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Post by Mitch on Jul 29, 2006 19:12:37 GMT
Hi Michele,
That meeting we're bobbing to tomoz, 2.30pm in Stoneyholme (presume it's the Stoneyholme Community Centre on Daneshouse Road - but not sure, please confirm).
Might be some people interested - and if you have any more info on it? Meeting called by Building Bridges in Burnley Kitty Ussher answering questions amongst other speakers (that's from memory from phone call earlier.
Public mtg, sunday, 30th July - 2.30pm - Michele can you just confirm it's Stoneyholme Community Centre.
Catch you tomoz. Cheers Mitch
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Post by michele cryer on Jul 30, 2006 16:59:59 GMT
Hi Mitch,
Thanks for posting this. Sorry I didn't manage to get the exact details of the meeting/venue to you!!
Anyway, me, Mitch, Jim, Les, Avril and Marjorie, amongst others, attended this meeting today, which was packed!!
It was especially interesting to see the variety of views coming from young and old Asians and from the various politically motivated people around the room, non asian and asian.
Many pertinent questions were fired at Kitty Ussher, who tried her best to placate all. She has stated that her 'secretary' has copied off 20 pages of the questions and Kitty will be sending this as a letter to Tony Blair, telling him that these are the views of the people in Burnley that she met today and on other occasions, and these are the things that we want him and the Governments involved in the current Lebanese war to do about it.
A fuller article regarding today's meeting should appear in the first issue of the Burnley and Pendle Voice, to be in production soon...
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Post by Mitch on Jul 31, 2006 11:45:27 GMT
Hi Mitch, Thanks for posting this. Sorry I didn't manage to get the exact details of the meeting/venue to you!! Anyway, me, Mitch, Jim, Les, Avril and Marjorie, amongst others, attended this meeting today, which was packed!! It was especially interesting to see the variety of views coming from young and old Asians and from the various politically motivated people around the room, non asian and asian. Many pertinent questions were fired at Kitty Ussher, who tried her best to placate all. She has stated that her 'secretary' has copied off 20 pages of the questions and Kitty will be sending this as a letter to Tony Blair, telling him that these are the views of the people in Burnley that she met today and on other occasions, and these are the things that we want him and the Governments involved in the current Lebanese war to do about it. A fuller article regarding today's meeting should appear in the first issue of the Burnley and Pendle Voice, to be in production soon... Hey up, Sorry about my duff info - I wasn't sure of the venue - it was in fact Abu Bakr Mosque, 4 Brougham St, Burnley. Kitty Ussher was in my opinion utterly useless, ill-researched and looked like an ineffective New Labour puppet - numerous people in the audience vowed they would not vote labour again - urr she looked a little worried - her lack of knowledge on the issue, exposed particularly by younger members of the audience , as well as her lack of knowledge on the history of the situation culminating in current events in Lenanon was embarrassing - and she called the bloody meeting. I don't expect her to rock the boat, and I suspect her letter to Blair to be some limp plea - if it's stronger she'll be out of the new labour grooming rat race. Anyway, I expected that. What was more interesting to me was the obvious tensions within the Asian community - younger well informed and highly intelligent voices were coming through completely rejecting political parties and I think leaders within their own community who had bitten the New Labour carrot, clear in their utter condemnation of Bush & Blair. I agreed with many of their comments, but their arguments seemed to me to be entirely presented in religious terms, a class analysis of the situation wasn't there - and also there was a separation of this labour government's foreign policy from it's domestic policy - there was criticism of the former only - to me the two are sides of the same coin - both authoritarian and pernicious - serving big business. So I guess what I came away with are thoughts that what is happening increasingly is a polarisation within the working class - younger Asians are identifying with Islam (not class struggle) and on the other side the white British working class are identifying with the BNP. The trigger for this increasing polarisation are the policies of Liberal elites - both Asian and white - not just on foreign policy but domestic too. Frankly Kitty Ussher appauls me - she has no concept of her own complicity in this situation, and she had the gall to continue to reiterate her support for a labour government throughout that meeting. |
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Post by michele cryer on Jul 31, 2006 13:43:08 GMT
Hi Mitch, thanks for your insight into yesterday's meeting. I was discussing the meeting with my friend Graeme last night, and he agreed that we need to be sorting out the problems we have here at home as well as trying to help out with other countries' disputes...I too, see Foreign and Domestic Policy as 2 sides of one coin.
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Post by Mitch on Jul 31, 2006 13:53:47 GMT
libcom.org.uk/node/8600?page=2Aye, I agree with Graeme - this thread above on Libcom I'm reading with interest. The swerpies, in their meeting later this week in Nelson, if they jump on the religious bandwagon - Galloway style - as they are want to do - will not be helping - again/yawn 
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