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Labour HQ Occupied!

Emma Goldman | 07.02.2003 12:48

Local activists have stormed Labour Party HQ on Tyneside and have occupied the building demanding the Labour Party stops its terrorist war against the people of Iraq.

At 10am over 30 people stormed Labour's National HQ in North Shields on Tyneside. With little effort they gained entrance to the building and successfully barricaded themselves in the lobby. The group, a motley collection of local direct action heros and some disgruntled ex-Labour members made it loud and clear that enough was enough. The Labour Party has become the Party for War and Business. No one with any conscience can belong to such an organisation. No more measily excuses about useless hopes of reclaiming the Labour Party for the left or any other dreary daydream.
If you're a Labour party member you're part of the problem, you're supporting the idiots who are wrecking our world.
The action has sent the local media into a frenzy and a Conservative M.P is defending Blair against the protestors on Century F.M. It looks like the blockade will end soon without arrests and everyone has a cheeky grin on their faces. This insane war must be stopped.

Emma Goldman

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

How about action like this on the 15th?

07.02.2003 13:33

It would be good if action like this happens in London and Glasgow on the 15 during or after the mass anti-war demonstrations. We could easily do it as there will be hundreds of thousands of people on the streets that day!

Harlequin


He he he!

07.02.2003 19:06

Could it be that the emperors new clothes are showing?

jackslucid
mail e-mail: jackslucid@hotmail.com


Statement against the sectarian provocation

07.02.2003 22:54

The Socialist Workers Party is shocked and outraged by the recent sectarian, ultra-left provocation against the Labour Party in Tyneside.

Don't these people know that they will have alienated the millions of working class members of the Labour Party who are sick of the poodle Blair and his war mongering. By attacking the Labour Party they have attempted to sabotage the fightback of the Labour left against Blair's war and anti-trade union policies.

We must have nothing to do with these sectarian head bangers and ensure that their ultra-left provocations fail and we call on all socialists, honest members of the Labour Party, trade unionists and anti-war people to join with us in a united front against this dangerous development.

Lindsey German,
for the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party.

Also signed by:

Alliance for Workers Liberty,
Communist Party of Great Britain,
International Socialist Group,
Workers Power,
Tony Benn,
Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs,
some liberals etc.

Lindsey German


Statement against the sectarian provocation

07.02.2003 22:54

The Socialist Workers Party is shocked and outraged by the recent sectarian, ultra-left provocation against the Labour Party in Tyneside.

Don't these people know that they will have alienated the millions of working class members of the Labour Party who are sick of the poodle Blair and his war mongering. By attacking the Labour Party they have attempted to sabotage the fightback of the Labour left against Blair's war and anti-trade union policies.

We must have nothing to do with these sectarian head bangers and ensure that their ultra-left provocations fail and we call on all socialists, honest members of the Labour Party, trade unionists and anti-war people to join with us in a united front against this dangerous development.

Lindsey German,
for the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party.

Also signed by:

Alliance for Workers Liberty,
Communist Party of Great Britain,
International Socialist Group,
Workers Power,
Tony Benn,
Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs,
some liberals etc.

Lindsey German


SWP=MI5

08.02.2003 03:22

"The Socialist Workers Party is shocked and outraged by the recent sectarian, ultra-left provocation against the Labour Party in Tyneside.", says, erm, the SWP.

The Socialist Workers Party is a stooge agency of the British government, riddled with MI5 moles. It has but one goal - to deactivate and tame dissent in the populus.
Avoid it at your pleasure.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The 1999 book 'Defending the Realm, MI5 and the Shayler Affair' (by Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding) reveals that MI5 recruited 25 agents specifically to spy on and penetrate the SWP. The tiny party are, after all, Bolsheviks plotting with the Russians to overthrow the British Government.

Since then the SWP have become almost as fascist as the labour party when it comes to insisting members toe the party line. Could it be MI5 have a bigger part to play than we thought in creating that party line in the first place?

So I courteously request MI5 pull their agents out of the SWP, the sooner the better. My guess is either it would find it difficult to carry on or else fall into the hands of true socialists. I imagine that MI5's main reason for not pulling out of the SWP is to prevent the latter.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=

See:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0233996672

been there, done it (recommend avoid)
- Homepage: http://www.bilderberg.org/pepis01.htm#34


What's the problem?

08.02.2003 09:16

Was the protest violent and destructive or peaceful and symbolic?

If it was peaceful and symbolic (and it sounds like it was), why does the SWP have such a problem with it? Are they trying to attracked tory votes?

Zacc


Gullibers' travels

08.02.2003 14:15

Sorry, but the post by Lindsey German above is a hoax. Anyone who believed it should be hoisted up by their gullibility and buffeted by gales of laughter. You've been took.

The SWP would never condemn activists who occupied Labour Party headquarters - no matter whether they were anarchists or socialists from another party.

PS - I'm not Lindsey German either. See how easy it is to post under someone elses name?

Lindsey German


This was not meant to fool anyone!

08.02.2003 21:43

This was meant to be an amusing parody of the dominant trend on the left. I did not intend to mislead anyone into believing that it was really a statement from Lindsey German.

A few things should have made it obvious that it was just a parody:

1) The SWP CC is above posting on Indymedia, or at least if they do it is not under their real names
2) The "statement" ended signed by "some liberals etc"
3) It did not sound like a serious statement and contained terms like "sectarian head bangers" which the SWP only use internally.

It was meant to highlight the serious point of the mainstream left's tactics and strategy of aligning themselves with liberals and sections of Labour, making all the concencessions to the right and condemning anyone who takes a firmer position as "sectarian". The fact is that this has been the strategy of the mainstream left, not limited to the SWP, in the anti-war movements in Britain for many years. For example last time the government ratcheted up the war on Iraq a few years ago when demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street, members of the SWP and others objected to and tried to disrupt a short speech by a woman who condemned the government's war on Iraq and gave a brief outline of Labours past atrocities in the Middle East that included the use of poison gas to put down uprisings before the Second World War. Tony Benn's 1991 position of "sanctions not war" (ie supporting imperialism's ends but not its more violent means) that the left allied with was also mentioned and how sanctions have now killed even more Iraqis than war. This was loudly condemned as sectarian because it would alienate members of the Labour Party who might have been present. This was the real position I was parodying to make a serious point.

We must not be afraid of embarassing members of Labour. We must not shelter them from the ugly truth and let them distance themselves from resposibility for the war. We must confront them and make sure anyone with the slightest bit of humanity leaves the party and strip away any humanitarian or anti-war cover for its war mongering.

It is a very good thing that the HQ was occupied.

Lindsey German


This was not meant to fool anyone!

08.02.2003 21:43

This was meant to be an amusing parody of the dominant trend on the left. I did not intend to mislead anyone into believing that it was really a statement from Lindsey German.

A few things should have made it obvious that it was just a parody:

1) The SWP CC is above posting on Indymedia, or at least if they do it is not under their real names
2) The "statement" ended signed by "some liberals etc"
3) It did not sound like a serious statement and contained terms like "sectarian head bangers" which the SWP only use internally.

It was meant to highlight the serious point of the mainstream left's tactics and strategy of aligning themselves with liberals and sections of Labour, making all the concencessions to the right and condemning anyone who takes a firmer position as "sectarian". The fact is that this has been the strategy of the mainstream left, not limited to the SWP, in the anti-war movements in Britain for many years. For example last time the government ratcheted up the war on Iraq a few years ago when demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street, members of the SWP and others objected to and tried to disrupt a short speech by a woman who condemned the government's war on Iraq and gave a brief outline of Labours past atrocities in the Middle East that included the use of poison gas to put down uprisings before the Second World War. Tony Benn's 1991 position of "sanctions not war" (ie supporting imperialism's ends but not its more violent means) that the left allied with was also mentioned and how sanctions have now killed even more Iraqis than war. This was loudly condemned as sectarian because it would alienate members of the Labour Party who might have been present. This was the real position I was parodying to make a serious point.

We must not be afraid of embarassing members of Labour. We must not shelter them from the ugly truth and let them distance themselves from resposibility for the war. We must confront them and make sure anyone with the slightest bit of humanity leaves the party and strip away any humanitarian or anti-war cover for its war mongering.

It is a very good thing that the HQ was occupied.

Lindsey German