Enough has happened since my second letter of 16 Aug for me to raise with all concerned the two questions above. This letter will be posted to all concerned to remind them, together with other documents.

The most important development was a note from Eric Hobsbawn suggesting that I might be wrong in stating that John Angus died without leaving any records, since he was cared for by Chris Wrigley in his later years. Chris confirmed however that although he was in Burma he spoke little of it, more of Spain and he left no records. A copy of Chris’s email of 20 Sep 06 is also in the post.

The second question I raised was a statement in the minutes of the History Group that I hold that a complete record of the proceedings of the Historians Group had been deposited by Lionel Munby at Churchill College Cambridge. This I have checked out, but the Archivist librarian at Cambridge assures me that this is not the case. This is a serious matter. Record for many years gone astray. Can Lionel be persuaded to take up this question?

A third development has arisen from Graham Stevenson’s, the T&GWU organiser, list of Communist biographies. I particularly wanted to trace the biography of Douglas Garman, the brother of the Garman sisters who shocked respectable society with their infidelities. Kathleen Garman was for many years the mistress of Jacob Epstein, the American born sculptor, eventually became his wife and after his death beqeathed his incomparable art collection to the Walsall Art Gallery. Douglas Garman was a Communist and Education Organiser for the CPGB in London where I met him quite often. I have been able to down load his biography from Graham Stevenson’s marvellous collection of Communist biographies and have been gratified to learn that his papers are in the national archives and that he remained a Communist until his death. The Garmans, although not directly involved would have known of the so-called Walsall Anarchist bomb plot, particularly Douglas, who would have known all about police infiltration into the labour movement.

This ties up with recent developments in the Walsall Bomb Plot. This has taken the form of an intervention by a John Harper who turns out to be a member of the family which produced the iron castings for the bomb which the plotters claimed was for use not in England, but in Russia. Harper has investigated the bomb from the unique angle of whether the plotters were efficient or not, and comes to the conclusion that the bombs could not have been ignited and they didn’t know what they were doing. This, of course, has obvious application to today’s so called terrorists that Blair’s illegal war in Iraq have spawned.

The next thing is to welcome activities of Graham Stevenson in the field of Labour history. His email is enclosed. Just as welcome has been the news today from John Foster, the noted Labour historian, of his finding papers of mine from last year which he had mislaid. John is especially important as the international secretary of the CPB which, as he says leaves him very little time for historical research, but he is the man who has been in touch with the Iraqi Communist Party and interviewed its leader and other progressive elements in Iraq. Welcome to our circle, John.

With regard to my initial conclusions (a) that there were effectively two Historians’ Groups, one an elite group and the other for nerds like me. I was most interested in and proud of how our great historians, Thompson, Hill, and Hobsbawn in particular, collectively discussed such a topic as the trilogy of History in the Making while changing the face of historical understanding by giving it a materialist, Marxist focus. But having made my point I admit that I was perhaps a little severe and there was no intent to act in an elitist way; that all of us were friends, comrades and equals as we are today, and this contrasts starkly with how New Labour leaders such as Gordon Brown condescend to notice history in their race to destroy the Labour Party. And these Party records have now disappeared. It’s not good enough.

My second point of criticism follows on from the first. It is that everyone concerned seems to be anxious to deny responsibility for the records of activities in which they were involved. Where are the records of John Attwood’s period of secretary of the Historians’ Group. Who is going to search out the records or even reminiscences of John Attwood, who we now know lives in Germany. Geoff Ferres still seems to be about. He was a most efficient secretary of the Group until he mysteriously disappeared.

Who will contact him? Mike Squires and Wiilie Thompson have been secretaries of the transition from CPGB History Group to the Socialist History Society. Where are their records? As I say above, it is just not good enough.

I will end on a personal note. My autobiography ‘Subversive - One third of the Autobiography of a Communist’ which can now be down loaded on www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk illustrates the forces’ broad sheet demanding the opening of the Second Front in 1942. Since the authorities could not very well arrest me for treason, they exiled me abroad, where I spent four years in Burma and India. I asked then, and ask again, was this the first forces’ newspaper since Commonwealth times in the seventeenth century? This has now produced information on the mutiny of troops at the end of the war and various forces’ parliaments in the progressive surge near the ending of the 2nd.World War. But no forces’ newspapers. Was mine the first? It naturally interests me, but has a wider political significance.

Finally, as the great American economist Kenneth Galbraith would have said, Tristram Hunt in conjunction with the Guardian is running a campaign to popularise working class history. I am suggesting that he nominates at this Xmas, and every other Xmas, the greatest ever example of working class solidarity when German and British soldiers fraternised in No-Man’s-Land in 1914 and the famous game of football was played. This mutiny faced politicians and the military with an insoluble dilemma. Either they could pretend that it had not happened, in which case they could not shoot the mutineers, and this seems to have occurred in Germany where I am told there is no working class memory of the event. Or they could shoot the men by admitting that the revolt had occurred. This would have outraged public opinion. It was to take until 1916 before the British authorities could be assured that the natural order of events had been restored, namely that British workers would shoot German workers for the benefit of of world imperialism.

GEORGE BARNSBY
GB Working Class Library and Free Communist Bookshop

Dear Tristram Hunt

I would like acknowledgement that you received my email of 26 July in which we learned of your very important project to popularise working class history.

I then sent you copies of my four free booklets, Radical Wolverhampton, Radical Birmingham, Radical Walsall and Radical Dudley. I also set out the sources of Black Country and Birmingham working class history, apart from my books on this subject, quoting Carl Chinn, Ned Williams, and publications of The Blackcountryman, The  weekly Black Country Bugle, Stan Newens and our Black Country Living Museum as examples of the unrivalled sources, exceeding even Manchester, we would venture to claim,  of modern sources of local working class history.

The other reason for this email is to ask you to recognise at Xmas the most important event of working class solidarity that perhaps ever took place.  Namely the fraternisation of  German and British troops at Xmas 1914 when the famous game of football was played. I would empahise that the event had repercussions far beyond the ending of the truce since it gave politicians and army commands the impossible dilemma of either pretending that it did not take place, which would make it impossible for them to shoot the soldiers concerned for mutiny, or shoot the mutineers and thus admit that a mutiny had occurred. It was at least two years before the authorities could be reassured that German and British soldiers would agree to mutually slaughter each other. Their dilemma reaches out to the present day where troops are refusing to fight in Iraq and other imperialist wars.

GEORGE BARNSBY

Today all news stands still. There is an air of unreality. Of deja vu. Of politics played on a single stage. No one mentions Hugo Chavez or Evo Mores or the fact that every single country on the great sub-continent of South America is in revolt against the neo-cons of Bush on  whose coat tails clings Blair.

Who’s for the war in Iraq goes the cry. I am says Blair enthusiastically. I am growls Brown. I am says David Cameron who has forsaken immortality by supporting the war that the majority of his own party rejects. I am say a hundred and more Labour MPs still hoping to become the Minister of Nothingness or be ermined robed with fat emoluments in the House of Lords.

We’re not telling you whether we support the war say the so-called guardians of truth in the spoken word on our behalf such as Paxman, Jon Snow, Andrew Marr, Kirsty Wark and others who gave intellectual support to Blair by never challenging  him on the subject of the illegal war in Iraq.

News programmes such as Any Questions or This Week which had some attraction,  now have none for no one now believes anyone who aspires to address them on politics.
Truly the inmates have taken over the Asylum!

We have returned to a previous  stage spoken of by Mikhail Gorbachov where,  ‘We must let situations develop and then analyse them, rather than  predicting a fantasy future.’  This is true but still the slaughter goes on and the disintegration of Iraq and the self-destruction of Israel continue.

Is there any hope? If so it depends on outstanding individuals such as Chomsky, Soros,  Michael Moore and increasing numbers of Congressmen who oppose Bush in the USA.  Also pioneers of thought in Britain such as the Tories, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Simon Jenkins, Max Hastings and Henry Porter; and the activities of such as Tony Benn, the only man I know who was not deceived by Tony Blair  and ‘New Labour’ from the very first day;  also  the Women’s Institute, the first people to tumble Blair and boo him at their national conference years ago,  together with the  rejuvenated trade union movement in in Britain,  not least the National Union of Journalists which not only opposes the war, but publishes a code of behaviour for journalists,  which the lords of the third estate such as Paxman insolently ignore. This together with the continued support of the majority of the people of Britain who oppose the war in Iraq give hope that Bush and Blair can be removed. But it will be a close run thing.

GEORGE BARNSBY

Dear Clare

Congratulations on taking Tony Benn’s line of leaving Parliament to do some politics.

My money’s on Ken Purchase’s classic saying,  I’d give Blair ten minutes to clear his desk.

Best wishes

GEORGE BARNSBY

Dear Joan

The closure of the Eye Infirmary is foolishness  enough. Now we have the closure of hospitals.  And it cannot be long before they attempt to close our own New Cross  given  its low rating in the so-called efficiency tables and the criminal neglect and inefficiency of its board led by David Loughton which finds it one of the worst for MRSA, which, as we know can be fatal to eye patients.

I’m sure  you and Roy Stallard will mobilise the Friends of the Eye Infirmary and I will try to find out what the trade unions and others are doing not merely to save our NHS, but also to rid us for good of the war criminal Blair and his New Labour fellow travellers who are behind this betrayal of the principles of the Labour Party.

GEORGE BARNSBY

Dear Rob,

Thank you for replying so promptly to my email of 8 September.

You accuse me of attributing views you do not hold on issues which I have not consulted you about and that you will ignore any future emails of mine. This is not a rational attitude to take in view of your published views. These are that Blair should resign next May and a new leader be in place by the autumn 2007 LP conference. I compared this with Ken Purchase’s view, and mine, that Blair should clear his desk and go within ten minutes. I then said that your view condones the continued slaughter of the people of Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan for another year or more. True or false?

I would like to explain why, as a historian, I have felt it necessary to confine my views to the attitudes of the three MPs of the city of Wolverhampton.

It goes back to 1954 when I arrived in Wolverhampton to teach at Etheridge Secondary Modern School, Bilston. I formed a triumvirate friendship with Ken Purchase and Dennis Turner. These two had joined the largest party of Labour in Britain, the Labour Party, and they successively climbed the ladder to left-wing town councillors and then left wing Members of Parliament. I had opted to join the largest party of Labour in the world, the Communist Party, and I became a historian of the working class movement of Wolverhampton and the Black Country. When I became the secretary of the local Communist Party, the government and police did me the signal honour of taking out a ‘dossier’ about me accusing me of being a danger to the capitalist state.

With this background I have watched with horror the reneging of Dennis Turner from socialist to Blairite and the importation of McFadden, now a Blairite minister, with no idea whatsoever of Bilston history and traditions which Dennis Turner had in his left wing days been a guardian.

It is vital at this crucial stage of Britain’s history that both points of view be put and argued.

GEORGE BARNSBY
GB Peoples Library and Free Communist Bookshop.
Web: gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk

WE, HISTORIANS AND POLITICAL ACTIVISTS IN THE WEST MIDLANDS HAVE OUR OWN ROLE TO PLAY AS THE LAST DAYS OF BLAIR AND THE PROFOUNDLY ANTI-SOCIALIST ‘NEW LABOUR PROJECT’ UNFOLD BEFORE OUR VERY EYES. HERE WE NAME NOT ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE SAVED THE HONOUR 0F THE LABOUR PARTY, BUT ALSO THOSE WHO HAVE BETRAYED IT. THUS ENDS THE SO-CALLED ‘WHITE MAN’S BURDEN’ AS THE EMPIRE FINALLY STRIKES BACK.

Dear Ken Purchase,

Congratulations on your statement recorded in the Express & Star Sep 6 condemning Blair.

I still treasure the list of 50 or so Labour MPs, who originally opposed the war in Iraq in March 2003. You are on that memorable list of those who first saved the honour of the Labour Party.

I have hitherto used a slogan I took from Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star that Blair war criminal, serial killer, barbarian and traitor should be arrested at once and share an exercise yard with Saddam Hussein, but I propose to change it, whether with your permission or not, to your remark, surely also destined for posterity, I’D GIVE HIM TEN MINUTES TO CLEAR HIS DESK.

What a contrast with Rob Marris (I speak more in sorrow than anger) who voted for the war, and now believes that the slaughter in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine should continue while a leisurely solution is found for Labour’s problems.

This is akin to Patricia Hewitt’s foolish view that getting rid of Blair was a left-wing Labour plot, whereas, the fact is that more Tory than Labour supporters oppose the war in Iraq and the majority of the population oppose the war. Here David Cameron, who flirted with immortality not so long ago in opposing the war, now becomes a nonentity by supporting it.

As for the others, there is Dennis Turner, who we must commiserate with on his heart attack. He managed one of the greatest turnabouts in political history from socialist chair of governors of Bilston Community College to Blairite taking the absurd title of Lord Turner of Bilston, (met with hoots of derision from the majority of his constituents) to plumb the depths of political treachery. He then allowed a Blair creature, McFadden, to take his
safe seat in Bilston.

I have analysed the situation as at 1st. September in my Autumn BLOG which I hope people will download on www.gbpeopleshistory.co.uk  But events are now moving so fast that Blair, like Bush could go at any time. In this situation it is lamentable to find the chief BBC reporter, Nick Robinson, failing to challenge Blair on the war in Iraq.

BLAIR SHOULD GO IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES. Anything else is neo-con imperialism which threatens the destruction of the world.

GEORGE BARNSBY

Blog 6 Autumn 2006 and Feed Backs

THE GEORGE BARNSBY WORKING CLASS LIBRARY AND FREE COMMUNIST BOOKSHOP

141 Henwood Rd. Wolverhampton, W.Mids WV6 8PJ

Email: barnsby@blueyonder.co.uk Web www.gbpeoples.co.uk

BLOG 6 AUTUMN 2006

THIS IS AN OFFERING TO THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE OF WOLVERHAMPTON AND BEYOND DEDICATED TO THE PRINCIPLE THAT TONY BLAIR, WAR CRIMINAL, SERIAL KILLER, BARBARIAN AND TRAITOR SHOULD BE ARRESTED AT ONCE AND SHARE AN EXERCISE WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN. (and if it happens that Saddam is executed for his war crimes any time soon we would not be averse to Blair suffering the same fate, unless he changes his policies.)

VICTORY OF THE MONTH – TREVOR PHILLIPS AND THE POWER OF THE BLOG.

The world is changing. In the old days institutions and persons could declare their undying support for democracy and openness and then ignore any criticism by not replying to complaints. Such has been the attitude of the Learning and Skills Council, safe in the knowledge that Civil Servants and government departments would back them..

However, these are the days of instant communication, the day of the iPod and BLOG, days when crimes committed can be instantly exposed to the whole world. One of the first leaders to recognise this fact has been Trevor Phillips of the Commission for Racial Equality and we salute him for that.

CAN ANYONE WHO RECEIVES PUBLIC FINANCE REPRESENT ETHNIC MINORITY PEOPLE?

This question arises in all its starkness when the most important question of our age, namely the illegality and racism of the war in Iraq is discussed.

We put this question to Trevor Phillips in an email of 18 July. His statement that the question of Iraq was ‘not within his remit’, would not reflect the view of the majority of people in Britain. Moreover it left open the issue of whether he supported the war or not, an impossible situation for the man in charge of Race Relations in Britain.

We also put the question of why he would not produce an ethnic break-down of his staff at CRE, and his refusal to require that the ethnicity of all those who provided services to government departments be revealed.

Then there was the question of Tony Blair’s decision to abolish the CRE, we do not know whether Trevor supports this proposal or not..

Even worse was the arbitrary decision of the OFTSED chief, David Bell, to remove all mention of Race from school and College inspections. This contributes to the general uncertainty as to the true state of affairs and whether black students might feel obliged to riot, as they did in Birmingham in October 2005, unless their grievances of being equal to white children when entering school at 5, only to be far behind whites at 16 and GCSE exams, are attended to.

Finally, there were two local issues. One was Trevor’s seeming arbitrary decision to close down the Wolverhampton Race Equality Council. This had indeed fallen on hard times, but it was the oldest WREC in Britain which had been continuously controlled by the two main ethnic minority groups in Wolverhampton, namely Punjabis and African-Caribbeans. No one in Wolverhampton wanted the WREC closed and ring-fenced finance was provided by the City council for a successor unit.

Then there was the closure of Bilston Community College, the first multicultural college in Britain with its 30% ethnic minority staff, never equalled, before or since. It was closed because it was a ‘socialist’ college in the sense of being set up to provide open access education in Bilston where the closure of the last steelworks in the town had created mass unemployment. Blunkett (‘I never apologise for mistakes’) and Blackstone (Lady so-called) carried out the closure, together with local figures largely from the University of Wolverhampton. Closure was supported by Tony Blair and the racist civil servants of the DforES.

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All this was relevant a few months ago, but is now even more so when John Reid, our Home Secretary, is busy inventing non-existing terrorist threats, the police continue to arrest suspects who will have to be released eventually, Blair goes on holiday, ignoring the demand of 100 Labour MPs for the recall of Parliament.

Not to mention the total destruction of Lebanon by Israeli invasion forces which the world is forced to watch in helpless horror.

THE NEW RACE EQUALITY UNIT IN WOLVERHAMPTON

This has now been set up in Wolverhampton, but is thoroughly unsatisfactory on the two fold grounds of being financed by the government and therefore unable to represent race relations properly and also its pre-BLOG habit of not replying to correspondence sent to it.

My interest in this organisation is considerable as can be shown by a look at the history of WREC which it replaces. As secretary of the Wolverhampton Communist Party I was the initiator of the Wolverhampton Council for Racial Harmony in 1965 which later became the WREC. I have been a executive committee member continuously since then except for a few of the early years when if I had served the racists would have cried ‘Communist dominated’. This was at the height of the Cold War and Enoch Powell induced racism. The year before WREC closed I was EC member, Hon Vice-President, chair of the Police Committee , and chair of the Statistical Committee. I also represented WREC on a number of outside bodies two of which were the Equal Opportunities Committee of Wolverhampton University and Age Concern. I was also the recipient of the WREC award for outstanding service to Race Relations. This long association was abruptly terminated the year before WREC was closed in 2003 when the Director of WREC failed to present my nomination by the India Workers Association of Wolverhampton to the AGM for re-election to the EC on the grounds that I had recently had a heart attack and I, of course, could not be there to contest his decision.

By that decision I was stripped of almost all influence at a stroke, and was forced to assert my experiences as an individual, something I was loathe to do, because I was trained on a system of collective decisions which I still believe are superior, as witness not only Hitler, Stalin and Saddam Hussein , but also that latter day despot, Tony Blair.

With that introduction I wish to put my criticisms of this new Unit. It seems to have been set up from an arbitrarily selected number of organisations in Wolverhampton with no agreed policy of recruitment. For instance at my last time of enquiry Tony Kinch, the most prominent Methodist in the town with a large African-Caribbean congregation knew nothing of the Unit. When I questioned the organisers on its attitude to the war in Iraq I received much the same answer as from Trevor Phillips, that as local government servants they had to remain neutral on the question of politics. Karen Cross and Kuldip Khela, both representatives of the city council on the Steering Group, have adopted the pre-BLOG tactic of not replying to my correspondence and phone calls and my written contribution to a Conference of June 2005 was rejected. Most important has been its rejection of written replies to letters and refusal to visit me an 87 year old disabled person. This is Age Discrimination which is illegal.. The fact that members of the Steering Group do not seem to have received race relations training and some appear to have no previous experience of race relations work but accept the job as part of a career advancement move suggests that the Race Equality Partnership Wolverhampton is a prime example of my contention that no person or organisation financed with government money is capable of carrying out the duties of developing a multicultural society in Wolverhampton or seeking the advancement of the poorest sections of our society.

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WHO HAS DONE MOST TO PUNCTURE THE RACISM OF BRITAIN’S UPPER CLASSES?.

We have so far dealt with Blair’s racism, the changing pattern of ipod and BLOG which gives the power of communication to the people. Also the theme that many of those who claim to be anti-racists are in fact part of the problem of racism and not part of its solution. We have also dealt with the question of respect for ordinary people’s views in the case of the Lords of the Press who by failing to respond to me fifteen times have progressively led themselves deeper into the mire of Blair speak news and as Madeleine Bunting has described it giving ‘intellectual cover’ to Blair’s illegal war in Iraq has totally discredited everything our newscasters say . I would certainly want to include Madeleine in my list of those who have recently done most to puncture upper class racism, but not the number one spot.

That I unhesitating award to Geoffrey Wheatcroft, He is by no means a lefty but that is no bad thing in a period when so many Conservatives are anti-Blair and, as I keep telling David Cameron he is betraying these MPs, Councillors and party members not to mention the millions of anti-Blair votes by changing his anti-war policy to support for the war. To the great relief of Tony Blair, no doubt

Geoffrey Wheatcroft’s original and important discovery has been to trace back the ideological roots of all those who support imperialist policies such as the war in Iraq. Wheatcroft goes back to the thoughts of AJP Taylor, a between the two World Wars radical historian , who wrote, ‘Europeans instinctively believed that Europe had achieved the highest form of civilisation the world has ever known’. The corollary of this was that it was our duty to export it to the rest of the world. This is exactly the calamitous current policy of Bush and Blair.

I pause to reflect how the policy of my BLOG has changed over a very short time. My original intention was to fill it with contributions from throughout the world. Now I find I am publicising the views of other people and, as I have said, I rate Wheatcroft top of my list with Madeleine Bunting not far behind. It also answers the question I am increasingly having put to me these days of who is to be trusted? Let me therefore give the names of some of those who over many years I find come into this category. The first is Marika Sherwood. She has been the long term editor of the Black and Asian Studies Association and also Race and Class with A.Sivanandan. Both of these publications should be in every educational institution in England and Wales.

Marika is an incorruptible. Born in Czechoslovakia , she has devoted her life to race equality. One of her important books is Claudia Jones , the story of the American Communist who was exiled to Britain at the time of the McCarthy terror in 1955 and whose abiding achievement is the Notting Hill Carnival.. Claudia later quarrelled with the British Communist Party accusing it of lack of understanding of the race issue. This issue still resonates, not merely among Party historians. Today Marika has taken to calling herself The Invisible One, because whenever she interviews one of these worthy bodies who claim that they are concerned with improving relations her proposals are ignored . A well enough known experience to readers of this BLOG. Race and Class is edited by A.Sivanandan and published on behalf of the Institute of Race Relations which is ‘precluded from expressing a corporate view on the contributors’ . This surely is remarkable for an institution so named and ought to be changed as soon as possible. The board of Race and Class contains the names of many with a long record of distinguished service to race relations including names known to me such as John Berger, Victoria Brittain, Jeremy Corby, Basil Davidson and Chris Searle.

From a slightly different tradition of Incorruptibles come those associated with the journal Soundings. Stuart Hall, its founder, is a Professor of Sociology at the Open University. He was a major figure in the revival of the British political left in the 1960s and 70’s. He is a Marxist working from the culturalist tradition of Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, and a concept of the media as an ideological apparatus serving the interests of the ruling class. The editors and board of Soundings tend to be connected with the Open University and have worked with Stuart Hall for many years.

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What at first seems to be discouraging is that at most new Universities, old established working class colleges such as Birkbeck, and in almost every other university including Oxbridge there are devoted bands of anti-Blair race relations experts, yet they remain unknown to each other, let alone being capable of forming a united front to dislodge Blair. So, among African-Caribbeans, who are so profligate of their talents that they can leave jazz to us oldies while they experiment with the latest forms of hip hop music, there has arisen, particularly from VOICE the call for a leader and also for blacks to return to Jamaica for their education and even to return to the West Indies and build up industry there. These have fascinating possibilities, but also dangers.

Among those who have kept their heads are the leaders of the Communist Party of Britain and their newspaper the MORNING STAR, the only independent daily paper in Britain owned by its readers.

The Morning Star has run a unique Saturday Progressive Website Listing. This has included (as well as my site and that of the Friends of Bilston Community College) the site of the Iraqi Communist Party. The Iraqi party disappointed many of us by supporting the election organised by the puppet regime. But they felt themselves strong enough to defeat the enemy from within and it is to seldom mentioned that the opposition to global imperialism in Iraq today consists almost entirely of the competing Religionists of Sunni and Shias and the secular resistance consisting of the Iraqi Communists, trade unions, women’s organisation and NGOs. Morning Star readers have had a unique access to both sides of this argument.

Crucial to the fight against Blair is a free press. Organisations advocating an agreed standard of objectivity in the media include Linda Bellous, director of Diversity Solutions Consultancy, who is a British, black, Jewish, lesbian, politician activist. There is also Editorial Intelligence an organisation dominated by Eric Hobsbawm’s daughter, Julia, and also Ukren a European race organisation associated with the Runnymede Trust and Media Lens.

It is clear that the nearest to objective reporting comes from the Arabic organisation, Al Jezeera. Now that it has opened a London office under David (Lord) Frost , Paxman, Marr, Jon Snow, and all lesser British newscasters should be in there helping to establish these standards instead of discrediting themselves by allowing Blair-speak to go uncontested.

BAD APPLES AT WOLVERHAMPTON UNIVERSITY.

When Wolverhampton University (it ought to have been called the University of the Black Country since it had campuses at Dudley, and Walsall, but the snobs and bigots had their way) became the first University to attract a 48% intake of ethnic-minority students it had a unique opportunity to do away with caps and gowns and all other paraphernalia associated with Oxbridge and establish itself as the university of the future, the first multi-cultural university in Britain. This would have had an enormous influence in forcing other universities follow its example and attract the very best ethnic minority students and staff from throughout the world to Wolverhampton.

It also had a great start with Shirin Housee teaching multi-cultural subjects to as high a level as anywhere in Britain. Her department should have trained the people we have talked about in our first paragraph - employees dealing with race relations who have had no training. This should have been

extended to teachers and schools. If this had happened race relations in Wolverhampton would have been very much more advanced than they are today.

Unfortunately, the first Vice-Chancellor of the University had other ideas. When John Brookes applied for the post of Vice-Chancellor he was the only candidate and the only alternative would have been to re-advertise the post. John would have no truck with the ‘revolutionary’ ideas mentioned above. His aim was to ape Oxbridge in every way possible, and in fairness it must be said that he had a point. There was much talk at the time of closing some of the new Universities and the most ‘revolutionary’ would be the first to go.

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But John Brookes misjudged the future and this is reflected in present events. The closure of Bilston Community College (BCC) was a major racist act. Not only had they 30%, unprecedented before or since ethnic minority staff, but also a unique system of employing staff who would then recruit ethnic minorities to educational programmes devised by BCC on their own premises, whether churches, mosques, temples or what ever, they appointed African-Caribbeans to their staff in larger numbers than any other college had managed to do. Nor was that all. One of the most important members of staff was not the highest qualified lecturers, but the non-degree Liz Millman who taught literacy under the Bilston system which involved a commitment to self-study within BCC. This resulted in her eventually taking a degree. This was the rough and tumble era of Thatcherite politics when she tried to wipe FE studies off the revenue slate, by allowing colleges to compete, with the ‘weakest’ going to the wall and payment made by the industrialist ‘customers’ for the apprentices they trained . BCC was the only college that beat her at her own game because ethnic minorities would much prefer to take educational programmes from their own people, rather than the racist programmes of the Further Education Funding Council. The greatest proponent of this system was Naranjan Singh Noor, a leading Indian poet. Mr.Noor suffered an early and painful death by suffocation, but his work and memory lives on. Other African-Caribbeans still active in race relations can also bear testimony to the unique Bilston system and Mr.Noor illustrates the quality of the staff that BCC was attracting. So when Dennis Turner began his traitor’s turnabout from first socialist chairman of BCC governors to renegade by accepting the ermine robes and ample revenues of the establishment and ludicrously becoming Lord Turner of Bilston and then compounding his treachery by allowing McFadden a Blairite creature take his safe seat that Turner’s first utterance should be, ‘Perhaps we spent too much time writing books’. The four books he was referring to were Further Education and Democracy by Keith Wymer, the Modernity of Further Education by Frank Reeves then vice-principal of BCC, Community Need and Further Education by Frank Reeves and Colleagues, and Further Education as Economic Regeneration edited by Reeves but contributed to not only by members of the staff but also students. These are all books comparable to the latest progressive writing on FE and indicate that Bilston Community College had not only cracked the practice of Multicultural Education, but also its theories, and show yet another aspect of the criminality of closing BCC.

With the existing position of BCC where no charge has ever been laid against any of the staff at BCC, the FEFC decided to indict the auditors who had authorised the programmes. This was the formidable conglomerate of lawyers Deliotte and Touche, who predictably came to a cosy agreement to settle out of court. They had no intention of revealing what that agreement was until MPs, members of the audit commission, and the powerful Wolverhampton newspaper the Express & Star insisted that the agreement be made public.

This was supplemented by the Friends of Bilston Community College making an application under the Freedom of Information Act. Their findings are that no reason can be found why the College was closed.

In view of these developments have we have addressed a new vice-chancellor of Wolverhampton University, Caroline Gipps, with the activities of what we have called the three main ‘bad apples’ blighting the reputation of the University . Two of them were John Brookes, and the clerk to the board of governors of the university who connived together to allow Brookes to threaten me with legal action unless I ceased supporting BCC.

The third bad apple is Sir Geoffrey Hampton. He was appointed a superhead of Northicote School to ‘turn it around’ . This was met by the scepticism of other Wolverhampton head teachers who claimed the school was neither as bad as stated when Hampton took over, nor as successful as he claimed when he left, and and other teachers could have achieved the same result if they had been given the money that he was given. Hampton was knighted, presumably at the direct recommendation of Tony Blair and

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was made and remains the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Wolverhampton University. His bad appleness has recently been demonstrated by his insistence that Jane Williams, ex-principal of Wolverhampton City College should be offered an Honorary degree of the University of Wolverhampton. Jane Williams left Wolverhampton under the cloud of accusations of racism against her. These charges were not heard and Ms Williams was sheltered by no less a body than the DfES who have ensured that these charges have not been brought to a tribunal and doubtless hope that they never will be. Such insistence by Hampton meant that the governing body of Wolverhampton University had to give their approval and thus became directly involved. This also applies to the black Chancellor of the University ,Lord Paul, who has previously avoided this question, but cannot do so indefinitely.

We have now received a reply to our email to Caroline Gipp, not in her name, but in the name of Clerk to the Governors, A.W.Lee. The letter of 23 July is short and to the point stating, ‘The Universisty is only too aware of your opinion with regard to the former Bilston Community College, and the Vice-Chancellor does not intend to enter into dialogue with you about this.’ It goes on to say ‘You will know from the correspondence with our former Vice-Chancellor that the allegations you continue to publish about the University and its Officers are false, and the University will not engage with you any further, in any medium.’

Well, it’s a bit late in the day to request this. It is a throw back to the pre-BLOG days when silence was the alternative to reply. It also implicates the whole governing body of the University including Ms.Gipps in support of the closure of Bilston Community College.This is going to be a very long haul indeed, including new appeals against the closure of BCC, appeals for compensation for careers destroyed and applications to the European Court of Human Rights.

It would be better by far if Ms.Gipps used her position as the one non-involved person to act as arbiter in this case, recognising that an infamous racist act was perpetrated in the closure of Bilston Community College. She should remonstrate with Hampton and Lee regarding the mistaken actions they have taken, for we all know the result if bad apples are left in the barrel. The restoration of Bilston Community College will be a comparatively simple matter of recognising that the City of Wolverhampton College was improperly set up. Minimal changes to the members of the governing body to allow the open access Bilston method anti-racist principles of BCC to be represented is all that is needed to remove the blight that will otherwise continue to stain the reputations of both the College and the University.

THE SO-CALLED WALSALL ANARCHIST BOMB PLOT OF1892 AND THE PLOT OF 2006.

BLOG readers will be aware of the Plot of 1892. After the Great Depression of roughly 1875 to 1895, three Socialist Groups appeared. The first was the Social Democratic Federation whose leader was the autocrat H.M.Hyndman. The second was the Socialist League of William Morris and Marx’ daughter Eleanor which split from the SDF because of the problems of working with Hyndman. The third was the Fabian Society which eventually became the Labour Party.

Walsall was one of the few areas where the Socialist League set down roots, but it had strong connections with continental anarchism. The Walsall leader, Joseph Deakin, was a railwayman with a privilege ticket who travelled frequently to London where he became embroiled with London anarchists some of whom subsequently came to Walsall to work and plot. Deakin himself travelled to London with a parcel and the Walsall police tipped off the London CID who arrested him. But his parcel contained not the expected bomb, but a bottle of chloroform. The next day three foreign anarchists were arrested in Walsall and the plot was on.

After a fortnight in the cells at Walsall during which they claimed they were roughed up, Deakin made a surprising confession. He claimed that iron bomb casings had been made, but they were for use not in

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England, but Russia. A trial took place at the Stafford Assizes where a biased prosecutor, the Attorney-General himself and a frightened jury found three of the foreigners, Charles, Cailes and Battolla guilty and they were sentenced to ten years penal servitude, Deakin was sentenced to five years and two other local men were acquitted. The severity of the sentences and the smell of agents-provocateur meant that nation wide protests were organised throughout their imprisonment by the Labour movement. The only two to benefit from the Plot were John Melville, who went on to become Britain’s first spy master and Auguste Coulon who was said to have authorised the making of the bomb but was not prosecuted and went free.

However, absolutely out of the blue came recently a letter from John D.Harper who had written an article in the journal Historical Metallurgy which sheds fundamentally new light on this question.. He brings three new qualities to the subject.. First he is related to the family of the firm who produced the castings, Bullows. Secondly he possesses models of the castings that were made, and thirdly he is an engineer who has studied the question from the new point of view of whether what the bombers produced would have exploded. His conclusions are as follows:

‘Despite the unanswered questions, the physical evidence and trial reports leave no doubt that the principal conspirators, whether or not the victims of a police trap, were guilty of trying to make bombs for terrorist purposes. They were not, however, very competent. The design of the bombs, and the patterns and casting methods used to make them is technically inept, showing ignorance of foundry methods and ballistics. More competent terrorists would have recruited someone with technical experience and briefed the pattern-makers more carefully…one can only doubt the ability of this particular group to actually build a working bomb, let alone carry out a successful terrorist attack.

The comparison of the so-called Plot of 1892 with the so-called Plot of 2006 is striking. None of the present suspects appear to have experience of making bombs. The problems of detonating one in the public lavatory of an aircraft are apparently as insoluble as that of the shoe bomber who had to strike a match to ignite his bomb.

The Home Secretary, John Reid’s attempt to frighten air passengers from travelling seems to have had the opposite effect judging from the most recent ICM poll. This suggests that to 81% of the travelling public it will make no difference to their travelling habits. Also 72% of those polled believe that the wars in Iraq and Afghanisation have made us more of a target for terrorists. The most telling statistic is that Labour support has now fallen to 31% whereas Tory support has risen to 40%. Blair, your time is up. Resign at once.

TRISTRAM HUNT AND WORKING CLASS HISTORY.

Tristram Hunt, a scion of our aristocracy has had a good idea. In collaboration with the Guardian he recognises that history is usually written by middle class people and as a good New Labour supporter he wants to popularise working class history and every month or so an award will be given for some working class event in some part or other of Britain.

Well, of course, on hearing of this and having spent a lifetime writing working class history I hastened to contact Tristram. First I sent him my free radical booklets which many years ago were the first products

of my Free Communist Bookshop which is financed from the small surplus from my pension. These are summaries of the working class history of each town and entitled Radical Wolverhampton, Radical Birmingham, Radical Walsall and Radical Dudley.

I did not hear from Tristram, so I followed this up by indicating to him the sources of working class history that we have in the Black Country stressing the fact that the West Midlands possesses unrivalled sources of its working class history. I still haven’t heard from him and I guess he has underestimated the scope of the job that he has undertaken. Consider what some of these resources are. At the top of the list I put Carl Chinn, son of a pawnbroker, who writes a weekly double page for the Express and Star, does a

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weekly four hour slot each Sunday for Radio WM, makes himself available as a star attraction for almost any important historical event that occurs, and was a powerful voice of protest when the Rover car plant closed and an equally important supporter of its reopening. That is a fantastic work load to undertake.

But it is no less than that of the editor of the Black Country Bugle, Robert Taylor. This unique paper was once a monthly, then fortnightly but now a weekly and it pours forth every seven days the seemingly unending flow of reminiscences, letters and enquiries from the ordinary working people of the Black Country.

Nor is that all. There is the staid Blackcountryman now in its 39^th year with a series of editors who would not accept my view that the title should be changed to Black Country People or recognise that they have readers such as me who are Communists. But it is an essential source of Black Country industrial history and the craftsmen and labourers who created it.

Next comes Ned Williams, now a free lance full time historian . Ned is a historian of the early working class movement in Walsall in its most radical phase from 1829 of association with Robert Owen’s Utopian Socialist period when co-ops were Producer Co-ops with the aim of peacefully superseding capitalism.

Then there is our Black Country Living Museum which has avoided the fate of other museums and flourishes, open seven days a week this summer and with its project of taking down the Mary MacArthur Institute in Cradley brick by brick and rebuilding it at the Museum. In doing this the museum deals worthily with its political and trade union past. We shall certainly be recommending the 1910 chain makers’ strike as a nominee for Tristram’s competition.

Also in this multicultural world I must mention the VOICE, organ of the West Indian communities, published in Birmingham. Add to this the Windrush Project , Black History month, and much else, and it will be seen that working class history is well represented in Wolverhampton and the Black Country.

Tristram will have to learn to cope with large areas such as the Black Country and Birminhgam when allocating his monthly awards.

A final point. It is not too early to think of Xmas and the most marvellous event of World War 1 when in 1914 German soldiers came out of their trenches to embrace their British counterparts and that famous game of football was played in No Man’s Land. This event should be celebrated every year and I would ask Tristram to organise this. Also the likes of Jon Snow at Channel 4 and Jeremy Paxman ought to insist that this incident is part of the news that they read, instead of by their silence defying my15 efforts to make them responsible for an agreed objectivity in the news they read.

TO DAVID CAMERON – STOP YOUR RAKE’S PROGRESS TO POLITICAL OBLIVION.

At this time when yet another key member of Blair’s team, David Clark, former Labour special adviser at the Foreign Office, deserts the sinking ship, the latest poll shows 72% agreeing that Blair’s illegal war in Iraq has made us less safe and hardly any air traveller says they will alter their travel habits, all anti-war elements join in berating Blair, but none have asked the question what of David Cameron? He, defecting from the anti-war policy that alone will take him to No.10, now finds himself in the ludicrous situation of holding on to Tony Blair’s coat tails while Blair holds on to the coat tails of Bush. On general election day Cameron with a lead of 10% or more over Blair will find himself obliged

to ally himself with the Lib Dems in order to become Prime Minister. But here, he will find the Mighty Ming, warrior in war as well as a politician, whose party opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. What humble pie he will have to eat to achieve his goal. Far better will it be to change back to an anti-war policy which the majority of the Conservative party support as well as the majority of Britain and the world. Its immortality or bust for young David.

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THE POLICE

Its enough to make you laugh your socks off. After several years trying to amalgamate police forces the government finally gives up because there is no money to do so! I must consult our own Bob Jones, the representative of all lay police councils in England and Wales to see what he thinks.

FOOTBALL.

What an extraordinary year this has been for sport particularly football. I wrote in my July Bulletin (an innovation between Spring and Summer Blogs) of my personal involvement . 70 years an Arsenal supporter and 50 years a Wolves fan I am one of a dwindling band who saw both the great Arsenal teams of Herbert Chapman and the latest one of Arsene Wenger and can compare them. My verdict? That Thierry Henry is the only player to compare with Alex James, but the 1930s team was better tempered than the modern one.

I wrote ‘I Love Arsene Wenger’ which was a condensed history of both Arsenal and Wolves but also paid tribute to the revolution wrought by Wenger in football.

It also raised questions of the ownership of clubs pointing out that the ownership of Manchester by the US Glasers put them in hock to George W.Bush. Also the ownership of Chelsea by Roman Aronovitch purchased with money stolen from the Russian people. He faces the possibility that sometime soon, the Russians might claim that money back. In fact teams ought to be owned by their local communities as is the case with the two main Spanish teams. This dates back to the civil war in Spain, with Real Madrid owned by the Franco fascists and Barcelona by the Republicans.

Somewhere down this line comes Wolverhampton Wanderers owned by the fiercely patriotic Sir Jack Hayward who as well as financing Wolves for years never allows even a foreign car at any of his premises. He also brought the Great Eastern back from the USA to the home where it was built in Bristol. Now that he has ceased his sugar daddying and foreign predators lurk will Hayward see his beloved Wolves sold abroad? I hope not and think not!

A further matter for concern has been why modern footballers suffer from broken toes whereas in the days of Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright this almost never occurred. The short answer is that their toes were protected by a steel and leather toecap and unless today’s footballers are similarly protected by modern lightweight steel or hardened plastic toe caps, metatarsal destruction will continue. The culprits? Modern meganational firms such as Nike who monopolise sports wear manufacture and whose aim is not protection but profit. I know from experience. A letter by me to the US giant Nike corporation has received no reply. Lo and behold there is the case of another footballer today suffering a broken toe.

BOOKS

The dilemma of purchasing books for my Working Class Library when Google can provide mountains of information has continued, but true book worms will always want to purchase essential books. This has occurred in the case of the book by Gerry R.Rubin, Murder, Mutiny and The Military 1940-1966. This has become topical with the pardon of all World War One conscientious objectors, shell-shocked men and others who were shot for cowardice. Doubtless, similar categories of men will eventually be pardoned in World War Two. But from 1946 the wars waged by Britain have been mainly imperialist wars and although refuseniks are no longer shot many are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. This occurred during the mass objections during the Vietnam war, and the increasing number of military objectors to the war in Iraq make this an aspect of militarism which needs closely watching.

A different example occurred when I was looking through the books in my porch which constitutes the Free Communist Library. Here I unearthed The Bitter End, the Fall of Singapore 1941-42 by Richard Holmes and Anthony Camp written in the 1980s. Was this the same Richard Holmes who has since become the famed military historian of television and the media? It seems so.

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The fact that I do not buy so many books these days is offset by the fact that I cannot find the time to read them, an excuse used by many people who visit my home but do not take books from the porch where the Free Communist Bookshop is situated.

As I am physically unable to visit libraries these days some of my reading is provided by the fortnightly visits of the Special Needs Unit of the Wolverhampton Library. This still exists despite the demise of the Ethnic Minority Library in the city and provides a splendid collection of current ethnic minority books.

However, there is now a new limit to my collecting books. This is that there is no further physical space after exhausting porch, two out of three bedrooms, lounge, extension, and loft to store books. This is one reason why I seek a solution to the Bilston Community College dispute or I will have to consider the cherry picking by other libraries, or even the sale of the books as has occurred with Edward Upward our centenarian celebrity of the Nineteen Thirties.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION FOR RACIAL EQUALITY 1905-6.

The CRE continues to behave splendidly to me. When I told them I was having difficulty downloading the Report they agreed to post me a copy. With most of it I agree. But I was disappointed that there was no reference to discrimination against the elderly of which I gave a classic case of the new Race Equality Unit in Wolverhampton. It also follows the pattern of all other reports from bodies financed by the government of painting a rosy picture of its activities without answering criticisms against it. The question of the selection of the Commissioners by the government rather than their democratic election should also be questioned. However, I am sure we can work with Trevor Phillips.

I am thinking of suggesting that Marika Sherwood should be nominated as one of the Commissioners. I also thought of Gloria Mills the new black president of the TUC until I heard the good news that she actually was a Commissioner. But Marika ought to be lobbied for.

STAN NEWENS AND THE LABOUR PARTY.

Stan an ex-MP and MEP for Harlow is a sort of honorary Black Country man as his contacts with young people such as the Garner twins of Wolverhampton during World War Two give him an interest in the future of the Labour Party which I do not entirely share. Of course, I have been a member of the Labour Party all my life through my Trade Unions being affiliated to it. Of course I hope that the Labour Party can reclaim itself from the Blairites who have hi-jacked it., but I am also interested in the Tories, believing that we need a united front against Blair if he is to be defeated. But I also believe that the socialism of the future will have little to do with politicians and agree with Marx and Engels who saw the future as one in which self governing groups of people ‘consigned the state to the dustbin of history’.

My current Labour commitment has been a subscription to the VOICE of the Unions which, since 1925 has been the progressive voice of trade unionists. But Stan, in a recent visit, has persuaded me to join Labour Heritage which seems to be The Labour Representation Committee which was the name the Labour Party held when it became the Labour Party in 1906.

Stan wants my help in finding recruits for this organisation and if this is successful a meeting on Labour History in the Black Country could be arranged. I, of course, say Amen to that. Stan is another of this world’s Incorruptibles.

MORE COMMUNIST HISTORY.

In my autobiography, ‘Subversive – Or One Third of the Autobiography of a Communist’, (now available gratis via my website), there are two Appendices. One gave extracts from the Minutes of the of the Imphal Rhythm Club 1943-44, the Furthest East Rhythm Club in the World. The other Appendix illustrated the front page of a Soldiers’ Paper entitled RED FRONT, the only one of its kind in the British army advocating a Second Front in Europe in 1942.

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The furthest east Rhythm Club in the World had its existence interrupted by the Japanese offensive the intention of which was to conquer India and beyond. To the great astonishment of not only the Japanese

but also us, we were told to stand where we were as Louis Mountbatten organised the the greatest air lift ever at that time. The savage siege of Imphal lasted three months, after which the British army advanced to liberate Burma and beyond.

When the survivors of the jazz club returned home, they brought with them the complete minutes of the club which had met almost weekly from June 1943 to March 1944 with a membership of 52. Moreover the minutes were written in an interesting and humorous style. We then attempted to get the jazz world interested in replicating these sessions either with disc jockeys or small bands. Nobody was interested and the project languished. But I was astonished one day to find Harry Johnson, one of the main organisers of the club, on my doorstep. He had picked up a book in a Birmingham library by a bloke called Barnsby and reckoning that there could not be many Barnsbys about he had walked all the way from Birmingham to see if I was the one. Desultory efforts were then made to renew the project, again without success until more than 50 years later when anniversaries of World War 2 became fashionable. So I phoned Harry, found to my delight that he was still alive and he gave me news that a national Jazz Archive had been established in Loughton, Essex and Digby Fairweather.was the leading jazz man concerned. So, via the Archives I tried to contact Digby, but he has not contacted me. Recently I read that George Melly was a friend of Digby with a brief to remind him of things he sometimes forgets. So I tried to get in touch with George, again without success. But I now learn that Humphrey Littleton is to return not only to chair his old show, Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, but to present a jazz programme. So the only two toothless survivors will definitely be contacting Humph to see if he will replicate our programmes which gave so much pleasure to us and are capable of giving similar delight to jazz fans today.

The second Appendix of my Autobiography showed the front page of the paper we published in 1941 calling for a second front. The army authorities could hardly arrest me for treason as our Soviet allies were ‘tearing the guts out’ of the German army virtually alone and the Red Army was highly popular. So they took the coward’s way out, detached me alone from my unit and sent me abroad. This is how I ended up doing four years in Burma and India. The question I asked then, and the question I ask now, is was this the first forces paper published since Commonwealth times in the 1640s? The only possible contenders that I know of are the Anarchists with its journal Revolution. Stalin used intelligence of theirs for some time, but then dropped them. In any case, these were not army personnel.

The question of whether our paper which began by being called Red Front but quickly changed its name to Second Front and ran for three or four issues in the 137 Field Ambulance, was the first forces newspaper since the radical movement of Levellers, Diggers and others in the period 1640-1650 is a historical question which deserves to be taken seriously.

THE STATE WE ARE IN.

It is now time to end my AUTUMN BLOG. It will first appear on the website www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk and then in print where it must not exceed 12 pages if it is to be posted with a second class stamp.

As usual the BLOG ends with so many matters unaddressed. Not even Education or Immigrattion both of which Wolverhampton deals with, on the whole, satisfactorily, especially the latter.

Few will disagree with the view that the state we are in today is almost unprecedented. The world’s instability cannot long continue. Fundamental change is inevitable and most people believe that this instability began with the illegal and racist war in Iraq unleashed by Bush and supported by Blair.

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The only doubt seems to be whether the transition to something else can be delivered slowly and peacefully through changes in the Labour Party or whether the Labour Party will disappear for a number of years while the whip of renewed poverty and unemployment under reactionary neo- Thatcherite

policies educates the people to return a revitalised Labour government true to the principles of socialism.

This BLOG tends to differ, Social democracy as a harbinger of socialism is a myth. The slaughter of people deemed inferior goes on apace and the contradictions posed by a white majority Israeli neo-con state and the insistence of the Palestinian people on voting for Hizbullah both in Palestine and Lebanon

are too great to allow time for peaceful conclusions. The fact is that every state of the vast sub-continent of South America is now in revolt against the so-called free trade policies initiated by George W.Bush and implemented by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which have reduced their peoples to grinding poverty. They are now demanding control of their own material resources and socialist solutions to their problems. This is so great a change in the balance of forces between capitalism and socialism that Bush and his puppet Blair are surely doomed.

Modesty is necessary in predicting future changes.. My only claim is that I espouse the wisdom of Marx and Engels who believed that the inevitable transition to socialism (unless the two contending parties destroyed each other) would be by self-acting groups of people managing their own affairs and that politicians and the state would then be consigned to the dustbin of history.

The future is interesting.

END

BLOG

THIS RECORDS ALL THE POLITICAL, SOCIAL

AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY CURRENTLY

ENGAGED IN BY GEORGE BARNSBY, AGED 87

LIFETIME ANTI-RACIST AND ANTI-FASCIST

AUTUMN 2006

141 Henwood Rd.

Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV6 8PJ

Phone & Fax 01902 751888

Email: barnsby@blueyonder.co.uk

Web: www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk