A Far Left Election Teaser

A lot of followers of far-left politics can tell you that Militant had three MPs. But how many can name the International Socialists’ (forerunners of the SWP) only MP?

I’ll give a couple of clues. He was only an MP with the International Socialists for a few days in 1966 before being expelled by the group. And he is accredited with championing a bill concerning the riding of motorcycles that caused great controversy.

Justice for Kelly Crabtree

On Friday Kelly ‘Legs’ Crabtree was disgracefully sacked from her job as a machinist at the Underworld factory in Weatherfield. Her crime was to be duped into allowing a future partner in the business to access inside information on the company. She was publicly dismissed by owners Carla Connor and Nick Tilsley (the beneficiary of the inside information) without any regard to employment law or recognised personnel practice. Carla Connor is well-known for her bullying attitude and Dickensian treatment of the staff in her sweatshop. There is no union recognition in the factory and Connor can therefore exploit her workers with impunity.

The local trades council has promised to fight Kelly’s case. Please send messages of support and donations to the fighting fund to –

Justice for Kelly Crabtree,
Weatherfield Trades Council
C/O The Rovers Return
Coronation Street
Weatherfield
Manchester

May Day Musings and Mutterings of a Maverick

First of all let me take this opportunity to wish you all a happy May Day.

Now, down to business. It’s Apprentice time again and I am hooked. I thought this week’s task was dull but the action in the boardroom more than compensated. I have to admit that Debra Barr, self-confessed super gob, floats my boat. Anybody who dares to criticise her performance is met with a haughty, sneering half-smile and a contemptuous glare. This week, she even dared to lambast Nick, Sir Alan’s trusty lieutenant, and received a smacked-arse and a final warning for her efforts. However, in the follow-up programme shown immediately afterwards (although I am told it is filmed six months later) Nick sang her praises and explained she got a bit excited in the boardroom. Nick’s boat has obviously been floated too. I don’t think she would have found Margaret so malleable!

One of the highlights of this episode was Margaret referring to another of the contestants, Lorraine, as a ‘Cassandra’. This, as we all know, referred to a prophet from Greek mythology that made correct prophecies but was always ignored. All right, I didn’t know - I could only think of Rodney’s wife in Only Fools and Horses. Sir Alan obviously didn’t know either because he glanced quizzically at Margaret as if to say ‘who the fuck is Cassandra?’

Now, talking of Cassandras, Boffy’s Blog has been predicting for some time that while being very deep the current recession will likely be relatively short-lived. Recently, a few commentators are starting to agree but originally he seemed to be a lone voice in the wilderness. I don’t want to start a deep debate on economics here. This is intended to be a light-hearted and upbeat post and I certainly am not underestimating the misery that people are currently experiencing in the dole queues. But I am going to stick my neck out here (like my heroine from The Apprentice) and state I agree there is a recovery underway and that over the coming months the rise in unemployment should start to slow before the jobless figures start to decline. If I am wrong, I will hold my hands up.

And talking about being upbeat, the Met Office is predicting a warm, dry summer. As I am suffering economic hardship, my summer holidays this year are going to be four nights in Bournemouth at the UCU annual congress. This is a big improvement on last year, which was two nights in rainy Manchester for the same event. Hopefully the sun will shine and I can escape the gruelling machinations of trade union bureaucracy for a few minutes to enjoy an ice-cream cornet on the seafront. Who knows, Sir Alan might even send Empire and Ignite down to Bournemouth to sell ice creams on the beach. Debra would look magnificent in her swimwear! Oh to be in England!

By Gum, It's Grim Up North

I watched the opening episode of the much hyped three-part series based on David Peace's Red Riding quartet. It is set in the mining area of West Yorkshire and opens in 1974. Andrew Garfield plays an emerging, young reporter (Eddie Danford) who is investigating the disappearances of three young girls over a period of five years. Eddie soon realises that he has entered a web of corruption involving the local police force, council and press. The main villain is a brash, racist, homophobic property developer John Dawson, played by professional Yorkshireman, Sean Bean. Dawson is supported in his dirty deeds by the local bill that seem to have already killed one reporter who got too close to Dawson - as well as given Eddie some savage beatings.

I am afraid that Red Riding didn’t do a lot other than depress me. Yes, it is supposed to depict grim reality but the violence seems over-elaborate and over the top. Gritty reality pieces (Kes, Billy Elliott) need to be believable and this just isn’t. The North is stereotypically depicted as soul-crushingly drab. The sun never shines (although if the series was shot last summer this might have been unavoidable). We get a few shots of bleak-looking moorland on the horizon but the beauty of the Pennines is not portrayed. Bean's character is all too predictable.

So what point is the series trying to make? There is corruption in all walks of life. And? It is unfair and nasty and good people get abused. And?

It is just too bleak for me. Even ‘grim reality’ films can have moments of humour or brief interludes when the better side of human nature shines through. And before anyone tells me I should get my middle-class arse down to a mining area and see what it is really like, I do. I live close to the former North Staffordshire coalfields and regularly walk around the old mining villages. And the views are inspiring!

Lead Balloon

I am an irregular viewer of Lead Balloon on BBC Four. Last night, I watched repeats of all of series one on the Dave channel. This took some four hours and prevented my usual dash to my local for a couple before closing-time. But it was worth it. Lead Balloon makes wonderful comedy.

Jack Dee is superb as not-very-funny comedian Rick Spleen. Rick seems to be in a permanent state of irritation, but his melancholic lethargy normally prevents this niggling torment from exploding into anger. He is a complete shit! He is tight (despite somehow managing to earn a good living), and he lies and cheats incessantly in his usually-unsuccessful attempts to save money or advance his career.

His partner Mel (Raquel Cassidy) seems oblivious to the worst sides of his character. She prefers to view him as a lovable if trying child and veers between treating his antics with resigned acceptance or mild but stifled amusement. She is like a mother who doesn’t shout because it's not the done thing for good parents.

But for me the star of the show is probably Magda (Anna Crilly), their Russian au pair. She permanently has a face like a smacked arse. But she is clever. By being so morose, she erects a barrier between her and Rick and therefore avoids being manipulated by him. Then there is Marty, his American scriptwriter who I find just slightly irritating, but I am not sure why. There is Michael, the painfully-sensitive and wet owner of a café whose establishment Rick and Marty seem to visit every day. Rick has a daughter, Sam, who continually scrounges off her dad, ably assisted by her boyfriend, Ben. The only other regular in the cast is a neighbour, Clive, who periodically rings on Rick’s door to complain about something.

The programme is very middle class. It is set in a comfortable London suburb where the sun always seems to shine and the trees are always in leaf. The café is not my idea of a kaff. Bacon, eggs, bubble, black pudding and a fried slice are not on the menu. Poncy and pretentious twaddle such as ‘aubergines with parmesan cheese’ is. There never seems to be a shortage of money despite Rick’s frugality. Apart from the main characters, there a few cameos from people representing the lower orders - delivery drivers or shop assistants.

But I find it hilarious. The humour is subtle rather than in-your-face. There is no canned laughter, or sexual innuendo to get cheap laughs. If you never tried Lead Balloon, I suggest you catch up on it. For me, it is probably the best comedy show I've seen in recent years.

The Devil's Whore

For some time, I have been contemplating a blog on the above-named English Civil War drama on Channel 4. Then, when doing some last-minute research, I noticed that Madam Miaow has already produced a very good review of the series, so l will restrict myself to some comments.

I am not normally a fan of costume drama, but I thought The Devil’s Whore was very entertaining. It captured a lot of the violence and uncertainty of the times. The English scenery was impressive, especially as the series was filmed in South Africa! Historically, there seem to be some inaccuracies, but I don’t mind artistic licence. As far as I can gather, the heroine Angelica Fanshawe didn’t exist. Confusingly, at the start of each series, the producers appear to claim otherwise but does it matter? Some viewers have complained that it tears through history at a breakneck speed, and it is therefore hard to follow. This is a fair criticism. Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland was covered in what seemed like about a minute! But, in defence of the producers, I am told that the series was originally scheduled for twelve episodes but had to be cut down to four. The series impressed me because it didn’t come across as modern characters in period dress like so many historical pieces do. It made me want to investigate the period more, and prompted a search on Wikipedia.

I was particularly interested in the sects that appeared at the time. Angelica in turn became involved with the Levellers, the Diggers and the High Attainers (who were derogatorily known as Ranters). The first, whilst not being early socialists, had some egalitarian ambitions. The second seemed to have been commune types. The third seemed the most exciting, and were apparently keen on taking their clothes off and enjoying life for the moment (as are Stoke Socialist Party).

Jim Moody has posted an interesting review of the Devil’s Whore in issue 748 of the CPGB’s Weekly Worker. Also, for a thought-provoking discussion on the three schools of analysis of the English Civil War (Whig, Marxist and revisionist), go to Wikipedia and then to the article by Glen Burgess in the footnotes.

I look forward to some interesting discussion on The Devil’s Whore.

A Working Class Face?

Last night I watched an old episode from the late-1970s hit series The Sweeney. I used to love this series and still find it watchable today. John Thaw played Detective Inspector Jack Regan who was aided in his never-ending fight against the London underworld by Sergeant George Carter who was later to change sides as Arthur Daley’s muscle and gopher, Terry, in Minder. At the time, as an impressionable young twenty-something, the Sweeney seemed to portray the gritty realities of life in London’s CID. It didn’t really. In between fighting armed robbers, Jack and George spent a lot of time drinking in pubs and trying to get a leg over. But the villains were never very convincing, usually coming across as middle-class actors wearing car-coats and throwing in a bit of cockney rhyming-slang to try and gain credibility as genuine blaggers. But it was all good fun, and it normally ended in a good punch-up under the railway arches or in a scrap-metal yard. Thaw was great as the moody, world-weary, boozy cynic who, like most TV cops, seemed to spend as much time fighting his superiors as the villains. He still had a hint of a Mancunian accent from his childhood and looked every inch a flawed working-class hero.

Earlier in the evening I watched a repeat of Inspector Morse. I don’t think I need to provide our readers with an overview of Morse as it was a far more recent series. Suffice it to say that Thaw played, as his new character Morse, a more educated and higher-ranking copper than Jack Regan (why wasn’t the series called Chief Inspector Morse or was he promoted during the series?). Now I think the series was superb and the plots were clever. Thaw again played a cynical, world-weary character at odds with authority and he played it extremely well. But although he had many a rather-sombre pint or two with Sergeant Lewis, Morse was a very different man from Regan. He would spend solitary evenings at home listening to classical music or poring over the crossword rather than unwinding with fellow coppers in the pub. Morse was thoroughly middle-class where Jack Regan was thoroughly working-class.

This brings me to class and faces. An old mate of mine once commented (on Thaw as Morse) that ‘he is playing a middle-class character with a working-class face’. At the time I dismissed the comment, but on reflection I think my mate may have been right. Thaw was playing a well-spoken opera buff but to me his face still fitted more to working-class Jack. I know that if Morse had been made before rather than after the Sweeney I might see it the other way round. But I do think there is such a thing as a working-class face, a face that portrays years of relatively unrewarded graft and resentment that it shouldn’t be that way. What do you think?

Rallying Against the BNP

I was at Codnor in Derbyshire yesterday for the rally/rallies and march to protest at the BNP’s annual Red White and Blue festival that was being held on farmland at nearby Denby.

A coach was provided from Stoke (in part financed by North Staffs TUC) that carried a disappointing seven people. Yes, I know it is holiday time, but given the electoral strength of the BNP in Stoke, I feel that it was a poor turnout. Both NSTUC and North Staffs Campaign Again Racism and Fascism need to pull the stops out to maximise support for future protests.

Two rallies had actually been planned, one by Notts Stop The BNP commencing at 9.30 and another by UAF starting at 11.00! Now I am not going to delve into the politics of this (much has already been written elsewhere). I had turned up to rally against the BNP and supported both events, as did most people there. In reality, the second rally merged into the first.

We later marched about half a mile through the village to the entrance to the farmland where the BNP were holding their ‘festival’. The police stopped us there but did allow thirty protesters to walk the further three-quarters of a mile to a designated ‘protest spot’. We congregated for about an hour before marching back. At one stage, we had the silly situation of different speakers addressing the front and back of the march, neither of which I could hear! We then walked back to the village for another rally.

Was it a success? I think so. I estimated there were about 400/450 people on the march, 500 top whack - not bad. Could have been higher but a big improvement on last year when there was apparently a lone protester! There were about ten unions that were visibly present, plus some Trades Councils, the Asian Workers Association, Racial Equalities Council, and assorted left groupings- a wide mix. I have to say that the locals did not appear to be very supportive. They generally looked bemused or rather hostile. Only one motorist sounded his horn in support. We made our presence felt. Let’s hope it did some good.

Marxists for Middlesex

For those of you who aren’t familiar with darn saaf, Middlesex was a county that ceased to exist in around 1965. It formed the northern and western part of what was to become Greater London into which most of it was transferred. But Middlesex didn’t disappear altogether. Its county cricket club remains and the name still appears in postal addresses, and there is a Middlesex University. It wasn’t the most exciting of counties, mostly samey suburban semis although it inspired Leslie Thomas’s steamy The Tropics of Ruislip and, I imagine, Betjeman’s Metroland. The astrologist Russell Grant used to champion a campaign to restore the county, although I can’t really understand why.

Middlesex County Cricket Club has produced some famous players over the years - Dennis Compton, Bill Edrich, Phil Tufnell and Mike Gatting to name a few. However, in recent years the trophy cabinet has remained closed. They hadn’t added to their silverware for the past fifteen years but all that changed on Saturday when they lifted the Twenty/Twenty Cup. Twenty/Twenty cricket has been around for six years. There are lots of thrills and spills, razzmatazz and dosh. It might not be for the purist but it puts bums on seats, and it is fun.

Brother S is a native of Middlesex, having been born and raised in Potters Bar which is sadly best known for its rail crash. He spent all of Saturday listening to the finals via his pc. Occasionally, he goes to Lords cricket ground to watch Middlesex play. Being thoroughly bourgeois, he usually watches the game from the famous pavilion that is a throwback to a bygone age. Male spectators (gentlemen) have to wear jackets, ties and ‘tailored’ trousers. Female spectators (ladies) have to ensure that their shoulders are covered (presumably breasts as well that are not mentioned in the regulations). So what is the connection with Marx?

Brother S was sitting in the pavilion one day and contemplating that he was probably the only person in there with a Socialist Party membership card in the pocket of his acceptable black blazer. He felt a bit confused about the apparent contradiction of his quaint but stuffy surroundings and the class war. The game was interrupted for the wonderfully-named ‘tea interval’ (middle-class tea, a cup of tea and a slice of cake, not one’s evening meal) and Brother S wandered over to the club shop to browse the gaudy ties and overpriced replica shirts. Then he saw a copy of the book Beyond a Boundary by the famous Marxist theorist C.L.R James. This was it; the missing link between cricket and Marxism! I bought a copy.

Actually in Beyond a Boundary (1963) James writes little about his Marxist convictions. But he does give a fascinating insight into the divisions of race and class that determined membership of Trinidad’s top cricket clubs, and the structure of society when he left school after the First World War. The players in the top team were ‘for the most part white and often wealthy’ but ‘there were a few coloured men among them, chiefly members of the old-established mulatto families’. The second most prestigious club was ‘the club of the old Catholic families’ and ‘almost exclusively white’. Then there was ‘a team of plebeians …totally black and no social status whatever’. There was another, ‘the club of the brown-skinned middle class’ that had been founded ‘on the principle that they didn’t want any dark people in their club’. Another team consisted of black policemen captained by a white Inspector. Lastly, there was a team from the black lower-middle class. However, if a player was exceptionally talented he could cross the divides. James was persuaded to join the club for ‘the brown-skinned middle class’.

James was a remarkable man- a versatile scholar, cricket journalist, an accomplished cricketer himself and a campaigner for West Indian self- government. He was the Johnson in the Johnson-Forest tendency, a Marxist group that operated in the US in the 1940s and 1950s. Possibly his most acclaimed work was The Black Jacobins. Alex Callinicos described this work as ‘a classic of Marxist histiography’ in which James ‘set the great slave revolt of 1791, which transformed Saint Domingue from a French colony into the Republic of Haiti, in the context of the Atlantic world economy and the French Revolution’.

James’ life merits a far more detailed blog. I thank him for providing me with a faint link between cricket and Marxism. I call on all Marxists to get behind Middlesex in the forthcoming Champions League!

National Shop Stewards' Network Conference

I attended the second annual national conference of the NSSN, having been delegated by Keele UCU, and was glad I did. There were over 200 delegates and close to 100 observers. It was refreshing to see some new faces. Yes, there was a good turnout from a lot of the Socialist Party regulars, but the SP far from dominated the event. Dave Chapple of the CWU, National Chairperson of the NSSN, explained from the start that he was not ‘politically-affiliated’, and that the purpose of the network was ‘to build the strength of the grassroots movement up to what it was 30 years ago’. He also stressed that no one union dominated the network, and that if it did he would not be involved with the movement. He then introduced Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT.

There were several guest-speakers during the day, and I am not going to give a blow-by-blow account of ‘he said this’ and ‘she said that’. I will concentrate more on trying to describe the flavour of the event, and will provide just a snippet from each of the main speakers. For me, Bob Crow’s most interesting contribution was a call to change the rules of the TUC to allow trades councils to send delegates (as is the case Bob told us in Scotland, Wales and Ireland). He said that the TUC should be about more than general secretaries talking to other general secretaries. I agree with Bob as this would increase the potential influence of lay officials and help open up the TUC to the grassroots.

Onay Kasab of Unison did not say much (if anything) about the need for a shop stewards’ movement but he did highlight how grassroots activists are fighting back at the bureaucrats who were attempting to stifle them in his union. Onay is one of the activists currently being ‘witch-hunted’ in Unison for seemingly nothing more than exercising his right to free speech!

Karen Reissmann, also of Unison, spoke about her already well-documented struggle in which her branch were out for 42 days, and of how good it was to be on strike on April 23 with other public-sector workers and strikers from Fujitsu.

Brian Caton, general secretary of the POA, bemoaned the failure of the TUC to take on the fundamental issue of trade unionism, which he defined as rights and freedoms. He argued that when the TUC are asked to take the lead on this issue, "we give reports" is their reply. Brian, if I recall rightly, had a more robust answer to the problem - a general strike. Not surprisingly, this went down a storm with the delegates!

We then broke for lunch and for the modest sum of three quid enjoyed tea and a very varied selection of rolls. A big thank you to whoever organised that!

In the afternoon we had a choice of eight workshops to attend. I went to a session entitled ‘Organising in the workplace and young workers’. There was a panel of four from the PCS, CWU and Unite and the workshop was chaired by Sheila Cohen, a National Organiser of the NSSN. There were practical and positive contributions from both the panel and the floor. A delegate from BECTU explained that she was having trouble organising at the BBC and was given a wealth of advice from other participants. I was particularly interested to hear from one of the panel on his successes in organising in a largely unorganised workplace in Fujitsu.

The final session of the day started with varied and enthusiastic contributions from the floor, even if they weren’t always focussed on the need for a shop steward’s network! Sadly, we were then informed by Tony Mulhearn that Terry Fields, the former Militant MP, was dying from cancer and was not expected to last the hour. Obviously this was shocking news to everyone.

Linda Taaffe of the NUT, Secretary of the NSSN, then reviewed the progress of the movement over the last year. She reported that regional shop stewards’ networks had been set up in seven areas, and that there had been a fringe meeting at the TUC. Linda said that at the moment the movement had a founding policy but no rigid structures. However, it had intervened in a wealth of disputes. She urged everyone to go to the next meeting in their region and take a friend. She also urged us all to send a motion to our union branches to donate money to the movement.

Jack Hayman of the International Longshore Workers’ Union told conference of the current strikes against Bush’s policy in Iraq that were hitting the ports on the West Coast of the US. It was great to hear of trade union activism in the States, as we are often given the impression there is no real class struggle in North America. Jack’s appeal for solidarity naturally met with load applause.

Rob Williams of Unite then treated us to his typically rousing Welsh oratory and then Caroline Johnson of Unison told us of the recent inspiring dispute in Birmingham City Council. Janice Godrich, president of the PCS, was the final guest speaker. Janice told conference that her union had affiliated to NSSN and, importantly, had made a financial contribution!

It was a very good day. Refreshingly, there was an absence of sectarianism, and a real feeling of the left working together. I intend to support the next meeting in my region. As the recession deepens, employers are going to try and cut workers’ pay in real terms. These are ideal times for the left to come together and forge a renewal in trade unionism. Let us take this opportunity and get behind the NSSN!

Mad Men

I eagerly awaited Mad Men, produced by Matthew Weiner who was previously a script writer for The Sopranos; a series I thought was superb. Mad Men and its lead actor (John Hamm) received awards at the 2007 Golden Globes.

I found the first episode a bit disappointing. I did not feel that there was a lot to it, but as with a lot of quality art, it grows on you as you come to appreciate its complexities. (Pretentious? Moi?)

Hamm plays Don Draper, a highly-successful advertising executive employed at the fictional Sterling Cooper in New York's Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. Don seems to have it all. He has clean-cut Rock Hudson good looks, money, status and an all-American, cookie-cooking ex-model of a wife. Lucky old Don you might say. But Don has one scary skeleton in the cupboard. He is not really Don Draper but Dick Whitman who served in the army in Korea. When his officer (Don Draper) was killed, Dick stole his dog tags and therefore his identity, and instantly climbed the social ladder.

The new Don is eventually exposed by a rival employee, but Don’s boss doesn’t seem to care. Money makes the world go round and as long as you bring it in, who cares if you have been a bit creative with your CV? Throughout the series Don seems increasingly troubled as if the shallowness of the consumer-driven society becomes ever more apparent. His wife's mood seems to mirror his deepening melancholy as she becomes increasingly unfulfilled. The men in the series are generally depicted as boozy chauvinists who are unfaithful to their wives. The women are either secretaries (although one woman at the office pushes through the glass ceiling) or homely wives. Both sexes smoke incessantly. There are several instances of anti-semitism.

The series conveys the old message that money doesn’t buy happiness, but it seems to go deeper than that. I struggle to find exactly what the message is, but there are elements of a critique of the American preoccupation with materialism. Whatever it is, it is a lot better than a soap set in an advertising agency.

The Chance of a Lifetime

Last week, I was sitting in my flat trying to get motivated to mark some essays. As usual, the TV was on as I desperately sought a distraction. There was an old black-and-white movie being shown on Film Four. For the first ten minutes I took little notice of it as I psyched myself up for the grim task that lay ahead of me. Then I paid more attention when I realised a good old-fashioned British Leyland-style car park meeting was being played out. The scene was a plough factory in some rural idyll in 1950, and the managing director was telling his petulant workforce a few home truths. He told them that he worked 12 or 14 hours a day, seven days a week (the concept of work-life balance wasn’t yet in vogue) and that if any of the workers wanted his job, they could have it. This was only an act of bravado, but the workers took him up on his offer and rented the company off him. A workers’ co-operative had been born and my interest in The Chance of a Lifetime had been awakened.

Two of the workers now formed the new board of directors. But both suppliers and the bank were wary of this Brave New World and the firm was soon hit by a ‘credit-crunch’. It looked as if it was going under, but the workers had a whip-round to save the day, prompting the headline ‘Workers pledge assets to save the factory’ in the Daily Worker. Then the firm got a lucky break in the form of a huge order from the Zanatobian Trade Delegation, who all looked very dodgy to me with their black hats and Trotsky-like beards. The works-engineer, Adams played by a young Kenneth Moore talking in his trademark Douglas Bader staccato, announced that the firm would have to ‘retool’, concentrate just on the Zanatobia order and ditch its existing customers. This was too much for one of the worker directors who quit and returned to the shopfloor.

Adams now embarked on introducing Fordist mass-production techniques. As a result of such Taylorism, piece-rates were lowered and the workers found themselves losing 12 bob a week. This led to an unofficial strike although this was attributed to four agitators (one of whom was Irish, lol) as we all know that strikes are usually caused by red troublemakers! Full-time union officials were called in and they naturally advised moderation telling the workers ‘you are striking against yourselves’. Does it sound familiar? Everyone throws coins into the Irishman’s tea mug to make up his twelve bob, a stray coin lodges in a busty woman’s cleavage (that of Hattie Jacques of Carry On fame) causing much mirth, and everyone has a laugh and goes back to work.

But there is another crisis to contend with. The Zanatobian government cancels all import orders citing currency difficulties (I told you they looked dodgy!). It looks as if all is lost until the old managing director, Mr. Dickenson, comes to the rescue. He has given 30 years of damned hard work building up the business and his father 40 years before him. He is not going to let it all go down the plughole without a fight. He looks up some old international contacts, gets some new orders and the business, after Stakhanovite contributions all round, not only survives but looks all set to flourish. Mr. Dickenson returns to the Board as is joined by the Fordist engineer. The surviving worker director, knowing his place, returns to the shopfloor announcing that ‘he would rather work for a living’. Hard-headed capitalism had triumphed over naive idealism.

On the face it of it was just another quaint, endearingly silly and typically British old film. But I think that if you locate it in its time with the Atlee administration that some people must have regarded as positively Bolshevik and the growing fear of the ‘red menaces’ of the Soviet Union and China, there was a definite political message. Anyway, it was also good fun and I got my marking done eventually.

Thatcherism, Royalty, and Arse Relations

So Life on Mars is back but fast-forwarded to 1981, and renamed Ashes to Ashes. Thatcherism has started to assert itself and London’s docklands is about to be transformed into apartments for brash Essex boys who will make loads of dosh as the City’s financial markets are deregulated under the Big Bang. The suited wide-boys who throw up on the train back to Billericay now enjoy the financial rewards that were once the preserve of the public schoolboy. But one whelk-chewing, brown-ale swigging East End publican is not prepared to lose his boozer to the property developers without a fight, and being a former Desert Rat, wages a lone crusade with a few strategically-placed sticks of dynamite.

This causes some headaches for DI Hunt (Philip Glenister) and his band of Philistines as it is the time of the Royal Wedding between Charles and Diana, the significance of which goes far beyond something that was just going on at the time. Thatcher’s Conservatism was both radical and a throwback to Disraeli’s ‘one nation’ Toryism. Battalions of workers organised in the unions repeatedly went into action in the 1970s, and it had to stop. So Thatcher’s solution was simple - abolish the class distinction. Sell off the council houses at knockdown prices and transform working class tenants into homeowners. Privatise the nationalised industries and offer cut-price shares to the masses. We are all one class now and all thriving in our land of opportunity through hard work and enterprise. There was more than a hint of postmodernism here. The ‘industrial society’ symbolised class war and conflict, while its ‘post-industrial’ successor was the society of the shopper. And what better way to encapsulate this Brave New World than the Royal Wedding where one unified nation celebrates the new order in flag-waving street parties?

But DI Hunt is of the old order. He refers to a drug dealer as corrupting ‘good working class kids’. He has a new assistant in the delectable, time-travelling DI Drake (Keeley Hawes) who he accuses of talking ‘lardy posh bollocks’ and who he nicknames ‘Bollinger Knickers’. Gene Hunt would have been just at home as a full-time union official, doing deals in smoke-filled rooms over a large scotch, keeping the peace but ultimately identifying with the working classes he would claim to represent. And, as a responsible trade unionist, he would give short shrift to the ultra-left, just as the no-nonsense lawman slams his pool-ball into a local leftie’s meat and two veg.

And now I move to the subject of ‘arse stamping’. This is not creative licence on the part of the script writers. There are recorded incidents of female recruits to the Metropolitan Police having the station stamp embossed on their bottoms. DI Drake obligingly goes along with the initiation ritual (performed of course by DI Hunt in front of the lads). The cameraman teases us by taking the shot from the front so I cannot make an academic comparison between the bottoms of and Keeley and Kylie. Anyway, AVPS is a serious blog: we deal in class relations, not arse relations.

Vice, Crime, and Class Relations

Last night I watched City of Vice on Channel 4. It is good viewing. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it centres around two toffs, Henry Fielding who was the author of the famous costume romp Tom Jones and his blind brother, John. Both are so concerned about the explosion of crime and depravity in the Smoke that they have formed the famous Bow Street Runners to take on the army of pimps, robbers and other ne’er-do-wells. However, it seems that the desire to rid the streets of London of such vermin isn’t just about morality. Another toff, Lord Newcastle, visits our heroes and bollocks them for their low clear-up rate. He warns them if they don’t make their target to return more stolen goods to their rightful owners, he is going to withdraw their funding. It seems that performance management in the public services is nothing new, and that upholding ‘law and order’ wasn’t so much about protecting moral values but about ensuring that there wasn’t too much redistribution of wealth from the monied classes to the hungry lower orders.

At the turn of the 18th century, I believe that the number of public hangings at Tyburn was its peak, a lot of them for petty theft. Forget stories of dashing highwaymen throwing flowers to cheering crowds as they made their final journey from Newgate Prison in the cart. The condemned would have been terrified of the slow strangulation that awaited them, and the lucky ones would have been insensible through drink or laudanum. Is it that the English aristocracy was so terrified by the fate of their French cousins in the Revolution, that they felt the need to protect their property rights through savage punishment?

One famous author (not so famous that I can remember his name) once commented something on the lines that if a man knocks another man senseless in a pub fight, the court will treat him fairly leniently, but that if he dared to use force to relieve a toff of his wallet he would lashed with the Cat o’ Nine Tails! And I can remember that when boozed-up Hooray Henrys from university rugby clubs threw their beds out of hotel windows, it would have been explained as ‘youthful high spirits’. If working-class kids committed similar acts of vandalism, Colonel Knee Jerk would have written to the papers demanding the restoration of the birch!

So it appears to me that criminal justice has always been as much about preserving class relations rather than ‘society’ preserving values. Mind you, I know nothing about criminology. Perhaps people could enlighten me.

Some Musings for the New Year

It has been another hard year for the Left with John McDonnell failing to get nominated for the leadership race, the split in Respect, and no let up in New Labour’s neo-liberal attacks on public services.

Stoke Socialist Party, to whom I give too infrequent support, has had a reasonable year. It has recruited some enthusiastic activists and continued to fight vigorously on local issues such as supporting the Burslem posties in their ongoing struggle against bullying management. Incidentally, they are on strike at the moment, losing pay over Christmas in a fight to reinstate colleagues whose only crime was to effectively represent fellow union members in the workplace. Either me or Phil will post more details of this dispute soon, so that visitors to this blog can lend support.

Nationally, I can’t really evaluate what sort of the year the Socialist Party has had. How do you evaluate success? Membership numbers are an inaccurate barometer, because, as we all know on the left, while all fringe parties welcome members, it is the amount of activists prepared to give up their time on a regular basis that really counts. Paper sales are also used to measure success. I agree that paper sales are vital, not least financially. However, from my experience on manning stalls, people stop to sign a petition, give a donation and are presented with a paper. I am not knocking this, most people make an additional donation which swells the Fighting Fund. My point is that most people aren’t actively ‘buying’ a paper for it socialist content, or don’t go away, read the paper and become committed socialists! So, paper sales are a must, but they don’t generally build the party in and of themselves. You can attempt to measure success by votes cast in elections. The SP has had some electoral success, but they are few and far between. There is an argument that may you not win the seat but canvassing builds the party. Yes, I am sure people are recruited on the doorsteps, and I am not arguing that the party shouldn’t contest elections, but I feel you have to carefully consider the benefits against the drain on resources.

My view is that party members can contribute most as trade union activists. I am currently doing a PhD thesis on Militant’s successes in the Civil and Public Services Association (one of the forerunners of the PCS). A small, but well-organised cadre of Militant members punched well above their weight, as SP members now do in the PCS. My experiences with the SP have shown me that one thing it does very well (and I'm not without criticisms of the party) is organise. It will always be there! I feel we are sometimes criticised for organising too well. I am not naïve enough to believe all SP activists don't at times act in a sectarian way, and has never tried to dominate a movement, but you couldn’t criticise the party for not giving enthusiastic organises support to workers in struggle or potentially significant movements. For instance, there have been suggestions the SP is over-represented in the National Shop Stewards Network. I wasn’t at the founding conference, but my understanding is that without the SP it would have been a poorly-attended event.

This brings me to the way forward for 2008. I strongly believe that a national shop-stewards movement is the best way to mobilise the left against neo-liberalism. The Liaison Committee in Defence of Trade Unions was very effective in its opposition to the Industrial Relations Act back in the 1970s. There are some good ‘awkward squad’ leaders out there - Mark Serwotka, Matt Wrack, Bob Crow and Brian Caton. And there are still some fine trade union activists out there (whether they are SWP, SP, CPB, Labour, non-aligned or whatever). The Left Unity grouping in the PCS has shown that the left can combine successfully. Let us make 2008 the year the left accepts that we have our differences, but that we have a lot more in common, and that united we can fight back against the ravages of neo-liberalism.

Burslem Postal Workers on the March

Last Saturday morning, Brother P and Brother S joined a march in support of striking posties in Burslem in north Staffordshire, which had been organised by the CWU with support and encouragement from Stoke Socialist Party. About 100 marchers assembled outside the sorting office where Party members manned a stall. Around 10.00 am the procession marched off in the autumn sunshine up the hill, banners and placards waving, towards Hanley where a rally had been planned. Passing motorists sounded their horns in solidarity, and CWU pickets enthusiastically leafleted everybody in the vicinity. There was a great atmosphere. It was serious but good-natured, and you could sense that people felt good that they were taking a stand against vicious attacks on their terms and conditions of employment. At about 11.00 we arrived in the centre of Hanley where interested observers joined the crowd.

Jim Cessford, a Unison stalwart, gave the first address, calling for united action across the public sector. Brother Mick, a striking postie, thanked those present for their ‘magnificent support’ and spoke of the problems being faced by union reps at Burslem. The president of North Staffs Trade Council, Jason Hill of the NUT, spoke of the need to form an alliance of public sector trade unionists under the banner of North Staffs TUC. Comrade Judy of Coventry SP said that ‘workers are being hammered whatever their industry’ and that ‘it was a disgrace that the TUC has not called for national strike action’. Andy Day of the National Pensioners’ Convention (which had provided a contingent on the march) explained that attacks on pensions are a disaster for workers in general as companies abandon final salary schemes and take contributions holidays. John Ellis from the PCS spoke of job losses in the civil service and accused the government of ‘destroying a decent welfare society’, and called on CWU members to support the PCS in their expected forthcoming industrial action. A CWU official said he was ‘really proud’ that 96% of CWU members had answered the call for industrial action. Another speaker from the CWU described recent suspensions of union activists across the country as an attempt to ‘soften up the workers’.

Andy Bentley of Stoke Socialist Party reported that the had written to Post Office management informing them that local activists had collected 10,000 signatures protesting at the imminent transfer of Hanley Post Office to WH Smith and offering to deliver the petition. Unsurprisingly, he has received no reply! Andy described the Burslem postal workers as ‘a shining beacon’. Jim Cessford closed the rally saying that the postal workers had struck first, the civil servants were striking second, and that hopefully the local government workers would strike third! Jim predicted that the government could face a Winter of Discontent reminiscent of the 1970s.

Afterwards about half of the march sojourned to Fat Cat's for party-supplied butties and crisps, and listen to our regional secretary, Dave Griffiths, tease out some of the political lessons of the dispute. He demonstrated that only a socialist approach to what's happening at Royal Mail can explain the nature of the attacks on the workforce, and put forward the strategy for defeating them.

Socialist Party National Trade Union Meeting

Being a member of Stoke Socialist Party, last Saturday I attended the above event at Conway Hall in London that attracted a good turnout from comrades from a wide range of unions. Bill Mullins, the Socialist Party’s Industrial Organiser, opened the meeting with some comments on the current state of the UK economy. Bill painted a picture of rising profits but a slowdown in the growth of wages, especially in the public sector, in respect of which he posed the question - what price a united struggle?. Bill added that it looked that the PCS were isolated until the recent massive show of loyalty by the POA, although he also praised the fighting spirit of the RMT. There followed a series of contributions from the floor, and I cannot list them all here, so I shall briefly mention some that particularly caught my attention.

A comrade from the Visteon car plant in Swansea reported that ‘for every two steps that management are able to go forward, we make them take a step back’ which struck me as a realistic assessment of the defensive but never more necessary nature of trade unionism in this country at the moment. A comrade from the CWU in Stoke recounted some horror stories about the use of agency staff in the Royal Mail, including tales of undelivered mail being left in bags in the street! Another from Unison in Huddersfield reported on various local struggles, and that an attempt to close three workplace nurseries was defeated after activists organised 2 demonstrations, 3 lobbies and a petition of 6000 names. A comrade from the NUT complained of a leadership that ‘talks a good fight but does not deliver’ and another from the RMT complained that there was ‘very little political culture in the union’. An activist from Unite reported that he had ‘more chance of contacting the dead than his regional industrial organiser’. A contributor from Scotland stated that the National Shop Stewards Network was a ‘chance to bring workers in Scotland back to politics’. A comrade from the PCS said that it was important to take a clear position as to what organising means and to the party’s view on organising. An activist from Unison in Salford reported that the Manchester Unity Stewards group was reaching out to people in the PCS, NUT and CWU and were hoping to link into the regional Shop Stewards Network. A comrade from the PCS in Wales said that the biggest problem was ‘the bureaucracy in post’.

We then took a break for lunch and on our return Bill Mullins spoke a little about anti-union laws and (if my memory serves me correct) suggested that recent events in the POA dispute showed that the law is not as effective as is sometimes feared. Bill also warned that the provisions in the so-called Trade Union Freedom Bill are very limited. He also highlighted the recent successes of sacked strikers at Belfast Airport through Employment Tribunals.Jane James then spoke of the role of the Party in the unions after stressing the importance of both youth work and union work. She described workplace disputes as ‘natural territory’. She highlighted the Party’s achievement in getting 22 comrades elected onto union executives (including 11 in the PCS). The discussions then moved back to the floor. A comrade from Unite stated ‘if we do not organise, the trade union movement will die’. Another from USDAW warned that ‘bureaucrats will pull back from organising if they feel that new reps are threatening their position’.Keith Dickinson made the final contribution when he stressed the need for comrades not to lose sight of the importance of keeping engaged with your local Party branch.

All in all, I enjoyed this meeting. Possibly, for me, discussions on strategy came a bit late in the day, but I realise there is only so much you can fit into five hours. It is good to hear comrades talking about the struggles at their workplaces, and maybe this could provide a basis for more focused discussions on strategy later. If I have made any major errors or omissions, it is down to sloppy note-taking or the occasional need to go outside for a cigarette, and I apologise.