_3056847_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Berlin for Holocaust Memorial Day trip</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-0qZTJ32Eb5gE2lPIe-qkYJpRG6iuJwg5uptmBGCbM6eVExbh6_mJAibbpHj-RkfdMR3xQLXgTiCslkr_kIJtgL3jSHsAV9b8hw6wz8NGtm2W2w9U4k0Mow-Ke3wNLWajjGMD_Pk8VdB/s1600/47156_524599328813_223201164_1086819_4484197_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-0qZTJ32Eb5gE2lPIe-qkYJpRG6iuJwg5uptmBGCbM6eVExbh6_mJAibbpHj-RkfdMR3xQLXgTiCslkr_kIJtgL3jSHsAV9b8hw6wz8NGtm2W2w9U4k0Mow-Ke3wNLWajjGMD_Pk8VdB/s320/47156_524599328813_223201164_1086819_4484197_n.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salon d'ete</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLUWZuQJ8_NgRfdppUfZNFR2A92eDwAGfw8DZb-1E6mkqcjcEYYe_UM3AAfCTd0WvGjEnMwps5Zw9xA10WuibtKeiNzed8z4HxQ4KxsK9fJuvR9NPM4KWoZJk8HCWr0Pm68TUcHFMXylz/s1600/282_18572330893_620270893_898542_56_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLUWZuQJ8_NgRfdppUfZNFR2A92eDwAGfw8DZb-1E6mkqcjcEYYe_UM3AAfCTd0WvGjEnMwps5Zw9xA10WuibtKeiNzed8z4HxQ4KxsK9fJuvR9NPM4KWoZJk8HCWr0Pm68TUcHFMXylz/s320/282_18572330893_620270893_898542_56_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Southbank after the eat me cake</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG1D_fkcFe6xlpa8hjChprzJoXUZpEBtDAUCfD1jEF1ed9Y8ublSiD617q9QPLrNjzaSLSQ7dhhg7XB00o01T_TDXrgFz8wvna5Beica8UV6UsRBttCVJhbLIFsnvpo7k9gfKEJGewuUqG/s1600/407519_557130091903_223201164_1418440_976124077_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG1D_fkcFe6xlpa8hjChprzJoXUZpEBtDAUCfD1jEF1ed9Y8ublSiD617q9QPLrNjzaSLSQ7dhhg7XB00o01T_TDXrgFz8wvna5Beica8UV6UsRBttCVJhbLIFsnvpo7k9gfKEJGewuUqG/s320/407519_557130091903_223201164_1418440_976124077_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lenin's Tomb, Moscow</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6q29ERHgacYSCP-9RJiZk1GIIGWFTVK0kg6fMMS9i7tQOszEnMjdWBI62sbndYup4feKo1zNh0Au4KEaASTSZDzMhhd45OY9A-9AYP322MEGGbnA6R5xKFN7jIP2lzvFvE0r6_Nxef2Od/s1600/183557_529543021613_223201164_1211955_6063063_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6q29ERHgacYSCP-9RJiZk1GIIGWFTVK0kg6fMMS9i7tQOszEnMjdWBI62sbndYup4feKo1zNh0Au4KEaASTSZDzMhhd45OY9A-9AYP322MEGGbnA6R5xKFN7jIP2lzvFvE0r6_Nxef2Od/s320/183557_529543021613_223201164_1211955_6063063_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tunisia</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X48q9uJo3bnTIYyjLx_3GYmeAMmYqN5WOFSKKibogdOT6KI8Nki14xGq1IFOXrv6AxsgDIvg0ewL9r-VS7uIVVWWPkTdEw6TNoJQaPLQoJstEUaBLiWlZm1rK9KsR4lbY4ZV8onZBjJi/s1600/35211_523514971873_223201164_1042941_3041815_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X48q9uJo3bnTIYyjLx_3GYmeAMmYqN5WOFSKKibogdOT6KI8Nki14xGq1IFOXrv6AxsgDIvg0ewL9r-VS7uIVVWWPkTdEw6TNoJQaPLQoJstEUaBLiWlZm1rK9KsR4lbY4ZV8onZBjJi/s320/35211_523514971873_223201164_1042941_3041815_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greek chic</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8itgCFJ0ZQbZK7Joi8-vU0FSmR2FoIgsBDVgEr0V1jk7Qfs6Zy80D_9_ZXliVyAb21Iv2h6DIkAao7OPk96iaxybRnjMKbrkD1u2cvqNICoX8nV5j3ZR-PuYcmhfTg_mh-u6KUcAbG0d5/s1600/38645_418505830823_551925823_5397492_2212555_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8itgCFJ0ZQbZK7Joi8-vU0FSmR2FoIgsBDVgEr0V1jk7Qfs6Zy80D_9_ZXliVyAb21Iv2h6DIkAao7OPk96iaxybRnjMKbrkD1u2cvqNICoX8nV5j3ZR-PuYcmhfTg_mh-u6KUcAbG0d5/s320/38645_418505830823_551925823_5397492_2212555_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Singing I Predict a Riot at an NUS training day 4 months before Millbank!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Topless in New Zealand</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPQtE7_JFpbHrBHt6ISs1ijcFljH2tzJohHrUKByc_gz60EZ8sOUn-qW_bVaSXR5WuWUKlChSUGrZKuimpAqOAsmq4-wOQ0klA7HI6cAJjtsbdr4I_PsOaV_5SmD9vZaF4EpYwWeUDeOA/s1600/5735_516856355793_223200860_784236_2350861_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLPQtE7_JFpbHrBHt6ISs1ijcFljH2tzJohHrUKByc_gz60EZ8sOUn-qW_bVaSXR5WuWUKlChSUGrZKuimpAqOAsmq4-wOQ0klA7HI6cAJjtsbdr4I_PsOaV_5SmD9vZaF4EpYwWeUDeOA/s320/5735_516856355793_223200860_784236_2350861_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Boris' bike between my knees</td></tr>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-16529537644007579422012-04-09T11:41:00.001+01:002012-04-09T11:41:38.893+01:00Tia and me<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNhwF_BG3vNmd2RXPMyfDdUegbHm6aKd5ESWI8QAUK62D0IdhJRjyNEoSulk6KmtT_ANRNdXeN9T-Au7eZZVzUSPiAbLEISQvjzdOA7Mlpjc5Ncv8UO3AuP1WZj8jBTnU9evwhLVEQkRj/s1600/photo-798894.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTNhwF_BG3vNmd2RXPMyfDdUegbHm6aKd5ESWI8QAUK62D0IdhJRjyNEoSulk6KmtT_ANRNdXeN9T-Au7eZZVzUSPiAbLEISQvjzdOA7Mlpjc5Ncv8UO3AuP1WZj8jBTnU9evwhLVEQkRj/s320/photo-798894.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729349359640775762" /></a></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5028032657833609064.post-60104791485015168092012-04-07T10:01:00.001+01:002012-04-07T10:01:20.547+01:00Bradford Spring tshirts from Philosophy Football<div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="emailbody" style="margin:0 2em;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><br><table style="border:0;padding:0;margin:0;width:100%"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:top" width="99%"><h1 style="margin:0;padding-bottom:6px;"><br> <a href="http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/Luna17"> <img style="padding-top:6px" alt="" border="0" src="http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif"> </a> </h1> </td> <td width="1%"> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <table id="itemcontentlist"><tbody><tr xmlns=""><td style="margin-bottom:0;line-height:1.4em;"><p style="margin:1em 0 3px 0;"><a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Luna17/~3/tOnGemmcRew/bradford-spring-change-for-all-seasons.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">Bradford Spring: 'a change for all seasons'</a> </p> <p style="font-size:13px;color:#555;margin:9px 0 3px 0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;"> <span>Posted:</span> 06 Apr 2012 06:43 AM PDT</p> <div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL0nydSWqxofmkbbJK-3MO-BRonOij0rVyNX4PlPDx-3uOlCI5mlyhOyYn2ORL2MO02kKygUIkm1vQqpsTgIQEvXDUBBk6k28y-CZQ3zB73h7mywsPb6dohf1PpJo8vZhemQULi_8UhA/s1600/pimg4f7b125fb5356_front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL0nydSWqxofmkbbJK-3MO-BRonOij0rVyNX4PlPDx-3uOlCI5mlyhOyYn2ORL2MO02kKygUIkm1vQqpsTgIQEvXDUBBk6k28y-CZQ3zB73h7mywsPb6dohf1PpJo8vZhemQULi_8UhA/s320/pimg4f7b125fb5356_front.jpg" width="320"></a>This comes via <strong><em><a href="http://www.philosophyfootball.com/" target="_blank">Philosophy Football</a></em></strong>:</div><br>'29 March 2012 was a sensational moment in British political history. George Galloway has dubbed his victory in Bradford West the <strong><em><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/30/bradford-version-of-riots?INTCMP=SRCH" target="_blank">Bradford Spring</a>. </em></strong><br><br>There's never been anything quite like it: a party from the Left, outside the Westminster mainstream, turning a safe Labour seat into a 10,000 majority against war and cuts, for a progressive alternative. <br><br>Wear <strong><em><a href="http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=784" target="_blank">'Bradford Spring'</a></em></strong> on your chest wherever you are and share in the joy of, for once, the neo-liberal consensus being shattered. <br><br>And even better, <strong>for every shirt sold Philosophy Football will give one FREE to the army of young helpers</strong>, <strong>many unemployed, who helped win the victory in Bradford West</strong>. A small help toward ensuring the 'Bradford Spring' becomes a change for all seasons.<br><br>Sizes small- XXL. Plus: women's skinny-rib fitted. Available from <strong><em><a href="http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=784" target="_blank">here</a></em></strong>.<br><br><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php" name="fb_share" type="button">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width="1" height="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6093114275469628673-7420995215714310643?l=luna17activist.blogspot.com" alt=""></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Luna17/~4/tOnGemmcRew?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1"></div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table style="border-top:1px solid #999;padding-top:4px;margin-top:1.5em;width:100%" id="footer"> <tbody><tr> <td style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">You are subscribed to email updates from <a href="http://luna17activist.blogspot.com/">Luna17</a> <br>To stop receiving these emails, you may <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=D6AIKakomwqBBbb1s3RaYl3ESi4">unsubscribe now</a>.</td> <td style="font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;text-align:right;vertical-align:top">Email delivery powered by Google</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:left;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-size:11px;margin:0 6px 1.2em 0;color:#333;">Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> </div></blockquote>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16699520594304588229noreply@blogger.com0