Bolton Town Hall Lobbys Home Secretary To Ban EDL Rally Later This Month.

Bolton Town Hall Lobbys Home Secretary To Ban

EDL Rally Later This Month.

TOWN hall chiefs
have this week sent an appeal to Home Secretary Alan Johnson asking him to ban the proposed English Defence League rally later this month.The two-page letter, signed by political, civic and faith leaders on Bolton Vision letter-headed paper, was sent to the Home Office on Monday.Bolton Council’s legal department has spent a fortnight putting the proposal together.

Copies of the council motion — which was unanimously passed last week — and a statement signed by the Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Rev Chris Edmondon, on behalf of the Bolton Faith Leaders Forum were included in the appeal, as was a copy of the One Bolton Pledge, which was launched on Saturday and promotes community cohesion.

Mr Johnson, as Home Secretary, is the only person with the power to stop static demonstrations such as that planned by the EDL for Bolton on Saturday, March 20.

The signatories of the letter state they do not want to prevent freedom of speech or freedom of assembly by asking for the rally to be banned.

They say past EDL events, such as those in Manchester and Stoke, have led to outbreaks of violence and disorder and that they want to prevent that happening in Bolton.

Sean Harriss, Bolton Council chief executive, said: “This has the full support of all the party and faith leaders and we are hoping for a positive response from the Home Secretary.

“We will also be seeking a meeting with Alan Johnson, or his representatives, so that we can put forward our case in person.”

Bolton Against Racism has already announced it plans to hold a “celebration of unity” event on the same day.

According to a number of websites, protesters against the rally, plan to arrive in numbers from as far away as Aberdeen and Dover, as part of a counter-demonstration.

Lift Visa Ban On Palestinian Farmers

24th February, 2010
3 PALESTINIAN FARMERS DENIED VISAS BY THE UK GOVERNMENT FOR FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT
These farmers, whose olive oil is the only one in the world to carry
the Fairtrade mark, have been invited by a UK social enterprise,
Zaytoun, and were to be accompanied by a leading British NGO.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fairtradefarmersfrompalestine/
www.1948.org.uk

From Guildford Peace & Justice Coalition guildfordpeaceandjustice@talktalk.net

The Voice Of Anti-Capitalism – Blog Statistics (February 27th, 2010)

BLOG STATISTICS (27th February)

Its our Blogs Birthday. It is 4 months old today.  Below are the most popular views of the week.

Click on the link below for more statistics and a couple of sorry- looking graphs.
Blog Statistics – February 27, 2010

Title Views Home page 20 Support Alberto Durango – Sacked for Organising A Union 14 Treachery & Stalinoid Bourgeois Liberalism in Guildford 12 Park Lane Squat Party Kicked Off By The Police 10 Workers Movement Rallies To Defend Victimisation 10 National Campaign Against Fees And Cuts 9

Treachery and stalinoid bourgeois liberalism in the SWP, Guildford.

23rd February ‘10

I never thought for a minute that the young SUAC (Surrey United Anti-Capitalists) ‘comrade’ in the SWP took his party seriously. He always criticises ‘his’ party, it’s policies and methodology.

His great work in local environmental issues, housing and squatters’ rights- together with his tireless efforts promoting local, anti-capitalist unity- is a contradiction to the opportunism, sectarianism and theoretical vacuity of his party.

The recent expulsions and witch-hunts pervading the SWP have thus far passed Guildford by. Guildford is far enough from London to be out of the eye of the centralised SWP bureaucracy. The unprincipled political manoeuvrings within the SWP have given us in SUAC a great deal of amusement. The ‘crimes’ of those expelled or forced to resign appear petty compared to the Guildford membership’s autonomous disregard for their party’s policies. In Guildford, the two active SWP’ers put their efforts in to building anti-capitalist unity rather than their party’s sectarianism.    

The young comrade in question, Mr X agrees on the need to build up pluralistic Action Committees and Anti-Cap groups similar to our own –supported by a bottom up Anti-Capitalist Party. Being in the SWP however, he refuses to mention the Call for A New Anti-Capitalist Party because his party didn’t think of it first.

With this background in mind, I was shocked at the flagrant use of SWP tactics at this evenings SUAC meeting. Sneaked onto the agenda was Mr X’s proposal that before posters were distributed, they should be agreed by a meeting. This is something I’d insisted on for some time.

After some discussion the meeting decided that in cases where time is short, a minimum Coram of 4 people would be needed to approve a poster. During this debate it became evident that Mr X’s idea of ‘posters’ weren’t actually posters at all.

Mr X had raised objections to pictures on the SUAC Facebook group before. He had described them as “not respectable” and “giving SUAC a violent image”. Mr X thought he would be able to claim at a later date, an agreement regarding the approval of posters gave him a mandate to remove the pictures from the Facebook group. 

Mr X knows very well posters and Facebook pictures are quite different things – But he sought to conflate the two in order to avoid opposition to deleting the Facebook pictures. Mr X’s plan was to delete the Facebook pictures, performing a fate-a comply and claim afterwards the pictures were unapproved posters.

Such underhanded Stalinoid tactics will never succeed or be tolerated.
Names have been changed to protect the guilty

Down with the Stalinoid Triumvirate of Mr X, Mr T and Mr J
All power to the Left Opposition!!!

Download This Here:   Treachery and stalinoid bourgeois liberalism in the SWP, Guildford

Support Alberto Durango – Sacked for Organising A Union

Alberto Durango came to London in ’95, running away from persecution as a result of his union activities with the banana workers in Colombia.  Since moving to London he has been working as a cleaner and has  repeatedly been victimised for his prominent role in union organising here.
The Voice of Anti-Capitalism in Guildford attended a  recent protest rally in support of Alberto.

Click the link below for background and our report.
Support Alberto Durango (Draft 2)