Goodbye Brigadista

Legendary anti-fascist Bob Doyle died this week at the age of 93. Born into poverty in Dublin, the young Doyle Doyle joined the street battles against Ireland’s Blueshirt fascists. In October 1937 joined the International Brigades and fought in the Spanish Civil War where he ended up as a POW until 1939. Throughout his life he would re-visit Spain to campaign against Franco’s dictatorship.

Living in Notting Hill during the race riots of 1958 he helped to organise protests and patrols to protect immigrant West Indians. He also drew regular Sunday crowds of up to 600 at Speakers’ Corner, where he would attract attention by setting fire to newspapers and saying “That’s what I think of the capitalist press”.

At the age of 72 he discovered marijuanaand grew his own “Neasden Dope” in his back garden until he grew tired of local youths breaking in to his greenhouse

His autobiography, Brigadista: An Irishman’s Fight Against Fascism was published in Dublin in 2006.

RIP Bob.

Forget ‘V’, we’re looking at ‘U’ or even ‘L’!

Our trustworthy media and politicians are predicting that this recession will last most of the coming year and then steadily return to business-as-usual by 2011; which would provide a neat little V-shaped graph.

Unfortunately the economist Nouriel Roubini of New York University, who predicted the current meltdown at an IMF gathering in 2006 (and who was labelled ‘Dr Doom’ for his troubles), says that this is unlikely. Roubini believes a U-shaped (18-24 month long) recession is much more likely and that there is even a slim chance of a multi-year L-shaped recession (similar to that of the Japanese economy in the late 90s). Either scenario would be devastating for the working class in the UK, not least because after 2011 we’ll be forced to pay back Gordon Brown’s supposedly recession-busting loans – and make no mistake it will be the poorer sections of society who’ll be paying the lions share of the debt whilst losing valuable services.

The only sure-fire way for the working class to escape the yolk of neo-liberal debt is to disconnect from an economic system that ensures our continued impoverishment. Worker’s cooperatives anyone?

In the meantime here’s a ‘V’ for the ruling classes…

Raise A Glass to the Waterford Workers!!!

Hundreds of workers have stormed Ireland’s Waterford Crystal factoryat Kilbarry after learning they were about to lose their jobs.

The firm’s receivers brought in a private security firm to try and stop the workers from entering the factory, this led to some scuffles, but the workers soon took control. Unite’s regional secretary, Jimmy Kelly has announced…

“There’s a lot of anger. People feel they’ve been betrayed. We were in a process and we were given a commitment that we would be kept briefed on any development, but the receiver went ahead today and decided on the closure. What we are trying to do now is get the decision to close the place reversed, or postponed for a few days to allow us to engage in that process. This is not the way to treat people in the middle of something.”

The workers are trying to buy time to find a prospective buyer for the company, but there is another option – the workers who took over their factories in Argentina during the countries 1999-2002 economic collapse found that they were more productive, happier and more profitable without their old bosses; we think that there may be a lesson to be learnt here

Almost 1 Million ‘Unproductive’ Youths

From 2003 to 2007 the number of kids that were unemployed, but not in education or training (the kids that the middle class media have seen fit to label ‘NEETS’ (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) has risen from 94,000 to 850,000 and is likely to rise even further during the recession.

According to the Department of Innovation two fifths of kids are positive about committing to education or training, two thirds face significant personal or structural barriers which stop them from finding work or training and one third are dissatisfied with what’s on offer to them. That’s three thirds of kids that either cannot or will not participate in the exploitation of youth!

What’s really on offer are training schemes controlled by grant-monsters who care more about collecting money from the government than they do about helping working class kids, McFiddles – like McDonalds taking on ‘apprentices’ so they can pay young McSlaves £80 for a week’s work and ‘education’ that is geared towards services sector and white-collar jobs – jobs that remain largely out of the reach of the working class.

If the politicians are so worried about our kids hanging around on street corners then they’ll be glad to know that we’ve found a solution – bus them to the nearest refinery to support the strikers; that way they’ll get some ‘on-the-job training’ that will really prepare them for the future!

‘Anti-Classist’ Website Launched Today

A website dedicated to combating the blatant classism that is so rife in the UK has been launched today. Action Against Classism are a new group who were formed to raise awareness about the damaging effects of classism. Why do we need such a venture? Well in their own words…

Economic inequality in the UK is at the highest it has been since records began in 1961. A child’s social class background at birth is still the best indicator of how well he or she will do in school and later on in life. The lower your socio-economic position the greater your risk of low birth-weight, infections, cancer, coronary heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, accidents, nervous and mental illnesses – in other words, class can kill!

Blatant classism should be viewed with the same distaste that most people feel when confronted with racism, sexism or homophobia. Unfortunately this is not the case. In the UK we are confronted with negative class stereotypes on a daily basis; our media pokes fun at the poor in the name of ‘entertainment’, our teachers make judgments based on class, charities, businessmen and politicians often act as if the poor are responsible for their own impoverishment.

There’s also the fact that, despite causing misery for millions of people, ‘classism’ doesn’t even register on our spell-checker! If you can help Action Against Classism in any way (with web-design, writing, printing posters & leaflets, donations of money & equipment, etc.) then get in touch via info@classism.org.uk

Kids Close Labour’s Flagship Academy School

The Richard Rose Central Academy in Carlisle was supposed to be Labour’s shining example of how the academy system is good for education. Instead it has just helped to demonstrate that outside management will fuck up education in exactly the same way it has bled the health service dry.

Indeed the chief executive running the academy foundation, Peter Noble, was formerly a manager in the NHS and he has already been criticised for his lack of education experience. With this in mind the pupils decided to campaign against him in a non-uniform protest.

Scores of children marched to the academy led by a boy with a banner saying, “We’re taking action”. As they marched, several hundred more milled around inside the school grounds. Police, as usual, aggravated the situation by trying to stop other pupils reaching their destination and the protest was forced to spill across the road.

Pupils then began scaling the school’s fences and trouble broke out inside the premises in response to the police’s actions. As the protest continued, around 20 parents and 30 sixth-formers stood silently outside in support of the protest, but the school was forced to close.

Figures released by Cumbria County Council showed 149 pupils had been excluded from the 1,900-pupil school since it opened in September; which is largely the norm for academy schools. The school is facing an investigation after parents complained about standards.

We must fight to keep the interests of businessmen and middle class management out of an education system that has already been shown to be drastically failing working class kids.

BBC Still Emphasise ‘Race’ Over ‘Class’!!!

We have already mentioned the excellent Runnymede Trust report on the class divide (Who Cares about the White Working Class?); if you haven’t read the full report download it and read it now!

To summarise it clearly shows how the mechanisms of class oppression, combined with the UK’s overt classism, are keeping people from low income households (from every ethnic group) in a state of near economic apartheid. The trust uses the term ‘white working class’ in the title, but only because the report goes on to counter the media created ‘white working class’ myth that poverty is culturally determined and that poor white kids are losing out because other ethnic groups receive more help from education and government inspired initiatives. At every step this report fights the notions that the poor are responsible for their own impoverishment and that poor whites are losing out to poor blacks. They clearly state…

It is unequal class competition which explains the situation of the white working class, and it is simply misleading to characterise it instead as a question of ethnic identity and entitlement.

If we really want to understand disadvantage, we need to shift our attention from who fights over the scraps from the table, to think instead about how much the table holds, and who really gets to enjoy the feast.

And our favourite line…

The fact remains that it is often harder for privileged children to fail than it is for disadvantaged children to succeed.

The BBC are shot down time and time again in this report for being part of a blatantly classist media that consistently misrepresents class as an ethnic or cultural issue. The BBC are also one of the worst purveyors of class stereotypes on television; what’s worse is that the working class are obliged to pay these bastards for the privilege!

So how did the BBC report the findings of the Runnymede Trust? With the headline “WHITE working class losing out”

Not “Working Class Losing Out”, which is essence of the report; or even more acurately “Working Class Losing Out to Overprivileged Middle Class”. Being journalists we doubt that they even bothered to read the report. Unfortunately we all know that the BBC will continue to misrepresent the issue of class, because the BBC is itself controlled by the beneficiaries of a classist society.

Pupils from Glenalmond College in Perthshire have been secretly filmed hunting, shooting and fishing for ‘chavs’ during their summer holidays. The boys are all aged between 12 and 16, some dressed in full hunting gear and others in shooting tweeds. This is what privilege buys you; arrogance, inhumanity and contempt for your fellow human beings.

25 things you will hear if you try to talk about class…

The following was lifted from Payday, an American site (sorry about the colour scheme – we couldn’t figure out how to change it), but British Class Activists will find it all too familiar…

The working class is disappearing  Class does not exist in America  Define working class  We're all really working class because we all work  My grandparents were working class  Can anybody cite statistics to show that a working class exists in late capitalist America?  You wear your working class background like a badge of honor  Unions are obsolete  I read in the paper about a janitor who makes $50,000 a year - can you believe that?  White working class people are racist, homophobic and sexist  But you don't look poor  Why are you so angry? The men who work for my dad's construction company are all cheerful, happy guys  You're just being divisive  I saw a woman in the grocery store buying lobster with food stamps I know you understand this, but you're different - most working class people won't get it  Working class people don't read  You have a chip on your shoulder  Lighten up - white trash is hip You're too smart to be working class  Once you get a college degree you're no longer working class  Nobody who lives in the suburbs is working class  You're not working class because you make too much money  You're not working class because you're not a manual laborer  You're not working class because you're on the Internet and working class people can't afford Internet access because they don't have enough money ...Why are you so angry?

ACTION AGAINST CLASSISM

As reported on Snookcocker the Runnymede Trust have released the findings of a new study on classism in the UK. The paper, entitled ‘Who Cares About The White Working Class?’, the report states…

The white working classes are discriminated against on a range of different fronts, including their accent, their style, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the social spaces they frequent, the postcode of their homes, possibly even their names. But they are not discriminated against because they are white.

The real force behind this blatant prejudice is – and has always been – the UK’s open tolerance of rampant and institutionalised CLASSISM (in fact classism is so neglected that even your spellchecker will not recognise the word).

The Barnsdale Brigade hail from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, which is officially one of the poorest areas in Europe. 80% of the children who attend our local school are from deprived backgrounds and a third of families are ‘breadline poor’ – a level of poverty that excludes people from participating in the ‘norms of society’. Local children are bright, happy and fitter than the UK average, but they still struggle in adulthood; one of the main reasons for children ‘failing’ in this area is the lack of aspirations instilled by parents and the wider community. This is not the fault of the parents; it is the legacy of classism.

At work, in school and especially in the media we’re bombarded with negative class stereotypes that most people would find truly shocking if the focus of attention were on race, sexuality or gender. Middle class kids indulge in ‘Chav Parties’, people who live in poverty are treated with unconcealed disdain and the BBC frequently reinforce class based stereotypes in their comedy, drama, arts and even documentary scheduling. It is this constant barrage of classism is ultimately responsible for the low levels of aspiration and self-belief that cripple social mobility in poorer areas – that and the fact that the middle class constantly rail-road attempts to address the issue by leeching off the schemes that were created to help poorer families.

Hilarious middle class hijinks or blatant fucking classism?

Inspired by the work of U.S. based ‘Class Action‘, we are going to focus our attention on raising awareness and promoting positive action against classism. We want to mirror the work of Class Action in the UK, this would help raise class awareness, raise levels of aspiration in poor communities and fight against the institutionalised classism of schools, employers and the media. To these ends we would like to develop workshops, collate any relevant data and develop a UK website. We would also offer free/low-cost practical community education designed to help counter some of the problems that inequality and classism helps to create. We’re not planning to head down the charity route, but if anyone out there can help provide a postal address and/or office equipment (or money towards a PO Box and equipment) then we would, of course, be very grateful. Likewise anyone who wants to help get this idea off the ground please email us at verymerrymen@gmail.com

As America Welcomes its New President We Still Can’t get Rid Of Our Dodgy Mayor!!!

Despite losing a Council vote for his immediate resignation Doncaster’s Elected (ha! we didn’t vote for this bastard!) Mayor, Martin Winter has still refused to step down – much to the relief of dodgy developers who know that they can get anything through planning by paying him a visit.

Mayor Winter said at the meeting “To resign now would be irresponsible. Now is the time for strong leadership.”

Actually now is the time for balaclavas, a couple of baseball bats and a good old fashioned lynching (we’re kidding of course, but maybe a small mob storming the Winter Palace (aka Doncaster Mansion House) would be nice.

Things will not change in Doncaster until the senior management of every council department are held publicly accountable for their years of mismanagement, gross misconduct and institutionalised corruption.