The EDL Is Not Welcome In Manchester

Apparently the English Defence League Retarded Fascist Thugs are planning some kind of event in Manchester on 10th October. As a Mancunian I would like to speak for my city, we like diversity, we like a multifaceted solidarity, Manchester generally is left wing. So right wing nationalist fanatics using violent misfits (normally masking their personal shortcomings by supporting events where millionaires play a children’s game while they assault each other) to pursue a racist agenda really ought not to bother going all that way just to find out they are very unwelcome. Clairwill has an excellent suggestion inspired by news of the moron roadshow eyeing up Glasgow. The EDL represent a few hundred largely male Islamophobes and racists with a liking for dominance and violence, they concentrate on stories of Muslim extremists to license their own extremism, (together with a misreading of history that would fail the grade for even a Ladybird level). In other words they are what they profess to oppose, they welcome any narrative of other extremism because it gives cover to their own extremism which pre-existed and will always search for rationalisations. Every nation, every culture has chumps like this, it’s ensuring they do not utilise violence or intimidation to enforce their dysfunctional thoughts that is every citizen’s responsibility if we want to live in an open society that values the scintillating breadth of human experience and culture. Manchester has withstood fascist  attacks in the past, they failed to kill my family with their bombs and now what might be thought of as fifth columnists are troubling my fair city with their half-witted notions of ‘Englishness’. I don’t think so.

NB. While EDL fronts are at pains to claim non racism and that they are not fascist, whether it is misdirecting expediency or personal denial, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a fucking duck!

Get The Fuck Away From Manchester You New Labour Scum!

Manchester will be the first city where people can voluntarily sign up for an ID card, ministers are set to confirm. Anyone over 16 in the city who holds a UK passport will be able to apply for a card from the autumn at a cost of £60.

“ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists,” the home secretary will say.

Whoa there you racist numpty, you just slipped, nay sandwiched ‘illegal immigrants‘ between ‘criminals‘ & ‘terrorists‘. So it’s not enough to use bullshit fear mongering to sell your stupid authoritarian scheme you have to trawl for votes from BNP possibles. Protection ‘against… illegal immigrants‘? What, they might break down your door at night, kidnap you, imprison you for months then beat you up in the back of a van and fly you to a hostile regime, oh no wait that would be the Border Agency. Which um answers to er…you, so who protects us, citizen’s and migrants, from them? And thank you for that linguistic tribalism, that we might, as one, be protected against illegal immigrants as if we all naturally agree that people who are here without all the due paperwork are dangerous and to be shunned. Of course bigots often do that, assume everyone else is just as retarded as they are. Way to take the high ground against the fascists, jump in the shit with them and argue over who can be the most hateful.

And we’ll just leave the ‘voluntarily‘ bit, fish in a barrel really that level of witless fibbing especially after y’know, the million dead on war lies, just par for the course for these grifters.

And then there’s Manchester, my home city, Manchester and you think using it as a guinea pig for ID cards is a smart move? Tooling up the plod for Peterloo II are we? We ain’t going out like that. Let it be your stupid scheme’s graveyard. Take it away Percy–

‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number –
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.’

Update: Oh for the love of crumpets it gets farcically worse, in time they want Snappy Snaps taking our fingerprints! In other words with the scheme not even in operation it is already being privatised. Welcome to the neoliberal Big Brother-

High Street retailers have rejected security fears about giving them the job of fingerprinting and photographing people applying for identity cards. The Home Office has axed plans to set up ID card enrolment centres and instead wants pharmacies, post offices and photographic shops to do the work. Trade bodies representing chains such as Boots and Snappy Snaps told the BBC they can be trusted with the data. It came as it was confirmed that ID cards would be piloted in Manchester.

During the pilot Manchester residents who want an ID card will be able to apply for it online and then attend the city’s passport office for fingerprinting, photograph and possible interview. During the two year pilot phase they will not be able to register for cards at local shops and post offices.

Campaign group NO2ID dismissed the Manchester pilot as a “publicity stunt” aimed at distracting attention from what it claims is a £250m increase in the cost of the project.

Manchester Uni, Still Occupied!

Hats off to the demonstrators who are doing Manchester proud, occupied since Wednesday!

Check manunioccupation.wordpress.com

Snippets-

• Manchester students called an Emergency General Meeting of their Student Union to take place on February 4th. Students submitted a motion that called for the development of links between students in Manchester and Palestine; a condemnation of Israel’s recent attacks and the facilitation of fundraising to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis Israel has caused in Gaza. This democratic meeting was sabotaged and ultimately destroyed by pro-Israeli Zionist students who were desperate to shield Israel from criticism and couldn’t stomach the thought of their university helping to stop the suffering in Palestine. These students employed both bureaucratic and thuggish tactics to stop the meeting from taking place. There are countless reports from students who wanted to get in but were physically prevented and the chair of the meeting refused to hear students’ complaints at the blockade and dissolved the meeting. Around 300 pro-Palestinian students then held a demonstration that went to the main administrative corridor at the university. Deprived of the means of using the normal channels of speaking to management they decided to occupy the corridor (which holds the Vice Chancellor, Alan Gilbert’s office) until the university management dealt with their demands.
  
• The movement is growing and the universities are recovering their role as place of critical thinking and action. Today the largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff has come out in support of the people of Gaza and the occupying students throughout the country.
• The people of Manchester have been a key part of that support and instrumental in keeping us comfortable and well fed. Yesterday we received fresh fruit, bedding and kitchen equipment amongst a whole host of other supplies kindly donated by individuals and campaigns across Manchester.
• message of solidarity sent from the Student Council of An-Najah university in Palestine:- The Student Council of An-Najah National University extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation for the courageous and principled action you have taken in solidarity with our people in Gaza. This non-violent action to pressure the administration of your university to take a more proactive stance to condemn Israeli aggression on Gaza reminds us, as an oppressed people, that we are not alone in our fight for freedom and justice.
• Article in The Independent!
• Even Wes Streeting, NUS careerist, has woken up- “What we’ve seen over the Gaza issue is a resurgence of a particular type of protest: the occupation. It’s a long time since we’ve seen student occupations on such a scale. It’s about time we got the student movement going again and had an impact.”
• The Manchester Uni occupation applauds Wes for this sentiment. We would be very happy if he came over to address our occupation on the importance of building a fighting student movement for Palestine as well as using his position to push the NUS to put pressure on our Vice-Chancellor Alan Gilbert to concede to our demands, send a letter to our union’s Gen Sec Rob Pinfold congratulating us for our actions as well as Labour Students in Manchester who have been hostile to us. We would also be very happy if the NUS pledged to campaign to defend occupying students against any reprisals from management.

Manchester Uni Occupied!

Ah, Manchester Mon Amour, if you’re in the area and looking for something to fill your evening, go along, via Dave–

manunioccupation.wordpress.com

Cut Out

With an early autumn power cut and subsequent downing of the vast telecommunications complex that feeds my secure undisclosed undersea base I offer you some quick cuts-

Chris Floyd again keeps the coverage of Somalia visible, civilians deaths now approach 10,000 and the piracy problem has been reinvigorated by the US backed ‘regime change’.Otto sez- Instead of “Estados Unidos” (United States), the big country up North is being called “Estados Hundidos” (sunken States).

Also see his advisory for what it’s really like in Bolivia as peace breaks out, even as the US pulls out Peace corps ‘operatives’ it is not a dangerous hell hole of anti American horror, perhaps because they value tolerance more than Bushland.

Washington refuses to say who it is funneling millions to in Bolivia, rejecting FOIA’s like they were going out of fashion (which I think they largely have under Bush) (ht2 BoRev).

Bigwood has made several attempts to obtain detailed information about the nature of current U.S. spending in Bolivia, without success. He says he has filed five separate petitions under the Freedom of Information Act since 2005. However, one FOIA request he filed revealed that the quasi-governmental National Endowment for Democracy had funded programmes that brought 13 young “emerging leaders” from Bolivia to Washington between 2002 and 2004 to strengthen their right-wing political parties. “It’s not just the USAID but also other U.S. government entities that are putting money into opposition groups in Bolivia,” Bigwood told IPS, charging that a major part of the funding is apparently aimed at “bribing people” in that country.

Abiding in Bolivia notes how blog coverage has perhaps inspired some mainstream media to a bit less rubbish- Making a Dent.

If you are down Manchester way check out the Convention of the Left which is what actual leftists will be doing while corporate conservatives attend the Labour conference (perhaps though without money off vouchers for lap dancers like the Tories have). Also there is the Stop the War demo in town and an Anti fascist march in Stoke. And also something else is happening…niece number one is flying the nest, she is off to uni in Manchesterland, seems like only 18 years ago she was projectile vomiting milk all over me, whereas now she will get the chance to barf up kebabs and vodka all over Manchester’s rainy streets, truly God’s own country! It’s good stuff, none of her grandparents or parents went to university, she loves what she does, I hope she really has an enriching experience.

And finally, I would recommend subscribing to Pulp of the Day, each weekday a scan of the cover of a pulp novel in all its lurid exploitative glory, today is the brilliantly named Shanty Boat Girl, which is fabulous, it’s a song waiting to happen. The cover promises all kinds of saucy thrills, the guy bottom right clearly has more in mind than telling charming jokes, don’t fall for him Shanty Boat Girl, he’s only after one thing, your Boat!

Manchester!

Oh Manchester! I noticed a link to me and discovered the very fine new looking Manchester Stop the War site, so Hurray for them! They are testing it out with hopes to be super and fully groovy by Mayday I read. So while I am distant from Manchester’s rainy breast I keep a flame burning for the city of my birth, so good to see it is getting its own splendid new Stop the War site and they have the immense good taste to have linked to me (at least for a test!). Hey people involved! If you come by say hello and check Mr Dave out @ Complex System of Pipes although you may know him already as he is in Manchester and is an experienced anti-war hat wearer already.

Friday! The Bodines- Therese

The rather neglected but totally great Bodines accompany this pictorial of Hulme in Manchester, I assume that there are almost no people in these pics is a choice, it lends a rather benighted East German quality to poor old Hulme (pronounced to rhyme with tune- sort of Hyoom), which maybe contains some truths. It does evoke to me a taste of that area, which is a stark contrast to the scorchingly great Therese which was not so easy to dance to but sounded great in a club. Saw them live at the Hacienda, they were in a really bad mood, refusing to play Therese which was their biggest hit (which I didn’t mind as they had other great tunes) and didn’t play a very long gig. This was not untypical of the anarchic and sarcastic Manchester music scene which added to its unpredictable charm. They never got the break they deserved as they wrongly got lumped into a certain style of indie music that fell out of favour. Maybe if they had come out of a London suburb and not scenic Glossop -the North West’s Gateway to the Peak District!- they might have fared better, (bloody southerners)! Legend tells of their one album existing on CD but it is as rare as sightings of the white whale, but the vinyl abides and… Free MP 3’s here (thanks to a Mr Tom Bartlett).

Shut It Monobrow

Not only is Noel Gallagher one of the least original rock musicians…ever. He’s a big idiot, and if people are not buying Glastonbury tickets because of Jay Z they are big idiots too. It’s a big festival and the variety and mixing it up are one of the things that makes it worthwhile. I now need one of those waving shimmery visual wipes & a harp sting as I remember the Reading festival in…erm 1992. Nirvana’s last UK appearance (I almost feel bad about recommending Kurt take up skeet shooting- buy your own shotgun, you’ll love it, it’ll cheer you up! and -Hey you’re right, this heroin stuff is really moreish. In my defence I did point out his missus was a fucking fame vampire) the other big headliners were The Wonderstuff & Public Enemy and it was fucking great.

“tradition of guitar music” Gallagher? Oh fuck off, just because drum machines(although of all the bands who could get away with a basic 4/4 drum machine beat…ahem), samplers, decks, sequencers and innovation confuse and scare you, like giving a monkey an iPhone. When you worked with the Chemical Brothers did they stage dress the studio with vacuum tubes, Beatles posters and Marshall amps, hiding all the computers so you didn’t get spooked and be afeared they were wizards dabbling in the Devil’s work? Somehow I seem to recall some of the most legendary sets at Glastonbury being done by dance bands, y’know, with no guitars! You’re a dullard and the least impressive musician to emerge from Manchester ever! Neil Innes wrote one of your best songs! And while ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ is etched upon my cultural map it is in the context of ‘Our Friends in the North’ as Geordie walks over the Tyne bridge and away from his long lost friends. And let’s face facts, everything after the second album were faded photocopies, you only had about 20 good songs in you, and most of them had been written years before by The Beatles.