creative direct action

In defense of egging fascists

creative direct action, fascists, Sensible Liberals
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Daniel Davies takes on the “the usual crowd of wowsers and pursed-lip good-government types” to explain why egging Nick Griffin was not just a good idea, but necessary:

And in this particular case, the egging itself is actually a very important speech act and a significant contribution to our national debate. Based on the fact that they got two MEPs elected, non-white British citizens might justifiably be looking with suspicion at their white neighbours today, thinking that a significant proportion of us were secretly harbouring fascist sympathies. In fact this isn’t true; the absolute number of BNP votes was slightly down on 2004, and their electoral success was purely an artefact of overall low turnout. It’s therefore an important point to be made, to our own population and to the world’s watching media, that Nick Griffin isn’t in fact a newly popular and influential political figure; he’s a widely reviled creep who not only doesn’t lead a phalanx of jackbooted supporters, but actually can’t even set up for a TV interview without being pelted with eggs. The voice of the British populace does not shout “Hail Griffin!”, it shouts, “Oi Fatty, cop this! [splat]”. And the only efficient and credible way to demonstrate to the world that Griffin is regarded as an eggworthy disgrace, is to actually and repeatedly pelt him with eggs.

If only BBC’s PM programme had had Davies on, instead of the flood of BNP sockpuppets insisting they had no love for the party until the egg throwing made them rethink their position and that the real intolerance came from the anti-fascists.

Nick Griffin: the yolk is on you

creative direct action, fascists
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Triumph of the will ends up with egg on his face:

Donna Guthrie from Unite Against Fascism explains what happened and why. The interviewer brings out the usual guff about freedom of speach and democratic elections, but Donna counters them very well, making it clear how Griffin’s speech ends in attacks on Black or Asian people.

Fred The Shred Gets The Cut Direct

Capitalism, creative direct action, Culture, Life under Capitalism
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shunned

Wherever in the world has the former grammar school boy and banker, to whose lifestyle all MPs aspire, got to? Richard Ingrams reports that Sir Fred Goodwin‘s been sent to Coventry again:

The only confirmation of his existence came a few days ago when it was reported that his application to join Scotland’s famous Royal and Ancient Golf Club had been turned down on the grounds that in the eyes of the members he was “the wrong kind”. They didn’t like the cut of his jib in other words.

This is not the first time Goodwin has had trouble getting into a Scottish golf club. A year or two ago The Sunday Times reported that when he applied to join the posh Bruntisfield Golfing Links Society he was told that there was a 10-year waiting list and that he would have to wait his turn. The reply was the traditional, “Do you realise who I am?” The secretary said he did.

More…

Victory for the Visteon workers

creative direct action, Crisis? What Crisis?, Unions
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Socialist Worker reports that the factory occupations by Visteon workers who were sacked in March without redundancy pay or pensions have been succesful:

Visteon workers have won a major victory against one of the biggest and most powerful multinational companies in the world – Ford.

The workers used to be employed by Ford until 2000 and were sacked at the end of last month. Ford tried to avoid its responsibilities, claiming that it owed the workers nothing.

But workers’ action has forced Ford to offer hundreds of thousands of pounds in redundancy packages. Many workers will get £40,000 or more. It is one of the biggest payouts that Ford has ever offered.

[…]

“The threat of taking action to Ford was the turning point. This offer sets a new benchmark too – if Ford try to sack workers elsewhere they won’t be able to just do it and give people nothing.

“People can see now that if you put up a strong enough fight you can win. This is a victory for workers and it’s about time we won something.”

Around 600 workers across plants in Enfield, north London, Basildon in Essex and Belfast have been fighting back since the end of March, when they were sacked with no notice, no redundancy pay or pensions.

Socialist Worker also managed to find out that shutting down those factories was not due to the economic crisis so much as something the Visteon management had already planned to do eight years ago !

The fightback against the Visteon sackings shows workers’ self defence is possible, that strike and other action doesn’t need to be just a meaningless ritual on the part of the unions to get a slightly bigger scrap from the bosses’ table but can actually force them to meaningful concessions, that you can actually win the fight. With redundancy threats and bankruptcies looming in many other companies, this is good news. If only the union leadership was as militant.