internationalism in a small island

8/6/2019 Internationalism in a Small Island

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Internationalism in a small island

I attended the launch of Coalition of Resistance in Glasgow last week, a

fantastic event with a participative format, which was a refreshing change - a

few short speeches were followed by lots of practical group discussions

among a wide range of activists. It was a great launch, and to help us on our

way the already established CoRe in England had sent up a speaker to tell us

about the work that they had been doing there and give us some pointers in

how most effectively pinpoint pressure. The speaker was very welcome,

spoke very well and informatively, however insisted on referring to the need

to target the “national” government, the “national” conference of CoRe and

the need for a “national” strategy of resistance. None of which I disagree

with, however it was transparently clear that his nation and mine are not one

and the same - and moreover he seems to think that his includes mine.

This certainly isn’t a new development on the part of the English Left. Most

of them don’t even acknowledge that they are the English Left, claiming that

their scattered supporters in North Britain qualifies them for “national”

status, but it is becoming more and more jarring as time goes on. Take the

latest campaign from the UNITE union, if ever there was a campaign to make

a Scottish Socialist’s blood boil this has to be it. Under the slogan of “Don’t

Break Britain” an image of a giant wrecking ball is shown, aiming for central

England, leaving Scotland untouched in the hinterlands.

That wrecking ball isn’t going to miss Scotland as it swings but moreover I’ve

got no objection to Britain being broken. In fact, I’d quite like that wrecking

ball to aim itself at the already existing cracks running up, down and across

the UK.. Not half as much as it has to be said thought that its more direct

victims, maimed Iraqis, orphaned Afghanistanis and terrified Libyans. In

fact, if I was a Chaigos islander and got my mits on that ball, I’d probably be

tempted to see if I could do a swapsy for one of the Cruise missiles that it

planted where I used to live. Sometimes I feel the English Left, lacks a level

of ambition. More than once in the coalition of resistance meeting thespeaker talked of the need to bring down “the” government, but they show

no appetite for taking on the whole corrupt UK state and smashing it to

smithereens.

A Scot talking about the English, particularly in less than glowing terms,



always tempts the Irvine Welsh accusation that we “oppress ourselves by our

obsession with the English breeding the negatives of hatred, fear, servility,

contempt and dependency” but I’d like to think that we’ve moved on. Rather

like an excitable but untrained puppy, that you love dearly but wish that they

would stop chewing the furniture, the radical English Left always leave me

somewhat saddened that they are not all that I would have hoped from them.In ordinary times, this tends to prompt a sigh, a wry smile and a certain

resignation, but these are no ordinary times. The mantle of “Englishness”

has been seized. Snatched from under the noses of the descendants of the

Levellers, the Peterloo rebels, the Swing rioters and the Liverpool dockers, it

is now in dangerous hands.

The English Defence League has claimed Englishness as it own and shone it

back in a distorted mirror, bleached of its diversity. The British bulldog sitting

quietly at the feet of John Bull has been replaced by an English pitbull,fiercely loyal to its master and snarling at anything which threatens to disrupt

its precarious place in its masters affections, taking the kicks with deference

and snivelling, before snapping at anyone who threatens the the table from

which they obtain their crumbs. The EDL are undoubtably a problem, but on

their own they are containable. Outside a small constituency which responds

to their calls they are derided, a more worrying development is the influence

that they appear to be having on the mainstream.

First New Labour, now Blue Labour - the party of Keir Hardie is rapidlybecoming more like the one founded by Mosley. When in power it presided

over a racist immigration system that saw hundreds of thousands of people

denied asylum or sent back to danger and persecution. It locked up old men,

pregnant women, scared teenagers and terrified toddlers. In the name of

“terror” and “bogus asylum seekers” it introduced a level of state

surveillance unparallelled anywhere else in the world, where its citizens are

captured on camera multiple times a day as they go about their business. It

persecuted entire communities, conducting raids on flimsy evidence and

using even flimsier evidence to persuade judges to lock up citizens without

trial. Now - out of power and searching for popular notion to re-connect with

the populace - it has seized on the racism promoted by its own policies,

whipped up to a frenzy in the streets and pubs of working class areas by

proto-fascist bullyboys and is offering it back to the public as fascism-lite.

Glassman, one of its key architects has stated that Blue Labour should rally

around family, faith and work, a gender neutral restatement of the 3Ks.



Hard times bring disjunction, unsettlement and anxiety - how can they not

when your paypacket is lighter, your fridge is empty and your home is under

threat. Eighty years ago, that insecurity was exploited in Germany as a

murderous and vile ideology gained a grip - an ideology that in principle still

horrifies us, but it is worth remembering that concentration camps are not

the first sign of fascism, but among the last.

It is time for the English Left to put its own house in order. I extend the

warmest comradeship and solidarity to them as they do that. They have a

challenge on their hands that I think it is difficult for us to understand here,

but no good will come of ignoring the national question and what England is

becoming. To dismiss the English as racist, narrow minded Daily Mail readers

pitted against the glory of the British Working Class is to risk a self-fulfilling

prophesy. The English Left needs to develop and nurture an English identity

which is inclusive, radical and progressive. One which celebrates thediversity of English culture and remembers with pride the traditions which

have shaped it. One which is capable of looking beyond its borders from

those that it shares an island with, to remote Pacific Islanders,

internationalism in a small island

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