IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL?

AS SCHNEWS TAKES AIM AT THE ‘DAILY MAIL’ MASSACRE

"The lunatic is all idee fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.” - Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum

The Norway attacks have led to frenzied speculation on the nature of the crazed ideology that could lead to such horrific acts. Handily Andre Brievik (or Andrew Berwick) not only allowed himself to be captured but posted a 1500 page manifesto online - grandly entitled 2083 - A European Declaration of Independence (http://www.slideshare.net/darkandgreen/2083-a-european-declaration-of-independence-by-andrew-berwick), and apart from a load of weird stuff about body-armour, the Knights Templar and the appropriate use of steroids, at the heart is a vision eerily familiar to readers of such fringe esoteric publications  as say the Daily Express, Daily Mail or Sun.

The fact that before the smoke had cleared from the first detonation in Oslo the mainstream media immediately pointed the finger at Al-Qaeda or one of its offshoots shows that their underlying assumptions aren’t so different from the self-proclaimed Knight Templar Justiciar with the ‘piercing blue eyes’ - (© all newspapers.).

Experts and pundits queued up to explain why peaceful, civilised Norway had been attacked by the jihadist hordes. The Sun called it Norway’s 9/11 and even name-checked Al-Qaeda. Even when the Norwegian press revealed that the killer was an ‘ethnic Norwegian’ the pundits raised the prospect of a brainwashed convert to Islam. A spectacular amount of back-pedalling ensued when the actual facts surfaced (not that this of course stopped the very same commentators becoming sudden experts on the far-right)

PHILIPPS SKREWDRIVER

The idea that we are at war with the entire Muslim World and that a ‘politically correct’ elite has manipulated immigration to the detriment of the ethnic majority is now a mainstream belief in Western Europe. There’s no need to go trawling through SpearofOdin88’s lunatic ramblings on Stormfront when you can go straight to the Daily Mail and read Melanie Philipps, who recently demanded to know “Is Britain finally about to go over the cliff into official Islamisation?”. Philipps is also author of Londonistan, the English Defence League’s (EDL) bible, she has the honour of having parts of her work reproduced in their entirety in Breivik’s manifesto, but rather side-stepped the issue this week by focussing instead on the tragic but perhaps less significant demise of Amy Winehouse.

The Daily Mail has now denounced Breivik as neo-Nazi, despite his explicit rejection of Nazism - in fact politically he wasn’t much more right-wing than them. There is now a concerted attempt to divorce Breivik’s ideas from his actions - to suggest that he was just ‘insane’ or ‘sick’, even calls to not allow his monstrous actions to ‘shut down the debate on immigration’. Even the notion of demonic possession has entered the debate.When jihadists commit atrocities there isn’t usually such a rush to let their ideology off the hook.

It’s the Desmond papers that lead the pack though - in any given week the Express is rarely without an anti-immigrant front-page splash and generally one that suggests EU compulsion such as ‘Eurocrats will force British families to have an asylum-seeker in  spare bedroom’. OK, we made that one up but in fact the headline BRITAIN ‘MUST TAKE MORE MIGRANTS’ was last Friday’s offering, claiming the EU bureaucrats are forcing the pace on migration. The idea that the left is forcing ‘political correctness’ down the the throats of the ‘silent majority’ of the population is continually represented as a given. The pornographer’s other paper the Star has virtually become the official paper of the EDL.

A big part of this ideology is an old racist canard - the demographic time-bomb. The fear is that  ‘They’ will outbreed us and force us to adapt to their culture. Of course the fact that all this was being said in the 70s about the Afro-Caribbean population and before that the Irish and the Jews doesn’t stop  the idea. “We have only a few decades to consolidate a sufficient level of resistance before our major cities are completely demographically overwhelmed by Muslims” - Breivik “Will the white British population be in a minority in 2066?” - headline Daily Mail December 2010.

From the outside of this particular reality tunnel, it seems insane to fear that the U.K could become subject to anything like sharia law. Apart from a few hardliners,many of them zealous converts, nobody Muslim wants there to be sharia law here either. Yet resistance to this is the main platform of the EDL, who at the same time have no idea  about what the culture is that they are defending - is it British, English or white European?   Breivik is sure that the foundation of Western Civilisation should be Catholicism -some of the EDL make vague noises about Christianity but don’t really seem that sure who they’re in league with or what they’re defending.

In fact it’s fair to say that a large part of the population exists in an echo-chamber, where these are received truths and amount to ‘common sense’. The online world, rather than a gateway to a variety of  points of view provides a fertile ground for reinforcement of ideas (something the left should be as wary of as the right). Backing up the overt statements in the mainstream press are a host of circular e-mails, with a racist agenda doing the rounds as well as blogs, facebook postings etc. The EDL are the physical manifestation of this belief system. It’s because their beliefs are reinforced from all sides that they’ve been able to grow so quickly.

So in a sense - it doesn’t matter whether Breivik was in direct contact with the EDL, whether he regarded them as ‘naive’ or an inspiration- their ideas spring from the same soil. However evidence is emerging that he admires them, did attend several of their demos and was active on their forums and Facebook. He is positive about their provocation/reaction strategy, baiting Muslim youth into a reaction. The EDL is very much an online phenomenon - they don’t do public meetings or paper sales, their membership exists in the right wing ‘echo-chamber’. Who or what else is going to bubble up from the EDL cauldron?

“It is highly advisable to structure any street protest organisation after the English Defence League (EDL) model as it is the only way to avoid paralyzing scrutiny and persecution” - Breivik.

NORSE CODE

The EDL are also part of a new-wave of European nationalism, one that claims to defend a ‘pan-European’ culture. The U.K is in a strange situation with the far-right. Despite a certain overlap in membership there is little co-operation between the EDL and the BNP. The EDL articulate a modern racism, based on Englishness rather than Britishness. In fact attempts to set up Welsh and Scottish Defence Leagues have proved a failure. The BNP are still too firmly tied to old-school ‘It was the Elders of Zion wot dunnit’ white supremacist fascism. The EDL has side-stepped these issues and by representing the conflict with Islam as cultural rather than racial, have out-boxed their flatter footed leftwing opposition (for now).

The EDL are closer to the likes of Geert Wilders, leader of the Netherlands third largest political party - the Freedom Party, whose main platform is anti-Islamic. He travelled to the UK in March 2010, after a ban on his presence was overturned. This event was greeted with great enthusiasm by the EDL who organised a rally for him. Other European politicians have latched onto the fear of Islam and they too are fascinated by the EDL as a potential model for a street army. The EDL leadership in turn have shown an interest in more conventional electoral politics in the UK.

In a time of economic crisis, ideas like these are dangerous. As Mark Twain put it “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”. The scapegoating of outsider groups is a tempting path for ruling elites in turbulent times. If one good thing comes out of Breivik’s murder spree it will be a re-examination of the real meaning of the anti-Islamic agenda. The worst thing to do in these circumstances would be to dismiss his actions as those of a ‘lone nutter’.

The EDL’s next major outing is September 3rd in Tower Hamlets - anti-fascists will be counter-mobilising.

More good analysis - http://libcom.org/library/new-integralist-conservatism-briefing

 

PRISON HUNGER STRIKES

Thousands of prisoners across California have been on hunger strike for nearly 4 weeks now in protest against the use of solitary confinement following a call by prisoners in the Pelican Bay Secure Housing Unit (SHU). Though Pelican Bay prisoners have ended their protest following a number of concessions by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), prisoners in three other Californian state prisons, CCI Tehachapi, Corcoran and Calipatria, continue to refuse food.

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition has called for outside supporters to continue pressure on the Prison and State authorities to keep to their promises and to continue negotiating with the prisoners and their representatives. This is essential given the hostile CDCR statement announcing the end of the Pelican Bay hunger strike, where they rehearsed the same lies about the protests being ordered by prison gang leaders and adding that hunger strikes “are a dangerous and ineffective way for prisoners to attempt to negotiate.” This statement deliberately ignored the Tehachapi, Corcoran and Calipatria hunger strikers and carried an implied threat of retribution against those who have taken part in the protests so far.

*See http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com for more info.

 

NOT SO NEAT

An impressive 201 activists descended on the North European Aerospace Test range (NEAT) in Sweden on Tuesday (26th). The controversial north-Sweden site hosts the US Air Force and NATO to test their new toys, and provides facilities (including a bombing range the size of Belgium) for general ‘testing’ of missiles, combat aircraft and drones.

150 international activists entered the ‘prohibited area’ of NEAT to non-violently protest its role in the war machine, 28 of whom were arrested or detained.

Behind the action are long-running Swedish anti-militarist network Ofog, who took part in an international action camp in nearby city Lulea from the 22nd-29th July.

For more info see www.warstartshere.com (Google translate useful...)

 

STIRCHLEY SPEAKING

A new squatted social centre in Birmingham is up and running and - with permission to remain looking likely until the building is due to be demolished in several months time - it looks set to establish itself as a radical hub in the Midlands city.

After securing the Ivy Road site in Stirchley on the 15th July, the group have been setting up a free shop, free school with visiting lecturers and musicians, café, meeting space and have further “ambitious plans” for the space.

SchNEWS’s contact described the motivation for the project: “We’re a group of activists from the local area and further afield who were sick of a lack of social centres and liberated spaces in Birmingham, sick of Birmingham having one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country alongside one of the highest number of unoccupied buildings, and sick of capital dictating the layout and activities of our neighbourhoods.”

The building, the disused Whit Marley factory, had been empty for over a year. The council is considering plans to use the site for a new ASDA when the factory has been demolished.

The new project has garnered “overwhelming” support from the local community.For more info see http://birminghamsocialcentre.wordpress.com
 

 

TARGETING REFUGEES

The UK Border Agency is messing up even more than usual in an attempt to meet an arbitrary target of clearing the backlog of 450,000 unresolved asylum cases by the end of this month – with devastating results for the victims of their “bizarre”, irrational and sloppy decisions.

Back in 2006, the then home secretary John Reid set the deadline to prevent asylum seekers being stuck in limbo in the system for years, but the UKBA haven’t kept up with the schedule. Their decision-making sucks at the best of times – a quarter of deportation orders by the Home Office are overturned on appeal.

Given that migrants are soon to be denied the legal aid which makes appeals possible, the picture’s looking bleaker and bleaker for asylum seekers (see SchNEWS 779). Although earlier this year the UKBA was forced to make the embarrassing admission that 75,000 cases had simply “disappeared” of its records. On can hope those 75,000 are happily and comfortably residing in the bosom of Great Britain undisturbed.

As reported in last weeks SchNEWS Croydon No Borders are holding a demonstration in Haywards Heath this Saturday (30th) against child detention - meet at Muster Green at 1pm. For those travelling from Brighton, transport will leave the north side of the Level at 11am.

 

IS-RAELI EXPENSIVE HERE!

Soaring house prices have prompted a nationwide protest in Israel. Tent cities have popped up around the country and last Saturday around 20,000 marchers took to the streets of Tel Aviv. Elsewhere, roads are being blocked and activists have almost besieged the Knesset.

This new movement is calling for affordable housing after  house prices doubled since 2002, which along with global rises in food and gas prices, have hit ordinary Israelis. Meanwhile in some areas locals are priced out of the housing market or face a shortage of rental homes. A poll by Ha’aretz showed 87% of Israelis supported the protests.

The permanent war-footing of Israeli politics has tended to sideline domestic and economic issues andthe cabinet are now in crisis mode trying to resolve the unfamiliar situation. Their answers so far, based on building a large number of new homes mainly in central Israel, haven’t impressed the protesters who want direct action on rental prices.

The protests’ significance goes further than just putting the pressure on for lower property costs. The most active people involved in organising the demonstrations are said to be young professionals and students in their 20s and 30s, a group not previously known for their political activism.

Organising on social networking sites, demonstrators are aware of mirroring other citizen uprisings in the region  – some are even calling the protests Israel’s Arab Spring.

While the Israeli spring is unlikely to bring down the government, or spark civil war, it may have notable repercussions. The housing protests are happening against a background of economic discontent concerning low wages and a widening gap between rich and poor – a context familiar to many Europeans.

Second is the hope that the protesters’ political awakening could prompt a change in Israel’s political culture. Politics is dominated by the omnipresent issue of ‘security’ - if Israeli society is finding its voice on housing could the barriers to debate on these issues also be opened?
 

 

SHELLING OUT

It takes a certain amount of stamina to resist a multi-national oil company hell bent on environmental destruction, so good on those Rossport Solidarity activists for continuing to get in Shell’s way, as inconveniently and expensively as possible.

Tuesday (26th) saw yet another day of action against the oil giant and their efforts to build a gas pipeline in County Mayo (See SchNEWS 756, 710, 733, 673, 643...). The campaign has reached a critical time: Shell are in the process of laying bog mats and bringing in machinery in preparation for removing peat from the area. After this, the pipe’ll get laid.

Seven activists blockaded the road at the crack of dawn, followed by further blocks of tractors and equipment heading towards the compound. Apart from the poor sod forcibly removed from a tractor roof, the Gardai appear to be veering from their usual abusive style to adopt a more hands-off approach. No arrests were made amongst the blockaders, despite the force no doubt accruing massive policing costs during the operation.

Friday (29th) is set to be another day of action. As always – the more people get there to resist the better.

*See www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org

 

SEA SHEPHERD: NOT FAREOES

The Steve Irwin was detained by UK courts on 15th July after a Maltese Company, Fish and Fish (no, really!) issued a fishy complaint regarding past misdemeanours.

The crew were ready to leave Lerwick to set sail for the Faroes and start a fresh campaign against the yearly annihilation of whales by the local Faroese. The allegations are connected to Sea Shepherd’s bluefin tuna campaign last year, F&F are claiming damages for the bluefin tuna that were rescued from their illegal operations.

The ship won’t be released until the hefty £860,000 bond has been met. Time is running out and the Steve Irwin runs the risk of being sold if the bond is not realised.

*To help go to www.seashepherd.org

 

VEDENTA: TIN FOILED

There were protests outside the AGM of FTSE 100 listed mining company Vedanta last Wednesday. Survival International joined forces with the newly formed Foil Vedanta to demonstrate their anger at the swathe of destruction wrought in India by the company. Although they’ve been responsible for pollution and health and safety disasters across the sub-continent, the focus of protests was the land-grab in the Niyamgiri Hills in the Eastern Indian state of Orissa.

The Niyamgiri Hills are a rich source of bauxite, (aluminium ore), but they’re also sacred to the Dongria Kondh people, 8000 of whom live scattered across the landscape. They recently won a judicial victory over Vedanta’s attempts to strip-mine their sacred mountain, however the Indian Supreme Court, wheels no doubt nicely greased, is due to reconsider the decision. Not all the struggle has been in the courtroom though – there has been sporadic fighting and attacks on Vedanta vehicles.

One Dongria said “Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We don’t want the mine or any help at all from the company.”

Vedanta was founded by and is 63% owned by Anil Agarwil, the 17th richest man in the U.K. He had the pleasure of an impromptu demo outside his house on the day of the AGM with people screaming “Anil Agarwil – blood on your hands”. According to one black-clad eyewitness - “Virtually every question asked in the AGM concerned human rights – but no-one was thrown out, it’s clear they’re trying to cover up with a charm offensive”.

*For more http://www.survivalinternational.org

 

AND FINALLY

OK, so SchNEWS believes in a bit of prisoner support, but probably has to draw the line at Sicillian Mafiosi godfathers. Rita Barbera, the new governor of Ucciardone jail in Palermo, has launched a one woman crackdown on the lifestyles of the rich and infamous – many of whom have become accustomed to enjoying the good life whilst inside. She intends to ban the swanning around in designer clothes, the most obvious symbol of status for real life Goodfellas living out their lives in a cliched parody of Hollywood gangster movies. Prada and Georgio Armani are out, Primark and George by Asda are in.

Sadly Rita has made no mention of banning the light touch regime that allows Dons to celebrate birthdays with champagne and mobster (er, I mean lobster), with all manner of luxires in comfortable, spacious quarters - whilst the rest of the 700 ‘unconnected’ inmates live in squalor in a prison designed for 500. Badly dressed or not, it’ll still be a very cosy nostra.