Seattle Hint*

The prickles of tear gas, the thud thud of anarchist black bloc marching bands with chains and bricks and the memory of peace campaigners waving white painted hands in the air as Italian riot police waded in with truncheons.

The anti-capitalist movement of the 1990s for me will always be associated with Genoa and the sight of burning cars and the whirl of tear gas canisters inches above your head.



Of course, it all started with Seattle which this November will reach its tenth anniversary. The coming together of the Teamster union members and the turtle dressed environmentalists opened up a spectacular battle between the many thousands of protesters and the few heads of state at conference.

The global movement which grew out of Seattle with world social forums and demonstrations plaguing the WTO meetings and G8 summits remains scarred on the retina because of the brilliance of the design and use of emerging technologies to organise.

When anti-capitalism came to the UK the most outward looking an innovative organisation was Globalise Resistance. Where anarchist-only groups mainly wore black and met in secret, GR organised mass participation, used the mainstream media and threw an orange bucket of paint into the movement.

The train to Genoa carring more than a thousand protesters across Europe so they could try and breach the Red Zone was the high water mark. But the explosion of design has also left its mark.

Noel Douglas was the brains behind the Globalise Resistance designs and the university lecturer is now curating an exhibition titled Signs of Revolt to mark the anniversary of Seattle and celebrate the grass routes design that followed in its wake.

Noel writes on the event website: "Signs of Revolt is an exhibition that weaves together the story of the past decades social movements, drawing out the influences and connections between and across the movements against capitalism, war and climate change.

"Using archive material and documentary photography and video from movement photographers and filmmakers, it reveals the story of how we got from Seattle to Copenhagen.

"Interspersed in this narrative are works by artist and designer activists and collectives, produced during, within and for the movements."

"This is the first time such a collection has been brought together in the UK and it will be a chance to reflect upon and celebrate the new creative impulses that the movements spawned.

The blurb concludes: "As capitalism threatens our very existence, Signs of Revolt defiantly maps out possible routes to a future filled with hope…"

Jonathan Barnbrook of Adbusters, illustrator Jody Boehnart, Stop the War designer David Gentlemen, John Jordan formally of Reclaim the Streets and political montage duo kennardphillipps will be represented along with the Rebel Clown Army, Movement of the Imagination and the Space Hijackers.

Guy Taylor, who was at the centre of Globalise Resistance, said: "It all looks to be quite a momentus occasion, the likes of GR, the Clowns and the Hijackers along with Barnbrook, kennardphillips and Gentlemen represent almost all the serious and influential parts of the design of resistance in the UK."

The event opens at the Old Truman Brewery in East London's Brick Lane with evening drinks on Friday, November 13 through the weekend. For more info contact visit the website, email show@signsofrevolt.net or call 07989 471159.

*This is a repost, but I think a worthwhile one!

Joe Jailed

The mother of Lance Corporal Joe Glenton has spoken out against the arrest of her son for his public opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

Sue Glenton has condemned the decision of the Ministry of Defence to arrest and imprison Joe yesterday after he attended a national Stop the War demonstration. The soldier faces ten years behind bars.

Sue said: "You've got government ministers, army commanders and MPs speaking every day in support of the war. What's so scary about a Lance Corporal having his say? My son is only speaking out for what he thinks is right."

Afghan MP Malalai Joya has sent the following message to Joe: "Stay strong! The majority of the Afghan people are with you and we respect and admire the stand you have taken.

"When there is no justice, it is better for honest people to go even to jail rather than go to war. Down with the occupation. I send you my warmest greetings and solidarity."

The Stop the War Coalition has launched a campaign to defend Lance Corporal Joe Glenton and his right to freedom of speech. A protest will be held outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall from 5pm on Thursday 12 November.

Home Office "suppressed" Forced Marriage Report

What does the government do with research which doesn’t fit its policy agenda? Refuse to publish the findings and rubbish its methodology, of course.

The Home Office commissioned research ahead of raising the age for marriage visas for non-European spouses from 18 to 21. The policy, Jacquie Smith said at the time, was to prevent forced marriages.


Professor Hester sees report binned despite extensive research

The Immigration Research and Statistics department duly contacted Professor Marianne Hester, a highly respected academic with a prolific publications record.

The department chose a feminist and expert in domestic violence and presumably sat back and waited for proof to fit the policy.

The researchers contacted government departments and NGOs alongside 45 stakeholders from Birmingham, Manchester and Tower Hamlets, conducted interviews with 38 “survivors” of forced marriage and produced a mapping survey of 80 advice organisations.

They contacted 28 departments and projects about existing data on forced marriages and held fifteen focus groups involving 82 women and 15 men.

And the report found … raising the age for entry into the UK for spouses would be detrimental to those suffering forced marriages.

Many survivors talked about suicide and some organistions warned the higher age of 21 would increase the risk of self harm and “ensure a longer period of abuse”.

This was a significant finding with serious consequences from extensive research. So obviously the Home Office decreed that it was “not sufficient quality to be published in the Home Office Research Series.”

The report was released only after a Freedom of Information request and was this week discussed at the High Court.

Diego Aguilar from Chile with the support of his wife Amber, from North London, argue that their right to a family life is being curtailed by the law. Their case has been taken to the High Court for Judicial Review by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

A total of 2,000 couples aged 18 to 21 have been refused a marriage visa following the rule change, of which an estimated 19 have been identified as being forced marriages.

Nicola Smith, Deputy Director of Immigration Policy at the UK Boarders Agency said in a witness statement to the court that the methodology of the study was “sound”.

And then she rubbished the methodology on the grounds of “insufficient sampling size”, “quantitative data insufficient”. She claimed there was sampling bias towards South Asian communities despite stating earlier that 77 percent of confirmed forced marriages were from this group.

But in a twist George Orwell would have been proud of, she suggested they could not trust the results because the participants themselves “might perceive the study as instrumental in further restricting immigration”.

With 2,000 overseas nationals barred from living in the UK with their husbands of wives under the new law, how could they have possibly reached this conclusion?

The Home Office last month also confirmed its satisfaction with Professor Hester's work generally by awarding her team a grant of £25,295 to review new powers to "control" perpetrators of gender-based violence.

Police held file on Peach before death attack

The Metropolitan Police held intelligence on ANL activist Blair Peach before he was killed by a member of the Special Patrol Group at Southall, the-sauce.org can reveal.

The teacher was fatally struck with a lead stick by an unnamed officer when police attacked protesters outside a National Front meeting on April 23, 1979.

The identity of the officer has remained a closely guarded secret despite the fact ten independent witnesses testified at the following inquest that Peach had been struck across the head by a uniformed policeman.

David Ransom, author of The Blair Peach Case: Licence to Kill, recorded that at the time many protesters suspected that the police deliberately targeted leading ANL members during the rioting - including Blair Peach.

Following a Freedom of Information request from the-sauce.org, the Met Police has confirmed that they held "information or files" about Peach before the date of his death.

However, the force has refused to confirm the nature of the information held for the time being.

Current Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has confirmed the Cass report, following an investigation into the police 30 years ago, will be published within the year. The information on Peach held before Southall will be released at the same time.

The request from the-sauce.org asked for "any information or files which are kept by the Metropolitan Police or its partners relating to Blair Peach up to but excluding the date of his death on April 23, 1979.

"This information may be arrest or caution records intelligence gathered by or passed to the police and any images held before April 23."

The police response states: "In relation to my first duty under the Act, which is to confirm if the requested information is held by the MPS, I can confirm that I have located information relating to your request...


Inspector Murray this year denied killing Blair Peach

"The MPS have decided that there will be some information released about the investigation into the death of Blair Peach and this release is likely to be made at the end of the year. I am unable to give a specific date at the present time.

"However we feel that it would not be conducive to the effective and efficient conduct of the service to release information in a piecemeal fashion.

"This would not be fair to those who were close to Mr Peach and others involved in the investigation and would not appear to be a professional way of managing the release."

The initial request also asked for any information which had been gathered, held or passed to Special Branch or private agencies. This part of the request was refused outright on the usual grounds of keeping the activities of the secret service secret.

The Cass investigation was conducted to reassure the public that the death of Peach was taken seriously by the force. Reports suggest that six officers were named as the most likely suspects in relation to the killing.

The list of six officers included Inspector Alan Murray who was in charge of Unit 1 SPG when Peach was fatally wounded.

Murray has never accepted responsibility for his officers' violence. He is now a lecturer in Accounting and Corporate Social Responsibility at Sheffield University.

Harman Dies

Leading British Marxist activist and theoretician Chris Harman has passed away this morning in Cairo after suffering a cardiac arrest, reports 3arabawy with the comment: "What a loss for the international socialist movement."


Photo taken Friday evening at Cairo’s Press Syndicate.

Martin Smith, National Secretary of the SWP, said: "Our condolences go out to Talat, his partner, his children and all his family and friends.

"Chris Harman was a towering figure on the left in Britain and he made an immense theoretical and personal contribution to the Socialist Workers Party over many decades.

"He was greatly loved and will be sorely missed. We will let comrades know about the funeral as soon as we know any details."

Harman was a member of the central committee of the Socialist Workers' Party and editor of the International Socialist Journal.

He was also author of dozens of books including A People's History of the World and most recently Zombie Capitalism.

Terror State: Israel and the Bevin Bomb Plot

The word "terrorism" in today's society has become soldered permanently to the phrase "Muslim extremist".

The publication of The Defence of the Realm, the Authorized History of MI5, offers a useful reminder of the real history of terrorism in the Middle East.



The author, Christopher Andrew, who has not typed a single line of text which would have the censors nervous, offers the chapter: Zionist Extremists and Counter-Terrorism.

The section begins with the observation: "The terrorists came not, as later in the twentieth century, from Palestinian or Islamist groups but from the Zionist extremists of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang..."

Andrew adds: "In March 1946, B3a [of MI5] received information from a 'reliable' source in Palestine, in 'direct contact' with the Stern Gang', that 'terrorists are now training their members for the purpose of proceeding to England to assasinate members of His Majesty's Government'.

Beat the Dog
"The wartime track record of Zionist terrorists ensured that such reports were taken seriously. In November 1944 the Stern Gang had assinated the British Minister of State in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, and Zionist extremists had made several attempts to murder the British high commissioner for Palestine, Sir Ronald MacMichael."

It is a matter of historic record that the leader of Irgun, Menachem Begin, blew up the British Palestine HQ in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem with 500 pounds of explosives packed into milk-churns. Andrew states in passing that Begin was "the future prime minister of Israel".

Irgun and the Stern Gang were, MI5 believed, planning the assasination of Ernest Bevin, who became the Labour government's foreign secretary in July 1945 for having the temerity of calling for a settlement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

The new book cites an intelligence report from Palestine made on August 23, 1946 - just a month after the King David Hotel bombing.

The communique states: "Irgun and Stern have decided to send five cells to London to operate in a manner similar to the IRA. To use their own words 'beat the dog in his own kennel'."

A second report from September 1946 adds: "In recent months it has been reported that [the Stern Group] have been training selected members for the purpose of proceeding overseas and assassinating a prominent British personality - special reference having been made several times to Mr Bevin in this connection."

Much of this is already in the public domain. Interestingly, the book carries a clipping from the Express newspaper from August 25, 1948, headlined: "Stern Gang Gave Bomb Girl A Party."

The story runs to nine short paragraphs and quotes Betty Knouth stating: "Did I post letter bombs? Unfortunately, the Belgian police got me before I could do so. They are a Stern Gang patent.

"One was addressed to Sir Alan Cunningham, another to Sir John Shaw...Belgian experts said they were deadly. I'm sorry none of them were delivered."

This reportage contrasts so starkly with today where newspapers have no resources to gather news so instead ramp up any arrest, any cobbled together government statement relating to terrorism and run it across the first five pages.

But more generally, what do we learn from this episode in history? If you want to commit terrorism then aim to become a terrorist state. And seek funding and arms from the US government by offering to act as a military base in an oil rich region.

Heathrow Blow

A catastrophic breach in security at Britain's busiest airport has been discovered by undercover government investigators, the-sauce.org can reveal.

The secret probe into security measures at Heathrow found that terrorists would have been able to smuggle a bomb "airside" under the noses of the private company checking vehicles going into one of the main gates.

The investigation was run by the Department for Transport and the breached resulted in a warning being issued against the private company running the gate where immigrants being deported are searched.


Lockerbie: would security prevent the same happening today?

Members of the security team at the firm responsible, Wilson James Secure Logistics, were told that the government had considered closing the airport because of the serious nature of the breach and they had just 30 days to upgrade their work.

Security at Britain's security was supposed to have been hugely tightened following the terrorist attack in London on July 7, 2005 and car bombing at Glasgow airport.

The bombing over Lockerbie followed a break-in at Heathrow and the best evidence available suggests this is when the bomb was smuggled into baggaging at the airport.

Swine
The most likely culprit for the Lockerbie bombing, Ahmed Jibril of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, remains at large.

The security lapse happened at the Rapid Goods Screening Centre at gate CP14 of Terminal 4 where deportees held by the Home Office are searched before being taken to their flights.

Lorries carrying food for plane passengers, linen and other goods are also searched by WJ Secure Logistics staff before passing through the BAA controlled gate to the runways.

A member of security staff, who refused to be named, said: "A blue van had been searched but left the area with its back doors open. The DfT was able to smuggle an object onto to the back of the van.

“They must have been watching the site for days without being noticed to know that vehicle would come through unsecured.

"We are the last people to search the vans. Once they get through the gate they can access any part of the airport, including baggage areas and the planes.

“We've not been told what was placed on the van but the point of the exercise is to show that a bomb could have got through."

Security staff at the gate blame a £300 cut in monthly pay, a reduction in staff from more than 70 to 50 at the site and the introduction of 12 hour shifts for a serious decline in standards. One member of staff also contracted swine flu.

Operational Issues
Department for Transport staff were able to”smuggle” an “alien object” onto a light blue transit lorry owned by Morgan Est, which has a depot near the gate, after it had been searched by WJ Secure Logistics and which was then cleared by BAA to go airside.

A line manager at CP14 called staff into a meeting on September 28 and explained the Department for Transport had managed to breach security, telling them: “We came that close to being closed down. They were going to shut Heathrow”.

Wilson James won the contract to run the security post after it was outsourced by BAA, which runs Heathrow. The company is responsible for searching and x-raying more than 250 vehicles a day and also body searching deportees before they are allowed airside.

BAA, which runs Heathrow, today denied a deficiency notice had been served against them or – as the security guard claims – against WJ Secure Logistics.

A spokeswoman added: “I'm not going to speculate on that (whether WJ Secure Logistics failed to prevent DfT staff smuggling items airside). I have looked into this and there has been no deficiency notice served either against BAA or the company.”

The Department for Transport regulates aviation security through the National Aviation Security Programme (NASP). The Programme sets down the security standards that apply at UK airports to ensure the safety of the travelling public.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “Ensuring the safety of the travelling public is our highest priority, which is why we regularly inspect aviation security standards. While we do not comment on specific operational issues, we will not do anything that puts passengers at risk.”

UPDATE: The uberblogger Iain Dale referenced the-sauce.org the other day, bringing in 1,500 - a new daily record. Perhaps I should invest more time in link baiting!

Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

Martin Wolf CBE of the Financial Times admits he failed to predict the extent of the current economic crisis.

However, this didn't prevent him making some stark and irreversible claims about the future of the world economy.

The author of Fixing Global Finance stated publicly that capitalism had recovered from the global credit crisis through good, stiff Keynsian policy and a slump of this scale would not appear again for another three generations.



The FT journalist was speaking last night at Kings College on the Strand in London before a meeting organised by the Capital reading group and the Business Club.

The current crisis is over, he stated, adding: "The next crisis of this scale will be 80 or 90 years from now. That's how long it took from the previous one. We have learned and we will find the system adapts."

Wearing a stiff, lined shirt and cuff-links, he rounded his speech with the bravado comment: "Capitalism fails. Capitalism always survives. Bet on Capitalism."

Wolf said the cause of the current crisis was the "extraordinary euphoria" which followed the presumption that we had escaped the business cycle of boom and bust after eight years of growth, leading to unprecedented levels of risk and lending.

Commentariat
He claimed the adoption of Keynesian policy meant the crisis had been averted and once again capitalism had proven too big to fail. A touch of piecemeal social engineering in the form of regulation would prevent another crisis.

However, the government was now spending £4 for every £3 raised in revenue and would now have to instigate massive "spending reductions."

There is no alternative to this, he quipped, because we are all too selfish to actually bring down capitalism. "Would you give up your wealth," he asked the hall of students.

Asked about the inhumane poverty suffered under capitalism, he replied: "For many women who are in sweatshops - this is rather better that the alternatives - and I suggest you look at the alternatives."

Wolf says bet on capitalism. But if the economy does suffer a "double dip" recession when the trillions of dollars spent globally to shore up the markets run out, what does he really stand to lose?

He may have been awarded the CBE in 2000 “for services to financial journalism” and most recently been handed the accolade of “commentariat of the year”. But he failed to predict the extent of the current crisis so is he really the best person to predict the next?

Troop Shout

The United Kingdom has sent more troops to Afghanistan than the United States, a new analysis of the figures reveal - that's more troops in relation to size of population that is.



David McCandless from Information is Beautiful has provided this graphic which illustrates that the UK has sent 164 troops for every million of population as of September this year.

This compares to 98 Americans - and with Britain top of the league table of commitment to the war.

The illustration also shows the deadly parody of an occupation where more than 60,000 US troops supported by 71,700 private security guards are engaged in asymmetric with 10,000 Taliban. There are 3,000 armed private security.

McCandless, who does such wonderful things to fill the pages of The Guardian, has a new book out titled the Visual Miscellaneum which from today can be pre-ordered from HarperCollins.

Young Bride*

British newlywed Amber Aguilar will tell the High Court on Friday that her human rights have been violated because the Home Office will not give her husband a visa to live in the UK until the couple are both 21 years old.

Young bride Amber married Chile-born Diego in November 2008 when she was aged 17 and a half after a two and a half year relationship.



Just five days after their wedding the government changed the law so both partners in a marriage have to be 21 before a visa will be issued to a foreign national.

Diego has now taken the case to the High Court claiming the rules undermine his human right to a family life and discriminates against him on grounds of age. Amber is listed in the case as an interested party.

If the couple win their case the Home Office will be left in disarray – forced to issue numerous visas and even lower the age of marriage visas back down to 18-years old.

This would mean Rochelle Wallis, 19, will be able to return to live in the UK from her native Canada into the arms of her doting husband, Adam, a British citizen.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has brought the test case in the High Court. The chief executive, Habib Rahman, said: “These immigration rules are tearing families apart.

Richenda Buxton, the JCWI solicitor in the case added: “The government is preventing its younger citizens from living with their spouse in this country if they marry someone from outside the European Union. This is a clear violation of the right to a family life.”

Amber wants to return to the UK to take up a university place and pursue her dream of becoming a languages teacher – at a time when British schools are suffering from a desperate shortage.

The couple are now sharing a single bed in a cramped home in Santiago where they are unable to find work and there is no welfare system.

The age limit for visas for newly married couples was raised from 18 to 21 by the Home Office to protect women from forced marriages.

Intolerable
However, a report commissioned by the Home Office and later suppressed showed the new legislation would not help the victims of forced marriages and would actually do more harm than good.

The increase in age would mean British women would be forced to live in poverty stricken countries without networks of support until they reached 21 rather than 18, according to Professor Marianne Hester’s report.

But many British citizens have been caught up with the law change and have been denied the right to live in their country of birth with their husband or wife just because they married young.

Amber said: “I have essentially been forced into exile because I want to live with my husband - the man I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.

“All I ask is that the government let me return to the country where I was born so that I can start my higher education towards a teaching career – without putting an intolerable emotional and practical strain on my marriage.”

Amber’s mother, Helen Jeffery, 57, from Friern Barnet in North London, who is Headteacher at the George Mitchell All-Through School in Leyton, East London, said: “Our daughter is lucky that she has found love so young.

Inseparable
“Amber knows her own mind and simply wants to be with Diego. They are two very family-orientated and deeply affectionate young people. Both families were delighted when they announced they wanted to marry.

Amber’s father, Rupert, 47, a Deputy Headteacher at Wembley High Technology College, said: “The government appears to be using the emotive issue of forced marriages as an excuse to introduce draconian immigration laws.

“Our daughter is a British citizen and she has a right to live with us in Britain with the man she has chosen to marry.”

Diego moved to the UK when he was 12 years old after his mother was granted a student visa. He met Amber at a swimming pool when she was 15 years old and they struck up a friendship.

They were soon inseparable but following an earlier change in the law his family were forced to return to Chile in early June 2008.

By late August that year he was granted a student visa to continue in further education but this also expired. “Amber was absolutely devastated because they had to spend three months apart. She cannot live without him,” Helen added.

*This is a reference to the Midlake song Young Bride, which can be found on Youtube.