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Is the middle class left having a go at us working class left?

Mike Lane | 06.08.2002 01:09

How on earth can the middle class left form an alliance with us working class left-wingers in the Socialist Labour Party. Is there no end to the lies that are being perpatrated against us? Below is an email I have just sent in reply to a comrade from the Socialist Alience. Sadly this comrade, although seemingly a decent guy, has a go at Arthur Scargill the working class hero and worthy leader of our party.

The email that was sent to me by a Socialist Alliance member:

Dear Comrade,

I have just read your posting on Indymedia regarding Scargill. I am a member of the Socialist Alliance and have the utmost respect for Comrade Scargill. The media have tarnished his name out of all proportions.

Much is made, by the media, of the fact that Scargill never called a ballot, but the miners strike was a spontaneous reaction against pit closures which started in one mining village and spread throughout the country. Scargill has also been absolved of the dispicable claim that he took money from the NUM funds.

Scargill and the miners had to face the entire force of the State and the media, and on several occasions nearly triumphed. We must celebrate his heroism.

I assure you this a sentiment that this is felt throughout the Socialist Alliance. However it is Scargills conduct within the SLP that concerns us.

Reports, like those found at the link below, give the impression that Scargill has become obssessed with the small power outlet he has within the SLP, this is a feeling adopted by many of the thousands of members who joined the SLP at its inception but subsequently decided not to renew their membership, dissapointed at Scargills Stalinist control.
 http://www.cpgb.org.uk/simonharvey/index.html

I hope that our two parties can forge closer links to consolidate the left in the UK for the working class to articulate their discontent.
in solidarity,

My reply to the SA comrade:

Dear Comrade,

Firstly I am working class and I am sick of these middle class comrades who are in the Socialist Alliance continually slating Scargill. Scargill may have his problems, but he is working class and I have decided to follow him. I am sick to the back teeth of these middle class socialists who have constantly got their heads buried in international issues whilst I live in poverty. Didn't someone once say that charity begins at home? The real reasons why these middle class weekend socialist dreamers wont help the poor working classes and continually have their minds on international issues is because many of them work within the system that oppresses us working class folk. My mother died in my arms in a filthy nursing home that stank of piss. What are these middle class socialists doing for us poor people who live in poverty? Nothing, these middle class dreamers are constantly banging the international drum and poor people who live in run down communities just down the road from the middle classes suburbs where many of these middle class lefties live, suffer from the drudgery of social exclusion and misery.

Lets take a closer look at this guy Simon Harvey. For a start this guy is telling lies about me, but this so called democratic newspaper the Weekly Worker has never given me a chance to put my side of the storey across. This guy Harvey, who is too much of a coward to give his real name, is telling lies about me. Go to web page:  http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/386/sharvey.html of the site you sent me and see for yourself what this guy said, quote:

However, no doubt after Scargill himself stepped in, as he did in one or two other areas where local SLPers tried to avoid a clash with the SA, the SLP’s Michael Lane was put down for Wavetree - even though Mark O’Brien had already been nominated in the same seat for the SA. Now it turns out that there will be no left candidate in Walton and two in Wavetree. But what happened to comrade Hackett?

The truth is: Comrade Hackett pulled out because of bad health!

And lets tell you the truth about what really happened to me. At the time of the election I was totally unaware of the middle class teacher, Mark O'Brien, until I had collected all the signatures and put them into the electoral office. I am pretty new to politics and have only had a political voice for the last 5 years so I don't know about all the bickering that goes on amongst the left. (I DO NOW). Arthur Scargill never came near me or said anything to me about where I was standing, during or after the election. In reality I was approached by Alec McFadden and asked would I pull out of Wavertree because O'Brien was running there. All this happened at the last minute. As I have already said I had got the signatures and given them to the electoral officer, done loads of campaigning and I was stressed out with it all as well. I told McFadden that I was too stressed out with it all and did not wont to, at the last minute, pull out and go to another constituency and have to go through all the messing about of getting the signatures and all the other stuff all over again. Also I thought to myself why should I pull out at the last minute. Does this middle class guy Mark O'Brien have more right than me to run for Wavertree? Can you give me an answer to this?

I have ran for the council three times in this constituency, Mark O'Brien has not and no one around here knows him anyway. Is the Weekly Worker saying that Mark O'Brien has more right to run in the area where I live than I have because he is a middle class teacher and I am just a poor working class none person? Is this what the real issue is here that Mark O'Brien is cleverer than me? I tried to speak with Mark O'Brien and explain to him why I did not wont to go through all the messing about and he just treated me the way middle class people always treat working class people, like I was a non entity and how dare I run against him. Why didn't "he run" in Walton? Answer me that if you can?

The sad thing is that Mark O'Brien and the SA had a similar manifesto to the SLP. It's absolutely crazy. Trying to reason with the middle class left wingers is like trying to speak into the wind. They have their culture and we have ours and never the twain shall meet. They have a totally different way of perceiving things, everything to them has to be complicated, simplicity is not in their vocabulary.

I am quite willing to give an interview to the Weekly Worker, but it would seem that this newspaper is no different than the right wing media in the way that it just prints absolute lies and does not investigate what really happened.

Mike Lane (Not afraid to give my name or telephone number)Tel mobile 07770-478756 ( I believe in democracy and an open society and as such I will speak to anyone who wants the real truth)

Mike Lane
- e-mail: mickjlane@btinternet.com
- Homepage: www.whistleblower.nstemp.com

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Dear God...

06.08.2002 09:27

BORING!

Jay-B


Why don't you stop filling the newswire up

06.08.2002 12:13

Please we got your first message - this is a news wire for reports not a open forum for your slagging everyone off - there are other forums for that! Write us news.

...


Yawn

06.08.2002 12:50

Mick - you are getting dangerously boring - is this typical of SLP members? Perhaps we could stockpile a load of SLP members and unleash them on Washington when the time is right. The Americans will drop like flies out of sheer boredom.

Antidote


"Mike Lane" = a fairly dodgy character

06.08.2002 12:57

Look "Mike Lane" you've blown your credibility on this website-- nobody takes you seriously, and a few of us believe that you are part of a strategy by our enemies. So just piss off, or invent a new identity under which to play MI5/Special Branch games.

Observer