Admin Saturday
Today is mostly about catching up with administration. I am on dozens of discussion lists. And lots of news feeds. I read a pretty high proportion of what comes through, most days. I contribute regularly to a fair few of them.
Labour Left Briefing, Red Pepper Debate, UK Left Network, JustPeaceUK, Anti-Racism, What Now For Labour?. I get the Labour Party stuff, all the TUC newsfeeds, Labour Against The War, The Link, STWC, ANSWERManchester and more.
A variety of discussion lists based in the States too, with one in particular "Cybermind" becoming hotter than hot after 9/11, and I get Alternet, Sojourners, TomPaine, CTheory, Nettime and a good few more.
Inevitably some of the lists get lost at times. A couple of mails bounce when the ISP has fallen over for an hour and a machine somewhere turns the feed off.
I am particularly missing the one called "Anti-Racism" as I want to check on the activity in the constituencies in the region most likely to see a BNP threat.
First I email Colin Barker who lives a few streets away and is one of the venerable grandees of the SWP, Socialist Alliance and many of the related campaigns and vehicles. We get on well. I went to his joint 130th birthday party (I forget the number to be honest) with another old trot. And when I occasionally buy the paper I check for his expositions. And we of course collaborate from time to time on anti-war, anti-fascism and other matters.
Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper even got him to endorse Labour at the time of the Euro elections. I think it was an off the record comment! Well done Hilary!
The email I respond to is by chance about the decision of the University of Manchester SU back in November to do a complete no platform thing on the BNP. In fact they go a good deal further withdrawing all facilities and services from known members.
There are in fact open BNP members now in all Manchester and Salford's colleges. Salford University TV even allowed one of them to feature in a Channel M debate. He assaulted several protestors on the way in to the studio, though the case has not got to court yet as far as I know.
Salford's Vice Chancellor sent me a standard reply to my protest, enclosing some naive lecturer's naive justification and promising more to follow. But this never did arrive. Very experienced journalists have been skewered by clever fascists. I particularly remember Nick Griffin running rings round a Radio 5 effort by a very experienced broadcaster.
That was when "not racist" Michael Howard went to Blackburn to do a press conference on asylum seekers. Not even on the radar in Blackburn. Howard provided a platform for Griffin through his clumsiness. Setting students up to do it is crazy and the multiple assaults prove this beyond argument.
He got 17 votes in the sabbatical election to be editor of Student Direct. But he did get a couple of hundred votes in the 2004 all out elections to the City of Salford.
In a hugely embarrassing turn up for the books the Treasurer of NW Respect and a key activist in Manchester Against Racism (now renamed Manchester Unite Against Fascism) turned out to be a BNP mole. Respect ended that Euro election with finances in tatters. And then this guy and his girlfriend out themselves as raving BNP supporters. This is the trigger for the no platform motion and UMSU.
I went to the debate and the fascist spoke up for himself. My first SU GM here for 20 years plus, although I am a life member. My feeling was that another speaker wanted to oppose the motion, probably from a libertarian Lib Dem kind of perspective. That would have upped the ante, but the procedure prevented it. No platform was passed by around 315 to 7. I was incredibly disappointed by the standard of most of the debate on both this and on Top Up Fees. This is something I may return to.
To cut a long story short I ask Colin for news and for help getting back on the list if I need it. Then I contact Dick Withecombe responding to an email with a BBC letter to Nick Griffin about the upcoming programme - the one which charges against Griffin, Tyndall and others arose from. Same requests to him.
Then I do what I should have done already and go to "smartgroups" and deal with it myself. the list is still there and I switch to full email membership. But there have been no messages at all since November. I guess that fascism has not been beaten but that the network has switched to a different means of communication.
This is one example. I also reactivate some other contacts. I would like this blog to reflect all sorts of activity. And to give anyone considering a vote that really may lose Labour a seat what that may mean for local people and nationally, even if Lib Dems are the ones who take the seat.
Labour Left Briefing, Red Pepper Debate, UK Left Network, JustPeaceUK, Anti-Racism, What Now For Labour?. I get the Labour Party stuff, all the TUC newsfeeds, Labour Against The War, The Link, STWC, ANSWERManchester and more.
A variety of discussion lists based in the States too, with one in particular "Cybermind" becoming hotter than hot after 9/11, and I get Alternet, Sojourners, TomPaine, CTheory, Nettime and a good few more.
Inevitably some of the lists get lost at times. A couple of mails bounce when the ISP has fallen over for an hour and a machine somewhere turns the feed off.
I am particularly missing the one called "Anti-Racism" as I want to check on the activity in the constituencies in the region most likely to see a BNP threat.
First I email Colin Barker who lives a few streets away and is one of the venerable grandees of the SWP, Socialist Alliance and many of the related campaigns and vehicles. We get on well. I went to his joint 130th birthday party (I forget the number to be honest) with another old trot. And when I occasionally buy the paper I check for his expositions. And we of course collaborate from time to time on anti-war, anti-fascism and other matters.
Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper even got him to endorse Labour at the time of the Euro elections. I think it was an off the record comment! Well done Hilary!
The email I respond to is by chance about the decision of the University of Manchester SU back in November to do a complete no platform thing on the BNP. In fact they go a good deal further withdrawing all facilities and services from known members.
There are in fact open BNP members now in all Manchester and Salford's colleges. Salford University TV even allowed one of them to feature in a Channel M debate. He assaulted several protestors on the way in to the studio, though the case has not got to court yet as far as I know.
Salford's Vice Chancellor sent me a standard reply to my protest, enclosing some naive lecturer's naive justification and promising more to follow. But this never did arrive. Very experienced journalists have been skewered by clever fascists. I particularly remember Nick Griffin running rings round a Radio 5 effort by a very experienced broadcaster.
That was when "not racist" Michael Howard went to Blackburn to do a press conference on asylum seekers. Not even on the radar in Blackburn. Howard provided a platform for Griffin through his clumsiness. Setting students up to do it is crazy and the multiple assaults prove this beyond argument.
He got 17 votes in the sabbatical election to be editor of Student Direct. But he did get a couple of hundred votes in the 2004 all out elections to the City of Salford.
In a hugely embarrassing turn up for the books the Treasurer of NW Respect and a key activist in Manchester Against Racism (now renamed Manchester Unite Against Fascism) turned out to be a BNP mole. Respect ended that Euro election with finances in tatters. And then this guy and his girlfriend out themselves as raving BNP supporters. This is the trigger for the no platform motion and UMSU.
I went to the debate and the fascist spoke up for himself. My first SU GM here for 20 years plus, although I am a life member. My feeling was that another speaker wanted to oppose the motion, probably from a libertarian Lib Dem kind of perspective. That would have upped the ante, but the procedure prevented it. No platform was passed by around 315 to 7. I was incredibly disappointed by the standard of most of the debate on both this and on Top Up Fees. This is something I may return to.
To cut a long story short I ask Colin for news and for help getting back on the list if I need it. Then I contact Dick Withecombe responding to an email with a BBC letter to Nick Griffin about the upcoming programme - the one which charges against Griffin, Tyndall and others arose from. Same requests to him.
Then I do what I should have done already and go to "smartgroups" and deal with it myself. the list is still there and I switch to full email membership. But there have been no messages at all since November. I guess that fascism has not been beaten but that the network has switched to a different means of communication.
This is one example. I also reactivate some other contacts. I would like this blog to reflect all sorts of activity. And to give anyone considering a vote that really may lose Labour a seat what that may mean for local people and nationally, even if Lib Dems are the ones who take the seat.
posted by Chris Paul at 11:48 AM
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