GEORGE
BARNSBY WORKING CLASS LIBRARY
AND FREE COMMUNIST BOOKSHOP.
141 Henwood Rd. Wolverhampton
W.Mids WV6 8PJ
eMail: barnsby@blueyonder.co.uk
Web: gbpeopleslibrary.co uk
Bulletin 4 Mar 2004
NOTE
TO BULLETIN 4 GEORGE BARNSBY WORKING CLASS LIBRARY
AND FREE COMMUNIST BOOKSHOP
On March 4 2004 I suffered a stroke. Bulletin 4 was then printed but
awaited distribution.
At that time I did not know to what extent my memory had been impaired.
Conversations with Bob Harriman, a nurse at West Park
Rehabilitation/Stroke Unit, however showed that there was no memory
loss at all. The question then arose of what persona I should adopt and
it was agreed that I should be known as George Barnsby who wrote
history books.
However, unbeknown to me, friends of the library had printed a list of
those who were to receive the Bulletin with printed labels and so a
limited distribution took place.
Bulletin 4 raises large issues such as my being the first person to
support Al Queda as responsible for negating the Bush/Rumsfeld
proposals to invade the so-called 'axis of evil' in an unbroken series
of wars to remake the world to the liking of U.S. imperialism. Bulletin
4 also raises new questions regarding the illegalities and
improprieties of those who closed Bilston Community College, as well as
questions combatting institutional racism in Wolverhampton, and much
else.
The Bulletin is now in your hands to judge the value of the work of the
George Barnsby Working Class Library and Free Communist Bookshop.
George Barnsby
17 May 04
TWO WEB SITES
The Bulletins usually open with a political review international,
national and local. In this most vital period of change this will
follow, but the tale of the two web sites must be told first. For
information the FRIENDS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE have always been
limited by the refusal of those who closed the College to allow any
source of alternative information to be circulated. But once a web site
was established the wholes sordid story of how the first community
College in Britain was deliberately and vindictively closed could be
posted for all to see at Error! Bookmark not defined.. This has now
been done.
This leaves the website of GB WORKING CLASS LIBRARY (address above)
free to pursue warmongers from Blair down to those locally who
supported the war in Iraq.
GUEST OF HONOUR
For the first time we have a guest of honour for the Bulletin. It is
EDWARD UPWARD one of the progressive writers of the nineteen thirties
associated with Auden, Isherwood etc. Miraculously almost, he is still
with us and celebrates his 100th birthday this month. The fact that his
son taught at Wolverhampton Polytechnic gives us an excuse to consider
him one of us. More of this later.
POLITICS-INTERNATIONAL
One of the worst features of Blair’s racism is its insularity. The
modern world of resistance to globalisation and US imperialism is led
by Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, the West Indies and also Africa,
despite its immense problems, and also the two giants China and India.
The five hundred year domination of white imperialism is now ending.
Iraq was to have been the first of a rolling series of 'preventive
wars' to recreate the world in the image of and to the liking of US
imperialism. It has fallen at the first attempt. This is largely due to
two creations of the Arab world. The first is Al Quaida, which negates
the only thing that global capitalism understands - money - and reduces
imperialists to quivering jellies of fear and such absurdities as
building a wall around the entrance to Parliament. They didn't believe
in walls when the East Germans justifiably built one in Berlin to
protect themselves from the three imperialist powers, who were 150
miles outside the zones allocated to them by international treaty.
If I were an Arab I would be proud of Al Quaida which has transformed
the Arabs from impotence to parity with the US.
The other great achievement of the Arabs has been to remind the world
through their religion that they are not ruled by the cash nexus of the
global imperialists. That many enjoy ways of life that they do not want
to change. But capitalism, of course, has destroyed all alternative
modes of life whether primitive communism of herding by native
Americans and then stolen their land and reduced the people to
landless, alcoholic wrecks, or other Utopian communities, some of which
immigrated to the US to fulfill their Utopian dreams.
The position now is that Bush and the whole reactionary crew of global
capitalists who support him are in a position to destroy the world, but
are not in a position to rule it.
ADDITIONS TO GB WORKING CLASS LIBRARY
JULY 2002 TO END 2003
Those starred * are local and regional books. Those with a plus + are
books on Race Relations and Ethnic Studies. Others are books on
history, culture, economics etc usually connected with imperialism and
class struggle
Granta - Best of Young British Novelists 2003
Naipaul V.S. - Beyond Belief, Islamic Excursions among Converted
Peoples
Reed, John - War in E.Europe 1915 (Phoenix)
Searle, Chris - An Exclusive Education, Race, Class and Exclusion
in British Schools (Lawrence & Wishart) Thompson, Willie - Global
Expansion, Britain & Its Empire 1870-1914 (Pluto)
Pryce-Jones, David - The Closed Circle, The Arabs (Paladin)
Moore, Michael - Downsize This! (Penguin)
TV
Nation
"
Fouda, Yosri & Fielding, Nick - Masterminds of Terror (Main)
Uglow, Jenny - The Lunar Men (Faber & Faber)
Colley, Linda - Captives, Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850
(Pimlico)+
Chomsky, Noam - Power & Terror. Post 9/11 Talks and
Interviews (Seven Stories Press)+
Oliveti, Vincenzo - Terror's Source, the Ideology
ofWahhabi-Salafism (Amadeus)+
Gray, John - Al Quaeda and What it Means to be Modern (Faber
& Faber)+
Labour Action for Peace. Authors Various - US Domination Bad for
Britain and the World
Edward Upward - Three Volumes of The Spiral Ascent (Quartet)
- In the Thirties
- The Rotten Elements
- No Home but the Struggle
- The Night Walk and other Stories
- A Renegade in Spring
Callaghan, John - Cold War, Crisis & Conflict, The CPGB 1951-68
(Lawrence & Wishart)
Saville, John - Memoirs from the Left (Merlin Press)
Ali, Monica - Brick Lane (Doubleday)
Paxman, Jeremy - The Political Animal (Penguin)
ed Moon, Bob - New Curriculum, National Curriculum 1990 (Open
University)
ed.Linsley & Rayment - Beyond the Classroom, Exploring Active
Citizenship (New Politics Network)
Benn, Tony Diaries 1991-2001 (Ted Smart)
PUBLICATIONS
Index on Censorship 2/03 Migration: 3/02 Diaspora Voices: 4/02
Varieties of Death: 4/03 Inside the Axis of Evil.
Among the Journals we find most relevant are: Race & Class: New
Left Review: Soundings.
BOOK REVIEWS
Here are two books closely connected, Web of Deceit, Britain's Real
Role in the World, by Mark Curtis, examines the gulf between Labour's
stated, ethical foreign policy from 1945 and the reality of global
intervention, support for repressive regimes, complicity in the Rwanda
genocide, support for economic policies in the World Trade
organisations which increase poverty and inequality throughout the
world back to repressive colonial policies in Malaya, Kenya, etc. back
even further to the original post-war crime of restoring the French and
Dutch to their pre- war empires of Indo-China and Indonesia which I
personally witnessed. The dreaded fruits of the 'continuity of foreign
policy' of the Labour imperialist, Ernest Bevin following Winston
Churchill from 1945.
The second book is Mike Davis's Late Victorian Holocausts. This links
famines in what we now call the Third World with a slight warming of
the sea off the coast of Equador and Peru around Christmas time. Hence
El Nino or Christ Child. Every three to seven years, the rise in
temperature is much greater, and when very pronounced can lead to
drought in the monsoon tropics and northern China and flooding in the
Peruvian coastal regions. The fact that such large scale changes of
ocean temperatures and air pressure in the equatorial Pacific region,
the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is now considered by Mike Davis
to be the most important environmental perturbation in the world,
capable of bringing hardship to one quarter of the human race on five
continents.
Davis deals with drought-famine in India 1876-78, 1896-97, 1899-1902,
1907-08. In Brazil drought-famine 1876-78, 1888-91 and China
drought-famine 1875-76,1877, 1897-99. Just three of the most important
areas of holocaust in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century. If
the drought is properly managed it need not lead to famine and the
measures advocated by Clive Branson for the Indian Famine of 1942-43
are applicable from the Irish Potato famine of 1846, namely price
control of the commodity concerned, whether potatoes or rice, with
swingeing penalties for hoarders and profiteers. But India was
controlled by British politicians of the old laissez-faire school to
whom interference with the market was anathema. This meant not only
that millions starved during famines, but also there was built up tens
of millions of people who lived permanently on the verge of starvation.
In Calcutta in 1943 we ate hearty meals in camp and cheap and plentiful
meals in restaurants, while ever widening circles of starving peasants
left their land, (if they had any) to seek food in the city. Thus it
was clear that pre-capitalist societies managed their famine problems
much better than capitalism despite its vastly superior resources of
railways and telegraph etc.
There is a footnote to all this. Logie Barrow, a friend of the GB
library, who teaches in Germany, says that it helps his students to
cope with the reality of the Nazi holocaust to know that Britain's
holocausts far outnumber Germany's. So he offers lots on slavery,
Ireland and the pre-history of Apartheid. This is also the sort of
history we should be teaching in Britain instead of the dreadful,
imperialist rubbish we teach in our present non-multicultural schools
which influence our black boys to become leading athletes and musicians
or even gangsters rather than tolerate such rubbish and become scholars.
The two most elegant books are both by women - Jenny Uglow's The Lunar
Men and Linda Colley's Captives, Britain, Empire and the World
1600-1850. The first tells of the Lunar Men who came from all parts
Britain, but spent much of their lives in the midlands and became the
Lunar men because they travelled to Birmingham at full moon to meet and
discuss. They were the midlands men who created the new world of the
Industrial Revolution between 1730 and 1810, Matthew Boulton, Josiah
Wedgewood, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, James Watt, and lesser
known of the 12 men she names as the principal Lunar men and that does
not even include John and William Wilkinson who had lesser connections
with the Society. Pity about the development of capitalism and slavery,
which accompanied the industrial revolution in England.
Linda Colley deals with the important pre-Industrial Revolution period
when Britons could not only be free, but also slaves, and Africans
could not only be slaves but also free men and women, making
magnificent contributions to history before that time that whenever
blacks became too 'uppity' they were plunged into even deeper depths of
slavery and suffering.
Most important is Monica Ali's Brick Lane. This is a very intimate
account of Nanzeen's upbringing and adult life in London and a parallel
account of her sister, Hasina, in Bangladesh through correspondence. Of
course, it is a novel, and so one cannot tell what is truth and what is
fiction. But I can sympathise with the dilemma of the Muslim
authorities who have at last decided to criticise it as disrespectful
of Muslim religion and society. It is certainly 'steamy', no holds are
barred and I learned many things about Muslim girls and women that the
authorities might well prefer that I did not learn. But that is not the
point; no doubt the authorities will learn much of the problems of
females as they try to adjust to western society. To me, it is a
magnificent book.
WHAT IS THE LIBRARY & BOOKSHOP?
In view of the fact that this is the first Bulletin with a separate web
site (www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk)
a certain amount of introductory material will be in order, followed by
a review of previous bulletins which will indicate the extent to which
our 'line' has been relevant and whether the project is worth while
proceeding with after my death, which most mornings I feel is very
imminent.
The Library and Bookshop was set up in January 2001 to preserve (if
possible) the 4000 books on labour and related subjects, particularly
race relations; and a number of archives such as west midlands
Communist Party archives from 1914, archives on Burma, archives on
Wolverhampton participation in assisting the South African struggle
against Apartheid etc.
George Barnsby is a Londoner born in 1919 of working class parents
whose father died in 1922 as a result of the effects of gassing during
the 1st. World War. His childhood, participation in the Communist
movement and war service including four years in India and Burma is
recorded in that part of his autobiography entitled Subversive - One
Third of the Life of a Communist which is available at £3.
The Bulletins open with a survey of international, national and local
politics. 2003 has been such an extraordinary period in history that
the statement that we oppose racism and believe that Blair and others
should be arraigned as war criminals is no longer adequate.
The USA emerged from World War 2 as the strongest nation in the world.
The USSR which had suffered invasion and borne the brunt of the
fighting against Germany was totally devastated and the Cold War which
was waged by USA and the Labour imperialist government of Clement
Attlee eventually overcame the emergent socialist one third of the
world and we entered a period of capitalist globalisation. Much to the
surprise of many people this has not led to a period of peace and
prosperity, but has culminated in the Iraq war, in the US the doctrine
of perpetual war to conquer the world for the security of the USA with
Blair tagging behind anything the US proposes.
GOOD FOR BEN
Benjamin Zephaniah has done all of us a great favour by refusing to
accept the 'honour' of the Order of the British Empire. A few weeks ago
it was the footballer, Ian Wright, complaining in the Voice of racism
in football and suggesting that since they had wealth and influence
they should use both to ensure that they had a proper place in society.
This is a symptom of the fact that Blair has no intention of allowing
equality for ethnic minorities. Mrs Lawrence is quite right to claim
that the impetus of Institutional Racism given by the death of Stephen
her son has worn off and Equal Opportunities is something that everyone
now pays lip service to, but now you never know whether you are talking
to a genuine person or a humbug.
Fortunately the Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality understands
that there are vast swathes of ethnic minority people who feather their
own nests and betray their own nation. Dianne Abbott is the latest of
these. We are following the example of the USA where black people are
no nearer equality than they were in 1860.
Who am I, a white person, to say this? Well, black and white will both
have their reasons for opposing imperialism and each will have their
own standards of sincerity. Mine are that when I came to Wolverhampton
in 1956 and became secretary of the Communist Party, the police took
out a dossier about me. This is the only sort of honour I will accept
from a capitalist state. Also in 1943 as a young soldier supporting the
call for a Second Front to support the Russians during the war the only
thing the army authorities could think of doing with me was to send me
to Burma and India, where I fought not only against Japanese fascism,
but against racism in the British army. I suggest that a present day
case of true bravery is Michael Moore who opposes US imperialism and
whose Stupid White Men are to be found in Wolverhampton as well as the
USA.
It is vital that there should be a powerful black civil rights movement
in Britain as Zephaniah suggests. But there should also be a powerful
white civil rights movement as Blair and Blunkett erode civil rights
for all of us in Britain, and also a united black and white movement as
Bush and Blair destroy liberty throughout the world.
At a time when everything set up to benefit ethnic minority people is
being hijacked by Blairites, it is a life and death question that the
level of opposition should be raised to that pioneered by Ben which
questions not only the motives of many white people who claim to be
anti-racists but are only in it to benefit themselves, but also the
motive and understanding of many black people who do not support the
radical changes which are now essential if we are to move beyond the
level of 'institutional racism'
The essential characteristic of British racism is its hypocrisy as
Chanu begins to realise in Monica Ali' s book Brick Lane, when after
many years believing his amiable and polite employer will promote him
because of his qualifications he at last realises, that although he has
a smile as wide as Tony Blair's this white man has no intention of
promoting Chanu. Another example is the daily array of commanders and
diplomats who are paraded before us on the TV and present with such
assurance a case of seeming reasonableness that puts the Americans to
shame whose only response to any attacks is to demolish another village.
PRINCESS DIANA
What was it that Princess Diana wanted to know about Lady Wulfruna that
only Joe Davis could tell her? This was my second attempt at a
joke in a blurb about an item in the GEORGE BARNSBY Working Class
Library Bulletin No.4. due soon, and it aroused considerable interest.
Joe Davies is a large, fresh faced fellow with a broad Shropshire
accent; a man who drove tanks and their transporters during the war in
the Royal Army Service Corp Heavy Recovery. After the war he
joined the West Midlands Police and when he retired in 1976 he became
involved in the restoration of stationary engines and fairground
transport. In 1992 he acquired a really large fair organ (a 49 keyless
McCarthy) and he thus became a 'Bobby with a Hobby'. Indeed Joe is a
very popular fellow and few outside social events in Wolverhampton are
complete without Joe and his organ. His skills are legendary and to see
him manoeuvre these vast machines into a line of four engines and
caravans in our estate for a visit to some distant part of Britain, or
even the continent is a marvel to behold. Most organs carry some form
of identification, so being based in Wolverhampton his wife and he
decided to call it the Lady Wulfruna.
The incident in question occurred in July 1992 when HRH the Princess of
Wales was invited to open Bilston Road Police Station and Joe was
called on to provide the entertainment. As Joe relates it, 'After the
official opening HRH entered the Station Yard where the Lady Wulfruna
was. I had already selected a book of Strauss waltzes and on receiving
a signal from the Chief Constable I started playing. The organ is quite
loud and it seemed to startle the Princess. She came straight over and
the Divisional Chief Superintendent introduced me to her. Diana said,
"That sounds beautiful". She then asked me the significance of the name
Lady Wulfruna. I was then proud to explain the origins of the lady and
what she had done for the town about 1,000 years ago.'
Now Joe is being a little coy on my behalf in explaining Lady Wulfruna
thus, because Joe and I differ on the question of the good lady.
Wulfruna granted a charter of most of Wolverhampton to the town and so
is sold to Joe Public as a great benefactress. But to me she is the
Mrs.Thatcher of her age, taking land from those who were not entitled
to give it, (the king and nobility of Wessex to boot, when we live in
Mercia!) to Wulfruna who had no right to receive it, (it was land which
had previously belonged to the people as common land.)
MORE RECENT HISTORY OF WOLVERHAMPTON
I have recently been reminded of something I had quite forgotten. That
is that I had once been something of an archaeologist. In 1959 I
conducted an excavation of the Roman road at Barnhurst Farm with boys.
from Etheridge Secondary Modern School I discovered also that within a
radius of a day's coach ride from Bilston there were examples to be
visited of remains from every period of period of history from
neolithic to the industrial revolution, the coal of which lay under our
very feet. So began for me a career of participative history in which I
was determined that the so-called backward children would fully
participate
I left it at that for the night. The next morning reality dawned. The
Irish election results were being leisurely counted, but there was
clearly a move to the right as forecast by our Andrew Boyd. In
discussing the programme for the coming session of parliament, Blair
and Blunkett were suggesting further giant steps towards a totalitarian
society by proposing to lock up asylum seekers' children while throwing
their parents out of Britain after a 'fair trial' in which they have
been deprived of legal aid to defend themselves. Also this morning I
heard from a supporter in America that he would have to make his
contribution to this Bulletin anonymous in view of his necessity to
apply for visas and work permits with the 'Patriot Act' now going full
blast. And of course I am already being deprived of my freedom of
speech by the Express & Star boycotting anything written by the
Friends of Bilston Community College or myself.
There are times for history and times for making history. Today is the
time for protest.
OUR
GUEST OF HONOUR - 100 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR
EDWARD UPWARD - A POLITICALLY COMMITTED WRITER
Janet Upward, the widow of Edward's son Christopher, writes as follows:
I got to know Edward Upward when he and his wife, Hilda, had already
moved to the Isle of Wight, after he had taken early retirement in
order to resume his writing career. When I first met his son,
Christopher he were both doing our Post Graduate Certificate in
Education. I quickly became aware of Christopher' s enormous admiration
for his father and his writing - the first volume of his trilogy, 'In
the Thirties' was about to be published (1962) by Heineman. The second
part of the trilogy, 'The Rotten Elements' is a gripping and
illuminating account of the debates within the Communist Party in
post-war Britain, based on Edward and Hilda's own experience of their
ideological struggles with the Party and their disagreement with the
Party line set out in the British Road to Socialism.
Although Edward and Hilda had long ceased to be members of the
Communist Party, when I first met them in the early 60's they were
still very active politically and took a keen interest in all
progressive world movements. Thus when they moved to the Isle of Wight
they became active members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In
addition they helped to set up 'Unisoc' on the Island, which was an
attempt to build a united, non-sectarian, left-wing political
organisation. Sectarianism in the end defeated it and it fell apart
after a few years. 'No Home but the Struggle' is the third part of
Edward’s of Edward’s trilogy (The Spiral Ascent) which combines
retrospective assessment of his childhood and political activity in the
Isle of Wight in order to reconcile the Author's life-long conflict
between the aims of art and those of politics.
Edward and Hilda (who died in 1995) continued to involve themselves by
attending meetings and demonstration (anti-racist and CND, for example)
and following political developments in the world. Edward still reads
the Morning Star every day and is quite clear about the current world
situation.
Edward writes:
I have nothing but contempt for Blair and his toadying to Bush (or
Shrub, as I prefer to call him). It was clear that their adventure in
Iraq was really about control of Iraq's oil. What Blair hoped to gain
from it all is not clear unless it was to benefit British business in
rebuilding the country they helped smash. I think Toady Blair has
miscalculated as the contracts for reconstruction are all going to US
companies whose links with the US administration are becoming well
known.
Globalisation should be shown up for what it is - just another way the
rich countries exploit the poorer ones, causing slaughter through the
backing of reactionary regimes.
The whole world is in a state of change - politics, environment,
climate. The right-wing is gaining and we stand in danger of fascism.
Its rooted in the police and other institutions. I sometimes imagine. I
sometimes imagine a shifting pattern when a better more humane approach
prevails. Historically, Christianity was an improvement on what had
gone before, true communism is not dead. We shall never have heaven on
earth. This is what I said some years ago when I appeared at the
Festival Hall on Voice Box with Peter Parker.
Meanwhile, Blair has done nothing to reverse the anti-TU legislation of
Thatcher and has further privatised public services. I support Ken
Livingstone's attempts to keep the London Underground under public
control.
LETTER
FROM A FRIEND IN AMERICA
Dear George,
Many thanks for your prompt response. It was good to hear from you and
I hope that your health is improving. Thank you also for sending my
letter on to others who might be able to help. I feel that there might
be something to be done on Black Country literature and that it may
provide a rich seam of enquiry.
I must let you in on a coincidence. The day your letter arrived a book
I had purchased on the Internet auction E-bay also arrived. It was your
book on the Working Class movement in the Black Country. The
coincidence became still more curious when the man from whom I
purchased the book lives in Bilston! And he had bought the book from
Parkfield School Library. Perhaps it is a small world after all!
But ***** is not a small world at all. You asked what it was like
living here and, well, here goes. First, it's hotter than Hades. We
have already had one day of 107 and one of 101; and today it was 100
degrees. Second, it is dry. ****** is about 7 miles south of ********,
and at well over four thousand feet above sea level, we get plenty of
wind. It is very hot, very dry, and very windy.
Next, Jesus (pronounced, with reverence, "Cheesus") is the man. Jesus
is ***** just as ***** is Jesus. This is the buckle of the Bible belt.
As I don't believe in God people here are praying for my lost soul.
Apparently I am going to Hell, as one of my former students told me. I
asked her if Muslims, Buddhists, Rastafarians, Hindus etc were going as
well and she was happy to confirm it. She's a Baptist and she knows,
apparently. Religion has functioned to shut down the critical faculties
of many in this area. Why struggle for answers when God is the answer
to everything? The awful irony is that many in this area are poor. In
that respect one faculty member (!!) here told me that religion offered
hope and consolation. I asked him if he thought that it might be better
to expose the conditions that held these people in poverty; I asked him
if religion might be used as a means of social control and
pacification, that people might be required to submit to religion. He
thought not. He clearly does not think much at all.
Not surprisingly, George Bush is popular here. But, and you won't
believe this, the University has a Left Club. Yes, a group of people
here actually opposes the kind of rabid Republicanism that everyone
else seems to adore. Perhaps there is hope after all. But most students
are simply Republican, pro capital punishment, pro gun etc. Put them on
the spot and ask them why they believe so fervently in these things and
they have no answer. But that, I suppose, is what I am here for. And on
that note I must close. Hope to hear from you soon.
IRELAND
We have long admired Andrew Boyd, the political journalist from
Northern Ireland. Two of his current booklets we have for sale.
Republicanism and Loyalty in Ireland tells the intriguing story of how
historically Republicans have not always been as they seem, nor
Loyalists as loyal. The other is Jim Connell - Author of the Red Flag.
We asked Andrew if he would write a few words on modern Ireland. He not
only obliged with the following, but he also produced a disk of his
recent writings, which can also be purchased from us at cost price:
NORTHERN
IRELAND: THE AGREEMENT TODAY
Andrew Boyd
Tony Blair now admits that what many call 'the Good Friday Agreement'
is not much of an agreement after all but, he still adds, there is no
alternative. That means, if it means anything, that the Government has
no policy for Northern Ireland except one that is daily proving to be a
failure.
The GFA, fabricated and published in April 1998, may have provided a
hundred and more local politicians with whatever they have been
seeking. It has not brought peace to a place that for the whole of its
history has seldom been at peace.
While members of the Northern Ireland Assembly cling to power and
office, and the generous perks they enjoy, the streets of Belfast are
in turmoil. The paramilitary organisations, Catholic and Protestant,
continue to ply their illegal trade in drugs and smuggled motor fuel
motor fuel and collect weekly' donations' from the small businessmen of
the ghettos.
The House of Commons Select Committee on Northern Ireland, having spent
twelve months investigating paramilitary racketeering, has recently
reported that thousands of people, victims of the racketeers, are too
scared to complain to the police or to substantiate complaints. The
victims know that a few petrol bombs thrown into their premises late at
night would put a quick end both to their complaints and to their
businesses.
The Good Friday Agreement has brought no peace to those businessmen,
nor has it brought peace in any form to the families who live on the
interfaces where the Catholic ghettos abut on the ghettos in which
Protestants live, especially in the city of Belfast. Some families have
fled from the threatened interfaces. Others live in misery, with their
houses permanently boarded and barricaded.
What were absurdly called 'peace lines' were erected on the borders of
the ghettos as long ago as August 1969. More and much higher
'peace-lines' are being erected at the same places today.
But worse lies ahead for the Government, for the people and for many of
the politicians. A general election for the Northern Ireland Assembly
will be held in May next year. If the situation remains as it is today
or, which is more likely, gets worse the new assembly will be dominated
by Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party on the Loyalist side and by
Sinn Fein on the Republican. In that case the Good Friday Agreement is
doomed - what then, if as Blair has so often said, there is no
alternative?
The above appeared in our Bulletin No3 in 2002. I have just had a long
telephone conversation with Andrew. He is vitriolic concerning Blair
and all his mis-works. His illegal war in Iraq and his total
non-understanding of Ireland. Even the language is spin. There is no
such word as decommission in the Oxford dictionary. Boyd stresses the
ghettoes of Republicans and Loyalists each an apartheid area where no
one of the opposing tendency can survive. His final view is that
progress might be made if two generations of politicians could
miraculously disappear and society made afresh.
THE
SECRET POLICEMAN
Could it happen in West Midlands
Police?
Anyone watching the appalling behaviour and attitudes exposed on the
recent BBC documentary 'The secret policeman' would rightly ask could
it happen in the West Midlands Police?
The answer is it could happen here. The message I got from the
programme was that racists have become conscious that overt racism will
immediately exclude them from selection to the police service. They
still believe that providing they are willing to lie & tell the
recruiters what they want to hear they can get through selection &
training and once qualified can then police in a racist &
discriminatory fashion.
What is reassuring about West Midlands Police authority & Service
is that they have been aware of this and have implemented a number of
changes several months prior to the screening of the racist behaviour
of Police recruits in the North West.
Firstly West Midlands has been the first force in the country to use a
new recruitment & selection scheme. The key aspect of this new
scheme is that while you can get through overall even if you fail some
of the modules-the one you must pass is the Diversity Module. Since
it's introduction earlier this year a substantial number of recruits
who would previously have been taken on have been turned down due to
their attitudes to diversity.
Secondly the service has withdrawn from the national training
organisation in respect of new officer recruitment. West midlands will
be running its own scheme which we feel is challenging racist
assumptions & behaviour more effectively than was apparent in the
training featured in the expose.
Thirdly there is a high level of monitoring of police action to ensure
it is fairly & justly applied. There is a pilot of stop &
search to monitor reasons for stops, Whistle blowing arrangements, plus
ethnic monitoring of both personnel & service provision.
In all aspects of policy there is close liaison with the Black &
Asian Police association, advisory cttees consisting of Key Members of
the BME community. All decisions are referred to the Police Authority
that has a composition of 6 BME members out of 17 including the Chair
Cllr Mohammed Nazir . The Chairs of Personnel and Community affairs are
also BME members.
A key priority for the Authority is to ensure the force is
representative of the community it serves. Currently 15% of new
recruits are from BME background. The current number of BME officers is
6% which is the highest in the country. Police staff is 13% and
specials 20%.
There is still a lot to do and absolutely no grounds for complacency
but West Mids. Police authority is conscious of the issues and amongst
police forces is at the fore in suggesting solutions and in moving
forward in terms of results.
Bob Jones, one of 2 Wolverhampton Police Authority Members, the other
being Bhajan Dhevsi, a well known expert on Diversity issues.
THE
U3A (FOND ABBREVIATION FOR THE UNIVERSITY
OF THE THIRD AGE) BY MAUREEN GREEN
We attend lectures and do research; just as we did many years ago, one
difference being that we get to choose the subject. I have just
finished some work on the Wolverhampton and Midland Counties Eye
Infirmary. Its days are numbered, as is our national health service,
unless we give it very serious attention. Before the Eye Infirmary was
built, we had to travel to Birmingham; already we are now travelling to
Cannock for some orthopaedic care.' With Foundation Hospitals he who
calls the piper will call the tune. What will each hospital provide?
Where will you have to travel to get the treatment you need? Care of
the elderly is already privatised.
Each U3A Branch has a degree of autonomy within a regional and national
structure. However. there are two important differences to U3A branches
in most countries; the main philosophy is that the mature, elderly
people themselves are the core, the educational resource, so that
instead of simply attending to be taught, they give presentations, lead
discussions etc. Monthly meetings frequently involve outside speakers,
but these are an attempt to provide a forum that many / most members
might attend and draw from other interest groups the information they
find useful.
The U3A has been functioning since the 1970s generally and for me this
is my second year. An organisation that started on the continent, now
has millions of members world wide, and this disabled woman is a very
happy member of the Wolverhampton branch which, started in 1995
instigated by Len Moore and Rudi Herbert.
I had an ulterior motive in investigating the U3A. As an educational
institution I wanted to know what part it could play in abolishing the
monster quango the Learning and Skills Council. This has taken over all
education from age 16 onward and has already almost destroyed our
mainly excellent Further Education in system in Wolverhampton by
insisting that only classes with a 'purpose' and ending with a
'qualification' should be funded despite the fact that the government
pretends to support Life Long Learning. I was very pleased, therefore
to learn that U3A avoids the clutches of the LSC by reverting to the
older tradition of working class education which from 1900 particularly
when the Labour Party was formed was self-financing. Typical of this
was the rivalry between Ruskin College and the WEA offering 'bourgeois'
education and the Central Labour College and Plebs League offering
Marxist education. Both usually with voluntary, unpaid lecturers.
U3A comes nearest to this model of self-education for adults
From: George Barnsby <barnsby@blueyonder.co.uk>
To: <d.bell@ofsted.gov.uk>
Cc: <info@cre.gov.co.uk>
Sent: 26 June 2003 10:32
Subject: 16-19 Education in Wolverhampton.
FRIENDS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
141 Henwood Rd. Wton WV6 8PJ. 01902 751888
Dear David Bell.
26 June 2003
Thank you very much for letting me have your report on 16 to 19
Education in Wolverhampton.
I must say I am gobsmacked ( I think that is the modern word) by its
contents. I did not think any report on Wolverhampton would be
presented which totally ignores the ethnicity of students in the city.
But that is the reality of the Executive summary of the report by Keith
Abbot HMI of the inspection of Wolverhampton City College of 20-31
January 2003. Nor is there any mention of ethnicity of staff at the
College. It is clear that the decision of FRIENDS to boycott the
inspection of the College and refusal to accept any report concerning
the inspection has been more than justified.
If race and ethnicity has no priority for OFSTED, it follows that it is
likely to have none for the schools and colleges it inspects or the
outside providers that it employs. And your report clearly reveals that
this has been the case. Neither the College nor the outside providers
have been able to meet the needs of 16 to 19 students in Wolverhampton,
hence the crisis.
Yet the solution for at least 15% of students is clear. This is the
Asian part of the population totalling 14.3%. It is known that the
proportion of students 16-19 exceeds that of the general Asian
population, but by how much is known only to the Wolverhampton City
Council at the moment. If the Asian population were allowed to provide
the education it needs for its citizens, providers would immediately
arise and create enthusiasm, empowerment, initiative and enjoyment of
education, a much undervalued feature. At present ethnic minorities
feel that in all walks of life their future is still being decided by a
colonial power and to turn Asian education over to Asians would empower
them to be equal. Of course, no one knows what the results would be,
but they could not be worse than the present ones, and indications of
the greater levels of educational achievement by all Asian minorities
(not dealt with in the Ofsted report) suggest that the ultimate benefit
to the UK economy would be immense.
Such empowerment might also encourage African-Caribbean people to reach
their full capacity as envisaged by W.E.B.du Bois who, in his
remarkable book The Souls of Black Folk, declared the colour question
the most important issue of the twentieth century, let alone the twenty
first century. Or allow the superiority of black folk in sport to be
harnessed to the solution of the problem where black boys begin their
education at parity with others, but then fall back until at age 16
their GCSE results are below other groups and fewer remain in education
or go into training.
Improvement of white boys' results will also occur if the LSC continues
to allow not only the methods pioneered at Bilston Community College to
be used, but also use of the staff who first made them.
This action of Ofsted as a centre of support for Blairite institutional
racism extends to satellite organisations, which although in theory are
independent, have the same basic philosophy and serve not the public
but new masters in the form of New Labour. These include the learning
and Skills Council, and the Adult learning Inspectorate. The worst
proof of this collaboration is the absolute necessity of maintaining
the falsehood that Bilston and Wulfrun College were 'merged' whereas
the plain truth is that the smaller Wulfrun College took over Bilston
Community College lock, stock and barrel.
To admit the plain truth is to admit that the takeover was
institutionally racist, and this, institutional racists will resist to
the last.
In concluding, this report claiming that institutions set up to develop
a multicultural society in Britain have been subverted to supporting
the aims of the institutionally racist state of Blair's Britain I wish
to add some personal comments.
All my political life from 1934 has been devoted to opposition to
racism and imperialism, both British and foreign. Its roots lay in the
fact that my father died in 1922 of influenza as a result of being
gassed in World War 1. My brother and I were brought up by a single
parent (my mother) in what was a 'respectable' working class home. When
I was demobilised from war service in 1946 including four years in
India and Burma an almost bankrupt British Labour government could
afford to allow me a three year modest grant allowing me the privilege
of being educated at the University of my choice, the London School of
Economics. The only reward I sought for this education was to be better
able to fight for socialism and the cause of the working class. The
same motivation prompted me in the 1960s to take three years away from
teaching and paid employment to study for higher degrees and at the
same time produce theses on the working class movement in Wolverhampton
and the Black Country to demonstrate to working class students that if
I could do it, so could they. This, incidentally, left me at one time
with three degrees and no employment from heads and principals who
preferred the non-hassle of not employing a Communist.
Such proposals will allow me leisure to enjoy what is left of my old
age. Although it will also allow me to pursue other neglected projects
such as the archaeology and early history of Wolverhampton. As with
Racism in Wolverhampton, but probably for different reasons, there has
been a studied refusal to embody my Origins of Wolverhampton to 1085
into the canon of Wolverhampton history because it debunks the myth of
Wulfruna as a saintly benefactor of Wolverhampton and shows her as the
Mrs.Thatcher of her age accepting a gift she was not entitled to
receive i.e. virtually the whole of Wolverhampton, from people not
entitled to give it, and positing a class struggle in Wolverhampton in
Saxon times. This I am interested in pursuing in regard to developing
world history of the present time.
Dr. G. Barnsby
From: George Barnsby <barnsby@blueyonder.co.uk>
To: < letters@expressandstar.co.uk>
Cc: <rewm@rewm.org info@feegov.uk
www.wolverhamplongov.ukm.george@wlv.ac.uk
andy .goodall@unison.org.uk paul@goddard-patel.freeserve.co.uk>
Sent: 08 August 2003 00:25
Subject: Express & Star boycott of FRIENDS OF BILSTON
COMMUNITY COLLEGE and all writings of Dr.George Barnsby
We believe your paper is foolish to ban all correspondence from the
FRIENDS, and any writings whatsoever from Dr.George Barnsby in the hope
that the real reasons for the closure of BCC can be permanently
withheld from public scrutiny
You will know that the main reasons given for closing Bilston Community
College (BCC) was that it owed many millions in debt, was the worst
college that the Further Education Funding Council had ever inspected,
and that it had systematically defrauded the government. All of these
charges have proved to be false and when the Serious Fraud Squad of the
West Midlands Police cleared BCC of any fraudulent activity the writing
should have been on the wall for most thoughtful and ethical people.
Instead, the Learning & Skills Council, who took over the assets of
BCC and were given the task of winding up the FEFC, took the same
institutionally racist position as the FEFC.
Since then support for the closure of BCC has been sustained by
racists, institutional racists, conservatives, and partisans of
Wolverhampton City College (WCC), which never should have been opened.
They hope that something will turn up, or that the FRIENDS will go
away, or they ignore the question altogether by refusing to answer
correspondence addressed to them. This will be much the same position
as your paper is taking if it continues with this boycott.
Unfortunately for those who wrongly closed BCe and therefore improperly
opened WCC, despite being given about £50million in extra
funding, have not been able to meet modest targets for the training of
16-19 year olds. An enquiry into the training of this age group has now
been ordered by OFSTED (the exams agency) but Bilston Community College
challenged its inspection of Wolverhampton City College on the grounds
that it might have been carried out by some of the inspectors who
falsely claimed that BCC was the worst college they had ever inspected
and therefore were guilty of institutional racism. The racism endemic
in the education service, as in every public service in Britain, has
recently been exposed by the racism of OFSTED inspectors at the
Woodberry Down Primary School in London
In fact the only way to meet such educational targets is the Bilston
way of allowing communty groups to arrange their own education on their
own premises and thus empower ethnic minorities to be equal. Indeed,
the Learning and Skills Council has learned some lessons by allowing
the victimised staff of BCC to use their expertise to prepare courses
and syllabuses. The wheel has gone full circle.
Finally, the Express & Star must understand that the days of
deceit, trickery and spin are over. The days when the FEFC could claim
that Wolverhampton City Council approved the closure of BCC when what
it called 'consultation' consisted of a threat that if it did not
approve closure, all classes then running at the Bilston site would be
closed, are gone. The majority of informed people now understand that
Bilston College was deliberately and vindictively close. The longer the
culprits delay admitting their guilt the greater will be the damage to
their careers because the Bilston case is a landmark in Race Relation
history in Britain.
Beginning with Blunkett, all those both nationally and locally who
participated in the closure of BCC will be brought to book. They will
either apologise for their institutional racism in closing the first
multicultural college in the country or if their egos, racism and
anti-working class feelings are such that they refuse to do this they
will find no post of authority will be available to them within the
public service.
We again ask the EXPRESS & STAR to consider the impossible position
they would be in if they found (a) that they had supported an incorrect
and racist general position and (b) adopted methods of virtual coercion
to prevent the true case being heard.
TONY BENN
Congratulations to Hilary Benn for entering the Blair cabinet and thus
becoming the third generation of Benns to achieve that status. A unique
achievement.
Congratulations also to his proud father Tony Benn. Hilary will find
his a very hard act to follow.
Totally principled, honest and left-wing, Tony fought successfully
against accepting the title of Lord Stangate he inherited. He served as
a minister in both the Wilson and Callaghan governments and became the
longest serving Labour MP ever of 50 years before he retired in 2001.
Tony instinctively under stood that the closure of Bilston Community
College was a racist act. He cold not be hoodwinked into supporting for
a moment the lies and spin of New Labour. He is the most distinguished
opponent of the war in Iraq.
Tony refuses to consider himself a Bennite saying that all the Benns
have been independent radicals following their own consciences and
Hilary is in that mould.
But those of us who attempt to bring honesty and principle to politics
against the Blairites who have defiled it will be proud to continue to
consider ourselves Bennites. Long may Tony Benn be among us.
RENEE SHORT
I've got myself into hot water for saying in an advert for this
Bulletin, "What secret did Renee take to the grave?" The answer was
supposed to be, "The fact that she was Jewish." I can pass the buck,
however, to my good friend, Stan Newens. Stan is an honorary Black
Countryman He worked as a Bevan Boy in Cannock pits during the war and
got to know the Garner twins, Alan and Ray, who were members, with him,
of Labour Party youth organisations during the war.
Renee was a good left-winger and how she gained the seat was not the
least of her remarkable achievements. She came up to Birmingham and
contacted the leader of the Communist Party, Harry Bourne, who passed
her over to Max Bennett, the Wolverhampton CP secretary, who
took her around the shop stewards and district trade unions secretaries
who were persuaded to accept this woman, a striking redhead, and one
who knew her mind and spoke it, to be their next MP. She was elected in
1964 and her left-wing views, support for East-West trade and readiness
to open the Morning Star bazaar every Christmas, did not endear her to
Harold Wilson and the right-wing anti-female, racist elements who
constituted such a large proportion of Labour Party MPs at the time,
and not a negligible part now. Continuing to draw from Julia Langdon's
Obituary in the Guardian for 20 Jan 2003. She was best known within the
Labour Party as a long standing member of the National Executive
Committee (NEC) at a time when that body was a repository of much of
the political power of the party. She served from 1960 to 1988 with a
two-year break when she supported the soft left of Neil Kinnock, Joan
Lestor and Judith Hart in opposition to Tony Benn.
When Parliamentary Select Committees were formed in 1979 Renee became
the first chair, a post she held until her retirement. Here she
espoused a number of her favourite causes including medical research,
Aids, abortion, cancer control. and most notably nursery education. The
daughter of an engineer, she was born in Leamington Spa and educated at
Nottingham county grammar school and Manchester University. She worked
as a journalist and then as a theatrical costumier running her own
stage design school, combining this with a career in local and national
politics as well as bringing up two daughters. I could not have done it
without the best of possible husbands, she said of her husband Andrew.
No wonder she railed against the lack of women in Parliament and the
lack of concern for them as far as facilities and general attitudes was
concerned. It clearly took a super woman to do what she did.
I next refer to Stan Newen's funeral speech on 27.1.2003 at Golders
Green. Stan, who knew her reasonably well, was astounded to find that
he was at a Jewish funeral and assumed that she must have hidden it
from other people. Thus my gaff, Stan writes: I first met Renee Short
in 1960, when I was invited to address Abbotts Langley Labour Party,
near Watford as they wanted to nominate possible Parliamentary
candidates for SW.Hertfordshire.
In the chair was this striking woman with reddish hair, beautifully
turned out, who I afterwards learned had made herself a formidable
force on Watford RDC and the Herts CC. I am afraid I did not make a
favourable impression. As Renee told me in after years with her
characteristic laugh, she regarded me as a 'Trot' .(And so would I have
in those years, Stan! GB). Subsequently I won a seat near my home,
Epping, in 1964, the same year that Renee won W'ton NE. Both of us were
left wing, part of a left-wing contingent which included people like
Eric Heffer, Stan Orme, Norman Buchan, Norman Atkinson and Trevor Park.
Renee was determined to plough her own furrow and she did not join up
with us in the Tribune Group. She was very outspoken and soon a member
of the Esimates Committee. She was recognised as an expert on social
affairs and made a considerable impact in this sphere.
'With the backing of the Transport and General Workers Union, who
sponsored her, she became a member of the NEC of the Labour Party on
which she remained until 1981. She was a forthright advocate of
women’s' rights, but her approach did not always accord with others, as
when she persisted that the women' committee should continue to be
elected by all MPs and not just women MPs. Renee was a strong advocate
of East-West trade and was in the chair of a number of Parliamentary
committees linked to Eastern Europe. Her constituency partner was Enoch
Powell with whose views she was diametrically opposed, but she was a
good constituency MP and if people, particularly black people, came to
her with a problem when they lived in Powell's constituency, she was
obliged to tell them that they must go to Powell'
Next I went to Ken Purchase and was astonished to find that he had a
completely different view of his predecessor. She was weak, did not
criticise Powell sufficiently, upset everyone in the party including
the chief whip and Neil Kinnock the leader. Here was something quite
unexpected. Did others in the Labour Party agree? I went to Renee's
agent, Don Jones, himself a left-winger No he didn't agree, Renee was a
good left-wing MP. I'll try a woman, I thought. Mary Garner, widow of
Alan and not too left-wing. She knew a great deal about Renee. She had
turned up on her doorstep unannounced during her first election
campaign and asked if she had a spare bed. Mary pointed to one in the
hall, Renee said, 'That will do,' and stayed for several weeks. No
doubt, Renee was a good left-wing MP. All of these people knew that
Rene was Jewish. There was no cover-up.
So why was Ken Purchase in a minority? It must be to do with the
campaign for having MPs who live locally instead of at a distance. For
this there is much to be said, but there has been some coolness between
me and the Wolverhampton Labour MPs in recent years. This has not been
over their treatment of Renee, but their lack of adventure and
initiative with regard to their localness. I have claimed that they
should improve their arrangements with the local Race movement by
participating in the activities of W'ton Race Equality Council instead
of just turning up once a year at its AGM. With Blair's huge majority
they would be much better employed in Wolverhampton on a Wednesday
evening once a month instead of kicking their heels in London doing
nothing very much. They would then be a direct link with Wolverhampton
and their task would be root out the racism in the civil service that
is at the root of racism and the lack of progress in eliminating it,
either in the deliberate, illegal closure of Bilston Community College
or in empowering ethnic minorities in the city.
I return to Stan Newens for news of Renee Short's later years. Renee
had hoped to be offered a peerage after stepping down from
Wolverhampton in 1987, but she had offended too deeply. After 1990 she
began to be very forgetful and by 1995 both she and her husband were a
menace to themselves if left alone. They therefore both went into a
home at Banbury. Andrew died three years before Renee. She was a good
left-wing MP. Salud Renee. Someone in the future, will want to write a
full-scale biography of you. You served our city well.
WOLVERHAMPTON
HISTORY AND HERITAGE SOCIETY
Formed in 1999 the Society has become an important influence in the
town. Its website, www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/home.htm under two
very active webmasters, Frank Sharman and Bev Parker has become one of
the largest in the city and Frank writes below of a new museum.
Incidently, both Keith Farley, the secretary of His & Hers, and
Frank Sharman have large libraries with important collections oflocal
history and we would be pleased to know of other local or specialised
libraries.
A new
museum in Wolverhampton
We don't often get a new museum opening in Wolverhampton, however may
of them are proposed from time to time. But it is reported (and I have
not yet been to see it) that the Dr. Ambedkar Community Centre in Zoar
Street has opened a museum dedicated to Dr. Ambedkar, which contains
about 60 of the doctor's personal possessions. As I understand it this
community centre is a Bhuddist vihara and their interest in Dr.
Ambedkar is primarily his association with Bhuddism in India. Dr.
Ambedkar started out life as a Hindu outcaste, despite which he gained
a PhD in law and qualified as a barrister in England. He had a
successful practice in India and also a very active political life. He
became a much revered leader of the ourtcastes - the Dalits. His
conversion to Bhuddism was closely associated with his rejection of the
Hindu attitude to Dalits. Dr. Ambedkar also has a lasting claim to fame
as the father of the Indian constitution. This remains one of the
world's longest written constitutions and was written mainly by a
committee of three, of which committee Dr. Ambedkar was usually the
only one to turn up. The constitution drew on his knowledge of the
experiences of many other countries' constitutions, as diverse as
Australia and Switzerland. It gained much of its length by its attempts
to entrench in law the rights of Dalits and others oppressed groups to
equal treatment - and in dealing with equality in this way the Indian
constitution was a forerunner of many others. I do not recollect that
the good Doctor contributed much to Bhuddist philosophy or whether he
died a committed and practising Bhuddist; nor whether, though he was
often in England, he ever came to Wolverhampton. On the other hand,
whilst their is a good sprinkling of statues to Dr. Ambedkar around
India, I do not recollect that there is a museum to him. It's rather
nice to have one here.
RUDI ACHTELSTETTER
I first met Rudi in 1969 when I attended a Summer Course for German
Teachers of English as a visiting lecturer at the Pedagogische
Hochschule in Potsdam. I attended two subsequent Summer Courses and
also a shorter Easter course for Young German Teachers which took place
on the Baltic Coast. Our two families have been mends ever since. We
have also been friendly with Len Jones who was a member of the
Wolverhampton Communist Party when he taught German at our local Regis
Comprehensive Schools to which both our sons, Robert and William, went
and participated in the mayhem which ruined it. The cost of
reorganising it was, to our disgust, that it became a Church school now
called Kings. Two other people completed our circle of correspondents
in the German Democratic Republic. These were Dave and Marguerite
Morgan who lived and taught in the GDR for at least 15 years and were
in charge of the English Summer Schools. With the collapse of the GDR
Dave and Marguerite returned to England and became activists in the
CPB, while Len Jones was written off, even by his family, as an old
Stalinist. So with that helpful or confusing introduction let us see
what Rudi has to say.
First of all the following question should be answered: Who forced the
population of 'East Germany' and its parties to found a state of their
own? The so-called FRG was founded in 1948 and the GDR in 1949!!! The
economic and political development in the GDR was by far more
complicated and difficult. Our country made a lot of contributions to
restoration of the USSR, up to 1955 as far as I know. The FRG stopped
much earlier. A lot of our towns were much harder hit by Anglo-American
blitzes in the eastern parts of Germany
(e.g. Dresden). Due to the separation of our country the east had no
steelworks, no hard coal etc. A lot of people had to be trained or
retrained because of the heavy loss ofIives during the war and because
of de-nazification (which was not carried out in the west according to
he demands) etc.
I had to be retrained as well. I was a clerk in an export firm in
Leizig. As no export was possible right after the war I was offered
training in Russian and later English. Nearly everything was paid by
our state!!! so I was able to start my profession as a teacher of
foreign languages. Even my further qualification was heavily subsidised
so that I had a chance of moving upwards to a teacher of English at our
University. Now I am very grateful for the all round support by our GDR
government.
On the other hand, I cannot deny my disappointment about the bad
mistakes made by the government of the GDR and especially that of the
USSR!! The latter had huge economic resources which were not reasonably
and profoundly used. The fault of the former was the hard line they
followed (As you once told me!)
Nevertheless one should understand that the population of one nation
cannot be split into two different nations, in the long run. I
personally was not allowed to visit my father who was seriously ill not
even when he had died I could not take part in his funeral!
These exaggerated and inhuman restrictions of the human traffic between
the two parts of Germany were, In my view, the reason for the rapid
breakdown of the wall and the end of the GDR.
In the meantime we have to recognise that lots of things have been
improved e.g. restoration of houses, factories, traffic etc. old age
pensioners can live in security.
On the other hand there are negative aspects as well e.g. prices for
sports events, cultural activities, education are constantly rising!
Due to the high unemployment rate, a lot of our people hay no other
choice but to go to the 'west' to find a job there. The result is that
Leipzig alone has lost about 100,000 inhabitants since 1989! This means
that long rows of mainly four-storied blocks of flats have become empty
in nearly all boroughs of our otherwise very nice town which has to
offer such a lot of facilities and amenities in the fields of culture,
education sport, recreation etc.
With regard to the current situation Rudi has no doubts and he writes
as follows:
"With great interest I was following up the events during Bush's visit
to London. What impressed me most were the massive demonstrations
against Bush's unjustified, illegal war and the fact that about 50% of
Britain's population demand a reasonable political solution of our
world's problems. Most of the events in London I watched on CNN and
listened on the BBC. Very informative was the press conference with
Bush and Blair during which British journalists posed some pretty
provocative questions on, e.g., how to combat future terror attacks,
and how to deal with those British subjects detained in Guantanamo and
insisting that a solution must be achieved soon."
DAVID AARONOVITCH
Another warmonger like Blair and others. No remorse for endorsing the
slaughter of tens of thousands ofIraqis. The only emotion to save his
own skin by illogically switching to the line that WMD would eventually
turn up. But Aaronovitch is a special target for me and I have a
special contempt for this man who betrayed both his nations, his family
and his friends. Some of you will know why he is my special bete noir
but for others I had better explain. At the London School of Economics
in the late 1940s I was the first working class secretary of the COMSOC
(Communist Society) as the high-flying middle class students finished
their studies and moved out both from the LSE and usually also from the
Communist Party. During my tenure of two years we had an
extraordinarily talented member named Val Sherman. He knew a number of
languages, including Serbo-Croat, which was particularly useful in
1948-49 when the dispute between the Soviet Union and Yugoslav CP was
at its height. Unfortunately Sherman had two very significant faults
which led to his undoing. One was that he thought himself better than
any other Communist. Better than Harry Pollitt, better than Party
student leaders and international Party leaders. His second fault was
that he was the most crushing boor that I have ever met and spent much
of his time trying to inveigle myself and others into his flat where he
would talk endlessly about his differences with the Party. Obviously
this could not go on indefinitely and he was expelled.
This person expelled then transmogrified himself into Sir Alued Sherman
advisor to Margaret Thatcher and head of her Centre for Policy Studies.
I have forecast that Aaronovitch will suffer the same fate.
Of course he rides high at the moment, voted the best columnist of the
year, but he cannot escape his fate. He has the mark of Cain on him
which cannot be erased. He is a warmonger, as Blair and Bush are.
Having voted for an illegal war they contemptuously change their plea
and claim that even if there were no WMD they were justified in waging
war against Saddam because he was a monstrous tyrant. Well, there are
many monstrous tyrants in the world, including Bush and Blair and there
are proper ways of dealing with them. Unilateralist action is
imperialist and that is what Aaronovitch is - an imperialist.
The LSE is also the source of much of the philosophy of the Third Way,
so it can be seen why I have a special interest in pursuing those at
LSE who honourably exposed labour imperialism from 1945 to the present
day.
BLAIR
The GB Library had been the first to recognise that Blair had gained
for himself more power in Britain than any man since Oliver Cromwell.
Blair's New Labour covered the traditional left, the centre and much of
the right putting perhaps the Tory Party out of business forever. The
traditional way of exercising such power would have been a coalition of
Labour and Liberals. But Blair had performed it for New Labour alone.
For that reason alone, Blair deserved to be listened to. Mind you, from
the very beginning New Labour fell short of the 'true values' of
Labour, something which Blair would later have the effrontery to
appropriate to himself, when he had violated most of the principles of
socialism and that by the time of the second election in 2001.
For instance the leading characteristic of capitalism is greed. This
Blair embraced with enthusiasm. He considerably increased MPs and
minister salaries while freezing every one else's. As the Bulletin
pointed out, this recognised the principle that those who were
important were entitled to be affluent, while those who were poor were
of lesser value with the reverse assumption that those who were poor
were of little value while those who were rich were of high worth.
Now that Blair has destroyed most of this promise by exposing New
Labour as old right-wing Labour writ large and the party of war mongers
it is necessary for the Working Class Library to make a second radical
contribution to radicalise New Labour by exposing the racism of Blair.
FRANK BRUNO AND LENNY HENRY
At the other end of the scale are the mental health problems suffered
by blacks in Britain high lighted by two of the most famous black
people, loved by blacks and whites alike, one of whom is from Dudley.
We wish them both a complete recovery and a health service, which is
completely multi-cultural for all other ethnic minority people who
suffer disproportionately from mental health problems.
STUPID
WHITE MEN
Dear Michael Moore
The attached material from FRIENDS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE is to
express admiration for your book of that name and to show that it is
not only in the US that STUPID WHITE MEN are to be found. Full details
of our stupid white men are to be found on our two web sites
also e-mail:
barnsby@blueyonder.uk ,or
johnkyte@milvus.fsnet.co.uk
We also append both your e-mail address and web site with the
recommendation that British people should support you both for your
bravery and wisdom
e-mail: mmflint@aol.com
web: www.michaelmoore.com
For other information consult DR.GEORGE BARNSBY
at 141 Henwood Road, Wolverhampton WV6 8PJ
Tele & Fax 01902 751888
Bilston Community College has now become a Civil Rights issue as well
as the political, educational and moral one it has always been. G.B.
College
Closure Exposed as Racist and Illegal
In 1999, the Friends of Bilston Community College warned that the
action taken by the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), and its
supporters, to close the college, and destroy community education, was
both racist and illegal. Facts which have come to light since confirm
the accuracy of the Friends' position. Three major factors which
determined the closure can now be seen to have implications far beyond
Bilston because they are a direct threat to democracy.
The three factors are:
(i) the failure of the Secretary of State at the time (David Blunkett)
to deal with the college's appeal against the improper, illegal and
racist action of the FEFC;
(ii) the circulation of unsubstantiated allegations against college
managers - allegations which were demonstrated by the Fraud Squad
(following a two-year investigation) to be completely false;
(iii) the suppression of the case against the closure made by
supporters of Bilston and of community education for working-class,
especially ethnic minority, people.
Although the facts now in the public domain justify an Independent
Inquiry, the government and the Learning and Skills Council (the FEFC
under a different name) persist with a cover up. The core issues are
the accountability of ministers and civil servants and, in particular,
their refusal to address racism and to prevent the abuse of power.
Keith Wymer
December 2003
WOLVERHAMPTON
- THE MOST IMPORTANT UNIVERSITY IN BRITAIN
March 03 brought the news that Wolverhampton University has 48% working
class students. This is the highest in the country. It is the most important educational
achievement of the decade. Another first for Wolverhampton.
This makes Wolverhampton University the most important in Britain. More
important than Oxford and Cambridge where the very influential Heads of
Public Schools are at this very minute squabbling to keep their
centuries old monopoly to send their pupils to those and other elite
Universities. They have seen the future and it works. The 48% is the
harbinger of the centuries to come. That figure will grow as
increasingly the working class seeks education. What is the limit? No
one knows, 75%? 90? But we face an almighty class struggle. For on
their monopoly of education rests the power of the ruling class to
control and exploit the working class and thus maintain their wealth.
The achievement of 48% is even more important than it appears, for no
one knows how it was achieved. The University authorities made the
orthodox attempts to attract working class students. But no one knows
why Wolverhampton at 48% succeeded and Leeds 16%, Newcastle 17%,
Manchester 19% and all other Universities failed. It can only mean that
the working class students themselves found their way to higher
education despite and not because of the feeble attempts of the
authorities to attract them. In this lies both the strength and the
weakness of their position and we must see that totally different
methods of governance are used than the present orthodox ones. The
elitist counter attack tactics are clear. Yes, this is a considerable
achievement they will say, but of course, the academic achievement is
low (in fact this is not the case and present standards are quite
good), so that it must remain at the lowest rate of funding as it is
now. That, together with student payment of fees, horrendous student
debt and other destabilising measures (whether by Tory or New Labour
governments) ought to keep working class numbers
under control. This must be opposed and the same principles applied to
students as Gordon Brown applied to colleges. The most important task
of a Labour Government is to end poverty and to this end priority of
educational revenues must be spent in educating the uneducated.
27% of these numbers at Wolverhampton are ethnic minority students.
This also is a record percentage and represents an earlier record
achievement for Wolverhampton. Bilston Community College was the first
multicultural college in Britain with a record 30% of ethnic minority
staff What happened to it? It was closed by racists, educational
elitists, snobs, supporters of Wulfrun College and other thoughtless
people. Among these were either two high officials of the University
acting on their own, or the governing body of Wolverhampton University.
The present position is that all those who closed Bilston Community
College or support the closure will be expected to apologise for their
institutional racism. These include the Further Education Funding
Council and its successor body the Learning and Skills Council. Also
the successive Ministers, David Blunkett, Lady Blackstone, Margaret
Hodge etc up to Charles Clarke. At present they are all engaged in
attempts to censor us by engaging in the highly undemocratic process of
totally ignoring everything the Friends of Bilston Community College
address to them.
It is vitally important that the Wolverhampton University position is
cleared up as it would appear that certain leading figures are not
capable of leading the struggle for an entirely new form of university
education made possible by the 48% of working class students at
Wolverhampton.
Dr.George Barnsby
CONNECTING HISTORIES
The GB Working Class Library has been invited to join the above
organisaton which includes Birmingham Central Library Archives,
University of Warwick CRER, University of Binl1ingham - School of
Education, Institute of Race Relations, 'Black Past, Birmngham Futures'
Group.
We shall, of course, be very happy to join this Partnership which will
focus on West Midlands migration histories particularly after 1945. We
take this opportunity to remind our readers that our Archives include
Wolverhampton and Black Country Communist Party records from 1945,
Irish material including 1982 Conference in Wolverhampton of
Protestants and Catholics made difficult by local authorities believing
that we were bringing to Britain 'terrorists'; much South African
material on release of Nelson Mandela and campaigns for election of ANC
etc.
But we shall also suggest that Wolverhampton Black and Ethnic Minority
Experience which has one of the best collections of interviews with
black pioneers of the Windrush times, should be invited to join.
FACE
UP TO THE ARMS CRISIS
Only a madman would approve the arms trade or think of it as a good
thing. Nevertheless most of us give it our qualified support. Arms, we
say, are an evil when used in the wrong hands, but an unfortunate
necessity if used for defence.
We need to be aware that there is a global crisis in the matter of arms
- of small arms in particular. Essentially it is a crisis of control
brought on by the inability of governments to limit the proliferation
of small arms. The governments of countries who are the main
manufacturers of arms, such as the US, the UK, France, etc, must now
address this issue.
Throughout the world, ease of access to small arms fuels conflict,
deepens poverty, and increases abuses of human rights. Often a gun in
the hand will turn a minor dispute into a killing.
On 9th October, a joint campaign by Oxfam, Amnesty International, and
the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) was launched
across several countries. The campaign is called "Control Arms".
In Brazil they demonstrated in
Sao Paulo central plaza. It is estimated that 40,000 Brazilians are
killed by firearms each year (that's 8% of all gun-related deaths in
the world) and campaigners are demanding that the government ratify a
new law on disarmament.
In Cambodia a rally of
thousands marched through Phnom Penh streets in support of the campaign
in a demonstration reckoned to be the biggest of its kind since the
horrific war of the 1970's.
In Senegal a child who had been
injured by a landmine led a march of 300 children through Dakar to ask
President Abdou1aye Wade to adopt the Arms Trade Treaty.
In Dakar National Theatre
speakers gave first hand accounts of armed violence and pledged support
for the campaign.
In the UK rows of white
gravestones and yards of green turf turned Trafalgar Square into a
graveyard to give dramatic impact to the launch. This was backed with
the report called "Shattered Lives". Since then campaigners across the
country have called on their MPs and asked them to write to the Foreign
Secretary in support of an International Treaty on Arms Control (a text
for which already exists).
The International Treaty must be the ultimate aim of the campaign. This
is wanted by the year 2006 when the UN Review Conference on Small Arms
is due. The Treaty would aim to stop the export of arms to places where
they are likely to be used in violation of humanitarian law, and it
should have the necessary legal "teeth" to challenge decisions of
governments through national and international courts and apply
diplomatic sanctions where these are needed.
The annual TUC Programme of Work
for Trades Union Councils guides our activity.
Only through union strength can we win better rights at work and
deliver a better quality of life for people throughout society.
Trades Union Councils are more important now than they have been for
over a decade. With threats of racism and fascism, changes in the
labour market and debates over the future of public services, the trade
union voice in the community is as important as ever. The capacity of
our trades council to provide a local response and to organise trade
unionists into coalitions with other progressive forces is crucial.
People at work in the UK enjoy fewer rights than most people in the
rest of Europe. But that doesn't stop employers' organisations from
arguing for less 'red tape'. What they really mean is there should be
fewer rights for workers. We owe it to the Holdens, Friction Dynamex
and William Cook workers whom we have supported over recent years, to
continue to campaign for protection from day one from unfair treatment
or dismissal and the right to take industrial action, including
solidarity action, without breach of contract or dismissal.
The infamous PFI, where entire NHS services are built and run by big
business, student top-up fees and Foundation Hospitals will continue to
dog New Labour in the coming year. The newly built publicly funded
Heart & Lung Centre in Wolverhampton proves the lie that
privatisation is the only option for the NHS.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Wolverhampton
increased over the last year to 6,295 (6.2%). The West Midlands rate
increased to 5.8% but nationally it dropped to 2.4%.
The frustration of the hopes and aspirations of trade unionists on a
whole range of issues has become more difficult to live with and the
last year has seen a continued rise in the number of industrial unrest.
WHAT
HAPPENS NEXT?
There has been extreme uncertainty since the fall of Communism in 1991.
Mind you it was plain that Gorbachev and perestroika were not defeated
but gave up the ghost rather than face world conflict which no one
could win. It was always the same, the Communists had compromised at
the time of the Cuban crisis rather than allow Kennedy to unleash
nuclear war which would have destroyed mankind.
When the USA became the only world super-power, it never seemed to me
that it inherited a condition where it would dominate the world. I
likened the position of the USA to an immense worm with capitalism at
its head and labour at its tail. One end would always be attacking the
other end and neither end could win, so that there would be an
implosion somewhere equivalent to the forgotten forecast of Marx that
the alternative to the victory of one of the contending parties was the
ruin of both. Monopoly capitalism had provided periods of stability,
but global capitalism was not likely to provide this, its main
characteristic being ever greater extremes of wealth and poverty which
would create continual world instability and protest.
My first attempt to analyse the war in Iraq was on Day 33, 19 May 2003
(see my papers Opposition to the War in Iraq and the Present state of
Race Relations in Wolverhampton, on our web site). This justified the
existence of Al-Qaeda and suggested that, within the parameters adopted
the USA and Britain could destroy the world, but could not conquer it.
Those parameters were that not more of their own personnel could be
killed than would invoke social protest at home, and that not more of
those who were allegedly being liberated should be killed as rendered
the proposition implausible. This is still the warmongers' dilemma,
although once the full effectiveness of Al Qaeda's operations (or
perhaps non-operations would be a better term), the USA will not even
be allowed the luxury of destroying the world.
As the war continued, further resistance developed in the USA which we
peaceniks have been able to utilise. Two outstanding individuals have
emerged. The first was Michael Moore whose inspired slogan has been
'Stupid White Men'. This we have used, notably with the EXPRESS &
STAR which stupidly boycotts any reference at all to the FRIENDS OF
BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE or the writings of Dr. George Barnsby. Also the Learning & Skills Council which, given the task
of winding up the totally discredited Further Education Funding Council
which closed Bilston Community College instead took over the role of
the FEFC. These are also stupid white men who will discredit
themselves. Notice we say stupid white men because although there may
be an occasional white woman men predominate. Of black men there will
be none and it is this racism which extends into the LSC's inspection
arm, nominally independent, but saturated with the racist culture which
prevents a multi cultural education system emerging in Britain.
George Soros is the financial genius who left Hungary in 1956 for the
of the west and found capitalism more to his liking than socialism, but
now finds that the Bush doctrine of preemptive wars to allow the US to
impose its views on the rest of the world is so wrong headed that the
US extremist neo-conservatives who thought up and carry through that
policy must be opposed. For me one of Soros' most important
contributions is to divide societies into Open Societies which are
democratic and allow free expression, and Closed Societies which are
dictatorships.
Both Britain and the USA have hitherto been considered Open societies,
but both Blair and Blunkett are involved in policies which are changing
Britain from an Open to a Closed Society. The latest is Blunkett's
suggestion that we will inevitably be attacked by Al Queda and
therefore we should support now the financial sacrifices of a war
economy and the restrictions of liberties which war policies will
entail The second example of the Closed economy is another matter
involving Blair and Blunkett. It is another of those matters which they
want to be rid of, but continues to come back to haunt them. This is
the case of Bilston Community College. This was the first multi
cultural College in Britain with 30% of ethnic minority staff and was
closed in 1999 despite the fact that the main charges against it had
all proved false. Both the Wolverhampton City Chief Executive, Derrick
Anderson, and leading personnel at Wolverhampton University played
leading roles in the closure of Bilston Community College (BCC) and the
setting up of Wolverhampton City College which was improper and
probably illegal as BCC should not have been closed. The issue that
brings Bilston back in the public domain in 2004 is the charge that the
Learning & Skills Council, which eventually sued the auditors, not
the College for moneys allegedly illegally spent, have settled the case
out of court, terms not disclosed, and consider the matter permanently
settled.
As matters stand, there has been no general analysis of race relations
in Wolverhampton since the Race Equality Council was disbanded. The
bringing in of outside race relations experts without any previous
knowledge of the city has meant that many of those who worked to build
the most effective race relations council in the country have been,
either deliberately or accidentally, excluded from the new
organisation. That racism continues to be the most pressing problem to
be tackled in Wolverhampton, as in the rest of the country, that
institutional racism is losing its effectiveness, because too many pay
lip service to equal opportunities have no intention of inconveniencing
themselves by doing much about it.
Finally, the ultimate aim of US policy which Blair was willing to
follow was not only illegal and racist war against Iraq, but continuing
illegal and racist war against the so-called axis of evil, Iran, Syria,
Libya, N. Korea and the rest, all of whom are coloured nations. No
wonder Blair is livid with Clare Short, although even she stops short
of exposing the racism of Blair' s policies.
Fortunately Al Queda has scotched these evil plans and it is difficult
to see where Bush and Blair go from here.
CUBA
We will end our Bulletin with a piece about Cuba. Socialist country
extraordinary.
Occupied by US imperialism since the day of its liberation from Spain
in 1898 when the US Congress passed a law enabling it to interfere in
Cuban affairs and occupy a permanent base at Guantanamo Bay. Subject to
almost continuous CIA plots to kill Castro and overthrow the Republic.
Now, it appears, the only place on earth where the USA can incarcerate
so-called terrorists without the inconvenience of keeping them on US
territory. Weekly newspaper Granma an inspiration to South American and
other progressives. Try also the website www.granma.cu
Read the Autobiography of GEORGE BARNSBY entitled
SUBVERSIVE or One third of the Autobiography of a Communist.
Price
£3
50pp
Available from 141 Henwood Rd. Wolverhampton W.Mids WV6 8PJ