Saturday’s anti-EDL demonstration in Bolton has attracted a great deal of comment around the blogosphere and in the media. Much of it nasty, outright lies and smears, some of it genuine debate about the kind of tactics we need in the future. I’m not going to comment much on the discussion of tactics right now (though the most important thing we need in future is more people, especially from the trade unions and local communities). I want to focus on the shameful behaviour of Greater Manchester Police, and their subsequent attempts to smear anti-fascists.

According to the Police “The number of arrests made is a clear indication that this is not a peaceful protest and some demonstrators are determined to cause trouble”. It is nothing of the sort, it is an indication of a wound up police force intend on creating disorder and making arrests.

The Police were in a confrontational and agressive mood from the beginning. When I arrived, with a group from Liverpool, they immediately confronted someone with us, for no clear reason. When I went over to ask why, a second police officer barelled into me to push me away.  As the demonstration grew in size, the police began to kettle us in. Some attempts were made by people to break out of the kettle. From this point onwards the police became violent and belligerent. They sent several groups into the demonstration to arbitrarily arrest individuals. Realising this the demonstration linked arms to prevent further arrests. Instead of backing off, riot police continued to try to force their way into the demonstration to make arrests. In the course of this I:

• Was struck several times by police officers in the face, neck and chest and kicked between the legs.
• Witnessed a clearly enraged police officer tear down a union banner held by a 60 year old woman, causing injury to her.
• Witnessed other people being struck harder than I was.
• Was dragged out of the crowd by my nose and arrested.

I have since heard reports of the following:

• A student being struck over the head and needing staples in his scalp, who was also forced to sit in A and E with 3 members of the EDL constantly abusing him whilst he waited.
• A young man arrested at the same time as me being told as he was arrested “I recognise you, you queer, you’re not so tough without all your friends around are you?”.
• An 89 yr old WW2 veteran being knocked to the ground.
• The arrest of the main organisers of the demonstration on extremely serious charges.

I want to emphasise that I saw nothing on the day that justifies this level of violent policing. I was arrested whilst merely linking arms with others and peacefully holding ground. Everyone else I saw who was arrested was doing the same. The police created a riot on Saturday.

It sounds like things improved greatly, when a group of local asian kids were able to join the demonstration, and the EDL were driven off. This is important.

To all anti-fascists: There are real debates to be had about the correct strategy to go forward, I am happy to have them. But we should unite in our condemnation of the behaviour of Greater Manchester Police that day. Anything less is shameful.

As I got off at Hatton Cross station, I saw a few flags. Billowing in the wind, I thought the bright red Unite emblems were a bit uniform, and bland, but that this might be where I’d find some socialist pals I’d arranged to meet up with in order to offer support and solidarity. As I wandered up, I saw a few of them – but without flags or banners. Where was the picket, I wondered. Maybe we’re all going to walk round to the front of the airport, wherever the main doors are, where the workers (or any scabs) would try and break the strike.

One socialist said hi, offered me a cigarette and a party paper. Then he explained the situation: This was the picket line. Next to a motorway, with only honking cars for company. And then there are the rules: 5 picket lines, 14 people max at a picket, 12 of which must be union members (note, that’s only 2 supporters, whether trots, friends or family). That’s 70 people on the picket lines at any one time, out of a workforce of over 3,000.

After 10 minutes of talking, a police van turned up and 6 police got out. Whereas on Saturday they were lax about the rules BAA had imposed, now there were to be no exceptions (The British Airports Authority are the owners of the airport, plus the entire surrounding area, so essentially have jurisdiction about what anyone can do, and like to use this against ‘non-passengers’, apparently). We were told to move on in no uncertain terms, under some unnamed airport bylaw which apparently BAA cares a great deal about, enough that the police are enforcing it before BAA gives the go ahead (technically someone from BAA should come down, ask us to leave, then report on to the police if there’s a problem).

Reluctantly, we left, not wanting to get the picketers in trouble. We went round the corner to the Football Club being used by Unite as the base for the day. Excellent, we thought, we can go somewhere warm and chat to the workers while they’re waiting to be picked up for a shift on the picket lines. But when we got there, a couple of Union reps turned us away. After another half hour of debate, the situation became clearer: non Unite members weren’t to be trusted. We were being handled politely but firmly (I mean, what did I expect – they were cabin crew, so they know how to deal with unwanted guests). Despite asking over and over, I never felt like I really got to the bottom of why we were unwelcome.

But the overwhelming impression I got from the workers was that they’re frightened. Those on the picket lines aren’t always the crew with shifts this weekend – in other words, they’re not actually on strike. While there’s almost 100% support for the industrial action, many of those taking it are scared to show their faces to the bosses.

And with good reason. Over the past few weeks, there’s been a round of extraordinary intimidation, disciplinary action and sackings by BA against union members and organisers. Open agitation on Facebook, blogs and forums has resulted in threats and bullying by the management. That spirit of openness, thanks to BA management, has gone. Controlled and cajoled, the front line strikers are cagey, unwilling to talk at first, scared that I might have been an undercover cop or perhaps a management spy for BA or BAA.

So, hassled by the police, and rejected by fearful union reps, we decided to check out the picket line no. 5, apparently not being used. Hey, we thought, let’s see if there’s an opportunity for us to roll out a solidarity banner there. And that’s how we found the worst picket line in the world:

It was clear from the lack of planes in the sky and those we could see on the ground that this is turning out to be an effective strike. But it was also clear that this is an industrial dispute which BA, BAA and the police are all taking seriously enough to work in cahoots with eachother, both in the media and on the ground. Despite Unite’s reluctance, these workers will need all the help they can get. Handing over a bundle of food made for the strikers, one supporter said: “They took our samosas, but they left our solidarity.”

Here’s a prediction: The Sunday Times’ big ‘MPs for hire’ scandal is going to be a damp squib. No one’s going to care. Sure, it’ll be all over the news for a few days, and Labour might take a temporary hit in the polls, but in the long term the effect will be zilch. The public profile of MPs literally can’t get any worse than it is at the moment anyway. The papers could reveal tomorrow that Alistair Darling feasts on human flesh in weekly satanic rituals and most people’s reaction would still most likely be ‘What do you expect? They’re probably all at it.’

If this is how things pan out it would certainly be understandable. The greed and venality of (a large number of) MPs is well-established already thanks to the expenses scandal; the Sunday Times investigation hardly adds much to that. But this story isn’t just about greed. It’s also about the fact that senior politicians are willing and able to use their influence to help companies manipulate the legislative system to their advantage, and that’s a far more serious issue than mere greed. Stephen Byers claimed to have helped National Express get out of an unprofitable multimillion pound rail contract and to have amended food labelling regulations at the behest of Tesco. Corporations manipulating the political system to make things easier for themselves isn’t a new phenomenon either, but it matters a hell of a lot more. MPs milking the expenses system has certainly done a lot to destroy what little public faith remained in our political system, but it doesn’t actually undermine the democratic process itself. MPs taking money from corporate lobbyists and doing their bidding, on the other hand, does exactly this.

We’re so hung up on the value of personal integrity as a society that I think we sometimes forget there are worse things than hypocrisy. Politics is about far more than putting your own house in order, (a point made by Reuben a few months back), and as such corruption that affects how our laws are made is a lot more damaging than moat-cleaning or a couple of softcore porn films. Real world consequences are what matter, not whose snout is deepest in the trough.

This article, which I co-authored with environmental lawyers Ambika Hiranandani and Roland Miller McCall, was first published in The Times of India

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day,” goes the old Chinese proverb. “Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Nowadays, with massive trawlers dragging 60km nets scooping up a dozen jumbo jets worth of fish in one go, that adage is looking rather shaky. Not only is overfishing the single greatest threat to the ecosystems of our oceans, but as fish are caught much faster than they can reproduce, it is driving traditional fisherman, who can no longer rely on their skills to feed themselves for a lifetime, out of business. Such is the scale of the problem that in recent days Cheers star Ted Danson has weighed in to slam the subsidies that promote unsustainable fishing practices. But we shouldn’t need American TV icons to tell us we’re on a bad path.

As many as 20 million tonnes of fish are caught every year by bottom trawling. It’s a non-selective method that takes no prisoners. Powerful boats trudge metal-weighted nets across the ocean floor, scooping up turtles, sharks, dolphins, endangered species and young fish. “The holes in the mechanised nets are very, very small and so fish don’t get a chance to breed,” says Narendra R Patil, general secretary of Machimar Kuti Samhiti. “There are no fish left for traditional fishermen.” According to a 2004 study by the United Nations Environment Programme, almost a quarter of the fish pulled from the sea never even find their way to market. Meanwhile the oceans, once considered an inexhaustible resource, are running out of fish. “The fish don’t stand a chance,” says the World Wildlife Fund.

It is, however, another old Chinese proverb that tells us, “It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” If we act now to bring overfishing under control by using restrictive gear, closing areas to fleets and limiting the total allowable catch, there is hope. A study published this year in the journal Science found that in a few select regions such as Iceland and Australia, careful management of marine ecosystems has allowed fish-stocks to recover. “Our oceans are not a lost cause,” says Professor Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University and a co-author of the report. However, he cautions that the trend, although far from irreversible, is far from being reversed. “Across all regions we are still seeing a troubling trend of increasing stock collapse,” he says.

Efforts to deal with the problem are continually hampered by ineffectual regulation at an international level. According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, every nation maintains sole fishing rights within their Exclusive Economic Zone. The high seas, however, are known as the common heritage of mankind, a heart-warming term evoking images of international co-operation, that in reality has entirely the opposite effect. In many areas, illegal and unregulated fishing is on the rise, undermining national and regional pushes towards sustainability. “Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, the cornerstones of international fisheries governance, are struggling to fulfil their mandates despite concerted efforts to improve their performance,” the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation found. The problem arising, in part, from “a lack of political will to implement decisions in a timely manner.” It is, after all, hard to light a candle in the wind.

An international consensus has emerged on the need to combat the environmental crime of Illegal Unregulated and Unreported fishing by blocking illegal fish from entering international trade, thus removing financial incentive. However, eliminating illegal fishing, whilst a necessary first step, is not enough to avert the coming crisis.

As Abbie Hoffman once said, “murder in a uniform is heroic, in a costume it is a crime.” When the criminal element has been removed, what remains to be challenged are the legal methods which continue to devastate the oceans. As such, it is imperative that we eliminate bottom trawling, by-catch and discards. In the state of Maharashtra, a ban on fishing is in place from June 1^st to August 15^th. “This should be increased to 90 days nationwide to allow fish stocks to replenish,” says Rambhau Patil, president of the National Fishermen’s Forum. At the same time, marine sanctuaries must be established in which fishing is prohibited. “Cat fish, Bombay duck and promfret and now rare, and hammerhead sharks are diminishing,” Patil says. Whilst governments around the world have responded to the pressing need to preserve endangered species and habitats on land, existing marine parks account for less than 1% of the world’s oceans. Increasing this percentage is the only way to ensure breeding grounds for fish are maintained and the only way to ensure the livelihoods of fishermen for generations to come.

Of course, it is not simply a problem of production. It is one of consumption. Only by reducing demand – eating less fish, avoiding species like cod and tuna, or cutting it from our diets entirely – can we end the reliance on destructive methods of mass fishing. If we all light a candle, there’ll be no darkness left to curse.

It’s an election year. Which means it’s time for the Conservatives to attack their favourite victimised minority. For such a tiny minority in British society, Travellers certainly attract a disproportionate amount of Middle England’s ire. Not content with passing the Criminal Justice Act in 1994, which removed the requirement for local authorities to provide sites for Gypsies, the Tories have continued to hound this vulnerable and socially excluded group for no reason other than that they are a convenient and popular target. Five years ago, Michael Howard launched a media campaign to repeal the Human Rights Act in an effort to prevent Travellers from applying for retrospective planning permission. Now the party is banging that same drum, seeking this time to replace the HRA with a British Bill of Rights.

The one sliver of a silver lining in all of this is that the green paper suggests compensating councils for new caravan sites. However, if the concerns of local people angry at squatters are to be met, whilst respecting the rights, freedoms and dignity of Gypsies, then councils must once again be required to provide sites for Travellers. It is a common misconception that Travellers like to travel. The Roma and Irish Gypsies I spoke to whilst working on a documentary for Indymedia all reported that whilst the road was ‘in their blood’, they desired to settle, build links with the local communities, send their children to local schools and take up paid employment. This, they reported, was consistently hampered by authorities attempting to evict them from their sites.

Of the Travellers I spoke to, most said they maintained good relations with the local population. The only hostility they came up against was from the council – where three BNP members had recently been elected – and from the media. Much of the reporting on Gypsies in the right-wing tabloids is nothing short of legitimised racism. Replace the word Gypsy with Black, Asian or Jewish and the headlines would be instantly unprintable. The first step to answering the Traveller Question has to be in providing decent, legal sites for them to stay. The second, countering the misconceptions, lies and outright prejudices of wider society, will take much longer.

Mandelson made me chuckle today. A couple of hours after shareholders approved Kraft’stakeover of Cadbury’s he met with Kraft’s CEO. Speaking to the BBC about the meeting he expressed his “dissapointment” that Kraft had failed to give him specific commitments about keeping jobs in Britain, and told of his determination to get firmer, more specific commitments over the coming months. This strikes me as rather similar to a man pouring chilli powder into his soup and then expressing his “disspointment” that it is too spicy. As the man who has always pushed the door open to private enterprise, and who has extolled its virtues, surely he should understand a little about about how it works – namely that kraft have no reason to give a flying fuck about his quaint desire to stop too many brits losing their jobs. Mandelson made his bed. Sadly it will be the poorest and most vulnerable sections of British society who have to lie in it.

Last week the historian Martin Gilbert brought attention to an article published a couple of months back by the Independent on Sunday. He expressed a certain amount of reasonable outrage over piece in which former ambassador Oliver Miles had questioned the impartiality of the enquiry panel. It is an article that starts off reasonably. Miles makes some reasonable attacks on the enquiry and considers some of the expressed opinions of those serving on it. Gilbert – who is serving on the enquiry – is quoted as having said that Bush and Blair “may well, with the passage of time and the opening of the archives, join the ranks of Roosevelt and Churchill”. But then the article takes an odd turn. Miles states that “Both Gilbert and Freedman are Jewish, and Gilbert at least has a record of active support for Zionism.” Leaving aside the second comment abut Gilbert, what the fuck has Freedman’s ethnic background got to do with it. Miles doesn’t elaborate particularly on the implications of this, but then he doesn’t need to. Oddly enough he doesn’t meditate on the ethnic backgrounds of any White Anglo-Saxon panel members. yet for some reason it is reasonable to draw inferences about somebody’s character or viewpoint from the fact they are Jewish.

As far as Miles himself goes, this is not particularly surprising. I mean he is not the first foreign office tosser to express dodgy opinions. What is more dissapointing is that The Independent on Sunday would publish such cheap innuendo about an individuals ethnic background. Perhaps Rod Liddle will not be as out of place in the organisation as some would have you believe.

Image: Shht!/flickr

Hey, remember that time a couple of months ago when Trafigura tried to stop the Guardian from reporting what was said in Parliament? Want to stop the rich and powerful from using the threat of expensive court cases to bully writers, scientists and academics into censoring themselves? PEN and Index on Censorship have teamed up for a campaign to reform our libel laws, and you can sign it here. It also has a function to let you write to your MP to ask them to sign this Early Day Motion, presented by Evan Harris, and a small selection of some of the absurd libel cases that have been brought before our courts in recent years. My personal favourites, for sheer absurdity value, are Owlstalk, a Sheffield Wednesday fan forum which was sued, along with some of its individual members, for comments made about the club, and Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based Arabic-language satellite TV network which was sued by a Tunisian politician, a case which the courts agreed to hear on the grounds that Al-Arabiya is available to British satellite viewers.

Go forth and sign. It won’t take long, and you know it’s the right thing to do.

(H/T Sunny at LibCon for this.)

Egemen Bagis

Guest post by Christos Loutradis

Yesterday, Egemen Bagis, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator, gave a speech in Greece on strengthening ties between the former rivals, Turkey’s EU candidacy and how to resolve the thorny issue of Cyprus. Press-Gr’s Christos Loutradis reports for The Third Estate

It was a speech of lifting taboos. Egemen Bagis, chief EU negotiator and Turkish Minister of State, spoke for the first time to a Greek audience in a lecture that was organised by the International Centre for Black Sea Studies. The audience comprised the political, academic and diplomatic elite of Greece and the rest of the world. From the Government side, the Member of Parliament Michalis Katrinis, from the previous Government of New Democracy, the ex deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Giannis Valinakis, and Giorgos Dendias, a personal friend of Egemen Bagis and the former minister of Justice. The most surprising presence, however, was that of Giannis Karantis, ex chief of the Greek Intelligence Service and MP for the ultra-nationalist party LAOS.

Bagis began his speech with a moving opening, stating that he feels proud “to be in the birthplace of Democracy”. In addition, he argued that “today’s event, your presence shows the great potential for the betterment of the relations between the two nations.”

“Turkey and Greece share a common fate and a common future,” the chief negotiator of Turkey added.

The Greek audience responded with satisfaction when Bagis proclaimed that “a new era has started in the relations of the two countries, with the Government of Papandreou willing to build a peaceful future with Turkey.”

The Minister added that during this period, Erdogan’s Government has demolished the taboos of the Turkish Society, by addressing the Kurdish problem and dealing with all the open disputes with Armenia. “It is time to talk to Greece, too.”

The most interesting part of Bagis’s speech, however, was the revelation that Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan agreed to the formulation of a co-operation council between the two nations that will discuss at the highest level all the disputes that may arise in the future. In addition, Bagis said that Erdogan plans to visit Athens in the near future.

EU-Turkish Relations

The chief negotiator suggested that accepting Turkey into the European Union would be a win-win situation. The EU will benefit from the role of Turkey as “a bridge between different civilizations, religions and cultures”. In addition he added that Turkey’s bid to join the EU serves as “a source of inspiration for the deprived of the world such as the Muslim community.”

Giannis Ioakeimidis, professor of International Relations at the University of Athens, asked Bagis if Turkey will accept a special status relationship with European Union. Bagis replied that “Turkey is a candidate for full membership of the EU and any alternative is not accepted.”

Moreover, Egemen Bagis argued that “the European Union should prove it wants to be an alliance of civilisations… We will part of the solution and not part of the problem of the EU.”

Cyprus

With regards to Cyprus, the Minister expressed the official view that Turkey will support any solution that is agreed by the leaders of the island’s two sides. Furthermore, he praised the efforts of the two Presidents, Talat and Christofias, and stressed that Greece and Turkey should support the two presidents sooner rather than later. “Their term is limited and we do not know who will govern next. We must help these guys.”

Another interesting point arose from a question raised by a citizen with regard to the presence of the Turkish Army in Cyprus. Bagis said that the Turkish Army protects the safety of the Turk-Cypriots and it will not withdraw unless all the other armies withdrew too.

Quite clearly, there’s still a long way to go.

From a journalistic and more personal perspective, Egemen Bagis’s most interesting moment was when he praised the Greek citizens who contribute to the Turkish newspapers and the Turkish Citizens who contribute to the Greek newspapers.

In conclusion, Bagis left Greece with a strong impression of a political personality committed to peace.

My interview a CWU activist

There were not loads of people out this morning. As I wandered up, I saw a few of them – but without flags or banners.

The mood at the picket line this morning was one of  of seriousness and determination. When workers tell you they don’t like having to go on strike they really do mean it. It is not an easy time to be taking industrial action. As one sorting office worker put it, “I”ve told the kids that christmas has been cancelled, that’s how much I believe in this strike, and they know that I am doing the right  thing. ”

And the posties I spoke to really do believe in this strike. It is not just that they have been backed into a corner by bullying and harrassment, the threat of reduncancies and the refusal of management to negotiate. For the people I spoke to, this strike touches on far broader issues – not least the maintainence of decent jobs for people outside of society’s golden circle. As one activist put it to me, “Not everyone is going to leave school and become a teacher, a doctor , a surgeon or a journalist. Alot of people end up becoming manual workers and some of those manual workers end up in the post office. And why shouldn’t those people have a future, and a decent opportunity to bring their families up, the same way as politicians do?”

Too right. But how prepared are the postmen and women for the protracted conflict that will surely be necessary to protect these jobs? How far can they be expected to hold out against a management that is clearly taking an aggressive stance. One CWU activist I spoke to described a ‘seige mentality’  amongst the membership. ” Some of us are on £300 a week, they [the management] are on £3 million” he said. “There’s a saying, and don’t like it, but if we all spit at once they’d drown in it.”

The strike itself was absolutely successful in shutting down the sorting centre. So desperate were the management that we were treated to the curious site of a tiny number of (presumably important) packages being smuggled into the back of a private car.

Tomorrow the pickets are out again and are expected to be far bigger. So please do get down to your local picket line. These guys are on the front line. Our front line.