The Barnsby Blog

GORDON BROWN AND HIS CABINET OF WARMONGERS ARE STILL AT LARGE.
. That these mass murderers are still at large and are allowed to get on
with their normal murderous business is no consolation to the people of Iraq
and particularly members of Iraq’s Communist Party and Trade Union
Federation whose Oil Workers in particular fight the sale of their oil and
other assets to Bush, Blair and Brown. Today there is some movement as the
murderers fall out with each other . David Miliband, the foreign secretary
and therefore the chief murderer after Brown denies that he is weakening
Brown and the Labour Party, but the policies he puts are the usual New
Labour hypocrisies of ‘listening to the people’ with never a mention of the
war in Iraq. And where is Brown, the chief murderer who should be under lock
and key? He’s having a nice holiday in Suffolk.
And where are those who understand that Brown should be arraigned
before the Court of Human Rights at the Hague and each of us possesses the
right to make a Citizen’s Arrest? Well, apart from Lance Dunkley and I who
have served a Citizen’s Arrest on Rob Marris, my MP, who has not yet
responded, George Galloway who I suggested should arrest Gordon Brown in
Parliament has obviously not had an opportunity to do this in Parliament,
although he might contemplate taking some members of Respect to Suffolk to
arrest Brown. The same thing applies to the Archbishop of Canterbury who
also
has enough on his plate with religious matters, but at least he, like
Galloway might think of some other method under our own legal system, or the
constitution of the United Nations whereby Brown should be prevented NOW
from taking his grisly daily diet of murder.

THE WARMONGERS IN ENGLAND AND WOLVERHAMPTON.
I am almost loathe to discuss lesser affairs while Brown remains at
large, but life goes on. I start with one of the people who has decided to
talk to me. It is Peter Barron of the BBC who answers my question of who
decides the questions on Any Questions and were the questions fiddled on the
night the programme was in Wolverhampton with the Foreign Secretary David
Miliband. Peter explains that the email I sent him did nor reach him because
I had spelled his name Baron wrongly . This excuses him the ticking off I
gave him when he didn’t reply. He goes on to explain that what is read on
air is a combination of the presenter, the programme editor and the
producers.
The news summary scripts are written by the producers and tweaked
by the presenters. He ends politely wishing me well and it almost answers
all my question. The one thing it fails to do is to deal with the allegation
that on the night Any Questions was in Wolverhampton and the foreign
minister (David Miliband) was one the main speakers it was alleged that
questions too critical of the government were disallowed. Can we have an
answer to that question please Mr. Barron?
The fact that Mr.Barron can answer my questions shows that other
public figures should answer me as well. The main culprits are Paxman, Marr,
Wark, Kearney and Jon Snow who have no intention of replying to my charges
that by not challenging Blair when they interviewed him before the war in
Iraq they allowed Blair to hang on to Bush’s coat tails and support the
illegal, racist and unwinnable war in Iraq. They also, by this action became
accessories to the conflict and their silence (now repeated about 60 times)
finally removed the last basis people of a democratic society have of
exercising control over their leaders. If Peter Barron can reply to me, so
will Paxman and Co. have to reply to me eventually.
A similar state of affairs holds in local politics where Phil Bateman
of Travel West Midland and until the May 1st debacle a Wednesfield
Councillor has replied to a quite complicated question of who runs and
who controls our local transport system. This markedly contrasts with
Richard
Cross, the ?120,000 pa Chief Executive of Wolverhampton who has no intention
at all of replying to my question of who runs and controls Wolverhampton.
This is such a complex issue of innumerable so-called regeneration bodies,
some of them competing with each other, that I have a perfect right to put
the question and Cross to answer it. I will put it to him again that the
machinations of these usually penniless bodies is likely to involve
corruption and the case of St.Modwens Property developers who operate
throughout the country and have left Wolverhampton Eye Infirmary an eyesore
after having insufficient funds on this site (and many others) to build
commercial properties and houses, particularly the Eye Infirmary which is a
listed building.
I also raise the question of the new political situation in
Wolverhampton where a coalition of Tory and Lib-Dems are now in charge of
Wolverhampton, but are failing to answer my request that the council should
be composed of Tories who are opposed to the war in Iraq, of Lib-Dems who
have always opposed the war, and Labour councillors who oppose the war. The
present non-response by the new leader of the council Councillor Neville
Patten leaves me fearful that he supports the war in Iraq and that he is a
Tory of the old reactionary school. Set my mind at rest, please Neville

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

INDEX
BLOG NO 530 THURSDAY 31ST JULY 2008.
1.GORDON BROWN AND HIS CABINET OF WARMONGERS ARE STILL AT LARGE.
2.THE WARMONGERS IN ENGLAND AND WOLVERHAMPTON.

—– Original Message —–
From: “George Barnsby”
To: “Barnsby Daily Blog”
Cc:
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:50 AM
Subject: GEORGE BARNSBY BLOG NO.528 TUESDAY 29TH JULY 2008
www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk

> FLESHING OUT THE CITIZEN’S ARREST.
> It has been another busy day. First informing the main trade unions and
> TUC of the intention of getting Gordon Brown arrested for war crimes in
> Iraq. Then a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking that he or one
> of his fellow religionists make a citizen’s arrest in Parliament. This
> followed last night’s appeal to George Galloway and Ken Purchase to arrest
> Brown in Parliament. Finally today there has been Lance Donkey and my
> Citizen’s arrest of my friend and MP Rob Marries which reads, ‘Please
> accept
> this email as evidence of a Citizen’s Arrest of you for supporting the war
> in Iraq’.
>
> CONNECTING LIBRARIES.
> Elizabeth Hazlehurst phoned me today. She said, she just thought how is
> George and so she phoned me. Elizabeth’s academic interest is in Sean
> O’Hare the great Irish writer, but Elizabeth and her husband Johnny are
> well
> known in Wolverhampton circles where they were draughtsmen working for the
> same firm as Geoff Sidbotham who lives at the end of Henwood Road, not to
> mention his much younger brother Bob Hazlehurst
> It is now that the story gets complicated as another good friend of
> mine, Kal Dale at present the Ethnic Minority chief librarian in
> Wolverhampton is leaving Wolverhampton and there is a ‘do’ at the Central
> Library on August 5th. to which Kal has invited me, and I hope to be there
> unless my ‘minder’ Geoff Sidbotham has an accident or any other mishap and
> cannot take me. Kal is taking up a similar appointment at Bristol Central
> Library. Bristol is the home of the Great Britain, the first iron ship
> built in Britain and was brought back to its native Bristol by the
> philanthropy of Sir Jack Hayward. Sir Jack is also the Wolves football
> benefactor whose patriotism is so intense that he will not even allow a
> foreign car to be on his business premises and Wolves, together with
> Arsenal, lead the struggle to see that English clubs remain British and
> are
> not sold to foreign speculators who are liable to be bankrupted as the
> economic crisis deepens. Wolves happens to be the team I have supported
> for
> 55 years from the time I left London in 1954 to teach at Bilston’s
> Etheridge
> Secondary Modern Boys’ School. Here I have recently had a reunion, thanks
> to
> Dave Holmes, a drummer of international repute, with a number of pupils
> that
> I taught at one time in Bilston, most of whom have lifetime connections
> with
> the Trumpet in Bilston which has the unique position of having provided
> jazz
> seven days a week and 52 weeks in the year for many years.
> Sir Jack Hayward and his, colleague Rachael Heyhoe Flint,
> distinguished in her own right as the first women’s cricket team captain,
> also have knowledge of a jazz project that I have been associated with
> which
> is the Furthest East Rhythm Club in the world, which operated at Imphal
> on
> the Burma border with a membership of about 50 and whose existence was
> interrupted by the Japanese offensive which was meant to conquer India,
> but
> was foiled by the actions of Lord Mountbatten who bad us remain in our
> positions while we were supplied by air throughout a three month siege,
> the
> longest known at the time. When we returned to England we tried to get
> jazz
> artists to replicate the jazz sessions we had in Burma, but without
> success
> so far, although we hope to induce the help of Sir Jack Hayward who flew
> planes in Burma and must have used the Imphal strip.. I have this week had
> put on the BLOG a thirty page account of the Club by its two founding RAF
> members Ken Allsop and Harry Johnson. This happens to mention a George
> Barnsby who was the Record Librarian. We have also extended our contacts
> to
> the USA where Americans ferried supplies from India to China and whose
> personnel might have had Rhythm Clubs even further east than ours. We
> have
> also acquired the 2007-08 Membership Directory of the International
> Association of Jazz Record Collectors which will not only help us with
> tracking down American personnel who played jazz in Burma, but also will
> help me keep track of George Shearing the blind jazz pianist who was born
> in
> the same year as myself, 1919, and in the same suburb of London,
> Battersea,
> and who I knew before World War II, but is now too ill to be able to
> return
> to Britain.
> Now with Kal Dale at Bristol library we hope to have yet another
> contact to follow up the achievements of Ken Allsop and Harry Johnson
> which
> true lovers of jazz will sooner or later realise as being remarkable.
> Nor is that all. Dr.Bernard Trafford head of Wolverhampton Grammar
> School is leaving us to take up a headship in Newcastle Royal Grammar
> School, but his own jazz talents plus the school bands both classical and
> jazz which he helped create will still be available to us particularly
> through the head of history and other teachers at the school which we
> will
> have links with. But also there will be links with Bernard at his new
> school which is on the doorstep of Hadrian’s Wall where we are sure there
> will be contacts both musical and historical as Wolverhampton deals with
> the
> important national question of whether the Battle of Tettenhall AD 915 was
> fought in Wednesfield or Tettenhall.
>
> HELD OVER UNTIL TOMORROW.
> A number of interesting items held over, including Cabinet ministers
> who apologise for being absent and not able to reply. They all promise to
> reply. But will they when they see I am accusing them of being war
> criminals?
>
> THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES.
>
> INDEX
> BLOG NO 529 WEDNESDAY 30 JULY 2008
> 1. FLESHING OUT THE CITIZEN’S ARREST
> 2. CONNECTING LIBRARIES

FLESHING OUT THE CITIZEN’S ARREST.
It has been another busy day. First informing the main trade unions and
TUC of the intention of getting Gordon Brown arrested for war crimes in
Iraq. Then a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking that he or one
of his fellow religionists make a citizen’s arrest in Parliament. This
followed last night’s appeal to George Galloway and Ken Purchase to arrest
Brown in Parliament. Finally today there has been Lance Dunkley and my
Citizen’s arrest of my friend and MP Rob Marris which reads, ‘Please accept
this email as evidence of a Citizen’s Arrest of you for supporting the war
in Iraq’.

CONNECTING LIBRARIES.
Elizabeth Hazlehurst phoned me today. She said, she just thought how is
George and so she phoned me. Elizabeth’s academic interest is in Sean
O’Casey the great Irish writer, but Elizabeth and her husband Johnny are well
known in Wolverhampton circles where they were draughtsmen working for the
same firm as Geoff Sidbotham who lives at the end of Henwood Road, not to
mention his much younger brother Bob Hazlehurst.
It is now that the story gets complicated as another good friend of
mine, Kal Dale at present the Ethnic Minority chief librarian in
Wolverhampton is leaving Wolverhampton and there is a ‘do’ at the Central
Library on August 5th. to which Kal has invited me, and I hope to be there
unless my ‘minder’ Geoff Sidbotham has an accident or any other mishap and
cannot take me. Kal is taking up a similar appointment at Bristol Central
Library. Bristol is the home of the Great Britain, the first iron ship
built in Britain and was brought back to its native Bristol by the
philanthropy of Sir Jack Hayward. Sir Jack is also the Wolves football
benefactor whose patriotism is so intense that he will not even allow a
foreign car to be on his business premises and Wolves, together with
Arsenal, lead the struggle to see that English clubs remain British and are
not sold to foreign speculators who are liable to be bankrupted as the
economic crisis deepens. Wolves happens to be the team I have supported for
55 years from the time I left London in 1954 to teach at Bilston’s Etheridge
Secondary Modern Boys’ School. Here I have recently had a reunion, thanks to
Dave Holmes, a drummer of international repute, with a number of pupils that
I taught at one time in Bilston, most of whom have lifetime connections with
the Trumpet in Bilston which has the unique position of having provided jazz
seven days a week and 52 weeks in the year for many years.
Sir Jack Hayward and his, colleague Rachael Heyhoe Flint,
distinguished in her own right as the first women’s cricket team captain,
also have knowledge of a jazz project that I have been associated with which
is the Furthest East Rhythm Club in the world, which operated at Imphal on
the Burma border with a membership of about 50 and whose existence was
interrupted by the Japanese offensive which was meant to conquer India, but
was foiled by the actions of Lord Mountbatten who bad us remain in our
positions while we were supplied by air throughout a three month siege, the
longest known at the time. When we returned to England we tried to get jazz
artists to replicate the jazz sessions we had in Burma, but without success
so far, although we hope to induce the help of Sir Jack Hayward who flew
planes in Burma and must have used the Imphal strip.. I have this week had
put on the BLOG a thirty page account of the Club by its two founding RAF
members Ken Allsop and Harry Johnson. This happens to mention a George
Barnsby who was the Record Librarian. We have also extended our contacts to
the USA where Americans ferried supplies from India to China and whose
personnel might have had Rhythm Clubs even further east than ours. We have
also acquired the 2007-08 Membership Directory of the International
Association of Jazz Record Collectors which will not only help us with
tracking down American personnel who played jazz in Burma, but also will
help me keep track of George Shearing the blind jazz pianist who was born in
the same year as myself, 1919, and in the same suburb of London, Battersea,
and who I knew before World War II, but is now too ill to be able to return
to Britain.
Now with Kal Dale at Bristol library we hope to have yet another
contact to follow up the achievements of Ken Allsop and Harry Johnson which
true lovers of jazz will sooner or later realise as being remarkable.
Nor is that all. Dr.Bernard Trafford head of Wolverhampton Grammar
School is leaving us to take up a headship in Newcastle Royal Grammar
School, but his own jazz talents plus the school bands both classical and
jazz which he helped create will still be available to us particularly
through the head of history and other teachers at the school which we will
have links with. But also there will be links with Bernard at his new
school which is on the doorstep of Hadrian’s Wall where we are sure there
will be contacts both musical and historical as Wolverhampton deals with the
important national question of whether the Battle of Tettenhall AD 915 was
fought in Wednesfield or Tettenhall.

HELD OVER UNTIL TOMORROW.
A number of interesting item held over, including Cabinet ministers who
apologise for being absent and not able to reply. They all promise to reply.
But will they when they see I am accusing them of being war criminals?

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES.

INDEX
BLOG NO 528 TUESDAY 29 JULY
1. FLESHING OUT THE CITIZEN’S ARREAST
2. CONNECTING LIBRARIES

REMEMBERING THE FROWS.
The proposals in Saturday’s Morning Star that Jubilee House be changed to
Frow House made by Nick Mathews is admirable but only touches the fringe of
the matter. The only suitable recognition would be a chain of Working Class
libraries across Britain.
As the possessor of the only Working Class Library and Free Communist
Bookshop consciously modelled on the Frows we opened up
discussion on this matter some months ago and favourable events have
occurred
recently which makes it urgent that those who took part in the original
discussions such as Nick on behalf of Warwick University which holds much
working class material, Birmingham Central Library holding the Charles
Parker archives and much else. To Birmingham again where Izzy Muhammad
presides offer a number of linked libraries, onto Stafford University where
Owen Ashton, despite being retired, still nurtures the Chartist archive.
Then back
to the Black Country again where much of my archive on labour history is
held at
Wolverhampton Central Library and includes much Birmingham material. and the
rest will eventually go there. Then there is the
Black Country Living Museum which has already moved the Mary Macarthur Chain
Makers’ Institute brick-by-brick from Cradley to the BCLM in Dudley and it
looks as it will perforce have to do the same thing with the Lock Museum
where the trade was centred for centuries at Willenhall but the building
faces demolition to make way for a road.
The latest developments such as Left Tube (or Left Space is it?) means
that we are competing with the big boys when it comes to spreading our
message and the Communist Party history results come across loud and clear
with regard to Graham Stevenson and the mass trade union UNITE. But I am
also thinking of michaelm.walker@btopenworld whose output is matched by his
modesty in regularly producing perfectly researched material his latest 25
July piece being the Soviet Airmen’s Songs with its rousing chorus: And
every propeller is roaring/ defending the USSR. Not content with this
Michael
goes on to say that this song was very popular amongst Communists and Young
Communist League members during and after the war. The first version he can
trace has words adapted by Randall Swingler of the Workers’ Music
Association in 1939 costing 2d. Ken Keable states that his parents Bill and
Gladys Keable taught him to sing the Song of the Soviet Air Force in
Esperanto as well as English when he was in a musical song group, ‘The
Partisans’, in the 1970s and 1980s. The Randall Swingler version starts
with: ‘Our engines roar the frozen air is cleaving/Red Square is
darkened/Our
guardian shade/and over lands and polar oceans/Weaving our cable lines of
peace are laid.
Material like this, Martin sends me regularly. He must be treasured. as
one of those who the Frows would have admired

BROWN MUST BE STOPPED BY A CITIZEN’S ARREST.
Spent much of the day emailing the trade unions on ridding ourselves at
once of Gordon Brown, his New Labour cabinet and other supporters of the war
in Iraq which they think they can hang on till 2010 and hope that by some
miracle they will win the next election. But the fact is that the war is now
over and Brown must recognise this fact by bringing our troops home and
leaving Iraq to the Iraqiis.

STAN HENDERSON AND THE COMRADES ON THE KWAI.
Andy Goodall has been scanning some of my work today and has come across
with a superb work called Comrades on the Kwai and he asks who this man was.
I am happy to oblige. Stan Henderson was a Watford man who I became friendly
with when I returned from the war and found that my Mum had bought a house
at Croxley Green (next door to Watford) when she was bombed out at
Battersea. After the war Stan was an important figure in the Squatters’
movement which housed the homeless in empty properties, but during the war
he had been captured by the Japanese and forced to build the infamous Kwai
railway in Thailand. Stan is the only Communist I know of who held a May
Day meeting in a Japanese War camp and won the approval of the leadership of
the camp who participated in the meeting, recognising that it was an
important, patriotic act of resistance to the Japanese. Stan has been dead
now for some years, but I am proud to be able to reproduce this work of his
and honour his memory.

U3A.
Len and Christine Moore sent me a copy of No.83 Summer 2008 issue of
U3A News, the University of the Third Age. Tucked inside it was a very
comprehensive report of the Wolverhampton U3A. With the demise of the
evening class U3A is one of the most important sources of information that
keep old minds fresh and active. Wolverhampton’s U3A
is one of the most active groups in the country. Groups include Music
Appreciation Group, the Walking Group, the IT Support Group, and a Reading
Group with possibilities of further groups such as Poetry, Scrabble, German
and Singing. Moreover U3A is a self-supporting organisation finding many of
its group’s lecturers or administrators form its own personnel. U3A will
become increasingly useful to us oldies as the numbers of elderly people
grow. Apply to the Moores at 34 Lyndhurst Rd. Wolverhampton 01902 650130

WOLVERHAMPTON THE CITY OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, SPORT AND BUSINESS OF 2009.
This remains the basic aim of this BLOG. Its aim can only be achieved
if everyone in the City realises that Wolverhampton was once known as the
race capital of Britain in the days of Enoch Powell, but has raised itself
up by its own bootstraps to deserve the honour of being Britain’s most
important city. But it won’t happen on its own. Every citizen must play
their part .
.

PEACE STUDIES NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD.
Peace and Art. ‘Brushes with Peace’ was the title of an exhibition
comprising 100 paintings and pen drawings by Margaret Glover was shown at
the University’s Gallery II from 29 April to 11 April. The works displayed
illustrate the national and international peace and disarmament movements of
the 1980s in which the artist, who describes herself as a Quaker Radical was
also involved as an educator, writer and activist.
This unique collection acquired by the Department of Peace Studies
in 1989 had never before been put on public display. Leading figures such as
Fenner Brockway, Sean McBride, Dora Russell and Frank Allaun are depicted
in oil, while many other national and international peace activists, some
well known, some forgotten are represented in ink drawings. They include Pat
Arrowsmith and Robin Cook as well as entertainers Billy Bragg and Billy
Connolly. In addition to portraits the collection also comprises scenes
depicting places and events associated with peace work
While the various painting and sketches were hung in a thematic way
suggested by the artist such as Quaker faces and places; international
faces, peace and political; Labour Party and Peace etc. -both time and venue
made it appropriate to create two extra groupings.One was devoted to CND the
other one to the recipients of Bradford University honorary doctorates.
Since the exhibition coincided with the 50th anniversary of CND, the half
dozen or so works showing CND in action were hung together. Four portraits
of peace workers who had at one time or another received from the University
were also grouped together. Nobel peace prize laureates Sean MacBride and
Joseph Rotblat, Frank Barnaby and Quaker benefactors Alex and Sue Horsley.
The artist’s fascinating and highly origin PhD thesis, ‘Images of
Peace in Britain from the late Nineteenth Century to the Second World War,
submitted in 2002 at the University of Reading’s Departments of History,
and Typography and Graphic Communications was also displayed. The second of
the thesis’ two volumes (available in the Commonweal Collection in the
J.B.Priestley Library consists entirely of about 500 illustrations. Photos
of some of her other paintings include Tanzanian President Julius I.Nero and
India’s Indira Gandhi. Peggy Smith was also rediscovered by Margaret Glover.
This 1930s artist and peace activist made many portraits of national and
international figures including Gandhi and Einstein. These sketches
(sometimes signed by the subject) were often published in national
newspapers or peace journals especially, ‘Peace News’, and thanks to
Margaret Glover’s intervention more that 130 of Smith’s drawings have since
been donated to Commonweal and several are on display in the Peace Museum.
Bradford University is fortunate in possessing the bulk of the work of
two peace campaigning artists who besides both being woman Quakers have much
in common and who have provided wonderful artistic documentation of the
peace movement of the 1930s and 1980s - periods characterised by hopes as
well as fears and when peace activism was confronted by many challenges. As
Margaret Glover writes, ‘We were all people ‘who were trying…to make the
world a better place’.
I would personally like to congratulate the Peace Makers at Bradford
University for I have only used pages 1 to 3 of Peace Studies News and the
other 20 pages are packed with news probably just as significant as the
piece I have used.

THE CITIZEN’S ARREST.
It seems that it is just 24 hours since I sprung on an unsuspecting
world the concept that Gordon Brown and all his Cabinet are war criminals
who should be arraigned before the Court of Human Rights at the Hague as a
war criminal and that any citizen was entitled to make that arrest. Of
course, it was not my idea. It originated as far as I know with George
Monbiot, the Guardian journalist who tried to arrest John Bolton the US
politician as a war criminal. The only other case I know is of the New
Zealand students who offer assistance to any of its members who arrest the
US Secretary of state, Condoleza Rice. So there are important precedents.
The question I have been asked all day is whether I am serious in
insisting the Brown and his entire Cabinet should be arrested as war
criminals because the murder of civilians still continues despite the fact
that the war has been lost.
So I have put two scenarios to people. One the national one of George
Galloway or Ken Purchase arresting Gordon Brown in the House of Commons and
a local, much more difficult case of Lance Dunkley and me making a citizen’s
arrest of my MP and friend who insists on being a war criminal by supporting
the slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan.. Each will need all the initiative
that people possess to ensure the arrest, the first the MPs, but the second
the initiative of ordinary Wolverhampton citizens.
But it is because I am a Communist and a Marxist that I believe the
working class can be mobilised to see Brown and his cabinet removed almost
immediately. After all it was Marx who said that philosophers had only
interpreted the world, the point was to change it
In that spirit Lance Dunkley and I set out below some of the
difficulties we will have in bringing my friend Rob Marris my MP to book for
his support of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Firstly that assuming I can find enough people to physically overwhelm
Marris, I would have to detain him in some prison or police station where I
would have to mobilise police or prison authorities to hold Marris while he
was shipped off to the Hague. Meanwhile Marris would be using his
considerable forensic skills (he is a solicitor) to ensure that he returns
home safe and sound. Then we would have to ensure that rail and ship
authorities would allow us to bring Marris to the Hague where he would
remain until his trial. Even then we would not be home and dry because the
authorities at the Hague while being most anxious to detain and try the Serb
Karadzig will not be at all willing to try Gordon Brown one of the friends
of their friend George Bush. In other words I see no alternative to a
citizen’s arrest. Do you?

PILGER OR RHODES.
John Pilger’s article in the Newstatesman this week calls Obama the
prince of bait-and-switch as US aircraft bombed a wedding party in
Afghanistan on Sunday. Slaughter on this scale is common, but mostly unknown
to the British public, and if known lightly regarded because ‘they are the
enemy.’ Obama has now declared Afghanistan a ‘good war’. Eleven years and
five wars later at least 1 million people have been killed. Barak Obama is
the American Blair. That he is a smooth operator and a black man is
irrelevant . He is of an enduring, rampant system whose drum majors and
cheer squads never want to see the consequences of 500 lb bombs dropped
unerringly on mud, stone and straw houses. That’s the opinion of Pilger. It
can be compared with the opinion of Peter Rhodes, reporter of the
Wolverhampton Express and Star on Friday who said that the adoration of
Omama might be justified with the prospect of an American president for the
first time in a generation not in thrall to the oil interests or the
military who might well prefer to launch a spell of peace and prosperity
rather than launch cruise missiles. Let’s hope that Rhodes is right.

A CITIZEN’S ARREST.
It has come as a bit of a shock to some people to learn that Gordon
Brown and his whole New Labour cabinet are war criminals because they are
running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan It also seems to have come as a
shock to all those MPs who support these wars that anyone might call them
warmongers and demand that they are brought before the Court of Human Rights
in the Hague for Crimes against Humanity. But this is now widely regarded as
the case. Nor is it realised how widely this goes, to councillors and
public servants who have supported these wars without any intention of
allowing their views to be known. All these categories of people were
brought before the Nuremberg courts when the Nazis were tried.
But as the enormity of the defeat of the war criminal Gordon Brown
becomes evident people are taking matters into their own hands and
arresting these criminals themselves. I am very much waiting for the day
when George Galloway takes it into his own hands arrest Brown and their are
plenty of others, such as David Cameron the Tory leader who supports the war

WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT LIBRARY
The summer edition of the newsletter of the Working Class Movement
Library has some interesting material. On the budget, now that the library
receives limited funds from Salford Counil (it was about £38,000 last year)
and donations of £34,000. With fuel costs rising steeply, the Trustees
decided on a budget for the coming year of £91,000 which will involve
drawing funds from reserves unless the £16,000 can be met with increased
donations. The decision to ‘go public’ has so far proved successful.
The Newsletter also introduces three new members of staff, Jane Taylor,
Kate Hart and Caroline Hunt all funded by a lottery Grant. But the main
feature was of the great send off of Ruth Frown who, instead of having a
funeral, had donated her body to research. About 300 peoplecrammed into Peel
Hall opposite the library to pay tribute to Ruth with contributors
reminiscing about their experiences with Ruth. What a woman! was the
verdict. How to preserve the memory of Ruth and Eddie Frown. The Trustees of
the Library are inviting Friends to put forward their views knowing that
both would have hated the idea of a plaque or a statue. About £5,000 has
already been donated in memory of Ruth and it is agreed that this be spent
on books. Nick Matthew’s letter in the Morning Star last Saturday proposing
that Jubilee House be renamed Frow House and a plaque explaining the
achievements of the Frows was probably written before he saw Shelf Life,
but I shall certainly be contacting Shelf Life with the idea that the only
fitting memorial would be a string of similar libraries throughout Britain
and I have proposals which will involve Nick Matthews.

RACE AND CLASS.
This issue is the 50th volume of this journal associated with the Royal
Institution of International Affairs. The three main articles press the
point of current outlook, its three main articles being Hilary Rose and
Steven Rose on the Academic boycott of Israel; Matt Carr on the Barbarians
of Fallujah; and Jerry Harris on US Imperialism after Iraq.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

INDEX
BARNSBY BLOG NO.526 SUNDAY 27TH JULY
1. PILGER OR RHODES
2. A CITIZEN’S ARREST
3 RACE AND CLASS

THE WAR IS OVER.
The scenario that Gordon Brown and his New Labour cabinet paint for
themselves is pure bunkum and it revolves around the fact that the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan are now at an end. This moment occurred when five
British hostages were taken. Brown now has only two alternatives. He can
try
to continue the war when he will find that every British life is a virtual
hostage or he can bring the troops home and accept reality.
The other aspect of reality is that Brown and all who have waged war
illegally are war criminals stained with
the blood of the innocent. And once a war criminal always a war criminal.
George Monbiot was the first to test this truth when he attempted to
make a citizen’s arrest of John Bolton at the Hay Festival. In many
countries
now their constitutions do not permit of war criminals remaining at large
and this is the significance of another attempted citizen’s arrest this
week
in New Zealand where students offer support
for anyone making a citizen’s arrest of Condolezza Rice the US
Secretary of State. George W.Bush himself came close to a citizen’s
arrest
on his recent visit to Britain and had to be protected by British police
from anyone getting near to him.
It is now quite clear that there is a large body of opinion in America
in favour of Bush being arraigned before the Court of Human Rights at the
Hague charged with Crimes against Humanity and it becomes more evident
every
day that this wiill be where he lands up.
Returning to Blair, Gordon Brown and the diminishing tribe of New
Labourites, it is clear that as Britain disintegrates there will be an
urgent need for an English constitution which will raise the question of
what to do with war criminals. In this regard Britain’s record is a poor
one. In 1945 it allowed to enter Britain Nazi collaborators, war criminals
and
concentration camp guards from Poland, Esthonia, Lithuania and elsewhere.
Not a single collaborator was ever tried.
The idea of Brown being free for another two years is ludicrous and I
hope a citizen’s arrest will be made in public by one of my favourite MPs,
George Galloway or Ken Purchase. And locally perhaps me arresting my
friend Rob Marris who continues to support the war in Iraq when most
rational people know that it is all over.
>
FURTHEST EAST RHYTHM CLUB IN THE WORLD.
We have now on the Web one parcel of three documents sent from the
National Jazz Archives, of Loughton, Essex. This is a 26 page piece written
by Harry Johnson one of the two founders of the Club and is the story of the
entire history of the Club from its inception in June 1943 to its last
meeting in March 1944 when it was agreed by the members present that
proceeding would have to be suspended sine die because of the Japanese
offensive intended to conquer India, but which resulted in the Siege of
Imphal as Lord Mountbatten mounted the largest air lift then known and the
siege lasted for three months. So Harry Johnson writes that to the war crime
committed by the sons of Nippon can be added the break-up of the furthest
East Rhythm Club in the world. This unique chapter of military history can
be downloaded at the address
http://www.gbpeopleshistory.co.uk/2008/rhythm-club.pdf

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

INDEX
BLOG NO.525 SATURDAY 25TH JULY 2008
1. THE WAR IS OVER
2. FURTHEST EAST RHYTHM CLUB IN THE WORLD.

GORDON BROWN ON THE BRINK.
says the Express and Star tonight. Labour stunned after by-election
defeat.
So not even his brave words yesterday of bringing the troops home, even
if it does offend Mr.George W.Bush (see yesterday’s BLOG) could save Gordon
Brown from the most devastating defeat of his career. A defeat in the next
general election on the scale of the by election in Glasgow East would leave
the West Midlands bereft of every Labour seat it now holds.
David Cameron, despite only coming third in the election, calls on Brown
to have a nice holiday and then return to Parliament and call a general
election. Meanwhile Brown bereft of power and money sends his Chancellor
of the Exchequer into battle tomorrow to ask parliament’s approval for
the largest borrowing requirement ever to give him the money to pay
Britain’s poorest people that he would never have needed if he had kept the
lowest tax band of 10p alone.
But Brown has one consolation - that Cameron’s position is almost as
parlous as is Brown’s - Cameron supports the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and now has only two alternatives, he can demand that the wars be stopped or
he can wait until he is prime minister (which looks increasingly unlikely as
the hostage takers gain control) and find that he is kicked out of those
countries. It is now Iraq for the Iraqis and Afghanistan for the Afghans.

SAD PLIGHT OF BLETCHLEY PARK BY PETER RHODES.
Peter Rhodes of the Express and Star had a splendid article yesterday on
the sad plight of our wartime code centre. Ninety seven signatories to a
letter in the Times warn that Bletchley Park the site of Britain’s code
busting centre during the war is crumbling away and will disappear if it is
not given public money.
Rhodes has a special interest in BP as it was universally known. During
the 2nd World War the stately home near Milton Keynes was home to some of
the finest brains Britain has ever produced. They were a bizarre bunch from
mathematicians and statisticians to cross word compilers who by sheer
brilliant brainpower and with the help of a primitive computer called
Colossus cracked the most complex codes that Nazi Germany produced and
delivering top secret information to the German forces before they had been
delivered to the rightful recipients. By the end of the war 63 million
characters of high grade German messages had been decrypted by the 550
people working on the Colossus machine.
One of BP’s stars was Professor Sir Harry Hinsley, the Walsall born son
of a miner. He was a born code breaker , a man with a magnificent intellect
raised in the poorest of homes and who, was so hard up that fellow
code-breakers had to have a whip-round to buy him a pair of trousers for his
21st birthday..
Peter Rhodes interviewed Hinsley twice in the 1980s when Hinsley was
Master of St.John’s College Cambridge and writing the official account of
British Intelligence during the 2nd World War. How would Hinsley feel today
at the wretched news that BP was in such dire straits? The Times letter
which includes some BP veterans tells how although some income has been
generated we cannot allow this unique feature of British and world heritage
to be neglected in this way. The site should be made the home of a National
Museum of Computing.

PETER RHODES ON OBAMA.
The Barak backlash is well under way. People are being reminded of the
back lash from Dianna worship. But maybe it is not adoration of Obama, but
the prospect for the first time in a generation of a US presidential
candidate not in thrall to the oil interests or the military who might well
prefer to launch a spell of peace and prosperity rather than launch cruise
missiles.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

INDEX
BLOG NO.524 25TH JULY
1. GORDON BROWN ON THE BRINK
2. SAD PLIGHT OF BLETCHLEY PARK BY PETER RHODES
3. PETER RHODES ON OBAMA

THE VISIT TO MOLINEUX.
Frank Spittle took me to the Wolves ground today to meet Graham Hughes
the Wolves librarian and keeper of the trophies and it was a trifle
disappointing to find that everything was awash with paint so that it would
get on your clothes. Also that there were large cranes rising the sky
one of which whose name sounded foreign and knowing what a stickler Sir
Jack Hayward is that all things should be British we thought we might bring
it to his attention.
As I explained in last night’s BLOG I gave a list of all football
managers of Arsenal since the glory days Of Herbert Chapman and Graham was
pleased to accept this since it included Billy Wright the Wolves legend who
was manager of Arsenal from 18 Aug 1962 till 7 May 1966. Billy’s record as
manager was winning only 38% of games played, although the great maestro
himself, Herbert Chapman, only won 50%.
I also gave to both Frank Spittle and Graham Hughes a copy of the
letter Bob Jones the amateur sportsman and referee both of whom pop
frequently into
Graham’s ‘cubby hole’ for the occasional cup of tea. Then I wanted
to see Graham’s library and see if it contained two booklets of Percy Young
the gifted musicologist who acted as interpreter when Wolves toured Eastern
Europe and found time to write, what to me is the best history of British
football as well as writing the two booklets which Renee Young, his widow
who still lives in Wolverhampton tells me are still in print. Also today I
meet the Wolves secretary Mr.Richard Ski who was very friendly and I had
my photo taken with him.
So we have now arranged that I come to Molineux for a third time on a
Sunday morning to pursue the rest of my questions which include meeting the
players and seeking the views particularly of the black players on questions
of racism in football.
If that had been all, it would have made my visit well worth while. But
it was not at all and the rest was a closer contact with Frank Spittle and
his family which among other achievements reckon three generations of people
who represented England in sports so disparate as rifle shooting, boxing and
football. This apart from John Spittle managing director of Bauer Casings of
Wolverhampton in 1878 where all the brothers received their training.
Jack’s family consists of five brothers and sisters. Jack himself,
brothers Frank, Stan and Dennis and sister Josephine, also Josie wife of
Dennis. I was very pleased when Dennis told me today that after 50 years he
was now able to put a face to someone whose letters in the Express and Star
he had read and remembered from all those years ago, because this was also
the first link between me and Graham Hughes.
Nor is that the only link between Wolves and me. For Sir Jack Hayward
flew aircraft in Burma, where I was connected with the Furthest East Rhythm
Club in the World at Imphal on the Burma border . Sir Jack is also the
patron of the Burma Star Association. We are still in the process of trying
to get jazz enthusiasts to replicate the sessions of the Imphal Rhythm Club
which as a club with 50 members in a war zone interrupted by the Japanese
offensive which should have conquered India, but which in fact was aborted
by Lord Mountbatten who ordered us to stay put and endure the siege of
Imphal where we were supplied by air for three months which was the largest
air lift known at the time.
Finally we have Ms Rachel Heyhoe Flint MBE and OBE who qualifies as one
of the most important people both in her own right as the first women
cricket captain, but also the lady with the ear of Sir Jack Hayward who we
hope will assist the last two toothlesss veterans, Harry Johnson and myself,
to have these sessions repeated which will give as much pleasure to modern
jazz fans as they did to us nearly 80 years ago.

COMMUNIST REVIEW.
I wrote a couple of weeks back on Graham Stevenson’s Why you should
read the Morning Star. With the receipt today of issue No.50 of Spring 2008
I wish to express my view that everyone should read the Communist Review.
The first reason is an article by Helena Sheehan of the Dublin City
University. Sprigg was born in London descended from several generations of
journalists educated in catholic schools. He left school at 15 and started
work as a journalist. He wrote detective thrillers, aeronautic text books,
poetry, plays, short stories and a novel. In 19334 at the age of 27 he found
Marxism and wrote his first Marxist work, Illusion and Reality in 19335 and
then moved to Poplar and joined the Communist Party. Here he threw himself
into all the activities in the branch. When the Spanish Civil War broke out
in 1936 Poplar branch had raised money to buy an ambulance and Sprigg
volunteered to drive it to Spain where he joined the International Brigade
and was killed at the battle of Jarama and last seen firing a machine gun to
cover the retreat of his comrades. He was not yet thirty. His Marxist
writings which were Illusion and Reality, Studies and Further Studies in a
Dying Culture, The Crisis in Physics, Romance and Realism, and Heredity and
Development were published posthumously under the name of Christopher
Caudwell the name he had decided to adopt for his serious work.. In October
last year Marx House Memorial Library had decided to mark the centenary of
his birth in 1907. It was a splendid event but also a sad one since Caudwell
was such a brief, brave, brilliant presence in our history. He was like a
shooting star that burst through the sky, burnt with fierce intensity then
collided to destruction. A member of the Communist Parties of Britain, Italy
and Australia. Erna Bennet writes of the battle of ideas and the question of
Hegemony All the subsequenet items of this issue seem to have a current
relevance. A report of the CPB Executive Committee, Mobilise and Unite
brings us up to date. Chinese Communists and the Urban Struggle by Kenny
Coyle a member of the Communist Review editorial board writes of Chinese
Communists and the Urban Struggle 1927-1949 and, perhaps the most important
of all an advertisement for a Conference and tour of a conference sponsored
by the US journal Nature Science and Thought, the World Association for
Political Economy, the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua
University and the Academy of Marxism of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences who call for papers for the Conference. These seem to me to offer
opportunities to examine the possible projections of Communist Party
influence and direction of Chinese Communist direction since the CPB
embarked last year on direct talks with the Communist Party of China.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

INDEX
BLOG NO 523 THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008
1. THE VISIT TO MOLINEUX
2. COMMUNIST REVIEW

WOLVES - CONQUERORS OF THE WORLD
It seemed almost providential that I should stumble on a nearly
overlooked email from a friend of mine Ilya the day before I was due to
meet Graham Hughes, the Wolves librarian and keeper of the trophy room to
discuss Wolves present and past. Ilya was in Hungary at the same time that I
was in 1949 when we both attended the World Youth Festival. Much later, a
young Hungarian, Gyula Virag, discovered in the newly opened Hungarian
archives the names and addresses of all who attended the Youth Festival and
he sent them each a questionnaire asking what our attitudes to the Hungarian
Revolution were then, but also in 2006 the fiftieth anniversary of the
Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
Mean while Hungarians were as crazy about football as were Wolves
supporters. But from that great peak in 1956 Wolves fell on hard times and
were only prevented from being bankrupted by the Bhatti Brothers by the
pitch being bought by the local Labour council. So football and politics are
intertwined and all of us at tomorrow’s talks, me, Frank Spittle, Graham
Hughes and Bob Jones, the local amateur official of referees who meets with
Graham regularly at his cubby-hole, but will be represented at tommorow’s
meeting only by a letter he has written and I will present copies of to
Graham and Frank. My ultimate aim is to promote Wolves and the other team I
support, Arsenal, as the patriotic teams whose aims are to keep football
English and our local teams to be owned by the local community. I know I
shall be facing a sympathetic audience

NOT HEROES BUT MERCENARIES IN FOREIGN LANDS - IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
Tonight the Express and Star splashes over page six the story of
Lance-Corporal Matthew Croucher of Solihull in London today surrounded by
top brass Chief of Defence Staff and the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathan
Band. His act is described as exceptional bravery in throwing himself onto a
grenade and took the full force of the explosion. His three pals suffered
cuts and bruises while L/Cpl Croucher was thrown in the air but received
only a nose bleed. He is the first reservist to receive the George Cross in
either Iraq or Afghanistan. His mother, naturally is very proud of him. But
the fact remains that the bravery was in vain. He was not serving his own
country. He was in a foreign country to which no one had invited him. He was
a murderer and the sooner our forces are withdrawn the sooner the murder
will stop.

OWNERSHIP OF THE METRO AND WHO OWNS WOLVERHAMPTON.
Phil Bateman the public Affairs consultant for National Express explains
today in the Express and Star who owns and controls the public transport
system of the West Midlands. I have no intention of explaining this
extremely complex matter only to say that it is an exemplary example of a
public servant informing a member of the public who asked for the
information. If this is the complexity of the transport system, how much
more comples is the question of who runs and who owns Wolverhampton. Yet the
only man who could explain this deliberately refrains from giving me the
answer. This is Charles Cross, the chief executive of Wolverhampton. You
would think that he would only be too pleased to tell the public at large
who controls and owns the city, but he doesn’t. There is no accounting for
taste.

CAN GORDON BROWN WIN TOMORROW NIGHT’S ELECTION?
If he does it will be because he is at last talking about the war in
Iraq and bringing troops home whether the US agrees or not. If, however,
this is only a ploy and he returns to slaughter as soon as he is safely home
remains to be seen. It is to be hoped that he is sincere, for if he isn’t
the public will extract terrible retribution on Brown.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

INDEX
BLOG NUMBER 522 WEDNESDAY 23RD jULY 2008
1.WOLVES - CONQUERORS OF THE WORLD
2. NOT HEROES BUT MERCENARIES IN FOREIGN LANDS - IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
3. OWNERSHIP OF THE METRO AND WHO OWNS WOLVERHAMPTON
4. CAN GORDON BROWN WIN TOMMOR NIGHT’S ELECTION?