Voting and the Election

[Mitch]

education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,10577,1429017,00.html

This report on New Labour wasting £50 million pounds on a failed e university scheme is utter madness. Urr forgive me if I look at this, and have some considerable scepticism towards New Labour schemes locally such as 'Better Burnley'.

I've set up this thread as I've got some questions about voting, with national election pending, and would very much appreciate other's opinions on this.

I struggle with this issue, especially on a local level as in my ward in Nelson I did vote in the last local elections to keep out an idiot BNP runner, and when I say struggle I mean I really thought about it and considered spoiling my ballot paper. But had to act to keep the BNP out. I know they are planning to run again in the Pendle area later this year.

And what of New Labour running amuck in Burnley - what can anarchists do to highlight the sham of their schemes like 'Better Burnley', the history of incompetence by Labour councillors, and the numerous bodies such as Burnley Business Network keeping lots of people in nice jobs shuffling paper, and running 'new labour' dictated workshops and so forth. These are cliquey networks in the area, and if Kitty Ussher gets in, they will grow in power.

What can be done?

[michele cryer]

I wish I knew Mitch...that's why I'm looking towards anarchism for a new direction...perhaps some of the more established anarchists amongst us can give us some clues?

[Steve]

Voting - just say no! (A more considered reply to follow but I’ve got to cook tea)
Btw – regarding the Better Burnley. I administer the small grants in Preston but it does seem very different. It’s independent of the council for a start. I’ll post more on this too when I have time.

[michele cryer]

Thanks Steve....

SEXIST REMARK ALERT!! SEXIST REMARK ALERT!!


Awww....wot a nice man, cooking the tea!!! ;D

[paul slater weller]

well with the electiion coming up its a easy thing to decide who to vote for vote labour why well first let me explain at my place of work i get to deal with kids in there late teens and early twentys none of em have had a good education some cant read or write these are kids brought up under 17 years of a tory government were profit and privertisation were the key words now i know labour are not a bed of roses but £250 a year for pensioners to help then through winter £5.10 now the minimum wage when thatcher came to power and michael howard was in the cabinet she took off free milk for school kids got rid of the wages council yes employees could pay what they wanted and introduced the poll tax and one more thing to get off my chest all you so called anarchists who say f~~~ the system sorry boys i was around in 78 to see the pistols at the lyceaum on wardour street in london if you want to ~~~~ the system why do you sign on the dotted line every fortnight to collect your giros have fun paulxxx

[Francis Duckett]

I knew a Paul Weller in the early 60s an Anarcho-Syndicalist.Wrote a good book about anti-war movement in 1914. Spoke at a meeting with another chap, a doctor called Martin, can't remember his last name,,here in Burnley any relation? Solidarity was the Group!

You speak of 17yrs of Tory Government! True but we've had over a hundred years of the Labour Party or Independent Labour .In this town we've had a Labour Council since 1935. The MP has been a Labour Man since 1940! What has been achieved in terms of Socialism. ? Or even definite change ?True the tories have been in power most of the time but at a guess out of the last 50yrs the Labour have had about 20 of them? Yet they have mirrored the conservatives everytime. There was a recognisable difference in 1945 but even that was for the benifit of a capitalist society rather than the working class. As for Thatcher and the children's milk. Labour were the first to take milk from the Children. Thatcher only built on their foundations. AS For the profit and privatisation?
What is this Government doing? What about the money poured in to PFI? Into private Rail Co's? Health? What about the shopping list of Co's awaiting sell off to private finance. Do you read the same papers as we do or watch the same news?
I took a part in the Poll Tax as did most
anarchist activists, but have we really got anything better? As a pensioner I have been asked for £8oo odd pounds for my corporation tax.The Winter Gas money doesn't go far on that front. Further to that, have you any idea why we were given that sum? Because the number of deaths amongst the elderly and infirm in this country was so great that it was becoming an international scandal. We are in the top league of producers and our elderly were dying in enormous quantities. Who printed it? Who highlighted it? Primarily the clergy, who were over come at the enormous numbers. It was the ripples from the middle class that frightened the Labour Government, not compassion for the elderly.

Before the war the Bolsheviks used to refer to the Labour as "Social Fascists". The Bolshies refused to work with them at one time and suffered heavy criticism. What now with these people? Since they got in about 8yrs ago we have been at war with various small countries. We follow the Yanks in an abject and most craven fashion. Afghanistan, Iraq and the others.In the 1950's the fear was that Britain would become the new state or a new star in the yank flag. At no time did it go as far with the tories! In the 40s it used to be said that Fascism was the defender of Capital and was called in when Capital was in danger.
What have we got now with people kept in gaol without trial and without being told the crime they were accused of? What about this craze to make the working class carry identity cards and making them pay £84.00 for the privilige. It reminds me of the British Government making the Indian sub continent pay for its own exploiters while Britain took out an estimated £1000 for every British pound invested there.

In this town ,after 70yrs of labour Local Government we had a collapse of political will that caused a growth in the BNP. Local rioting between races caused a panic in the hearts and minds of the Governing classes but their inadequacies were the cause of the troubles. They neither cared nor warned their voters about what was happening.All that panicked them was not squalor or ignorance nor desperate deprivation but the fear that they were going to lose power. All the complaints were met by a stonewall of vote for us or you will put the fascists in! Voting is a waste of our time! It's like the convict on death row being asked what colour of rope he wants when he finally swings.
We should eschew voting and start to build other ways to run our society where people run the mechanics of their own lives through local, regional and national councils run by the electorate and by the people involved. We should concentrate on building these and running our own lives. True enough it will not be easy, but, we should seek a society where people give what they can and take what they need. People will make mistakes, people (Governments,) make mistakes now and we suffer. The difference will be that we will bear the problems of our own making .

[michele cryer]

Paul and Francis...Thank you for taking up this thread in such a lively manner!!

Great arguments put up by both of you...Of course Paul, you know that I agree with Francis on the issue...

As for the comments regarding taking the dole money every fortnight...I would say that not all who call themselves anarchists are unemployed, however those who are...I've heard it say, prefer to take back the money from the DSS which they, when employed in the past, have contributed to...taking back that which belongs to the people, not the government...beware of stereotyping and generalisations!!!

Great to see you posting on this thread at last Paul, I knew you could get it all out of your system eventually...hope you will continue to post!! ;D

[paul slater weller]

so ask yourselves do you want a tory goverment if you cant answer the question im sure 17.000 ex yorkshire miners can answer it for you

[Mitch]

Hee hee, you're a diehard, Paul.

I can't tell the difference though between these Labour councillors in Burnley and Nelson, most of whom seem to live outside the area and are concerned with preserving their own little castles of power, and the tories. Gordon Prentice, the Labour councillor for Pendle makes me sick - that idiot doesn't give a d**n about those struggling here in Nelson. If he did he'd be speaking out every chance he got against New Labour policy which has seen things get worse round here, not better. People are slipping under all the time.

In Burnley, our Kitty, bless her cotton is spearheading an influx of New Labour funding and they've made some lovely 'Better Burnley' posters, running lots of workshops and everyone's grappling for their bit of funding, but all this seems like a top-down approach to me. Like New Labour, and tory governments before, they have created the problems up in this region, not caring about dying industries, and young people without hope and then coming in now to 'save the day' with funding. It must be the same in mining communities - it's a bitter pill.

I agree with Fred (urr I mean Francis) - we need to be doing things for ourselves, and this is a long hard road, but it's the only way.

[Francis DuckettFred]

" DO YOU WANT A TORY GOVERNMENT?

No Paul I don't! But if I vote Labour and they get in, I shall have voted for a conservative government as vicious as any government of the last forty years!
The question I have to ask myself is, does the £250.00 donation for winter fuel make adequate compensation for the deaths of some 100,000 Iraqi civilians? That is what we voted for last time. Am I supposed to receive a payment for the loss of civil liberties? What's the going price for this? What liberties we have are in a parlous enough state as it is. The police, backed up by the Government and various establishment bodies ignore them quite effectively as often as they can.

We have responsibilities to others and this doesn't include selling our families out by voting Labour.
Neither does it mean we should abjectly accept everything that is thrown at us by Capital in any form.
We have a recognised sysytem of opposition by civil and mass disobedience, by Councils of Action, by general and local strikes. By a whole host of well tried schemes and we are not to be left defenceless. But it has to start by not putting your head in the social democrat noose. It is by building our own organisations and using our own tactics we will succeed

[octoberlost]

Voting doesnt change much, so I think we shouldnt bolster illusions by asking people to vote for such and such, as though its really going to make a difference. If you want something to change you have to organse around the issue.

[Mitch]

Interesting. Who decides the issues around which to organise?

[Francis]

"Who decides the issues around which we organise?"

Surely the issues are thrown up by the circumstances around our lives both industrial and social?

We ourselves in consultation with our comrades and friends decide the priorities

[Mitch]

Guest-Francis said:

"Who decides the issues around which we organise?"

Surely the issues are thrown up by the circumstances around our lives both industrial and social?

We ourselves in consultation with our comrades and friends decide the priorities

I agree Francis, but I guess I've a few things to add.

I was rather as usual being 'provocateur' with my good friend Dr Lost who is speaking to me about ID cards as a key issue. Whilst I agree with him that it is a most important issue, it is not what my community is telling me is stirring their blood at the moment - rather key concerns that have come up recently with chatting to people in Nelson are -

Fear over how to pay enormous council tax bills

Telecommunications Masts, which despite large community campaigns with large petitions, are ignored by local councillors.

Worry over children being pulled into drugs.

The pile up of rubbish on the streets, tipping and dump sites, and the confusion over a system of rubbish collection which keeps changing.

Housing, and a policy of knocking down and pulling apart communities.

Watching friends go under, with the strain of having to survive, and lack of practical support when something goes wrong.

Low pay, casual contracts, insecurity and fear of job loss.

Mental health issues, and detioration in families finding it difficult to cope.

Racism - people turning on each other in communities, instead of fighting together.

The point I'm trying to make here is that some people shout louder than others on what 'The' particular issues may be that are thrown up.

More effort I think should be made by anarchists to dig deep in communities and find the voices which have no forum or space in which to air their views.

It seems NAN has been pretty good at this, one of the things I'd warm too about the network. Meanwhile, I'll go back to my digging!

What I'm trying to tease out here, being in agreement with anarchist friends that voting is a waste of bloody time, is that if you're not organising around issues which concern communities, helping to build alternatives within communities, then perhaps they might be a little dismissive of anarchist ideas?

I do not agree with a large amount of focus on ID cards, I think the approach should be grassroots, small group building and supporting in communities around the issues that they raise. After all, they're living it aren't they.

Just a few thoughts. I've still a lot more to learn from my community

[michele cryer]

Well said Mitch...I agree with you all the way on these issues...

[Fred]

The question of I.D. cards is important . It is not just a question of carrying a card to identify you to some bank or state institution, i.e. hospital, benifits centres or our friends the polis, [this would be bad enough]. I see the i.d. cards as part of a system to enable the state to control us in our fight to widen our freedoms or even preserve them. These simple little cards at a cost to ourselves of some £82.00 will enable the police and the state bureacrats to control our movements and to pass information about ourselves that we cannot see and might not even agree with. It would give them even more rope to play with in an already unequal struggle to dominate an active working class. The Government and the establishment are attempting to widen the boundaries at every opportunity. Recently I contacted the Council to have my tax demand amended. Simple job. But I was told that I would have to give them information regarding a third person before this amendment could take place. In otherwords I would have to inform on a friend. There is no let up in the struggle and we should see that from our side of the fence there can be no rest. You mention in your letter all kinds of things that your concerned about. Racism, health and so on. The Government make themselves responsible for many things such as these items and resent our interference, when our activities are successful enough to irritate them ,at least, they act without hesitation. Cards are just part of this action. A means of control and direction. We should clear the area around us so that the playing field, or battle field, is at least free for us to work on.


"By the way have you tried "Headless," on Senacot?
He's wild."

[Fred]

Further to the above.

When we struggle it isn't "either or", somehow all these things have to be done. It is a question of spacing our time and effort out.In my experience most of the trots stand to one side and direct things. Other people doing the work whilst the leadership stand to one side! This was their stance on both the anti-racist front and the poll tax crisis. During the miner's strike they worked but were barren of ideas and followed central diktats,(I presume). There's no easy way out but we have to realise that the State in its many guises is the ultimate enemy. After a while you find there are no rooms for hire locally, things you book,ie items of equipment are cancelled or unobtainable. Post is late and telephones go off. All part of the state service for Capital. If it has to be done then we can offer help and son but we are only part of the whole. We're not leaders in the political sense we're activists.

[Mitch]

www.liverpool-defy-id.org.uk

Check this out - some great ideas here from Liverpool anarchists.

"The Identity Cards Bill is NOT about an innocuous piece of plastic – it is about a costly, intrusive database that will contain & track information about every single British citizen. The technology is not properly tested, the costs have not been properly outlined, it will be another Private Finance Initiative where the private sector robs precious public resources, and the legislation hands over enormous power to this & future governments to extend the information that is collected and who can access it.

It’s New Labour’s ‘magic bullet’ solution for the terrorist/asylum seeker bogeymen they’re trying to scare us with."

www.defy-id.org.uk
www.no2id.net/index.php

This campaigns building pretty well, with lots of local groups.

Should be another thread this - I'll move it.

[octoberlost]

Preston peeps have plans around this, so will be able to get back with some events or responses.

Good post by Fred, greater centralisation of the state as nearly always been followed by greater control of the people, look at Russia or Germany, we struggle to trust government now, what about in 5, 10 years time, not to mention the cost and the errosion of Civil Libs.

[Francis Duckett]

ELECTION LITERATURE. BNP Publication.5.4.05.

"BNP Local People Working for Local People."

The fascists present themselves as something new. BUT, this leaflet shows (amongst other things) that they are, indeed, just the same as the other political parties. "LOCAL PEOPLE WORKING FOR OTHER PEOPLE."
This world is full of good natured people wanting to work for the betterment of mankind. For instance Bush and Blair invaded Iraq not for Oil as the American general alleged,but for the betterment of the iraqi people. Only the unkind would suggest that it was for the American Oil companies.That they have killed or caused the death of 100.000 Iraqi civilians doesn't really count, they, Bush and Blair, were people working for others. The Burnley Labour Councillors who have presided over the destruction of Burnley and the reduction of what was a plain town in to a tip, who watched Burnley rot over some fifty years and said,'nowt' were definitely "Local People Working for Local People".All the fascists want is to join them on the gravy train. When we hear that councillors can get £12.000 per year for wrecking the town and at least one of them gets £20.000 for the privilige of being their Leader, why should not they have their share? That the fascists batten on the woes of the poor and the sick, that they differentiate between people of different colour and race is nothing, all the other political parties do the same. The trouble is that the local monsters give way to regional and national horrors.

The fascists have an idea, they call it repatriation. A member of the party described it as everyone with mixed blood should be returned to the country of his parents origin. Children born in the comparative luxury of the NHS and Welfare System are to be returned to the poverty of a third world country. That's fascism in its better mood, of course they are too late, the mainstream political parties are already practicing this course. Men, women and children who are refugees and whose lives are in danger in their country of origin, are being returned to face the despots abroad. One woman, with 6 children born in England, was threatened with deportation when she went to enquire about a passport. The BNP have left it too late .

What we want is a different system where we can govern ourselves collectively, through neighbourhood councils , ward councils and street committees. Where our views can get an airing and where they can be heard. It will mean that we have to get off our backsides and PARTICIPATE, take an interest. Along side and in parallel to these comittees we will have workers councils in industry and trades, schools councils where teachers, children and parents will work together. Transport councils to run integrated road and rail and air journeys .We have to take command of our own neighbourhoods and we have to run them ourselves, an integrated whole. This world is divided in to haves and have nots, into order givers and order takers. We are at the mercy of the greedy, the power hungry industrialists and the want wit politicians. The Earth is being used up for the profit of the few, there is no real attempt to renew the ecology, profit and power are the catchwords of industy and politics.

The BNP are the enemy true enough, but so are all the political parties.Why? Because they want to perpetuate the past.They want to keep us in subjection as helots, to work and serve. To do this they are willing to sacrifice the well being of future generations and condemn them to a wasted and cruel future. The fascists offer no alternative except to extend the nightmare, to vent their spite on people worse off than themselves they want their share of the power and glory. No matter what the costis to others

[michele cryer]

Well said Francis...it would be good if you could be allowed some time at the NAN convention on Saturday to air some of this in public.

[Mitch]

Sharp, and well said with clarity Monsieur Duckett.

The clarity is in the clear message that the BNP are fascist swines, and the sharpness is in the highlighting of those who feed off the BNP to perpetuate their own power. In Burnley particularly over the years it has been Labour councillors - but there have been others too, the do-gooders who shout 'racist' at the tops of their voices, yet provide and facilitate a platform for the BNP to wield their filth.

Let me give you an example, for I am through mincing my words and it is this platform that needs a hard hitting attack.

Last week I rang Peter Pike to ask his help (stupid idea!) to do a Justice for Christopher Alder stand inside Burnley Mechanics in conjunction with the superb Asian Dub Foundation who were doing a concert there Saturday night.

The only reason I rang him is because he has, albeit ploddingly and with much nagging from Janet, taken an interest in her campaign and in the past raised an Early Day Motion around her case - so naturally I thought he would not hesitate in assisting.

I got through to him in his office, much to my surprise, as I've held as suspicion in his wind-down from office that a stuffed dummy of him was sitting in Burnley Borough Council and that he was sunning his 10 chins, and two faces in the south of France?!

The man talks like he has 10 marbles in his mouth, and speaks to you like you're a piece of annoying and inconvenient s h i t - local democracy in action! His response to my request for help was that he did not think the stand was a good idea and that he did not want to stir up trouble with the BNP. He told me to ring Stuart Caddy, but I didn't bother as I fully expected the same response. There is no working through or with these people, only around!

The Asian Dub Foundation concert was superb at Burnley Mechanics last Saturday night, a pumping vibe of celebration of people united against racism, fascism and the crushing misery of capitalism- but let me tell you this, the Mechanics was only half full for this celebration of unity. I could tell Asian Dub were disappointed, but I wasn't surprised.

The publicity for this event had been next to nothing, hushed up, smothered and buried. I link this fear of confronting the BNP and cowardly lack of publicity around one of the best events to hit Burnley in recent years right back to those Labour councillors and do-gooders - as I did when they pulled the Jeremy Hardy event and when they said no to a university in Burnley.

We've got to be sharp, and attack equally the fascist BNP, but also the platform which facilitates their ability to act, those that feed off the BNP to perpetuate their own power aka the main political parties. It is both of these that keeps us divided and down in Burnley and Pendle.

In love, peace and thanks to Asian Dub for coming to Burnley. "There is no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal Governments ..

Today, the colour line/is the power line/is the poverty line".

******

Colour Line Featuring Ambalavaner Sivanandan by
Asian Dub Foundation on the album 'Community Music' (2000)

"Today the colour line/is the power line/is the poverty line

Racism and imperialism work in tandem
And poverty is their handmaiden
Those who are poor and powerless to break out of their poverty
Are also those who by and large are non-white, non-western
Third World.
Poverty and powerlessness are intertwined in colour in race
Discrimination and exploitation feed into each other today under
Global Capitalism..

We are back to primitive accumulation - plunder on a world scale
Only this time the pillage is accompanied by aid, sustained by expert
Advice and underpinned by programmes and policies that perpetuate dependency

The IMF, the World Bank, structural adjustment programmes,
General agreement on tariffs and trade - GATT
Are just a few of the organisations, schemes, projects
Which under the guise of developing the Third World, plunder it.

Trade agreements and commodity price-fixing, patents and intellectual property rights,
They lock them into paralytic dependency.

There is no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal Governments ..

Black is not just the colour of our skins
It's the colour of our politics ..

There is no such thing as illegal immigrants, only illegal Governments ..

Today, the colour line/is the power line/is the poverty line."

www.asiandubfoundation.com

[michele cryer]

Thanks Mitch...your contribution is equally stirring..

[Francis Duckett]

VOTERS IN BURNLEY AND PADIHAM HAVE A CLEAR CHOICE AT THE NEXT ELECTION.

TEXT

Nothing could be clearer than this message,

'No one will gag me' says Harry Brooks,

BURNLEY'S INDEPENDENT VOICE.

All this came to light when a well printed, highly coloured leaflet bearing the portrait of a pleasant looking man of uncertain age on the front, came through my front door with the post.

Very nice, I'm impressed. He asks the question,

"Who will make the most impact at Westminister? One more Labour backbencher amongst the hundreds already seeking career preferment by courting the party bosses?'
Well put! Then he puts his pennyworth in,

"Or sommeone with no party debts to pay, working full time for our town, speaking openly and without fear inpursuit of what we need and deserve?

This is it, here we have it ,
"Behold a Pale Horse and his rider is Death."

TEXT

Death to Corporation incompetence, to lack of accountability, to the disenfranchisment of the working class in general and the people of Burnley in particular.Away with squalor and poverty, with lack of hope leading to despair and misery such as we have known in Burnley over these last decades. The future's bright the future is...The future is.. wait a minute, we've been here before .Harry Brooks? Is this the same Harry Brooks who was a Councillor before he got defeated, turned down by the electorate? Harry Brooks who gave a firm impression that he favoured the Fulledge rec, being sold to the Cricket Club against the wishes of the residents of Fulledge? A councillor of many years standing in whose time the slide of Burnley in to the abyss of downright poverty turned from a gradual slide in to a mighty rush?

Of course it is! It might not have been his fault, but what good was he in halting the decline? What did he change? Looking at the local press one gets the idea that Harry was not so much a local champion as a blatant opportunist! In that sense he might be just the man to exchange seats with the present incumbent who is an opportunist of the first order.

TEXT

,NO ONE WILL GAG ME.'

THEY CERTAINLY DIDN'T BEFORE.

If he was chosen to enter Parliament on our behalf he would be as much a disaster as any of the MPs chosen in my lifetime. None of them did anything for Burnley or for the peoples of the world. At least not so you would notice it. They became members of the finest gentleman's club in Europe. They got superb conditions of employment, good money and were unaccountable except at election times. They did do some social work. Indeed one MP told me wearily that he was the highest paid social worker in the town. He did look tired and weary.

But social work is not what we have an MP for. Surely [whatever the theory] we vote for a man to represent our views and aspirations in Parliament. To my mind we've been let down eversince the town first got an MP.
What can Harry Brooks do that is different? Some 600 MPs in Parliament Brooks wouldl be lost in a sea of timeservers and incompetents. Even if he didn't join them they would crush him and like the chap whose just retired he would find his niche in the subsidised bars and restaurants.

No! It seems to me that the time for isolating a woman or a man in Parliament away from his roots is over. Power should reside in the localities where we can have some say in the mechanics of our own lives. A place where we have to take our place in the decision making and adminstration of our own lives.Years ago there was a fine musical called,

TEXT

"Stop the World I wanna get off".

We can't stop it and shouldn't even if we could. We should take hold of the means of production and control, both in industry and social life.We should run the administration of our own society , collectively.
We should put a stop to the exploitation of our families and friends by the State, Industry and Commerce.
What part of the struggle could Harry Brooks play away there in Parliament. Power resides first in Europe and then in the Office of the Prime Minister. When the chain is jangled by either of these institutions we, the electorate jump. Harry would still be bleating and growing fat!

Sorry Harry your just trying to get on the feather bedded, well paid bandwagon.

[Mitch]

Harry Brooks' opportunism stretches into many territories if you read his letters.

Some bandwagon's he has hopped on include community Mast campaigns, and others he flirts with are a little more sinister. I conclude after reading some of his letters in the Burnley Express that there is racist rhetoric in that their opportunism.

Such idiots are led by their own interests and prejudices, and have no concern for the community. He is a veritable George Wallace indeed!!

[michele cryer]

Very well put, Fred and Mitch...

People of Burnley, beware...

FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED...

If you want to take an active role in improving our town/s, join The Burnley Voice, and let's all work together!

[Francis Ducket]

Anti-fascism at the moment.

At this time we don't know how the fascists will do in this election, for last few elections they havn't done too bad. They polled quite a good vote thanks to the maladministration of both the National and Local Governments. We are in the dark as to the future. We do know this however, that both the Conservatives and the Labour have played the race card through immigration and asylum. Feeding prejudice, ignorance and fear. In essence they have pandered to the basic fears and dislikes of a large number of people who blame immigration for the crass mis-management of various governments and its consequences.

Through our own {working class errors} we have allowed our organisations to decline. Thus at this time we are thrown in to the hands of the Labour and trade unions for organisation and such towards the fascist menace. Should we ignore them,either the fascists or the Labour and T.U's? Should we go our own ways? To me we can't ignore the BNP, neither can we walk away from the reformist Anti Racist organisations. There are not enough of us at this moment, we have not the money nor the capabilities to publish enough material of the right quantity or indeed quality. We shouldn't be stampeded by our friends who are willing to cut their own throat to sacrifice the BNP,thus throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We are pure enough, it isn't in doubt, the danger is being isolated and over run.
When the last bust up occured in the late 70s, things were different. The anti-nazi side were legion, we had throngs of trade unionists, trotskiites and the Cp as well as Anarchists. Where are they now? Militant has almost disappeared, the C.P. has gone and the trade unions are a shadow of their former selves. As for the Anarchists? Their light isn't shining too brightly.
The Fascists, However, are still there and are not likely to go away.What they are appearing to do is to consolidate their gains. We have to act. We cannot simply go on calling them names.We must have action and organisation.At the moment we are dependent on the right wing trade unions with their trotsyist stablemates to call the shots. Ok we don't like but we have to be practical. We have to see things as they are and not as we would like them to be. In joining in with the social democrats and their tame trotswe are using them to our own advantage. In doing so we should watch what they offer for delivery door to door. We are not there to be fodder for the Labour Party.Neither for the SWP. We are there to carry the struggle to the fascists. WE should make sure the literature is of the right kind. We should also see that we have our numbers out and that we challenge the hegemony of the right wing and the Trots with our ideas. Once the election is over we should endevour to retain our action against the fascists and we should not hesitate to continue the organisation against the BNP and friends.
Till then this attitude of having nothing to do with the current social democratic organisations is sheer idiocy. If the BNP get the ascendency in our town or any where else, it will not be the labour party they will go for it will be the anarchists.

[michele cryer]

Thank you once again Fred for putting it so well.

I have sent letters out to various groups today, inviting them to work together and with us, to campaign against the various 'demons' in our society...

I hope that we will find some sort of breakthrough soon.

[Mitch]

Fred - I missed this posting of yours on the fight against the fascists so belated reply.

I agree with all your saying, and have worked with any group locally including Unite Against Fascism, and I've done some Searchlight door to dooring this time as well, even though I agreed with Lustbuster on enrager that Searchlight's Lancashire edition was poor - but it was better than nothing.

How far do anarchists take this argument though. For example, I did vote in the local elections last year because there was a BNP candidate running in my ward in Pendle and I saw voting then as an act to keep this fascist out.

This time I'll be spoiling my ballot paper - but I'd have a dilemma again no doubt if there was a strong BNP candidate running in Pendle - I'd want to keep them out.

And if I was in Burnley - what about keeping out scum like Harry Brooks as well. It's difficult.

Rejecting voting has been the hardest decision for me to make coming to anarchism, especially knowing all about the history of women's suffrage in this area and how hard working class women like Ada Nield Chew and Selina Cooper worked to get the vote for women.

But I have thought about this, and I would continue to defend their fight for it which was long and hard, but I have decided that to participate in voting is to condone a top down system of government which I'm against. So I'll work instead on alternatives in the community which represent doing things for ourselves.

At May Day a well known Labour Party activist said to me that if I didn't vote, the Tories would get in. He wandered off before he could get my reply of 'what's the difference - conservative/new labour these days.

I think we should discuss in our Burnley Anarchist meetings our ways of fighting the fascists, because when I was posting Searchlight through people's doors, as well as the anti-fascist message it contains which of course I wholeheartedly agree with, I was also posting through a clear message that it was important to USE YOUR VOTE TO KEEP THE FASCISTS OUT, and a toytown 'better Burnley' new labour spin centre spread - it gaulled to say the least.

Our Burnley Voice pending newsletter would be a good start to put a strong anti-fascist message out to start with, and perhaps to link up and get ideas from anarchist anti-fascist groups. Good to discuss this at the next meeting - tonight.

[bryan]

BURNLEY WEB FORUM BLOCKED AT SWINTON LIBRARY:

Found out from Barry at last night's Sol. Fed public meeting: Swinton Library, Salford, is now filtering out this Burnley Web Forum. Also the Activist Website (of Red Pepper origins) has been blocked.

Barry will be making enquiries as to why?

It may not be a coincidence that SALFORD Borough Council, like BURNLEY COUNCIL, represents a virtual ONE-PARTY-STATE: a Labour Party dictatorship. Last week there were vicious attacks on the Labour Party councillors and MP at a public meeting over land grabbing and disruptive planning applications in the centre of Swinton. Schemes by greedy developers and dozy politicians.

It seems like Swinton is suffering like Burnley and many other places. We seem to suffer the same whatever regime is in power down there in London.